adachimoe

[adachimoe]

Ah, I mixed up the bit about the fox meat - there is a 3rd source of "mystery meat" in Inaba: Junes.

Junes has an item on the menu in the food court called the "Ultra Young Set" (named after the Japanese slogan being, "Every Day, 'Young' Life") which has salisbury/hamburg steak, minced cutlet, fried chicken, and beefsteak. The text notes that if you are someone besides Chie, this will give you heartburn lol.

There is also a menu item called the "domestic salisbury/hamburg steak", implying that the other meat used for the "ultra young set" is not domestic meat.

In his dungeon chat with the fox from Tatsuhime Shrine, Yosuke wonders what kind of meat is used in the "ultra young set" since it's sold for such a low price, and then he glances at the fox..........

(In the book, Atlus gives the No Fun Allowed answer and says that the set meal uses beef and chicken from a farm that Junes is partnered with.)

Mystery Meat

One of the recurring mysteries in-game is whether the beefsteak served at Sozai Daigaku is actually beef; I believe Naoto mentions this too. Per Persona Club P4, there has been an effort to make "Inaba Beefsteak" a thing in recent years in an attempt to revitalize Inaba's culture, but since there's no meat farms local to Inaba, no one knows where the beef comes from, thus the town has started to spread rumors that it's not actually beef. (IIRC one of the NPCs mentions it might even be fox meat since a fox was spotted at the shrine?) In the "from the devs" comments, Atlus clarifies that it really *is* beef, but no one knows where it comes from, making it questionable where Inaba is purchasing its beef from lol...

The other source of "mystery meat" is Aiya. English speaking players wouldn't realize this cause it's specifically called the "Mega Beef Bowl" in English, but in Japanese, the rainy day special is just called the "Special Meat Bowl". This name doesn't specify what the meat is, thus furthering the conspiracy/mystery about the meat used in restaurants in Inaba lol. The book notes that it's 3kg of rice and 3kg of meat, and when customers ask the owner what the meat is, he replies, "Sheep head and dog meat, since it's authentic Chinese food". (This is a reference to "selling dog meat under a sheep head [sign]" -- an expression about being misleading, deceptive, fraudulent, etc. Note that this also applies to Aiya in general since the owner is also LARPing as a Chinese guy when in reality his family name is Nakamura and he was born and raised in Inaba lol.) In actuality, the meat is cheap, but still good, pork.

[adachimoe]

Like a dream come true!!! I designed an offical Persona 4 Junes T-shirt!! Thank you to folks at Eighty Sixed for this opportunity ❤️❤️❤️

Buy the shirt!!!!!! Link

Photos @ Eighty Sixed

[adachimoe]

oh, on the subject of completely random shit written in persona club p4: sozai daigaku used to be a lingerie store.

[adachimoe]

Mystery Meat

One of the recurring mysteries in-game is whether the beefsteak served at Sozai Daigaku is actually beef; I believe Naoto mentions this too. Per Persona Club P4, there has been an effort to make "Inaba Beefsteak" a thing in recent years in an attempt to revitalize Inaba's culture, but since there's no meat farms local to Inaba, no one knows where the beef comes from, thus the town has started to spread rumors that it's not actually beef. (IIRC one of the NPCs mentions it might even be fox meat since a fox was spotted at the shrine?) In the "from the devs" comments, Atlus clarifies that it really *is* beef, but no one knows where it comes from, making it questionable where Inaba is purchasing its beef from lol...

The other source of "mystery meat" is Aiya. English speaking players wouldn't realize this cause it's specifically called the "Mega Beef Bowl" in English, but in Japanese, the rainy day special is just called the "Special Meat Bowl". This name doesn't specify what the meat is, thus furthering the conspiracy/mystery about the meat used in restaurants in Inaba lol. The book notes that it's 3kg of rice and 3kg of meat, and when customers ask the owner what the meat is, he replies, "Sheep head and dog meat, since it's authentic Chinese food". (This is a reference to "selling dog meat under a sheep head [sign]" -- an expression about being misleading, deceptive, fraudulent, etc. Note that this also applies to Aiya in general since the owner is also LARPing as a Chinese guy when in reality his family name is Nakamura and he was born and raised in Inaba lol.) In actuality, the meat is cheap, but still good, pork.

[adachimoe]

O, you might have heard of this stereotype by now, but it used to be fairly stereotypical for a JP husband to hand his paycheck over to his wife, and then she uses it to take care of the finances, and gives him a small allowance. This is the result of the woman traditionally being the homemaker and their banks not having joint bank accounts in the same sense that we do in the west.

So anyway, when Adachi says this...

...perhaps he means that if he gets married, he can't go blow 1/3rd of his monthly paycheck on a low end model TV at Junes anymore lol

Can Adachi even afford a TV?

I'm not sure if this is a shitpost or not, but can Adachi even afford to buy a TV??????????????????????

First off, police officer salary in 2008 (I'm going by the year that P4 was released since that would've been the dev frame of reference). Per this survey of government worker salaries in 2008, police officers in Yamanashi made an average of 347k yen per month, and officers in Tottori made an average of 348k yen per month. Officers in large cities like Tokyo made around the same, but had a bigger allowances budget; remember how Adachi complains about the station not comping the dry cleaning bill for his suit?

Second off, the price of a TV at Junes:

Based on the signs in the store, the higher end models in the first screenshot are 214k / 169k / 234k. Chie then asks to see the cheaper models, which leads up to the 2nd screenshot. While we can't make our those numbers as clearly, the one to the left of Yosuke's head seems to be 125k - still a six figure purchase.

Lastly, the cost of rent. I somehow very conveniently found a comparison of rent prices for both 2008 (when P4 came out) and 2011 (when it takes place) lol... What a coincidence...

In the Koshinetsu area where Yamanashi is:

And in Chugoku where Tottori is:

I thought it would be okay to use these statistics because these are for "1K" style apartments, meaning a small apartment but the kitchen is separated from the living/sleeping space by a door. Basically, realistically the type of place that Adachi would be living in.

So Adachi's salary per month is something like 347k - 348k yen (in 2008 USD/Yen, this was around $3300; in 2024 USD/Yen it's $2400). Of that 347k, he's possibly spending 43k - 46k Yen per month on a 1K layout apartment. And TVs at Junes, even the smaller lower end models, are six figures with the cheapest model we saw in the cutscenes being 125k Yen.

Adachi would seemingly be able to afford a TV if he devoted 1/3rd of his pre-tax monthly paycheck to it.

(The more realistic answer is probably something like, "he brought one with him from Iwatodai" (but then you still have to wonder where he got it to begin with?) or "he bought the smallest cheapest shittiest model possible it's just off-screen at Junes". Buuuut c'mon I didn't Google search shit and use the top result for nothin'.)

[adachimoe]

Btw, I thought this was a really funny easter egg in the Golden anime:

Adachi is shown being given a transfer order to Inaba while his co-worker receives a merit award of some kind of from the police chief. His co-worker's name on this award is "大田真輔". We've never given a pronunciation, but I wager it's meant to be pronounced "Shinsuke Ohta" (Or Ohda) as an allusion to and combination of the names Shunsaku Aoshima and Yuji Oda - Aoshima being the main character on Bayside Shakedown and Yuji Oda being the actor who portrayed him.

[adachimoe]

Regarding the canon-ness of the Golden anime (specifically in regards to Adachi)

I saw a couple of the reblogs on the "did Adachi buy a TV?" thing. Everything is up to the individual of course, but I would like to point out some comments made during the audio commentary for episode 7. Specifically, during the Adachi flashback part:

The anime staff emphasizes that what's depicted in episode 7 is only their own explanation of Adachi's situation, encourages fans to come up with their own version, says there's a lot of different possibilities, and that there's no single correct interpretation unless you're the creators of the original work.

You are watching the anime staff's fanfic about Adachi's past play out. Just because it's the official anime doesn't make it more "valid" or have more weight than your own thoughts.

In general, afaik, Atlus has never said, "this media is canon / not canon". When interviewed for Play magazine in 2008, Hashino said the following:

Mollie: American fans miss out on this, but in Japan Persona 3 had novels, comics and drama CDs intersecting through a single timeline. Is it difficult to keep track of such a sprawling multimedia story? Are there similar plans for Persona 4? Hashino: All the proposals we receive for tie-ins are filled with love for the games, so we exercise only as much quality control as is necessary and leave the rest to the makers. I think this allows the end product to be more fun, so I don’t mind it at all. This applies to Persona 4 as well, so I’m looking forward to its multimedia development.

...which sounds to me like Atlus is relatively "hands off" and doesn't try to dictate what is said / done in the other media projects.

[adachimoe]

Can Adachi even afford a TV?

I'm not sure if this is a shitpost or not, but can Adachi even afford to buy a TV??????????????????????

First off, police officer salary in 2008 (I'm going by the year that P4 was released since that would've been the dev frame of reference). Per this survey of government worker salaries in 2008, police officers in Yamanashi made an average of 347k yen per month, and officers in Tottori made an average of 348k yen per month. Officers in large cities like Tokyo made around the same, but had a bigger allowances budget; remember how Adachi complains about the station not comping the dry cleaning bill for his suit?

Second off, the price of a TV at Junes:

Based on the signs in the store, the higher end models in the first screenshot are 214k / 169k / 234k. Chie then asks to see the cheaper models, which leads up to the 2nd screenshot. While we can't make our those numbers as clearly, the one to the left of Yosuke's head seems to be 125k - still a six figure purchase.

Lastly, the cost of rent. I somehow very conveniently found a comparison of rent prices for both 2008 (when P4 came out) and 2011 (when it takes place) lol... What a coincidence...

In the Koshinetsu area where Yamanashi is:

And in Chugoku where Tottori is:

I thought it would be okay to use these statistics because these are for "1K" style apartments, meaning a small apartment but the kitchen is separated from the living/sleeping space by a door. Basically, realistically the type of place that Adachi would be living in.

So Adachi's salary per month is something like 347k - 348k yen (in 2008 USD/Yen, this was around $3300; in 2024 USD/Yen it's $2400). Of that 347k, he's possibly spending 43k - 46k Yen per month on a 1K layout apartment. And TVs at Junes, even the smaller lower end models, are six figures with the cheapest model we saw in the cutscenes being 125k Yen.

Adachi would seemingly be able to afford a TV if he devoted 1/3rd of his pre-tax monthly paycheck to it.

(The more realistic answer is probably something like, "he brought one with him from Iwatodai" (but then you still have to wonder where he got it to begin with?) or "he bought the smallest cheapest shittiest model possible it's just off-screen at Junes". Buuuut c'mon I didn't Google search shit and use the top result for nothin'.)

[adachimoe]

Do you know anything about the Adachi anthology manga? Is it translated by any chance? (would you be willing to translate it 👀?)

I own it and I've read through it. Idk if it's been translated, but tbh I'm not particularly interested in doing it myself. Anthologies are collections of fan creator works that get officially published. The content is comparable to a fanzine centered around Adachi featuring different creators. E.g. this artist drew the cover. I am currently reading through like 20 old issues of Persona Magazine.

Bad summaries, partially from memory:

Chp 1: After encountering the nimono lady and her son in Junes, Yu appears on Adachi's doorstep dressed as a mother and proceeds to roleplay as Adachi's mom. This includes bothering him at Junes like the old woman did.

Chp 2: Adachi puts money into a vending machine while patrolling with Dojima, but before he can select a drink, he and Dojima need to apprehend a suspect. Later, Yu sees Adachi at Junes and gives him his money back.

Chp 3: While slacking off at Junes and leering at Yasogami High school girls with short skirts, Adachi bumps into Yosuke and notices that Yosuke has a photo of himself and Saki as his phone wallpaper. Yosuke says he'll never be able to forgive whoever murdered her.

Chp 4: Adachi accidentally handcuffs himself to a corn husk. Chie and Yukiko free him by feeding the corn some of Yukiko's curry.

Chp 5: Knowing he'll lose a 1v8, Adachi studies the Investigation Team's affinities and attacks them with their weaknesses, like sending the beetle-looking Shadow to attack Chie. But when Yu and Adachi have their final battle, Yu summons Yoshitsune instead of Izanagi.

Chp 6: Yu invites Adachi to Shiroku Pub to talk to some girls, but when he gets there, he's met by… Yu's friends in their crossdressing pageant outfits, and he ends up playing the pocky game with Kanji (2 people bite down on pocky from opposite ends, kinda Lady and Tramp style).

Chp 7: Adachi does a magic trick for Teddie after running into him. When Adachi leaves, Teddie cries about being lonely again, but Adachi tells him that Nanako is at the Dojima house.

Chp 8: While waiting for the Investigation Team to enter Magatsu Inaba, Adachi, Magatsu-Izanagi, and the Shadows make dinner.

Chp 9: Adachi tries to slack off by pretending to have a toothache, and runs into Kanji outside the Inaba Dental Clinic. He gives him shit, assuming Kanji is afraid of the dentist. The next week, Adachi sees Kanji there again, but it turns out he was helping his mom.

Chp 10: Adachi and Nanako housesit the Dojima family home, doing chores and cooking dinner. Unfortunately, she received cooking advice from Chie and Yukiko.

Chp 11: After the fight with Adachi, Yu talks to him before they return to the real world. Adachi admits to himself the Dojima family's kindness touched him.

Chp 12: After the usual gas station attendant collapses, Adachi ends up helping out at Moel Gas Station, and Yu stops by to get his scooter filled up.

Chp 13: A recap of Adachi's life in Inaba and his interactions with the Dojimas, leading up to Yu confronting him. When Yu asks him why he did all this, Adachi summons his Persona and says he'll teach Yu about how shitty the world is.

I cbf to read thru a 150 pg anthology again (* ￣︿￣)

[adachimoe]

2025 Sea Paradise Persona 3 Reload Collab

Earlier in 2024, Sea Paradise (an aquatic-themed park in Yokohama) had a P3R collab. I went to the one this year in February!

They are having another one in Jan/Feb of 2025. This is the new SD character artwork. They added Strega and Metis to the gang:

The activity is that you get a SEES armband (red or blue w/Aigis's number this time, it was a red with Makoto's number last time) that acts as your day pass and it lets you into the aquarium and on all the kiddie rides and exhibits. You go around the park and collect stamps on the card w/Aigis's art, then present the completed card and get a free gift (small cards in the bottom right):

There is also a hotel room this time:

I went to the one this year but I reaaally don't wanna get on a plane for another 12 hr flight again. z_z

The website mentions there will be a sardine light show w/Don't playing. It was It's going down now before.

Also this amenity door hanger looks like something that people wil make disturbing the peace jokes out of:

[adachimoe]

Yesterday I opened up P4G to get a screenshot of something and uhh it turns out that I had set my SOS message to... "Adachi's meat is delicious"

[adachimoe]

This Thanksgiving I am thankful for uhh the time when Madono got hazed into trying the recreation of Chie's meat gum (mint gum covered in beef jerky furikake) so that more of Episode Adachi would be previewed on Stalker Club

[adachimoe]

i signed up for the japanese p5x steam beta but i didn't get in :( oh well

[adachimoe]

do you have any posts about adachi's arcana and how it relates to him? i would love to hear your thoughts about it! ❤

sry i think i will finally be caught up on my asks now lol

I did post before about what Atlus said about both his arcana in the P4G lore book. My personal thoughts... ook tbh I think I haven't talked much about this over the past ~1.5 yrs because I am super duper not interested in tarot or the meanings behind it lol. The 0 card, Jester / Fool, feels pretty straightforward enough, but the 11 card, Hunger / Lust, is probably where this gets more interesting?

Like Marie and Aigis's Aeon, Lust is also taken from Crowley's Thoth tarot deck, and the design of the card is clearly inspired by it too. Instead of talking about the actual tarot meanings and the Book of Thoth, I will totally yap about what seems to be depicted in the art here and how it might correlate to the game.

From left to right, there's the Rider Waite Strength, Crowley's Lust, and the game's Lust / Hunger.

As Crowley's Thoth card is his version of Strength, both the Rider-Waite Strength and Crowley's Lust depict a woman and a beast with the woman seemingly taming the beast or holding it back in some manner. Strength shows the woman with her hand on the beast. The beast in Crowley's Lust appears to have seven heads, likely making it the seven headed beast from the Bible. Additionally, the art seems to imply that the woman is not actually in control - she holds the beast's leash, but she carelessly lays on its back. I get the impression that, rather than the woman having actually tamed the beast, it's more like the beast is allowing itself to be tamed; she believes she is in control.

The artwork of Adachi's Lust seems to have the opposite meaning to Crowley's. The beast is, I guess you could say, no longer allowing itself to be tamed. It's going to do something A Little Crazy!, it's gonna go postal!, and the woman is now in danger as she is about to be devoured by the beast. Her pose somewhat resembles the same pose she as on Crowley's Lust, where she carelessly lays on the back of the 7 headed biblical beast. Like the game's Lust doesn't depict her as in any sort of panic - perhaps she is oblivious to her demise?

Within the context of the story, Adachi seems to go from being "the beast allowing itself to be tamed" on Crowley's Lust to being "the beast who is gonna do something silly" on the game's Lust. His arcana even changes after he's exposed as the murderer, as if to show that he's no longer being held down.

Why Adachi would be associated with Lust to begin with... Might seem straightforward in that he's a single dude complaining about not having a girlfriend. But also of note is that in the existing Japanese translations of information about the Thoth deck, the card is actually called 欲望, which means "Desire" and not necessarily "Sexual Desire" as Lust would imply. And indeed, Adachi didn't just Lust for a hot wife who cooks for him, he Desired a whole life that he didn't have as a Cool Respected Hotshot Detective in a big city.

But while Adachi appears to be doin' the devouring, at the same time, the depiction of the woman being devoured by the beast also seems to correlate with Adachi's story.

His arc has a bit of "Fuck around and find out" to it - He uses the TV to murder people, jumps in the TV out of desperation, and assumes it's giving him everything he wanted; really granting his wishes and whatnot. But ultimately, Izanami seems to have been using him for her own ends. Thus, in some way, he can also be correlated to the woman holding down the beast in Crowley's Lust, only to have it backfire on her in the game's Lust.

When I read Atlus's thoughts about his arcana, I get the impression they only meant it to have the "Adachi is the beast" reading because they talk about it having a "do whatever the heck you want" meaning, so perhaps being able to see Adachi as the woman is unintended!

They have something interesting where they mention that the Lust arcana is also supposed to represent the protagonist... Aaand this is where the whole "Atlus thought they were naming it 'Desire'" thing comes into play lol. In addition to Adachi's bullshit, it's also supposed to represent the protagonist's "desire" to break apart from Adachi after seeing the truth about him. (So like, phrasing this as "the protag's LUST or the protag's HUNGER to break apart from Adachi" is weird as hell lol.) The arcana doesn't transform until after the protagonist tries to appeal to Adachi and get him to turn himself in, so it seems that, until that moment, their bond was still the Fool / Jester.

I feel like this is totally not what you asked me but I am reallllly not interested in Crowley/Tarot/etc sry

[adachimoe]

Have you thought about editing Adachi's entry on Wikia? It's really easy to sign up for it

you're talking about this? i get that the fandom wiki is big and well-known, but i don't wanna edit the fandom wiki and try to argue w/some person about how とお should be romanized ╮(╯▽╰)╭

instead, i wrote an article for adachi on the indie wiki (megatenwiki.com): https://megatenwiki.com/wiki/Tohru_Adachi

there's 180+ citations from the game / interviews / lore books / etc. im pretty happy w/my work and feel it's rather comprehensive for all of his appearances across persona media.

rather than telling people to improve the fandom wiki, i think more people should contribute to the indie wiki so people can quit using the fandom one lol.

[adachimoe]

PSC V Ep 10 - The Return of "Ah-ha, I SEES it!" (and also the last one (i think?))

Last time: Ep 1 + Explanation, Eps 2 + 4, Ep 5, Eps 6 + 7 (no Q&A), Eps 8 + 9, Eps 10 + 11 (plus PSC Cafe), Eps 12/13/18/19, Eps 20/23/24, Eps 25/26

Persona Stalker Club ended at episode 26, then was reborn as Persona Stalker Club V to cover Persona 5. V went for 10 episodes but the Q&A segment didn't return until episode 10. The guests on this episode where Rina Sato (Makoto's voice actor) and the return of Tomokazu Sugita (Yusuke's voice actor, who last showed up on episode 7).

V Episode 10: (I paraphrased #2's question / answer)

Q: When Makoto trails Joker around, she's shown hiding by reading a shonen manga magazine. Is her Persona the result of her reading shonen instead of shojo? A: Per the Official Design Works, Makoto enjoys reading, regardless of the genre. She reads shojo, sci-fi novels, etc. Q: Do the protagonists all get enhanced physical ability when inside Palaces and Mementos? Or are they their usual selves in Palaces aside from their clothes? A: To get straight to the point, their physical ability gets enhanced thanks to their spirit of rebellion. Q: Yusuke looks great in his yukata during the fireworks part. Did he buy it himself? Also, did he dress himself? A: It's not documented anywhere, but I think he bought it himself. Additionally, since Yusuke majors in Japanese-style painting, I imagine he has painted people wearing Japanese clothing before and is well-versed in the subject, so I think he dressed himself. Q: Why does Yusuke only wear a white shirt with his uniform when Hifumi wears a uniform with a dress shirt and blazer? What about the symbol on his shirt? A: It's his own shirt. The symbol is a lily emblem which is used in Europe to represent royalty. I guess he picked it because he likes it. In Japanese flower language, a black lily communicates "love" and "curses", hinting at how Yusuke develops during the story. Furthermore, the aforementioned flower language originates from a woman in the Sengoku era whose name was Sayuri. There's no connection between this and P5, but I do recall later being surprised by the coincidence when I realized it. Q: What is in Akechi's attaché case? Did he draw that circled "A" himself? Asked by: Adachi's Tie Clip A: Presumably, it contains his laptop and material related to cases he's working on. The "A" is the "A" in "Akechi", and he made it himself. He must want to stand out. At the same time, the "A." (w/emphasis on the period) is an expression of his intellect, as if all the "A"nswers to a case can be found within.

The answer put an emphasis on the period - being that it's used to indicate the end of a sentence, I guess the emphasis is also to symbolize like... a case being over?

The "Design Works" being referred to in some questions is the P5 Official Design Works which has character info and concept art and notes and other things.

Also, clearly, Yusuke has no money because he spent it all on a yukata.

Wew I think that's all of the questions and answers from PSC.

[adachimoe]

summary of the p4g anime audio drama, a sense of gratitude

I remembered I had written a kinda half-assed summary of this audio drama for the indie wiki. Here is a fixed up version of the half-assed summary, but with more in-depth words about Adachi's scene lol.

If you're unfamiliar with audio dramas, they're like sound-only "episodes" with the voice actors. This one was made for the Golden anime and came with the Limited Edition of Volume 2.

Chronologically, the audio drama takes place after the school camping trip and later after Rise's rescue. This places it between episodes 2 and 3 of the anime.

After being traumatized by Chie and Yukiko's curry—Mystery Food X—during the school camping trip, Yosuke begs Yu to make curry so they can mentally recover. Yu agrees to make homemade curry for a curry party after he grows vegetables at the Dojima house. He asks his friends what they use a secret ingredient in their curry to give it a little something extra to get an idea about what to put in his.

Dojima bribes Adachi with a free meal to help plant vegetables in the garden outside the Dojima house. Dojima asks Adachi if he is finished setting up his part of the garden. Adachi responds that he is, and whines about having to help with the garden in exchange for a meal. Dojima remarks that only those who work get to eat. Adachi complains again, saying they've done enough work for today. Yu laughs, thanks Adachi for his help, and says he plans on giving Adachi some of the vegetables after they have grown. Adachi asks what kind of vegetables they're growing in a particular plot, and is surprised when Yu says they're growing cabbages. Yu is also surprised because he thought Adachi likes cabbage. Adachi explains that the garden plots look too narrow for cabbages to grow in. This comment irritates Dojima, who sarcastically apologizes to him for the cabbage plots being too narrow (while punching him).

Yu asks Adachi the same question he asked his friends - what secret ingredient does he use in curry? Adachi is confused by the question, and Yu explains that he plans on making his friends curry with the vegetables from the garden. Adachi is surprised he can cook, and answers that he does not add anything. Yu asks if he ever makes his own curry, and Adachi replies that he does not since you can get good curry that comes packed in retort pouches. When he feels like being fancy, he eats it with karaage. Adachi suddenly gets a craving for curry as its been a while since he had it, but Nanako mentions they are already planning on going to Chinese Diner Aiya that day. He blames this sudden craving on Yu. Yu offers to give him some curry when he makes it for everyone else, but Adachi says he'd prefer it be from a girl. While Nanako waters the garden, Adachi talks to Yu about how he seems to have so many hobbies and how he must be using up all of his pocket money, especially now that he has a scooter too.

This conversation leads to Yu getting a part-time job washing dishes at Shiroku Pub. Shiroku feeds him a good plate of curry after one of his shifts, but she refuses to tell him her secret ingredient even after he tells her about the camping trip because she would make more money if his friends came and ate her curry instead to cure their trauma. Yu keeps trying to recreate Shiroku's, but can never quite find the right secret ingredient that gives it the right flavor.

Two months later, Rise has joined the team, Teddie has a human body, and Yu still has not figured out Shiroku's secret ingredient. The group goes to Okina to watch a martial arts movie called "Return of the Dragon" then Rise insists they visit Chagall for coffee. Yosuke asks about how the garden is coming along. Internally, Yu realizes he needs to hurry up and figure out a secret ingredient before the end of summer when the vegetables finish growing. He asks Rise about what kind of secret ingredient her family uses, which turns out to be soy milk. Mumon brings their coffee, warning them that they'll get burned if they underestimate it. Everyone except Marie, who drank it black, reacts to the bitter taste and starts talking in nonsense before passing out and waking up later when it's night time. Yu wearily returns home with a bag of Chagall coffee.

One day after school, when a heavy storm threatens the garden, the Investigation Team bands together to save the vegetables by setting up protective storm nets. Only a few vegetables fall off and they aren't very damaged, so Yu decides to cook with them. Yosuke suggests they use them to have a curry party that same night. Yu still hasn't figured out what Shiroku's secret ingredient is, but he agrees anyway, and calls Marie over. While helping in the kitchen, Marie mistakenly adds some of the coffee from Chagall instead of Dojima's coffee to the curry. Yu freaks out at first, but thinks it'll be okay since it was only a little scoop. When he taste tests it, he realizes that Chagall's coffee is Shiroku's secret ingredient, and they were able to accidentally recreate hers.

Meanwhile, Nanako makes a paper flower at school and is told by her teacher to give it to her mother for Mother's Day, but she isn't sure what to do since her mother is dead. Yu suggests she put it on the family altar, and Nanako does so in hopes it reaches her mother in heaven. When Father's Day comes up, both Yu and Nanako give Dojima gifts. Nanako later realizes that she wants to show her appreciation for Yu as well, and asks Marie when "Big Brother's Day" is. Marie, who is unused to these traditions, suggests that what matters isn't the day, but just showing your thanks to that particular person.