2026-03-20: What Were We Trying to Forget, Again?
- Log: What Were We Trying to Forget, Again?
- Cast: Tamaki Uchida, Hyousuke Suzuki, Maya Amano
- Where: Rengedai - Main
- OOC Date: March 20, 2026
- IC Date: October 12, 2012
- Summary: Tamaki, Maya, and Hyousuke embark on a preliminary investigation about the Purple Mirror, and other things best left forgotten threaten to creep into conscious thought. While they do figure out one possible solution, the scale of it is going to be a problem ...
(|============================= Rengedai - Main ==============================|)
-=============================================== Sumaru City/Rengedai Ward ====-
The central ward of Sumaru, built on the Tanabata River that splits the city
like a yin-yang symbol, is called Rengedai, or "Lotus Pedestal," because it
looks like a lotus flower floating on the water. It's a quiet, peaceful place to
live, and though it has undergone modernization over the past decade or two, a
good number of historical sites remain.
Its most standout feature is Mt. Iwato, a small mountain with a significant
network of caverns that spelunkers are advised not to explore casually. Alaya
Shrine is available for worship at its foot. It has never been set on fire.
The prestigious Seven Sisters School stands nearby; according to rumor, the
symbol sewn on the school's uniforms will protect you from the Joker Curse. To
the west is Honmaru Park, built on the site of feudal leader Kiyotada Sumaru's
castle and in his dubious memory, but it's under construction, so you can't go
in there.
Mansions, houses, and apartment complexes dot the riverside banks. The Lotus
Plaza Shopping Mall is right there with them, offering modest shopping in
convenient walking distance.
MONAD: A party led by Tamaki Uchida has begun the event Wanted! Rumor Demon: The Purple Mirror.
(|============= Monad - Wanted! Rumor Demon: The Purple Mirror =============|)
-==== Round 1: Online Jack - Challenge Level 1 ==============================-
| Approach Options: Academics or Guts |
| Conditions: Heartening - Guts Up L1 and Stupor - Academics Down L1 |
-==== Challenge =============================================================-
(BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0B_2vwPcxc Map I - Persona 2 Eternal
Punishment (PSP))
Regardless of where you are, the internet's just a device away. The story of
the Purple Mirror is known throughout the country, and numerous variants of
the tale exist on websites, social media, and message boards -- all
resources which might be worth scouring. As chaotic as its atmosphere might
be, those in the know could even dare to brave the Dark Side of Sumaru's
message boards.
Sorting fact from fiction is difficult enough, but this is an instance of
sorting between relevant fiction and outright fabrication -- what you want
is the version of the myth which has taken hold in the minds of Sumaru
City's residents. It's tedious, borderline mind-numbing work, but it might
just be possible to power through the bad posts and boredom until a lead
reveals itself.
(|=========================================================== Monad 1.1 ====|)
<Pose Tracker> Tamaki Uchida has posed.
The Purple Mirror. The story goes that a woman became obsessed with such an item then cast it away. Even with it gone from her life, it preoccupied her thoughts to the point where it led to her death. A similar fate waits for those who can't forget the words "purple mirror," typically just before an important milestone event in someone's life.
With everything else going on -- between Jun's kidnapping and rescue, the sanitarium, Kazusa's Atelier -- Tamaki had honestly almost forgotten about it. Almost.
Unfortunately, given her role in the Kuzunoha Detective Agency, she doesn't get to forget about it. With the end of the year looming, the requests are coming in faster and faster, most of them from residents in Rengedai Ward.
With everything else on her own plate, the agency's reached out to the broader Persona-user community to lend their assistance. For this particular venture, she's tagging along, too. The people who either volunteered on their own or she roped in are Maya Amano for her journalist investigative skills and Hyousuke Suzuki for his eagerness to tackle any Rumor Demon.
After having gathered in Rengedai Ward near the station, Tamaki reiterates to the group, "This is ... a preliminary investigation. I'm not sure if we'll find everything there is to find, but we've got to start somewhere."
She holds up a finger as she tries to direct the group. "The first place we can go to next is ..."
...
oh no
Her mind completely blanks on a suggestion. Tamaki's been so occupied that she hasn't prepared any leads in the local area! She's sweating bullets as she frantically flips through her notebook to find any mention of something, anything -- nope, nothing, nothing, nothing.
She regains her composure and clears her throat. "Ahem! We can find an internet café and peruse the Dark Side of Sumaru forums. Or we can look at our phones, but I don't wanna stare at a small screen to read a lot of text."
A lot of text posts. Most of which are absolutely useless or awful. There might be one somewhere, though ...
There's nothing to do but power through it.
MONAD: Tamaki Uchida has acted with Guts toward Online Jack! Base!
<Pose Tracker> Hyousuke Suzuki has posed.
Asking Hyousuke to sort through paperwork and forum posts was akin to asking a gloved-up boxer to sort a shelf of fine china. While it was technically possible, there were bound to be a great many mistakes, and a great deal of muttered curses as he bore the drudgery of the task at hand. Still, it was all in service of a greater good - a hefty payday. Hyousuke was vaguely aware of the potential danger of the task, and the price of failure in resolving the rumour, but he was far more aware of the fact that there was also a sizeable amount of cash at stake.
To a student with rather limited income options, it was like baiting a hook with the fattest, wriggliest, worm that one could imagine.
So it was that he endured the long, gruelling, process of sifting through reams of information. Many times, he lamented that he was not the right person for the job, and wished Tsubasa was around to give him a hand. Many times, he vocalised his displeasure about the task, though at least attempted to keep quiet about it in the interests of politeness. More than once did he take a few minutes to stand up and grab some tea, staring wistfully out of the window while reminding himself of the new rice cooker or fancy tea leaves he could buy with such funds as the job would grant.
Slowly, the pile of information shrunk, sorted into the wheat and the chaff. Gradually, he began to piece together an idea of what he could do about the situation at hand. It took time, and it took effort, and he wasn't even sure that he - a self-admitted halfwit that would have struggled piecing together a two-piece jigsaw puzzle, let alone a working theory on a rumour and the appertaining demon - had managed to get anything worth reading. But he had something he could at least work with. All that was left was to present his findings, and hope for the best.
"Guys?" He asked, leaning back a little. "I think I got something. Come have a look at this..."
MONAD: Hyousuke Suzuki has acted with Bravado toward Online Jack! Bravery and Focus!
<Pose Tracker> Maya Amano has posed.
"If an internet cafe works better for everyone, I know one near here," Maya cheerily answers. As a reporter, she's well-acquainted with all of Sumaru, particularly in those spots that give her a brief reprieve from the chaotic offices of Kismat Publishing. She's been to this particular internet cafe more than a few times.
Still, Maya seems to be handling herself well enough on her phone. She's frequently working on-the-go, so emailing contacts, searching for leads, and browsing the Dark Side of Sumaru all come naturally to her, even on a smaller screen. It's easy for anyone watching carefully to see how naturally he thumb slides up the screen to browse down on an open window, or how quickly her fingers navigate the on-screen keyboard that are popular on newer smartphones (which Maya clearly has in her position, complete with a bunny phone case and a matching sakura-and-bunny phone charm).
If it wasn't clear from anyone who saw Mr. Bun-Bun dangling off her bag, Maya _really_ loves bunnies.
Still, Hyousuke's voice rouses Maya from her work-trance. She looks up and takes her fingers off the screen of the smart phone, letting her smart phone screen flash back to black. "What did you find?"
MONAD: Maya Amano has acted with Get That Story toward Online Jack! Amrita!
(|============================ Monad - Results =============================|) -==== Online Jack - Round 1 =================================================- Tamaki Uchida Guts Success Guts Base Fatigue: 0 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Maya Amano Guts Success Get That Story Amrita Fatigue: 0 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Hyousuke Suzuki Guts Success Bravado Bravery and Focus Fatigue: 0 -============================ Party Conditions: =============================- Starting Conditions: Heartening-2 and Stupor-2 Final Conditions: Heartening-1 and Stupor-1 -====================================== Party Result: Success: Reach Up! ====- -==== Reach: 1/6 |= | ===================================================- (|=========================================================== Monad 1.1 ====|)
<Pose Tracker> Tamaki Uchida has posed.
While squinting at her phone, Tamaki flatly replies to Maya's offer of finding an internet café, "Please. The eye strain will be the death of me otherwise."
She perks up slightly at seeing how adept Maya is at using her phone. " -- can you cross-reference something for me, though? There's a post here with instructions on how to forget a specific memory, but who knows with this site. I'll directly PM them about it in the meantime, but if we can independently verify what they're saying, that'll clear things up."
The story's common across Japan. Each region has its own variant of the tale. Normally, this would be all well and good, but ... it's taken hold in Sumaru City.
So the trick is to figure out what Sumaru's variant of the story of the Purple Mirror is. That'll be the one that influenced the rumor.
Tamaki also shares Hyousuke's sentiment that Tsubasa's help could have come in handy here. They're adept at it. Still, she's glad to see him put in the effort and expand his capabilities, little by little. "Take breaks as you have to," she reassures him, "It's a marathon, not a sprint."
She eagerly peers over Hyousuke's shoulder. "See? Told you that something would surface. What'd you find?"
>> some of the shop owners in Rengedai have lived there a long time >> they might remember something
Tamaki glances behind her. "Lotus Plaza's nearby. And I'm also running low on supplies ... what do you two think?"
MONAD: Hyousuke Suzuki has drawn a new Challenge!
(|============= Monad - Wanted! Rumor Demon: The Purple Mirror =============|)
-==== Round 2: Forget Me Not - Challenge Level 2 ============================-
| Approach Options: Understanding or Proficiency |
| Conditions: Heartening - Guts Up L1, Heartening - Guts Up L1, Kind - |
| Understanding Up L2, and Stupor - Academics Down L1 |
-==== Challenge =============================================================-
In the language of flowers, there are some specimens which represent the
memory of an event or person: lilies, chrysanthemums, hyacinths, myosotis,
orchids, marigolds, gladioli ... the list goes on. There could be something
worth exploring in that idea, so a trip to the local florist in Lotus Plaza
seems appropriate.
(BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zsg01CVh2M Map I - Persona 2 Eternal
Punishment (PSX))
"Hey hey HEY /HEY/, you can't just waltz in here and -- " Not to worry, the
florist doesn't seem to be admonishing /you/, but he's flummoxed by a Demon
which has wandered into the store and staunchly refuses to leave: a Slime
with a seemingly insatiable curiosity. It, too, seems to be facing a
memory-related dilemma as it stares mournfully at the selection of flowers
as it undulates and squishes and squashes between its default amorphous
state and a variety of forms resembling other Demons. "Feels like a parta
me's missing, /bloop/. Can't remember my old shape, /blorp/ ... what was I?"
The florist gives an exasperated sigh and turns your way. "Look, it's
harmless enough, but can you help me out and get this guy out of here?
There's one flower that'd be perfect, but around here it only grows on Mt.
Iwato, and I don't want to make the hike up there."
... for a moment, one of the Slime's forms looks suspiciously like a hand
mirror. Arranging the perfect flower bouquet for its desires might just
satisfy both the florist and the Slime and solidify the Demon's shape into
the form of an even more helpful hint.
(|=========================================================== Monad 1.1 ====|)
<Pose Tracker> Hyousuke Suzuki has posed.
Hyousuke might have worn a more pleased expression at Tamaki's praise, were it not for the fact that his brain felt like it had run a marathon *at* a sprint. He smiled, and nodded to show that he was listening, but there might as well have been smoke pouring out of his ears from the strain showing on his face. Listening closely, one might have even heard the hamster wheel in his brain creaking to a slow and unceremonious stop. Nevertheless, their efforts had managed to narrow down the search area to something workable, and he nodded *far* more firmly once Tamaki proposed a direction.
"Works for me." He said, standing up and stretching out. "I gotta see about picking some stuff up there too. Shimizu-san mentioned something about the aerospace museum, and I want to go in prepared."
A nearby florist was one of the first stops, and Hyousuke made his way in with the intention of probing the place and its proprietor - or proprietors, he could never remember which - for information. However, the sight of a large mound of slime causing the residing florist some sort of trouble put paid to that plan immediately.
"Hey hey HEY HEY, you can't just waltz in here and -- "
"Feels like a parta me's missing, bloop. Can't remember my old shape, blorp ... what was I?"
Hyousuke crossed his arms in consternation in response. Deciding he would ask Tamaki why someone seemed so calm about a giant mound of ooze bumbling around the shop, Hyousuke decided to step forward and think aloud in case someone could build off his own musings.
"Mt Iwato?" Hyousuke asked, mostly to himself as he peered at the shelves, though he still spoke loudly enough for the other two to hear. "Let's see... Taking into account the time of year, the region, weather in the area..." Hyousuke's musings began to decline in volume, but those listening closely would have been able to discern him speaking at length about wildflowers. In an uncharacteristically eloquent and detailed way, no less. "...Leading me to believe that we want to put together something looking a bit like *this.*" Hyousuke presented his work to Maya and Tamaki, though not with any great degree of pride. Not when his focus was on the slime.
"...Sorry." He said, seeming to realise his own distraction. "That thing's shape just reminded me of a- Yanno, the thing." Even he had the good sense not to speak the name of it out loud, though given his rather extensive foray into the forums, it was perhaps a case of shutting the barn door after the horse had bolted.
MONAD: Hyousuke Suzuki has acted with Warmup toward Forget Me Not! Diligence and Focus!
<Pose Tracker> Maya Amano has posed.
"It'll be good for us to stretch our legs!" Maya agrees. And before long, they're at the Lotus Plaza. Maya's passed the florist shop here about a million times, but this is her first time actually going inside. She was pretty sure they didn't own a vase back at home and if they did she's not sure where they'd fit a bouquet among the piles of clothes and stacks of magazines, anyway.
"Wow!" Maya exclaims at Hyousuke's presentation. "It looks so professional!" Maya definitely couldn't put something like this together. "Maybe we should cut the stems a little shorter, though," she says, surveying the Slime. Slimes already weren't especially large compared to some of the creatures they encountered, but this one definitely seemed smaller-than-normal.
"Shorter might make it easier for it to hold it." If the Slime had any interest in doing that, anyway. It was entirely possible that just _seeing_ the bouquet would be enough. But what's wrong with going the extra mile anyway?
"What do you think, Tamaki-san?"
MONAD: Maya Amano has acted with Advice toward Forget Me Not! Patra and Efficient!
<Pose Tracker> Tamaki Uchida has posed.
Tamaki hardly bats an eye at the presence of a Demon in a shop. Sumaru City in general has ... acclimated to the occasional Demon showing up, and she additionally has her own prior experiences. What surprises her more is Hyousuke's consternation, and she slightly jumps after she notices. "Oh -- uh, yeah, they're not all that uncommon around here."
"To hold it?" She muses over Maya's suggestion, then nods. "That makes sense. They're pretty short, so the stems might drag along the ground otherwise."
Hyousuke's deft hand at putting together a substitute bouquet also surprises Tamaki. "I've gone hiking up to Mt. Iwato a few times. I think you're spot-on with what grows there." Eerily so, she thinks, but doesn't mention it.
Tamaki nods after Hyousuke mentions how the Slime looked like 'the thing' -- meaning a mirror. "Yeah, I caught that too. Think we should ask the lil' guy about the mountain?"
With a sigh, she pulls out her wallet and faces the florist. "Whatever we end up going with, ring me up for it. I'll cover the slime's bill."
After that, she kneels down at the slime, staring in the hopes for some other clue. "... Think Sumaru's variant of the story has to do with Mt. Iwato?"
MONAD: Tamaki Uchida has acted with Understanding toward Forget Me Not! Base!
(|============================ Monad - Results =============================|) -==== Forget Me Not - Round 2 ===============================================- Tamaki Uchida Understanding Success Understanding Base Fatigue: 0 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Maya Amano Understanding Success Advice Patra and Efficient Fatigue: 0 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Hyousuke Suzuki Proficiency Success Warmup Diligence and Focus Fatigue: 0 -============================ Party Conditions: =============================- Starting Conditions: Heartening-1, Heartening-2, Kind-2, and Stupor-1 Final Conditions: Heartening-1 and Kind-1 -====================================== Party Result: Success: Reach Up! ====- -==== Reach: 2/6 |== | ===================================================- (|=========================================================== Monad 1.1 ====|)
<Pose Tracker> Hyousuke Suzuki has posed.
Now free of the burden of paperwork and other such things, Hyousuke was free to give a more overt reaction to Maya and Tamaki's remarks on his work. He gave them a wide smile - wider than a polite one, but not so much that it could be considered a grin - and shrugged lightly.
"You think I spend all my free time going hunting? I do hiking if the weather's alright. Haven't been up mountains much, but I know enough about the wildflowers growing around the area to get something that looked right. You're probably right about the stems though. I could probably trim 'em a bit without damaging them too much..."
Indeed, it did not seem to just *look* right, but it seemed to actually *be* right. The slime observed the handful of flowers for a moment, peering at them in the same morose manner that it had regarded the various individual pieces around the shop, before quivering a little... then coalescing into something more solid.
"I... remember..." It said, its speech interspersed with the odd bloop, blorp, or blurble of bubbles bubbling away. "I remember the mountain... The blooms were... so pretty..." It did not sound happy about whatever it remembered, but at the very least, it seemed to be at peace.
What was once a somewhat diminutive mass of formless ooze began to assume a more concrete form. As the seconds ticked by, undulating surfaces smoothed out into solid angles, shifting and changing until the form it'd displayed for a moment became a more lingering one instead. It had become a facsimile of a hand mirror by the end of its transformation, and though the hue was far from the purple that the accursed item was purported to have - by some denizens of the net, anyway - the shape was there.
"You guys got any ideas about what this means?" He asked, glancing between Tamaki, Maya, and the florist - who themselves just shrugged and stated their cluelessness on the matter.
His knowledge on wildflowers did not seem to extend to detective work.
MONAD: Maya Amano has drawn a new Challenge!
(|============= Monad - Wanted! Rumor Demon: The Purple Mirror =============|)
-==== Round 3: Do You Remember How to Forget? - Challenge Level 3 ===========-
| Approach Options: Proficiency or Guts |
| Conditions: Checkpoint - Cleanse all negative conditions., Fairy - |
| Subtract 1 Fatigue on success., Heartening - Guts Up L1, Kind - |
| Understanding Up L2, and Reaper - Add 1 Fatigue. |
-==== Challenge =============================================================-
(BGM: https://youtu.be/N4eLpDva31w Alaya Shrine - Persona 2 Innocent Sin
(PSP))
Rengedai Ward, overall, is a mixture of historical and modern aesthetics.
Away from the bustling shopping centers of Lotus Plaza, along the trail to
Mt. Iwato lies Alaya Shrine. In order to reach the caves beyond where the
Demon itself is said to exist, passage through here is necessary.
Persona-users who pass through here experience the emotion of sadness and
the pain of grief, seemingly detached from any association of recorded
history and memory. For the first few moments, to remain at this checkpoint
along the road to your destination is only to feel, not to know. To remain
beyond that is to feel the itch of the dangerous temptation to remember. In
other words, maybe you should run.
In your mind lies a vast graveyard of already-forgotten thoughts. You have
done it at least once before -- it might even be that you have done it so
many times that the act comes naturally. To will yourself to intentionally
forget, however, now seems to be an impossible task. Despite that, the
simple fact remains: come hell or high water, you /must/ remember how to
forget, even if you have to strain yourself to do so.
(|=========================================================== Monad 1.1 ====|)
<Pose Tracker> Maya Amano has posed.
"No clue! But I think if we head to Mt. Iwato, we might be able to figure it out!"
Maya is pretty pumped. A lot of her work involves a lot of research and some interviewing, but typically those interviews were conducted online, on the phone, or from locations frequently visited by teenagers. It's not all that often that her investigation leads to any sort of significant travel -- least of all, outside of the city proper.
And Maya is rather fond of the Alaya Shrine. She and her father had visited it when she was a child and it held some pretty warm memories. Once or twice a year, she'd come here to say a prayer for her father and make a donation. Life had been busy in the last few months and she had not made a visit to it since before she first encountered her Déjà-vu boy.
While Alaya Shrine looks just as Maya remembered it, there was something different about it. Something that felt disconcerting and uncomfortable, as if the shrine had been taken apart and re-built. It was the same, but it felt like it wasn't.
Maya's palms grow sweaty and she realizes that she's feeling warm all over. It's not that hot outside, is it? And it wasn't like this hike was so challenging that she'd build up a sweat. The bruise on her chest throbs, too. She swallows and tries offering a reassuring smile. "Pretty nice, right?" she says, ignoring the heat building around her. "My father and I used to come here as a child. We should make a donation and say a prayer before we go."
Maya forces herself to focus on the present -- not on the disconcerting feeling or the ache of her chest or the heat of her body. But on the present as it should be: a casual stop at a shrine en route to the mountain. Surely, if she focuses on that, she'll forget everything she shouldn't know to begin with.
MONAD: Maya Amano has acted with Guts toward Do You Remember How to Forget?! Base!
<Pose Tracker> Tamaki Uchida has posed.
As Tamaki has mentioned, she's gone hiking up the Mt. Iwato nature trail. This means she must have passed by Alaya Shrine each time, too.
Other than one key aspect, it's not much different this time. The same phantom sense that something terrible happened here lingers in the air, thick and oppressive.
Before, she had discarded the notion each, seemingly unable to attach it to anything real.
This time, Tamaki fears that she now has an inkling about what the sensation could mean. Her gaze drifts over to Maya as she remembers the figures they had heard about near the shrine on the way to the sanitarium. A cold sweat starts to break out on her neck. Tatsunoshin Suou, Junnosuke Kuroda, and --
Maya's suggestion to make a donation snaps her out of her reverie. "Oh, uh -- yeah, we can do that." After taking a moment to collect her thoughts, she continues. "I didn't grow up around here, myself. I've been avoiding it, honestly. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad for me to pay it another visit, though."
What was it that she told Umie before? The best way to get rid of a song stuck in your head is with another song? Tamaki takes her own advice to heart here ...
... albeit in a very literal sense. After they've made their donations and have proceeded on their way, Tamaki breaks out into an impromptu marching song, shouting loud in some attempt to drown out her own thoughts.
o/` "To recover health, use Medicine or Life Stones!"
o/` "When there's trouble and your friends have taken a beating,"
o/` "rescue them with Revival Beads or Life Incense!"
o/` "The eternal ally of those - who - fight!"
o/` "Our city's friendly drug store!"
Unfortunately, while there is more to the song, it's still fairly short. Much shorter than the trip to Mt. Iwato proper. She'll be at this for a few more rounds. "C'mon, everybody! You can revitalize your mind with Chewing Soul, da da da ..."
MONAD: Tamaki Uchida has acted with Never Burn Out toward Do You Remember How to Forget?! Escape and Efficient!
<Pose Tracker> Hyousuke Suzuki has posed.
Hyousuke felt something. He could not place it at first, save for that it was a constant, gnawing, ache at the back of his mind. Like something lurked in the darkest corners of his consciousness, its ink-dark tendrils snaking through the cracks in his will and conviction, lurking in the juddering shadows cast by the fires of his rage. He felt that selfsame darkness cloud his thoughts, while faint whispers pricked at the edges of those few he could still focus on, telling him to remember. To open his mind to... to *something.*
"Stop it..." Hyousuke snarled. His voice was quiet - barely more than a murmur, drowned out by the next breeze to sap the heat from his body. He spoke through clenched teeth and twisted lips, but not to Maya, not to Tamaki, nor even to the maddening whispers stabbing at his mind like needles. He felt them in their hundreds, cold and insidious, trying to force memories into him that he swore to himself he did not have. He wanted to run from them. He wanted to turn on his heel and flee, forgetting any thought of profit or adventure or usefulness or safety.
But against that cold, he bore his fire. Against that cowardice, he bore his defiance. Against whatever supernatural force compelled him to turn away and remember, he stood and bore his rage against it, a torch against the darkness engulfing his mind. Whatever attempted to claim him, he would not let it. While he could not drown out the thoughts like Tamaki or Maya, he could burn them away, retreating into anger so that it scoured him of everything else. He cast his mind to Palaces and serial killers, to brutal fights and bloody murders, until he found himself strong enough to to move without hesitation.
"Right, a prayer." Hyousuke agreed, just about cognisant enough to recognise what Maya had said, and to go through the rituals usually associated with such places. There was even enough of him left to participate in the conversation beyond grunted agreement. "I haven't been to the shrine much either. Only moved here a few months ago, and I haven't really had a reason to do much with the shrine more than once or twice." He'd been there with Ichika at some point after the sanitarium, but he did not mention that detail - else he might have been tempted to mention his frustration and despair back then did not simply stem from whatever phenomena plagued the area.
"Damn... trail never felt *this* long before..."
MONAD: Hyousuke Suzuki has acted with Tough it Out toward Do You Remember How to Forget?! Amrita!
(|============================ Monad - Results =============================|) -==== Do You Remember How to Forget? - Round 3 ==============================- Tamaki Uchida Guts Success Never Burn Out Escape and Efficient Fatigue: 0 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Maya Amano Guts Success Guts Base Fatigue: 0 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Hyousuke Suzuki Guts Success Tough it Out Amrita Fatigue: 0 -============================ Party Conditions: =============================- Starting Conditions: Checkpoint-0, Fairy-0, Heartening-1, Kind-1, and Reaper-0 Final Conditions: -====================================== Party Result: Success: Reach Up! ====- -==== Reach: 3/6 |=== | ===================================================- (|=========================================================== Monad 1.1 ====|)
<Pose Tracker> Maya Amano has posed.
Maya joins in on the singing and slowly, the disconcerting feeling evaporates. The world around her feels less ominous and Maya feels more like a schoolgirl traversing the mountain trail with her elementary school classmates than a troubled adult. The throbbing in her chest subsides and her face and hands feel cooler now than they were at the lower elevation.
This was actually feeling pretty fun!
She pauses her singing to look over at Hyousuke. "Did they have this jingle back where you came from?"
MONAD: Tamaki Uchida has drawn a new Challenge!
(|============= Monad - Wanted! Rumor Demon: The Purple Mirror =============|)
-==== Round 4: Thoth's Wondrous Elixir - Challenge Level 2 ==================-
| Approach Options: Academics or Charm |
| Conditions: Bothersome - Charm Down L1 and Educational - Academics Up L1 |
-==== Challenge =============================================================-
(BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dN9ZvuaFD4 Mt.Iwato - Persona 2
Innocent Sin (PSP))
A number of Demons reside in the dimly-lit caverns of Mt. Iwato, but right
now, most seem skittish and dare not approach: the beady eyes of a
candle-holding Picollus peeks out from behind a rock, the barking of a Cwn
Annwn echoes before it retreats into the darkness, and Kabandha submerges
itself in a stream before swimming away.
The exception to this pattern blocks the way forward: two Demons stand in
front of another passage forward, caught in a heated debate, one
white-furred and baboon-faced, holding a book dressed in scholarly robes,
the other a leopard standing upright on both legs with a seven-leafed palm
branch behind her head, angrily gesticulating with a cane as she speaks:
Thoth and Seshat.
The former asks, "How can writing cause someone to forget? It is a more
permanent medium than oral tradition, even future generations will be able
to remember!" and the latter chastises him, "Thamus was right, you fool! You
have misunderstood my invention!"
The squabbling pair turn towards the group, and one of them says, "Perhaps
you could help settle our debate, and we may grant you some insight in
turn." It doesn't look like they'll let you pass without contributing at
least something ...
(|=========================================================== Monad 1.1 ====|)
<Pose Tracker> Tamaki Uchida has posed.
ugh why did she have to pick that song
Oh, well. It seems to have done the trick for the time being. What was she trying to forget? It was for work -- Oh, right, this Purple Mirror business. Ugh!
The trail continues, out of the surface and into the caves. While Demons do reside here, most of them seem to retreat back into the darkness. Soon enough, the source of their anxiety is clear: a pair of Demons are having an argument with each other.
Thoth and Seshat, bickering about the utility of the former's invention of writing. They don't seem ready for a fight with the approaching trio -- at least not in the typical sense. Rather, they ask the group to contribute to the discussion. They're more interested in finding out which one of them is right.
Tamaki looks over at Hyousuke, anticipating what his initial reaction might be, and tries to preempt it. "This may be an instance where we can save our strength and instead negotiate. Remember, most Demons are quite a bit more talkative than Shadows!"
She places a hand over her chin as she thinks on the topic at hand. She can recognize the source, at least: "... Like in Phaedrus, one of Plato's works. Thamus' critique was 'It is a remedy for reminding, not remembering,' or something along those lines."
Pacing in place, she continues. "Well ... I take notes by hand. A lot of the time, I don't even refer back to them, but the act of writing itself helps me to remember. The physical motion of doing so helps to reinforce the mental association, I think. Besides, written records are often the best we've got to observe the past with, right?"
Tamaki wordlessly looks over at Hyousuke and Maya, then back to the pair of Demons and offers, "Still, that doesn't quite help our own aims. We're trying to figure out a way to get people to forget something. Do you have any thoughts on that matter?"
MONAD: Tamaki Uchida has acted with Piece Together toward Thoth's Wondrous Elixir! Automap!
<Pose Tracker> Hyousuke Suzuki has posed.
Whether from the fires of his hatred burning it away, or the hundredfold daggers finally relenting, Hyousuke felt the cold dark recede from his mind. The fire was not so quick to fade away, however - such an uncontrolled blaze was hard to douse, and it was only through great effort that he returned to a state that could be considered acceptable for polite company. Even when he looked to Maya, he seemed a little out of it, and only just realised that Tamaki had been attempting to string him along into a song. He blinked, as if snapping out of a trance, and faked the best look of composure he could.
"That one?" He asked, canting his head a little, the very image of a puzzled hound. "Don't think so. Might've heard it a couple times, but it might be a regional thing." It seemed that the brainpower required to remember whether or not a jingle was for a national, regional, or even simply local brand had distracted him enough that whatever flickering embers of anger remained died out unceremoniously. Then, his brow perked up a little, and he beat the edge of his fist into his palm, having suddenly remembered something. "Oh right, there was this one that went something like-"
Before he had a chance to launch into a doubtlessly rousing rendition of some marketing company's spiel, a debate between two demons interrupted him. He didn't recognise Thamus, and the faint sound of a hamster struggling away at its wheel could be heard to those with sharp enough senses when he attempted to parse their argument. A blank look even crossed his face when he began to try and figure out the finer points of a potential response, and the squeaking of that hamster wheel grew every more intense with every passing second.
Before he had a chance to decide to take Alexander's approach to the knot and simply cut his way through them, Tamaki brought his ambitions to a screeching halt. He hadn't the chance to seem disappointed about it, however, because she inspired him enough that he raised his hand and snapped his fingers, pointing sharply at her as something played on his mind.
"Oh yeah, like when I'm studying for midterms! Learning how to take good notes means learning how to write down the important stuff, and condensing it all into notes that help you remember makes you smarter."
Given his scores that year seemed projected to be 'average' or 'slightly below average,' it was evident that his method - poorly explained or not - worked, and spoke to the efficacy of writing as a method by which to convey knowledge.
MONAD: Hyousuke Suzuki has acted with Academics toward Thoth's Wondrous Elixir! Base!
<Pose Tracker> Maya Amano has posed.
Maya does, in fact, have thoughts on that!
"I tend to forget things when I'm really busy. When I've got deadlines coming up or back-to-back meetings, the only thing I can think about is what's right in front of me. I forget about everything else!"
Maya knows this from experience!
MONAD: Maya Amano has acted with Academics toward Thoth's Wondrous Elixir! Base!
(|============================ Monad - Results =============================|) -==== Thoth's Wondrous Elixir - Round 4 =====================================- Tamaki Uchida Academics Success Piece Together Automap Fatigue: 0 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Maya Amano Academics Success Academics Base Fatigue: 0 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Hyousuke Suzuki Academics Success Academics Base Fatigue: 0 -============================ Party Conditions: =============================- Starting Conditions: Bothersome-2 and Educational-2 Final Conditions: Bothersome-1 and Educational-1 -====================================== Party Result: Success: Reach Up! ====- -==== Reach: 4/6 |==== | ===================================================- (|=========================================================== Monad 1.1 ====|)
<Pose Tracker> Tamaki Uchida has posed.
That song is definitely regional. Don't ask Tamaki how she knows. She's absolutely not saying anything further on the topic unprompted.
The feline Seshat sneers and replies to Tamaki, "Just write it all down, then you'll forget." Thoth chimes in with, "Well, no, doing so actually helps you remember even without referring to the text, as the boy says."
Tamaki digests the commentary from her own companions. She nods along with Hyousuke's remarks. "Yeah, you're preoccupied with it, it's filling your mind as you write it down, it exercises that particular neural pathway ..."
"So we probably can't get people to expel their thoughts by just getting them down on paper. That'd make it worse ..." She snaps her fingers and points to Maya. "But! Replace the problematic preoccupation with another, and other matters fade into the background."
To the Demons, Tamaki offers an apologetic smile. "We can't settle your debate for good, I'm afraid, but I hope we've given you some thoughts to chew on. Could you let us by now, please?"
Thoth nods calmly and steps aside, gesturing through to the next cavern entrance. Seshat folds her arms and turns up her nose, seemingly displeased, but states, "It is enough. You may."
MONAD: Hyousuke Suzuki has drawn a new Challenge!
(|============= Monad - Wanted! Rumor Demon: The Purple Mirror =============|)
-==== Round 5: Pooling Thoughts - Challenge Level 3 =========================-
| Approach Options: Academics or Understanding |
| Conditions: Boss - Add 1 Fatigue on failure., Bothersome - Charm Down L1, |
| Chest - Add 2 Item/Money/Gear., Curse - -1 to Group Roll (Per Character), |
| and Educational - Academics Up L1 |
-==== Challenge =============================================================-
(BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKA4vyE7PiY Reminiscence (Sorrowful)
- Persona 2 Eternal Punishment (PSX))
There! In one of the reflecting pools, the image of the woman of the Purple
Mirror reveals herself. The problem is that she's insubstantial and you're
unable to affect her: she smiles confidently with the knowledge that all
you're able to do at this moment is simply observe and keep her in your
memory.
... Or so she thinks. Surely by now you must have come across some manner of
method to dispel the curse. You may lack the means to end the affair right
here, right now, but you may be able to peer into the pool -- past her and
into /yourself/, if there's any weight to the old stories about this
mountain -- and learn how to rid Sumaru City of her curse, once and for all.
(|=========================================================== Monad 1.1 ====|)
<Pose Tracker> Hyousuke Suzuki has posed.
There, in the reflecting pool, he saw it. That accursed thing that he had been hunting. It was a simple thing upon first glance - little more than a polished trinket. Ornate, perhaps, and pretty to look upon, but ultimately just a reflective surface set into a frame and mounted upon a handle. It was the image set into that mirror that drew his eye. There, in that glinting sheet of polished metal, was a woman, smiling at him. Even just that mere image of her exuded confidence. Her stance, the curve of her smile, the look he swore he could see in her eyes... she knew he could not harm her, no matter how he bellowed and raged.
"That's it! That's the thing we've been hunting!" Hyousuke said, looking at the mirror, but avoiding looking into it. He did not dare - not until he was ready. Instead, he cast his eyes to the other two, flitting his gaze between them in the hopes that one of them had a more concrete plan about how to beat her. "Wish getting rid of it was as easy as breaking the damn thing..." He lamented, letting out a sigh that was tinged with a growl, before looking back up. "...Guess there's nothing for it but to do it the hard way."
Hyousuke was not happy about it. He didn't sound happy about it, his jaw was tight, and his lips were pulled into a loose frown. But amongst all the facts and rumours and speculation he'd seen, brute force was only ever floated as an option, never the solution. So, if rage and muscle could not be his sword against this foe, there was another weapon that he could bring to bear against it - his will. Indomitable, stoked by the flames of his anger, driving him forward past whatever fear and doubt there was. He could bludgeon his way through this. He could power through it, just like he had so many other things.
Hyousuke gazed long into the abyss, and the abyss gazed also into him.
There, in the mirror, he saw darkness. An endless, blackened expanse, so wide as to drown the world, so dark that light was swallowed whole. Everything from the tiniest mote to the brightest flare was snuffed out, smothered before it could ever see life. There was nothing in that still void, save for a lone figure, standing in a world consumed by shadow and silence. A tall and broad thing, its sharp eye of emerald green marked by a scar carved from brow to cheek like a jagged canyon.
It howled into that fathomless night, bellowing and screeching like some feral beast, sending tremors into the floor that unseen floor. It thrashed like a chained and rabid hound, clawing at the void as though it could carve light into the very fabric of reality, and then into its own face. It was a maddened thing, left to rot alone. It was a screaming, terrible, monster, flailing until its muscles threatened to tear themselves to bloody shreds. It was alone. It was helpless. It was devoid of friends, of love, and of hope.
It was him.
MONAD: Hyousuke Suzuki has acted with Academics toward Pooling Thoughts! Base!
<Pose Tracker> Maya Amano has posed.
Worse than dead / Exiled.
Worse than exiled / Dead.
Worse than dead / Forgotten.
Maya isn't sure why she hears that poem in her head when she gazes into the pool, but she hears it just as clearly as the day her high school literature teacher recited it. It had made an impression on her then that stayed with her even after she graduated college, but it had no reason to resurface now.
Maya's chest clenches with pain as the water on the surface of the pool ripples. It's the same pain that she felt when her father died. Everything hurt so much that she didn't think it would ever stop. Anger, sadness, and despair all swirled together inside of her tiny body, and she had no idea how to control it.
All Maya knew back then was that she wanted to spare the others in her life from this pain. Before then, she never wanted to be forgotten, but now, she was willing to accept being forgotten if it meant that they wouldn't have to endure this pain themselves.
Images of her friends flashed in front of her -- one after the other -- all suffering, all sad because of her. All the while, she knew she'd be able to do nothing to stop it. After all, she was gone. She no longer had influence in that world.
MONAD: Maya Amano has acted with Understanding toward Pooling Thoughts! Base!
<Pose Tracker> Tamaki Uchida has posed.
Tamaki coldly sneers as she stares into the pool and nods to Hyousuke. "... That certainly complicates matters. Unlike other Rumor Demons, the problem with her is that she's incorporeal. She's a ghost we can't touch."
The woman from the story appears behind Tamaki in the reflection with a taunting smile. The image visible only to her swirls and shifts.
A gossiping crowd confers among itself. Nearby, a younger Tamaki, brand new to high school, stands with a boy and girl, both around her age. The boy wears an all-white school uniform, and the girl with long black hair and glasses wears the same school uniform as Tamaki. As the chatter intensifies, the boy snaps his fingers, the other girl disappears, and Tamaki strikes the boy down, defeating him. The crowd lifts her up and cheers, hailing her as a hero. Good riddance to them both!
Back in the physical realm, Tamaki's eyes are wide and her knuckles are taut with fury. That's not how it happened. She is right, the truth of that particular incident is a bit more nuanced ... but the public doesn't do well with nuance.
And yet, with the nature of Sumaru City and how belief informs reality rather than the other way around,
it could be.
The figure in the reflection is taunting Tamaki with yet more ghosts she can't touch. She can only remember.
She holds a hand to her head as she shakes it. "Ugh. Okay. So what do you two think we could do? We could try and give it physical form so we could beat it down like any other Demon, or ... we could concoct some way to get people to forget about the rumor entirely."
After a beat, she sighs and adds, "Both of those options are tall orders."
Hyousuke seems more talkative, but Maya's been silent. More than that, even. Tamaki blinks wide-eyed in concern, forgetting her own troubles for a moment. "Amano-san? Hey, are you doing okay?"
MONAD: Tamaki Uchida has acted with Piece Together toward Pooling Thoughts! Automap!
(|============================ Monad - Results =============================|)
-==== Pooling Thoughts - Round 5 ============================================-
Tamaki Uchida Academics Success
Piece Together Automap Fatigue: 0
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Maya Amano Understanding Success
Understanding Base Fatigue: 0
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hyousuke Suzuki Academics Success
Academics Base Fatigue: 0
-============================ Party Conditions: =============================-
Starting Conditions: Boss-0, Bothersome-1, Chest-0, Curse-0, and
Educational-1
Final Conditions:
-====================================== Party Result: Success: Reach Up! ====-
-==== Reach: 6/6 |=====| ===================================================-
-==== Loot So Far: ==========================================================-
Items: 0, Money: 1, Gear: 1
(|=========================================================== Monad 1.1 ====|)
(|============= Monad - Wanted! Rumor Demon: The Purple Mirror =============|)
-==== Round 6: Upon Reflection - Challenge Level 1 ==========================-
| Approach Options: None |
| Conditions: Revelation - The best result. |
-==== Challenge =============================================================-
Staring into the reflection pool reveals the answer within yourself,
refracted by the arduous journey which led you here. This is the ritual
which surfaces to your mind: paint the rim of the pool purple, then toss a
bouquet of flowers in the water. This will give the Demon substantial form.
The question still remains: what do you do after that?
(BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=im-IexvNHZg Reminiscence (Bring Back
Memories) - Persona 2 Eternal Punishment (PSX))
Perhaps you might have been overthinking this, or perhaps you've had your
suspicions all this time. Either way, you have learned enough to form a
solid conclusion, elegant in its simplicity. Recalling the circumstances in
which the owner of the Purple Mirror died causes you to realize that this is
a cautionary tale aimed at young people on the cusp of adulthood. It urges
them to learn from the example of the mirror's owner and do the opposite.
There is no true curse, and the true mechanism behind the misfortune is
one's obsession and preoccupation over old memories.
It is not Sumaru City which needs to forget this tale. No, this all
originates from one person: it is the mirror's owner who needs to forget her
own tale and move on from spreading her grudge. Drawing her into this world
and giving her solid form will surely provoke her fury, but once exhausted,
she can be convinced and taught this lesson. Finally, then, both she and
Sumaru City can be free of the curse of the Purple Mirror.
This much information is enough for an initial monetary reward, plus a
substantial bonus in the form of a gift or two from the Kuzunoha Detective
Agency's clients who are happy to hear of such an effective solution. It was
a worthwhile trip overall, and perhaps you've collected or learned something
or formed a bond which will remain even after the memory fades.
Final Loot: 1 boxes of Money and 1 Pieces of Gear!
(|=========================================================== Monad 1.1 ====|)
<Pose Tracker> Hyousuke Suzuki has posed.
There was no reflecting pool. There was no shrine, no mountain trail, no detective by his side, no gun-toting reporter to back him up. There was no mirror either. There was just him, stranded in the dark, his throat-tearing cries of anguish and desperate fury swallowed by the dark. He was alone, and nobody would come to save him. He would die there, suffering some ignominious death, rotting away until all that remained of him was the festering dust scattered into the wind. And somewhere, deep within his soul, he knew that it was his fault.
Hyousuke blinked, and at once, the world came rushing back to him, hammering into his senses like a sudden gale. His lungs screamed for air, and his eyes blinked rapidly to try and banish any dryness there. How long had he been absent for? How long had he been silent and breathless, unblinking in the face of a vision that seemed to have been dredged from the depths of his soul? He did not think on it. He did not dare. He could feel his limbs growing numb and a pit forming in his stomach, and he feared that to dwell on the matter would have let those symptoms fester into something that Tamaki and Maya would actually see.
Hyousuke was not scared. He could not allow himself to be. Not at such a critical juncture, with others relying on his strength and presence of mind. He blinked again and swallowed down, pushing the fear back into the depths. It stuck there though, and threatened to choke the life from him, refusing to go, until he summoned whatever might he could and dragged it away with brute determination. With it quashed, he turned to Maya, and and echoed Tamaki's sentiments as soon as his nerve-wracked mind allowed him the privilege.
"Amano-san?" He asked tentatively, reaching out with a hand he had forcibly unfurled. He did not look down, but were he to, perhaps he might have noticed the knuckle-whitening grip he held his fist into. "Are you alright? We did it. We figured out how to beat this thing." Hyousuke hoped he sounded reassuring. He tried to be, at the very least. He forced a smile and looked at her with as warm a gaze as the mask of his self-sculpted features allowed, and hoped to whatever spirits and deities were listening that it was enough to convince her.
"There's a ritual." He began, glancing to Tamaki as if for confirmation that he was correct. "We gotta paint the rim of that pool purple and give the demon some flowers. Something to make her solid so we can wear her out and get her to stop attacking people. I..." There was more to it than that, of course. Far more. But Hyousuke's head felt as though it was dense with fog, and he could barely get a thought to pierce through it and enter coherence. "...I think we should talk more about this somewhere else."
He looked to Tamaki again. Part of it was seeking confirmation once more, through the act of simply looking in her direction. The other part lay in his eyes themselves. Still plagued by the aftershocks of sudden fear and worry, there was an insistence in them that silently implored her to agree. That wondered if she had had a vision like him, and if perhaps it was best to discuss such things in a safer environment.
One that wasn't quite so dark.