Episode 21 Summary - The Remaining Time

Both Kunio and Akihiko were at the hospital. Tomohiro didn't manage to escape the Marebito's attack when they abducted Jun and now, he was struck down with Apathy Syndrome. Shin was sitting outside holding the pink dress that Yuki had bought when the others arrived. A few minutes later, Akihiko was out to greet them.

When asked what happened, Akihiko calmly replies he had no choice but to use Jun as a bait to track down the Marebito's base. Hearing this, Shin gets up in anger demanding to know why they didn't use him. Akihiko explains the Marebito needed Jun because they no longer had enough Persona Suppressants to control their multiple Personas. He tries to assure them that Jun's life won't be in danger because the Marebito had greater things to worry about. The sea of unconsciousness was spreading. Minds are continuing to be mixed up and could be considered part of the Whale's rage about how humans are fooling around with Personas.

However, that was none of Shin's concerns at the moment. He grabs Akihiko by the collar and demands to know how he was planning to take responsibility if anything was to happen to Jun and Yuki. Shin throws a punch at Akihiko who doesn't make any attempt to dodge it. Just as Kunio comes out of the room too, Akihiko says that it felt like he took a punch from Ryo too just there.

Meanwhile at the Marebito base, preparations were being made to make use of Jun's Persona power. Sotaro was keen to make sure they all survived until Kyujo woke up, even if it means forcefully extracting the power they need from Jun.

Nearby, Saki was sitting together with Jun and the unconscious Kanaru. She asks Jun why he didn't reveal her identity to the others even though he had known from the very start. Jun answers that he had felt the uncertainty Saki had on her mind while she was undercover. Soon, Kanaru also wakes up. Dazed, she looks around wondering where she was again until she sees Mayuri nearby. Angrily, she shouts at Saki for posing as her old friend Mayuri but to her surprise, Saki says that Mayuri never existed and neither does Kanaru.

Megumi and Takuro were attending school as usual now but couldn't get away from the strange mixture of personalities. The teacher calls out the register and thought a boy student was joking when he claimed he wasn't who he was. Outside, things weren't any better.

Having not been informed of the situation, Megumi and Takuro were puzzled at what was going on. They try to phone Mayuri to see if she was all right but no one answers. Megumi suggests they leave school early so that they can go check on Kanaru and Mayuri. She then realises something similar might have happened to Jun to because it felt like she was talking to a girl the other night. She also remembers how Shin was holding a girl's dress and mentioned his sister's name "Yuki" when he was angry at Akihiko.

While Megumi and Takuro were attending school, Shin was wandering around still trying to digest the current situation. After their visit at the hospital, Inui had explained to them outside what had really happened. It was actually Yuki herself that had offered to help lure out the Marebito even though Akihiko had wanted to leave it as the very last option and had spent time thinking about alternatives. However, there really was no other way and Yuki herself also understood that. She volunteered because she knew this fight was to help rid the world of the danger and sorrow that threatened everyone.

Inui had then went onto tell Shin how his older brother Ryo had also understood the situation well. Even though he had been part of the team, he couldn't work together with them but went about concealing the truth as best as he could. That was just the way their operations had to work. After gaining Shin's understanding, Inui continues that judging by the amount of suppressants and the number of Reverse victims, they knew that it was going to be their last chance to root out the Marebito.

Everyone was doing their best to avert the crisis that laid ahead of them. Tomohiro had kept a watch on Jun to try and make up the mistakes he had made when Ryo was still the chief and had been ashamed at Eiko's death. Now, Kunio and Akihiko were making the necessary preparations to infiltrate the Marebito's base together with Shin and the others so that they can rescue Jun and, destroy all the research material held there. Inui then apologises for making them risk their lives but, neither he or Akihiko had wanted this. He lets Shin know Akihiko was a boxing champion during his school years so he could easily have avoided the punch but he didn't.

Back in the present, Shin had arrived at the Hiragi offices. He has trouble trying to get in to speak to President Hiragi who was on the phone arranging a meeting. Fortunately, he catches sight of Hiragi leaving and immediately follows his car in a taxi until he stops by the sea. Slowly, Shin approaches him and explains how he saw him together with his parents in a photo. He knew Hiragi knew the truth and begs him to tell him.

The preparations to use Jun's Persona were now complete. As Yudo and Sotaro walk him away, Kanaru demands to know why they were doing this. Saki was a bit surprised Kanaru's "other self" hasn't told her yet. Annoyed by her constant talking, Sotaro gets Saki to quieten her down. Saki grabs Kanaru by the arm and tells her she only knows a person named Mayuri because she was made to think that way. They had all stayed at the same research facility before Kanaru was adopted by a rich family. When Saki had first arrived at Naginomori High, she was surprised the settings made to her memories hadn't changed at all. After clearing up some of Kanaru's confusion, Saki whispers something again which causes her to collapse to the ground.

As Sotaro injects something into Jun, Jun can sense his fear of possibly becoming an empty shell. A grim look comes across Sotaro's face as he returns to the control room with the others. There, Saki asks where Shiba was and Sotaro replies he was next to Kyujo. He laughs, thinking Shiba must really like Kyujo and that he's being hated because he had said bad things about Kyujo. However, Saki replies it wasn't about liking or hating Kyujo. It was because Shiba depended on him.

Meanwhile, Akihiko and Kunio were making progress narrowing down the location of the Marebito's base down and organising their plans. Kunio hasn't quite gotten used to the fact that Tomohiro was out of action yet.

Back at the sea, without turning round Hiragi explains their research was originally to give people overburdened with regrets to have a new starting point once again. However, as they got closer to discovering the power known as "Persona", the goal of their research also changed. Their financiers demanded that they created a Persona that would allow them to control all humans from their unconsciousness. Even though the research they started off had only involved looking into the links between the concious and unconscious mind, it eventually lead to the merging of multiple Personas which was what the Marebito were continuing to do now.

The findings the team ended up with got the better of them, making them delve deeper and deeper into Personas, allowing Kyujo to take advantage of them. Kyujo then went onto using his own daughter as an experiment claiming that she was the best candidate and started to gather more supporters while everything was under his control. They couldn't stop him because of that reason and not only that, Ayane had also agreed to the experiments because she wanted to make her father happy. The drugs they used on her eventually turned her into a witch-like being, stopping her physical growth before she realised that she was the result of a large number of wrong doings.

That was when Shin's parents had left the team. Kyujo had said he wanted to operate on their unborn child, Shin too. When he found out they had left, Kyujo went mad as if he was a demon and ended up making the decision to establish an orphanage for the children who suffered from the disaster that took place ten years ago, giving him more specimens.

Meanwhile, the Marebito were waiting to extract Jun's Persona. Saki wonders how long it's been since she joined. Sotaro doesn't know since she had already been here before he arrived. Yudo then interrupts them to report that he couldn't find Jun's Persona. When Sotaro wonders if Shin had already killed it, Yudo suggests they should approach Shin to free themselves so that they can start new lives. He was sure Yuuji and Touma too would have agreed but, Sotaro isn't so keen about the idea. Just then, his own Persona begins to go berserk. Knocking Yudo out the way, he desperately tries to find Jun's Persona on the computer but fails.

Saki too was hesitant. Do they really have to start new lives when they were told they were special and were the chosen ones? She thinks back to the time when Touma was around, remembering how she used to stare at her victim before leaving because she didn't want to forget what she's doing. Back then, Touma had said they should trust Kyujo and live on that way. When Kyujo eventually came up with a list of candidates for them to find, Touma started to wonder what was going to happen to them. They were being asked to absorb too many Personas, so many that he knew they won't be able to stay in control.

However, Kyujo ignores Touma's question and says that he was more concerned in seeing Ryo again, demanding them to bring him back. He had also told them they were still incomplete and that they were to notify him if they find anyone amongst the Special A candidates that can read minds.

Returning to the present, Sotaro denies that he ever trusted Kyujo. All Sotaro ever wanted was someone who would stay by his side, someone who wouldn't betray him or leave him. The answer to that was realising his Persona.

By the sea, Hiragi continues about how the remaining children that were with Kyujo now were probably the better candidates that he had gathered. Hiragi tells Shin that his parents regretted what they had been involved in and how they just tried to run away from it all. Hearing this, Shin it's something that can't be forgiven, even when considering how the Marebito came about. He tells Hiragi to stop running away too and to face the truth, revealing that his brother Jun were already in their hands. When Hiragi goes onto explain how Kyujo had merged the psychiatric and neurology medical departments together for the purpose of their research, Shin realises Kyujo didn't save Yuki and Jun. He had turned them into one of his experiments.

Returning to Hiragi's company car, Hiragi had made up his mind to confess his crimes in manufacturing illegal drugs. He hopes Shin's brother will make it back safely and just before he leaves, he asks if Shin if he remembers what happened ten years ago. Shin answers that he couldn't. Maybe it was because of the shock of the outbreak at the time.

Back at the Marebito's base, the Marebito were reaching their limits. Shiba's Persona was going berserk and was crashing itself against the walls. Saki and Sotaro were both struggling to keep their own Persona under control as Yudo rushes out to try and help Shiba. Unfortunately, it was too late by the time Yudo reaches the main room. The Persona had broken itself from Shiba and his body was in a pool of blood just like all the other Reverse victims. Kyujo had also awakened and absorbed Shiba's Persona.

On the other hand, Sotaro wanted to show Saki something and guides her to another room. He came across it when he followed Yuuji before he was killed in the very same room. Slowly, Sotaro walks over to the large container situated in the middle of the room and opens it. There, lying inside was Ayane, Kyujo's daughter who they had seen in photographs before.

Sotaro grabs Ayane's jaw violently and tells Saki that the clone was asleep. The real Ayane had probably died from an experiment already. He believes that Kyujo was planning to sacrifice them all so that he can transfer the powerful beings he had created within each of them over to the clones of his own "goddess" Ayane and rule mankind through their unconscious minds. Suddenly, Sotaro's Persona goes berserk again as he insists that he isn't just an empty shell and attacks the cloned Ayane when her eyes turns to look at him.

Next episode, "Yorishiro" (i.e. A term used in Shinto when Gods possess someone or creatures).

Thoughts

They try to pack too much information into one episode.

And there's not many twists in this show is there? Viewers will probably have guessed most of the details they revealed from previous episodes - Kyujo using the Marebito keep his daughter Ayane alive, Shin ending up as one of his experiment ten years ago and how the other scientists left because of the inhuman nature of their research.

Damn Kyujo for experimenting on Kanaru too! I wonder what the secret words are to make her follow commands...? Somehow, it looks like the Kanzato brothers may have all been part of the research too which would explain why their Personas are so strong.

So, Kyujo's made several clones of Ayane. With all those clones in the room, I'm presuming the one in the centre will be for the real Ayane's that's been appearing before the Kanzatos. There's a total of nine clones in there and the Marebito are composed of seven members. If we then add in Kanaru and Ayane too then the numbers work out. There's enough Personas to transfer over.

Kyujo will probably get there just in time before Sotaro manages to harm Ayane's body. He sure is a mad scientist considering what he's done so far...

Oh, and I "like" what's going on over in the 2ch forums. There are people saying things like, "The only things good about this show are the opening and endings", "This is supposed to be a 26 episode show?" and "I don't get this anymore. I've lost track of the story!"