Hikari (Labyrinth)

Hikari, also known as ??? before its true identity is revealed is a Labyrinth in Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth.

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A reality in the Movie World created by Hikari from her desire to escape reality, discard her self and end all of her pain with her self-destruction. Initially, its name is obscured by black scribble. The Labyrinth majorly appears as a whimsical fairy tale landscape taking inspiration from animated musicals and various fairy tales, such as The Wizard of Oz and Snow White, but at the deepest floor it suddenly turns monochrome and unsettling, with the flowers in the background having hollow eyes and tearing blood, symbolizing its owner's desire for self-destruction as a terminal for her pain. The background music further reflects this, as it becomes more sinister as the party transverses deeper towards the depths. It took the form of a musical as Hikari's father wished for her to be wonderful like the protagonist of a musical, but was twisted to the form where she ends up giving up the will to live instead. Even before reaching the final floor, though, the party expresses nervousness at the overly cheerful scenery contrasted with Hikari's depression and the characters frequently breaking out into songs with the repeated "moral" that individuality is an obstacle to happiness.

After clearing A.I.G.I.S., Doe supposedly kidnaps Hikari into this Labyrinth and the announcement for its airing begins. Unlike the past three movies, the announcement voice for this one quickly turns distorted. The party ventures here in an attempt to save Hikari. It was later revealed that Hikari was not kidnapped, but followed Doe to here at her own will in an attempt to face her past and recollect the memories of the very events that ruined her life, as she was previously amnesiac due to having a distorted heart.

The Labyrinth's floors are known as "Screens" and they feature isolated areas that can only be navigated through using switches that appear as tree stumps that lever the player between them, forcing them to go up and down in order to reach the staircase to the next screen.

Several floors have musical-like devices and all of these musicals depict a trauma that Hikari had experienced. These musical stages are constructs from her memories and they also act as its seals. In order for her to regain her memories, she must overcome their contents by denying her tormentors with her cognitive copies following the denial, angering them and they turn into Shadows that attack the party. Each of the first three musicals also relate to a previous movie, as they are formed from the past traumas that the musicals depict. Most of these musicals depict real events that Hikari experienced, although the last one depicting her breakdown is a false recollection distorted by her depression and grief.

After each musical, a flashback is played that involves Hikari's relationship with her father, which appears to be a warm and caring father-daughter relationship, and much unlike her relations to other people around her.

It was revealed that at the past Hikari was often dehumanized and denied uniqueness and was heavily traumatized as a result, which caused her to develop a depression that is so tremendous that she isolated herself from reality in her room and gave up the desire to live as her self, being unresponsive towards any questions or attempts in conversation at all. She also became incredibly agitated when others asked her why she was like that, because all of her tormentors used that phrase when they dehumanized her, effectively making it her trigger word.

When her father asked her to get out of the room to receive the notebook he bought for her as a gift, he asked her why she was like that. In reality, when he asked such a question, he did not have any ill-intent and was simply worried about her well-being, but she mistook it as her father denying her and considering her an outcast because all of her tormentors asked her the same things when they did so. Presumably also in fear of her relatives having been successfully persuaded her father into agreeing with them, the perceived demeaning from her beloved results in her falling into a life-consuming despair that completely broke her down and ruined her life.

After the Shadow in the musical depicting Hikari's breakdown was defeated, the party meets Doe, which enters the depths without much interaction, only muttering Hikari's name. They follow him to the depths and encounter him, in which he expresses a wish to keep Hikari in the Cinema for eternity in an attempt to prevent her from getting any more harm. She denies this wish and he becomes berserk, transforming into a morbid abomination surrounded by film tapes. When the party destroys his eyes and body, his remains unleash a dangerous attack that triple binds the entire party, which cannot be recovered using an item. However, Hikari steps in and joins the fight by unbinding party members, allowing them to do sufficient damage in a situation where they otherwise cannot.

They successfully defeat Doe and Hikari steps in to hug him, and he transforms into an image of Hikari's father, revealing himself as nothing other than a cognitive copy of him that is built by both Hikari's positive desire to become unique again and negative desire to end all of her pain in self-destruction. Hikari's heart has been successfully changed and she tearfully repents for her distorted despair and grief before Doe vanishes and transforms into the key required to escape the Cinema, then she also confesses to the party about her distorted thoughts and desires. She was able to make a full rehabilitation, reigniting her desire to live as a person.

The credits roll with Nagi watching the movie alone, with the true name of the movie revealed as "Hikari" and "To Be Continued" shown afterwards, indicating that Hikari has officially regained her life back.

After clearing the movie, Nagi allows the party to escape the Cinema, only to reveal a twisted landscape and drop off her guise, with her true identity being the administrator of the collective unconsciousness Enlil. Enlil announces her twisted patronizing of humanity and her seemingly genuine but heavily deluded salvation plan to help them, and lets them escape the Cinema anyway. However, to save other people trapped in the Cinemas in her domain, the party and Hikari decides to confront her.

Trivia

 * Hikari is similar to Futaba's Palace, as both are born from distorted desires of self destruction and grief, contain objects that embody their hosts's traumas and also seal their memories unless they investigate and overcome its contents and the cognitive copies of their host's beloved parents whom they also developed delusions and guilt with appear at the end as bosses.
 * It is also similar to the Abyss of Time, as it is a construct from its host's memories and has recollections of her past as flashbacks.
 * Hikari has distinctly more floors than any Labyrinth in the game, with eight floors while others have either four or five. However, no random encounters will appear in the bottom two floors.
 * The second to last floor is also a small passageway leading to the boss floor and it only contains a musical stage depicting Hikari's breakdown, indicating that she considers the incident as a terminal for herself.