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pavaal · 9 months ago

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Persona 4: Kiri no Amnesia (Summary)

I said I would do it, so here it is! I bought the Persona 4 spinoff light novel a couple of days ago, ran through it, and decided to write a summary since I don't feel confident enough to translate the whole thing page by page. For those who don't know, Kiri no Amnesia is a light novel set shortly after Yukiko's dungeon, covering an accidental trip into the TV World with just Yosuke, Chie, and Yukiko. It was written in order to expand on the Shadows of the first two victims, Mayumi Yamano and Saki Konishi. It's not not canon, considering how it resolves in the end, but at worst I think it's some good insight for people who wanted to see more of Saki, like me.

There are no major spoilers for people who have played at least the first couple hours of Persona 4.

With that in mind...

The first part of the book is pretty slow and uninteresting. It basically functions as a recap of things up to this point, with the main trio (for this book: Yosuke, Chie, and Yukiko) doing some training after school without Yu. This was before any supplementary material named him, so he's just referred to as "the transfer student" or "leader" in the narrative, and he's also absent for pretty much the entire novel due to certain developments.

Yosuke angsts about Saki a bit, but he tries to keep it to himself and puts on a bright smile so as to not worry the others. I found this part, and other parts like it pretty sweet, because Chie is really attentive to him when he gets in these moods. Being novelized means that a lot of the wacky anime hijinks are toned down, and so there's a surprising amount of very sincere bonding between the trio that we don't get to see in other P4 media.

When they leave for the day, Yukiko and Chie are the first to go, while Yosuke hangs back. Reflecting on a discussion about how they need to use the same TV to enter the same place, Yosuke gets lost in thought about how Saki must have been lost and afraid when she was thrown in. He's shaken out of his reverie by the sound of someone crying from one of the other TVs, but although he's curious about it, he stops himself before doing anything stupid.

The next day, the group meets up again to train, but Yu is late and sends a text saying to wait up. Then there's some filler about them hanging out, eating, bonding, etc, but Yu texts again saying he's later than he thought and to go on without him. Initially, they don't want to, but they do go over to the TVs where Yosuke once again hears the weird voice—which he doesn't mention to Chie or Yukiko, but he's distracted enough that they comment on it. He then asks them to cover him while he just checks inside, but of course he can't see anything without the glasses. He starts to get back out of the TV, but of course at that very moment, a wayward child shoves him in and Yukiko and Chie naturally follow.

They end up in what we will term Magatsu-Inaba, but to them it's just Inaba inside the TV. Shadow Inaba? Whatever. Everyone gets mad at Yosuke for being stupid, he apologizes, but he figures that they can just walk back to the entrance since they all know how to navigate Inaba. (Teddie can't reach them through the fog.) The problem is that they quickly discover the landscape is covered in black holes, blocking the easiest path back. They decide to take a detour to a nearby park, which Yosuke says he didn't know about, but there's someone already there when they arrive. Sitting on the swings alone is... Saki Konishi. (!!!!)

Yosuke understandably freaks out, and his first reaction is a mixture of shock and anger, since his initial assumption is that this is the Shadow that killed Saki. However, when he confronts her, she doesn't know anything, and I mean anything. She doesn't know who or what she is, and she doesn't even know what Shadows are. Yosuke has trouble being angry with her after that, and the trio has a quick meeting to acknowledge that she probably is a Shadow, and Saki's Shadow for that matter, but things are different because she doesn't seem malicious. Up to now, the human-like Shadows they've encountered have known TOO well what they are, but this girl doesn't know anything.

Putting two and two together, they come to the conclusion that there are holes in the landscape because "Saki" doesn't remember anything, and if they can get her to remember, then they'll probably be able to get back. This means traveling with her, which everyone makes their peace with. (Yosuke in particular says that he can't ignore someone who looks like Saki, despite everything.)The first roadblock they run into is that Yosuke can't call her Saki because she may nevertheless be the Shadow that killed her. Considering her condition, they decide to call her Amnesia.

They do some traveling, a Shadow shows up but it's way too strong and they bolt. When they find a place to rest, they sit for a little while and try to jog Amnesia's memory. Yosuke is clearly struggling with Amnesia's existence when she looks so much like Saki, so Chie intervenes and they have a little back and forth where Yosuke says something mildly funny and Yukiko explodes in laughter. Yosuke apologizes to Amnesia for Yukiko interrupting their important conversation, but she wistfully says it's okay, and she's jealous of people who can laugh. Yosuke is conflicted: he wants to help "Saki," but this is likely "Saki's Shadow."

He muses on his friendship with Chie and Yukiko for a little while, quietly grateful for them because they were the first people to welcome him and make him feel actually wanted in Inaba, and then Yukiko finally calms down. They decide to take a snack break with some supplies they had from the real world, so the trio+Amnesia split Yosuke's several Dr. Salt NEOs. After some discussion about how weird the flavor is, Amnesia mentions... she can't taste it! The trio calls an emergency secret meeting about how weird it is that someone can't taste Dr. Salt NEO, so Amnesia is absolutely a Shadow, but they can't do anything about it right now.

Incidentally, when Yosuke opens his, he accidentally sprays it all over Chie and Yukiko. Although they try to use their Personas to clean up, this will be important later.

Some other stuff happens, and Yosuke muses on the differences between Amnesia and Saki. Amnesia is much more self-deprecating and pessimistic than Saki he knows, and Yosuke knows from Saki's brother that she was a "good sister," so Amnesia just seems particularly sad. He tells her that she might not be the Shadow that killed Saki after all...

Amnesia's eyes suddenly glow bright yellow, and she starts muttering "I... killed... I killed... I..." over and over to herself. Although the trio prepares for a fight, Amnesia suddenly snaps out of it and seems to have forgotten what even happened. Weird!

They try to keep moving forward after that, but Chie and Yukiko complain about being sticky and they decide to reroute to Amagi Inn, since they're not making any progress with Amnesia anyway. Chie and Yukiko are excited, Yosuke cannot believe they're actually going to go to the hot springs in the TV World, and Amnesia is just trying not to be a nuisance.

The girls all take a bath while Yosuke stands guard, and shockingly, there's nothing particularly perverted about this scene. Amnesia and Yosuke have a little moment where, after Yosuke insists that Amnesia take a bath too so she can relax and try to recall something, she calls him kind and he gets flustered. After she, too, joins Chie and Yukiko, Yosuke worries that he's starting to see Amnesia and Saki as one in the same. He wonders what the difference is between a human and a Shadow with no malice, but he decides that's not a question he can answer.

In the meantime, Chie has a moment where it says she's gazing at Amnesia "with the gleam of an old man in her eyes" and comments to Yukiko how pretty Saki/Amnesia is, so she understands why Yosuke was in love with her. She fills Yukiko in on Yosuke's crush on Saki and really brings the mood down, but it's a nice moment where they acknowledge that Yosuke is really in pain and he's working harder than any of them to solve the case. Chie also raises the hopeful possibility that Amnesia is the real Saki, and the body they found was her Shadow.

After a bit, they move on to lighthearted girl talk and Yosuke tries not to pop a boner outside from listening to them (Yukiko asks Chie to "open her body") while waiting for them to finish.

Amnesia leaves first, and in a thoughtful mood, Yosuke asks what Amnesia would do if she could leave the TV World. She says she wouldn't leave. Although she doesn't remember anything, she feels like being here is a punishment she must serve for a sin she doesn't recall. Yosuke says she's strong for carrying that burden, but she says it's the opposite—she feels like she's probably running away from something.

Yosuke is about to hit her with the ultra smooth line of "if you have to run, run to me," but then he's suddenly interrupted by a Teddie Transmission warning them of a huge Shadow in the area. Yosuke panics because Chie and Yukiko are still in the bath and Amnesia can't fight, but he says he'll buy time while Chie and Yukiko get informed and dressed.

The Shadow speaks to him from a black hole that has appeared, and he notes that the voice is familiar, but he can't place it immediately. It asks him if Amnesia is important to him, and although he hesitates, he ultimately answers yes—to which the Shadow cheerfully promises that she'll kill Amnesia and drop her to the depths of hell.

Yosuke says he's not going to lose "her" again, and the Shadow gets angry, telling him that he's stupid for placing anyone else above himself. "You use whatever you can, you take whoever you can, even if that means you have to have an affair! Are you stupid?!" The Shadow is particularly hostile to the girls once they all rejoin, saying that she'll let Yosuke run away while she kills the others.

The Shadow is obviously super overpowered, and honestly there was a lot of fighting description here that I didn't care about so I skimmed it, but the critical part of this whole fight scene is that the Shadow is about to get a KO on Yosuke—but he suddenly hears Amnesia call "Hana-chan!" and feels a chain wrap around his arm to pull him out of the way in time. They manage to escape with some effort, but in the process, the Shadow destroys the Amagi Inn, to which Yukiko vows revenge.

Yosuke later compliments Amnesia on her chain moves, and Amnesia suddenly hears a voice within her saying that she prayed to forget this power. Her mind goes blank, and she can no longer remember what they were talking about. She's shocked to hear that she apparently did something in that fight.

There's a little bit of a drag here where they boringly make it to Shadow Junes and boringly hang out, but suddenly Yukiko and Chie feel incredibly faint. Yosuke summons Jiraiya to Dia them, but it doesn't seem to have any affect. Amnesia gets the feeling that she can do something, and so she folds her hands and, unbeknownst to her, casts Posumudi... because the Shadow onsen poisoned them! Duh!!

But the same thing happens again where she forgets what she just did, which by now, is something very bizarre that none of them are sure how to handle. They're afraid to push it after her short-circuiting earlier, and the trio acknowledges that trying to force her to remember might result in her going crazy... you know, like a Shadow. Yosuke once again privately muses on the nature of a Shadow, thinking, “If she looks like Senpai, talks like Senpai, and acts like Senpai, who cares if she’s a Shadow? …is a crazy thing to think, isn’t it? But I…”

At this point, to him, "Saki" and "Amnesia" are the same person.

Anywho, a little more of this and the Shadow from before shows up with yet another hole, and this time they recognize it as Mayumi Yamano's Shadow, and realize the holes are from her and not a result of Amnesia's memory loss. She transforms into Iwanaga(-hime), and in what may be a series first, Yukiko actually recognizes the legend. She says that after she got Konohanasakuya, she did some research, and Iwanaga came up as part of the story. She gives them a quick rundown, which is that Iwanaga and Konohanasakuya were sisters who were offered to a man for marriage, but Iwanaga was rejected because of her appearance. Chie comments on how rude it is to judge people on appearances and glares at Yosuke, who gets defensive.

I once again skimmed over the battle stuff because it truly is boring to read, but if you really need to know, Iwanaga is made of stone. Her schtick is that she feels like she's the most important person in the world and she doesn't care who she has to hurt to get what she wants. She loathes Misuzu Hiiragi and feels as if she was unjustly punished, since she doesn't see what's so bad about falling in love with a married man. Although even her Shadow seems to have truly loved Namatame, she really hates women and constantly refers to the girls as dumb brats. She calls Yosuke "little boy."

Anyway, things are looking bad. Yosuke tries to reason with her, saying that although she/Mayumi Yamano is guilty, she doesn't have to live her life full of this resentment. This does not work, despite Yosuke's best efforts, and she really starts to beat the hell out of Yosuke. More things happen, everyone does some cool moves, so on and so forth. Yosuke knocks Amnesia out of the way of an attack, but in doing so, he falls into one of the holes. Although he manages to catch himself on the edge, he's slipping and there's too much space for anyone to come save him. I liked this part, so I directly translated it.

“So this is it, huh?” An image of his “partner” appeared in his mind—the boy who helped them all awaken the power of Persona. “Sorry… I guess I’ll have to leave the rest to you.” Yosuke’s eyes naturally fell to Amnesia, who was gazing at him in horror. He gave her a smile as if to say “don’t worry.” “Satonaka and Amagi will keep you safe. They’re good people, so you’ll be fine.” His smile conveyed all this without words. —“He’s going to disappear.” Amnesia heard a voice from within her. “Will you taste the same regret you did when you killed me?” It was her voice. It was the voice of Saki Konishi. Amnesia was the embodiment of Saki’s latent desires—a Shadow. Saki’s desires had been calm, so Amnesia was not full of the same anger that characterized so many other Shadows. But a Shadow was a Shadow. Destruction was their nature. When the fog clears, that destruction manifests. And on such a day, Amnesia had killed Saki. Unable to bear this sin, Amnesia had erased her own memories. Every Shadow has a unique power from its individual identity. And the power given to Amnesia, borne of Saki Konishi, was called “Oblivion.” Saki Konishi had wanted to run away from everything that was keeping her trapped, to forget all her pain.

So, obviously, Amnesia is able to call on her powers after this, and she uses her chains to save Yosuke from the hole. Now that she's "awake," she's able to help in the fight, and she tells Yosuke that she can erase memories. They come up with a plan to erase Iwanaga's memories so that they can defeat her and/or get away, whichever comes first, but Amnesia needs to be able to touch her. Everyone comes together for their epic battle, and once again, a part I liked.

Yosuke was full of confidence [as he prepared to face Iwanaga]. Saki’s voice observed this from within. “Hana-chan always had this unreliable air about him… but I guess boys grow up fast when you’re not looking.”

Although Amnesia manages to touch Iwanaga and unsettle her, her power isn't strong enough and she just sends Iwanaga into a mindless berserk state. Amnesia realizes that there's only one thing left to do, and although she didn't want to show anyone this form, she realizes there's no choice.

Her body is consumed by black flames, and once again, here's a little translation.

Her body grew twice as large, and a black lace shawl covered her face. She wore a long, jet-black dress with lace gloves up to her elbow: clothes that one would wear to mourn the dead. The skin that was visible between sections of black was as pale as snow, and the chains that had previously only extended from her arms wrapped around her body several times, as if binding herself. She had the appearance of a human, but she was not: she was a Shadow, and her golden eyes gleamed from beneath the lace shawl.

Seeing this, Yosuke is briefly pained by the undeniable realization that this is the Shadow that killed Saki, but if Saki had just known about Personas, if she had known to accept her true self, then she wouldn't have died.

With Amnesia's magnified power, they all manage to defeat Iwanaga, and with her death, the holes clear from the landscape and Teddie is finally able to properly contact them. Amnesia changes back to her "human" form, ashamed, but the trio is openly supportive and grateful to her for helping them. Knowing that they'll be headed home soon, everyone encourages Amnesia to come with them. Amnesia thinks that she shouldn't, but in Yosuke's mind "a Shadow that could become a Persona" is no different from a human.

She agrees to walk with them, at least, and as Yosuke glances back at her conflicted expression, he thinks, "I hope you can smile someday, even if it's not for me."

Moving on to the final chapter, everyone reunites with Teddie, and they come up with the great idea for Amnesia to stay with Teddie. That way, they'll be able to keep each other company, and Teddie will be able to teach Amnesia about being a Shadow-but-not so that she can understand herself better. Feeling optimistic, everyone happily says their goodbyes. Yosuke waves to her and grins, telling her "See you tomorrow, Senpai!" before going back to the other side.

In the TV World, Teddie and Amnesia discuss the less positive reality. Amnesia is going to disappear, since the person she came from is dead. It's possible for her to live a little longer if she doesn't use her powers, but ultimately, no matter what she does, she doesn't have long left. Amnesia says that it's not a problem... because she's going to use her oblivion powers to erase herself. She saw how heartbroken Yosuke was about Saki's death, and she doesn't want to do that to him again. So, she considers it the kindest thing she can do for the people who were so kind to her to quietly and secretly disappear. Teddie protests, of course, but as he's tearfully insisting for her to stay... he suddenly stops, and wonders what he was just talking to himself about. He feels sad for some reason, but maybe he's just lonely because Sensei and the others haven't visited yet?

He hopes they come back soon.

On the other side, Yosuke and the others are actually at the moment just before Yosuke falls in, and everything is fine. Yu contacts them telling them he's on his way, so they go to the roof. Yosuke realizes, however, that he feels strangely sad, and his chest hurts like he's lost something. Chie asks why he looks like he's about to cry, to which Yosuke actually does start to cry. Yu arrives at the same moment, and Yosuke hurriedly turns away so Yu can't see him shedding any tears.

Yu apologizes for being so late, and explains that he lost track of time helping a sick cat near his house. Yosuke, still sniffling, demands what's more important—them or a cat?! But when Yu turns thoughtful, Yosuke realizes that that's the type of person Yu is. He helps anyone, no matter who they are. He turns back to Yu and tells him that it's okay, because he wouldn't be Yosuke's partner if he didn't stop to help a cat, and then Chie and Yukiko make fun of him for having a runny nose.

Yosuke thinks to himself he's so glad that he has these people as his friends, but he can't help but feel he forgot something important as they leave. From the TV, he thinks he hears someone whisper "yes, you did, but please don't try to remember," but he writes it off as his imagination.

The End.

Despite this being a way longer summary than I set out to write, I did leave out a lot of small, non-plot-important details. If you love P4 and you can read Japanese, it's probably worth it! Yukiko and Chie are especially good in it and have lots of great friendship moments with each other and with Yosuke as well. I was really surprised by Yosuke and Yukiko's friendship, in fact, since I feel like the game and especially the spinoffs have kind of given the impression that Yukiko doesn't like him very much? But she respects his conviction here, and they're a great team. It was really cool to see how the three of them interact without Yu, and it gave a lot of insight into what their friendship might have looked like before he showed up.

Overall, I was really satisfied with this and I kind of regret that there weren't more novels like this. I thought Saki's Shadow was cool, and it was really interesting to see Mayumi manifest with such viciousness. Chie even comments that it's hard to feel bad for her!

Like I said, there is some other minor stuff I left out for ease of reading, so if you have any questions about stuff, feel free to ask!

#persona 4 #yosuke hanamura #yukiko amagi #chie satonaka #saki konishi #mayumi yamano #kiri no amnesia

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