On a rainy day at midnight, Souji stands in front of a turned off TV. He waits, staring at the screen, and after a few seconds has passed without anything happening, he turns away. As soon as he turns, however, the TV suddenly turns on, emitting static and flickering images of someone he can't recognize. At the very same time, lightning strikes and he has a thumping pain within his head, followed by a voice within his head:
"I am thou. Thou art I. Thou art the one. Open this door."
Lightning takes out the streetlight outside his house and disorientated, he falls to the ground and holds his head. By then, the TV stopped and Souji stands back up, staring at the TV in disbelief. He steps closer and he hesitantly brings up a finger to touch the screen. To his surprise, the screen ripples.
He then places his entire right hand against the screen, which goes right through, but at the same time, something grabs him from the other side and he's pulled in.
It's sometime in the evening and Souji is at home. He stands in front of the fridge in the kitchen and opens the door. Inside is a mushroom he doesn't recognise and he believes that it might have grown out of something that had previously been in the fridge. Despite these suspicions, he decides to eat it.
It tastes fine, but right afterwards, he starts to feel extremely itchy and unwell. As a result, he goes upstairs to go to bed early...
While Social Links are an in-game mechanic to increase the experience points a Persona may earn when fused or to unlock new Personas, they are also an essential part of the protagonist’s journey as the Fool. They allow for Souji to know how close he is with another person and to also allow him to forge meaningful bonds with others. Within Recolle, once he regains this ability, he will experience voices in his head and random flashes whenever he establishes or ranks up a Social Link, just as he does in the game. Without a Velvet Room in Recolle, however, he will not benefit from any bonuses by fusing Personas.
This is a passive ability and more information in regards to Social Links are here.
It's sometime in the evening and Souji is at home. He stands in front of the fridge in the kitchen and opens the door. Inside is a spherical fruit that he thinks used to be a pear. Despite not knowing exactly what it is, he chooses to eat it.
It has no taste. No taste at all... However, it does make him feel unwell and he decides to go to bed early that night.
It's sometime in the evening and Souji is at home. He stands in front of the fridge in the kitchen and opens the door. He finds some kind of grass is sitting in a pot. He suspects that his younger cousin has brought it back from school and, of course, like always, he decides to eat it.
His stomach realises what he's trying to do, however, and tries to rebel, causing him to stop eating it. It's too late, though, because he feels unwell right afterwards and heads upstairs to sleep early for the night.
It's sometime in the evening and Souji is at home. He stands in front of the fridge in the kitchen and opens the door. He finds a bitter melon with a bite taken out of it. He believes that someone mistook it for a cucumber and even though he knows that this is, in fact, not a cucumber, he eats it anyway.
The raw bitter melon was very bitter. So, so bitter and as always, he feels unwell immediately. He closes the fridge and heads upstairs to tuck into bed early...
In this rank up, Souji and Yosuke are in the city together. As they stand in front of Okina station, Yosuke receives a text message and reveals that it's just spam, which he has been receiving a lot lately. When asked about it, he reveals that he doesn't want to change his phone number/email address because one of his old friends might text him and it'd be annoying to call up everyone just to tell them that his number has changed. He admits that he can't really call them friends anymore, but he quickly changes the subject and says that he'd be "counting on ya, partner!" The memory ends with Yosuke and Souji deciding to get everyone a souvenir before heading back to Inaba.
A script of the Social Link rank can be found here with the dialogue choices selected on what Souji would have said.
Souji wakes up in a dream in a foggy and unfamiliar area. All he can see is a red long path up ahead and the only thing he can do is to proceed forward, which he does. As he does, though, he occasionally hears a mysterious voice:
"Do you seek the truth...?"
"If it's truth you desire, come and find me..."
He continues and at the end of the path, he finds a strange entrance and senses someone behind it. He decides to go through it and when he does, he suddenly finds himself holding a sword, standing in front of a figure hidden in the fog.
"So... You are the one pursuing me..."
"Hmhmhm... Try all you like..."
With his sword, he attacks once and manages to land a blow, though it doesn't seem to affect them at all.
"Hmmm... It seems that you can see a little, despite the fog..."
Souji attacks once more with his sword and it hits, but again, there's no reaction.
"I see... Indeed... That is very interesting information..."
This time, instead of attacking with his sword, a card engulfed in blue flames falls in front of him. He crushes it with his hand and something appears above him, but with the fog, he can't make out it out. A bolt of lightning then hits the figure and the summoned silhouette disappears.
"But... You will not catch me so easily..."
"If what you seek is "truth", then your search will be even harder..."
The fog worsens and the figure cannot be seen anymore. Souji rushes in with his sword, but when he swings, he hits nothing.
"Everyone sees what they want to..."
"And the fog only deepens..."
Another card falls down in front of Souji and he crushes it once more. The shadow is summoned again and moves towards the figure, attempting to slash it with some sort of long weapon, but misses.
"...Will we meet again...?"
"At a place other than here..."
"Hmh... I look forward to it..."
At this point, Souji begins to lose consciousness and he finally wakes up, back in his futon at home.
It's sometime in the evening and Souji is at home. He stands in front of the fridge in the kitchen and opens the door. He finds a bottle of milk that's past its expiration date. Like the madman that he is, he chooses to drink it...
... He finds out that the milk was halfway to becoming yogurt... Souji immediately feels unwell and decides to go to bed.
It's sometime in the evening and Souji is at home. He stands in front of the fridge in the kitchen and opens the door. He discovers a small bag of wasabi. He stares at it until he has the great idea to lick the contents.
... He immediately regrets doing so and oh god, the tears... the tears won't stop... he decides to go to bed early to cry himself to sleep.
Souji, Yosuke, and an unknown third party (Teddie) stand outside of a twisted looking store. From the entrance, two black slime-like creatures drop down, wearing a simple blue mask. When Yosuke falls backwards, the two monsters rush at him, changing their form into two floating pink balls with tongues. At this point, Souji feels a sudden sharp pain in his head and grips his head into his hand, followed by a voice.
"I am thou... Thou art I.... The time has come! Open thine eyes, and call forth what is within!"
Souji suddenly pulls back his hand and notices a tarot card in his hand. When he flips it over, the front of the card begins to glow. He starts at it in disbelief before he smiles and a word comes to him:
"Per... so... na."
At that point, the card shows a shadowy figure and the card is engulfed by blue flames. Souji brings his hand up in front of him and closes his fist against it, letting out a yell. The flames grow bigger behind him and reveal a large Persona behind him, twice as big as him. Static covers it a few times before it finally disappears as quickly as it appeared.
The memory takes place inside the TV World, outside the other version of the Konishi Liquors in the Twisted Shopping District. It begins off with Souji looking up at Izanagi, his Persona, floating in front of him. It disappears and a tarot card takes its place, falling down in front of Souji before that too fades away. After this, Yosuke runs up to him and asks what he (Souji) just did, bombarding him with questions. At the same time, a strange looking bear (Teddie) runs up as well and tells Yosuke to calm down, that he's "troubling Sensei". Teddie fawns over "Sensei" and states that he's "one impressed bear". Before it gets any further, the memory ends there.
Back at it at the Krispy Kreme fridge. Souji opens the fridge one evening and sees a container of barley tea. Seems normal enough, right? He drinks it and...
... it was really udon soup!
This was a horrible mistake... and Souji decides to go to bed early (the first good decision he makes this entire night).
Souji opens the fridge one evening and finds a bowl of white miso. However, he thinks this used to be red miso though... but of course, he drinks it anyway.
... His tongue hurts... His eyes water from the odor... His throat is burning...
His courage has greatly increased but was it worth it? He decides to go to bed early...
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