Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or any content from the Megami Tensei series as a whole. I do not claim to own anything. All contents' right belong to their respectful owners. Once again, I do not claim to own anything.
Sup, been awhile. Two years but here we are again to blaze a trail, let the good times roll, and hopefully finish this project for God's sake. Either way before I cut to the chase, because I really do not have a lot to say anymore for these introductions for Be Your True Mind, I'd like to give a shout out to the MegaTen Translation group, I believe they have their own reddit thread. They basically have been the best thing to happen to the community in awhile. They're continuing the translation of the Megami Ibunroku Persona manga, which is partly the reason as to why I decided to continue this. They also have subtitled the Persona 1 Drama CD and plan on working on the Persona 3 discs as well at least according to their spot. Whatever, either way these guys are awesome and actively aided in reinvigorating my faith in this project.
Now, here we are. I was gonna talk about E3 but I decided "nah" and simply just wanted to happily state:
WOOP! GRIM FANDANGO REMAKE! HELL YEAH!
With that aside, welcome to Persona: Be Your True Mind Chapter Twenty Five.
Chapter Twenty Five: A Mother's Love
The Megidolean as brought forth by the will of the nine teenagers wafted forth a colossus of purple energy. A sphere coiled in raw strength, a shrouded nebula vacillating in the core. Pulses, vibrant beats reached the rims. The skill was the size of the sun to the gilded sight of God Kandori's embodiment. It was buff whale, hungry and ready to gobble whatever schools crossed it. God Kandori was helpless Jonah, treading water, aimlessly suspended in place. The victory was gone from his angle. His opponent was unstoppable. The fate of his armor and himself became an inevitable consequence for refusing his destined fate of defeat. The whale, the almighty violet ball, consumed its prey. He was swallowed whole without a wiggle of struggle. The peace keeping fingers bent inwards degrading to basic matter. The head was shaved, chiseled away. Perishing in the constant hold the ultimate attack brought with it. The Megidolean, the Almighty Combination, vaporized the armor, the chain mail, the greaves, the worthless metal carapace for the President of SEBEC. The thwarted machinations and filthy ambitions swirling in the muddied soul diluted. The tainted spittle that festered in his intestines cleared. As the intense radiance of the purple sun dissipated like a dying flare in the blackest night's sky, Takahisa Kandori, the instigating demon of Mikage's devastation, laid again ravished and disheveled on his damaged marble floor top of his own office.
The Persona Users watched his subtle twitches, as his newly clothed body squirmed. Such contempt blazed passed his pupils. He was the weakling mortal man now in his current state. He had reverted from his transcendence. The tower had crumbled, broken at its base by the servants he commanded to bow beneath him. He bowed instead, on his final legs, a man who reached God and fell harder than Icarus.
"Hah…to be defeated so…" Kandori choked his words, addressing Philemon's children. "You were absolutely correct, young Nanjo." His neurosis nettled his brain. "This…was the only way I knew how to live, striving towards my dream of being the highest tower. Maybe I summoned you here because I wanted to hear someone say it, to hear another point a dagger at my flaws and stab. I must seem a fool, but I feel remarkably content." His voice represented the fact; it lost its sour and savage edge, even his sword laid quenched far out of his reach, lodged in the floor where Reiji had sent it.
Ayase and Brown remained quiet, mumbling to themselves as they sat. "How is this guy not dead?" Both hissed.
Naoya sighed; thankfully they had picked themselves up once again.
Masao danced crazy. (A/N) He kicked his heels, threw his hands up, and his head back and shouted like The Isley Brothers song.
Maki could not help snickering at her friend. "We stopped this madness. Thank God…"
Eriko plopped her rump on the ground. "Oh, how unlady-like, but we have…we have reached the conclusion of our fantastic adventure."
Reiji rubbed his neck, admiring his pathetic brother's labored breath. "Bastard has a fuck load of resolve, don't ya? Prisons gonna treat you nicely, Kandori. You'll be there for a long time."
The relaxing, the timely resort to comfort at the end of battle commenced, permeating Kei's sullen and serious atmosphere. They were not done as they wanted to believe.
Yukino, the singular member of the party allowed to ruffle the boy's feathers, decided to poke the bear. "We did it, Kei, didn't we? It's over, why so earnest?"
Kei frowned, nearly disappointed at Yukino's forgetfulness. "We are not finished, Yukino. There is still a mystery to solve."
The dour heir approached the deafened demon sprawled on the floor. "Where is the real Maki Sonomura?" Kei demanded.
Masao spastic maneuvers ceased, collapsing his inflated positivity. "Oh shit! Wait…Nanjo what are you saying? You mean…Maki…our Maki's here!"
"Ah," Kandori spoke to Kei. "You've solved the mystery of the two worlds. I'm not surprised."
"Kei, what do you mean?" The taken Maki asked in respects to both her friend and her enemy's statements.
Kei directed her to the speaking Kandori.
"You and the people of your world were mere figments of a certain imagination." Kandori replied to Maki, restating what the elder scientist from the Haunted Mansion Daichi confirmed. "The imagination you and your world were created from is the host of the Deva System. Its power source, its optimal battery which allowed us to conduct Nicolai's experiments and necessarily gather the Deus ex Machinas I was informed to use to become god. Yes, as the young Nanjo has determined, the host of the Deva System is… Maki Sonomura!"
"HUH?"
"WHAT?"
"What the fuck?"
"Jesus!"
"How…can…?"
"No way,"
"Like, WHAT?"
Kei smacked his lips in disapproval.
"Huh? What are you saying? What does that mean?" Maki was backing away, distancing herself from the truth until she slammed against the wall. She did not react as vigorously when Mai told her she was the world's creator, nor when Daichi informed them her world was birthed to a host connected to the Deva System, but the fact the host was her, the real Maki, created such an existence frightened her, ruined her assurance of identity.
"You are…" Kei spoke morosely at his haphazard company. "Probably the idealized self of the Maki Sonomura we know and the town you live in is the world of inside her heart. Am I correct, Kandori?"
"Yes…and not only her." Kandori directed his attention at Maki. "Mai and Aki are also shadows within Maki Sonomura's heart….all of you are nothing more than aspects of her, defined fragments of her psyche harvested and animated by the mechanical science of the Deva System."
Maki retracted herself, trying to phase through the wall obstructing her. "No! That's not," She refused to believe, to comprehend.
"Hold on, Nanjo!" Masao interjected. "This is bullshit! How do we know you're right? How do we know Kandori isn't just fucking us around?"
Naoya partly nodded. "Mark's right, Nanjo," He reluctantly stated, unfortunately having witnessed the evidence first hand as well. "How can you be sure?"
Kei shrugged at the abrupt opposition. "Fine then, I will elaborate as to how I deduced the host. Then, Kandori shall give her too us once all of you understand my logic."
"Yay," Eriko clapped. "A parlor scene, my favorite,"
"Hey, like, Brown, what's a parlor scene?" Ayase asked in a whisper.
"If I was to hazard a guess," Brown rubbed his chin. "I'd suppose it would be a scene in a parlor."
Yukino slid her palm on her face, deciding to ignore the two idiots to concentrate on Kei's debriefing.
"Initially, I did not know what to suspect. When we discovered the world conjured, we shall refer to it as the Ideal World for simplicity, was not an alternate timeline, but rather another world in the multiverse, my gray cells were abuzz."
Eriko tsked. "If he's going to reveal everything, he should at least use original catchphrases."
"But this did not explain several discrepancies in the timeline. The renovated gym in our world was not renovated in this. The hole in the wall did not either. The police station was a castle on the other side of town, the hospital was now the Lost Forest. A barrier still bisected the half of Mikage. Demons still converged. Similar but different was our world and the Ideal World, but I remembered the six month difference told to us by the students of the Ideal St. Hermelin. We had stepped backwards in time, but not actually. It was just a replica of our world that was in the past. Six months in the past, and who had been hospitalized because she was incredibly ill six months ago when the refurbishment had not even occurred: Maki Sonomura, the absentee member of our classroom. I'll be frank; I did not discern this connection until we reached Joy Street of the Ideal World and dealt with Chisato's troubles. The first half of my deduction came in the library of the Ideal St. Hermelin, that world's Tsutomu was diagnosing the existence of a stone door. I'm not sure if you likewise recall its shape and design and I will state it was not the exact image, the door black not white, but it resembled Maki's painting which I saw in the Karma Palace as instructed by Chisato formerly known as the Harem Queen. Yes, a black Gates of Paradise stood in the Ideal St. Hermelin's library were we discovered we were in another world. Who painted the laudable Gates of Paradise? Maki Sonomura did, of course. We all know this fact. Then, whose favorite book is "Gates of Paradise." Maki Sonomura's is. Her favorite book is the exact book we returned to her when we visited the hospital the day this all began. Masao and Naoya pointed it out. It was also in the Karma Palace, when our futures we're predicted by the Fates, I discovered Maki did not have a string of fate. Her future could not be predicted, due to the fact she was not the real Maki Sonomura. She was just as much a construct of the Ideal World as the Sisters we fought. She was repackaged matter infused with life thanks to the Deva System."
The other remained quiet, listening intently to Kei's explanation. They raised no objections to his logic. "To proceed with the details, I shall once again direct your attention to the facts. The hospital became the Lost Forest, filled with the Ideal Maki's favorite flowers, which we can infer means the real Maki Sonomura has the same favorite. If you cannot take my word, I am sure Todo can oblige and confirm."
Naoya hesitated, recalling Maki's loved flowers. He unwillingly nodded confirmation.
"Now, Mai resides in the Lost Forest/flower garden, Aki soon chose to reside over the other side of Mikage, the castle that was formerly the police station in our world. We had to gain entrance to castle by delivering Kandori the other half of his necessary key to godhood, Mai's half of the magical compact, the second half in the possession of Aki, which when connected together formed a compact identically to the compact tucked in the Ideal World's Maki's pocket!"
Ideal Maki was cornered. She had pulled the red compact out, gazing at the mirror inside. "You may have thought we would not have noticed you occasionally take it out to watch yourself, but I did. I saw your fiddling. Why does this indict our Maki? She owns the same compact, does she not Todo? Masao?"
The others besides Naoya and Masao confirmed the fact the real Maki Sonomura did have a favorite, prized compact which was the same the Ideal Maki held in her pale hands.
"You see! The compact is a common factor between the four! Maki, Mai, Aki…simple anagrams! Maki must have conceived her own paradise in her heart. One modeled after her memories of Mikage until the day she was hospitalized! She put her idealized, healthy, bubbly self inside as her remnants of optimism and happiness! The Maki who has traveled with us is the real Maki Sonomura's Superego. Mai was clearly her Ego, representing her innocence. Aki is her malevolence, her Id." Kei asserted.
"No way," Masao snapped. "Prove it, Nanjo. Prove Mai is Maki!"
Kei shrugged again. Not even a challenge. "Elementary, Masao, thought it is not solid proof. Let me ask you, in our world, where did our Maki Sonomura reside?"
"The hospital," Masao answered.
"Next, where does Mai reside in the Ideal World?"
"The Lost Forest," Masao answered again.
"Third question, what was the Lost Forest/flower garden in our world before it became as such in the Ideal World?"
"The hospital," Masao repeated his first answer.
Kei paused, waiting for the response.
"You didn't prove shit, Nanjo. Why are you stopping?"
"What you don't realize it, Masao? Fine, this should tie the thread nicely. If the hospital is inhabited by Mai in the Lost Forest which used to be a hospital, where does our Maki Sonomura reside in our world?"
"THE HOSPITAL," Masao screamed for the third time. Then it hit him like a triple bulls-eye. "Mai is the creator who lives in the place that used to be the hospital."
"Where Maki Sonomura, the woman who I propose is the host of the Deva Sytem, the creator of the paradise."
"Then there was no hospital or police station because…" Disconsolate Masao was losing his composure.
"They have no place in paradise. She only had room for what was useful." Kei explained. "It's a general sentiment. My final facts are all you need to understand. Let me state a contradiction between the Ideal World and our world we have never noted. If this is Maki Sonomura's paradise where are the Ideal Yosuke Naito and Chisato Kasai? Why are they not present? Also remember the two had disappeared in our world. We all thought it was an elopement, but once we were inadvertently gathered here thanks to Aki's magic spell, we found the real Yosuke and Chisato had fallen into the Ideal World. My guess is Chisato and Yosuke were no doubt drawn in by Maki's unconscious desires. She would be connected to the Deva System; she could bend reality to make her paradise perfect. When it came to her crush and her best friend, she wanted the genuine article. I cannot explain the absence of us, my hypothesis are mere conjecture. I cannot prove them thoroughly, but since Naoya and Masao visited her regularly perhaps she did not feel she needed to draw them unfairly into her artistic vision called the Ideal World. Since those two are practically the closest people she had beside Chisato and Yosuke. Yes, the closest real people connected to her were inserted into the paradise. The second contradiction arises now, unfortunately, but I can explain this one with ease as well. Setsuko Sonomura, Maki's mother, is non-existent in this world as the Ideal Maki is apt to state at the mention of her. The Ideal Maki has no mother, similarly to how the real Maki Sonomura showed her scorn towards her openly in the isolation of her hospital room."
It was Naoya's turn to counter Kei's argument. "You can't use Aunt Setsuko as evidence, Kei! She was dressed in the illusion of a demon! In the Haunted Mansion in the Ideal World when she was in the infirmary of our world! If the Ideal Maki claims an Ideal Setsuko does not exist, then how would the real Setsuko come to be in the Ideal World? Maki did not put her there. I had to be Kandori and Aki."
"I know it is difficult to accept that your childhood friend hated her mother, Todo, but you cannot deny the fact, excluding the science team headed by Daichi who confirmed they were sent by Nicolai and Kandori, as well as us who accidentally stumbled inside it due to external circumstances, the only real world persons in the Ideal World, have a distinct, exclusive line leading right back to Maki Sonomura! Her best friend, her crush, and her mother,"
"No! Maki would—"
"I never stated it was a fact Maki Sonomura transported Setsuko Sonomura there, it is simply an hypothesis! All I am stating, is the possibility, that the host of the Deva System, clearly Maki Sonomura as I have definitely given enough to support for and confirmed by the president of the project himself, used her abilities to send her friends into her paradise, then with her hate of her mother leaving her in dire loneliness sent her in our warpath, dressed in a visage of a demoness to deceive us into killing her. I cannot prove this hypothesis, because it could just as simply been Kandori's and Aki's work, though it would compromise Kandori's statement of wanting us to challenge him in his godhood by returning using the portal in the Haunted Mansion. I cannot prove either. All I can do is present all the information and have you formulate your conclusions."
Masao gnashed his teeth. Naoya was retreating. "Hey, asshole," The turque-wearing boy called to the SEBEC President. "Did you put Ms. Sonomura in the Mansion or not?"
Kandori grinned. "Take a guess, boy. What I'll be saying is that the trial run of the Deva System succeeded roughly a month ago, but Maki Sonomura was linked to the system even before then. Her wavelength must have synchronized with the system's. Once she had internalized the power to interfere with the dimensions the paradise in her heart seemed to have grown beyond our imaginations."
"And you came into contact with Mai, caretaker of that paradise." Kei reiterated. "Who was partnered with Aki, the two needed to gift you the component to do whatever you wanted."
"Mai, no, that piece of Maki Sonomura was isolated. She had her role as designated by the Ideal Maki: to provide the world she'd always wanted as comfort for Maki in the real world. You know the rest. I took Aki in as my daughter, deceived her to gain her trust and assistance to allow my plan to bare fruit." Kandori explained.
"You're lying! None of that makes sense!" Maki protested, having taken in the logically conclusion. Yet she refuted it, claiming it was incomprehensible when her eight friends, Naoya and Masao included accepted the fact that Maki Sonomura was in fact the cause of these nightmares. Kandori merely utilized her as a tool for his selfish gains and Nyarlathotep's chess game.
Kandori spat at her belie. "Then go, meet your true self!" Unable to raise his arm above his head, he angled his neck at the oak door at the backwall, the one leading to the room where Aki currently stayed. "She is here, behind that door! See for yourself!"
"But I'm me! This…this is too much!" Maki was deranged, as unstable as the vocal landmine that dangerously enthralled their mind in agonizing insanity. Her world was falling apart again. The third statement served to sink in the demolition. She had no choice in the matter. To secure her sanity, she ran for the door.
"Maki," Masao called to her as she darted to the door, pulling it open at an alarming speed.
"Aren't you going after her, punk?" Reiji asked, scowling. "You're the only one who can save her, you know?"
Naoya's jaw hung loose. The facts piecing together the puzzle still, the shocking slam of the door on the hinges barely awoke him. Maki, the Ideal Maki, had gone to see the truth. Unfortunately, he did not like it much himself.
"Maki Sonomura needs to discover her true self." Kandori was speaking to Naoya. "If she doesn't, she shall share my fate. Go to her…Naoya Todo…do not let her go down that lonely path she all ready begun to walk." His words crackling at his self analysis; his loneliness, his arrogance, his want to be greater than he was, was because he was as Maki Sonomura was. Such nihilism, such disdain at a young age. That is why he decided her to be the subject for the experiment, the host for his godhood deliverance. She was him; she even went to his high school. She was perfection. The world's reality, the unfairness of her existence, had poisoned her as much as he. The infection to her worsened, far greater than his did. The paradise, her box of joy shattered, fragmented. Not solely as the result of his experiments, but because her cynicism increased. Her own mother barely saw her ailing daughter. It built and built, until judgment day. The day Kandori's schemes would become reality. The Deva System was activated, affecting both realities, bringing the demons plaguing the formerly idealized Mikage to the unsuspecting real world. All in the name of creating God's Era, all in the name of achieving what he lived to do, all in the name of sacrificing human life for the Crawling Chaos.
"What a pitiful man." Kei spat real saliva as disrespect. "I lost a father. His name was Yamaoka and you had a hand in the killing." He went to the door after Sonomura.
Yukino leisurely followed him, glaring at the useless Takahisa Kandori. "We kicked your ass, you piece of shit. Laugh at that now." Content with the revelations brought forth, she accepted the facts. They had won, Kandori was done, and Maki Sonomura was the host. She trusted Kei and so she sided with him, wanting to see the undeniable proof behind the door Maki ran to.
Brown was next with Ayase. "Hey, you know, you remind me of an old man I pissed off once. His name was Yoshida and he hated kids, not necessarily kids by themselves, but the noise we made. It's a petty complaint isn't it? Noise irritates you? You're ready to teach a lesson, in your scenario to kill, for a petty complaint? How is complaining about noise no different than complaining about your position in life? Noise is an unavoidable part of living, same with who you are and where you at. You're a crotchety old dude, who blames the unfairness of his world on others. I'm not saying I'm the most spectacular person, I've done some crap I'm not proud of, but none of it was as bad as yours. I never asked for sympathy and I sure am not giving you any. Enjoy prison. I hope the people you have effected get a chance to see how shriveled you look. It doesn't get easier by the way. Living with the shit you caused." Brown patted the President on the cheek as the agreeing Ayase gave him the bird.
Masao shuffled to Kandori. He put his mouth next to Kandori's ear, softly speaking with a caustic tongue. "If Maki's behind that door, you son of a bitch, I swear to whatever God will listen, if I see your face again, I'll kill you. I promise you that. You will die. The demons will love you in hell, asshole. Peace. Pray we stay away."
Reiji had folded his arms, reclining at the brief words between his party and his brother.
Naoya, deflated Naoya Todo, was standing above his opponent. The weakened Kandori who they incapacitated, the Takahisa Kandori who apparently with his childhood friend had caused the misfortune of their world. He wanted to retort, snap and spit like the others, but his emotions were contained in his heart. It was as if he was walking backwards in his growth along the journey. He could not answer his personal questions. Seimen Kongo was unable to guide him for he could no longer hear his Persona. He was not walking the path of the Emperor, not at the seconds he suffered, hearing Kei tearing away the mysteries and lies. It failed at his job, didn't he?
"Brave Leader," Eriko grabbed his shoulder. "Perhaps…seeing Maki again…will…"
Naoya appreciated Eriko's words, but he could not grant he a steady face again.
"Nao, we gotta go to Maki." Masao reminded solemnly, the line at the door.
Naoya gingerly agreed without speaking. Eriko hustled him along.
"Reiji, you too," Masao called.
"Go ahead, Inaba. I'm sure Four Eyes is right. I'll be right there." He went to his sibling. "I have personal things to say to this bastard before I move on with my life."
Masao understood, Kei flagging him and the rest into the opened door.
At the shutting, Reiji made sure, it was him and Kandori. His brother apparently was waiting for the two brothers to be alone in tandem for he spoke to Reiji speedily.
(A/N: Play Moonchild by King Crimson) "You are to kill me here are you not, dear Reiji?"
The scarred boy's knuckles cracked.
"Oh! Delightfully so! Undermine them, Reiji, kill me. I am a despicable character am I not? You scorn my existence as much as I scorned yours correct? Please, then, kill me. I am unable to trick you again. I am a weak, feeble old man. What? Are you unable to do it with your two hands? Your gun, either? How about the Persona? Not even the God of Death you wield can be used to kill me? Then, I offer you solace, dear brother. You see my saber,"
Kandori angled his neck again to show his saber in the floor out of his reach. "If you cannot kill me, hand me my sword…or use it! It does not matter! Kill me…or I'll take the coward's path! Make a choice…just…just end my life, Reiji!"
Reiji's stony features did not react; he picked up his brother's weapon, noticing his yoriodoshi knife thrown aside in the havoc, stained with Naoya Todo's blood. The rivulets had stained his tattered suit. His brother had almost killed his nakama. Could he live with that?
"Yes! Take my head! If you do not! I'll cut my throat!"
Reiji raised the saber, straining his muscles. He wanted to use his full strength.
"Yes! Yes! Do it, Reiji Kido! Do it for that whore mother of yours! Kill me your churlish spawn! You worthless stain in my bloodline! KILL ME, Reiji Kido!"
Reiji stabbed the saber. It went roughly passed the marble wall at his back. He had twisted with his muscular force, jousting his brother's steel not into the now disappointed man's trounced body but the dilapidated wall.
"What are you doing?" His brother shouted. "Why did you do that? Why did you not…"
"You think I'm stupid, Kandori. You're gonna suffer for your sins. I love seeing you so pathetic. You laying there is the greatest thing I've seen in years. I want to preserve this, savor it. When you get your ass locked in iron, I'll be the cackling bastard, laughing at your dismay. I've changed, your death is meaningless to me, but hey, if you think you can do it, reach up to my height and throw your head on your own sword when you can't lift you arms, go ahead. I'll be impressed."
Reiji laughed as he went to the door.
"You…you….get back here! KILL ME! I know in your heart of chaos you want me dead! DEAD! KILL ME!"
Reiji laughed again, watching the furious joules of his brother quivering. "Wait," He paused, a blue aura appearing around him. "I forgot something." His Persona appeared right next to Kandori.
"YES! I knew it! You shall kill me, dear brother!"
"No, just a little retribution." Mot's deathly fingers shot out of the coffin's opening, carving a magnificent matching "X" on the marred skin. Reiji spoke to his brother in pain as the blood dripped free. "An x for you to know you are nothing."
Then, Reiji screamed at the top of his longs. "Takahisa Kandori, you are nothing, a pitiful churlish product ill-conceived by your philandering father! This x, remember, is your brand from me your dear younger brother, Reiji Kido! This brand is my special mark to you so you forever know who cast you outta your godly good life! Who cast you into your prison cell! Beg! Beg! Beg some more! You'll beg the rest of your life to die with anger boiling inside of you for eternity!"
"HAHAHA," Reiji was giddy as he went to join the others. Kandori whimpered like the cur he was.
Persona: Be Your True Mind
"This…this can't be!" Maki saw herself, not in a mirror, not in her compact, but in a bed. A box spring mattress where a pajama-wearing Maki Sonomura, white as paste, nearly a shallow breathing corpse laid. She was asleep, tubes and wires funneled down orifices, and attached to vital spots. A cardiac monitor was set up, displaying her waking heart-line. She was deathly sick. Her only lifeline was the attachment to the holographic projection of the gadgetry tower displaying in a transparent hue the Deva System. Maki was the host keeping the machine alive and in return the machine was reimbursing its battery with the necessary sparks of life's wonderful essence.
Maki could not understand the relationship, all she understood was the real Maki Sonomura lay harnessed to a machine that caused terrible deeds and Aki another figment such as herself was babbling in spite of her "father's" defeat. The obtuse Mirror of Chaos was set at the flat of the wall. She guarded it, admiring her selves. Minutes passed in the cushioned air until the group headed inside, lead by Kei.
"You idiots," Aki yelled at Kei and the others."Why did you do that to Daddy? Don't you know what you did? WAAAH!" She was crying actual tears. The Black Angels of Mischief demonstrated grief and sadness to their surprise.
"This is me?" Maki asked. She did not know who, perhaps the ceiling, the others, herself, or maybe the corpse-like Maki Sonomura. Her recognizant lips stated her epiphany. "No…I made everyone suffer?"
"You beat the only one the real me could rely on?" Aki bellowed, red-eyed. "No one will save us now! It's all over!" She wrinkled her nose, feeling mournful instead of keen to blow a raspberry.
"There are three airheads?" Reiji quizzical asked, surprised Kei's summation was correct. "Are they all her?"
"Maki," Masao said.
"No…don't come near me!" Maki backed up, attempting to retreat again, but from a different truth. "Don't look at me!"
"Calm down, Maki!" Masao pleaded. "This has to be some kinda mistake…right?" His lie was to comfort her, for Masao Inaba had likewise adopted Kei Nanjo's deduction. The evidence was clearly displayed for him. How would either deny the facts?
"Stop saying that! I know you are lying! This is me! I can tell!" Maki cried her voice shrill. "I messed up the town and made everyone suffer! I did that!"
"Kandori was just using you!" Reiji stated.
"Like, don't feel bad about it." Ayase bluntly encouraged.
"No…that's not it." Maki pushed her boiling cheeks. "Please don't try to comfort me. Don't be nice to me. I understand everything now. I was jealous of everyone." The Idealized spoke the thoughts of the original.
"Wearing cute clothes," She narrowly sighted Eriko. "Walking around town," Her iris locked on to Yukino next. "Gossiping about each other's boyfriends," Ayase was her telescopic focus. "Laughing and joking," Brown pointed at his chin, surprised at Maki waving her hand towards him.
"I envied everyone who went to school and had fun with their friends. I wished that school and the town would all be swallowed up…" The dark thought finally was vocalized. The hidden falsities designed to disguise the morbid fantasy were stripped. The words left her mouth, the tongue clacked her teeth, she enunciated ever proper phrase and structure. Maki Sonomura had a phantasmagorical wish, a macabre want as addictive as heroine. She was a fiend to the idea, reconcile to her envy, a quaff of her greedy pleasure. She was trapped, alone in a white room, a teddy bear her salvation. It was not enough. So, she wished for the end to the pleasure. The vanquishing of the greened eye monster submerged in her psyche. Goodbye school, goodbye Mikage, the meaning was gone then. Nothing was nothing and her inner desires, her true mind was indeed a voided heart, a gaping and vacuous as a black hole; the exploding star, the catalyst being her bedridden personage.
"Maki…" Masao repeated, ignorant to his love's true face.
"Even if I wanted to do something about it, I couldn't. I cried and cried. My jealousy and loathing grew. I made up an ideal town to comfort myself. Now do you understand? I'm hopeless. I…don't deserve to live!"
"Yes. It's all over! Everyone should just disappear!" Aki piped in, surging in a bizarrely concocted exuberance. "Disappear, everyone!"
In the blink of an eye, Aki, Maki Sonomura's malevolence disappeared as she always did.
"Maki…just…come here, okay?" Masao asked himself why Naoya was saying nothing. He had no words to help.
Naoya was hazy, haggard, and helpless. His Maki, his friend, her façade was ripped away and he saw Maki Sonomura's true persona in her idealized words. Eriko and Yukino, they probably as taken as I am with the sweet girly cherub personality being a fake as much as I, he thought. Brown and Ayase were aloof again, incapable of responding for fear of being far too curt and insultive. Reiji fidgeted, an alien sensation, empathy triggered a designated response. Kei, the logically matured, despite his seasoned intellect, his rife vocabulary, and his rational disposition was doubtful of his feelings.
The carried silence during Kei's reasoning packed Maki's throat with cotton and her eyes with ammonia. The blank stares, the fretful poise drew her inward, pulled her feet to run. "I can't be with you all anymore."
Maki ran to the Mirror of Chaos. She did not blame her friends. She did not run because of their reactions. She ran from herself. She was ashamed of her origins. She had no excuse. It was her thoughts, no matter what part of her it was.
The Mirror of Chaos was relief. It was a mystical item that gave Kandori an abundance of power. It granted wishes like Mai's compact. She plainly made a wish. "Please…send me back into my heart!" The beckoning to her savior was granted. She was whisked away from the real world, her reflection in the glass repugnant.
"Maki," Masao stopped to the spot she had gone from. "You…you idiot, why…why GODDAMN IT?"
Everyone was motionless, inactive, including Naoya.
"Come on, Nao!" Masao chided at his ravaged best friend. "Let's get back in Maki's heart! We can go to the middle level again and...Doc Nicolai can use the Deva System, shoot us right to her!"
"Wait, Masao." Kei politely asked. "Do you know the story of the foolish girl named Pandora?"
"Huh? What the hell are you on, Nanjo?"
"You once convinced me in making a rational decision from an irrational one. I am returning the favor. Now the story of Pandora: The legend says she opened the gods' box, releasing all sorts of evils. It applies to Maki. This town owes its miserable conditions to her wishes. Rather than save her, we should focus on destroying the Deva System. As Daichi said, if we remove the device all matter will reverse transmogrify. The demons shall be gone, Deva Yuga will fall, and the segmenting barrier will fall with it. We remove the Deva System from the equation, the Ideal World is deconstructed. Maki can do us no harm if we cooperate with Doctor Nicolai and disassemble the machine."
"Nanjo…you asshole…how can you say that? How can you say that about a friend? If we destroy that thing what's gonna happen to Maki? She's the host, remember? Kandori said their wavelengths or some junk are connected. What does that mean? Didn't that Daichi bastard tell us shutting down the Deva System requires the disconnection of the host or his/her death to revert the effects?"
Kei looks at the life signs displayed. "From a glance at the monitor, the tourniquets and tubing, it seems the system is keeping the real Maki Sonomura alive. The attack she contracted during our visit those days ago must have been a physically draining encounter. She may need the Deva System to keep her vitals alive. She may have no will to live. If we destroy her lifeline, Maki Sonomura will most likely die as a result. But as long as it's intact, the fundamental problem remains unsolved. Kandori's device will progress in causing Mikage and the world problems. Don't let your personal feelings sway you. A small sacrifice for the greater good…the choice is obvious."
"What the hell, Nanjo?" Brown objected. "You wanna kill her? Are you serious? I'm the one who tells the unfunny jokes here!"
"I am serious Uesugi. It is the logical decision." Kei was not sure; however, his voice lacked conviction.
"I can't…I can't condone this." Yukino boldly announced.
"Kandori is evil, the pure blooded antagonist for our tale begun by Philemon." Eriko said. "But, even we decided it was a difficult decision to take his life. He is a terrible man that has done terrible things to others. Maki is remotely innocent. She provided a harbinger, an exploratory world to deliver both Kandori and the Crawling Chaos the seeds of destruction for us. We jointly chose to stop Kandori, but not to kill him. Reiji even has ranked in as a protagonist than an antihero. We did not kill Takahisa Kandori, but you want to kill a hospitalized girl whose thoughts became reality?"
"Like, you must have a rotten skull, Kei." Ayase sharply hissed, visibly upset. "Euthanize her or something like that? You're totally nuts!"
Kei recoiled. He was the villain now. "My intent was not…" He couldn't finish his sentence.
"I hope you're ready for this!" Masao sent Kei reeling to Yukino waist with his herculean cross. "You duped me, Nanjo. I had you all wrong. I didn't think you could really be this cold. Maybe what you're sayin' is true. It's the kind of logic an adult would use. But dude…Maki might've tried to make us suffer, but she also tried to save us all. Or are you really gonna try to logically debate all the shit the Ideal Maki Sonomura and Mai did for us in order to stop Kandori and Aki's plans. I believe in Maki. I know she has what it takes to break away from that machine."
Reiji sprinted to the Mirror of Chaos. "I'm going in. I'm not letting her take the easy way out. My mom got thrown away like an old rag, but even suspecting what would happen, she gave birth to me. Know why she did that? She told me she couldn't neglect her own child's life. She has a mom too. No parent alive doesn't love their child and I'm gonna make sure one of them sees their mom again. Whether it is the Ideal or the real,"
Masao joined Reiji. "Everyone wants to see her; I know it in my heart. There's no need for them to suffer alone. They can call on us. Please, Maki," Tears streaked his cheeks. "I'd go anywhere for you."
Kei wanted to scoff, but the sentimental arrows disrupted his brainstem. "Heh, you believe in her, eh? Yamaoka said he believed in me too. Man is an emotional creature. We can split hairs all we like but the ultimate decision is made by one's heart. I'll go in as well."
Deep down Kei cared, that made Yukino smile.
"Sheesh, you and your arguments, you could have just come out and said so," Masao playfully said. "Wouldn't a clever, mature adult stay here?"
"As a boy of 17, I am not legally considered an adult yet."
"When will I learn? You always got some kind of comeback all ready, Nanjo." Masao jibbed.
"Well, since Kei is neglecting to handle the reprimanding. Guess I'm gonna have to keep playing mother hen." Yukino threw up a fist, razorblades in between her fingers. "Ms. Saeko'll kill me if I let anything happen to any of you guys."
Brown lowered his battle visor (a.k.a. his sunglasses.) "I'm all in baby! I got the ace of spades up my sleeve! We can beat any stacked hand we're dealt!"
Ayase wanted to rebound off Brown's optimism, but the ghastly Maki distracted her. "I…I know what it's like to hate being alone." She coldly said aloud. "I have a disorder were I fear loneliness. I can understand Maki."
The long socked girl was at the bedside. "I…can't say, like, I will be much help…but I can't hate her for hating being alone. It's a shiver you can't warm. A total itch, you can't scratch. I…I…like…damn it." She choked a sob. "Nobody is gonna kill her! Okay! We're gonna…we're gonna save her life, I don't care what it takes!"
Brown wrapped his arm proudly around her shoulder as she cried. Eriko joined him.
"We've come this far, a guardian angel's role is never finished. I'll accompany all of you, my friends, until the last pages, for it is my duty to protect you." She brushed her rival in love's bangs from her brows. "Especially you, Maki,"
"Shit, I'm last. How am I the last to volunteer?" Naoya thought, his friends looking to him for guidance his waning mind could not offer.
"One…second…" He mouthed, laying to Maki. He caressed her numb cheek. "Why, Maki? Why did you lie to me? To Mark, to everyone…why didn't you trust me? You could keep your secret with me. Why didn't you? Did you hate me too? Were you jealous of me too? You know I would have done anything for you. You know Mark would do the same times a thousand. So, why…damn it! Why did you hide it?" He wanted to pound his fists, as he dabbed the water he leaked. "I thought we had a bond…that couldn't be broken Maki. A bond forged with an indestructible chain. What happened to that, Maki? Did you not trust us anymore? Did you want to face it all alone? The despair…you lost all your hope. You became depressed. You'd rather bath in nihilism, instead of let me help you. You know if you told me I promise I'd never let you feel that way again. You know I always keep my promises, Maki."
He kissed her forehead. "I'm sorry, Maki. I'm sorry I could not stop your pain. I'm sorry I never noticed the suffering you faced. I promise you, we'll fix this. I promise…Maki…you'll never feel this way again."
Naoya shifted as he rubbed his eyes. "I apologize for this. I…I was hurt…and the wound was not one mended by magic."
"Good deeds should be done swiftly, Todo." Kei stated to his leader. "Let's dive back into Maki's soul."
Naoya agreed, checking his katana. "Let's start running to Doctor Nicolai!"
"Wait, Punk!" Reiji exclaimed.
"Look, Brave Leader, the mirror!" Eriko chimed.
"There's something there now!" Yukino said.
The Mirror of Chaos displayed a show for them similar to when Deva Yuga was born back in the Mana Castle. It was the Deva System. The obelisk of technological advancement was sturdy. The gadgetry was functioning perfectly. The image zoomed to a finely blown flask, the size of a flatbed truck, brimming with filaments and circuitry. It was the connector bar between the opposite two cylinders that made up the rest of the matter controlling device. The flask was sparking, flickering blue static. A glare, a lens flare was momentarily blinding the Persona Users, until it suddenly stopped. The flask, the important component to the machine, disappeared as Aki and Maki had. It was gone and the holographic projection demonstrated the necessary loss by shifting in hue. The System was alive, keeping its host aloft in breathes, but it did not offer sheen of functionality any longer.
"It disappeared." Masao said. "Now what, Nanjo, we can't get back like this?"
"Something must have happened in the Ideal World in Maki's heart." Kei inferred. "With Kandori incapacitated, she's the only one who can pull objects from this world to hers. From the diagram at the bed's end, she must have taken the core unit, the cog that offered the matter transformation effects."
"What about Kandori's mirror?" Eriko offered. "If we can't use the Deva System, let us have his mirror send us back."
"Oh, yeah, we could still do that! Maki did!" Masao added.
The Mirror of Chaos splintered like a spider web and shatter like a bear bottle. The shards of in congruent forms dissipated. As subtle as a lightning bolt, their hopes were dashed by a cruel twist.
"Damn it! Is this for real?" Masao complained, unbelieving at what just happened.
"Is Maki resisting us?" Kei suggested. "It seems that way to me."
"No…this might be Nyarlathotep. He probably created the Mirror for Kandori." Naoya said. "He prefers to make the balance unequal."
"If the Crawling Chaos is the destroyer of the Chaos Mirror, his ulterior motive is to prevent us from aiding Maki." Eriko said.
"Damn it!" Masao kicked the wall. A glitter at his foot bothered him. "Wait!"
Masao picked up the Ideal Maki's red compact.
"Damn it! What're we gonna do now?" Masao opened the compact. "Maki must have dropped this. But it won't do us any good on its own."
"What is it, Masao?" Kei examined the compact. "It's Maki's compact. Hm, there's no mirror inside."
"Hey, the real Maki has a compact, too!" Ayase exclaimed, noticing the green painted compact clutched at her breast.
Ayase pried the object free and gave it to Naoya.
"Maki's real compact? I don't think this will do us much good either."
"Let's see here." Kei examined the real compact. "The real Maki's compact and the Ideal Maki's compact. The real one has a mirror."
"Gimme that, Nanjo," Masao snatched it from Kei's hand. He raised it to the heavens. "Please! Send us back into Maki's heart!"
The ordinary handheld mirror did not grant his wish.
"The compact couldn't possible have such powers as Mai and Aki's in the real world." Kei explained. "If only the Ideal Maki's compact was complete, then maybe…hypothetically,"
Yukino grunted. "Maki…she isn't leaving us squat."
Brown rubbed his chin, mocking Nanjo. "Wait, Nanjo!"
Kei sighed, closing the Ideal Maki's mirror-less compact. "Yes, Uesugi,"
"The Ideal Maki's compact, can it grant wishes?"
"I have no idea, Uesugi. There is zero evidence to suggest it can. That is why I said if it was complete…hypothetically we may suppose the Ideal Maki shared the ability, for she, like Mai and Aki, are pieces of Maki Sonomura."
"Then, we just gotta slap glass in that sucker!" Brown got on all fours by the crude frame of the Mirror of Chaos. He was frantic in his search.
"Help me, Nanjo! There has to be a shard of Kandori's mirror!"
"You impress me, Uesugi." Kei joined the mountebank in his fever-pitch scouring.
Brown smiled a bright beam. "I'm paying my penance. I ain't running scared again!"
Masao and Reiji gathered to help for the minute shard.
Ayase followed to Brown, Yukino to Kei, and lastly Eriko.
"I can't. Nyarlathotep will not tease a chance. The Ideal Maki…according to Kei…is the manifestation of Maki wanting to change herself. The Ideal Maki is who she wanted to be. If her ideal denied its own existence...Maki has to have really lost hope as I thought. If that's the case, if she is hopeless and wants to die we'll never find a sliver!"
Naoya knelt. "Please Partner, I…I need help. Damn…I can't hear him anymore. What am I doing? Why am I acting like this? I am the neutral. I can't wallow in myself! I have to…have to…think of everyone…everyone around me…including Maki."
Naoya faced her shut lids. He spoke. "Maki…if there's even a fragment left…of hope…of life…please…do what Mark said…call out to us. Show us…show me…your hope."
Naoya pulled the grated shard of the Chaos Mirror from underneath her earlobe. Philemon, Nyarlathotep, Maki, who guaranteed its existence, was irrelevant. This shard was their ignited hope, burning hot again.
"Todo, is that a shard of Kandori's mirror? The size and shape…I think it might fit the Ideal Maki's compact!" Kei hurriedly compared the shard from Naoya and the Ideal Maki's broken compact from Masao.
"Seriously," Masao exclaimed. "Maybe we can use this to go back! Lemme see it, Nao!"
Masao put the shard in the broken compact firmly. "It's a perfect fit! Whoa!"
Their wish was granted. They dived back to Maki Sonomura's heart.
Persona: Be Your True Mind
The third traverse through the portal dropped them harshly at a forked path to a spruce array of trees.
"You kids?" Setsuko Sonomura dressed in her suit jacket asks to the eight youths who fell from a dimensional portal. "Are you all right?"
"Ow!" Masao winced. "Augh, I get it the compact brought us here."
The Mirror of Chaos shard had fit perfectly in the red compact in Masao's hand.
Naoya caught the compact Masao had tossed him as he stood. "Aunt Setsuko, how did you…"
"Ngh," Kei roused. "Where are we?"
"Looks like it worked, Four Eyes." Reiji said.
"This is where Mai and the Jack Bros live." Yukino said.
"Yes, the Lost Forest." Eriko said.
"Why have you all come back?" Setsuko demanded. "What about Kandori?"
"Same to you, lady," Masao snapped. "Why're you here? We left you at the Haunted Mansion!"
"I…don't really know. After I transported you all, I thought I heard Maki's voice again and when I came to, I was here. But why have you all come back?"
"Aunt Setsuko has been teleported again." Naoya mumbled. "Maybe this is also Maki's doing."
"Allow me to explain. You should know the truth." Kei explained their escapades.
"No! That can't be…" Setsuko's reaction to the accounts of nefarious acts involving her own daughter. "What about Maki? What's going to happen to her?"
"If we leave her be, she'll stay that way for the rest of her life. Or worse…" Kei delivered.
"No…Naoya…can't you do something?" Setsuko pleaded to a recognizable face. "My Maki,"
Naoya nodded. "I'll save her, Aunt Setsuko. I said I would and we will!"
"Are you sure, Naoya? Can you—"
"Cool it, lady! That's why we came back!" Masao defended.
"Don't worry," Reiji comforted.
"Yeah, we won't, like, let it end like this!" Ayase added.
"Your daughter's safety and health are our priority." Eriko stated.
Yukino spun a razorblade. "We'll return everything to its former beauty."
Brown threw a peace sign at Setsuko. "No problem, Mama Sonomura! I am the blue collar knight who'll save your princess!"
Setsuko was touched. "Thank you, everyone,"
The serendipity met a resounding female sniffle. "WAAAH,"
Setsuko's senses perked. "Was that Maki's voice? She must be just past here!" She was heading to the shadowy pathways.
"Let's go to the ginger bread house!" Masao demanded, reminding everyone of his markers designed to be followed. "That li'l Maki might know something?"
Naoya lightly moved his Aunt Setsuko back. He could sense the breathing of the demons that had inhabited the Lost Forest. The wind was his ally once again as he drew his katana. "Aunt Setsuko, stay here. It's dangerous in there now. We should go alone."
"Take me with you, Naoya!" Setsuko ordered. "She's my daughter! I can't leave her suffering like this!"
Naoya frowned. "Aunt Setsuko…"
Kei explained the details. "This forest is potentially hazardous. Naoya's unusual sixth sense is often right. Your survival is far from assured."
"I don't care about that!" Setsuko cried.
Reiji positioned himself in front of her. "No worries, Ms. Sonomura. I won't let any demon touch a inch of you."
"Reiji," Naoya hissed. "Thanks again."
Reiji replied with a thumps up.
"Then that settles that. Come on, Todo. Let's reunite a mother with her child."
"Everyone, make a formation around Aunt Setsuko! Shield her as best as you can!" Naoya yelled.
Persona: Be Your True Mind
The group of nine entered the long forgotten gingerbread house. They had followed the correct path as indicated via Masao's tree markings and the Jack Bros previous instructions. The demons had invaded to hinder their progress. They fought hard and fast, determined to protect Setsuko and reach their goal. They stepped passed the breaded threshold again to find the White Dressed Angel, the representation of Maki Sonomura's innocence Mai and her Pyro Jack
"Maki…is that you Maki?" Setsuko ran to her as a distressed mother would to her baby, knocking aside the distraught Pyro Jack.
"Waah…MOMMY!" Mai was bawling. The sadness had confiscated her tranquility.
"I'm sorry, Maki…I'm so sorry." Setsuko embraced her child, hugging her bobbing head to her warm breast.
"Mommy, Mommy! Waaah," Mai cried in her mother's shirt, releasing her anxiety.
"Mai, are you calming down." Naoya politely asked, Pyro Jack at his ankle.
"Uh-huh, mister," Mai replied, still flustered.
"Mai…Maki," He corrected. "We can help you. The real you, I know that sounds weird, but is there anything you can do?"
"Nu-uh, nothing," Mai said.
"Why not," Kei said. "Are you not also an aspect of Maki Sonomura?"
"Aki wants to make this world go away." Mai screamed, reciting Aki's powerful words regarding disappearing. "She went to where the really bad me is."
Everyone gasped.
"There's ANOTHER one of her?" Masao asked.
"The really bad me is called Pandora. Aki went and broke Pandora's seal."
Kei was startled at the implication.
"Mistress Pandora-hee…ate Mistress Aki-hee…" Pyro Jack wept. "Now, Mistress Pandora-hee is trying-hee to make this world go away-hee!"
"If she does that…" Mai wept with her plush jack-o-lantern. "We'll…I'll…die."
They each knew she meant the original Maki Sonomura.
Reiji howled. "Then, where can we find Pandora?"
Kei exclaimed eureka having pondered his conclusions. "Pandora…Pandora has to be Maki's…Maki's nihilism as Todo said. She swallowed Aki, who is Maki's darker carnal desires. She consumed malice, meaning she represents a piece of her greater than malice. Her want for the world she could not be apart of to be swallowed as the Ideal Maki conveyed. The world being swallowed…was her… her PARADISE! The school! She…Pandora has to be beyond that stone door we found in the library! It's Maki's Gates to Paradise! Am I correct?"
"Uh-huh." Mai answered affirmatively. "You'll need three compacts though, Mister, and…my energetic self's help."
"Energetic?" Naoya repeated. "You mean the Ideal Maki?"
"N.T., we have the three compacts don't we?" Brown asked.
"Brave Leader has the red compact the Ideal Maki had." Eriko said.
"And Masao has the original Maki's green compact." Yukino stated.
"We're missing one." Reiji growled at Naoya and Masao handling only two.
"Where's the final compact?" Kei asked.
"And the final Maki," Naoya added.
"Mister, save the energetic me first, please...it's all my fault."
"Mistress Maki-hee is crying deeper-hee in the forest with Jack Frost-hee." Pyro Jack finished. "I'll take you-hee to her room-hee."
Setsuko aimed herself at the door at the back wall. "There's another Maki behind this door? Then I'm coming with you all!"
"I can't refuse now, Aunt Setsuko. As long as everyone else is okay," Naoya looked to his friends, met with naught a sigh.
"Let's go then, Aunt Setsuko, everyone! Lead the way Pyro Jack! Let's go get Maki!"
Persona: Be Your True Mind
A/N: Mark danced crazy is an infamous line from Revelations: Persona that is kind enough to remain in the better, properly translated PSP version SMT: Persona. Moonchild is like my favorite song ever by King Crimson and there was in fact an editing mistake that I am not going to fix that was to have you guys play the song when Reiji saves Naoya's life instead its at their final exchange. If you are for some reason unaware to the well-known masterpiece works of Agatha Christie and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, little grey cells and elementary are compliments to the amazing detectives Hercule Poirot and Sherlock Holmes respectively.
Now, this is kinda of the controversial chapter of the whole novelization because if you played the actual game you know I have altered pretty much none of the cutscenes in terms of story content. I may have added lines for everyone and maybe certain filler phrases or needed segways but I never outright altered dialogue or content I believe. In the game, Kandori dies after God Kandori is defeated and Kei simply states exactly "Where is the real Maki Sonomura?" That is it. No explanation or parlor scene. Its abrupt like most plot twists in the game to allow you to believe that Kei just knows without any evidence. All the shit I wrote in the story are all things that can be construed as evidence in the game to formulate a logical conclusion that Maki Sonomura was the host. Naoya's off hand comments about how such and such is like Maki or how Maki did this and that is my own design but it would make sense for him to say these things since, you know, their relationship is very platonic. Those are subtle and my own designs. All of the conjecture Kei was giving though is basically all capable of being used in arguing his logic just from the game.
As for why I allowed Kandori to live, simply put I had a hard time rationalize these teenagers wanting to kill him. Certainly we can argue ethics and what not all day, because the death penalty is not a pure black and white concept, there really is a gray area and variability to the situations but I can't just make a member of the Scooby gang Sam Spade. These are kids, teenagers who are drawn into this shit, basically by divine intervention. I can't say if I was in this situation I would want to kill Kandori, simply because I don't think I could ever kill a man. Honestly, if you really want Kandori to die, don't worry, he will. IN a loophole sort of way. You'll get it when we reach the epilogue, but really it is not relevant whether Kandori is alive or dead anyway because in Persona 2: Eternal Punishment his soul is fuckin resurrected by the Kotodoma Ritual and possesses the body of Tatsuzo Sudo's male secretary! I think Nyarla even states at some point he picked Kandori specifically to help engineer that stupid machine that gathers Kegare or something too. Plus he suddenly has an x-shape scar on his face, so I had to have Reiji get his retribution. Like I said that scene was added specifically to wrap up their relationship.
So, as I said gray area. I didn't feel comfortable with outright killing him which unfortunately does cause a paradoxical invasion of ethics one scene later, but the game does imply that Kei never meant the callous things he said; he was just trying to rationalize the situation.
To the logic break down, I really don't know how Setsuko got in the Haunted Mansion, or the Lost Forest. There is literally no explanation. As Kei said, the first time could have easily been Maki or Kandori. We don't know. As for the Lost Forest, it is possible Maki brought her there. I don't know. I love this game's story, but they do just expect you to take things at face value at times. Like the Mirror of Chaos breaking, for the record, I assumed Nyarla made it for Kandori, I don't know, I also have no clue why it broke. The game says Maki does it, but if that's the case why is there a shard left for them to use. So, I, yes I had Naoya say, a proposition that Nyarla could have done it to hinder them because Aki breaking Pandora's seal could cause just as much trouble for humanity as Kandori could. Either way I hope you enjoyed this chapter of Persona: Be Your True Mind and I'll see you next time for Chapter 26: Faceless!