Yu Narukami's Uncanny Fable (Persona 4)

[rattatatouille]

I went back home after Kanji's induction into the Investigation Team, where Uncle Ryotaro was sitting at the table. Seeing a chance to bond with him, he went ahead and made some coffee for the two of us, telling him to surprise me. Apparently his kitchen skills weren't totally non-existent at all - just limited to making coffee. He made some coffee for Nanako too, and she liked it sweet and creamy.

The three of us settled in front of the TV, watching the news while enjoying our coffee. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary until a news report about a woman who died as a victim of a hit-and-run while riding her bike on the outskirts of Okina. I looked at my uncle, who was clearly distressed by the report, something that surprised me given how police are typically desensitized to this kind of stuff. Puzzled, I turned to Nanako as she turned the TV off. She then told me that Aunt Chisato, her mother, was killed in a similar incident, which led to hit-and-runs becoming Uncle Ryotaro's major trauma trigger. I then consoled Nanako as the TV went back to lighter programming.

The next day my friends and I discussed the upcoming school camp out, organized by the Yasogami higher-ups as a way for students to give back to the community through a cleanup drive. We would be camping out in the outskirts of the town, and wear our gym uniforms to show we were Yasogami students. Yosuke was curious if they'd allow us to go swimming, to which Chie answered in the affirmative, and I could already see the gears in my hormonal friend's head tick as they came to a mischievous idea.

Later that day King Moron chose to go and berate me for not being part of Yasogami's Student Health Association, which surprised me since I considered my involvement in the basketball team and the drama club enough student participation on my end (I like to keep a low profile, for the most part). Seeing as defiance wouldn't help me, however, I relented, figuring it wouldn't be too much of a hassle in the end.

So I met up with the Health club, and they told me as a pinch-hitter that all I had to do that day was to sit in and watch if anyone came around and to note whatever they said. Rather simple, no actual club work. A man from a pharmaceutical firm came around, and I noted what he had to say, then relayed it to the club members once they came back. It appeared the reason I had to fill in was because a club member named Konishi wasn't around. Konishi, huh - was he related to the departed Saki-senpai?

Right as I mused that, a somewhat familiar young man entered, apologizing for being late. His ash-blond hair and facial features made me recognize him as the kid brother I encountered when I first walked around the Shopping District way back in April, and putting that together meant that this kid was Saki-senpai's younger brother. A picture in my head formed of a bereaved brother who was given space by people on account of his sister's untimely death, and while we were cleaning I attempted to make overtures with the younger boy, which he brushed off at the time.

----​

The next day Yosuke came to me with an interesting proposal: that both of us get motorbike licenses. Given that I was already 17 and Yosuke was turning 17 within the month we were already above the minimum age, it wasn't a bad idea at all. Kanji came along and I asked him if he would like to join us. Sadly, he was too young; he wouldn't turn 16 until after the new year, so that pretty much left the two of us second-year boys to apply for licenses. (Then again, given how Kanji could keep apace with biker gangs on a regular bicycle, did he even need one at all?)

Yosuke then revealed the second half of his plan: that after we got licenses and bikes to use them with, we'd then use them to pick up girls at Okina! The rational part of me facepalmed at how inane this plan would sound, while the hormonal teen part of me was admittedly sold on the idea. I decided to go along anyway, given that from a practical point of view getting around Inaba on foot was getting to be tedious, and the bus didn't get to every part of town either.

After another try at the Beef Bowl Challenge, I found Adachi at our home, eating together with my uncle. Apparently Uncle Ryotaro brought him home because he felt Adachi wasn't eating right, and was subsisting on instant ramen and cabbages. After Adachi left to return to the station I asked my uncle for permission to take the bike license test, and after he briefly went into Investigator Mode to make sure I wasn't pressured to do it, he gave me his blessing.

I encountered the younger Konishi at school the next day, who was still pushing people away and moping. My admittedly improved empathy allowed me to hear him out, though, and he voiced his concern about feeling pitied all because his sister was one of the murder victims. I could get what he was trying to say, however - that people didn't care for him as much as they did the fact that his sister was a murder victim. Grieving must have been hard on the boy.

After school ended that day, Yosuke and I took the exam, and we both passed. Right as we got back to the shopping district, I found my uncle at the gas station, who then told Adachi to bring over an old scooter that nonetheless looked like it was still in good working condition. He told me that it was mine to use, and all I had to do was keep it in good condition and I could use it around town. Happy with my travel opportunities expanded, I thanked my uncle for the gift.

Before I got home I ran into Kanji, where people were unsurprisingly afraid at his intimidating aura, and we decided to have a talk while we walked back to our respective homes. It seemed that as with everything about my kohai, defying his reputation of being a troublemaker would be how I would form a bond with him. An image of a ruler draped in regal attire with the number IV appeared in my head. "The Emperor", said a voice once more. Huh, was wondering when that would happen.

I decided to devote Friday afternoon to getting some reps with my scooter, and while getting myself lost I did find myself at the train station.

----​

The next day I spent my time after school with Chie, where we encountered a group of punks who were shaking down kids for money. (Ah, so that's who they were.) After trying to do the same to Chie, she went immediately into her kung fu pose, and right before it could escalate the bullies ran away, scared that someone was about to stand up to them. As they left, Chie began to worry that she caused me some trouble by trying to fight them off, but I reassured her she was doing the right thing. I then spent my evening with my little sis, and soon enough it was Sunday already.

Sunday was spent with Marie at Souzai Daigaku, and with my uncle in the evening as he went through old case files trying to solve his wife's hit-and-run case. Right at that moment, however, Nanako fell ill with a stomach ailment, which I learned was a chronic concern for her, but with a dose of her prescribed medicine and some rest she'd be fine the next day. What wasn't fine though was Uncle Ryotaro being a bit angry during this - it appeared that with the case on his mind he wasn't in any mood to be calmer.

Monday came, and as spring was rolling over into summer we switched to our summer uniforms to account for the heat. My dark jacket was replaced by a white button-down shirt (with the collar popped, of course). Yosuke did likewise, but kept his V-neck undershirt and didn't pop his collar, while Chie now wore her green jacket at her waist and Yukiko now wore a red cardigan over her white shirt, and ditched the stockings for socks. Kanji ditched the jacket and basically went to school in a dark tank top, which I was surprised didn't lead him to get into trouble for dress code violations (not that I or the rest of my friends were innocent, either). I decided then to continue my attempt to befriend Saki-senpai's brother. Before doing so, though, I got dragooned again into Student Health Association business, where I overheard from the members that the Konishi boy was basically exempted from homework and even classes to an extent. A part of me was pissed off that they were basically ostracizing a 15 year old kid for the crime of being related to a murder victim, and I gave the SHA a death glare to shut them up. I found Konishi-kun at the lockers, where he helped me clean my clothes after I finished my tasks for the SHA.

I then remembered that we needed to give Kanji some reps in the TV world, having had him as a member for a week, so that we could then see what he could do with Take-Mikazuchi. It turned out the iron giant was able to use electric attacks, though like Chie his real strengths lay in his physical attacks. He could hit harder than any of us and take blows better as well, though he was also a bit slower than Yosuke or Chie on the battlefield. As for weapons, though? I thought Kanji would fight with his bare fists at first, but as we got to Junes he went to Yosuke, then the two of them left for a moment, then the next thing I knew the two of them had left the stock room and the delinquent boy was holding an unused folding chair in his hand. Huh.

It was also during this trip that I noticed something that I hadn't seen before. I had managed to fuse back Archangel as one of my rotation Personae, then as I let our mental link flow I noticed a magic spell I hadn't seen before. "Archangel, Kouha!" I cried out, trying out the new ability my Persona sported, and immediately arrows of light surrounded a Shadow, knocking it down. So it was some sort of light magic, but unlike Hama and its ilk it wasn't a one-hit-kill. Might be more useful to have, since Hama never really did what it advertised in my case.

Even Yukiko had cottoned on to it - somehow, her Konohana-Sakuya had gained a similar skill, but from a different element. "Persona! Eiga!" Yukiko chanted as her other self simply destroyed another Shadow with curse energy.

Was this what Igor and Margaret meant by things not being what they had expected?

 

[rattatatouille]

The next day, Yosuke finally told me that Operation Babe Hunt: Okina Version was a-go. The plan was to use our newly minted bikes to get to Okina City, and then get numbers from the presumably numerous unattached young ladies around there. Pretty simple and can't go wrong, right?

(If you think this story goes that way, you're not paying any attention.)

After school, Yosuke and I headed to Okina City, then waited a bit until Kanji managed to arrive as well on a standard pedal bicycle. He was winded, but I was still shocked at the fact that he wasn't too far off from us at any rate. However, as soon as the three of us got together, Kanji went off to do his own thing, and we decided to wait for a bit as schools and offices were done for the day and the ladies would begin to congregate at the commercial areas.

Needless to say, the three of us looked like dummies, and Kanji attributed it to us using scooters, not actual motorbikes (not that we'd be allowed to use them), and decided to take the proverbial bull by the horns and start the contest! This left me and Yosuke scrambling, so we went and tried our best to get the numbers of Okina's eligible bachelorettes.

It was a bust, unsurprisingly. The ladies looked askance at us, since to people from Okina us folks from Inaba were a bunch of country hicks, and the fact that it was three socially awkward young men asking girls for their contact info really hammered into my head how way over our heads we were. I gave my contacts, but they said they'd contact me. (What is this, a job interview?) I even got an older woman to talk with me, but after I came clean about my real age (since my height and hair color allow me to pass for an older man, apparently) any interest she had promptly evaporated; she wasn't into younger men. (I'm suddenly reminded of a younger friend of mine who had a bunch of older ladies pining for him, for some reason.)

On the bright side, there was a cute stray cat near the 30 Frame movie theater.

By sundown, the three of us had gathered together to compare our results. As predicted, Yosuke and I were largely busts, while Kanji somehow got a lady of the night to give him her info. The fact that my friend was oblivious to that wasn't surprising, in hindsight. The number I got belonged to a pretty pissed off guy - the girl who gave me that number was actually in a relationship! And as for the number Yosuke got?

Yosuke and I had a classmate in class 2-2 named Hanako Ohtani. She's not so bad if you get to know her, actually. The problem was that Yosuke was the kind of guy to put external beauty over other characteristics people have, and Hanako... isn't traditionally attractive. So Yosuke was scared shitless when Hanako replied to the number he got, and she thought he was inviting her to a date...

Thankfully, it didn't amount to much save Yosuke buying Hanako a sundae. It could have been worse, like Hanako wrecking Yosuke's scooter by jumping on to it, which was an outcome I was expecting but did not materialize.

----​

That evening, Nanako decided to talk to me about death, what happens when people die, and what her mother's fate was. It tore me apart to see a young girl have to confront death at this stage, but at the same time I wasn't much for sugarcoating things, so I put it in a way that she understood, and I reassured her that she wasn't a bad person and that her father was working hard to protect her from said bad people.

The next day after school I accompanied my lady friends to Junes so they could buy ingredients for the curry we'd have for dinner on Friday, the start of the camping trip. At first I contented myself with pushing the cart and carrying stuff, but when I began to overhear Chie and Yukiko adding things like coffee and kimchi into the curry, I began to wonder just why I was better at cooking than these two. On the off chance their food tasted like that abomination Yukiko made for me to taste a few weeks ago, I sneaked off and bought some ready to eat food that I paid myself and stashed it into my luggage for the next day.

Friday was mostly spent picking up the trash littered around Mt Yasogami, which was more numerous than I had anticipated. I sat at the communal table with Yosuke, who groused about having to pick up things like a whole bike (who'd throw around one at a mountain?) and waited until the girls got our dinner ready.

Chie and Yukiko got back with their attempt at curry and... let's just say food isn't supposed to look like an eldritch horror from the 9th dimension. Smelled like it, too. The moment a spoonful of the stuff touched Yosuke's lips... he was knocked out cold. I tried my best to swallow at least a spoonful as well, but next thing I knew I was being woken up after the sun came down.

I went back to my tent, opened my bag, and handed the girls some of the premade meals I had the foresight to buy. I didn't want them to go hungry because they made a mistake - I'm nice.

That night, I shared a tent with Yosuke and Kanji, where the three of us ate the remaining meals I had stashed lest we go hungry. The tent was rather small for three young men, especially for Kanji and I who are on the taller side. So it was a bit of a tight fit when the time came for us three to finally sleep.

My friend, Yosuke Hanamura, is a bit of a jokester, using humor to cope with all the shit he's dealt with all his life, whether being picked on as the figurehead of a corporate takeover of local business, or having his crush die on him. But for some reason or another, sexuality was a big issue for him, and just mere weeks after we helped Kanji deal with his issues, my friend made another faux pas and asked our delinquent kohai if he would bugger us in our sleep.

At that point something broke in me - might be Oberon coming to the rescue of his resonant Arcana, or the fact that I had witnessed Konishi-kun take shit from people because his sister died, or the fact that Yosuke basically pulled the gay panic card on our friend - but I gave Yosuke a death glare and told him to apologize, or to get out of the tent if he was that paranoid. I was that close to punching him in the face, and only the fact that it might have tipped off King Moron or the other teachers kept me from doing so.

(That being said, spoiler alert: I did get to punch Yosuke in the face later that year. I'm getting ahead of myself again, though!)

Kanji was taking it in better stride than I was, though, but I realized I had to put my foot down on this issue - regardless of where my friends swung orientation-wise, I was there for them, and if it meant calling out my other friends then so be it.

Thankfully, cooler heads prevailed, and the fact that Yosuke's actually a nice guy beneath that insensitive side of his helped. Cowed, he apologized to Kanji and that led to the three of us finally falling asleep.

The next morning, a still apologetic Yosuke said sorry again to Kanji for what happened, to which my kohai replied it was all water under the bridge. In any case, I knew what I had to be for Yosuke: someone to help him reign in his worse behaviors.

We were right at the stream when the girls realized they didn't have swimsuits to use. It was then I realized the other half of Yosuke's plan from last week - he had gone into Croco Fur during Operation Babe Hunt Okina Version and gotten a pair of somewhat revealing swimsuits. (The surprising part was that I could tell not only which swimsuits were for which girls, but that I somehow knew both would fit them well.) Yosuke then basically blackmailed the girls into trying them on, using the Mystery Food X fiasco from yesterday as leverage, and with reluctance Chie and Yukiko went to change into them. I knew they weren't happy about it, and we were gonna get some comeuppance from it, but I hadn't still forgiven Yosuke for the gay panic situation with Kanji and anticipated him getting kicked into the stream for his jackassery during the camping trip.

The fact that Kanji and I got kicked into the stream after seeing the well-fitting swimsuits on Chie and Yukiko was worthy collateral damage, in my opinion. What wasn't, though, was hearing Morooka retch upstream, and I instantly felt unclean even just hearing it.

With our misadventures at Mt Yasogami over and done with, I headed home, having experienced the good and the bad of Inaba school life.

----​

Wanting to take a break from interacting with my Yasogami friends, I decided to go with Marie that Sunday, who wanted to see city life, or what passed for it this far in the boonies. This meant going to Okina City, where we went by train (since my scooter was a single-seater). Of course, right around this time we ran into Chie and Yukiko, and my strange friend promptly nicknamed the two girls Green and Black for their dominant attire. (Something tells me she'd have nicknamed Yukiko Red if she had worn her winter casual clothes, though.) The ladies went to Croco Fur with me in tow, and I was kinda feeling out of place, and I noticed how Chie and Yukiko did gravitate towards the colors Marie nicknamed them for. Huh.

That evening, while at dinner, we watched a news report about a young idol named Risette, real name Rise Kujikawa, taking a hiatus from her career and moving to her hometown of Inaba.

(Yes, kids, this is the first time your mother's mentioned for real in this story. Don't get too excited yet, though!)

Right after this bit of news, a commercial for Quelorie Magic that just so happened to star the very girl I had seen seconds ago appeared on the TV. That was when I realized that Risette was someone I had already seen, way way back before I had reached Inaba.

I wasn't really one for following the entertainment news - after all, the Yamano affair was only important to me because she died mysteriously - and moreso I wasn't really a fan of idol singers, so I let it mostly go over my head, save for the fact that she was going to Inaba.

Which meant that this Risette girl was likely to be our killer's next victim.

 

[rattatatouille]

On the way to school Kanji met up with me, who noted how the Shopping District bustled with activity even more than usual. I told him I had an idea what could be happening, but needed more info to back it up.

Before class started the news about Rise Kujikawa taking a break from her career spread like wildfire. The five of us (Kanji included, since he dropped by Class 2-2) were discussing it as well, and Yosuke predictably waxed lyrical about the popular teen idol. As for me, all I knew about the girl was that she was kinda popular and did some commercial, since I wasn't a fan of Risette. (Pretty ironic, no?) And as it turns out, her grandparents operated the tofu shop in the shopping district, and since she grew up here in Inaba, that meant that was likely where she was staying. I asked Kanji if he knew anything about Rise, and he did mention that they were childhood playmates - since Tatsumi Textiles and Marukyu Tofu were down the street from each other and all - but they gradually grew more distant as they grew up.

Since we had the fact that all the victims thus far appeared on the TV, we determined that Rise was the likely next target, and that it would fall on to us to warn her of the situation.

That morning, Nakayama-sensei, our bug-eyed mathematics teacher who often fretted about her domestic life, graced us a lesson about bonus pay. Somehow she was still one of the less eccentric teachers in Yasogami High.

After school I found myself in the shopping district, and a young girl with copper hair running off in the direction of Junes. Somehow she had dropped her phone as she fled the scene, so like any good citizen I went and chased after her, wanting to return said phone.

When I finally caught up with the young lady I recognized her as Rise, who was rather miffed that someone had caught up to her and thought I was a stalker. After denying my intentions on that front, pointing out that I wasn't really into teen idols anyway, I left her, and told her her phone strap looked like a tasty bit of tofu.

----​

So let me tell you about the story of my first girlfriend. And no, it's not who you think it is!

So flashback to a few weeks prior to Rise's homecoming to Inaba, and Kondo-sensei introduced this rather prissy-looking girl with dyed honey blonde hair named Ai Ebihara, who would become our new manager. Immediately I could tell her pretty face hid a rather nasty attitude; she only agreed to becoming team manager because she wanted to graduate and offset her multiple counts of truancy.

Then back to mid-June, where Ai roped me into cutting classes with her by going to Okina - which was my third time in the area in less than a week. Frankly, I was getting tired of the place at that point. But still, since Ai was pretty and my gut feeling was guiding me towards the girl I decided to humor her, even if I was enabling shitty behavior again. In typical Mean Girl fashion, she went to Okina for shopping, and roped me in as her bag carrier. The reason she was able to pay for all the stuff she got wasn't because she did a ton of part-time jobs (and kill a bunch of Shadows) like I did, but because her dad was loaded due to making a fortune in real estate speculation, so yeah, typical rich kid attitude. After baring that part of herself to me, I felt the familiar thrum of another Social Link forming in my head. Depicting a moon and some creatures with the number XVIII, the voice in my head spoke. "The Moon".

But we weren't really going out yet at this point - though it wouldn't surprise me if people said we were going out. After all, "star basketball player dating team manager" isn't an uncommon story!

We somehow made it back in time for the final bell at Yasogami, and I decided to help Yukiko with grocery shopping at Junes that afternoon. Apparently, her cooking skills were improving with guidance from their head cook, and while I remained skeptical I did believe she'd improve. (And she has, actually! While her more... unorthodox culinary choices have become part of the Amagi Inn's exotic menu, her cooking's much better now than the Mystery Food X days of her high school career.)

On a whim I decided to help myself to a small bag of wasabi in our fridge after getting home. It practically burned the insides of my mouth, causing me to rest all the way to morning. Might be my Persona abilities, but the next day I was up and ready like nothing happened. (It did prepare me for a certain somebody's cooking, though!)

That midnight I checked the Midnight Channel to see if there was a new guest star. A faint image of a twintailed girl in a swimsuit appeared on the TV, and I had a pretty good idea of who it could be. That being said, if the image were still faint, then that meant said girl wasn't in the TV yet. We still had a chance to warn her.

----​

The next day was Yosuke's birthday, and we spent his birthday staking out Marukyu Tofu, trying to get past all the fervent fans the young idol had. I did give him his birthday gift right before our stakeout, however - a pair of well-crafted knives from Daidara, meant for use in the TV World.

We found Adachi right in front of the store, directing traffic. Strange, seeing a police detective be consigned to traffic duty. I asked him why the was the case, and apparently it was due to the Inaba PD being stretched thin and having to keep people from overcrowding the poor tofu shop. My uncle then exited Marukyu Tofu, telling people to clear out and berating Adachi as usual, then saw me and my friends, apparently loitering around. He told me to give Rise and her family some privacy (which we would if it weren't for the clear and present danger around her that I couldn't divulge, lest I appear to be a suspect) and then left in the direction of the police station. After a while, thankfully, the crowd had indeed cleared out, having failed to see Risette, and we took our chance to enter the store, but not before the girls begged off with their own plans, whatever they were.

The shop was empty, save for a woman working in the back. Of course, to keep up the illusion of being mere customers, we decided on what to order; I also honestly wanted to buy one of Marukyu's specialties, especially for that night's dinner. Yosuke for his part didn't really eat tofu, so we recommended he get ganmodoki (tofu-based fritter made with vegetables) instead. With our orders ready we then asked for assistance, then an older lady entered in from the side. Which then begged the question: who was the lady working in the back of the store?

The woman in questioned turned to us, and the copper hair and youthful face made me recognize her immediately, even in the head covering and apron of a tofu maker. She was smaller than I had thought, both because I'm a tall guy and because TV magic made her petite frame look less so. Rise was surprised at the three of us in the store, and Yosuke predictably used this chance to ask if she really was Risette, even as he was shocked that she recognized me. I could tell the girl was a bit miffed, though, and she continued along as if she really were a mere tofu salesgirl than a nationally famous star. (No wonder she was famous.) Motioning to my friends (Yosuke in particular) to focus on our mission, we asked Rise-san if she had seen anything strange, to which she replied in the negative. With that particular lead bust, we decided to buy some tofu and ganmodoki anyway, then laid in wait for whoever might choose to kidnap her.

The girls, that is, Chie and Yukiko, had chosen that moment to return and regarded us guys as being suspicious, which was of course silly. With Rise walking out of the store, it wasn't long before we saw a strangely-dressed man looking at her began to tail the idol, and while my gut feeling told me this man was nothing more than a crazed fan we weren't taking any chances.

My friends were on the stalker's trail, and right as Chie pulled Yosuke out of trying to hit on Rise-san I was left behind, which then meant I was left with the young idol herself. Both of us watched in shock as the rest of the Investigation Team managed to subdue the crazed fan, who continued to protest his innocence. Adachi had in the meantime returned and promptly put the stalker under arrest, but I knew for a fact this was just the beginning.

I then accompanied Rise to the riverbank, where I was sure we would be left in peace. The young celebrity used the time to complain about nobody ever seeing the real her, which made sense since her public personality was a carefully cultivated front created in part by the entertainment industry, which explained the gulf Rise-san felt between Risette and the real her. (Sounded familiar, actually.) She began folding over pages torn from a copy of her gravure photobook that she brought, making some impromptu origami. I took the chance to show off a really good paper crane, honed after I had folded hundreds of them as a part-time job. Impressed, Rise tried to fold her own paper crane, but her attempt wasn't as good as mine. I bluntly told her it sucked, but she did one more try and it came out better. I formally introduced myself, and we then went our separate ways as the sun set.

In hindsight, this was probably where Rise began to fall for me, as the fact that I was the first person apart from her family to treat her as Rise Kujikawa, an ordinary girl, rather than as Risette, famous idol really stuck with her. It would be quite a while before I reciprocated and we got together, but that's a story for another time.

That midnight, the Midnight Channel showed a somewhat clearer picture of Rise, still in the bikini, but as it was still faint I knew she wasn't in the TV, yet.

----​

The next day, Rise had enrolled at Yasogami High, where she would be spending the rest of the year as a first-year student in Class 1-2. That meant I was her senpai and she was my kohai, then. As we were leaving school, the entrance was filled with adoring fans, men and women alike, so I took Rise and we sneaked off around a side path outside the school. I didn't want her to be mobbed by fans, and I didn't want to be mistaken for dating her, either (it already didn't help that the Yasogami rumor mill had me dating Ai at that point already).

As we approached Marukyu Tofu, though, a suited man came and introduced himself as Rise's manager, Inoue-san, who still begged for his prized talent to return, even on her own terms. Rise told him that she was still thinking of whether to eventually return or to quit showbiz altogether, but the manager told her he'd wait again if needed. I tried to console Rise, but she ran off in tears, thinking no one really understood her.

I was still worried about her, so that evening I went up and waited until midnight, ready to check the Midnight Channel.

What came on was something even more provocative than Yukiko acting like a randy bachelorette or Kanji as a flaming bathhouse connoisseur.

Rise Kujikawa, Teen Idol, was dressed in but a swimsuit, posing in what she dubbed the Marukyu Striptease. As the name suggested, she would go and bare everything, and not just leave everything to the hyperactive imaginations of her legion of fans.

The rational part of me was recoiling in horror, as it realized Rise was already inside the TV and needed to be rescued. The hormonal teenager part of me was pressing the Record button on my remote repeatedly, trying to keep a copy of an attractive girl in a bikini for posterity.

Yosuke called me right afterwards, his mind torn between horrified and aroused just as I was.

Either way, we had a rescue mission on our hands.

 

[rattatatouille]

The next day we went into the TV to begin our search and rescue operation, hoping to find and get Rise out before the Shadows got to her. Upon entering our usual spot we found Teddie in a corner... sulking. Huh, didn't know hollow bear mascots could do that. Turns out Teddie was envious of all the good stuff we had going on our other side of the TV, and the struggles he faced trying to locate Kanji's bathhouse compounded with that to give him a bit of an inferiority complex. I tried to reassure him that he was doing the best he could, and then asked if he could find Rise's strip club within the TV World.

He tried right there and then, but as with Kanji he needed more clues to really find where the idol singer was in the TV World. After promising not to let us down (and being dissuaded from trying to score with the girls), I felt the familiar thrum as a new Social Link formed within my mind. "The Star", the voice noted as an image of a star with a face and the number XVII flashed in my mind's eye. First a fox and then an empty mascot, huh?

We then decided to adjourn and look for clues for Teddie to use. We split up, and I went back to Yasogami High to ask around. One guy said he was a big Risette fan, and I asked him if he had any leads on the girl, but sadly his info was just as good as ours.

I then ran into Konishi-kun, and once I remembered he was in the same class as Rise, I asked him if she told him anything, on the off chance he might have something. Upon getting a negative answer, I thanked him anyway, and the two of us discussed a bit more whereupon I learned his given name was Naoki. Once again, I felt a bond form between me and the bereaved boy, and a man hanging upside down with the number XII formed in my head. "The Hanged Man", the voice said.

I then went back to Samegawa Riverbank, where a photographer agreed to exchange info with me on Risette. I started by telling him about Rise's stress from having to avoid the public eye, then in response he let me know about how she was worrying about the divide between Risette and her true self, which confirmed the issues she was discussing with me just the previous day.

I went back to the shopping district to make some last minute preparations, including a visit to the Velvet Room to bolster my Personae rotation, and I managed to get Kanji an old riot shield to replace the chair he was "borrowing" from the Junes stock room. With that done, I went and gathered everyone at the electronics section. We were rescuing Rise Kujikawa, come hell or high water.

----​

I gave Teddie the leads I found, and he sniffed along to a room in the dark. Then the lights switched on and I saw a rather lavishly decorated room full of red and pink furniture. That and the erotic-sounding club music made me assume it was some sort of strip club, not that I had ever been to any at that point. (And I've never needed to be in one in the real world, so...) There was also an overwhelming smell of lavender, for some reason.

I decided to take along Kanji, Yukiko, and Chie, with Yosuke serving as a reserve alongside Teddie. Didn't want our resident horndog to get too distracted. I gave Kanji the shield I had gotten for him, and we were on our way.

The blinding lights and pounding bass made concentrating on the fights harder, but it wasn't overwhelming. After all, Kanji's bathhouse had me sweating all over, and at least it felt like the Marukyu Striptease was air-conditioned, making it more bearable in the summer weather. The Shadows within this dungeon were an eclectic sort: One looked like a sentient strand of DNA, another was a pair of dancing lovers, and another resembled the classical depiction of Cupid. The Shadows had gone past unsubtle and landed safely within shameless territory, but they were but a mere fraction of what we would face later on.

We fought our way though, and I noticed that around this time even the spells we were using were getting stronger. "Take-Mikazuchi! Zionga!" cried out my delinquent kohai, shocking a foe and downing it. "Protect me Tomoe! Rampage!" Chie responded, severely wounding a swath of Shadows.

After a while we ran into more Shadows. "Power! Kouga!" I tried out my new angelic Persona, bolstered with the power from my bond with Nanako. The powerful light magic weakened one Cupid-like Shadow, which gave Yukiko an opening. "Come, Konohana-Sakuya! Maragion!" Her strong fire spell wiped out another group of our foes.

We kept a steady pace, and once we felt ourselves getting fatigued after exploring, I had called the fox, who in exchange of some of our hard-earned yen gave us a bunch of energy-giving herbs. Steeling ourselves further along, we continued into the strip club.

We then ran into a bikini-clad Rise, and from previous experience I knew this to be her Shadow. She continued with the striptease spiel she gave during the Midnight Channel, and I watched as my friends reacted to what was going on. Kanji felt second-hand embarrassment from Shadow Rise's provocative attitude - his own Shadow being just as indecent certainly stuck - and Chie felt gross at the noise of a crowd going wild for the sight of an underage girl undressing herself (though thankfully we hadn't gotten that far... yet). Even Yosuke wasn't amused at this turn of events, and urged us onward within the dungeon to continue our rescue.

We climbed on to another floor, where Rise's Quelorie Magic commercial came on as her inner thoughts. It was clear at this point that the strip club formed as a response to the young idol's struggle to reconcile herself as Risette, the rising star of the entertainment industry, and herself as Rise Kujikawa, an ordinary girl. Fighting off more Shadows, I began to analyze my group's strengths and weaknesses.

Yosuke, even if he wasn't in our frontline at the moment, was a bit of an all-around guy. His specialty offensively was in wind magic, and he had a variety of other abilities such as healing and agility buffs. His weakest point aside from electricity was the fact that he seemed most susceptible to various status ailments, so I thought if there was a way around that.

Chie started off as equal parts ice specialist and melee attacker, but had as of late began to focus on the latter. I began to think about how to offset her increasingly limited magic repertoire, but as it was the martial artist was our best bet against mob Shadows, especially since I saw her kick a few into kingdom come.

Yukiko was our resident mage, to use traditional RPG terms. She could heal better than anyone and her fire and curse spells were our heavy artillery against magic-weak Shadows, but she couldn't take hits as well and her fan-based physicals weren't that effective.

Kanji, of course, was the tank. His electric spells didn't hit as hard as I hoped, but he could take punishment better than any of us and his physical abilities were just as lethal as Chie's, only with him being better against stronger, but fewer foes.

Of course, my role as the Wild Card was to switch between Personae based on the situation, and I kept my rotation based on what I anticipated for our rescue operations. Izanagi stayed by my side, and it was just as big of an all-arounder as I was.

Another Persona I grew fond of at this point was an anthropomorphic jaguar named Ose. It was just as lethal as Chie was in terms of physical attacks, and what's more allowed me to resist physical attacks better. The fact that it shared an Arcana with Izanagi and the Investigation Team was just a bonus.

----​

Eventually we ran into a portal that had Teddie flustered, and we found Shadow Rise in the midst of a dark room. After the Shadow made some innuendos, she then turned on the lights, leaving us in the company of... a very phallic looking snake Shadow with both Mars and Venus symbols around it. Really subtle there, even more subtle than Shadow Kanji and his Pillar Men.

(In case it wasn't obvious, the previous sentence was sarcastic.)

It turned out to be laughingly weak against the Agilaos launched its way by Yukiko and my newly-minted Pyro Jack (or Jack-O'-Lantern, as a friend of mine tells me what they're really named).

Eventually we found ourselves at the top point of the strip club, and we encountered two Rises: one in the bikini, her Shadow self, and another still in the attire of a tofu shop worker, the real one. The Shadow version was also standing awfully close to a stripper pole for our collective comfort, and a part of me wanted to avert my eyes at this wanton behavior. (The hormonal part of me, though? It was... excited, though I did my hardest at this point to suppress it.) Shadow Rise began to taunt her real counterpart by doing a pole dance, and the teen idol was beginning to lose her composure. If even a girl used to presenting a public front (or persona, if you will) was breaking down, then did that mean this Shadow was very strong?

Rise continued to deny that her Shadow, who desired to shed the Risette moniker and show the world who she truly was (for a given value of "truly was") was her. Eventually, she broke.

"Stop, stop it! You're... " the tofu salesgirl called out.

"No! Don't say it!" Chie cried from beside me.

"You're not me!" Rise screamed in anguish.

Here it comes, I thought grimly as Shadow Rise began to mutate into an eldritch blend of psychedelic technicolor, and notably lacked a face, with a radar dish where it should have been. It made lewd moans and gyrated around its pole, images that I'm sure won't be leaving my head any time soon.

I began by trying to weaken it. "Izanagi, Rakunda!" My initial Persona complied, and lowered Shadow Rise's defenses. My friends then continued with their own attacks - Kanji and Chie using physicals, and Yukiko sticking to her magic (though given that Shadow Rise seemed to be less vulnerable to magic, I told her to stick to healing for now). The stripper Shadow seemed content to throw weak attacks at us for the first part of the fight, but as it became more and more weakened from our assaults things began to change.

After I had fired off an Atom Smasher with help from Ose, which downed the Shadow with a critical strike and had allowed us to get off an All-Out Attack, Shadow Rise danced lewdly around its pole and made squishy noises. At this point it was using its Supreme Insight ability, which meant bad news for us.

After that point, our attacks seemed to do nothing against it: It evaded Chie and Kanji effortlessly, and the magic Yukiko and I was using had no effect. The Shadow had in effect managed to analyze us to an absurd degree which meant it could counter every single move we used. Even after switching to my sword it did nothing to help.

We were sitting ducks against the Shadow of a teen idol. Even after I had Yosuke switch in for Chie, his attacks worked for a while until Shadow Rise did its pole dance once more and had Yosuke's abilities worked out. In short, we were doomed unless a miracle happened.

Which was precisely what happened. Teddie, stewing for so long in his inferiority complex, stepped up, told us he was going bear-serk (Teddie, you do realize the word berserk is already rooted in the word bear?), then exploded in a paroxysm of energy that left our ursine guide literally flattened and Shadow Rise greatly weakened. We approached the real Rise, checking on her to see if she was all right, then we watched as the idol girl accepted her Shadow self. "Himiko", Rise whispered as her Shadow became a Persona, but things didn't end just there and then.

Rise was weakened, and we were going to escort her out of the TV just as we did with Yukiko and Kanji, but we failed to account for one little thing.

Teddie, despite being as flat as a piece of cardboard, stood in our way, and spoke in a decidedly not-Teddie voice, chiding us and calling us fools. A Shadow copy of our bear mascot manifested behind him, with yellow, soulless eyes.

Rise began to speak to us as we were facing this uncanny Shadow. Her Persona, Himiko, seemed not to be one suited for direct combat, but like its Shadow self was able to analyze targets and provide us insights for fights. With our former guide out of commission and his Shadow standing in our way, Rise then stood up, Himiko manifesting behind her and giving Rise a visor, and our fight against the nihilistic Shadow Teddie began

 

[rattatatouille]

Imagine this situation: You and a few of your friends are facing a gigantic Freddy Fazbear knockoff who continually spouts nihilistic phrases while a girl you just rescued minutes earlier tries her best to help you out.

That was exactly what was happening while we were facing off against Teddie's Shadow. Somehow, the mascot had developed a Shadow despite only existing within the TV World, and as far-fetched as it was Shadow Teddie would prove to be our most formidable challenge up to that point. Then again, regular Teddie proved to be our MVP against Rise's Shadow, so what do I know?

Shadow Teddie began his onslaught with a Marakunda, and I could feel my resolve waver as the spell lowered our defenses. However, I was ready with a counter of my own. "Matador, Dekunda!" I called on the skeletal bullfighter, who then dispelled the defensive debuff. Yosuke then buffed our speed and Chie gave me an attack boost, as I thought about our next move.

"Yukiko-senpai, watch out! He's going to use ice attacks!" I heard Rise, already pulling her weight with her Persona's scanning abilities. Thankfully, Yukiko had been accounting for her ice weakness, so even as Shadow Teddie sent a Bufula her way she managed to evade it.

I had Kanji tag in for Yukiko, planning to call our healer back in as necessary, and the tall boy summoned Take-Mikazuchi to hit with a hard physical attack. So far, things were going well. Shadow Teddie sent a Mabufula our way, and I had switched to Titania to nullify the attack while everyone else sans Chie defended. Just a few more of this and we had this in the bag...

Then Shadow Teddie began charging up a ball of eldritch energy in its palm. "That doesn't look good, everyone!" I heard Rise, who was serving her role as provisional navigator really well (better than Teddie, I had to admit). If we let that attack hit us, we were toast.

I had Yukiko tag back in, heal up whatever scrapes we had gotten, then as Rise recommended we braced ourselves for impact.

Shadow Teddie's Nihil Hand was a powerful move, but didn't do anything to a well-prepared combatant.

The biggest issue with the mascot's Shadow wasn't that it was particularly intelligent as a foe, but more its raw power. Once we had figured out its attack pattern thanks to Rise's help, the fight went smoothly, as I had Matador revert its debuffs, Titania to nullify ice attacks, and Ose to cut it down with Atom Smashers. Kanji and Chie had also kept up the pressure with their physical strikes, while Yukiko and Yosuke kept us alive.

Shadow Teddie was at death's door when I switched to Izanagi for old time's sake. "Persona! Zionga!" I cried out, finishing off the ursine Shadow with a lightning bolt as it screamed for words that started with F outside of Futile. (I heard Chie distinctly say "fsteak" just as this happened. I think Marie rubbed off on her.)

Our flattened mascot friend then faced his weakened Shadow, created by his nascent ego and identity crisis. Once again, we reassured him that he wasn't alone, and that we'd be there for him as he sought to answer the question of who he was. And right on cue, what remained of Shadow Teddie shone, changing into a sphere with stubby arms and legs and carrying what appeared to be a missile of some sort. "Kintoki-Douji", whispered the mascot as he acquired his very own Persona.

Behind us, Rise slumped to the ground, exhausted after having to face her Shadow, awaken her Persona, and subject it to a baptism of fire.

----​

Just as we left the TV World, Teddie vowed to train hard to make sure he was as strong as we were, and the image of a flattened bear suit doing ab crunches will never not be funny for me. I felt my bond with Teddie strengthen as he resolved to do so.

We then escorted Rise out of the TV, and instead of the girls taking her home as I expected somehow it was left to me to do so. So I did, keeping the tofu girl on her feet as I half-carried her from Junes to the shopping district. It felt strange having a girl cling to me, especially one who happened to be a celebrity.

That evening, I watched as Adachi carried my very drunk uncle into the house, just as Nanako and I had finished setting up for dinner. As I helped the younger detective get Uncle Ryotaro settled on the couch, he told me that the cops had very little progress on the Yamano-Konishi murders, and knowing what I knew of the Japanese justice system, the fact that they hadn't pinned a perpetrator yet was getting on their nerves, both rank-and-file and the higher-ups alike. No wonder my uncle had taken to the bottle. It got to the point where they had to bring in some prodigy detective who was in their teens, from what my uncle then told me, frustrated that he had to work with someone who was probably in their diapers when he was starting out.

(You might know who this prodigy detective is, but I'd rather keep the suspense for a little bit.)

Adachi then escorted Uncle Ryotaro to his futon, leaving me and my little sis confused and wrinkling our nose at the scent of sake.

----​

Saturday was devoted to Drama Club, where after Yumi going extra during rehearsals she left all of a sudden mid-club. Our club president told me that Yumi had gone to the hospital for a family matter, so I decided to follow my friend there and see what the matter was. Yumi's father, who had left her with her mother, had fallen ill with what appeared to be a terminal illness, and the old man wanted to spend his last days with the family he had abandoned. It was to the point where Yumi's mother fell ill too, caring for her estranged husband sunup to sundown (though she would make a full recovery). Predictably, my dramatic friend wasn't happy about this - he had left her and her mother for another woman and wanted back in because he was dying! But all the same all I could do was to be there for her as a friend.

Then came the weekend, and after my weekly patronage of Tanaka's sketchy wares, I decided to spend more time with Marie. Goodness knows how lonely she could have gotten, spending her time with Igor and Margaret. The two of us walked along the riverbank, where I had managed to give out some things from the TV World that random citizens somehow needed, and on the way we ran into Yosuke, who upon realizing that Marie wasn't from Yasogami (he merely assumed she was from another school), helped us go on a tour of the place. Even if it were Sunday, the school was open for a committee meeting, so things worked out for us in a strange fashion.

While exploring Yasogami my friends began comparing notes about their "schools". Marie practically told Yosuke about the Velvet Room, though in such a way that he thought it was a tiny private school and that Igor (whom she called The Nose) was her teacher. And somehow along the way we told her about how human relationships work, so that was a bit surreal.

I had wanted to pay Adachi back for escorting my drunk uncle home the other day, so as evening fell I found him, trying to fend off the kindly old lady who wanted to make him nimono. I proposed that he eat dinner with us at home, and given that the alternative was spending time with a woman he clearly didn't give two figs about, the junior detective chose to have dinner with us.

In hindsight, eating dinner with him at our home wasn't probably the best of ideas, but he seemed sociable enough. But watching Nanako smile at his magic tricks all while she mispronounced "stew" as "shoe" was worth it, especially at the time.

----​

So back to the grind it was the next day, while we waited for Rise to recover, and I spent some time with the fox after playing wish granter, then helped Yosuke out at Junes, where he held off two really obnoxious upperclassmen who wanted all the benefits of a part-time job (i.e. the pay and the prestige) and as little of the work as possible, trying to push it off on my friend. I could tell he was trying not to blow up at the Karens in the making just as their conversation went to Saki-senpai, and I sidled on to him and patted his back, making sure my friend wasn't alone.

That evening I heard more about the hit-and-run case that killed Aunt Chisato from my uncle, who was thankfully sober now. What made the matter worse was that she was run over on her way to pick up Nanako, which may have caused just as big a wound in the young girl just as it did in my aunt's bereaved husband.

After basketball practice I headed down to Aiya with my athletic friends, where we learned about the latest social gatherings Kou had to attend, as he was adopted into a rather prestigious family. It seems my friend had struggles trying to balance his status as a scion of his family (albeit an adopted one) and his life as a basketball player. But all the same, Daisuke and I were going to be there for him.

I then spent some time with Naoki-kun, seeing as he clearly was lonely due to people not giving him the space to grieve properly. We had some food over at Aiya, and I smiled at Aika who was manning the counter that day. The blue-haired girl turned a bit red, strangely enough. (In hindsight, the fact that I was the local school heartthrob should have been obvious, but I was rather poor at handling social cues from the ladies anyway.)

And of course, I got roped into shopping trips with Ai at Okina again. I could feel a sort of affection develop between the two of us at that point, even if I was taken aback at her rejecting a fellow Yasogami student right in his face.

As June ebbed away, I had just finished a strenuous practice with Kou and the rest of the basketball team, and the team had gathered at the foot lockers just as we prepared to head home. Immediately, rumors about the reputation of our sports manager circulated, including her being easy, all the kinds of nasty stuff you hear from kids who don't know better.

The last day of the month came, and I met up with Ai on the school rooftop, as she wanted to talk to me about something. She told me she was in love with somebody, and that somebody happened to be my backcourt mate Kou. She then asked me to ask him what his kind of girl was.

The following day I caught up with Kou in the school hallway, and asked him what kind of girl he liked, then he told me about an athletic young woman with short hair and a small nose. I immediately knew who he was talking about, and as my friend got flustered over telling me he had a crush on Chie I went back up to the rooftop, only to realize Ai had overheard us.

Ai was standing on the edge of the school rooftop, seemingly ready to end it all, when I called out to her and asked her to calm down. She relented, went back over the fence, and she cried her heart out as she told me the rest of her story.

As a kid, she was fat and clumsy, being teased and bullied by her classmates. Then her dad got rich, and Ai decided to go on a diet and research beauty tips, resulting in the pretty, but seemingly shallow girl I knew. But with her being rejected by her crush, she still wanted to go out with someone, and somehow before I could take the words back I volunteered to go out with her.

I was now Ai Ebihara's boyfriend.

 

[rattatatouille]

Even after getting a girlfriend in Ai things didn't really change much. Realizing that I needed to save up money in case we were to go on a date, I decided to visit the daycare the following day. (She might be loaded, but I wanted to be able to foot the bill. That's just being a gentleman.) Of course, that happened to be a day where Eri-san was waiting for Yuuta-kun, and predictably the older woman told me about her wanting to take out her stepson for dinner, in an effort to bond with her. For the most part my part in their relationship up to that point was to serve as a sounding board for Eri-san, and while I could tell she was struggling at least she was doing her best to connect with Yuuta-kun.

Sunday came, and with it my date with Ai. Unsurprisingly we spent our date at Okina, where after doing some shopping at Croco Fur we then had some coffee and snacks at the Chagall Café branch there. Their coffee's great, even if it somehow did funny things to my Personae, and the owner's kinda cool as well. (Though not as cool as this other coffee place smack-dab in the middle of Tokyo. Their coffee's great, and they serve amazing curry as well!)

Physically, we didn't really show much signs we were dating save that we held hands throughout and hugged each other after we separated at the train station. Interestingly, the day was still pretty young despite that, so I went to grab lunch with Yosuke at Junes.

While sampling their new offering of steak and macaroni salad (which was better than I expected), Yosuke once again ran into the duo of ne'er-do-well upperclassmen who proceeded to abuse my friend, haranguing him and basically accusing him of playing favorites, despite the fact that the two ladies were getting kid gloves at this point. It got to the point where they called the departed Saki-senpai names one shouldn't use in polite company, and as I could see my friend almost to the point of tears, I broke.

I fixed them a death glare, and without shouting said in my most venomous tone, "Shut up!" The two were taken aback and Yosuke found the spine to stand up to them as well. He then went into a wonderful defense of his deceased senpai and crush, which reminded me of why Yosuke was one of my best friends. He may be crass and inconsiderate at times, but he's very loyal to the people he treasures, and he'll go to the ends of the earth for them. I comforted him after his outburst, letting him know I had his back.

The next day news of me going out with Ai finally made it to the rumor mill, and the fact that my then-girlfriend not only held hands with me in the corridors but that we also ate lunch together (I even had her sample my cooking. Granted, most of my Yasogami friends have, but still!) pretty much confirmed the stories going around. King Moron gave us a lecture, and put Yosuke on the spot. I had whispered the answer to him and that helped out, but I could see my friend was still pensive from the events of the previous day.

So after school I went with Yosuke to the riverbank, where he reminisced about his memories with Saki-senpai, who took a Print Club sticker with him back when he had just moved to Inaba. He had remained aloof from the town at large, due to seeing him as the Prince of Junes and therefore The Big Enemy Of Inaba's Commerce, but Saki-senpai had befriended him (even if it wasn't a deep bond) and that connection made him feel special. Yosuke then confided in me that in the end, he jumped at doing the investigations just so he could feel special and wanted, especially in a place that he felt had it against him. I felt like I understood my friend much, much more.

----​

Tuesday was spent with the basketball club. During practice Kou and I were matched up against each other, with him guarding me as I isolated behind the three point line. I then heard Ai cheer loudly for me, and with a burst of inspiration I had managed to cross my friend over and got a layup to swish in. I smiled at my girlfriend, thanking her for the boost. After practice, we decided to drop by my house, and naturally Daisuke joined us at the school gate after his football club had wrapped up for the day. So the three of us were in my room, and my friends began to animatedly discuss the significant book collection I had built up over my stay in Inaba. I even recommended a title or two to Daisuke, even if I knew he wasn't much of a reader.

Realizing that the pay I was getting from my daycare job wasn't gonna be enough to cover the costs of dating Ai (and I didn't want to dip into funds I had reserved for TV World exploration), I checked the community board to see if there were any additional part-time jobs available. I did see one that struck my eye - it was as janitor for the Inaba Municipal Hospital. This wouldn't be a big deal on the surface, but a reason it seemed to be ignored until that point was that it was a night-time job, and the hospital was said to be haunted by the spirits of those who passed away there. (What hospital isn't, really?) Anyhow, I decided I was brave enough to risk the spooky atmosphere, and I then sent in my application that day. I did make sure to tell Uncle Ryotaro, to make sure he got my blessing for a night-time job.

After a fruitful session with Hosoi-sensei and his attendant human, I spent the rest of Thursday afternoon with Yukiko, who then went with me to the shrine. She had wanted to pay her respects, and disclosed to me that she would miss the place once she left Inaba. Right there and then, a woman in a neat, but simple kimono approached Yukiko, who introduced her as Kasai-san, one of the waitresses at the Amagi Inn. Kasai-san then mistook me for Yukiko's boyfriend, and somehow I couldn't get in a correction about me dating another girl. (First world problems, I guess?) She was also one of the people who was teaching Yukiko to improve her cooking, and I guess I have to thank her for doing a stellar job on that front. Right before we left for our homes, though, Yukiko mused on how lucky she had it - she had a loving family, the people at the inn who supported her endeavors, and us, her friends, who had her back. She was clearly torn at the prospect of abandoning the people she treasured the most.

That evening, I then remembered I could get started working at the hospital. My shift went well at first, finding the eerie hallways a bit disconcerting, but nowhere near enough to distract me from cleaning up the rooms and corridors. Just as I was finishing up, I overheard a middle-aged doctor and a nurse who looked to be no older than thirty having a rather animated discussion. As they wrapped up their talk, the nurse then approached me and... started hitting on me. She had short, dark hair tied in a short ponytail, and had a beauty mark right below her lip. Rather unnerved by the sudden attention from an adult (it took all my willpower not to scream "stranger danger", especially when one considered all she did was call me cute), I kept mum and headed straight for the locker rooms, and then home.

The following evening, after turning in more fulfilled wishes to the shrine and its fox attendant, I returned to Inaba Municipal once more. Braving the creepy atmosphere of the hospital, I continued my work diligently, when I then encountered Ms Flirty Nurse once more. She introduced herself as Sayoko Uehara, and continued to hit on me, even as I weakly protested I already had a girlfriend. (A part of me thought signing Yosuke up for a job here wouldn't be a bad idea, given his affinity for nurses, but I figured he was already busy enough at Junes to take on another job.) A familiar thrum went through my mind as Sayoko-san smiled at me, and the image of a horned beast with the number XV flashed through my head. "The Devil", the voice called to me from the Sea of Souls. That was strange.

Saturday came, and after spending the afternoon on an impromptu date with Ai at Aiya, where she ate a small serving of dumplings as I finished a regular beef bowl. A bit of me was surprised she agreed to go here instead of at Okina, but I guess this was her idea of humoring me. Thankfully, Aika wasn't around, lest it got awkward; the number of women who had the hots for me had been going up steadily in the last few weeks.

With the weather rather inclement, I decided to check the Midnight Channel that evening, knowing well that with Rise safe and sound it should show nobody, and that everything would be A-OK. To my relief, there was nobody on the Midnight Channel, and I would go to bed safe and sound knowing we had thwarted the killer once more.

Of course, things wouldn't be that simple, and I probably invoked Murphy's Law the night before anyway. The following morning, a dead body was found, hanging from a water tower in the middle of town, seemingly killed in the same manner Yamano and Saki-senpai were earlier that year.

That body happened to be that of Kinshiro Morooka, homeroom teacher at Yasogami High, known to students as King Moron, and a death I found myself mourning surprisingly.

 

[rattatatouille]

The next morning I received a call from Chie, telling me to come to Junes for an emergency meeting. We had already rescued Rise, so I was puzzled at the time as to why we needed to meet ASAP. Nonetheless, I went there as requested, and on the way I noticed police vehicles speeding across the town. Something dire had happened, and we needed to find out.

When I arrived at our usual spot at the food court, Yosuke was out, checking out the scene. After he returned, he confirmed there was a murder, and that it was our homeroom teacher, Morooka aka King Moron, who was the unfortunate victim. We didn't like the guy, but it was shocking all the same for another person we saw on a regular basis to end up dead, and in a similar fashion to the victims who died way back in April of that year.

Something didn't add up, though. King Moron wasn't on the Midnight Channel, yet he was found in a manner like Yamano and Saki-senpai, and he didn't fit the other criteria either like appearing on the television, Midnight Channel or no, or the fact that he was an unattractive middle-aged man, instead of a younger woman with a pretty face. Of course, that eliminated Kanji as a victim, but everyone from Saki-senpai onward was a high school student, and Morooka was only the second adult victim, whether we counted those kidnapped but rescued or not.

A disconcerting theory came to my mind. What if the Midnight Channel appearances were but a distraction? There was a possibility that two people could have been thrown into the TV around the same time, but only one, likely the one with more repressed thoughts and emotions, would be shown on the TV, leaving one at the mercy of the Shadows but without the TV to reflect them. I dismissed the idea, because if it were true then King Moron (or more accurately, his Shadow) would have appeared on the TV and done whatever Shadow selves do after we had gotten Rise out. I tried to get the image of Morooka in old-fashioned undies telling kids to stop making out, but it lingered far longer than I'd like.

Anyhow, there was only one way to confirm whether King Moron was in the TV or not, and that meant a trip to the electronics department to find Teddie in the TV World. However, as we got there, we saw two employees having an animated discussion. Yosuke then pulled rank as Prince of Junes to ask them what was going on, and the Junes workers told him about a strange mascot hanging around the store. Was that who I thought it was?

Turns out, it was. We found Teddie enjoying the services of an electronic massage chair, shaking in comfort as the machine did its work on the living mascot. The surprising part wasn't that he was enjoying the chair, but that he was outside the TV and doing things in our world like it was nothing. Was this part of his awakening to his Persona? Irritated, Teddie pointed out that he came to our side because he was lonely on his side of the TV. If he were lonely during all that time, then that meant no one entered the TV since we got Rise out, and that meant Morooka was never inside the TV World.

That meant only one possibility: There was a copycat killer on the loose.

----​

After Teddie had finished haranguing us about leaving him alone he gave me a pink-framed pair of glasses. These were to be Rise's pair, then. In addition, his experience defeating Shadow Teddie and awakening to his Persona meant that he would now join us on the front lines. That would then mean Rise would serve as our full-time navigator, if she agreed to join us in the Investigation Team.

Teddie then joined us at the food court, where my friends grilled the bear on if he had seen Morooka within the TV. As I had expected, the mascot replied in the negative. Just as the conversation turned to checking on Rise, Teddie then announced he was going to take off his bear suit. The rest of the IT, including myself, did a double take; were we really going to let the mascot scar some unfortunate kid for life by exposing his endless void of an inside? Teddie then reassured us he was no longer hollow, and a part of me wondered what sort of eldritch beast now resided within his suit. Apparently his desire to score with the ladies of the Investigation Team led him on a One Punch Man-like regimen, which somehow created an inner body for the bear. Even past our remaining protests, Teddie chose to go ahead with it anyway.

Teddie then groaned and moaned, acting like he was charging up for something, then loosened the zipper around his neck. Expecting the worst, I had almost averted my eyes, when...

The prettiest boy I've ever seen in my whole life was inside the bear suit formerly known as Teddie. Somehow he had blond hair and blue eyes (which made him stand out; did he think he was in Europe or the US?), and Aerosmith's "Dude Looks Like A Lady" just so happened to play on the Junes PA right at that moment. Feeling thirsty, the former bear took a spare bottle of soda and chugged it down. I swear that right at that moment, I heard a young boy scream from the other side of the food court.

Teddie then somehow created real life bishie sparkles and tried to seduce Chie and Yukiko, pointing out that he wasn't wearing anything beyond his bearth-day suit. (I am so, so sorry to whoever reads this.) The implication that human Teddie was... anatomically correct made me shudder. (Then again, him having Ken doll anatomy would probably have been worse.) The girls then picked him up, helping him shop for a fresh change of clothes. I guess he thought it was tantamount to going on a date with them, then?

----​

That left us guys alone at the food court, and I told them I wanted to drop by Rise and check up on her, grabbing Topsicles from Shiroku on our way there. Chie and Yukiko had now returned, apologizing for their tardiness, and Teddie trailed along behind them, still in human form and wearing an admittedly nice getup of a white collared shirt with a cloth rose woven on to the lapel, dark pants, and a pair of loafers. We had to remind the newly-human mascot that since he was on our side of the TV that he had to reign himself in, and that meant less hitting on our lady members. Yosuke looked like he was about to make a joke at Kanji's expense, but after I gave him a quick glare he decided that discretion was the better part of valor. Chie then made some awfully strange compliments on Yosuke's behalf, and I knew that based on their relationship that meant something was way, way off.

It turned out that Chie had charged the money used to buy Teddie's outfit to Yosuke's account, meaning that my pal would have his pay docked until that was paid off. Even with the antics Yosuke pulled off, this was quite frankly beyond the pale, and I told Chie that was kinda out of line. I gathered the two quarreling lovebirds together with Teddie, and then told them this would happen only this time. As penance, Chie wasn't gonna get steak from Yosuke on his dime until he had finished paying off Teddie's clothes, and that the newly human bear better keep his clothes in tip-top shape as I didn't want my friend to lose whatever sanity he had paying off clothes he never bought for himself anyway.

(Given the amount of crappy behavior between Chie and Yosuke in their high school days, I'm equally impressed and surprised that they've not only largely outgrown their worst tendencies, but that they've actually come to care for each other and they've had a happy marriage thus far.)

Approaching Marukyu Tofu we found Little Boy Blue in front of the store, dressed in summer attire consisting of a light blue shirt and a yellow tie. He introduced himself as Naoto Shirogane, and that he was an investigator looking into the murders here at Inaba. Oh, so that's who Uncle Ryotaro referred to a couple of weeks back then. After asking us some questions about the case, he pointed out that Morooka and Saki-senpai being both associated with Yasogami High was circumstantial rather than meaningful. The strange part was that I didn't find anything wrong with the young detective's deduction - after all, if a tie to Yasogami was all it needed, then surely there were other, more likely targets, right?

As Naoto then left us in front of the tofu shop, Rise came out, dressed in a simple, yet fitting ensemble of an orange sleeveless blouse and white knee-high pants. I had to admit she pulled it off. We admitted we were there to check on her, and she took us to Tatsuhime Shrine, where she told us that all she could remember was that she stepped outside Marukyu only to find herself within the TV world as her next conscious memory. This gave us no clue to whoever the killer was, and she revealed that Naoto had been visiting the shop a few times in the past few days. The young detective had also been asking about me and my friends, but Rise screened us really well, making up rather vague answers to prevent him from cottoning on to the truth. Finally, Rise wanted to thank us for helping her, and putting her on her journey of self-discovery. I then gave her the glasses Teddie entrusted with us, and after explaining how it helped with seeing through the fog in the TV World, we then formally welcomed Rise into the Investigation Team as our full-time navigator.

Yosuke then reminded us that finals were fast approaching, as July would be over sooner than later and with it, the first school semester of the year.

The evening news was about King Moron's untimely demise. I wasn't a fan of the guy, but I had to admit I would miss how he actually cared for his students, albeit in an outdated boomer sort of way. Nanako asked me if the police would catch the killer, to which I assured her they would, and the TV report continued on about how the fuzz were holding on to the Yasogami angle for the case. I'm pretty sure that annoyed the young Shirogane.

----​

That night as I slumbered after this turn of events, I visited the Velvet Room in a dream, with all three occupants there. Igor advised me that he was now going to offer enhanced Persona fusion services, no longer limited to doing triple fusions at most. Apparently, this was as an aid for the mystery I had come to find myself in, and he likely had his higher-up authorize it as I felt we were finding ourselves close to a breakthrough.

Marie then made a rather cryptic comment about joining me and my friends soon, whatever that meant. Margaret looked shocked at this revelation, but the tsundere gave her a look and made another cryptic remark about how "things aren't what they were supposed to be", which quieted down the blonde attendant.

In any case, help from any and all sources would be appreciated, as our investigation would take on a drastic turn from then on.

 

[rattatatouille]

The next day was a Monday, and with Morooka dead that meant Class 2-2 would need a new homeroom teacher. My classmates discussed animatedly at who it could be, then a woman dressed in not-quite-appropriate clothing entered our classroom. Not only did she leave her blouse partly unbuttoned, she also made a point of hugging her arms right below her chest, as if to puff it up. She was already coming on too strongly, in my opinion. The lady introduced herself as Ms Noriko Kashiwagi, our new homeroom teacher, and after trying her best Mrs Robinson impression (not that me or the class liked it, mind you) she then held a brief moment of silence for the departed King Moron. I could already tell that Kashiwagi-sensei thought overmuch of her own sex appeal, and it was this that turned people off from her. I had to admit, she wasn't physically unattractive, but her near-shameless attitude wasn't winning her any favors. (I'm envious of the homeroom teachers my other friends got - and they even established real bonds with them!) The most irksome part was when she badmouthed Rise, calling our idol friend a piece of jailbait when I was expending every bit of self-control to not tell her off for basically hitting on a bunch of minors. (That, and Rise was only a year younger than us. Much less sketchy than an adult woman attempting to seduce teenagers.)

I overheard my classmates then discuss Morooka being a Risette fan (that... wasn't surprising, if a bit hypocritical) and that someone saw Rise during the Marukyu Striptease. (I pinched the bridge of my nose at this, exasperated with the turn of the conversation.)

----​

After school we decided to spend time at Junes, getting the team all together after Rise and Teddie's formal induction. Teddie, of course, was in his human form. Predictably Chie and Yosuke began ribbing each other over their respective test scores, and Rise was happy that she was able to make friends easily at Yasogami, despite her idol background making it hard for people to bond with her.

We were discussing King Moron's death, and by now the rest of the Investigation Team had cottoned on to the fact that everything was fishy. Then Naoto came along, and in his rather socially inept manner told us matter-of-factly that there was no need to keep looking into Morooka's death. I agreed, of course, but he also dropped the bombshell that there was already a suspect that the cops had found, and therefore there was no need for us to look into it. The suspect was a male of high school age, and apparently that was the info Naoto could give us without jeopardizing the investigation. (Of course, Shirogane had to be so smug about it.)

Naoto's frankly patronizing behavior set Rise off, and she proceeded to berate the young detective, exclaiming that our investigation was no game to us. While I had to admit to myself that we were kids who played amateur sleuth, there was the fact that we had managed to rescue three victims from the TV and that without us, Yukiko, Kanji, and Rise would all have died untimely deaths. Of course, I couldn't confess that to a kid who wasn't aware of the TV World. Naoto then left, not having made a great impression on us as the Investigation Team. (In hindsight though, we probably hurt the young detective and contributed to Naoto's later issues. But that's a story for later.)

----​

Tuesday was a rainy day, and I was unceremoniously reminded that final exams would be in a week. Though after that, summer vacation was on the horizon, and aside from homework assigned over the summer break that would mean a month or so free from academic obligations. I might have been a top student, but even I liked being free from school for a time! Plus, third year was next year, and that was gonna be more intense, with a lot of exams designed to measure our aptitude for university-level work. Thankfully, Kashiwagi-sensei was as competent a teacher as she was incompetent a seductress, and her lessons actually stuck in my head.

Afternoon was spent with Ai, where I helped her study for the upcoming finals in the library as we held hands and whispered sweet nothings in between lesson outlines. Somehow, that evening, Adachi was free as well, and I roped him into helping Nanako and I study for our finals. (Not that I needed it as much, but it was a chance at bonding with the junior detective.) Nanako's homework also happened to involve a story about a pink alligator, written by a young author taken away from us too soon. (He was also... a friend of a friend. You'll know what I'm talking about.) All she really needed was proof that she read it with an adult co-signing it. Since Uncle Ryotaro was out on police work... that left his partner as substitute. (Even knowing what we know about Adachi now... I realize that he actually came to care even for Nanako, in his own strange way.)

After a Wednesday at school where Yukiko forced herself under my umbrella on the way to Yasogami and Kondo-sensei mourning King Moron's death while teaching us how a brain freeze works, I then decided to help out my vulpine pal in its quest to get the shrine fixed via me playing genie. Yukiko found me at the shrine, and we hung out, discussing odds and sods. She did bring up that Kasai-san thought we were a couple, and my inability to convince her otherwise made me feel weird, as if I were two-timing between Ai and Yukiko by dating the former and appearing to be dating the latter. In any case, our nice friendship moment was interrupted by the deputy mayor, telling Yukiko that she was due for a TV spot to promote the inn. As he left, however, Kasai-san arrived, telling my friend not to return to the Amagi Inn, as the TV crew who was there wasn't a reputable bunch, but rather the "news of the weird" bunch that harassed us at Junes a while back. And right on cue, the punks arrived at the shrine, calling the Amagi Inn a cursed establishment, and gave Yukiko an offer to make a "reality TV show" about her rehabilitating the inn... and turning it into a house of ill repute. Even if Yukiko was set at the time to leave Inaba, she wasn't going to take badmouthing her family business lying down. The steel hidden behind the silken mien of my friend came out, and told the sketchy news crew to take their ideas and shove them where the sun doesn't shine (in much more diplomatic terms, of course). Part of me wasn't surprised, given that this was the same girl who could destroy a swath of Shadows with fire or curse attacks. In the end, Yukiko Amagi really did love the Amagi Inn.

Seeing as I had most of my studying done at school, I went back to Inaba Municipal to work as a janitor for the night shift, and once more Sayoko-san came in to check on me. She was just as forward as the last time we interacted, and between that and Kashiwagi-sensei being just as forward, I couldn't take the unwanted attention from older women any more. I pleaded Sayoko-san to stop hitting on me, lest I accuse her of sexual harassment, and even if the system wasn't stacked in my favor due to me being a guy, I still didn't feel good regarding that. The surprising part was that Sayoko-san backed down, but didn't get angry or anything. She just told me to continue the good work, and while she went back to her flirtatious self, she never really made any moves on me from that point forward.

Thursday passed without much happening, save me reviewing for exams with Yukiko this time - ensuring I had an academic peer to keep me sharp for the finals. I found time to even cook some karaage for lunch the next day, which I then shared with a grateful Chie. I even spent time with her after school, when her old pal from middle school Takeshi bothered her and basically badmouthed Yukiko in front Chie, claiming that he didn't like it when the inn heiress laughed. This ticked Chie off, and after telling him off my tomboy friend told me the story about how she and Yukiko became friends, involving a dog that the Amagi lass couldn't adopt but that Chie helped her out with it, and from that day on she resolved to protect Yukiko in whatever way she could.

That Friday evening, as I was working at the hospital cleaning things up, I saw an old lady dressed in a black mourning dress, who then looked in my direction and whispered something to herself. (She wasn't a ghost, and spoiler alert, I'd get to know her soon enough.) Of course, Sayoko-san came in and checked on my work, and then bared to me her envy at the younger women around her, but thankfully came short of actually hitting on me this time. It seemed my plea to her stuck.

Over the weekend I decided to study with Kou and Daisuke, finding ourselves at Junes as we pored over mathematics and other subjects in preparation for our exams. Chie and Yukiko dropped by, and Kou finding himself in close proximity to his crush had him flustered. I told the girls they could come study with us, and somehow my tomboy friend thought Kou was into her best friend when it was the exact opposite. So like a gentleman, I naturally had the girls sit beside Kou, with Chie right next to him. The mischievous part of me wanted to see how my basketball team captain, who excelled at most subjects save math, would do while studying beside the girl he liked.

----​

The next day was Monday, Sea Day, and the prelude to the exams taking place that week. I took advantage of the holiday by checking Tanaka's wares after having missed the Sunday show due to exam season, and then found myself meeting up with Yukiko at the shrine. She had come to a decision regarding her future; she was not leaving Inaba after all. It seemed her love for the Amagi Inn, including her family and their staff, trumped her desire to make a fresh start and leave the town she was born and raised in. While it may seem strange for her to ultimately accept the role she was groomed for since youth, the fact that she made the decision on her own, without being pressured into it, was what mattered the most for Yukiko.

And then my heiress friend asked me a rather big question. I was spending a lot of time with her, after all, and she was thinking why that was the case. I then felt time slow to a near glacial crawl, and weighed my options and checked what was in my heart.

Clearly, Yukiko had a crush on me, and there was the fact that shooting her down would hurt her. On the other hand, I already was in a relationship, and despite my reputation around Inaba as a notorious ladykiller I wasn't anything of the sort. (For the record, I've only had two girlfriends, never at the same time, and I didn't even kiss my first girlfriend!). In addition, I was worried about how a relationship would affect the Investigation Team's dynamic, and I decided that Yukiko getting hurt from me friendzoning her would hurt her less in the long run than me reciprocating her feelings and not becoming faithful to her. And the most important part? I didn't really feel we were more than friends. Close friends, certainly, but I didn't think of her as a romantic partner.

Time then resumed its usual pace. I answered her that I spent time with her because she was a really good friend. I saw a frown briefly decorate Yukiko's face, but she quickly regained her composure and left the shrine in a hurry.

Seriously, why did half the women of Inaba start fawning on me in the last month or so? The last thing I wanted to be was a heartbreaker.

 

[rattatatouille]

That evening, with finals on the horizon, I decided to get some last-minute cramming in my room. However, both the fact that I felt I already had a good grasp of the subject material and that the events of the day weighed on my mind made me call it a night earlier than usual.

However, I couldn't fall asleep right away. Yukiko's confession had shaken me more than I expected, and hurting a friend even if it was for her own sake didn't feel right with me. I also reflected on my relationship with Ai, who I'd been dating for the better part of a month already. Did I hurt Yukiko's feelings because I didn't want to betray Ai, or was there another reason I rejected my friend? And where was I in terms of how I truly felt about my girlfriend? Of course I cared for her, went with dates and we even studied together in the school library, but I had a nagging feeling there was something missing in our relationship.

----​

Tuesday arrived, and our five days of final exams commenced in earnest. The answers came to me rather easily, even moreso than our midterm exams. (That was the first time a brain freeze helped me ace a test!) When all was said and done on Saturday afternoon, I breathed a sign of relief as all that was left was our final grades in a week or so. Immediately my friends began comparing notes on how they did, and unsurprisingly both Yosuke and Chie realized they got some answers wrong. Our kohai members of the IT, Kanji and Rise, dropped by class 2-2, and began summarizing their performance as well. Kanji felt he didn't do well, which I ascribe to the traditional school system not quite fitting him (since he's really, really good at sewing and handicrafts) while Rise was a bit like Chie, rather inconsistent in her studies. She's amazing at singing and dancing, but doesn't like English unless it's in song lyrics.

Yosuke then suggested we drop by the Junes food court, seeing as exams had kept us from going there since Teddie's arrival in the real world, so we all agreed and decided to have some snacks there as well. There, we discussed the fact that the police had found a suspect, and right on cue Adachi appeared, made some overly specific remarks about looking for a suspect, then scrammed. (In hindsight, he really was acting overly suspicious.)

I then wondered what Teddie was doing. Was he back on his side of the TV World? Turns out, he was entertaining some children in his bear mascot suit, including a boy who looked to be around eleven or twelve years old with very unruly dark hair. Apparently Yosuke had gotten him a job as the local Junes' mascot (to the point where Teddie gets called the Junes Bear, even in places where he wasn't the mascot). In exchange, Teddie would room with Yosuke, giving him a place to stay in the real world. I wondered for a sec how Yosuke's parents felt about it, and if he had somehow hit on Yosuke's mother in particular.

Yosuke, Kanji, Chie and Yukiko decided to bother Teddie for a bit, which left Rise and I alone at the food court table. I had a sneaky feeling that this would be the birth of a new Social Link since I was spending time with someone I bonded with one-on-one, so I just decided to sit back and watch it all unfold. Rise asked me if I was willing to show her around town, now that she had gotten herself settled in Inaba and needed an escort lest her legion of dedicated fans recognize and mob her. I naturally agreed, seeing that I really wanted to befriend Rise, and once more a card with a heart, a man and a woman with the number VI appeared in my mind. "The Lovers", my vocal guide then said.

An idea quickly came to my head. With Rise's talent at cheering on people and her Persona's ability to pinpoint weaknesses, I asked her if she could use Himiko to amplify our All-Out Attacks, to which my kohai agreed. We basically had an ace in the hole when it came to our forays into the TV World, and I felt like things would go more smoothly from that point.

----​

Sunday came, and while I expected a call from Ai inviting me to Okina for a date I didn't get one, so I decided to spend a day with Rise instead, as I wanted to honor my promise of taking her around town. We decided to stop by Souzai Daigaku for a quick snack, and I watched as Rise tucked into both a steak skewer and a steak croquette. She bared to me how her parents were rather strict and didn't really let her go around town, which explained why she wasn't really familiar with the place.

Monday came, the moment of truth. Just as I was heading towards the board with the exam results, Ai cornered me for a moment, asking me if I loved her and if I needed her. While I naturally confirmed it, a part of me wondered if this was her truly affirming her love, or a sign of our relationship taking an unexpected turn. She normally wasn't this lovey-dovey after all. In any case, I checked out the exam scores, hand in hand with Ai, and I found myself... on top of the entire second year ranking. Everyone was impressed with how I did, especially my school friends.

Of course, since summer vacation was around the corner, we discussed a trip to the beach as one of our plans for August, and especially if we found downtime from our Investigation Team work. Yosuke and I already got our bike licenses, and Kanji was still too young, so that left the girls. Chie and Yukiko could already get theirs no problem, since they were around the same age as Yosuke and I, while Rise could also apply for one since she had already turned sixteen at the beginning of June, even before she returned to Inaba. Rise then brought up the fact that she and the other girls would all be in swimsuits, and being her flirtatious self asked me who I'd like to see in a swimsuit the most.

Without batting an eyelash, I immediately answered Kanji. (Seeing the look on everyone's faces, especially the flustered delinquent, was priceless.)

With school over and done with I decided to meet up with a friend I hadn't talked to in a while, Naoki-kun. The fact that I was probably his only friend who talked to him because I liked being around him as opposed to pitying him for his sister's death helped as well, and my kohai bared his concerns as he shared stories about him getting unwarranted special treatment. Of course, some gossipy housewives happened to pass by us at Souzai Daigaku at that moment, and their talk naturally turned to Naoki-kun's family tragedy. It reminded me uncannily of the time Yosuke had to deal with those troublesome senpai of ours, but I reassured Naoki-kun I'd be there for him.

As a reward for acing my exams, Nanako gave me a well-made paper armband. Somehow wearing it made my Personae feel more powerful, which was a nice reward from my little sis.

The next day, Tuesday, was our actual last day of the term, which would be an assembly in the auditorium. The last time we had an assembly was to announce Saki-senpai's untimely demise, so I hoped this one would be a far more mundane one despite King Moron's death, and thankfully it was. I spent the afternoon with Yumi at the hospital, where she vented out her anger at her father for leaving her family then returning just as he was dying. I felt all I could do for her was to be her sounding board, and somehow she really appreciated it.

----​

That evening, with the inclement weather, I decided to check out the Midnight Channel, in case it might give us a lead in terms of pinning down the suspect. To my shock, someone appeared, a young man in a plain outfit in front of what appeared to be a retro gaming level. Said young man then taunted the viewers and challenged us to catch him. Whoever this was, he was clearly inside the TV World, and somehow I felt like I had seen him before. Yosuke then called me up, saying he didn't recognize the weird boy, then was interrupted by Teddie, who seemed to have a eureka moment regarding the Midnight Channel broadcasts. Apparently, no one was recording the thing; it was ultimately the suppressed emotions of a person inside the TV world that created the images we saw on our TVs. I then got a call from Chie after Yosuke hung up, and resolved to help us get to the bottom of the case.

Thus we began our first day of summer vacation at the food court once more, sharing what we thought of the odd young man who had appeared on the Midnight Channel the night before. Something told me it was a very different scenario than what had happened with Yukiko, Kanji and Rise, seeing as the high-school aged boy didn't appear on the TV shows before appearing inside the TV. Which meant there was a good chance he was the killer, and Yosuke presented his hypothesis: The boy, whom he called Shin, somehow gained the power to kill people by throwing them into the TV. He would have succeeded with his first two victims, but his next few targets then all appeared alive and well. King Moron was a special case, since he didn't appear to be killed via the TV World, and that had reignited the case and made "Shin" a target for the police. With no further methods of escape, "Shin" then would go into the TV himself and hide there until nobody could pin the murders on him any more.

That seemed a solid idea, but I had a feeling we were chasing a false lead. Nonetheless, it did appear consistent with the evidence that we had thus far, so I agreed to use it as our working hypothesis. Either way, we'd only glean the truth once we entered the TV World, nabbed this "Shin" guy, and get the facts out of him. Pretty simple plan, right?

That evening, I decided to work at the hospital again, where I ran into the old lady in black once more. She told me I reminded her of someone she once used to know, and told me she'd be at the Samegawa Riverbank on her free days, in case I wanted to talk to her. Of course, right after she left, Sayoko-san came around the corridor and was acting a bit strangely. She was a bit more forceful than usual, and as I cleaned a recently vacated room at her behest she began to tell me the story of the room's last occupant, a company president who was very much a model patient up until the day he was finally discharged. It was there I saw another side of the nurse I worked with - aside from being a wannabe seductress, she really came to treasure her patients and felt really sad when they left the hospital.

In need of a lead, I decided to check around for a proverbial thread to spot, running into Adachi at Junes. While protesting he knew little about the investigation, he let slip that the suspect had been working as a part-timer at the shopping district. I went through the shops in my head, checking by process of elimination where to go. Daidara, Shiroku and the hobby shop were out, since they didn't seem to employ anyone else other than themselves. Marukyu, Tatsumi Textiles, and Konishi Liquors were out, since Rise's grandmother, Kanji's mother and Naoki-kun's parents would have mentioned if they had gotten some help to my friends. Aiya was also out, since the Nakamura family operated the business on their own, and somehow Aika was doing all the spare work that didn't involve cooking or cleaning the store. That pretty much left Souzai Daigaku as the only notable store that could have employed a part-timer. En route to the street food shop Marie came to me from her usual spot beside the Velvet Room door, and decided to join me as I asked around the store about a part-timer student who might have worked there. The shop owner told me she had indeed taken a student as a part-time worker, who she tasked with cutting the meat, but he had grown bored of the work and quit after a time. The only other details she could provide me were that he had black, soulless eyes, and that he was recommended to the job by a friend of his in middle school.

I then went around to look for the middle school classmate of our suspect, and just as I was about to go around Inaba for the guy Marie took me aside and told me, "Take me with you the next time you go into the TV, stupidjerkface". My eyes bugged out in surprise as I realized Marie knew what we were doing and wanted to be a part of it.

Summer vacation had just begun and events would indicate that this was anything but a normal summer break.

 

[rattatatouille]

I carefully weighed my words as I took in Marie's proposal. How did she know what we were up to in the TV World? Then I realized where she lived for the most part, and that her handling my skill cards definitely meant she knew what we were doing. So I agreed, reluctantly, hoping she had a way to defend herself and account for not having a Persona. I then asked her what she could do in the TV World, and after getting a glare from the tsundere she hefted her bag and almost caught me in the gut with a swing from it.

That wouldn't be the most improbable weapon our gang had used so far - granted, only Yosuke and I used conventional weapons, with Chie using shoes and boots, Yukiko her fans, and Kanji whatever heavy object he could get his hands on. With that said, I then called up everyone, telling them to assemble at the Junes food court for a quick meeting, citing that I had a lead on who the suspect was.

We then all met at the food court, Marie included, and after making a brief introduction (since most of my friends already knew who she was) we commenced the quick meeting. I had told them my findings and requested everyone to tell me if they had encountered our suspect's classmate. And then I dropped the bombshell of Marie knowing about our exploits and desire to join our little group.

I read the room and observed everyone's reactions. Yosuke and Kanji seemed to accept it the easiest. Chie looked shocked, while Yukiko was admittedly more reserved but subtly looked surprised as well. Teddie had an enigmatic smile on his face, then began looking over Marie. What surprised me the most, however, was that Rise was staring daggers at the Velvet Room resident as if both girls were somehow vying for my attention. (I should have seen that coming, honestly.)

In any case, we decided to drop into the TV World and orient Marie on the situation. It was also a good time for us to check on what Teddie's Persona abilities were, so I was basically killing two birds with one stone. Teddie then asked his "Emmy-chan" if she needed a pair of glasses to see through the fog, but to my surprise Marie told him she didn't need one. (I thought it was Velvet Room magic, but that wasn't the case. I'm getting ahead of myself though!) I then asked Rise if she could guide us to the Marukyu Striptease, seeing as the place was right around our team's strength and we didn't know how to get to the suspect's dungeon, and while embarrassed she eventually agreed.

We then went through the strip club dungeon for the second time, with Teddie and the girls in our frontline while Yosuke and Kanji stayed in the rear to protect Rise and Marie. "Kintoki-Douji! Bufula!", cried out the bear mascot as he froze a Shadow that Chie then punted into oblivion. So it seems he'd be our long-term ice user, seeing as Chie began to focus Tomoe on deadly physical attacks. We didn't get out unscathed, though - a group of Shadows had somehow gotten the jump on us, and while we did win the fight, I could feel a few bruises forming on my body. Thankfully, Teddie was a pretty good healer too, second only to Yukiko in that regard. Unlike Chie however, his main weakness seemed to be electric attacks, as I learned when he got hit by a stray Zionga.

We also learned about Rise's abilities; in addition to scanning for enemies, she could from time to time conjure up buffs that strengthened the party, and while she couldn't always do it due to her primary priority being navigation, that was certainly a big help while going through a dungeon.

A few floors in, however, we ran into an unexpected snag. In the confusion of a Shadow fight, Marie had somehow gotten separated from us and the next thing we knew, she was facing a doppelganger of herself. So even she had a Shadow of her own then. What was strange was the way the Shadow was dressed - thus far, the Shadows we encountered either looked identical to the original (Yosuke, Chie), wore outlandish outfits due to being the subject of a Midnight Channel documentary (Yukiko, Kanji, Rise), or were off-model counterparts of the real thing (Teddie). Shadow Marie looked similar to her typical self, but was dressed in an off-white cloak and her gray-green eyes looked like they glowed.

Shadow Marie told her, as Shadows tend to do, that she not only wasn't supposed to be there but that she was using me in particular get back something that she didn't have. The Shadow continued, speaking about how making friends was pointless because it wouldn't matter in the end, that Marie would be all alone regardless of what she did. And finally, Shadow Marie finished her taunt with a saying that didn't make sense to us at the time, but definitely did now: "You're just trying to make friends to make yourself complete, you malformed freak!"

To my lack of surprise, Marie denied her Shadow.

Then her Shadow mutated into a strange version of my tsundere friend, turning into a 4 meter high giantess dressed in a straitjacket and with long, flowing hair and glowing green eyes.

Rise helped us start off the fight by scanning Shadow Marie, telling us that the giant Shadow had no weaknesses but no resistances either. So we began by using our hardest hitting attacks, with me using Ose's Atom Smasher alongside Yukiko's Agilao and Teddie's Bufula. Things seemed to work fine at first, but Shadow Marie then glowed like a rainbow and Teddie's ice attacks no longer worked. I then had an idea, switching in Kanji for Teddie, then had him deliver an expressly made Zionga courtesy of Take-Mikazuchi. The surprising part was that it knocked down the Shadow, and I then called for an All-Out Attack, with Rise's boost helping it deal severe damage. Shadow Marie glowed again, and I asked Rise to confirm my hunch. She confirmed that Shadow Marie could change her weaknesses and resistance on a whim, making her far less predictable than, say, Shadow Teddie. Rise then warned me about some unfamiliar attacks from the Shadow, as I suddenly felt a sharp pain in my head that could only have come from a psychic attack. I had distinctly heard the Shadow chant "Psio!" as that happened, then as we were scrambling around I then heard the Shadow say "Mafreila!" as we were bombarded by what seemed to be a burst of nuclear energy, that was somehow different from the Megido attacks I had Izanagi learn to use.

Thankfully I had the foresight to change Personae as needed and to switch my team in and out of the lineup to deal with this, as I swapped in Yosuke for Chie to take advantage of a point where Shadow Marie looked like she was weak to wind. The two of us managed to combine a Garula attack, the boosted wind spell coming from Jiraiya and Titania's cooperation. It was then when Shadow Marie pulled out her big move, casting Hot Lightning which somehow hurt even as I switched to Izanagi to take the blow. Teddie (who I switched in for Yukiko again) had healed us up, then I gave the call for an All-Out Attack after another combined Garula finally knocked the straitjacketed Shadow down. This, however, wasn't enough to fell Shadow Marie, and I saw Yosuke and Teddie give each other a look as they summoned Jiraiya and Kintoki-Douji, who then summoned a giant Teddie-shaped bomb that exploded, finally felling the Shadow.

With Shadow Marie subdued, we watched as Marie faced her own self. Even as she accepted her Shadow, the doppelganger made a cryptic remark that this was not yet over, and as the Shadow turned into a Persona I could feel the fog get a bit thicker as it rushed out of the new Persona. "Ame-no-Uzume", said my tsundere friend as she gained a new power of her own, in the form of a woman in a kimono with a fan covering her face and fans in both hands.

We then escorted Marie out of the TV, Chie and Yukiko supporting her, and I decided to accompany her to the Velvet Room entrance as our investigation took the strangest turn it had so far. I was too tired to do anything that evening, so I just took a shower and headed for my futon for the night.

----​

The next morning we resumed our search for a lead on the suspect. A young man around my age, who seemed to fit the description of our suspect's classmate, and as I asked him he pretty much confirmed my assumption. He showed me a picture of his class yearbook, and pointed out a dark-haired boy with black, soulless eyes who looked vaguely familiar. The youth was named Mitsuo Kubo, and I asked if I could take a picture of the suspect's photo, to which Kubo's classmate agreed.

With that being said, however, I wasn't about to go into the TV World immediately after our adventure the previous day, so I spent my time working at the daycare and looking after the children, especially Yuuta-kun. Eri-san came earlier than usual, but was exasperated about her stepson ghosting her again, grumbling that she missed her TV show for the sake of picking him up early. She also told me about the marvels of modern technology, and that she was interested in a self-help movement that basically preached predestination as its main tenet, to the point where people should just let fate run its course. (Reminds me of the events in Tokyo five years after my stay in Inaba, but I digress.)

I then worked the evening shift at Inaba Municipal again, and as Sayoko-san dropped by for her usual inspection she looked to be in a fouler mood than her usual self. She groused about how someone had snapped at her and called her names (Took them long enough, I guess), and explained to me that she entered into a relationship with a doctor at her previous hospital, only for it to end badly when she learned said doctor was already married, and that the doctor then chose to start a fling with yet another nurse. Homewrecker she might be, but having an affair with a serial philanderer wasn't a good idea to begin with. It was at that moment that I saw just how vulnerable Sayoko-san really was, and as I attempted to cheer her up she smiled at me.

The next day was Chie's birthday, and to celebrate the occasion I dropped by her place and gave her a nice pair of well-crafted shoes with customizations by Daidara. Thanking me for the gift, we spent the morning together and found ourselves roaming Inaba. We came across a bunch of bullies picking on a kid, and Chie managed to scare them off. I commended her on doing the right thing, and after a moment my tomboy friend told me she wanted to protect me just as she did the kid. Was this another girl confessing her crush to me in such a short span of time? Again, I didn't see Chie as more than a close friend, and besides, I thought she might be better off with someone whose name started with the letter Y. (Either choice worked in my head.) So I patted her shoulder, told her I was counting on her, and we saw each other off near her house. Chie took it in better stride than Yukiko did, thankfully.

It was still pretty early, so I headed on to the daycare again, helping around and making sure the kids didn't hurt themselves. As Eri-san came to pick up her stepson, the boy was once again vehement in his rebellion, and his stepmother finally got fed up with his impertinence and walked off, alone. I decided to help Yuuta-kun walk his way back home, asking him for directions, which took us to Samegawa Riverbank where Eri-san was waiting at the pavilion. Yuuta-kun then frowned, thinking that Eri-san hated him, but I reassured him otherwise and I decided to help mother and son reconcile. It would take a lot of effort on both of their parts, but I felt we were getting somewhere that day.

I then spent the evening working on a mecha model I had received from the hobby shop manager during my morning walk with Chie, and perhaps not coincidentally I had gotten an ema from the fox about a flagging store in the shopping district that wanted to see someone build a model with passion.

Sunday morning, I found the old lady in black from the hospital at the riverbank, looking rather pensive. I introduced myself, and she recognized me as well. We decided to talk things over, as I realized that perhaps the reason she invited me was to have someone to talk things with. She introduced herself as Hisano Kuroda, a longtime resident of Inaba, and she smiled as I told her my story of moving to the town after spending most of my life in big cities. As we wrapped up our talk, however, a now-familiar voice announcing "Death" thrummed in my mind, accompanied by a skull and the number XIII.

July came to an end, and as August began I finally felt it was time for us to enter the TV, get Rise to pinpoint this Kubo kid, and hopefully get a fully recovered Marie to fight by our side.