Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Sometimes, life just wants to screw you over.

Mariko “Marie” Narukami had learnt that one the hard way.

For instance, her parents were never around. Ever. They were always at work somewhere, which left Marie behind to do whatever she pleased. This usually consisted of writing poetry and playing American punk rock so loud that the neighbours complained.

They also liked to move around a lot. Like, at least once a year. Again, this was because of their work. Marie got dumped in a hotel or sometimes a cheap apartment and off they would go.

She was used to this. It even had its advantages. She got to do whatever she liked at home and no one would shout at her for it. She could stay up all night and eat whatever she fancied. This was usually takeout, or sometimes ice cream out of the tub. No one could stop her. And while it did get lonely, she didn’t really know her parents well enough to miss them.

So, of course, life decided to screw her over by sending her to the middle of nowhere to live with her uncle for a year.

He was a cop.

And so the days of ice cream and loud music were over, at least while she was in… what was it called? “Inaba”?

Who the hell ever heard of Inaba?

--

Her cop uncle, as it so happened, was a gruff-looking guy with an adorable little daughter.

“Well, you’ve grown a lot since I last saw you.” He smiled at her. “I’m Ryotaro Dojima. Let’s see… I’m your mother’s younger brother, and that about sums it up.”

Marie forced a smile back. “Hi.”

Things were tense for a moment.

“This here’s my daughter,” Dojima said, pushing the little girl forwards. “Come on, Nanako, say hi to your cousin.”

Nanako looked like she was about six and had brown hair in adorable little bunches. Marie had the sudden urge to pinch her cheeks. She also didn’t seem to be able to look her cousin in the eye.

“…’lo.”

With that, Nanako ran back behind her dad and buried her face into his leg. It didn’t work – Marie could tell that she was neon red. It was even more adorable than before.

“What’re you so shy for?” Dojima laughed and ruffled Nanako’s hair. She pouted and smacked him on the leg. “Well, let’s head home. My car’s over there.”

Dojima led Nanako off. Marie followed for a couple of steps –

“You dropped this.”

She stopped and turned. A tall boy with – of all hairstyles – a silver bowl cut was standing there, holding a piece of paper out to her. His expression was totally blank, like there wasn’t a thought in his head.

Marie snatched the paper off him. Thankfully, it wasn’t her pathos, it was just Dojima’s address.

“Thanks.”

The boy nodded at her and walked off aimlessly. Marie stared after him. He was walking like he had no clue where he was going. Maybe to those vending machines…? Nope, he walked right past them.

“Hey, what’s the hold up?”

--

Marie’s first proper glimpse of what Inaba was like came when they stopped at the gas station so Nanako could go to the toilet. Marie got out to stretch her legs.

The air was clear and crisp. The weak April sunlight warmed her slightly. She could see a couple of people milling around the shopping district, like a pair of quarrelling siblings, and – was that the guy from the station? It didn’t even look like he’d managed to walk into something on the way here, which with that dazed look he had was impressive. Marie was almost proud.

The faded look in your eyes.

Do you see what I don’t?

Can you teach me to look beyond the veil of this world

Into one a little more fun?

“Are you a high schooler?”

Marie was pulled out of her composition by the gas station attendant. He was a slim man with short, choppy black hair and dull black eyes.

“Does it surprise a city girl to see how little there is out here?” There was a wry smile on the attendant’s face. “There’s so little to do, I’m sure you’ll get bored fast. You’ll either be hanging out with your friends or doing part-time jobs – speaking of which, we’re actually looking for part-time help right now.”

The attendant walked over, still smiling, though it seemed a little more genuine now.

“Give it some thought, why don’t you? We don’t mind if you’re a student.”

“Um. Sure, thanks.”

Marie took the attendant’s offered hand and shook it.

“Oh, I better get back to work.”

The attendant dropped her hand and ran off to fill Dojima’s car. Marie leant against it and stared up against the blue sky. There were grey clouds rolling in from the distance. It was going to rain later, she figured.

All of a sudden, the sky above was spinning. Marie slumped against the car and dropped her head into her hands.

“Did you get carsick? You don’t look so good…”

She looked up, head thumping, to see Nanako staring at her.

“I think it’s just the long journey,” Marie said. “Don’t get so worried.”

“Okay…”

--

The Dojima household was a small one, but Marie was so used to hotel rooms and apartments that actually living in a house was novelty. She soon got her things unpacked, with help from her new housemates, and got her room to her satisfaction. It was bigger than she was used to, with a desk and a table, a comfy sofa, and even a shelf for her to stick things on.

Downstairs was, to be honest, mostly brown. It was okay, though. The cushions around the living room table were comfy enough, and they were right next to the TV when they ate. Marie could handle that.

Admittedly, the shop-bought instant meal was a bit of a let-down, but it wasn’t so bad. It tasted good, and Dojima’s idea of a toast was quite sweet. Marie even felt a bit welcome by the time the phone rang.

“Ugh, who’s calling at this hour?”

Dojima took his phone out of his pocket and got up, walking off a bit to answer it.

“Dojima speaking… Yeah? I see… So where is it? …I’m on my way.” He closed his phone and sighed. “Looks like I made the right call to skip the booze.”

Marie raised an eyebrow.

“Sorry, but I gotta take care of some business. Go ahead and eat without me.”

Nanako stood up as if she was about to protest, but her father beat her to it.

“I don’t know how late I’ll be. Nanako, you help her out, okay?”

“…Okay.”

Nanako sat back down as her father got his shoes and left. The door opened, and the sound of pattering rain quickly filled the small house.

“Nanako, it’s raining out. What did you do with the laundry?”

“I already brought it in!”

“All right. Well, I’m off.”

The door closed. A moment later, Marie heard the sound of a car starting and driving off. It soon faded, to be replaced entirely by a very uncomfortable silence. Nanako mercifully broke the silence by turning on the TV. The weather, it seemed, was going to be very wet for a while.

Nanako turned back to her food.

“Let’s eat.”

The awkward silence continued after that. Marie poked at her meal aimlessly while Nanako sat glued to the TV.

“…It must be tough.”

Marie kicked herself internally for that. How smooth! Luckily, Nanako didn’t seem to notice.

“It’s always like this. My dad’s a detective.”

A jingle chimed. The weather program was over.

“And now, the local news. City council secretary Taro Nametame is under fire for an alleged relationship with a female reporter. His wife, enka singer Misuzu Hiiragi, revealed to this station that she will likely pursue damages.”

That didn’t seem fair on the station to Marie. Hiiragi was suing them? Surely the secretary was the one at fault…

“In response, Eye Television has decided to cancel all of announcer Mayumi Yamano’s televised appearances. Until allegations of an affair with Mr Nametame are confirmed, she’ll remain off the air and out of the public eye.”

“This is boring.” Nanako clicked the remote and changed the channel. The audio burst into an overly cheery jingle that Marie was almost certain she recognised…

“At Junes, every day is Customer Appreciation Day. Come see for yourself, and get in touch with our products.”

Oh, god no.

“Every day’s great at your Junes~!”

Marie’s annoyance at the always-irritating Junes theme song was broken when Nanako, inexplicably, began singing along.

“Every day’s great at your Junes~!”

There was such a happy look on her face that Marie decided to not say anything about her personal dislike of the rampant consumerism encouraged by businesses such as Junes. That was a complaint for another day, or another placard.

--

After dinner, Marie helped Nanako wash up and went to bed. She hadn’t told her uncle, but her head was still thumping from earlier. She did not need to get sick on her first day at school. That would be awful.

Sleep came mercifully quickly.

What came next was not as merciful.

Marie opened her eyes to find herself standing in the midst of a fog-filled plain. She could barely see her own hands in front of her face. There was a red path ahead of her, but no other features of the landscape popped out. The fog was way too dense.

She took a few steps forwards, curious.

“Do you seek the truth?”

“If it’s truth you desire, come find me…”

Marie looked around, but still only saw the red path. So, she decided to walk down it, purposely walking slowly in an attempt to piss off the mysterious voice.

Eventually, she came to a strange, red-and-black door. Something about it made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up – but it was just a dream, right? She stepped through it…

There was a sword in her hands and a vague figure ahead of her.

“So… you are the one pursuing me. Hmhmhm. Try all you like…”

Marie rolled her eyes.

“What is your problem?”

Largely on instinct, she swung the sword. The balance was perfect in her hands. It sailed right through the foggy figure. Unfortunately, the figure didn’t seem to notice what she’d done.

“Hmmm. It seems that you can see a little, despite the fog. I see... indeed, that is very interesting information, but you will not catch me so easily. If what you seek is "truth," then your search will be even harder.”

A strange aura radiated from the figure, red-and-black, and then the fog got even thicker. Marie squinted but couldn’t see a damn thing. She clenched her hands around the sword and swung again with a yell. Again, it sailed right through the figure, but this time the hit was even more insubstantial.

“Everyone sees what they want to, and the fog only deepens. Will we meet again...? At a place other than here...? Hmhm...I look forward to it.”

The world span, and went black.

Chapter Text

The door to the classroom swung open with a bang. Everyone looked up, saw who it was, and went back to whatever they were doing. Rise Kujikawa stumbled through the classroom, sank into a seat by the only people in the school who remotely liked her, and put her head down on the desk.

Naoto Shirogane raised an eyebrow.

“Bad morning, Rise-chan?”

“I flipped my bike,” she groaned. “I was trying to avoid hitting someone…”

Naoto winced.

“Any major damage?”

“To my dignity, yeah…”

Naoto thought it would be best to leave her be, and turned just in time to see her best friend being harassed by a classmate of theirs. Kanji Tatsumi tended to make people nervous, though it wasn’t exactly his fault.

“Um, Tatsumi-kun,” said their classmate, “I heard, isn’t that announcer staying at your place?”

“Uh… I can’t talk about that. Sorry.”

“Man, really?”

The guy walked back to his seat, just as the door swung open. Naoto sighed. They weren’t in the habit of judging people by their appearance, but they had heard all too much about Kinshiro Morooka to be so kind. He was, apparently, as foul on the inside as on the out. Trailing behind him was exactly the sort of person who would piss him off royally – a teenage girl with striped thigh-highs, huge boots (not dress code) and a sour look on her face.

“Awright, shut your traps!” Mooroka shouted. Everyone settled into place and paid attention, except Rise, who was still faceplanting on her desk. “I’m Kinshiro Morooka, your homeroom teacher from today forward! First things first! Just 'cause it's spring doesn't mean you can swoon over each other like love-struck baboons. Long as I'm around, you students are going to be pure as the driven snow!”

He glanced at the girl next to him, who looked like she’d rather be anywhere else in the world.

“Now I know all of you went to the same middle school, but we have a transfer student. This brat’s been thrown from the big city out to the middle of nowhere like yesterday's garbage. So you boys better not get any ideas about hitting on her, just ‘cause she’s a fancy city girl. Tell ‘em your name, brat, and make it quick.”

The girl’s eyebrows had nearly flown off her face, she’d raised them so high. She glanced up and down at Morooka disapprovingly, and answered not with her name, but with:

“Are you calling me a loser?”

The entire class froze. Naoto thought they heard Rise gasp behind them. Morooka’s face pulled into a snarl.

“Hmph. That’s it, you’re on my shitlist, effective immediately.”

Morooka’s shitlist, perhaps, but Naoto felt nothing but respect for this girl. Well, perhaps a bit of pity – she’d just made this year a lot harder for herself.

“Now listen up! This town is miles away from your big city of perverts and assholes, in more ways than one. But don’t think that your big bad city girl antics are gonna fly here! But what do I know? It's not like the old days. Even here, kids grow up so damn fast. Every time I turn my back, you're fooling around on those damn phones, checking your life-journals and your my-places...”

Naoto couldn’t take it anymore, and they had a feeling that the transfer student was about to say something else to get even further on the bad side of Morooka. They put their hand in the air.

“Excuse me, sir, but perhaps the transfer student could sit here?”

Morooka stopped ranting and looked up.

“Hm? Yeah. You hear that, your seat’s over there. Hurry up!”

The girl walked over and sat down hard in the seat. She shot Naoto a thankful look. Naoto returned a sympathetic one.

“Bad luck for us to get him on our first day,” they said.

“Shut your traps! I’m taking roll!”

Rise groaned behind them.

--

“That’s all for today. Normal lectures will start tomorrow.”

Marie had never been so glad of anything in her entire life. Morooka was awful. She hoped the other teachers weren’t like this. Her first day of high school, and it was already a disaster.

The day hadn’t even started well. Dojima had been out, and then Marie had nearly been hit by a schoolgirl on a creaky bike. The girl had swerved to avoid her, smacked into a bin, and gone flying. Marie would’ve stopped to check, but she had to get to school quickly. No sense being late on the first day. In retrospect, that had been a good idea – pissing off Morooka further would not have been good.

Students around the room got up and started talking amongst themselves. Marie started stuffing her things into her bag and started trying to remember the way home.

“Attention, all teachers. Please report immediately to the Faculty Office for a brief staff meeting. All students must return to their classrooms and are not to leave the school until further notice.”

Oh, come on! Marie groaned as Morooka stormed out. She pulled out a notebook and started scribbling.

Hey, hey, why’s the man gotta hold us down?

Hey, hey, why can’t we clown around?

Forget about society, let’s just break free

The rules don’t gotta matter to folks like you and me

Life don’t gotta suck, hey, let’s just rock

Hmmm. Was that too overwrought? Nah, it was a pure expression of her pathos, it worked. So what rhymed with “rock”…?

“Attention, all students.” Was this place actively trying to break her concentration?! “There has been an incident inside the school district. Police officers have been dispatched around the School Zone. Please stay calm and contact your parents or guardians as soon as possible, and quickly leave the school grounds. Do not disturb the police officers. Head directly home.”

All around her, people broke into speculation about this incident. Students had gathered around the windows, staring out into the fog in an attempt to see anything juicy. Marie shoved her book into her bag and got up to go home.

“Excuse me.”

Marie’s new deskmate had walked up to her. They were wearing a blue zip-up jacket and what looked like a ski cap. Standing next to them was a very tall boy with black hair, glasses and a rough-looking jacket.

“Are you going home alone?” they asked. “You’re new in town, aren’t you? Perhaps you’d like some help getting home? Oh – I’m Naoto Shirogane.”

“Marie Narukami,” Marie replied. “And, sure, I guess.”

“Nice to meet you,” Naoto said. “This is Kanji Tatsumi.”

“Uh,” Kanji stumbled on his words. “Nice ta meet you. Sorry if we bothered you.”

“Kanji-kun! There’s no need to apologise.” Naoto shook her head.

“Ummmm, Naoto-kun?”

It was the girl on the bike! She wasn’t on the bike anymore, though, and she didn’t seem to be hurt, though there was a worried expression on her face. She had red-brown hair in bunches and a pair of headphones slung around her neck. In her hands was a DVD case.

“This was so coooool, Naoto-kun,” she said quickly and with a very fake smile. “Like, I felt like I was five again, it was really great to watch.”

She quickly pressed the DVD into Naoto’s hands.

“And I’m really really sorry! Please don’t kill me! I promise I’ll pay you back!”

With that, the girl turned to leave at high speeds. Naoto’s eyes narrowed.

“Oh, no you don’t! What did you do?”

What happened next was almost too fast for Marie to see. Naoto launched themselves over the entire row of desks to cut Rise off, legs lashing out far further than they should have been able to and hitting the fleeing girl right in the calves. The force knocked Rise to the floor, but Naoto landed perfectly on their feet. They opened the DVD and gasped.

“Kujikawa! My Neo Featherman Ranger R-Evolve The Movie! How did it get this cracked?!”

“I think you cracked my leg bones!” Rise whined, rubbing her legs. “Overreaction much?!”

Kanji stepped closer nervously, Marie in tow.

“Uh, you okay, Rise-san?”

“She’s fine.” Naoto snapped the case shut. “Let’s go, you two.”

Naoto turned on their heel and stormed out. Kanji and Marie followed quickly. Marie had already got on one person’s shit list that day. She didn’t need to piss Shirogane off too…

--

Outside the school, it was incredibly foggy. Kanji had to take a moment to adjust his glasses, which is probably how the creepy kid caught up with them.

“H-Hey, you’re Kanji, right…?”

Marie nearly jumped out of her skin. The kid had the eyes of the fish and was definitely not a Yasogami High student. He could’ve out-weirded Morooka without even really trying.

“W-wanna go hang out with me?”

“Uhhhh… the he – I mean, who’re you?” Kanji leant away from the boy, too polite to actually back off. Marie had to give him some credit – if the boy had come up to her, she would’ve pushed him right out of her personal space.

“Who’s that? What school’s he from?”

A couple of kids had gathered nearby, watching from a distance.

“Who cares, he’s trying to hang out with Tatsumi? I bet you a can of TaP he gets knocked out.”

“No bet. Don’t you know what he’s like?”

The boy seemed antsy at the sound of this.

“So?! Are you coming or not?!”

“Uhhhh – ” Kanji glanced at the students watching. “N-no! Hell no!”

“Fine!” The boy ran off down the road and out of sight in the fog. Kanji shook his head.

“The hell was all that about?”

“I believe he was trying to befriend you, but came about in entirely the wrong way,” Naoto answered.

“No regard for personal space,” Marie added.

“O-oh,” Kanji said. “Y’know, I thought he was…”

He was cut off from whatever he was about to say by the sound of a squeaking bike. Rise Kujikawa had evidently recovered from being kicked in the calves. In fact, from the smile on her face, it didn’t seem like she’d ever been on Naoto’s bad side at all.

“Drive another one off, did you, Kanji-kun?” she said with a slight laugh. “Gee, you’re so over-the-top. I remember when you spooked me so bad I nearly fell off the school roof.”

“Did I?” Kanji’s brow furrowed.

“…It was like three months ago. Did you seriously forget? Naoto-kun had to catch me.”

“Uh… Shut up!” Kanji went red and pulled a face. Rise laughed, hopped on her bike, and rode off.

Naoto shook their head.

“Come on, everyone’s staring!”

--

“Ahhh, so it was because of your parents?” Naoto nodded. “I assumed it was something far more serious than that.”

They were making their way down the main road through the School District. Naoto and Kanji had offered to show Marie around town, an offer she’d accepted because it seemed better than working this town out by herself. Somehow her uncle didn’t seem like he’d be useful in this regard.

“Nah,” Marie said, “it’s nothing I’m not used to.”

Naoto nodded.

“I’m afraid that there really isn’t a lot here. I suppose that’s the charm, but it means that there isn’t a lot for us to show you. Although, our dyed cloth is famous, and then there’s the Tatsumi Inn.” She nodded at Kanji. “Kanji-kun’s family runs it. It’s the pride of Inaba.”

“Wha?” Kanji shook his head. “’S just an old inn, man.”

“Don’t say that, Kanji-kun! It’s a hidden treasure of sorts. Kanji-kun here is going to take over someday. It keeps the town running.”

“Hey, that’s going a bit far, don’cha think?”

Naoto chuckled. Kanji shook his head.

“So, Marie-san,” Naoto said, “which of us would you say is your type?”

Kanji and Marie both spluttered.

“Naoto-kun! Seriously, this shit again?”

“Why are you asking me this?!” Marie screeched. “I hardly know either of you!” StupidbluehairhatkidIhateyou!

Naoto laughed.

“Sorry. I just wanted to see how you’d react. Besides, this boy really needs to get outside of his comfort zone.” They waved a hand at Kanji. “Everyone at school thinks he’s cool, but he’s never had a date… what’s that?”

Naoto stopped dead. Marie and Kanji turned to look. A large crowd had gathered around an area cordoned off with police tape. Most of the crowd was made up of housewives, who were gossiping intently.

“Wow, who could imagine that hanging from an antenna?”

“I wanted to see it too…”

“Oh, you got here too late. They just took it down.”

“Well, I think it’s terrifying. I can’t believe a dead body showed up around here…”

Marie went cold.

“A dead body…?” Naoto’s eyes had gone wide. “Did she just say…”

“What’re you doing here?” Dojima had appeared from the crowd. He was scowling harder than Marie had seen before.

“Oh, we’re just passing by,” Marie said, waving a hand.

Dojima sighed. “I should’ve figured that would happen. That damn principal, I told him not to let them through here…”

Naoto cocked an eyebrow at Marie. “You know him?”

“Yeah, he’s my uncle, I’m living with him for this year.”

“I’m Detective Dojima,” he said. “How do I say this… I hope you get along with her. But you three really ought to stop wandering around and head straight home.”

“O-outta my way!”

A younger detective shoved past Dojima and the kids and pretty much collapsed in the bushes by the sides of the road, where he immediately threw up. Marie stepped a bit away from him.

“Adachi!” Dojima’s scowl got wider. “How long are you going to be acting like a rookie? You want to be sent back to the central office?!”

“I’m sorry…” The younger detective sounded absolutely awful.

“Go wash your face! We’re gonna go around and gather information.”

Dojima stormed off, his co-worker following close behind him, face still quite green.

“Do you suppose this is what that announcement was about?” Naoto said.

“A dead body? That’s messed up…” Kanji shivered. “Maybe we oughta show Marie-san around some other time.”

--

The Dojima household was quite that night, devoid of its eldest member. Marie and Nanako were sat at the downstairs table. The news had just come on, but Marie wasn’t really paying attention. She was focused on her earlier composition.

“I wonder if Dad’s not coming home again tonight,” Nanako said sadly, eyes fixed on the TV.

“Our top story this evening concerns a bizarre case in a quiet suburb. Around noon today, a woman was found dead near the Samegawa River in Inaba.”

Marie looked up in time to see a picture of that announcer come onto the screen. Could it be?

“The deceased has been identified as Ms Mayumi Yamano, a 27-year-old announcer at the local television station. The initial results of the Inaba Police Department’s investigation have revealed…”

Nanako gasped. “That’s where Dad works!”

Her little face fell as she realised what that probably meant.

“Hey, it’ll be okay,” Marie said.

“I know,” Nanako replied, still miserable. “That’s his job, so this stuff happens…”

“The body was found hanging from a large television antenna atop a local resident's roof,” continued the TV. “Authorities are uncertain as to why the body was in such a state. With the cause of death also uncertain, police continue to investigate whether the death is an accident or a homicide. A thick fog common to the area has slowed their progress, and plans to fully canvass the area are delayed until tomorrow.”

Nanako shivered. “They found her on the roof? That’s scary.”

Before Nanako could get too upset, however, the TV swapped to the exact same advertisement that had brightened her mood the previous night.

“At Junes, every day is Customer Appreciation Day. Come see for yourself, and get in touch with our products! Every day's great at your Junes~!”

“Every day’s great at your Junes~!” Nanako sang in a surprisingly good voice for a six-year-old. She glanced at Marie, who suppressed the urge to roll her eyes.

“Every day’s great at your Junes~.”

Her voice was poor and croaky, used to screaming out songs in English rather than singing sweetly with a little girl in Japanese, but it worked. Nanako giggled and clapped.

“You memorised it already? I’m the best one in my class!”

--

The second day of school began exactly like the first – with a student on a bike nearly hitting Marie, swerving around her, and crashing headfirst into a nearby bin. This time, however, she managed to get stuck inside the bin itself.

Another difference was that Marie actually helped her this time.

“My hero!” the girl said jokingly once she’d got back on her bike. “Hey, you’re the transfer student, aren’t you?”

“Yeah. Marie Narukami.”

“Marie… Oooh, are you French?”

“Nah, I just like being called that.”

“Oh, I see.” The girl smiled. “I’m Rise Kujikawa, though I guess technically we met yesterday.” She winced at the memory.

“You okay?”

“Yeah, sure… Hey, did you hear about what happened yesterday? They found that announcer lady handing from an antenna!” Rise shivered. “You think it was some kinda warning? There's no way something that weird could've been an accident.”

“Yeah, there is no way that someone could have accidentally hung themselves from an antenna,” Marie agreed. “It was totally murder.”

Rise nodded. “It’s messed up. Oh crap, we’re gonna be late! Do you want a ride? It’s kind of squeaky, but…”

Marie thought about it. Crash on a bike, or deal with Morooka again?

“Sure.”

--

Hey, hey, why’s the man gotta hold us down?

Hey, hey, why can’t we clown around?

Forget about society, let’s just break free

The rules don’t gotta matter to folks like you and me

Life don’t gotta suck, hey, let’s just rock

Break out, fake out, make out, come on!

You can’t hold me! I won’t let you!

I won’t obey your fabricated rules!

Go jump old man, you ain’t the boss of me!

I’m gonna take the world by storm, just you wait and see!

If there was anything good for Marie to say about Morooka, it was that he was a fantastic muse. She was just working out if it was worth adding anything onto this perfect composition when Rise came up to her.

“So, Marie-chan, are you getting used to this place?”

“Not really,” Marie admitted, quickly putting her notebook away. “The whole murder thing is a bit weird.”

“Hey, it’s not usually like this!” Rise giggled. “There isn’t really a whole lot to do here. Hey, you know what the local delicacy is?”

“Nope.”

“Grilled steak! Seriously, it’s the most boring thing ever. Although, I know a place where you can get it cheap. You helped me out earlier, so you want some?”

“If you’re making it up to Marie-san, you’d better be making it up to me too, you know.”

Rise froze. Naoto had walked right up to them, arms folded. There was a serious look on their face.

“Really? Fine.” Rise sighed.

“What about you, Kanji-kun?” Naoto asked.

Kanji stood up and shook his head.

“Sorry, things are real busy at the inn. Maybe next time.”

And so it was that Marie, Rise and Naoto found themselves at the local branch of Junes. Of course. Rise had got them a table in the largely deserted food court and brought them not grilled steak, but an entirely different meat dish.

“This isn’t steak,” Marie pouted. “I was promised steak.”

“Blame them, not me!” Rise glared at Naoto. “I only have so much money, you know. Minimum wage sucks.”

“How did I know you’d bring us here?” Naoto said with a scowl. “Boosting the family business hardly counts as an apology.”

“…Family business? Isn’t this a chain?”

“Oh, my dad runs this branch,” Rise explained. “I transferred here myself, about six months ago. Anyway, we’ve got meat and drinks. Enjoy!”

She raised her can, and the other two followed suit. Things quickly devolved into small talk about the weather (terrible), Mr Morooka (also terrible), and murder (super terrible). The meat was nice, even if it wasn’t steak.

“I’m just saying,” Marie said, “if steak comes from beefsteak, why is it called steak? You miss out the beef that way. Why not call it, like… fsteak, or something?”

“Because that sounds absurd,” Naoto replied.

“No, I think Marie-chan has a point…” Rise was about to add something when she gasped. “Saki-senpai! Be right back!”

She sprang up out of her seat and ran over to a nearby table, where a girl with pale blonde hair, a tired face and a Junes apron was sitting.

“Hey,” the girl said sadly. “I’m finally on break. Ha, I guess it really is Saki-senpai now, isn’t it?”

“Who’s that?” Marie asked.

“Saki Konishi,” Naoto replied. “Her family runs a liquor store in the shopping district, but she works here part-time. She and Rise-chan have been good friends ever since the Kujikawas moved here. Rise-chan does a few hours here too.”

“What’s up, Kuji-chan?” Saki said. “Boosting the family business by bringing your friends here?”

Rise pouted. “Hey, that’s what Naoto-kun said! But um, you look beat. Did something happen?”

Saki sighed and smiled, but it was very forced.

“No, I’m just tired. Why’d I go home early yesterday… Oh, is that the new kid?” Saki got up and walked over to their table, Rise following behind. “It must be nice to have someone else from the big city to talk to, huh? I don't see Kuji-chan really hanging out a lot. She doesn’t have a lot of friends, so I hope you get along with her. Oh, but she can be kinda nosy sometimes. You gotta tell her to her face sometimes.”

“What? No.” Marie smiled. “She’s great. She bought me meat.”

Saki laughed. “I know, I’m just kidding.”

“Senpai…!”

“Anyway, I’d best get back to work. See you later, Kuji-chan.”

Saki turned and walked off. Rise started after her, then stopped.

“Hold on, Senpai…! And she’s gone.”

Rise sat back down in her seat with a long-suffering sigh. Naoto was looking at her rather pointedly. When Rise noticed this, Naoto merely took a sip of cheap cola, eyes dropping down but not leaving Rise.

“What?”

“I said nothing.”

Rise crossed her arms and glared at Naoto, who sat back and downed the rest of their drink. They set it down with a clink and glanced between Marie and Rise.

“Time for a topic change. Have either of you ever heard of the Midnight Channel?”

A shiver ran down Marie’s spine. For some reason, she thought of an odd dream she’d had the night before she came to Inaba – a dream of a blue limousine, a long-nosed man and an elegant woman. She barely remembered it now, but it had involved tarot. (Which was weird because Marie knew nothing about tarot whatsoever.)

“The Midnight Channel,” Naoto continued, “is a mysterious channel on television that cannot normally be viewed. You must wait for a rainy night, and stand alone in a room with a turned-off television. If all is right, then at exactly midnight the television will turn on. A figure appears on the screen, and that figure, it’s said… belongs to your soulmate.”

Rise snorted.

“Gee, and I thought you were going to say something interesting. That’s the most bogus story I’ve ever heard.”

Naoto scowled and leant forwards.

“Well, if it’s so silly perhaps you won’t mind trying it! It’s raining tonight, after all!”

They were probably right – the skies were rapidly turning grey.

“Wait,” Rise said, “you didn’t even try it yourself? Wow, this is terrible… that aside, you guys know that incident yesterday? Wouldn’t it be creepy if the killer was still lurking around?”

“You are entirely childish,” Naoto snapped. “All I’m saying is, you should try it and see.”

--

That night, Dojima actually came home before bedtime. By the time he showed up, however, Nanako and Marie were half-way through dinner.

“You’re late again,” Nanako said crossly.

“I’m sorry.” Dojima sighed and sat down on the sofa. “Been busy at work. Can you put on the TV?”

Nanako sat back down and turned the television on. The news crackled into life.

“Next, more details in the developing story on the incident in foggy Inaba. Announcer Mayumi Yamano's dead body was found hanging above a house in this isolated rural town. It is confirmed that Ms. Yamano had been involved in an affair with Taro Namatame, husband of enka singer Misuzu Hiiragi. The police plan to investigate this relationship and question any personnel involved with them. In addition, we now bring you an exclusive interview with the student who found Ms. Yamano's body.”

Dojima groaned. “An interview with the kid? Where’d they find her?”

The person on screen had their face obscured by a pixel filter, but it was blindingly obvious to Marie that it was Saki Konishi, and they’d only met once. Her opinion of the Inaba press was dropping rapidly. Then again, her opinion of mass media was pretty low anyway.

“What went through your mind when you saw it?” The reporter had the microphone shoved right up into the poor girl’s face. “Could you tell she was dead? Did you see her face?”

“Um…”

“Don't you think it's scary that someone was killed on a foggy day?”

“She was killed?”

“Oh, errr...So did you see anyone suspicious around here?”

“No, not really…”

“We heard that you found it when you left school early. Did you have some personal business to take care of?”

“Huh? That’s…”

Marie wanted to strangle the reporter, and maybe give Saki a sympathetic pat the next day at school. What year was she in, anyway?

--

Marie stared glumly out of her bedroom window. The rain was smashing against it, obscuring her view of the street almost entirely. She could make out three lights in the distance, red, blue and yellow.

She shut the curtain and stood in front of her TV. It was off, and it was seconds until midnight. If Naoto was right, well, that would be weird, but the odds were that Naoto was entirely wrong. This had to be just a silly urban legend, like Rise had said.

The clock ticked to midnight.

The TV turned on. An indistinct figure appeared on the screen. It was probably a girl, writhing in absolute agony. There was a series of lights behind her, but the picture was so indistinct that Marie couldn’t make much out beyond that.

I ART THOU. THOU ART I.

Marie jumped out of her skin, knocking her leg on the low table. There was a voice in her head! It belonged to a woman, definitely, and she was probably an older woman. A burst of pain seared through her skull, nearly splitting it open. Marie grasped her head and groaned.

The screen went dark.

THOU ART THE ONE THAT OPENST THE DOOR.

Marie looked up at the screen, heart pounding, headache fading. Had that just happened? Did the voice belong to her soulmate? It seemed to come from too old a person for the figure on the screen…

Acting entirely on instinct, Marie reached out to the screen. Her fingers brushed against it, and it became malleable against them. Ripples of white spread out across it. She gasped, then pressed her hand more firmly against it. Her hand went right in –

Something grabbed her! It was strong, far stronger than she was, but somehow it didn’t feel solid. She barely had time to react before it pulled her in, right through the screen –

Just as she managed to get her arm free, her head went right in. Thankfully, her shoulders were just slightly too wide to fit. It was dark and foggy inside the TV, and Marie decided that she really didn’t like it. She planted her hands on the cabinet and wrenched her head out of the TV with such force that she fell over and whacked her head on the table.

“Are you okay?” Nanako’s little voice drifted from the other side of the door.

Marie considered the question. Her head hurt again for a whole new reason, there was a voice in it, she may have just seen her soulmate, and something had just tried to pull her into a TV.

“I’m okay, yeah.”

“I heard a loud noise…”

“Don’t worry, just go to bed.”

“Okay… Good night!”

Nanako scampered off. Marie looked at the TV in disbelief.

Oh, she was going to kill Shirogane for this!

Chapter Text

Luckily, there was no swelling on the back of Marie’s head the next morning. This was perhaps why she didn’t actually kill Shirogane when the latter forced themselves under her umbrella on the way to school.

“Sorry,” Naoto said, “I did have my own umbrella, but I saw a spy movie where the hero used an umbrella to incapacitate the enemy spy, and when I tried to re-enact it I broke my umbrella.”

“S’okay.” Marie shrugged. “You were right about the Midnight Channel, though.”

“Mmmm. What did you – no, we should talk about this with Rise-chan.” Naoto shivered. “What I saw last night wasn’t exactly what I expected.”

--

“What’s up with the body being hung upside-down? That’s so freaky!”

“Is it supposed to be like, mimicking an execution? It's messed up...”

“My senpai told me it was a third-year named Saki who found the body.”

Marie wanted to punch the air. Called it! Though that wasn’t in very good taste…

“H-hey, Marie-chan?” Marie looked up from putting her books away to see Rise standing next to her. “Did you – I mean, the TV – never mind…”

“Rise-chan, did you hear?” Naoto had walked up to them. “Saki-senpai’s the one who found the body.”

Rise winced. “Ooh, that’s probably why she looked so down… and she’s not at school today, either.”

A scraping sound alterted the trio to Kanji’s imminent departure. He set his chair back sheepishly, having got up a bit too quickly. Naoto sighed.

“Are you helping out at the inn again today?”

“Sorry, it’s really busy.” With that, Kanji walked off and left the room.

“They’re really running him ragged lately,” Naoto commented. “By the way, you two… I believe that I was right.”

“Yep, I’m eating my words,” Rise said, “the Midnight Channel is totally real. Although, I saw a girl. Why’d I see a girl? What’s that meant to mean?”

“I saw a girl too,” Naoto said. “She was wearing the Yasogami uniform, had shoulder-length hair – I think it was brown, but it was rather pale.”

“No way!” Rise clapped her hands over her mouth in shock. “That’s the same girl I saw! Do we have the same soulmate or something?”

“I think I saw the same girl too,” Marie said. “Although, it was totally weird. See, when I was watching, I heard a voice in my head.”

Naoto and Rise turned, very slowly, to stare at Marie with baffled expressions. Marie scowled.

“Don’t look at me like that! But I don’t think it was that girl’s voice. Way too old-fashioned for that. It kept saying, like… ‘I art thou’, stuff like that. Then when the Midnight Channel ended, I, uh, ended up touching my TV screen, and my hand went right through. And something tried to pull me in! I only got out ‘cause my TV isn’t that big and my shoulders got stuck after it pulled my head through. Then I hit my head on my table when I pulled myself out. Did that happen to you guys?”

Rise and Naoto glanced between each other. Then, Rise burst out laughing.

“Marie-chan!” she gasped between giggles. “Silly, you probably just stayed up too late and fell asleep!”

“It’s a rather realistic dream, though,” Naoto admitted. “Your head getting stuck was a nice touch.”

Marie sprang to her feet and slammed her hands down on the desk. Rise stopped laughing, and a few students still milling about turned and stared.

“I wasn’t dreaming! It totally happened! I’ll go find a TV and prove it! Jerks!”

“Geez, calm down,” Rise said.

“Although, that reminds me,” Naoto said. “My family’s been looking for a new television. Isn’t there a sale on at Junes?”

“Yeah!” Rise clapped her hands together. “Okay, we all go to Junes, Marie-chan proves that TV portals exist, and Naoto-kun gets a new TV for their family!”

Marie was regretting not killing Naoto the moment she saw them…

--

“This is… significantly bigger than I was expecting.” Naoto shook their head. “And far more expensive. Who’d even buy it with that price tag?”

The three of them were standing in the nearly-deserted electronics section of Junes. The tinny jingle was blaring from every angle and only serving to annoy Marie further.

“Rich people?” Rise shrugged. “We don’t get a lot of people shopping for TVs here. That’s why there’s no clerks around.”

“I’m hardly surprised by that. At least looking’s free.”

Naoto stepped up closer to the giant flat-screen. They considered it carefully, then reached out and put a hand flat on the screen. The screen stayed the same as ever and did not transform into a magical portal to another dimension. Naoto pressed against a couple of different spots to no effect, then retrieved their hand, satisfied.

“That settles it. You were dreaming.”

“Yeah, well, maybe it doesn’t work for jerks,” Marie muttered.

“There’s nothing wrong with being wrong, you know.”

Rise burst out giggled. Naoto turned and glared.

“What?” they spat.

“I didn’t say anything! But if this TV’s too expensive for you, maybe we should try a different one.” Rise led Naoto off to a far smaller television. “Ahem, and here we have the latest model for this spring…”

“Rise-chan, do you even know what the word ‘cheap’ means? That’s far too many zeroes!”

“Then why are you TV shopping at Junes?”

“It was YOUR idea!”

Marie looked back at the first TV. It really was huge – no chance of her shoulders getting stuck. But she was sure she hadn’t been dreaming. Her head had hurt way too much for it to just be a dream. No, something weird was going on, she was sure of it.

She reached out and touched the screen. Her hand disappeared into it.

“You two owe me an apology,” she called.

Rise looked up from another TV.

“Huh? What do you – ahhhhhhh!” Rise actually staggered backwards in shock. “I think we do!”

Naoto’s jaw dropped. The pair of them ran over to see what on earth was going on.

“Well, I’m impressed,” Naoto said. “Is there some sort of trick to it?”

“Some magic trick!” Rise gasped.

This time, it seemed that nothing was trying to drag Marie in and eat her. So of course, she did something completely foolish. She stuck her head in again. It was still hazy and dark, but now she could see swirls of white cutting their way through the darkness.

“Huh, seems like there’s a load of empty space inside,” she said.

Rise shrieked. “What do you mean, empty space?”

“What do you mean, inside?” Naoto was spluttering. “I mean, what’s going on here?”

Rise stepped back, shaking her head, getting as far away from this mess as she possibly could.

“Nope, nope, too weird for – Shit!” Her voice dropped to a hiss. “Customers are coming! Marie-chan, pull your head out!”

Rise ran forwards to grab Marie and take her out of the television. What happened next was unfortunate for them, but perhaps fortunate for humanity as a whole. In her panic, Rise tripped, and knocked right into Marie. Naoto tried to grab onto them to stop them both falling entirely into the TV, but it was too late. Their combined weight, coupled with Rise’s momentum, was enough to pull all three of them into the television.

It felt like they were falling forever. A blur of white and black rose up around them, making Marie briefly go cross-eyed. Eventually, though, the blur gave way to a yellow fog, and they landed in three untidy heaps on the floor.

“Ack, I think I landed on my wallet…” Naoto rubbed their back pockets gingerly.

Rise sat up and looked around. “Where are we?”

Naoto peered through the fog. “Somewhere inside Junes?”

“No way! We fell through a TV! Wait. We fell through a TV!”

All three of them scrambled to their feet, looking around blindly. The fog was incredibly dense, like nothing Marie had ever seen before, and it really was yellow. Marie thought they were in some kind of studio backlot, but it was just too dim to tell. Worryingly, there were chalk outlines on the floor.

“Okay,” Naoto said at last, “we’re alive. I think.”

“Sorry, guys,” Marie said. “I had no clue that was gonna happen. Are you okay?”

“I think I’ve bruised my behind, but otherwise I’m not hurt,” Naoto answered.

“Wow, guys, this is unreal,” Rise said. “Is this a studio?”

They looked around again.

“This can’t be anywhere in Inaba,” Naoto said, “there’s no film studios anywhere, and the fog is thick even for the country.”

“This place is huge,” Rise said. “No way are we still in Junes. What do we do…?”

“We need to go home,” Marie said. “Any ideas on how to get outta here?”

“You’re the one who brought us here,” Naoto pointed out. “But… oh, no, I don’t see an exit anywhere!”

“What? That can’t be right!” Rise looked around and realised that it was. “How?”

“I don’t know!” Naoto snapped.

“Calm down and shut up, you two!” Marie crossed her arms. “We’re not getting out of here if we don’t stop panicking!”

There was a lengthy pause.

“You’re right,” Rise said. “Let’s think about this. There’s got to be a way out somewhere…”

“And if there isn’t?” Naoto asked.

“Let’s not think about that.”

--

And so, the trio began their adventure through the TV. Everywhere they went was gloomy and foggy. The sky, when they saw it, was a pulsing mass of red-and-black. It made Marie feel sick to look at it. Worse yet was the atmosphere of the place – oppressive and chilling. Even trying to peer far through the fog made her eyes water and her head swim.

They climbed up and down stairs, wandered through plains of fog, and eventually found themselves in something a little like a corridor. There was a strange, black-and-red door at the end of it.

“Is it me,” said Naoto as they paused for breath, “or does this area feel different?”

“I think we’re in a building of some sort, but this fog…” Rise shook her head. “I really don’t like this.”

“Are you certain we aren’t getting further away from the exit, Rise-chan?”

“…We’ve got to trust our instincts!” Rise nodded in a very definite way for someone who was clearly completely out of her comfort zone. “Look, there’s a door, let’s go through it.”

They stepped through the eerie door and into a very odd room. The fog was lighter, but still definitely present. In the room was a bed, a sealed sliding door, and an awful lot of posters.

Rise took out her phone.

“No service, go figure…”

Marie sighed. “I guessed as much, which is why I didn’t try earlier…”

“Slow down, you two.” Naoto was clearly having much more trouble breathing than they were in the awful atmosphere. “With all this fog, it’s impossible to see where you’re going… oh, crap. It’s a dead end.”

“This just gets worse and worse!” Rise slumped into a chair in the corner of the room. Marie looked above the chair and very nearly screamed.

“What’s with this room?” Naoto said, looking around it carefully. “Look at these posters. Someone’s ripped all the faces out.”

Rise screamed and leaped out of her chair. She’d noticed what Marie had – that there was a noose made from a scarf hanging above it.

“That kind of arrangement is never good! Wait, is that a scarf?”

Naoto shook their head. “Let’s go somewhere else and look for an exit. There’s nothing of interest for us here.”

As the trio left, Rise paused and stared at the posters.

“I think I’ve seen that poster before…”

“Oh, who cares!” Naoto threw their hands in the air. “I’m sick of this place! And I’m just plain sick! I can hardly breathe!”

“I don’t feel so good either,” Rise admitted.

“Me neither.” Marie shook her head. “This place is no good. Let’s just find the exit and go.”

--

After much more wandering, they gave up and retraced their steps to the place where they’d come in. Marie just wanted to lie down and never get back up, so heavy were her limbs and eyelids at this point. The others didn’t look too much better. Rise was gradually drooping, and Naoto’s breathing sounded absolutely terrible.

“Well,” they said, “we made it back.”

Rise gasped and stepped back. “Wait, what’s that?”

Marie and Naoto turned to look. There was a figure in the fog! It was smaller than any of them, but thick, and definitely not human.

Naoto sprang into a guarding position, all of their muscles tensed for a fight. They had on the face the look they’d had when they’d realised that something had happened to their DVD. It struck Marie that the strange creature didn’t have much in the way of calves to kick, though.

The creature stepped forwards out of the fog. As it turned out, it was not some horrifying monster. It was, in fact, some bizarre cuddly mascot creature that resembled a dragon. It was made of a soft-looking green material, with a pale yellow stripe down its middle and comically large eyes. There was a collar around its neck with a huge pearl dangling from it, and a pair of tiny adorable horns on its head. Its face was flat, but the impression of a snout was made with another patch of pale yellow. Two bits of yellow fluff poked out from the sides of its head.

“It’s… a dragon,” Naoto said after a moment, not dropping their guard. “I think?”

“What the heck?” Rise was staring in disbelief.

“Okay, I’m done,” Marie said, “I’m so done with this place.”

“Who’re you?!” The dragon had a feminine voice. She adopted a pose that seemed to be mimicking Naoto’s. “Who are you guys?!”

“It talks!” Naoto nodded. “Very well then, if you can talk you can answer questions! You want to fight?”

The dragon stepped back.

“Hey, I didn’t say that! Quit yelling!”

Marie stepped forwards. “Hey, dragon. What is this place?”

“Uhhh…” The dragon considered the question. “It doesn’t really have a name. It’s just where I live.”

“Wait,” Rise said, “you live here?”

“You guys should go.” The dragon looked as serious as an adorable mascot could. “Someone’s been throwing people in here. It’s giving me a huge headache.”

“Throwing people in?” Rise stepped forwards to talk to the dragon more seriously. “What do you mean?”

“I dunno! I just want people to stop doing it!”

“Stop yelling at us!” Naoto stepped forwards in a half-lunge and made the dragon jump back. “What’s your problem? Who are you? Where are we? Answer me!”

The dragon ran right past Naoto and hid behind Marie.

“I already told you! And you should leave, like right now. Before the fog comes, and the Shadows attack!”

“We’re trying!” Rise threw her hands up in the air. “We don’t know where the exit is!”

“So I’m going to let you out! Rrrrr!”

“We don’t know where the – wait, what?”

The dragon stamped its foot three times, and a pile of televisions appeared from thin air in the middle of the group. Naoto, Rise and Marie ran around to the front of the pile, the dragon following behind more slowly.

“Wait,” Rise said, “how did you – ”

“Go! Go! I’m a busy dragon, geez!”

The dragon ran around behind them and started pushing them into the TV. Marie stumbled forwards and went through the screen, and her inexplicable power pushed the others in too, sending the whole lot right through and back into Junes. They landed, sprawled on the floor in a heap.

“Attention, shoppers. Our daily limited-time sale will now begin at the side dish area on the first floor. Why not try the delicious, fresh produce Junes picked for you this morning as your side dish for dinner tonight? All ages are invited to take advantage of this incredible bargain!”

“We’re out!” Naoto punched the air. “Freedom at last!”

“Wow, it’s the limited-time sale already?” Rise shook her head. “How long were we in there?”

The three of them got to their feet and stretched. Marie still felt like she was about to collapse, but at least they were free.

“Hey,” Rise said, “look at those posters of Misuzu Hiiragi over there!”

Naoto looked. “The posters from that room! You’re right, they were of her. I couldn’t tell with the faces ripped out.”

Marie’s eyebrows shot up. “Someone out there really hates Misuzu Hiiragi.”

“No kidding.” Rise shivered. “I mean, between that and the noose… It almost makes me think of that Yamano lady – nope, not going there! I’m going home and pretending this never happened.”

Naoto nodded. “I don’t feel too well. I’m just going to go and sleep this off.”

“See you guys at school.” Without waiting for a reply, Marie turned and walked away, hoping that she wouldn’t flat-out collapse before she got back to the Dojima residence. This had been a really weird day that followed a really weird night, and she just wanted to forget that it had ever happened.

--

The next morning, a body was found.

Chapter Text

Yasogami High School did not have an assembly hall. It had a sports hall, which sufficed as an assembly hall when it had to. But of course, it is not common practise to keep enough chairs for around three hundred people in or around a sports hall. So, in the assembly that morning, they were all standing and Marie was seriously regretting her choice of shoe.

“Did you see it yesterday?”

A long-haired girl in another class shook her head at her friend. “What, is that rumour for real?”

“I dunno, but it seems a lot of people have seen it…”

Naoto flipped their phone closed and tucked it back into their pockets. “Kanji said he’d be here after lunch. I wonder what this school assembly’s about?”

“I dunno.” Rise sighed. She looked like she was about to say something more when Ms Sofue spoke from the front of the room and everyone went silent.

“Everyone, please settle down. The school assembly is about to begin. First, the Principal has something to say.”

Ms Sofue stepped down, and the Principal took her place. He was an old man with an impressively long beard. There was a reserved, sad look upon his face.

“I… regret to say I have a terrible announcement for you all. One of our third-year students, Ms Saki Konishi of Class 3… has passed away.”

Marie had met Konishi exactly once, but this still felt like a stab in the gut. She remembered how she’d wanted to give Saki a pat for having to deal with that obnoxious reporter. Now she’d never get the chance.

“Passed away…?” Naoto’s voice was hollow from shock. Next to Marie, Rise suppressed a sob. The rest of the school immediately broke into stunned muttering – what on earth had happened?

“Ms. Konishi was found deceased early this morning,” the Principal continued, heedless of the bickering that threatened to drown him out. “The reasons behind her passing are currently under investigation by the police. If they ask you for your cooperation, I urge you, as students of this school, to provide only the facts. All right, please quiet down! I have been assured by the faculty that there's been no evidence that bullying was involved in the incident. So mind what you say, not only to the police but to anyone who asks…”

Despite his protest, his voice was blocked out by the confused, horrified students.

“She was found dead?” Naoto repeated the Principal’s words, again in that hollow voice. “I don’t understand. What happened?”

Rise gave up trying to prevent the tears from falling.

--

The rest of the day was subdued. Even those who didn’t know Saki were in shock. Murder, Marie gathered, simply wasn’t something that happened in a place like Inaba. It was a big-city thing, not a country thing. So how had two people come to die in the same way within a couple of days of each other?

Rise had been hit the hardest. Marie privately considered her both very brave and rather foolish for staying in school. The Principal had said that anyone distressed by Saki’s death could go home, provided they informed their teacher… oh right, Morooka was their teacher. Asking him would’ve been awkward, especially for someone already distressed.

Finally, the bell rang. Most people left. Marie gathered up her bag with the full intention of joining them. Naoto followed her. A couple of girls were lingering by the notice board, gossiping about the day’s revalation.

“She died in the same way as that announcer,” said one, “right? That’s so creepy…”

“Well, last time, it was from an antenna, but this time she was hanging from a telephone pole. It's gotta be a serial murder case...” Her friend shivered involuntarily.

“Someone said the cause of death was some unknown poison.”

The other girl snorted. “Unknown...? C'mon, this isn't some sci-fi drama. Oh, by the way, did you hear? Someone saw a girl that looked like Saki on that Midnight Channel thingie.”

Alarm bells rang in Marie’s head. She did her best to stifle them. She wasn’t going to think about that!

“They said she totally looked like she was in pain,” the girl continued. “Isn't that scary?”

“Haha, sounds like someone had a nightmare. The media's been broadcasting their interviews with her nonstop, so maybe they just had Saki on the brain.”

The two girls walked off, still gossiping.

“How easy it is,” Naoto pronounced, “to speak of a disaster when you yourself aren’t involved.”

“Amen,” Marie said. “No offence, but this town is seriously starting to creep me out.”

“Hey.”

Marie and Naoto turned to see Rise standing there. Her face was still puffy and red, but it looked like she’d splashed cold water on it at some point.

“Did... This is gonna sound so silly, but did you two watch the Midnight Channel last night?”

“Rise-chan! Really?” Naoto rolled their eyes. “Not you too!”

“Something was bugging me, see,” Rise continued, “so I watched it again, and… I think the girl on the screen was Saki-senpai. No. It was definitely her! And she looked like she was writhing in pain, and then, she disappeared from the screen…”

“What?”

Rise continued in a stronger voice: “Senpai’s body was found just like that announcer’s, right? And I heard some guy saying that Yamano was his soulmate! What if she was on the Midnight Channel before she died?”

“You mean to tell me,” Naoto said in a stunned voice, “that people who appear on that channel die?”

“I… I don’t know.” Rise looked down at the floor. “But I can’t dismiss it as a co-incidence. And remember that dragon-thing? It said that the other world was dangerous, and we should leave before the fog comes. And it said…”

“…people are being thrown in,” Marie finished.

“And the room with the posters, too.” Rise looked back up at Naoto and Marie. “I mean, it can’t be a co-incidence! Don’t you think there’s a connection there?”

“You might be right,” Marie admitted. It did make sense – a lot of sense, actually. They’d agreed to forget about the other world, but now it seemed they couldn’t at all.

Determination came into Rise’s eyes. “So it’s not just me.” She stood a little straighter and brought her clenched hands to her sides. “If there’s a connection, then Senpai and the announcer could’ve gone to that world. I bet that if we looked around in there, we’d find an answer, or at least a clue.”

“Wait,” Naoto said, alarm creeping into their voice, “Rise-chan, you cannot be serious about this!”

“I’m going back.” Rise nodded. “Or I’m gonna try, at least.”

“No! Absolutely not!” Naoto shook their head. “Let the police handle it!”

“You think the police can do anything?! They’ve made no progress on the announcer’s case, and if I’m right about this, then they are way out of their league with this!”

“So are you!”

“I know more than the police do!” Rise was shouting now, and it was a very good thing that no one was around to hear it. “And they’d never believe us anyway! I – I just have to know why Senpai had to die like this!”

“Rise-chan…”

“There’s no way I can ignore this.” Her voice had dropped back down to a reasonable volume. “I’m going to Junes. If you’re coming, meet me there.”

She turned and walked off, out of the school and into the rainy world outside. Naoto and Marie stared after her.

“She’s got guts,” Marie commented.

“Perhaps, but she hasn’t got any sense to go with it,” Naoto said. “I understand she’s upset, but this is far too dangerous. We need to stop her.”

“So… Junes?”

--

Things were worse than they’d thought. Rise was standing in the electronics section, holding a rope and a golf club. The rope was tied tightly around her waist. Marie seriously, seriously had to admire her guts.

“You guys came!” Rise brightened up when she saw them.

“To stop you!” Naoto’s plea made Rise’s smile drop. “I get it, you’re upset, but this isn’t the time for rash decisions!”

“You’re one to talk about that. I have it on good authority that there’s still at least one basketball in the rafters of the middle school gym.” Naoto heard this and went red, a most unamused expression springing onto their face. “I can’t just pretend this has nothing to do with me anymore.”

“Wait, wait,” Marie said, “while I’m totally down for more of this bullshit, do you not remember how bad Naoto-kun looked at the end of yesterday? I felt awful, but I swear, it looked like they’d forgotten how to breathe.”

“Which is why I’ve got a plan, and that plan involves Naoto-kun staying behind.” Rise smiled a very satisfied smile and passed the end of the rope to a still-red Naoto. “You hold the rope, Naoto-kun. If I pull on it, you pull me out and I’ll try to grab Marie-chan on the way.”

“A lifeline?!”

Rise ignored Naoto and handed Marie the golf club. “You’re in charge of this. You know, in case a murderer pops out at us. You seem like you’d be good in a fight. If we go in the same TV, we’ll probably end up in the same place as last time. So, we’ll probably run into the dragon, and it’ll help us out.”

The golf club had a serious weight in Marie’s hands. She considered the plan.

“All right,” she said. “You can’t get in without me, so hurry up before I change my mind.”

“Bye, Naoto-kun! Don’t let go of the rope!”

Rise sounded to all the world like someone waving a friend goodbye after school, not someone about to climb into a dimension inside a television. Naoto had, for the first time since Marie had met them, been silenced entirely.

Marie put her hand on the screen. The ripple that signified an opening portal spread across it. Before she could realise what a bad plan this was, she swung her legs through, Rise following close behind her. They disappeared into the other world.

Naoto felt the strain of Rise’s weight on the rope. They waited a moment, then tugged it experimentally. The portal between the worlds closed and snapped the rope in two.

“I knew it,” Naoto spat bitterly, sinking to the floor. “I knew it.”

The thought gave them no satisfaction at all.

--

The landing was more dignified this time. Slightly.

“We made it,” Marie said as they got to their feet. “Hooray.”

Everything was as they’d remembered it. Thick yellow fog, aura of malevolence and nausea, inexplicable appearance of a studio backlot. They were in the exact same place as last time, though the dragon’s stack of TVs was gone.

“I was right!” Rise grinned.

“You guys?! What are you doing here again?” The dragon came straight up to them, pupils shrunken in a cartoonish style. Then its face turned angry. “I get it! You’re the ones behind this!”

“And look,” Rise continued, “we even found the – what did you just say?!”

“Someone’s been throwing people in here and messing things up,” the dragon said. “It’s really annoying! And you guys have come here twice, and I get the feeling no one threw you in. So you did it! Admit it!”

The dragon adopted some semblance of a fighting stance. Marie’s hand tightened on the golf club. How hard could she hit the dragon with it?

“Hell no, we are not going around throwing people into TVs,” she said. “Way to jump to conclusions!”

“Throwing people in?!” Rise shook her head. “If someone was thrown in here, and they couldn’t get out, they might die… wait. Does it mean Senpai and the announcer? Was I right?”

“Sounds like it to me.” Marie nodded.

“What’re you guys mumbling about?” The dragon interrupted their conversation in a slightly less angry tone. “Why’d you come back, anyway? It’s a one-way door, geniuses! You can’t get out unless I let you out! Remember?”

“Oh, really?” Rise grinned. “We don’t need your help this time, because we’ve got a lifeline – oh, NO! The lifeline!”

She’d grabbed it to show the dragon and learnt, much as Naoto had, that it had snapped. Her grin dropped.

“Hey! Listen! You better let us out when we’re done investigating, okay?!”

“I’m the one investigating here!” The dragon puffed steam out of its nose. “I’ve lived here for forever, and this is the first time something like this has happened! Do you have any proof that you aren’t the ones behind this?”

“It doesn’t work that way!” Marie snapped.

“So it is you guys!” The dragon smiled.

“For the last time, we don’t have to prove anything to you because it’s not us!” Rise folded her arms.  “This isn’t an accident, like last time. We’re serious! People are dying in our world. Every time the fog comes, a dead body shows up with it. It’s gotta be related to this place!”

“A dead body?” This seemed to have caught the dragon off-guard. Its head went lop-sided as it considered what Rise had said. “Uhhh… I know that when the fog is on your side, it vanishes here. It’s really dangerous when that happens, because that’s when the Shadows get violent… oh! I get it!”

“If you get something, mind telling us about it?” Rise was totally fed up. “The fog vanishes on this side? What’s a Shadow?”

“That’s why I told you to leave! Look, I know you guys are doing it, so stop it already!”

“It’s not us doing it!”

“Okay, people, chill,” Marie said, holding up her free hand in a gesture for peace. “Shouting is getting nobody anywhere.”

“I-I’m just saying,” the dragon said more quietly, “you guys are really suspicious. I have to make sure, you know?”

“This is driving me up the wall…” Rise rubbed her face in frustration. “What even is this place? Why does it look like a TV studio? Wait. Is this where the Midnight Channel’s being filmed?”

“Midnight Channel?” The dragon’s head tilted questioningly again. “Filmed?”

“Has someone been filming the people who get thrown in here?”

“Uhhhh… what’s filming? I’ve never heard of it. This world has always been the same way, without any ‘filming’.”

“Always?” Marie had to admit, there was something poetic about a fog-filled world that never changed, inhabited by a dragon.

“Only me and Shadows are here,” the dragon said more certainly. “No one’s ever done any filming!”

Rise had, finally, had enough.

“What are you even saying?!” she cried. “What’s a Shadow? We don’t understand anything you’re talking about! Or what you are! You keep telling us to prove that we’re not responsible, but you’re the most suspicious thing here! You won’t even show your face – I think it’s about time you did!”

Rise strode forwards and, before the dragon could stop her, pulled on the head of the costume. She tugged and tugged, and pulled the head straight off, revealing –

It was an empty, animate mascot costume.

Rise screamed and dropped the head. She quickly backed away, eyes bulging out of her head. Marie just stared. The dragon’s body flailed, searched around for its head, then quickly flipped the head back on.

“I’m not the culprit,” the dragon said. “I just want my world to be peaceful again. I’ll believe you aren’t the culprits, for now, but I want you to find who’s actually behind it. Oooorrr… I’m not gonna let you out.”

“What?!” Rise shrieked.

“This has gotta stop!” the dragon continued. “If this keeps up, my home will be a total mess! And I’m not good with messes!”

“I…” Rise was at a loss for words. “Hey, Marie-chan. What do you think?”

Marie thought about it. Words flowed into her mind like they were out of a dream. A man named Igor, a blue limo. What was it that he had said?

“It seems you will encounter a misfortune at your destination, and a great mystery will be imposed upon you.”

A misfortune. Two people dead, hung from wires.

A mystery. No apparent cause of death, no witnesses who were left to say anything. A channel that only aired at midnight on rainy days. Another world, inhabited by fog and a dragon. The power to enter the television, granted seemingly only to Marie herself.

Tower. Moon.

Oh, to hell with it. It was help the dragon or never go home, and hadn’t they wanted to find an answer anyway?

“I promise I’ll help,” she said. The dragon brightened up immediately.

“Thank you!”

“Ugh, you’re practically holding a gun to our heads,” Rise moaned. “But… this is kind of what we came here to do, and I wanna go home at some point. So, sure, I promise. Oh, by the way, I’m Rise Kujikawa, and this is my friend Marie Narukami.”

Marie nodded. “Hey. You got a name?”

“Uh… call me ‘Chie’.”

It – no, she – smiled. Her tail twitched in what Marie assumed was a friendly way.

“Sooo… how do we find a killer?” Rise said.

“Well, I’m not sure, but… Oh!” Chie clapped her claws together. “I can show you where the last person came in!”

“You mean Saki-senpai?!”

“Uhhh, I don’t know their name, but I know where they ended up.” Chie nodded. “I’ll take you there, it’s not far. Oh, but you should wear these.”

Chie pulled two pairs of glasses out of nowhere and handed them to the girls. Marie examined hers. They were thick-rimmed and had a kind of geek chic to them. Rise’s had thinner rims and seemed to be a shade of purple-red.

They put the glasses on. Instantly, the fog faded from their view. Marie could see everything in perfect colour now. Even better, she felt a weight lift from her shoulders. She let out a breath that she hadn’t realised she was holding. Rise, too, was standing taller, with more colour in her cheeks.

“They’ll help you deal with the fog,” Chie explained. “I don’t need ‘em. It’ll be useful if the Shadows show up, seeing as I can’t really do anything about them.”

Rise stared at her.

“You’re a dragon.”

“Hey, I don’t have any muscles!” Chie growled to emphasise this. “Literally!”

Wait, really? Marie looked Chie over. It was true, she’d been hollow when Rise had pulled her head off, but… Marie stepped forwards and poked Chie’s plush fur. Chie fell over from the tiny force and smacked onto the ground.

“Hey!” She rolled about in protest. “No fair picking on a defenceless dragon! Have you no shame, Marie-san?!”

Marie stifled a giggle. Rise groaned.

“This is our backup?”

“Oh, hey, wait.” Chie stopped rolling. “Who’s this Saki-senpai? Are they a friend of yours?”

Rise’s face darkened.

“That doesn’t matter right now.”

--

They ended up in the Central Shopping District. Kind of. Everything was boarded up, and the buildings had turned a sickly shade of green. The sky above was the same black-and-red that it was everywhere else.

“Why are we in the shopping district?” Rise asked, looking around.

“Places like this have been popping up,” Chie explained from far behind them. “I don’t really know much about them, though.”

“Hey, why are you standing so far away from us?” Marie asked.

“No muscles, remember? I’ll just cheer you on!”

“Geez… They really went all out on this, though,” Rise said. “But of all the places in town, why this one?”

“This is reality for whoever’s here,” Chie said.

“Do you ever make sense?” Rise looked around some more, then gasped. “But if this is the shopping district, then we can’t be too far from…”

She ran ahead, Marie following close behind, Chie following further behind. They came to what appeared to be a liquor store. Marie remembered Naoto mentioning that the Konishis ran a liquor store. Of course. They were at the duplicate of Saki Konishi’s home. The door, though, had been replaced by a creepy black-and-red portal.

“This is the liquor store that Senpai’s parents run!” Rise gasped. “But is this where she disappeared? What happened?”

“Uh, guys…”

Marie and Rise turned to see Chie backing away slowly.

“It’s the Shadows. They’re here!”

Marie had, over the course of a week, dreamt about a magic limo, got her head stuck in a TV, got her entire body stuck in a TV, met a dragon, and sworn to hunt a murderer. This was still, by far, the weirdest thing that had happened to her.

Dark shapes, thick and slimy, oozed out of the doorway to the liquor store. They dropped onto the street with two sickening plops, then rose up in amorphous shapes with hands. There were blue masks on them, bearing sad, spooky faces.

Then, the shapes – the Shadows – rose off the ground and twisted in on themselves, becoming round, psychedelic orbs with huge mouths on the front. Tongues lolled out of those mouths, dripping with drool.

Rise screamed and stumbled backwards, falling hard onto the ground. Marie and Chie both froze with fear, staring at the monsters before them.

I ART THOU, THOU ART I.

It was that voice again! The pain of the splitting headache it brought forced Marie to squeeze her eyes shut.

THE TIME HAS COME. OPENST THINE EYES, AND CALL FORTH WHAT IS WITHIN.

The pain faded. Marie opened her eyes. In her hand was a card. There was a design of a mask on it. Chie stared in wonder at the card.

Marie turned the card open. She had a brief glimpse of a white-clad figure on its other side when it started glowing like a flare. A distress call.

A word popped into Marie’s head.

“Persona.”

The card burst into bright blue flames, extending from Marie’s hand like a torch. But they didn’t burn her. No, they energised her, waking up parts of her psyche she hadn’t even known existed until this moment. She grinned like a total Fool and crushed the flames within her hands. Bright light shone from the ground around her, bursting into more blue flames.

She was aware of a figure behind her, comforting and powerful. Chie and Rise were staring at her with wide eyes.

The Shadows gurgled.

And somehow, impossibly, Marie knew what to do.

She grabbed the golf club in both hands and charged at the Shadows, yelling what she hoped was a battle cry but which probably just sounded ridiculous. The figure – Izanami, her mind supplied her – went with her, wielding a spear of some sort, lightning crackling from it.

Marie swung the club right into a Shadow. It gurgled angrily and – ew – licked her. The force of its tongue made her stumble back, almost into Rise, who quickly scrambled out of the way.

“Listen!” Chie called. “Some Shadows have weaknesses! If you can find them, you can pound ‘em into the dirt!”

Izanami had lightning, right? It was worth a try. Marie willed Izanami to use that lightning. It arced from Izanami to the Shadow, totally obliterating it.

The other Shadow hesitated.

Marie did not. She swung at the Shadow, dodged its counter-attack, and finished it up with more of Izanami’s lightning.

A surge of power ran through Marie. She slumped slightly, breathing heavily, and turned to Izanami. The goddess had taken the form of an X-masked woman, wearing some kind of heavy traditional gown. It dipped into a huge, heavy white skirt, crossed by a bloody red X. The top of the skirt folded over, making a strange hip-cloak effect. Her arms had broken free from some kind of restriction built into her clothes, which now hung loose. In one hand, she held a massively oversized naginata.

Izanami regarded Marie.

MARIKO NARUKAMI, THOU HAST FOUND THE COURAGE TO FACE THY OTHER SELF. I AM THY FAÇADE, USED TO OVERCOME LIFE’S HARDSHIPS… THE PERSONA, IZANAMI. I AM SHE-WHO-INVITES, THE FOOL.

Persona. Marie liked that word. Poetic. A thousand ideas for compositions ran through her head.

Izanami faded from view. Marie could still feel her, though. She lay in wait within Marie’s own soul, and if Marie only called her, she would come.

“What was that?!”

Marie turned to see Rise staring at her, wide-eyed and open-mouthed.

“Did I hear you say ‘Persona’?! What did you do?! How did you do it?! Have you been holding out on me, Marie-chan?!”

“Calm down, Rise,” said Chie, who was trotting up to them with an air of seriousness. “You’re troubling Sensei!”

“…Sensei?” Rise’s voice had taken on a cold edge. Chie ignored her and went straight for Marie.

“That was so cool! You’re so cool, Sensei! I’ve never seen anything like that! That kind of power… I mean, no wonder the Shadows were scared of you!” Chie nodded. “Are you the one who can bring people into this world?!”

Marie nodded. “Yeah, pretty much.”

“I knew it! This is so cool! Don’t you think, Rise?”

Rise pushed Chie, who bounced back up this time.

“So she’s Sensei, but you’re not gonna give me any respect? Geez.” Her face softened. “But… yeah, that was pretty cool.” She giggled. “And you helped too. Nice thinking on the weaknesses thing.”

Chie blushed. “Aw, Rise-chan…”

“Yeah! If you two keep it up, we’ll crack this in no time!” She looked up at the liquor store. “But… I wonder what happened to Senpai here?”

That was when the voices started up. Not Izanami’s voice this time. Marie would have accepted that as probably helpful at this point. No, these voices were human, and very gossipy. They came from everywhere and anywhere at once.

“I wish Junes would go under…”

“It’s all because of that store…”

Rise frowned. “Now what?”

“Oh, I heard that Konishi-san's daughter is working there. Oh my... How could she, with her family's business suffering like it is? I heard their sales have gone downhill because of Junes.”

“Stop it…”

“That poor father, to have his own daughter working for the enemy. What a troublesome child...”

“Hey, Chie,” Rise said. “You said that this is reality for the people who are here, right? So… this is Senpai’s reality?”

“Uh, I guess?”

“Fine. Let’s go in and take a look.”

The three of them stepped through the eerie threshold into the liquor store. It was awful – a total ruin. Stacks of bottles and barrels rose up everywhere. Fluorescent lighting flickered above them. It looked like the shop hadn’t been touched in years.

“Saki, how many times do I have to tell you!?”

This time, the voice belonged to a grown man instead of a gossiping housewife.

“You know what the neighbors say about you, right!? Aren't you ashamed of yourself? You're the eldest daughter of a family who's owned this store for generations! Is it the money? Or did you meet some guy there? Just tell me why you have to work THERE, of all places!”

Rise’s shoulders sagged.

“I can’t believe this,” she said. “She seemed so happy at work. She never mentioned any of this. This… is her reality?”

Rise looked around gloomily. She seemed to spot something, and ran over to a table plastered with stickers and photos. Rise picked one up. It was clearly part of a larger photo, but it had been cut down to show just Saki and Rise, in their Junes aprons.

“This is the photo we took with the other part-timers,” Rise said. “Why’d she cut it up like this?”

“I never had the chance to say it…”

This time, Marie recognised the voice. It was Saki’s, no question. She sounded sad and cold.

“I never got the chance to tell Kuji-chan…”

“…me?”

“…that she was a real pain in the ass!”

Rise flinched. Marie winced in sympathy and considered covering her ears for the sake of Rise’s dignity.

“I was only nice to her because she was the store manager’s daughter, that’s all. But she took it the wrong way and started hanging off me like a groupie, the spoilt brat!”

“Brat? Senpai…”

“Who cares about Junes, anyway? Because of that store, our business is ruined, my parents hate me, the neighbours talk behind my back... I wish everything would just disappear...”

“This is a lie,” Rise said, shaking her head. “This isn’t true. It can’t be. Senpai’s not like that!”

“I knew it. I knew she was just like everyone else…”

It had definitely been Rise that spoke those words, but she hadn’t opened her mouth. Worse yet, the voice was distorted, like a really bad filter was on it.

Rise and Marie turned to see another Rise, standing in the shadows of the liquor store. A sickly blue aura had sprung up around her like noxious gas, and her eyes… god. Those eyes. They were a bright yellow, shining through the dark, and utterly piercing. These eyes could see through anything.

“Uhhhh… why are there two of Rise?” Chie sounded utterly perplexed. Marie didn’t blame her.

“Who are you?” The original Rise shook her head. “What are you talking about?”

“Oh, you know exactly what I’m talking about. It’s always the same, isn’t it? People look at you and see the Junes princess, an airheaded little girl who’s ruining this town. But screw Junes, and the shopping district too! No one takes me seriously, no one listens to me!” The second Rise stamped her foot like a child throwing a tantrum. “I hate this place!”

“What is this?” Rise cried. “I – I don’t – ”

“You put on a big smile and pretend that nothing gets you down, ‘cause you know what it’s like to be the kid with no friends because she can’t say a word to anyone. And you cling onto everyone you meet, just so you can block out the fact that you’re a million miles from everything you ever loved.”

“Stop it!” Rise shook her head more emphatically. “Shut up!”

“Oh, what’s with the panic?” The second Rise giggled. “See, I really do know everything you’re thinking. Because I am you! You only came here ‘cause it sounded like it was more interesting than the real world! A world inside the TV – now that’s exciting! Get real, princess, that was your only reason for coming here!”

“That’s not true… stop it…”

“And hey, if you played your cards right, you could catch a killer! You’d be a hero, and then no one would ever call you Princess Junes again! And Senpai’s death… Gee, that was the perfect excuse, wasn’t it, you self-centred little madam?”

“SHUT UP!” Rise was practically on the verge of tears. “What is your problem? Who are you?”

“Uh, didn’t I already tell you that? I’m you, I’m your Shadow! I know e-ver-y-thing about you!”

“No! You aren’t!” Rise took a deep breath. “You can’t be me, you bitch!”

That was the wrong thing to say.

The other Rise giggled again.

“Go on. Say it again, Kuji-chan~.”

“You’re… you’re not me! You aren’t anything like me!”

Shadow Rise burst into hysterical laughter. It built and built, and as it did, so did the cloud of noxious blue gas around her. Sparks of red light burst from it as it turned thick and black, obscuring the shadow from view. Rise swayed on her feet, then collapsed to the floor.

Uh oh.

The smoke cleared. Shadow Rise was now a towering monstrosity, psychedelic in its colouration and grotesque. It had no head, but it did have a huge, yellow-fanged mouth on its chest, formed into a grotesque smile. A long black dress pinned her to the floor. It oozed like the previous Shadows had before their transformation. Four arms rose from her body, waving creepily. In each hand she held a knife.

“I am a Shadow, the true self. If you’re not gonna respect me, then you might as well just DIE!”

“Sensei, look out!”

Chie’s warning came seconds too late. Shadow Rise gestured with her four arms and a blast of wind knocked Marie off her feet and into the wall.

“Owwww…” Marie had a feeling her entire back was going to be covered in bruises in the morning. Assuming Shadow Rise didn’t kill her before that happened.

“Sensei, watch out! This Shadow’s way more powerful than the other ones!”

“I noticed!” Marie staggered to her feet. She could feel Izanami’s alarm in her very soul.

“The first rule of battle is don’t take any unnecessary risks!” Chie called. “Just protect yourself if you think you’re in trouble!”

Marie gave in to Izanami’s insistence. The card appeared in front of her, hovering in mid-air. She reached out and crushed it. Immediately, Izanami appeared, lightning blazing around her. The bolt blasted Shadow Rise onto the floor.

Hey, Marie thought, can Izanami actually use that naginata?

As if in answer, Izanami charged at Shadow Rise and drove the naginata right through her. The Shadow screamed, then smacked the Persona away with two arms and righted itself. But it didn’t attack. Instead, she brought her hands together in a focusing kind of pose.

“SENSEI! She’s preparing to do… something really bad! Watch out!”

Marie nodded and moved to blast Shadow Rise again, hoping to break her concentration. The Shadow staggered, but righted itself even faster. Marie could feel her gaze even though she didn’t have eyes.

“Uh oh.” Marie threw her arms up to defend herself just at the Shadow reached down and smashed her into the ground. It was like being hit by a train, but Marie’s stance ensured she remained standing and not dead. “Ow! Thanks for the warning, Chie!”

Izanami circled back around and zapped the Shadow with even more lightning. Marie struck just as the Shadow started to fall, smacking her in the teeth with the golf club. Man, she hoped that this wasn’t a club that anyone had been meaning to use normally. There were dents in it now. She needed a better weapon.

Shadow Rise got back up, but now she was swaying in place, arms drooping. Rather wisely, the Shadow raised her own guard, putting those arms in front of her face.

“This is totally a trap, right?” Marie called to Chie.

“Uh… probably!”

Marie adopted her guarding stance again. Good thing she did, too – Shadow Rise sprang out of her guard and blasted Marie with another hurricane-force wind. It still stung like hell, but this time Marie didn’t fall over.

Marie dropped out of the guard and focused on Izanami again, who returned the blow with a burst of lightning. All this lightning was getting tiring, but it didn’t matter now – the Shadow roared in pain and fell to the ground, disintegrating into black particles.

Izanami faded. Marie and Chie ran over to Rise’s side.

“Hey, Rise-san!” Marie poked her with the golf club. “Are you okay?”

Rise opened her eyes, wincing, and got to her feet. She was still swaying slightly, like she was dizzy.

“That wasn’t…” She shook her head. “What it said. That thing’s not…”

“Rise-chan, it came from you,” Chie said. “I could feel it – it’s part of you.”

Rise opened her mouth to object, then closed it again. She stepped past Marie and Chie and towards the Shadow, which had resumed its previous form. This time, though, it wasn’t speaking.

“I didn’t want to come to Inaba,” Rise said at last. “I’ve always been really shy, see? I’m not good with people, so the idea of moving to a place I’d never even heard of was terrifying. But I told myself I’d smile and be as friendly as I could, so it wouldn’t be as bad. It didn’t work! Everyone hates me no matter what I do, because I’m the Junes girl! Only a couple of people have been even remotely nice to me. Naoto-kun’s nice but they kick me in the shins when I annoy them, and Saki-senpai…”

Her voice trailed off.

“She was nice to me. Really nice. She said she didn’t care what anyone else thought of me. I thought if I could avenge her, maybe – maybe other people would think better of me, like she had. I mean, I want to avenge her for reals, but… I’m sorry I caused all this trouble, Marie-san.”

“Hey, it’s okay,” Marie said with a smile. “I think you’re pretty great. You bought me meat, even if it wasn’t steak. And if it wasn’t for you, no one would ever have figured out that this place was behind those murders.”

Rise giggled.

“Thanks.” She turned back to her Shadow. “I… I guess you’re right. I’m pretty lonely sometimes, and I just wanted to make a friend. You’re me. I’m you.”

The Shadow nodded, and a relieved smile appeared on its face. It flickered, then faded into a burst of blue light. Hovering above it was the figure of a woman, her body covered in some kind of dark fabric. A white top with a long cloak hung off her upper body, and long red hair flowed from her head. She didn’t have a face – she only had the grin of the Shadow, covering the front of her head. This time, though, it seemed more silly than creepy.

I AM YOU; YOU ARE ME. YOU HAVE FOUND THE STRENGTH OF HEART REQUIRED TO FACE YOURSELF. I AM THE FAÇADE, USED TO OVERCOME LIFE’S DIFFICULTIES… THE PERSONA, HIMIKO. I AM THE SHAMAN QUEEN, THE MAGICIAN.

Himiko faded from view.

“I have a Persona too, now…?”

Rise turned as if to say something, then fell to the floor.

“Whoa! You okay?”

“When we heard Senpai’s voice… do you think that was what she was hiding?” Rise looked up at Marie. “’She was a real pain the ass’? Geez, what a way to find out. So embarrassing. But thanks for saving my life.”

“No problem.” Marie reached down and helped Rise to her feet. Rise was still swaying, but at least she could stand.

“So, Chie, do you think Senpai could’ve been attacked by her other self here?”

Chie thought about it. “Probably, yeah. Shadows come from humans. When the fog lifts, they all go berserk. A really strong Shadow can draw other Shadows to it, like what happened with yours. And then… that mass of Shadows…”

She didn’t need to say any more.

--

They made their way back to the entrance, Rise leaning on Marie the entire way. Thankfully, no more Shadows popped out. Marie was pretty wiped from fighting the Shadows they’d already met. Who would’ve thought that a stiff breeze could’ve hurt that much?

“So let’s recap,” Rise said, standing as straight as she could. “Yamano and Senpai got thrown in here, and those ‘realities’ sprang up around them. They couldn’t get out, so they wandered around, and then their other selves showed up. The fog cleared, the Shadows attacked, and they died. Right?”

“Sounds about right to me,” Chie said. “You’re really lucky that me and Sensei were here, Rise-chan.”

“No kidding. But… no one was here for those people who died. No one saved them. And if the killer strikes again…”

Chie perked up. “Maybe we can save them! Those people who got thrown in only got attacked when the fog faded. The Shadows don’t like people who go snooping around, but people who just get thrown in should be fine.”

“Wait… so if we can find whoever gets thrown in before the fog clears, we could get them out?”

“I say it’s worth a shot,” Marie said. “C’mon, we’ve got a goddess, a magic queen, and a dragon. We’ll just get you a golf club and give it a try.”

“Yeah. Yeah, let’s try it!” Rise nodded. “And if we can save someone, they can maybe help us find the killer!”

“I do have one more question, though,” Chie said. “If Shadows are born from humans, what do Chies come from?”

Rise’s good mood evaporated.

“What.”

“See, I don’t really know what I am, and you guys seem pretty smart. I mean, you can do magic and stuff. That’s pretty smart, right? So what do Chies come from?”

“How are we supposed to know that?! No wonder you can’t give us a straight answer on anything!”

Chie drooped slightly. “You guys are gonna come back, right?”

“We made a promise,” Marie said. “And you did say you weren’t gonna let us out unless we kept it.”

“Oh, yeah!” Chie nodded. “Okay, I’ll let you out now. But when you come back, you’ve gotta come through the same way you came in the last two times, so you don’t end up somewhere random and get lost.”

“Junes as a portal to another world,” Rise said. “I feel like all those weird rumours about Junes trying to take over the world are coming true.”

“…There’s rumours about what now?” Marie shook her head. “This town is messed up. Anyway, we should be going home now…”

“Gotcha! Stand back and let me work my magic!” Chie tapped her foot again and the stack of televisions re-appeared.

“You know,” Rise said, “we should probably check that there isn’t anyone milling about on the other side…”

But before she could do that, Chie grabbed both of the girls and squashed them both into the televisions. The blur of black and white flashed past them, and they stumbled into the Junes electronics department. Naoto was still kneeling in front of the TV, clutching the lifeline.

“Ah! You came back!”

Naoto got to their feet. Their face went from distraught, to relieved, to I’m-going-to-kick-someone-in-the-calves-for-this.

“Uh, hi, Naoto-kun,” Rise said. “What’s with that face – ”

Naoto threw the rope at Rise. It smacked her right in the face and almost knocked her off balance again.

“Do you have any idea how long I’ve been waiting?!” they shrieked. “The rope snapped and I had no idea what to do! The portal didn’t open for me and I had no clue if you were going to be able to make it back! Just think before you go doing these things, Kujikawa!”

Naoto turned and stormed off out of the electronics department. Rise picked up the rope.

“That was our fault,” she said. “I’ll apologise to them tomorrow. Right now I think I just wanna sleep.”

“Same here.” Marie stretched out. “See you at school.”

--

The rain was absolutely pouring down by the time they left. Marie resigned herself to watching the Midnight Channel that night, which was a shame, because after everything that had happened she really, really wanted to go to bed early for once.

The Samegawa River was dull and grey in the rain, as was the entire rest of the floodplain. Marie walked quickly down it, hoping to get home without getting total soaked.

“Marie-chan? That you?”

Marie looked up from staring at the pavement to see Kanji Tatsumi sitting under a wooden shelter. He was wearing a plain-looking purple kimono.

“Oh, hey, Kanji-san.” Marie walked over and sat under the shelter with him. The rain pattered heavily on the roof. “Nice kimono.”

“Oh, ha, surprised to see me wearing it?” He laughed. “I’m running an errand for the inn. How’re you settling in, anyway?”

“This town is kind of weird, but I think I’m getting used to it.”

Kanji laughed. “Yeah, it’s not normally like this, trust me. But I guess moving must be hard. Oh, haven’t you been hanging out with Naoto-kun? You getting on with them?”

“I guess, kinda.” Marie decided not to mention that she’d accidentally scared Naoto half out of their mind earlier that day. Kanji seemed nice, but he was also one of the tallest people she’d ever met, and she had a funny feeling that he could probably beat her up worse than Shadow Rise had.

“Ah, good.” Kanji smiled fondly. “Naoto-kun gets a lot of crap, but they’re a real good person. They’re always there for me, you know? Although, uh, don’t talk shit abut Neo Featherman around them. Ever. Trust me, it’s a bad idea.”

Marie remembered what Naoto had done to Rise over the DVD and nodded quickly.

“I’d probably better get going.” Kanji stood and bowed. “I’ll see you at school, if I’m there.”

--

The first thing Marie did when she got home was make herself a mug of coffee. If she was staying up till midnight, she’d need it. Definitely.

She’d just finished when the news came on. She settled next to Nanako to watch it.

“Dad’s late,” Nanako said sadly.

“Our next story is an update in our ongoing report on the bizarre murders occurring in Inaba. At around 7:00 A.M., local high school student Saki Konishi was found dead in Inaba's residential area. Since the body was positioned similarly to the last victim, and since Ms. Konishi was the one who discovered that body, police are proceeding under the assumption that this may be a serial murder case related to the death of Mayumi Yamano. The coroner's report has established Ms. Konishi's time of death at around 1:00 A.M. last night. The body went unnoticed until this morning as a result of the heavy fog blanketing the area.”

Nanako drooped. “Another incident? Dad won’t be coming home tonight…”

“Hey, it’s okay. I’m here.” Marie smiled at Nanako.

“I’ll be okay. Can you help me do some stuff around the house?”

It struck Marie that Nanako was very reliable, but also that she shouldn’t have to have been. What was she, six? Seven? Marie might’ve been used to being on her own, but poor Nanako.

“...Tatsumi Inn, located upstream of Samegawa River, is the town's oldest historical landmark. Vacationers are known to travel surprising distances in order to visit its open-air, radium-rich hot springs.”

Tatsumi? Marie returned her attention to the screen.

“After the incident with Ms Yamano, the manager has stepped aside, leaving her son Kanji to fill her shoes.”

Sure enough, Kanji was on the screen, still wearing his kimono. He looked very busy. Who could blame him? Fifteen years old and he was going to have to take over a historic business.

“In other words, he's a manager who's still in high school,” the reporter said. “Now that has a nice ring to it... Let's see if we can interview him. Excuse me!”

Kanji turned and saw the reporter.

“Oh… hello.” He smiled nervously. “Can I help you…?”

“We've heard that you're the new manager. Is it true you're still in high school?”

“Oh,” Kanji said, “I’m just filling in for my mother while she’s not well.”

His demeanour seemed completely different to how he’d acted at school. Marie couldn’t imagine the boy on the screen swearing, or speaking as plainly as he had earlier. It was a bizarre thing to see.

“But someday, though? That aside, I bet you must get a lot of female visitors. You look like you’re in the prime of your life!”

That caught poor Kanji off-guard. He almost flinched.

“Uh… we get a lot of visitors of all genders…”

The reporter started rambling at Kanji, who got more and more flummoxed.

“This is boring,” Nanako said. “Oh, I need to do the dishes.”

“I’ll help,” Marie said, turning off the TV.

--

Lo and behold, when midnight came, it was still raining. Marie rubbed sleep out of her eyes and stood in front of her TV, waiting. Sure enough, it flickered on, just as it had done with poor Saki. This time, it wasn’t a woman on the screen. The figure was broad and seemed to be wearing traditional clothing. Probably a kimono.

A horrible idea occurred to Marie. She reached forwards and put her hand on the screen, reaching out to the figure she saw there. Predictably, her hand went straight through and the picture vanished.

She pulled her hand out and went to bed.

That night, she had yet another odd dream. She was standing in a limo (somehow) which was entirely blue. Sitting across from her was the old man, Igor, and next to him was… what was her name? Oh yeah, Margaret!

“Welcome,” Igor said. “Do not be alarmed. You are fast asleep in the real world... I have summoned you within your dreams.”

“This is a space that only those who have, in one way or another, entered into a contract may enter,” Margaret explained. “In your daily life, you subconsciously heard the call to awaken, and you chose to follow the destiny of your inner voice...thereby enacting your glorious awakening to your power.”

Contract… Was she talking about Marie’s promise to Chie? She’d read something about verbal contracts once, but it had been so boring she’d forgotten most of it.

“Hold on to this...”

Igor waved his hand, and a shining blue key appeared in the air in front of Marie. She took it and it vanished.

“From this night forth, you are our guest in this Velvet Room. Your destiny will require you to hone your power, and for that, you will inevitably require our help. There is but one price for this assistance: You must abide by your contract and assume responsibility for all decisions you may make.”

A million questions ran through Marie’s head.

“I don’t get it. Sorry.”

She thought she saw Igor’s eye twitch.

“...That is fine, for now. The Persona you have acquired is a side of you that shows itself when you face the world around you. Perhaps you can think of it as... a facade of determination you wear to face various difficulties in life. Your Persona ability, however, is that of the wild card... Compared to that of others, it is very special. It is like the number zero: empty, yet holding infinite potential within itself.”

Marie had no clue if he was insulting her or not, but it felt to her that getting into an argument with this man was a bad idea. Something about him was very intimidating, though he’d done nothing to hurt her. He was definitely scarier than Morooka.

“Special? Whaddya mean, special power?”

“The Persona ability is the power to control one's own heart, and the heart is strengthened through bonds. As you form bonds by becoming involved with others, your own Social Links will gradually develop. The power of these Social Links is what will determine your Persona's abilities.”

Social Links?!

“Control my heart? Huh?”

“Social Links are necessary for more than strengthening your Persona,” Margaret sort-of explained. “At times, they will help light the way to the truth you are searching for.”

Okay. So Social Links were useful, whatever they were.

“Where will your awakened power of the wild card take you...? I look forward to traveling the road of your destiny together.” Igor chuckled. “'Til we meet again...”

All went dark.

Chapter Text

The rain had cleared up by the next morning. Inaba looked a lot nicer when the heavens weren’t open.

“Hey!” Rise managed to stop her bike without hitting Marie or a bin this time. She looked a lot brighter than she had the previous day. “You saw what was on last night, right?”

“Uh-huh. Someone’s getting kidnapped and thrown into a TV.”

“Yeah. I didn’t recognise them, but if they’re on the Midnight Channel then they’re in trouble. Maybe we should talk to Chie after school, she might help us.” Her face hardened. “If someone else gets thrown in… that’s a pattern. Someone’s using that world as a weapon. And we have to do something about it! No way would the police believe us.”

“You’re right. We’ve gotta stop this before anyone else dies.”

Rise nodded. On her face was a serious look which Marie had seen the previous day when Rise had first suggested that the TV might be involved in the murders.

“Uh-huh. Oh, yeah, last night I tried sticking my head in the TV. It worked. I guess our Personas let us do that.” She frowned. “Though, that’s kind of weird. Is someone giving us this power so we can stop the killer? Where’d you get yours anyway?”

“I… have no idea.” Marie shrugged. “Sorry. Guess I’m just magic.”

Rise laughed. “Well, now we’re both magic! I bet that if we work together, we can crack this.”

She stuck her hand out. Marie took it and shook it. A sudden sense of respect for Rise came over her. It was chaotic, but Rise was doing her best to move on and solve this. Marie decided then and there that she was going to be Rise’s friend.

THOU ART I, AND I ART THOU.

Oh for god’s sake, what did Izanami want now?! Though come to think of it, this wasn’t exactly the same as Izanami’s voice…

THOU HAST ESTABLISHED A NEW BOND. IT BRINGS THEE CLOSER TO THE TRUTH. THOU SHALT BE BLESSED WHEN CREATING PERSONAS OF THE MAGICIAN ARCANA…

Oh! That’s what Margaret and Igor had been talking about! Social Links! It all made sense now. Friendship equalled magic power upgrades. Well, that was good enough reason for Marie to stop hiding in her room.

--

I am fallen – abandoned

To the coldness of a broken heart.

You have abandoned me.

My beauty was all you saw. You loved only a face.

I hope these maggots crawl through Hell

And through the barrier you placed between us

And swallow you whole!

Stay out of Hell! I’m the queen now!

I’ll torture you forever! You’ll never die!

“Hey, Marie-chan, what’re you writing?”

Marie slammed her hands over her pathos.

“Nothing!”

Fortunately, Rise’s curiosity was put on hold by the sound of the classroom door slamming open. Naoto stood in the doorway, saw them, and ran over.

“Oh, hi!” Rise smiled weakly. “Um, sorry about yesterday, Naoto-kun…”

“Never mind yesterday! Is Kanji here yet?”

Marie privately thought that the big guy was sort of hard to miss. He was practically six feet tall, or something. “Nope. Sorry.”

“Oh, god…” Naoto swallowed and began to explain. “Everything you were saying yesterday, Rise-chan, was it true? About the Midnight Channel being a warning of the next person to die…”

“Um, we think so, yeah. We were gonna talk to you about it…”

“Oh, god! The person who was on last night, I think it was Kanji!” Marie’s blood ran cold. “That kimono was definitely the one he wears when he helps at the inn, and he wore it during that television interview too. I emailed him last night, but he hasn’t responded. But he said he’d probably be at school today when I phoned him earlier that evening…”

“Okay, we get it.” Rise nodded. “You’ve not heard from him at all?”

“No…”

“Basically,” Marie said, “we think that if someone’s on that TV, they’ve been thrown in by the killer. And that means they’ll probably get killed by the manifestation of the screams of their soul. Repressed feelings and stuff. But don’t worry because that won’t happen until it gets foggy. So he’s alive. Probably.”

Surprisingly, this didn’t reassure Naoto in the slightest. In fact, they looked more worried than ever. A look of ghastly horror like the one they’d had when they’d heard of Saki’s death appeared on their face.

“Kanji’s been thrown into the TV?!”

“Um, maybe, yeah.” Rise shot Marie a glare. Marie shot her a look of I tried, okay? right back. “Try calling him.”

Naoto took out their phone and dialled Kanji’s number. Their face fell even further when they got a response.

“…Voicemail.”

“Oh, no.” Rise went pale. “Kanji-kun might be in the TV after all…”

“Don’t say that!” Naoto snapped. “Perhaps he’s running an errand. Or he might be helping at the inn. Yes, that’ll be it! He can’t answer his phone if he’s doing that! Let me see, I have the inn’s number somewhere…”

Naoto dialled again and waited with bated breath. They breathed a sigh of relief.

“Kanji? Oh, thank goodness! Ah, hmm… Oh, it’s nothing, I’ll talk to you about it later. Sorry to bother you.” They snapped their phone shut. “He’s fine. They just had a big group reservation at the inn. Come to think of it, this happened last year too. He probably won’t be at school tomorrow, either.”

They punched Rise on the arm.

“Ow! What was that for?!”

“For scaring me! He was fine, but you were convinced for some reason that he was in the TV! Honestly, Kujikawa!”

“We thought that for a reason!” Rise rubbed her arm. “We thought that if someone was in the TV, they’d show up on it! But Kanji’s still in our world. What’s going on?”

Marie sighed. She was going to have to work on her composition later.

---

“Okay, okay, that’s enough! Sheesh!”

After school, they had made their way to Junes in order to figure out what on earth was going on. On the way, Marie had regaled Naoto with the tale of what had happened after she and Rise had jumped into the TV without them. Rise had not enjoyed this, and was now bright red with embarrassment.

“This whole scenario is absurd,” Naoto said as they strolled up to the TV. “If I hadn’t seen the place myself, I wouldn’t have believed a word of that story.”

“If it wasn’t for the bruises I got when someone’s repressed issues knocked me into a wall, I would’ve thought it was a dream.” Rise reached over and punched Marie on the arm. “Okay, I deserved that.”

“Sheesh, Marie-chan.” Rise giggled despite herself, then turned serious. “We need to figure out what’s going on here, though.”

“By talking to the dragon?” Naoto’s brow furrowed. “’Chie’, you said her name was? Odd name for a dragon. I would have expected some kind of a pun.”

“Me too.” Rise looked around and sighed. “But there’s a sale on today. Way too many customers. We can’t go in… Wait, I have an idea!”

Rise went right up to the TV, pulling Marie by the sleeve.

“Okay, Naoto-kun, you stand on the other side…” She let go of Marie as Naoto moved into position. “Try sticking your hand in and call Chie over!”

Marie glanced left and right, but no one was looking, and with Rise and Naoto either side of her no one would be able to see. She pressed her fingers against the screen. They sank right in. (It scared Marie that this didn’t surprise her anymore.) She crooked her finger on the other side.

“Hey, Chie, you there?”

The response came in the form of a sudden shot of pain through Marie’s hand. Something had bitten her! And it was something with sharp teeth, too! She pulled her hand back out and inspected it. There was no damage, but it still hurt…

“Did she bite you?!” Rise clapped her hands over her mouth.

“Are you all right, Marie-chan?” Naoto took Marie’s hand and examined it.

Marie wobbled her lower lip dramatically. “I’m gonna cry.”

“No you’re not, you dolt, she didn’t even break the skin.” Naoto dropped Marie’s hand. “Honestly, didn’t you fight hellish monsters born from resentment and repression yesterday?”

Rise thumped the TV. “We know you’re in there, Chie!”

The portal sprang into appearance on the screen, but Chie did not come through. Her voice echoed through the portal, though.

“Ooooh, Sensei, is this a game?”

“No, it’s not!” Rise sighed. “Is there anyone on your side?”

“Uhhhh… what do you mean by ‘anyone’? Because there’s a ton of Shadows, are they ‘anyone’?”

There was a vein throbbing in Rise’s neck. “I mean a human!”

“Nope, I’m on my own. Just me and the Shadows.”

“So Kanji’s not in there?” There was a look of relief on Naoto’s face.

“Uh, who’s Kanji?”

“I’m going to warn him anyway,” Naoto said as the portal faded. “Just in case. He’s going to be busy, so I doubt he’ll go anywhere, but…”

“Maybe you should walk him to school tomorrow,” Rise suggested.

“Good idea.” Naoto nodded. “I’ll pick him up at his house.”

A thought occurred to Marie. “Hey, it’s raining. We should watch the Midnight Channel. Just in case.”

“Yeah, good idea.” Rise took her phone out. “Maybe we should exchange numbers…?”

The two of them exchanged numbers quickly. Marie saved Rise’s into her phone as ‘Magician In Bunches’. It seemed appropriate.

--

Midnight is blue.

It is the colour of loneliness.

The endless hours spent waiting for someone to come.

Midnight is black.

It is the colour of death.

The death of an old day.

…see, that first bit was fine, but the rest, well, not so much. What could she add onto the last line to make it fit with the third? Poetry had to have some kind of a pattern, right? Unless you were being experimental, and Marie had decided not to be on this. She wasn’t in that kind of mood.

The kind of mood she was in was bored. Waiting for midnight took forever.

Speaking of which – oh hey, a minute to go. Nice. And it had only taken, what, fifteen abandoned compositions? At this rate, Dojima was going to shout at her for wasted paper…

She got up and went over to the TV. Sure enough, at midnight –

– um –

– this was new.

The image was no longer a blurry one of a boy in a kimono. It was now as clear as day, and what the image was – well, Marie hadn’t been expecting this.

Kanji was, indeed, on the screen, but he wasn’t wearing a kimono. He was wearing an incredibly gaudy and purple prince get-up, complete with a crown, poofy shorts, jewellery, and a doublet. His face had been carefully made-up by someone with a great deal of skill – light blush, mascara, and lip gloss. It looked a lot better than the rest of his costume, that was for sure. In one hand he held a microphone. The other rested on his hip. When he spoke, it was with a lisp that had most definitely not been there before.

“Welcome, one and all, to Prince Kanji’s Grand Quest – the Mystery of the Forbidden Castle!” He gestured behind him with his free hand, and the shot indeed panned to a castle. It had fantastic gardens, with flower chains dangling from every window. Funny, aside from the red-and-black TV backdrop, it didn’t seem very forbidden. “From tonight onwards, you, my darling viewers, will watch as I explore this most inviting of locales! Oh, I wonder what could happen to me here…”

He clapped one hand over his mouth as the camera returned to him. Then he giggled.

“Well, I ought to get going. Dare you follow along? Farewell!”

With that, he turned and ran off into the castle, disappearing into the red-and-black portal. The image stayed for a moment, then vanished.

Marie stared at the screen. A million questions ran through her head, and she had no idea which one was the most pressing. Luckily, she was interrupted by the sound of her phone ringing. It was Rise.

“Hey.”

“What was that?” Rise’s voice had shot up at least an octave. “I mean, you saw that, right?”

“I saw Prince Kanji on a quest to explore a forbidden castle, yeah.”

“Was that some kind of low-budget TV show, or something?” Rise’s voice had calmed down a bit. “And since when did Kanji-kun have a lisp? What’s going on?”

“Wait, let’s try calling Naoto-san,” Marie said. “I mean, we have a better shot of getting to them than Kanji, yeah?”

“Y-yeah! I’ll call them and tell them to meet us at Junes tomorrow!”

Chapter Text

I am fallen – abandoned

To the coldness of a broken heart.

You have abandoned me.

My beauty was all you saw. You loved only a face.

I hope these maggots crawl through Hell

And through the barrier you placed between us

And swallow you whole!

Stay out of Hell! I’m the queen now!

I’ll torture you forever! You’ll never die!

And maybe after a thousand near-deaths,

I’ll understand why you abandoned me.

“Heyyyy, Marie-chan.”

Marie looked up. Rise had walked right up to her table at Junes, dressed in a fuzzy jacket and pink jeans. She was holding her arms behind her back at a weird angle.

“You’re late. Why are you late?”

“Oh, well.” Rise was grinning dangerously. “I was thinking about things, and I had an idea. Your golf club is pretty battered, right? So we need new weapons!”

With a flourish, she revealed what she was holding behind her back – swords. Two of them, actually, a katana and what looked like a wakizashi. Marie felt her heart drop into her stomach.

“Where did you get those?!”

“They were in the closet. I guess my dad used to collect them… or something.” Rise held them out for Marie to see. “So which one do you like best?”

Marie thought about it. “I want the katana.”

“Oooh, good thinking. Um, they’re not actually real though. Just so you know.” She set the katana down on the table before Marie. “I guess that makes the wakizashi mine! It’s nice and light, which should be fun!”

She tried swinging it through the air a couple of times.

“Two suspicious females, armed with multiple weapons, requesting back-up…”

Rise froze. Marie’s heart dropped even further. A police officer was coming across the food court towards them. Rise unfroze and put the wakizashi down on the table. She gave the officer the fakest grin imaginable.

Marie started putting her composition back in her bag.

“This isn’t what it looks like!” she said. “I was just showing my friend – we’re enthusiasts, you see…”

“I’ll hear it down at the station,” the officer said gruffly. “Put your hands where I can see them, both of you! Hey!”

Marie froze, hands still in her bag.

“H-hands where I can see them! NOW!”

Marie put her hands up.

The journey to the station was a long one. Fortunately, when they got there, the group was stopped by Dojima, who took one look at Marie and declared that he’d deal with it.

“I really didn’t think you were the type to pull a stunt like this,” he said.

“Sorry…” Marie stared down at her feet. Their weapons had been confiscated. Now what?

“You know what's been going on around town. We got men stationed everywhere. For god's sake... You're lucky I was around, or this would have ended up on your permanent record.”

“I’m sorry too,” Rise said, staring down at her own feet.

Dojima fixed them with a hard stare. The awkward silence was cut by the conversation of two police officers walking past them.

“So, the Tatsumi boy disappeared?

“Seems like it. But he’s just a high schooler. He could’ve run away.”

Rise looked up. Dojima stared at her harder.

“Something to say?”

“No, sir.”

Dojima sighed. “I'm sure you've seen on the news that there's an investigation in progress. We're sensitive about certain things. You're free to go. But this better not happen again.”

Dojima walked off and left them at the front of the station.

“Kanji’s gone missing?” Rise said. “Oh, no…”

“Hey, aren’t you the kid staying with Dojima?”

Standing before them was a young plainclothes detective holding a cup of coffee. Marie realised that it was the same one who’d thrown up on her first day of school. She wrinkled her nose.

“Um, yeah.”

“Hey, can we ask you something?” Rise said. “It’s about Tatsumi-san – Kanji Tatsumi. Did he disappear?”

“Uh… am I allowed to say this? Oh, well, if you’re friends with him. We got a call from his parents yesterday evening saying that they couldn’t find him anywhere.” He shrugged. “Since it was the weekend, all of the inn workers were really busy, so no one saw Tatsumi – ah, but that doesn’t mean this is a case yet! But with the foggy day deaths, you know… Did he say anything to either of you girls about maybe going through some hard times?

“Huh?” Rise tilted her head. “Hard times?”

“Well,” Adachi explained, “that announcer, Ms Yamano, was staying at the Tatsumi Inn before the first murder. Seems Ms. Yamano had some harsh words for the manager about the staff's attitude towards guests. The stress of it caused the manager to collapse. And with Tatsumi-kun being the manager's son... well, you probably don’t know, but boys can get pretty defensive of their mothers.”

Marie and Rise exchanged worried glances. Had Kanji mentioned this to anyone, even Naoto? Surely they would’ve said something after Kanji’s first appearance on the Midnight Channel…

“By the way,” the cop continued, “did he ever mention to you that he might be leaving the house? ‘Cause if not, there’s been some theories that he might be laying low for one reason or another… Whoops, I said too much!”

“ADACHI!” Dojima’s voice roared down the corridor. “What’re you chatting with civvies for?! And where’s my coffee?!”

“S-sorry, I’ve got it right here!” The detective shot a long-suffering smile at the girls. “Ha, forget I said anything, ladies…”

With that, he hurried off down the corridor, holding the coffee with practised precision so as not to drop it and further incur Dojima’s wrath. Marie was starting to feel that she shouldn’t cross her uncle.

Rise and Marie walked towards the lobby in an awkward silence, which was broken by Rise.

“Does that cop really think that – ”

“There you are!”

Naoto Shirogane was waiting in the lobby for them, arms folded and face both frustrated and extremely worried. Somehow, Marie wasn’t surprised to see that they were the kind of person who wore shorts in April.

“I can’t believe you got yourselves arrested,” they said. “I thought that I’d be the one who got arrested for some strange reason, not you two. And of all the times…!”

“Sorry, sorry!” Rise shook her head. “But we have a problem! Kanji-kun – ”

“Is gone.” Naoto’s voice had taken on a hard edge. “He won’t answer his phone. I went to his house, and apparently he’s gone missing.”

“Yeah, it’s actually worse than that,” Marie said. “The cops think he’s laying low. Apparently that announcer had a fight with Kanji’s mom, his mother collapsed, and now my uncle and his co-workers think that Kanji might’ve done it.”

Naoto looked predictably appalled.

“They think Kanji killed them?! But he’s the victim!”

“Exactly, which is why we need to get out of here and go stop whatever the hell his repressed feelings are from finishing the job and dangling him from a wire!”

Naoto and Rise stared at Marie like they were about to say something about her choice of words, then decided against it. Instead, Naoto said:

“You’re right.”

Rise nodded. “The police officially have no idea what they’re doing. We need to handle this ourselves!”

“I’m coming with you this time,” Naoto said, “and that’s final. Kanji’s my best friend.”

“Are you sure…? Fine,” Rise said, “but, geez, we’re gonna need new weapons, Marie’s uncle took ours…”

Naoto’s face split into a grin. “I have just the place.”

*

If you wanted weapons, yeah, this was probably just the place.

Was… was this even legal?

Naoto had taken them to Daidara Metalworks in the shopping district. And just as promised, it sold weaponry. Lots of it. Swords and axes hung from racks, armour shone from behind the counter, daggers gleamed on the shelves… yep, this was a place to buy weapons. A fire roared in the back, behind the owner, Daidara – an old, scarred man who made it clear with a look than anyone messing around in his shop would pay. Marie had many, many questions, but decided not to ask him any of them.

“Naoto-kun,” said Rise under her breath, “doesn’t this place strike you as kinda weird?”

“Actually, I think it’s pretty cool.” Naoto was looking around approvingly. “I heard a couple of guys in our class talking about it.”

They went up to a large set of armour.

“Ooh, I like this… wait, it’s too heavy, I’m not that strong. Oh well.”

“Naoto-kun…” Rise put a hand on Naoto’s shoulder. “Are you absolutely sure about this? I know how you feel, but – ”

Naoto shrugged Rise’s hand off their shoulder.

“No, you don’t know how I feel,” they said. “You have no idea at all.”

An awkward silence followed. Marie looked at the swords while it passed. Yeah, thinking about it, a katana did sound good. She almost considered a naginata, but then decided that was stealing Izanami’s thing. Wait, Izanami was her. Could she steal her own thing…?

Sword. Definitely a sword. A naginata would just make her head hurt.

“Kanji is my best friend,” Naoto said, breaking the silence.

“All right, you’re coming, but stay behind us,” Marie replied.

“Oh, I’ll be fine, my reflexes are perfectly honed.”

“You have no idea what it’s really like in there!” Rise hissed. “No idea! So make sure you have some armour or something so Shadows don’t eat you.”

Naoto took a pair of what looked suspiciously like armoured shoes off the shelf. Marie remembered the kick they’d delivered to Rise and decided that Naoto would probably be fine if they had those. Then a thought occurred to her.

“…How’re we meant to get these things to Junes?”

Rise and Naoto thought about it.

“We could hide them under our clothes,” Rise suggested. “Wait, but I’m in skinny jeans, and you two have mostly bare legs. I don’t think we can put these in our jackets.”

It was true. Marie was wearing a turtleneck jumper and a skirt, and while Naoto’s jacket did have pockets they would not be big enough to hide weapons in. Rise’s jacket was baggier, and her legs were covered, but her jeans were so tight that she’d still find it hard to hide things. Seriously, who wore pink skinny jeans?

“Oh!” Rise clapped her hands together. “Our school uniforms are baggier!”

“…School uniforms. On Sunday.” Marie stared at her. “Okay, you have a point, but still.”

“If it’s to save Kanji,” Naoto said, “I’ll wear my school uniform on a Sunday. I don’t have much of a reputation to uphold anyway.”

--

Sometime later, Marie left Daidara’s with a sword, some kind of collapsible spear, and two sets of armour stuffed into a hastily-found bag. Daidara had, thankfully, asked them no questions about their purchases.

Inaba was weird.

The trio split up to return home and change into their uniforms. Naoto had, amusingly enough, just put the shoes on, arguing that no one was going to argue with them about it because everyone knew how hard they could kick. Marie herself didn’t feel like arguing. She just wanted to get home and get changed so they could sort this.

But, of course, it wasn’t that simple. The moment that Marie had split up with Rise and Naoto, there had been a flash of light and a blue door had appeared in the middle of the shopping district.

Marie looked around to see if anyone had noticed it. They hadn’t. Great, she thought, the weirdness is following me home. Next thing I know Chie’ll come into our world and I’ll have to explain a dragon to my uncle.

A strange warmth erupted in her hand. It felt heavy, like she was holding something. She opened her palm to find the key from her dream.

“So it finally begins. Now, if you'll give me a moment of your time...”

Igor’s voice rang in her head. Marie put two and two together, unlocked the door, and returned to the Velvet Room. There were Igor and Margaret, as she’d expected, but there was someone new –

Seriously?!

The boy from the station was there! His eyes seemed a little more focused this time, though his expression was still entirely blank. He was wearing the same clothes as before, but now he’d added a blue hat and bag to his ensemble. On his hat was a yellow badge with a V on it.

Igor smiled, waving his hand in welcome. “We have been expecting you.”

“I was kind of expecting you, too.”

Igor chuckled. Marie figured he wasn’t so bad.

“The catastrophe that is headed your way has already taken human lives in its approach towards you. But you have nothing to fear. You already have the power to fight against it. It seems that the time for you to use your Persona has come...”

He chuckled again. This time it was far creepier and Marie revised her previous thoughts on him.

Margaret leant forwards. “Your Persona ability is that of the wild card. If you strengthen your bonds properly, their power will help you overcome any ordeal. Our role is to facilitate that.”

Wild… card…?

“My contribution,” Igor explained, “is to give birth to new Personas.”

Oh wow, that wasn’t a mental image Marie had ever needed. Wait, what?

“By mixing together multiple Persona cards,” he continued, “I can transmute them into a new form. This, in other words, is the fusion of Personas. You have the power to hold multiple Personas and to use them accordingly.”

Marie’s jaw nearly dropped. She had more than one Persona? Could Rise do this? She hadn’t mentioned anything like this to Marie, so Marie figured she was the only one. What?!

“When you defeat an enemy, the seeds of possibility you attain will appear before you as cards. At times, they may be hard to grasp, but you must master your fear and reach out to them. When you obtain new cards, please do not hesitate to bring them here. If you have been developing your Social Links, then your Persona will gain even more power. They will be one of your chief sources of strength. You would do well to take this to heart.”

Marie mulled this over for a minute. It occurred to her that she was going to be summoning mythical beings using the power of friendship with the assistance of an old man in a limo that probably didn’t actually exist.

Margaret held up a large blue book. Was everything in this room blue?

“This is the Persona Compendium. Registering the Personas you hold will allow you to recall them at any time. Please see me when you wish to use it.” She set the book down and glanced at the bowl cut boy. “Oh, and one more thing. I would like to introduce a new resident of the Velvet Room, who will be helping you on your journey.”

Bowl Cut Boy had been staring off into space, but now his grey gaze was fixed squarely on Marie. He said nothing. Margaret frowned.

“…Yu.”

“Hm? Nice to meet you.”

Marie would not be surprised if he couldn’t remember a thing about their previous meeting. She also thought that he needed to get a cough sweet.

“Who are you?” she asked.

Yu shrugged. “Does it matter?”

“Please excuse him,” Margaret said. “This is Yu. His soul is young, and – ”

“Margaret, I really don’t think this matters.”

“…as you can see. He may seem… strange to you, but he is only an apprentice, so please forgive his absurdities.”

“Gotcha.” Marie nodded. Yu went back to staring into space. Margaret shook her head.

“Yu will be dealing with ‘Skill Cards’. Using these cards will allow you to provide your Personas with new powers. Also, I am sure he will help you form a bond between yourself and the "outside world." Yu will contact you at a later date. Please feel free to speak with him here when you wish to use him services.”

Igor chuckled again. “Do you recall my words to you before? ‘The coming year is a turning point in your destiny. If the mystery goes unsolved, your future may be forever lost.’ I meant precisely what I said. Defeat in battle is not the only way your journey may come to an end. Please do not forget this. When next we meet, you will come here of your own will. I look forward to it. Until then... farewell.”

“Wait – what do you mean, defeat in battle’s not the only way – ”

Marie blinked and she was back on the street in front of the blue door. She glared at it, then turned and stormed back off to her house.

Now equipped with her school uniform, she made her way back to the Junes food court. Rise and Naoto were already waiting. Naoto was tapping their feet incessantly.

“The stuff’s staying in the bag this time,” Marie said. Rise went red and smiled sheepishly. “But wow, we really stick out.”

“We’re in our school uniforms on a Sunday,” Rise said. “The sale should be over soon, so that’ll clear away some of the customers in the electronics department. Naoto-kun, it’s not too late to – ”

“I’m. Going.”

“Okay, then.”

Marie thought that Rise didn’t have to worry. Naoto’s glare could have killed even the mightiest of Shadows.

--

A hop through a TV later, and the trio were greeted with the sight of Chie clutching her head. She was spouting smoke. Marie had never smelt sulphur before, but now she was pretty sure what it smelt like. Sulphur, that was, and burning cotton.

“So there really was a dragon,” Naoto said in a disbelieving tone.

“Wow, are you okay?” Marie was hesitant to step too close in case Chie set on fire.

“No,” Chie replied. “I’ve been thinking a lot, and now my head hurts.”

No kidding, it’s nearly on fire – Marie wanted to say, but didn’t.

“What’ve you been thinking about?” Rise asked.

“Stuff. About me.” Chie shook her head and it stopped smoking. “I feel a bit better now, though. I think.”

Rise shrugged. “Is that a good idea? I mean, you almost set yourself on fire. I don’t think that thinking on an empty head is a great idea.”

“Hey! I-I’m way smart!”

“Oh, enough, you pack of fools!” Naoto snapped. “We don’t have time for this! Chie, did someone come here yesterday?”

Chie’s eyes blew wide.

“Whoa, someone who’s even better at the mystic arts than I am? Do you even have a pearl? Hey, what’s your name?”

“Mystic arts… my name is Naoto Shirogane, but never mind that. Someone came here?”

“Uh-huh.” Chie nodded. “I think… I think they came in after I talked to you guys. It just feels like someone’s here, I guess.”

“Really? Kanji-kun’s here?” Rise’s hand went to where she’d concealed her collapsible spear under her shirt.

“I dunno, I haven’t looked. But they’re…” she pointed, “that way!”

Naoto nodded. “Then let’s go!”

*

Prince Kanji’s Castle was like something out of a storybook. Marie had never seen so many flowers in her entire life. The outside of the castle was a perfect gleaming white, and the windows looked like they all had stained glass in. This really was the home of a handsome prince. You could almost imagine a unicorn hanging around somewhere.

True, the black-and-red sky and door ruined it somewhat, but it was obvious what Kanji had been going for here.

“A… castle…?” Naoto shook their head. “This doesn’t seem like Kanji’s thing.”

“It definitely looks like the one on TV,” Rise said. “Hey, Chie, are you sure there’s no cameras here or anything?”

“Ugh, how many times do I have to tell you that it’s only me and Shadows here, from the beginning?” Chie huffed and a puff of smoke came out of her nose. “I don’t know what this ‘TV’ thing is, but maybe you guys can see things in this world… or something?”

“Are we even sure that’s what’s happening?” Naoto looked the castle up and down. “I mean, when Kanji appeared on the channel the first time, it was before he disappeared, which seems a bit strange to me. And the things he said… he doesn’t have a lisp!”

“What’s a lisp?”

Rise ignored Chie. “It is kinda weird. Is this like what happened to me?”

Chie’s pearl glittered. “I dunno? But I get the feeling that this… Kanji guy made this place. If you’re seeing it on the other side, maybe that’s why.”

“So, Kanji made this place?” Naoto’s face became determined. “Can you sense him?”

“I’m pretty sure.”

Naoto nodded.

“I’m going in.”

Before Marie, Rise or Chie could stop them, Naoto charged off through the door and into the castle, moving with surprising speed for one so small. Marie wanted to scream. Rise actually did.

“They went in alone?! Geez! Come on, let’s go stop them!”

Chie shivered. “There’s a lot of Shadows in that castle… I mean, I think they might ignore them ‘cause they’re normal, but it’s still pretty dangerous. Hey, Sensei…” Chie opened her claws to reveal three beads and some little crystallised drops. They seemed to glitter with a strange light. “Take these. They might be useful.”

“Oh, hey, thanks.” Marie got a feeling they would be. She took them and immediately felt slightly energised. “Okay, Rise-chan, Chie, ready? Let’s go stop Naoto from getting themselves killed.”

Marie drew her brand new sword. It was heavier than the club, but it fitted nicely into her hands. Rise took out the spear and uncollapsed it. The thing was taller than she was. Then again, that sort of worked – it made her look powerful.

They stepped into the castle. The insides were just as glittering white as the outside, save for the plush pale purple carpeting on the floors. Chandeliers hung from the ceiling, and paintings hung on every wall. Marie looked more closely and realised that all of the paintings depicted handsome men.

“Wow, this is different,” Chie said from behind them. “This place feels like it goes on forever. There’s Shadows everywhere. Uh oh.”

“…What’s that uh oh about?” Rise asked suspiciously.

“I was right! The Shadows aren’t touching Naoto, but they’ve noticed you two and they aren’t happy. Luckily, I’m a master of battle tactics. Try getting the jump on them – Shadows aren’t smart!”

Marie rolled her neck. Holding her sword with one hand, she reached out with the other. Izanami’s card appeared in it. She crushed it.

“Persona.”

Izanami flickered into existence next to her, naginata at the ready. Rise looked up in awe, then focused. Himiko’s card appeared in the air before her.

“Okay… Persona!”

She impaled it on the spear and it shattered. Himiko took its place in a flash of blue light, hovering gracefully.

“Okay,” Marie said, “let’s roll.”

They ran off into the castle, Chie trailed behind to keep an eye on things. Before long, the black blob of a Shadow appeared before them. It noticed them, gurgled, and moved to come after them. Marie swung her sword at it and it divided into two of the tongue monsters from before. Okay, sure, she could deal with them.

“C’mon!” Izanami brought a bolt of lightning down on the first Shadow. It evaporated into a puff of darkness and dropped…

Money?

While Marie paused to figure out why the hell yen was dropping out of the monsters, Rise had driven her spear right through the other Shadow and failed to kill it. Izanami stabbed it with her own naginata and it disappeared, leaving behind more money and a couple of…

“Ewww, teeth!” Marie picked up the money and stared at the great big teeth. They looked like incisors. Why was she thinking about this?!

“Oh, those could be useful!” Chie commented. “Sometimes I find bits of Shadows. I use them to make things!”

“…I don’t want to be the one to say this,” Rise said, “but there was a sign at Daidara’s saying that he could make anything into a weapon if you brought it in. You never know…”

“Fine.” Marie shoved the teeth into the bag she’d brought from Daidara’s and cursed her luck.

As it turned out, pretty much all the Shadows dropped something weird, though thankfully it wasn’t always teeth. That might’ve been because not all of them were mouth monsters. Some of them were giant flying fish, from which Marie obtained paper. This was much less icky than teeth, so Marie approved.

The fish also dropped money, which was awesome. Marie made a mental note to treat herself and Rise to proper steak at some point. Hey, maybe Chie would like steak. She was a dragon, after all. Those were probably carnivores. Wait, could she even eat? Did her mouth even…

“Marie-chan, careful!”

Himiko blew away a fish that was dangerously close to slapping Marie with its tail.

“Sorry – ”

And then things got even weirder, because suddenly, Marie could see a ton of cards and not much else. Okay, not a ton, maybe like three. What the hell.

“When you defeat an enemy, the seeds of possibility you attain will appear before you as cards. At times, they may be hard to grasp...but you must master your fear and reach out to them.”

Ohhhh, that was what Igor had meant! Right! Because that made total sense!

She reviewed the cards. One had a fairy on it. One had a lantern and an eye – the Hermit, she thought. And the other was a skull – Death. She decided to ignore Death because nothing good could come of that. That left the Hermit and the Fairy.

After some deliberation, she chose the fairy. Or, as her mind said, Pixie, the Magician.

“Oh, so that’s how that works.”

“Marie-chan?” Rise was looking at her weirdly. “Are you okay?”

“Rise-chan,” Marie said, “this is going to sound weird as hell, but I just got another Persona.”

“What?” Rise nearly dropped her spear. “Are you kidding me?”

“Nope.” Marie concentrated for a minute, and Izanami disappeared. Marie crushed the card that appeared in her place and Pixie sprang into view.

“Whoa, Sensei…” Chie’s pearl was sparkling, her eyes gone wide.

“Oh, that’s not fair!” Rise pouted, but her eyes made it clear she was joking. “How come you get two?”

“Because I’m super magic. Duh.” Marie grinned. “Okay, I don’t think she can hit things, but she can heal. Here.”

Marie touched Rise’s arm, which a fish had slapped earlier. Pixie giggled and pointed, and blue sparks flew from Rise’s arm. Rise sighed with relief.

“That’s better. Thanks!”

The three of them went further on, Marie swapping between Izanami and Pixie. Izanami learnt to weaken her foes, Pixie eventually learnt to zap things like Izanami already did, and Marie picked up a Devil named Ukobach who was good at setting things on fire. Rise didn’t get any new Personas, but she learnt to accept it when Marie spaced out to look at cards – especially after Marie got lucky and added to a pile of money left behind by a Halberie.

Eventually, they reached a hidden staircase.

“I think Naoto went up here,” Chie said, huffing slightly. “They’re not on this floor anymore, so…”

“Alright,” Marie said, “take a breath and let’s go.”

Marie and Rise munched on the crystal droplets, which tasted rather sweet and turned out to be a great pick-me-up. Chie, as it turned out when Marie questioned her, had never eaten and had never been curious enough to try, “but you need Soul Drops more than I do, Sensei!”

Once recharged, they headed up the stairs, where they were confronted by a massive pair of doors almost immediately.

“I think Naoto’s behind those doors!” Chie said happily.

Marie pushed the doors open. They revealed a large, circular room, with deep purple curtains hanging all around them. Naoto stood in the middle, staring up at the ceiling.

“There you are!” Rise ran up to them. “You can’t just run off like that!”

“…they said I was strange.”

Kanji’s words were spoken with the same careful grace that Marie had heard on normal TV, instead of with the Midnight Channel’s lisp or his rough schoolboy talk.

 “What?” Rise looked around wildly. “Kanji-kun – oh, not again.”

“Every time I try to make friends with someone, they back away because of the Inn. They think they’re beneath me. But Naoto... Naoto said I’m strange.”

“They’re his thoughts,” Marie said. “These are Kanji-san’s thoughts.”

“Must be,” Chie replied. “All of this is his…”

“All people see is the inn heir, except for Naoto. They’re strong, and they don’t let what people say get them down. They can do anything, but I’m stuck. And they look after me, though I don’t deserve it. Compared to them… I’m… I’m… I’m nothing.”

“Kanji…” Naoto’s shoulders had sagged.

“’Naoto’s strong,’ huh? Absurd.”

That had not been Kanji’s voice.

The air went cold. A figure stepped out of thin air – a Naoto with yellow eyes and a dark aura like spite and hate made manifest. There was no expression on that face at all.

“Oh no.” Rise’s grip on her spear tightened.

“Was that really what he thinks? He says he’s nothing, that I’m protecting him.” The Shadow’s face split in a grin. “Perfect. That’s exactly how I want it to be.”

“What?” The real Naoto shook their head.

“Kanji Tatsumi’s the guy everyone wants to know,” Shadow Naoto continued. “Everyone looks up to him, because he’s rich and good-looking… When he looks at me with jealousy, why, it’s amazing!”

Naoto flinched as if stung.

“Powerful, important Kanji Tatsumi can’t do anything without me. I’m much better than him!”

“S-shut up!” Naoto stamped their foot. “I’ve never thought anything of the sort!”

“Haven’t you?”

“Hey, Naoto-kun!” Marie shook her head. “We gotta stop her!”

“Yeah!” Rise called out, “Don’t say anything else, Naoto-kun!”

Naoto turned around, eyes wide with fright.

“Don’t come near me! This isn’t – this isn’t me!”

Oh crap.

Then the Shadow started crying.

“It’s truuuuuue,” it whined through its tears, “it’s so truuuue. I’m the one who’s useless without him. He’s my only friiiiiiiiiend.” It sniffled. “No one else wants to play with me, because everyone else thinks I’m a childish, genderless freak!”

It stopped crying.

“So I’ll never let go of him. Ever. Because he depends on me… that’s the only thing that makes me feel like I matter!”

“Shut up! That’s not what I think of him!”

Shadow Naoto sniffled. “Oh. So you’re still going to run away from me? That’s fine. I – I guess I’ll just kill you. Don’t worry, Naoto will still be around. I am you, after all…”

“No!” Naoto shook their head.

“Don’t say it!” Rise’s voice had leapt up at least two octaves.

“You aren’t me!”

The Shadow’s lip wobbled as the darkness built around it. Then it exploded outwards, knocking the real Naoto to the floor. The clearing darkness revealed, surprisingly, a giant metallic Kanji in a kimono, holding up a giant Naoto in what looked suspiciously like a Neo Featherman-inspired dominatrix outfit. Chains were clamped around Kanji’s ankles and wrists, holding him in his position. Naoto held a giant cat o’ nine tails in one hand.

Wow, Naoto had issues.

…And now they were going to have to fight them!

“I am a Shadow, the true self! What do you fools think you’re doing, defending them? You’ll pay for that!”

Rise and Marie exchanged glances, nodded, and charged in, Izanami and Himiko following close behind, Chie staying at the back where it was slightly safer.

Izanami reached out and cast some sort of weakening spell on Shadow Naoto, while Himiko blasted her with wind. Apparently, Shadow Naoto liked wind about as much as Izanami did – the giant Kanji toppled and pretty much fell flat on his face, bringing the Naoto with him.

“Let’s do this!” Rise shouted over the crashing of the chains. Marie felt energy rush through her, and lead Rise forwards, their melee blows crashing onto the Shadow with titanic force. They could only keep this up for so long, though, as the Shadow righted itself, glaring at them through its visor.

“How dare you?!”

It cracked the whip, and lightning came smashing right into Rise and Marie. Marie tanked it, but it knocked Rise right off her feet.

“Oh yeah, her Shadow…”

“SENSEI! Look out!”

“You’re so serious! Can’t you have some fun?”

They cracked the whip again, and before Marie could react, a burst of yellow light erupted from the ground below Rise. Her eyes rolled back in her head and she lay there, staring dazedly at the ceiling. Marie’s stomach lurched.

“She’s not dead,” Chie called out helpfully, “she’s just dizzy!”

Well, that was reassuring. Marie called Pixie forth and healed Rise with blue light to stop her from actually dying. Shadow Naoto raised a hand and a shimmer of green light appeared between them and Marie.

“Oh, great.” Chie sighed. “I don’t think wind’s gonna work as well as it did until that wall goes away…”

More good news! Huzzah! Marie wanted to kill Igor for signing her up for this!

Rise groaned and sat up, still slightly dizzy. She got to her feet as Izanami blasted Shadow Naoto through the green wall. The Shadow glared at Rise and raised its cat o’ nine tails to attack.

“Look out!” Chie cried, but Rise had already figured it out and planted her feet defensively. Izanami got in a stab with her naginata before the lightning rained down again. This time, Rise stayed firmly on her feet. She grinned, summoned Himiko, and had her literally punch the Shadow in its big covered face.

“Huh, that was kind of fulfilling…”

“Yep!” Marie grinned. “Back in we go!”

Shadow Naoto leant forward and whipped Marie with the cat o’ nine tails. It stung like hell, but Pixie quickly fixed that while Himiko got back to punching the Shadow.

“Pa… pathetic!” The Shadow was staggering now, shaking its head – Kanji was about to drop Naoto. “You’re nothing compared to me! Nothing!”

Then the green wall fizzled out.

Shadow Naoto had maybe a second to react before Himiko hit it with a gale force wind, making the Shadow faceplant again. Marie, Rise, Izanami and Himiko charged in one last time, bringing their weapons and hands down on the Shadow so hard that it exploded into a burst of darkness.

“Woo!” Rise held up her hand and Marie high-fived it. “We win – Naoto-kun!”

Naoto groaned and stood up, shaking their head.

“What… happened?”

“Are you okay?” Rise looked Naoto over.

The Shadow got to its own feet, face blank once more.

“Oh, so you’ve got nothing else to say, have you?” Naoto glared at it.

“Stop it!” Rise shook her head. “It’s okay, Naoto-kun!”

“I…”

“Hey, Naoto-kun, you’re more than that thing, okay?” Marie put her hand on Naoto’s shoulder. “Look, Rise’s was totally awful too! But I know she’s pretty nice. And so are you! Everyone’s a bit ugly sometimes!”

“But…”

“She’s right.” Rise put her own hand on Naoto’s other shoulder. “I went through the same thing. I get it. It’s awful, but you can take it.”

Naoto sighed.

“I… You know, he’s my only friend,” they began. “Everyone else got tired of me when I didn’t grow out of my Saturday morning cartoons phase. But Kanji’s always been so nice to me. He’s my best friend – the first person I came out to, I…”

Naoto shrugged off the girls’ hands and stepped towards their Shadow.

“I get it. You’re me. I tried to ignore you, but… you’re still there.”

The Shadow nodded and burst into light. A tiny, tiny figure appeared in the air above where it had been standing – a figure clad in some strange blue costume, like a cross between a schoolboy’s outfit, a sentai costume, and an insect. Its hands and feet were covered by armoured gloves and boots.

I AM YOU, YOU ARE ME. YOU HAVE FOUND THE STRENGTH OF HEART REQUIRED TO FACE YOURSELF. I AM THE FAÇADE, USED TO OVERCOME LIFE’S DIFFICULTIES… THE PERSONA, SUKUNA-HIKONA. I AM THE MEDICINE GOD, THE CHARIOT.

Sukuna-Hikona faded from sight, and Naoto collapsed to their knees.

“Hey!” Marie and Rise ran over to their side. To Marie’s surprise, Naoto was blushing.

“Listen,” they said, “I wasn’t lying! Part of me felt that way, but Kanji’s still my best friend!”

Marie rolled her eyes. “Duh.”

“People don’t run into evil castles for people they don’t like, silly!” Rise giggled. Naoto rolled their own eyes and got up.

“I’m exhausted,” they admitted. “But we can’t leave Kanji…”

“Uh-uh. I checked the weather, we’re going back.” Three heads turned to stare at Marie. “Look, the fog only comes after loads of rain, right? And we’ve got loads of sun coming up! Kanji can handle another night in here, but you need to rest. We all do!”

“She’s right, Naoto-kun,” Rise said.

Naoto shook their head, took a step forwards, and had to be caught by Rise.

“I can…”

“No you can’t!” Rise slung her arm under Naoto’s shoulder. Naoto looked at her as if she’s stung them. “It’s not that we think you can’t help, it’s that we’ve gotta save Kanji-kun, no matter what. We need your help, now that you have a Persona. If you just rest up, you’ll be ready in no time, and we can go save him!”

“But… Kanji’s still in here. Those were his thoughts. I have to tell him the truth.” Naoto drooped. “I’m not as strong as he thinks I am!”

“Then get your strength back and tell him!” Chie stepped forwards to help. “The Shadows won’t go for someone normal like him, so he’ll be safe until the fog goes away!”

“But he’s scared!” Naoto shouted. “I know he’s huge, but he’s a giant softy! He can’t watch romance movies because he always cries, no matter how bad they are! And I’m reasonably sure he still sleeps with a teddy bear! He’s…”

“If we go up there now, no one’s helping him.”

Naoto stared at Marie.

“You’re tired. We’re tired, genius! If we go up there now – how much further is it? We don’t know! We might all die on the way and then no one can help him!”

Finally, it seemed, Naoto had seen sense. They nodded.

“…you’re right. Let’s go. But we’re coming back tomorrow no matter what.” Their face softened somewhat. “I’m sorry about running in before. That was poorly thought-out.”

“Nah, don’t worry about it.” Marie slung her own arm under Naoto’s other shoulder. “Come on, let’s get out of here before we get eaten by a sentient mouth.”

Fortunately, no sentient mouths jumped out at them. The disappearance of Shadow Naoto seemed to have quieted the smaller Shadows a little (or maybe the big one had just absorbed them all and then gotten creamed). Before long, they were out of the castle and back in the entrance area. Marie didn’t ache as badly as she had last time, perhaps because Shadow Naoto hadn’t been able to blow her into a wall.

“Ugh,” Naoto said as Rise and Naoto let them stand on their own, “this is worse than last time. My head feels like it’s going to split open… how are you two still all right?”

Marie tapped her glasses. “These help.”

Naoto screwed up their face. “Glasses? Why are you wearing glasses?”

“Did you seriously only just notice?” Rise shook her head in disbelief.

Chie clicked her claws, moved as if she was rummaging in a non-existent pocket, and pulled a pair of glasses out of thin air.

“I just remembered! I made these for you, Naoto-kun.”

“Oh, thank you.” Naoto put the glasses on. They were a thicker-rimmed pair like Marie’s, only they were blue. “What? It’s like the fog doesn’t even exist. Incredible.”

Chie blushed. It looked like there were lights in the mascot suit and someone had switched them on.

“Did you have those the entire time?” Rise asked.

“Ummm… you didn’t tell me that Naoto-kun was coming, so I just made them now!”

…wait, when had Chie found the time to do that? Marie really hoped that she hadn’t made them during the fights, but there probably wasn’t any other point at which she could’ve done it.

“I get it now,” Naoto said, looking around. “I wondered how you could see where you were going. May I keep these?”

“Aw, sure you can!” Chie nodded.

Rise raised a hand. Everyone turned to look at her.

“That felt official,” she commented. “Okay, guys, I propose a rule! No one goes in here alone, ever! It’s way too dangerous.”

“Agreed.” Naoto shivered. “To think of what could’ve happened…”

“Huh, that does feel official,” Marie said. “Motion passed? Wait, do we have a leader?”

“Uh… Marie-chan, I’m pretty sure that’s you,” Rise said. “I mean, you were the first to get a Persona, and I think you have like three now, so…”

“Wait, three?” Yeah, they were going to have to explain that to Naoto at some point.

“Nah, this needs to be done properly,” Marie said. “’Government should arise from the consent of the governed’ and all. We should vote.”

“In that case…” Rise puffed her chest up officially, “I vote for Mariko Narukami to be the official leader of… um… the Inaba Investigation Team!”

Naoto laughed weakly. “Very well, if we must. I vote for Mariko Narukami as well.”

“I vote for Sensei!” Chie giggled.

“Well, I’m not about to argue with democracy.” Marie felt pride swell up a bit in her chest. “Okay, so rule one is no going in alone. Rule two… we gotta get people out as soon as possible, so if someone’s in here we come as much as we can. Like, after school and stuff. Any objections? Good, ‘cause I’m in charge. You voted me in.”

Rise gasped. “Marie-chan! Are you about to become a tyrant?”

“Hey, you shouldn’t have voted for me if you didn’t want that.”

Naoto groaned. “Can we not do this right now…?”

Marie smiled. Official leader of the Inaba Investigation Team! She couldn’t put it on a job application, but she felt accomplished all the same.

THOU ART I, AND I AM THOU.

And there was the voice in her head, right on cue.

THOU HAST ESTABLISHED A NEW BOND… IT BRINGS THEE CLOSER TO THE TRUTH. THOU SHALT BE BLESSED WHEN CREATING PERSONAS OF THE FOOL ARCANA…

The ringing faded.

“Okay, someone needs some sleep,” Rise said. “Trust me, you’ll feel way better in the morning, Naoto-kun. I guess we’ll meet after school tomorrow? And remember to check the weather forecast!”

“That’s rule three,” Marie cut in, “’always check the weather forecast’.”

--

Dinner that night was somewhat subdued. Marie had almost entirely forgotten about her arrest until she’d walked in, seen Dojima, and remembered everything.

Well, at least it tasted nice, for an instant meal, and since everyone was busy watching the TV, it couldn’t be too bad –

“Hey. Mind if I ask you something?”

 – ah, nuts.

“You aren't getting involved with any strange business, are you?” Dojima’s face was serious and his tone was stern. “What happened at the station this afternoon... it's still bothering me. Is there anything you're not telling me?”

“What?” Marie shook her head. “’Course not. My new best friend is just a bit weird, is all.”

“…I see.” He didn’t look reassured in the slightest. “It’s just been nagging at me, that’s all.”

“Are you fighting?” Nanako was pouting unhappily. Marie’s heart melted.

“What? No, we’re not having a fight.” Dojima’s expression softened, but Nanako’s did not, and she went for the kill.

“This isn’t the police station!”

Dojima shifted uncomfortably in his seat and turned back to Marie. “I agreed to look after you. So don't get yourself involved in anything that could get you into trouble. Got that?”

Way, way too late for that. Marie nodded and went back to her food.

“And now, our weather forecast. Due to high-pressure fronts from the west, that sunny spring-like weather will stay with us for a while longer.”

Nanako set her chopsticks down. “Is this lady the one who decides the weather? ‘Cause when she says it’ll be sunny, it always is…”

“Uh, she’s not really deciding it…” Dojima fished around for a way to explain meteorology to a six-year-old. “Never mind.”

The phone rang, making Marie jump out of her skin. Dojima groaned and got up to answer it.

“Dojima residence… hm?” He lowered the phone. “Marie, it’s for you.”

Marie got up and took the phone. “Hello?”

“It’s me, Morooka.” Her teacher’s voice was instantly recognisable. Marie cringed. “I have something that I've prepared just for you. I was going to deliver it to your house, but the situation's changed. I need you to come pick it up. Er, where am I? I was getting to that! I am in front of the gas station at the shopping district. You got that? Now hurry up and come pick it up!”

The line went dead. Marie set it down.

“It’s my homeroom teacher,” she said to Dojima. “He needs to see me, like, right now for some reason.

“What?” Dojima seemed sceptical. “It’s your first week. What could you possibly have… never mind. Finish your food and take care of it. But hurry home, okay?”

Marie wolfed down the rest of her dinner and then set off into the Inaba night. It was a crisp spring night, not too chilly but not roasting warm. It was also very quiet, not like a night in the city, when there was always someone driving past.

Marie thought it was rather romantic. She could just picture slipping out at night to explore the town… getting past Dojima would be a bit tricky, though. Sneaking past a cop wouldn’t be easy at all. Oh well – that romantic image of meeting someone secretly in the night was going to have to wait until she figured out how to sneak better. Maybe she could practise on Shadows?

She remembered that image, though. Good pathos.

Night –

A girl waits below a late-spring tree

Where watchful eyes do not touch her

Hair in bunches, uniform creased…

She was going to need to work on that.

The shopping district wasn’t too far away, though. Morooka was standing by the gas station, exactly as he’d said he would be. Odd, Marie could hear music from somewhere.

Wait, was that a bar? Oh, if Marie had the courage she’d stay out later to check it out – was that the general store?! What was wrong with this town?!

“There you are!”

Marie hurried over to Morooka, who had apparently been talking to another student.

“That was quicker than I expected,” he admitted. “This is the school jersey I got for you! Go on, take it!”

He pressed a folded jersey into Marie’s arms. It was green and had the Latin letters YH on the front. Marie had never wanted to wear anything less in her entire life. It did look comfortable, though.

“Now that you've got it, get the hell out of here! I need to see this girl home! You know the way to your own house, don't you?”

“Uh… yessir?” Marie turned and walked back home, jersey tucked under her arm.

When she got in, she shoved it in with the rest of her clothes and just went to bed. The bruises were aching harder than ever and her feet hurt from all that walking. Platforms were not what you wanted to go dungeon crawling in.

Seriously, Morooka, she thought as she closed her eyes, why didn’t you just give that to me at school?

Chapter Text

The next day was, thankfully, sunny. If it hadn’t been, Marie had a feeling that Naoto would’ve gutted both Rise and Marie and hung them on wires themselves. The wounds from the previous day’s battle had healed, although when they met up before school Rise complained that she was still constantly getting zapped by static.

“Well, it hasn’t messed with your hair,” Marie said as they sat in the classroom, waiting for Morooka to storm in and shout at them all.

“Yeah, I guess that’s a blessing.” Rise looked at the door. “I hope Naoto-kun’s okay. Yesterday was kind of wild…”

Just on cue, the door opened and Naoto stepped through it. They looked a lot better than they had the previous day – they’d almost collapsed upon coming back through the TV. Rise had tried to insist on walking them home, but they’d refused.

“Morning!” Rise called as Naoto walked over to them.

“Good morning.” Yeah, there was definitely more colour in Naoto’s cheeks.

“You look way better,” Marie said. “Sleep all right?”

“I nearly slept in my clothes.” Naoto smiled. “Thank you for everything – I’m still, ah, a bit embarrassed, but at least I know I’m not the only one.”

“Yeah, that is kind of a comfort.” Rise giggled. “I mean, when it happened to me I was the only one – say, isn’t that kinda weird? Marie-chan never fought her shadow.”

Marie almost told them about how she was being harassed by a long-nosed man, an elegant older woman and a spacey boy with a bad haircut instead of a shadow, then decided against it. They probably wouldn’t believe her. Hell, she still wasn’t sure the Velvet Room was real.

“Really?” Naoto eyed her approvingly. “I do get the feeling that you’re a rather open person.”

“That’s me.” Marie nodded, grinning. “I have outlets for my emotions.”

“Like poetry, right?”

Marie’s blood froze. Her face hardened.

“What.”

Rise gave her an odd look. “You’re always writing poetry, Marie-chan. Like, all the time. Did you really think we hadn’t noticed?”

“It’s not poetry!” Marie slammed her hand on her desk and earnt odd looks from the rest of her class. “It’s the screams of my pathos! And stop talking about it! Don’t read it! It’s private!”

She was well aware that her face was neon red but did her best to ignore it. Rise clapped her hand over her mouth to avoid giggling, and Naoto pulled their hat over their face. Fortunately for Marie’s dignity, the school bell chimed. Rise gasped.

“Aaaahhh, I need the bathroom!”

She ran out at lightning speed.

“Marie-san. Thank you for saving my life.”

“Huh?” There was an oddly sincere look out Naoto’s face. Marie unclenched her fist. “Um, no problem.”

“You know, I think I’m right about you.” Naoto smiled. “You’re a bit odd, I admit, but I feel like I can trust you.”

“Hey, thanks. You’re pretty cool yourself.”

THOU ART I, AND I AM THOU.

Right on schedule!

THOU HAST ESTABLISHED A NEW BOND. IT BRINGS THEE CLOSER TO THE TRUTH. THOU SHALT BE BLESSED WHEN CREATING PERSONAS OF THE CHARIOT ARCANA…

Marie was really going to have to look up these Arcana at some point. They were a tarot thing, right?

Well, she might as well see if she could ingratiate herself a bit more.

“Hey, Naoto-kun. Let’s go to Junes after school today.”

--

So what kind of things did you need to storm a castle, anyway?

Hm. Well, eating things seemed to help. Those Soul Drops had been nice, but Marie figured she’d have to improvise. They weren’t sold at the Shiroku Store, that was for sure. What Shiroku did sell were energising beads, generic medicine, and ice cubes, all of which seemed vaguely useful for healing purposes.

Then Marie realised that medicine tended to taste badly, and got a bunch of soda out of the nearby vending machines to wash it down with. She was suddenly glad that Shadows liked to explode into a shower of yen.

The next thing that occurred to her were Personae. Time to talk to Igor. Thankfully, the Velvet Room door was still exactly where it had been the previous day.

“Welcome.”

“Um, hey. You said you could make new Personas, right? How does that work…?”

Igor nodded. “Indeed. By combining two or three Personae, I can form a new, more powerful Persona from their combined strength.”

Well, it was worth trying, right? Marie thought about it. Did she really need two things that could zap enemies? Izanami was cool and all, and Pixie was cute, but…

“So, like… if I wanted to combine Izanami and Pixie, what would that make?”

“Apsaras, of the Temperance Arcana.”

An image appeared in Marie’s mind of a blue nymph in a leotard. Marie considered it. It could zap things, since Pixie and Izanami both could… and maybe it could make her friends a bit stronger, too? And ooh, was that healing?

“Sure, okay.”

Igor waved his hand. The cards of Izanami and Pixie appeared on the table in front of him. (Yu craned to get a better look.) A strange light shone on the table, forming a pattern like something out of a grimoire. Then, Igor waved his hand again, and everything turned into stars and light. (Yu winced from the light and shut his eyes.)

Marie blinked. She now had an Apsaras.

“…Huh. Cool. Thanks.”

Well, the only other thing she had was Ukobach, and Apsaras deserved a try-out – so that was that. Marie was about to bid farewell when she noticed Yu tapping his foot anxiously.

“You okay, bowlcut?”

“Huh? Why wouldn’t I be? Do you need something?”

“You were tapping your foot a bunch. Usually means you’re anxious about something, right?” Wait, did normal body language even apply to supernatural entities? What even was Yu, anyway?

“Forgive him, Marie,” Margaret said, “he is rather restless. Containing him is a little tricky.”

Uh, what did that mean? “Sounds rough.”

Margaret chuckled. “Oh, it is fine. It is all to help you on your journey, after all.”

And what did that mean?! Did these people ever talk straight? “Huh?”

“This room is inseparable from your fate. Nothing in this room happens without purpose. It seems that you and Yu had already met before you encountered him in this room. Encountering one who is not of man, and communicating with him... Your fate has led you to this meeting.”

“Not of man…?” She glanced at Yu, who had resumed foot-tapping despite Igor’s glare. He shifted uncomfortably, brow plainly furrowed underneath his hair.

“Indeed. This room is the crossroads of your fates. You, the customer, and he who is not of man, who has wandered into this place. Where will this meeting lead?” Margaret chuckled again. “Excuse me for saying so, but we, too, are a bit interested in the outcome. Though he was in this land before you, in the end, Yu is not of man… in other words, his understanding of the world in which you live is incomplete. Therefore, I ask of you to please take him outside this room, if you would.”

So – Margaret wanted Marie to babysit the weirdo. Sure, why not?

“But, of course, you are occupied at the moment, visiting the interior of the television world. Please ask him to go with you when you have time on your hands.”

“Uh – sure, okay.”

And with that, Marie left the room, mentally figuring out when she could take Yu to see the sights. Maybe after she’d seen them herself.

On the way into Junes, she ran into a woman who sold tomatoes. Marie bought one for every fighting teammate, then called the gang together.

“…so, you spent the money not on weaponry or armour,” Naoto said, staring at Marie’s bags, “but upon drinks, ice, cheap remedies, and tomatoes.”

“Daidara’s stuff isn’t cheap, you know,” Marie shot back. “And if we can’t find any more Soul Drops, we’re gonna have to improvise.”

“…Soul what now?”

Rise rolled her eyes. “Let’s just go already.”

Marie was vindicated the moment they jumped into the TV. The ice cubes swelled massively and became mind-boggling cold to the touch.

“Wow, Sensei,” Chie said, “where did you get those?”

“…That Shiroku place is awesome,” Marie said, carefully examining the cubes. “I need to shop there more often.”

Naoto and Rise eyed the cubes suspiciously.

“Shall we just go to the castle?” Naoto said.

“Good plan.”

“That reminds me!” Chie reached behind herself and handed Marie three small spheres with Goho-M printed on them. “I found these earlier. You might need them!”

--

Floor One

“Uh, Sensei? We have a problem?”

The card in front of Marie fizzled out.

“We just stepped into the castle!”

“Something’s changed,” Chie explained. “I feel like the whole layout of this place is different. I’ll try and keep track of it, but be careful!”

“Right.” Yeah, things were never gonna be that easy, were they? “Okay, let’s go. Naoto-kun, you just kind of focus and – ”

“Persona!”

Naoto kicked the card out of the air and it shattered into the tiny form of Sukuna-Hikona.

“ – you got it. Good. Look out for fish.”

--

Floor Two

“Huh. This floor hasn’t changed, has it?” Rise pulled her headphones off as she talked, eying the door warily.

“I don’t think it has, no,” Chie said. “But that miiiiight be because that Kanji guy’s on this floor.”

“What?” Naoto grabbed the door handles and pulled it open before Marie or Rise could stop them. “Kanji!”

Well, Kanji was certainly in the room, standing where Naoto’s Shadow had. But it only took one look for them all to realise it wasn’t the real Kanji. The Kanji from the Midnight Channel stood there, replete in his gaudy attire, with a flirtatious grin upon his face. That same dark aura surrounded him, and his eyes shone in that same sickly yellow.

“Oh.” Naoto’s shoulders slumped.

“Oh, my, unexpected guests?” The Shadow giggled. “Well, that just makes this little adventure even more intriguing!”

He glanced around the room, then giggled again.

“This is so mysterious, but also rather exciting, don’t you think? All the fruits of this place are mine for the taking – if only I can get to them!”

Kanji blew a kiss at a non-existent camera. There was a spark of light, and then an impossibly gaudy logo in purple and pink appeared above his head – Prince Kanji’s Grand Quest ♡ The Mystery of the Forbidden Castle!

“…what the hell?” Rise shook her head. “What is this?”

Naoto was more concerned with the Shadow.

“You aren’t the real Kanji, are you?”

“Why, Naoto, whatever are you talking about?” The Shadow’s grin turned into a sinister smirk. “I’m Kanji, and Kanji is me.”

Muffled voices burst into indistinct chatter around them. The sound made Marie’s skin crawl.

“The Shadows are getting really restless!” Chie exclaimed. “This is bad…”

“Well, I should get going!” That flirty grin was back and it was even creepier than last time. “Stay tuned!”

With that, he turned and vanished, taking his logo and the voices with him.

“Wait!”

Naoto charged after Kanji, but was quickly stopped when Marie and Rise literally jumped on them to hold them back.

“Oh no, Naoto-kun, you’re not doing that again!” Rise cried, pulling them back.

“Think about what you’re doing for once!” Marie stamped her foot. “Stupidstopchargingoff!”

--

Floor Three

“Teehee… my, I wonder who the prince of this castle is? I wonder if… teehee…”

“I’m confused,” Rise said. “Isn’t this Kanji’s castle?”

“Since he’s exploring it, I’d wager no,” Naoto replied as Sukuna-Hikona sliced his way through a raven. “Which begs the question…”

Marie decided to take Angel with her, although she had to question what the hell it was wearing.

--

Floor Four

“Welcome. Thank you for coming to the Tatsumi Inn today. Your room is right this way. If we can help you in any way, please let us know immediately.”

“Uhhh…” Chie scratched her pearl curiously. “Sensei, isn’t this a castle, not an inn?”

The twins on the pole screamed as Ukobach turned them to cinders. Well, almost to cinders. They dropped onto the floor and lay there.

“Ugh, so close!” Marie stomped her foot.

“Hey, Marie-chan,” Rise said, “how about we just wail on them with our weapons?”

“That works!”

The resulting carnage turned the twins to shreds. Marie picked the Lovers and the bits of cloth on the floor vanished. Then she picked the Magician, and Ukobach learnt how to set multiple things on fire at once. Then, she grabbed the only remaining card, which was – ugh – Slime.

“Where did the cloth go?” Naoto said. “That was odd.”

“We still have the money, and that’s what matters.” Marie bent down to scoop it all up.

There was a crash from nearby. Marie looked up to see that Rise had tripped over a chest.

“Awesome work, Rise-chan.”

“Shut up!” Rise opened the chest up and took out… “is this chewing gum?”

--

Floor Five

“Man, where is he?” Chie’s pearl glittered as she peered into the depths of the castle.

“Hmhmhmhm…”

“Yeah! He’s on this floor for sure!”

“Oh, my… might you, by any chance, be the princes of this place…? How exciting! But if you are, then surely you aren’t afraid of anything. Come find me, if you can…”

Well, that was ominous.

“Has he not noticed that none of us are men?” Rise said.

“For a given definition of ‘man’,” Naoto replied.

“This is weird.” Chie scowled. “Be careful.”

Marie stepped forwards into the castle, keeping a tight grip on her sword. There were even more new Shadows on this floor, such as giant red beetles (which Naoto could deal with) and strange phantoms (which Rise handled).

The problems really started when Marie stepped over some unseen threshold, everything turned white, and they were in another part of the floor.

“What the hell was that?!” Marie looked around wildly.

“I think we got teleported… yeah, we did… I don’t think Kanji wants us to go through that door, Sensei.”

“Hahahaha…”

“Screw you, Tatsumi!” Marie shook her fist at the rough direction that Kanji’s laughter had come from. “Forget that door, then!”

She stormed forwards, stepped over another unseen threshold, and they all ended up a little further down the corridor – right next to a pair of beetles which got the jump on them and immediately decided to set all three of them on fire. This only made things harder, because Naoto had to stop, drop and roll to get out of the flames.

And they didn’t even get a magical card at the end of it.

“It looks like this corridor is some kind of a loop, Sensei,” Chie said as Rise healed Naoto. “If we keep going around, we’ll get back to the beginning… which’ll probably just turn into an infinite loop.”

Marie shoved the yen and gems from the beetles into her bag and peered down the corridor ahead of her. An infinite loop, huh? Well, she didn’t want that. That would suck. Although…

She slung the bag back over her shoulder and marched backwards towards the door they’d tried to get to before the second teleportation. Soon enough, she came to the door – and this time, she didn’t teleport away from it.

Had it worked? Marie pushed the door open – no teleport! But there was, in fact, a treasure chest lying suspiciously unguarded in the corner of the room.

“Score!” Marie punched the air. “In your face, Tatsumi!”

“Of course,” Naoto said, nodding, “a simple puzzle. You can’t progress normally – you have to backtrack to avoid the teleportation. Strange, Kanji isn’t much a fan of puzzles.”

Marie opened the chest and took out, “Is this a tuxedo? Wait, it’s armour. What the hell? Did someone make this out of Kevlar or something?”

And so began their strange, looping adventure around the fifth floor. They would step through a teleporting threshold and immediately double back, merrily dealing with Shadows along the way. Naoto had swapped their school shirt for the shirt of the tuxedo, which as it turned out made for fantastic armour. Somehow.

Finally, they reached the last door on the list. Chie gasped as they reached it.

“Sensei! I think that guy is behind here!”

Marie rolled her neck and grinned.

“Time to make that Shadow pay for putting us through this, yeah?”

She pushed the door open.

Yep, Shadow Kanji sure was there, still creepy and gaudy. So was a giant phantom knight on horseback which was easily as tall as all three human members of their little investigation team standing on each other’s shoulders. Chie almost fainted when she saw it.

Kanji chuckled. “Surely, if you are strong, brave princes… this wouldn’t be a trouble for you, would it?”

He vanished. The phantom horse armour reared up, a red aura of power surrounding it. The door slammed shut behind them.

“Oh god,” Marie said, “we’re boned.”

The knight lunged forwards at Naoto, who was thrown against the wall by the force of the thrust. Marie summoned Ukobach and lit the knight up. It burst into flames and screeched in a horrific, half-horse-half-knight voice. Rise ran to Naoto’s side and started desperately healing her.

“Keep setting it on fire!” Chie shouted from the other end of the room to the knight.

Marie set about doing so with much glee. She was almost upset that she didn’t have multiple things to set on fire this time. With some assistance from Rise’s gales and Naoto’s ice, they made surprisingly quick work of the phantom knight. Not that it was easy – the thing did not go down without a fight. Naoto wasn’t the only one to get gored, and a couple of times Chie nearly got hit despite Marie shouting at her to stay away from the fight before you get killed oh my god just STAY PUT!!

When the cloud of purple smoke cleared, Marie leant on her sword, breathing heavily. Phantom clapping drifted into the room.

“Oh, well done!”

“Nice one, Sensei!” Chie trotted up to the trio, pearl glittering. “I think we can get to that first door, now.”

“I can’t believe I’m saying this,” Naoto said, “but I think I need a break.”

“Me too,” Rise added. “My everything hurts.”

Marie thought about it.

“We’d have to go back through the entire castle again…”

“What about the Goho-Ms I gave you?” Chie said.

“What?” Marie dug into her bag and took out the three strange little spheres. “These?”

“Yeah! You can use those to go home. Which is why they’re called that. I think? Anyways, I think I can get you back to this floor if you do leave.”

Marie stuck two of them back into the bag.

“We’re going to the next floor, then going back.”

--

Velvet Room

…She had way too many Personae with her, anyway. She hadn’t even realised there was a limit until she’d hit it. That would be a problem.

A spat of experimenting with fusion (which ended up costing a lost – why she had to pay Margaret was beyond her) earnt her a brand new Archangel (which wore more clothes than the other Angel), a Devil named Lilim, and a strange winged dog… thing… called Cu Sith.

(Who did she need to be pals with to get Justice, Devil and Sun, anyway? Did she want to know with Devil? It felt weird.)

Marie stepped out of the Velvet Room and into the entrance area. Rise and Naoto were sitting down and talking to Chie about food.

“Huh… now you explain it to me, I kind of do want to try eating things,” Chie said. “But I don’t think there’s anything good to eat in here… How do you tell if you can eat something, anyway?”

“Usually, it smells nice,” Naoto said.

Chie drooped. “Nothing around here smells nice.”

“There, there,” Marie said. “So how is everyone?”

Rise winced. “Not good, Marie-chan. I guess we could munch on that Soul Food stuff again.”

Marie considered it. Then she had an idea. She took the tomatoes out of the bag.

“Maybe we’re hungry.”

“You cannot be serious,” Naoto said. “I do admit that I like tomatoes, but…”

“One tomato each,” Marie said, handing them out. “C’mon, hurry up and eat them.”

The tomatoes were delicious, as it turned out, and Marie actually did feel better after eating the tomato. Rise and Naoto perked up immediately after eating them.

“That was quite the tomato,” Naoto said.

“What the heck did they use to grow these?” Rise said, licking her lips. “Do you have any more tomatoes?”

“I have soda.” Marie took the cans of TaP out of her bag. The trio drank them, and instead of feeling over-fizzed, Marie felt slightly better.

“You’re forgiven for spending your money on these,” Naoto said. “Um, the cans…”

“Maybe we can throw them at Shadows,” Rise suggested.

“Hey! No littering in my world!” Chie said. “I don’t know what kind of manners you get taught in your world, but in mine we don’t go throwing cans around!”

“I’ll recycle ‘em when we get back,” Marie said. “Saving the planet and Kanji at the same time!”

--

Floor Six

“In other words, he's a manager who's still in high school. Now that has a nice ring to it... Let's see if we can interview him. Excuse me!”

“Go to hell!”

“Um, Tatsumi-kun. I heard, is that announcer staying at your place?”

“What the hell is it to you?”

“But someday, though? That aside, I bet you must get a lot of female visitors. You look like you’re in the prime of your life!”

“Just go away! Leave me alone!”

“Hey, Naoto-kun, can I ask you something?”

“I’m a little busy at the moment, Marie-san.” Naoto wasn’t wrong – they were currently occupied with freezing a beetle.

“It’s just that… Kanji seems kind of weird.” Marie sliced through a Shadow with her sword. “At school, he seems really… rough, and laid-back, but on TV he was really… you know. What’s up with that?”

Naoto laughed and dodged a blast of fire. “Oh, that? He’s always been like that. He has to seem proper to keep up the Inn’s image, but he likes to be a bit more relaxed around people his own age.”

“Huh.” Marie mulled it over as she scooped up yen and jewels.

--

Floor Seven

“I’m sick of this… I want to go somewhere else, somewhere exciting…”

“And I’m getting sick of that creepy voice,” Marie said, making a beeline for a nearby chest.

“Marie-san. Tact.”

Naoto’s glare was scary.

“She’s got a point, Naoto-kun – what was that?”

The sound of rattling chains filled the air. Marie hesitated, one hand on the chest.

“Sensei, don’t open that!” Chie’s eyes were bugging out of her suit. “Don’t open that chest! Something really nasty is hiding in there!”

The hairs on the back of Marie’s neck were standing bolt upright. She briefly considered opening the chest for the hell of it, then didn’t. They had to get to Kanji, after all.

--

Floor Eight

They were confronted with a large, ornate door like the one on the second floor.

“He’s here! He’s here! I can sense him!”

“Okay, we’re going back. What?” Naoto and Rise were staring at Marie. “We have two more of those Goho-M thingies, guys. We can go back down, rest, I’ll prep some stuff, and then we save Kanji. I have more soda, and we found some Soul Food. We can totally do this.”

Lo and behold, they returned fifteen minutes later completely high on caffeine. Marie had to wonder if the caffeine was what was giving them their strength back. With the assistance of Igor and Margaret, Marie had obtained a winter spirit named Jack Frost, a Titan, and Anzu the blue winged… something or other. She had also kept Archangel, because why not?

This was a good plan. Marie felt good about it.

She pushed the door open.

They stepped into a grand purple throne room. Shadow Kanji stood before the throne, raised high above the rest of the room. Kneeling at the bottom of the steps, still wearing his kimono, was the real Kanji. His face was pale, his dark hair had fallen over his face, and he was breathing heavily.

“I knew it!” Rise cried.

“Oh, what’s this?” The Shadow’s smile was as sickly as ever. “Three princes…”

“Okay, hold up,” Marie said, “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, your Highness, but none of us are men. None of us are princes!”

The Shadow laughed. “Oh, but you’re more princes than I am. Yes… all of you are stronger and wiser than I am. Oh, how I wish I could find somewhere where I didn’t have to be the prince, where I could be free… So many expectations, you know, it’s exhausting.”

“Kanji…” Naoto was confused and concerned. Marie wondered if the caffeine high was wearing off.

“Oh, Naoto… if anyone in this room is the prince, it’s you. You’re always the strong one…” The Prince’s face hardened into a disgusted scowl. “Or at least, you were. When it comes down to it, you’re just not enough! One person supporting me and caring about me isn’t enough! You can’t even see the real me…”

“Stop it, please…”

The real Kanji had staggered to his feet. He was swaying on them, threatening to fall at any minute, and Marie decided that yeah, going after him on day one had been a very good idea.

“I’m sick of all of this!” the Shadow screamed. “No one cares about me! They only ever see the perfect manager-in-training, the head of the Inn, but that’s not me! I can’t look after anyone! I can’t lead or protect anyone! What kind of a prince am I, huh? If I’m me for one second, I lose it all, and maybe I want that!”

“What…? Hey, don’t…”

“Come on. After all...” There was a devilish smile on the Shadow’s face. Marie’s heart sank. “What kind of a prince looks for a prince of his own?”

It took a second.

Then the other shoe dropped with a thunk that could be heard as far away as that creepy bedroom. The real Kanji started to shake. His face went even paler, if that was possible. Naoto’s jaw dropped, and they glanced between the two Kanjis in total confusion.

“I want to leave, go far away, find someone and somewhere that’ll accept me,” he said, “but I don’t dare go, because I’m chained down by the people around me. Naoto, my mother, the staff… I don’t dare disappoint them. That’s the real me. A coward.”

“Just – shut up!” Kanji shouted, finding his nerve. “What’re you saying about me, you…”

“I don’t give a crap about the Inn! I wish it’d burn down, if it means I could be me! Isn’t that right… me?”

“No!”

“Don’t say it!” Rise screeched.

“You… you aren’t me!”

Marie wanted to scream. Kanji’s Shadow began to laugh, and laugh, and laugh. The same as it had the previous two times, that horrid, sickly aura grew up around him, totally obscuring him from view. The real Kanji collapsed as it blew outwards.

“Kanji!” Rise grabbed Naoto’s arm to stop them running right into the mass of darkness, which was rising up into the air –

Then it dropped, and cleared, and revealed a monster. Shadow Kanji was easily bigger than Shadow Naoto or Shadow Rise. It was a giant, hulking body without head or neck, hunched over and leaning on its knuckles. Its shoulders had been replaced by a crown, and its chest had been replaced by a cage, inside of which was chained a tiny Prince Kanji.

“I am a Shadow… the true self… now, then, my Princes, shall we dance?”

“Kanji… I had no idea about any of this.” Naoto’s face was pale and melancholy as they stared up at the Shadow. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s not your fault, Naoto-kun,” Rise said. “Let’s just deal with this thing before it kills all of us!”

“Oh? Deal with this!”

Shadow Kanji raised one giant fist and slammed it down on the ground. A wall of flames burst outwards, smashing straight into the group and setting all of them on fire. Naoto screamed, and the scream was accompanied by the smell of burning flesh.

“Naoto-kun!” Before Marie could run to their aid, the Shadow leant down and smacked her backwards.

Fortunately, Rise was quicker than Marie, and managed to heal some of Naoto’s frankly horrific burns. Marie quickly considered her options. Logically, ice would hit harder, but the only thing she had that could do that was Jack Frost, who really didn’t like fire…

Forget it. Marie equipped Jack Frost and cast ice on the Shadow while Naoto stumbled to their feet. The Shadow was caught completely off-balance and collapsed to the floor. Marie stepped into a guarding pose as Naoto hit it with their own ice spells.

Unfortunately, it got back up. The Kanji inside the cage was glaring at them. The big Kanji raised a hand and slammed it down, conjuring a second wall of fire. Naoto again took the worst of it, barely staying conscious. Marie stayed standing, but swayed. The Shadow slammed its hand down on Rise.

Shit, Marie thought. Everything hurt, probably because she was on fucking fire. So was Naoto. Rise wasn’t on as much fire. Either way – it sucked. Charging in had been a bad idea… what she needed was an alternate plan, and quick…

“Sensei! I have an idea!”

Marie turned to see that Chie had picked up the bag and taken out the ice cubes. Somehow, despite the extreme heat, they weren’t melting. Marie pondered this for a minute, then had the exact same idea that Chie had had a second earlier.

“That won’t work,” she said. “No way. Rise, you grab the cubes and I’ll deal with this.”

Marie quickly healed Naoto, swapping out of Jack Frost as she did so. Naoto got to their feet and cast another ice spell – what else could they do?

“Here goes!”

Rise charged up and threw the enlarged, not-melting cube at Shadow Kanji. It flew through the bars of the cage and smacked the caged Kanji in the face. For a second, it seemed that nothing else had happened – then a veritable blizzard exploded within the cage. The Shadow screamed and stumbled backwards.

“It worked! Chie, we’re geniuses!” Marie pumped her fist.

“Shall we?” Naoto grinned dangerously.

“We shall!”

“CHAAAAAAAAAARGE!”

Chie’s roar pushed them onwards. Sword, spear and feet rained blow after blow onto the Shadow, which screeched and threw them off, but not without taking some serious hits.

“Are you trying to get me upset, huh?!”

A glittering white barrier appeared around the Shadow.

“Sensei! It’s like the one that Naoto-kun’s Shadow had! Uh, but with ice instead of wind.”

Crap on a stick. Marie’s good feeling evaporated.

“Just keep hitting it,” she said bitterly, “the magic wall went away last time…”

“Gotcha!” Rise summoned Himiko and set to magically punching the Shadow. Marie threw up some more healing to stop Naoto from keeling over. Naoto nodded a thanks and set about proving that tiny butterfly sentai things could totally hit like a train. It didn’t make sense that something that small could hit that hard, but somehow, it could.

Not that Shadow Kanji made things easy. With every sweep of his mammoth hands, another blaze appeared, knocking Marie and Naoto off their feet if they weren’t careful. In places, he’d slam those hands down to physically smash at the trio. He largely ignored Chie, though that was perhaps because the dragon was staying as far away from him as was physically possible. (Marie envied her.)

Eventually, the Shadow rocked back on its feet and regarded them more carefully from within its chest-cage.

“Well, then,” it said in a voice that made Marie’s blood run cold, “perhaps I should show you how this feels!”

It raised one large hand, and brought it down on the floor before it with a screech. The chandelier above shook. Marie barely heard Chie’s scream of “GET OUT OF THE WAY, SENSEI!” over the sudden rush of blood through her head. God, what had that Shadow done?! Her pulse pounded in her ears like the drumbeat of a war march, and everything was hazy, like it was seen through a bloody veil.

Clearly, it had done something. She could hear Rise and Naoto yelling. What had the Shadow done to them?

Didn’t matter. This was the last fucking straw.

“All right, you bastard,” Marie shouted, “I’ve been smacked by fish, set on fucking fire,forced to live on tomatoes and fizzy drinks, and I’m pretty sure that some kind of chain monster tried to eat me or something! And you set a giant suit of armour on me! I’ve had enough of this!”

Without even thinking to summon a Persona – she was too pissed for that – Marie raised her sword, yelled some kind of barely coherent war cry, and charged at the Shadow, which seemed to be laughing at her from inside its cage. Before she could get too close, however, she tripped on the carpet leading up to the throne and fell smack on her face.

It knocked her back to her senses. What the hell had just happened?

“Marie-chan, are you okay?!”

Marie considered it. Her dignity was sorely bruised.

“Something made Sensei go berserk!” Chie explained. “Watch out – SENSEI!”

Marie rolled out of the way of another wall of fire just before it hit her. She shrieked and got to her feet, nearly tripping again in her attempts to backpedal.

“I don’t know what happened,” she said to Rise, “it was like it was inside my head or something…”

Rise gave her a sympathetic look and patted her on the shoulder. Marie felt a distinct moment of kinship with the girl next to her.

“If we can stop making eyes at each other…?” Naoto said in a withering voice. “It looks like the Shadow’s not doing well. That was some kind of last gambit.”

“I’m not making eyes at – oh, yeah, you’re right.” Marie fought down the blush on her cheeks. It was due to the heat, damn it! “It’d seriously help if that wall would just – ”

“Sensei! The wall!”

Shadow Kanji noticed what had happened just as Chie did. The Investigation Team spared no time at all. Marie and Naoto blasted the Shadow onto the floor with a combined blizzard. Rise jumped in seconds later and threw an ice cube at it. The howl of the three-part avalanche turned the room from an inferno of heat to a cold winter’s day. Shadow Kanji howled, but before he could right himself, Marie hefted her sword.

“Investigation Team,” she called, “charge!”

Spear was raised, feet were flexed, and the triad of unlikely heroes charged in blazing. No matter how hard the Shadow fought, it could not pull itself up or strike again.

The resulting cloud of dust turned black and red with the Shadow’s disintegration back into its original, gaudy form. Marie and Rise high-fived which catching their breath. Naoto, however, was more concerned with…

“Kanji!”

Kanji had woken up with the dissipation of his Shadow, and was now weakly getting to his feet. Naoto ran to his side to hold him up.

“Are you all right?”

“I… no.” Kanji winced. “The hell was that…?”

Rise and Marie walked over to him, Marie sheating her sword. The battle was, finally, over. She never wanted to do that again.

“You look pretty bad, big guy,” she said, hoping to get a response. It worked, Kanji cracked a slight smile.

“I feel pretty bad,” he admitted. “That thing… it wasn’t… it wasn’t lying. Kind of embarrassing…”

“Kanji…” Naoto patted his shoulder. “I’m sorry, I never realised how unhappy you were. To think, I’m your best friend, but I never…!”

“Don’t beat yourself up about it, Naoto! Sheesh!” Kanji shook his head. “I was – I was scared, okay? I was scared of telling the truth because I didn’t know what everyone would think! My whole family’s been expecting me to take over and lead the family since I was born! And the closer it gets, the more terrifying the whole idea is!”

He shook his head, and continued, “I just… I feel like I never got a choice! And if I can’t live up to what they want, I’m just a failure! But I couldn’t admit that because I’m a damn coward, so I kept hiding it and hoping it’d all work out!”

“You aren’t a coward!” There were real tears in Naoto’s eyes. “I know how hard it is to admit something like that! And – you aren’t the only one. I’m… I’m scared you’ll leave me. I’m scared that I’m not strong enough…”

“Naoto!” Kanji was on the verge of tears himself, but he didn’t comment further. Instead he stepped back, and turned to face his Shadow. It had gotten to its own feet, and was staring at him passively, waiting for him to say what it had wanted to hear all along.

Kanji walked up to the Shadow. It looked him straight in the eye, daring him to make the same mistake twice. Marie prayed he wouldn’t.

“I’m sorry, okay?” he said at last. “I’m sorry I kept pretending you weren’t there. ‘Cause you are, and you’re me, and I’ve gotta deal with that eventually, right?”

The Shadow smiled a free, genuine smile, nodded, and faded into blue light. The figure that appeared in its place was monstrously tall, a black mechanical figure decorated with the lines of a skeleton. It was crowned not as the Shadow had been, but with a ring of flowers. On its shoulders were large steam vents, and the whole thing came across as some macabre, but beautiful, steampunk giant.

I AM YOU, YOU ARE ME. YOU HAVE FOUND THE STRENGTH OF HEART REQUIRED TO FACE YOURSELF. I AM THE FAÇADE, USED TO OVERCOME LIFE’S DIFFICULTIES… THE PERSONA, TAKE-MIKAZUCHI. I AM THE BLOOD-BORN WARRIOR, THE HIGH PRIESTESS.

“Priestess, huh?” Kanji looked as if he wanted to be offended by that, but couldn’t quite muster up the energy. Instead, he cracked a wry smile. Take-Mikazuchi faded from sight, and his master swayed in exhaustion. Naoto ran to his side to hold him up. “I’m okay, sheesh!”

“No, you aren’t!”

“Isn’t this usually the other way around…?”

Despite themselves, Naoto smiled.

“Well, that settles it,” Chie said. “You guys really didn’t do it.”

Marie and Rise’s jaws dropped. They turned to Chie, who was looking at them innocently. Then it hit her what she’d said.

“I mean, I do trust you guys! I just had to be sure! Yeah!”

“Why, you…” Rise’s grip tightened on her spear.

“Is that a dragon?” Kanji’s confusion cut the tension cleanly. “Man, I’ve seen everything today, I swear…”

“Yeah, I’m a dragon. My name’s Chie. Nice to meetcha!” Chie beamed at Kanji, who smiled back despite his utter bewilderment. “So, do you remember anything?”

“Remember…” Kanji shook his head. “Uh, someone said my name? Yeah, someone wanted to talk to me, back home… then I woke up here. Sorry.”

“Wait, so the killer came to your house?” Rise shivered. “Creepy!”

“And awfully brave,” Naoto added. “We should get out of here. Save the questions for somewhere not poisoned by toxic otherworldly fog.”

“You’re leaving already?” Chie’s face fell.

“Hey, we’re coming back!” Marie said quickly. “I promise, we’ll come back. I’ll stick my head in the TV and tell you when Kanji’s feeling better. Promise.”

“I’ll come back too,” Kanji said. He stepped forwards shakily and patted Chie on the head. Her pearl glittered happily. “I promise, okay? So – so don’t cry!”

--

The sun was dipping below the horizon as Marie and Rise waved Naoto and Kanji off from the food court.

“Sorry,” Marie said.

“For what?”

“Going in like that was a bad idea. We nearly died.”

“Yeah, it was a bad idea. But, gee… before the start of school this year, I thought my main problem would be spending my first year of high school as the unpopular girl.”

“Ha, I was worried about not getting murdered by my uncle.”

“Now you’re worried about now getting murdered by repressed feelings, and I’m spending my first year of high school trying to catch a murderer.”

Marie laughed. “Yep. This is weird.”

Chapter Text

19^th April

Marie was awoken, not by her alarm clock, but by the ringing of her mobile phone. She groaned as she forced her eyes open and grabbed it from by her futon.

“Who’s this…?”

“This is Margaret. We met at the Velvet Room.”

Marie was fully awake in a flash. She sat up, blinking sleep from her eyes.

“Um, hi, yeah. What’s up?”

“There is one important point I forgot to warn you about. I felt it best to contact you immediately. The bonds created through Social Links are another important means of strengthening the powers of your Persona. Though you may be pressed for time upon occasion, devoting yourself to battles will not quench your heart’s yearnings. Do not hasten needlessly through your days, and remember the importance of moving at a sustainable pace.”

“So… don’t charge in on the first day…?”

Margaret chuckled. “I am giving you advice, nothing more. Please remember that. Well, if you’ll excuse me…”

The line went dead. Marie flipped her phone closed. Where the hell had Margaret managed to get a phone signal from? Did the Velvet Room have its own network? Marie hoped that no one had given Yu a phone. He seemed like the sort of guy to phone up in the middle of the night to talk about aliens, or something.

Social Links. Or, as far as Marie knew, the power of friendship with a fancy name.

Well, TV heroes didn’t find it too hard. How bad could it be?

--

“The sports clubs?”

The faculty room was a cluttered mess, and Marie was having to share it with Morooka. Just fantastic. Her angry pathos was rising.

“I know what this is about! You found out that all of Yasogami’s sport clubs are co-ed, didn’t you?!”

“Uh… I actually didn’t know that, sir.” She really hadn’t.

“Hmph! Well, you better not use this as an excuse to get in with any of the boys! I know you city girls, you think you’re better than everyone else! Anyway, there’s soccer and basketball. Both meet on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays! You can only join one! And you’d better not use this as an excuse to slack off!”

“Thanks, sir,” Marie said quickly, backpedalling to get out of there, “I’ll, uh, keep that in mind!”

She left the room quickly and heaved a sigh. That man was impossible. She thought about it for a minute, and headed straight for the practise building.

A few minutes later, she was standing in the sports hall in front of a group of boys in basketball shorts. No other girls. Of course.

“All right guys, listen up!” Marie hadn’t had PE yet, but the teacher seemed all right. “You have a new teammate, and yeah, she’s a girl, I better not hear anything about that! Her name’s Marie Narukami, first year. She’s from the city, so I bet she’s done this before! I’m sure she’s got a lot to show you!”

The players exchanged a couple of glances.

“A girl on the team? Have any actually signed up before?”

“Not for the last five years… she’s cute, though!”

The teacher patted Marie on the back. “Go on, say something!”

“Uh, sure. Hi.” What was she even expected to say?

“Well, you’ll fit in soon enough,” the teacher said. “Just watch for today.”

Marie spent most of practise wondering if any of the boys there were good Social Link material. They all seemed fairly nice, but talking to them felt awkward. It occurred to her that, of the two single-person Links she had, the other person had been the one to initiate the conversation. Why, she wondered, had Igor decided to give the power of friendship to an awkward angsty teen?

She was on the verge of just getting up and leaving after practise, but one of the boys on the team approached her. He was a friendly-seeming boy with bluish black hair.

“So, whatcha think?” His smile was open and carefree. “Oh, I’m Kou Ichijou. Second year. I guess that makes me your senpai. Nice to meet you! It’s good to see new people taking an interest in the team.”

“Nice to meet you too, Ichijou-senpai.”

“Hey, no need to be that formal! Just Kou-senpai will do.”

“Huh? Oh, okay. Call me Marie-chan, then.”

Kou was about to reply, when a third voice cut him off.

“Kou, aren’t you done yet?” The voice belonged to a larger boy with short brown hair wearing a Yasogami High jersey. “Oh, you got a new girl, huh?”

“Yeah, this is Marie. She’s a first-year transfer student.”

“Huh, cool.” The guy grinned. “Daisuke Nagase, second year, like Kou. We go way back. I’m on the soccer team.”

“Marie. Nice to meet you.”

“Yeah, we go too far back.” Kou slugged Daisuke playfully in the arm. “I’m sick of seeing your face.”

“You’re just sour ‘cause everyone took off early, like usual.”

“Yeah, I suggested we work on rebounding, but they we all like, ‘that’s too tiring’. So we just did some practise shots…” Kou’s face fell for a minute, then he started smiling again. “Uh, better not scare Marie-chan off on the first day with my complaining! Basketball’s fun, I swear, even if the guys don’t always show up. You ever played before?”

Marie nodded. “Sometimes, yeah, but I’ve never had the chance to really get into it.”

It was the truth, and the whole reason she’d picked this over soccer. Kou cracked a full-on grin.

“Awesome! I can’t wait to show you some stuff!”

THOU ART I, AND I ART THOU.

THOU HAST ESTABLISHED A NEW BOND. IT BRINGS THEE CLOSER TO THE TRUTH. THOU SHALT BE BLESSED WHEN CREATING PERSONAS OF THE STRENGTH ARCANA…

As the ringing in Marie’s ears faded, she heard Daisuke talking to Kou.

“Are you stuck polishing the balls again?”

Wait. What?

“Yeah, while they go to their parties, I get to stay here and play with balls. I loooove them balls.”

Marie wanted to say something about that, but wisely decided not to, and instead spent the afternoon helping Kou and Daisuke polish balls.

Was everything in Inaba thinly-veiled homoerotica? Or not-so-thinly, in Kanji’s case...

--

April 20^th

Rise and Marie sat outside Souzai Daigaku, stuffing their faces with steak croquettes and enjoying the not-murderous sunshine.

“Steak in croquettes, huh?” Rise said. “This really is the country, isn’t it? It’s pretty nice, though.”

“Yeah, this is good,” Marie replied. “Bit tough, though.”

“Mmm. I feel like everything’s tough out here. That’s how you know it’s the countryside.”

As they discussing toughness and steak, two women walked past, shooting nasty looks at Rise as they did so. They didn’t even bother hiding their conversation.

“That Junes girl… of all the nerve…”

“Her upperclassman – Sato-san – went out of business…”

“Does she have no shame?”

Their nasty comments drifted away as they walked off. Rise looked down at the table, biting her lip.

“They really never stop, do they?”

“You must be pretty tough yourself to put up with that…”

“Huh? Oh, no, it’s okay,” Rise said, looking up, “my parents get the worst of it. I’m not personally involved, and there’s nothing I can do about it. All I can do is mind what I say… it’ll pass eventually, right?”

She smiled, and while Marie had a feeling it was fake, she also got the distinct impression that Rise was trying to be the mature one in this situation. Not bad for a giggly fifteen-year-old.

!

What was that? Marie felt her Link with Rise twist and change, becoming stronger and firmer as it did so. A puzzled expression flitted across Rise’s face.

“Huh. I think Himiko just learnt a new spell…”

“Really? What’s it do?”

“Um… run away from things? Could’ve been useful a couple of days ago…”

“True. Hey, if you’re not finishing that croquette…”

“Back off, missy!”

--

April 21^st

Kou was right. Basketball was fun. Marie immediately noticed that she felt fitter than she had the last time she’d tried it, which was probably something to do with the whole monster fighting thing. If this kept up, she’d be a bodybuilder by the end of the year.

After practise, Marie helped Kou clean up again, because it just seemed like the nice thing to do. Luckily, she didn’t have to polish any more balls.

“Man, I’m hungry,” Kou said as they worked. “Hey, Marie-chan, Aiya or Junes?”

Marie thought about it.

“My friend Naoto likes Aiya, but I haven’t been yet.”

“Oh, man, you haven’t been to Aiya? That settles it, we’re totally going.”

“Are you still not done?” Daisuke was walking over, shaking his head with amusement.

“You guys are fast, man,” Kou said. “Don’t you have something to do?”

“Yeah, but I don’t have to do that stuff.” Before Marie could ask what that meant, he continued: “Some girl in my class was looking for you. She made you something in home ec. She said, ‘Kou-chan likes sweets’, or something like that.”

“Ooh, sweets?” Marie licked her lips. “I’m jealous.”

“Hey, we’re just friends. Although, I do like me some sweets. I just wish she’d stop calling me Kou-chan. I swear, the more girls I tell not to call me that, the more they do it. I hate my name, ‘Kou’, it’s such a crappy name…”

“Well, I won’t call you Kou-chan. Promise.”

“You better not!”

“Are you gonna take the sweets or not?” Marie almost expected Daisuke to stick a ‘damn it’ on the end of that.

“Yeah, sure. Hey, Marie-chan, do you want sweets?”

“Sure, yeah!” Marie wondered if sweets had the same restorative properties as tomatoes and cola. It was worth a try, right?

That tug hit again, this time towards Kou and Daisuke. They didn’t notice – of course they didn’t – but at least a pattern had been established.

“Well, I’m off,” Kou said. “Don’t leave without me, you two, or I’ll cry!”

“The thing is,” Daisuke said to Marie as Kou went to retrieve the promised sweets, “he’s probably serious…”

Marie spent that night gorging herself on sweets (they were delicious) and reading a book about fishing. She had a funny feeling like it’d come in handy…

You never knew.

--

April 22^nd

Near Inaba, as it turned out, was a small town called Okina, that while small was nonetheless far more interesting than Inaba itself. You could get there by train. The moment Marie stepped out into the street from the station, she felt at home. The city smells were everywhere. Rise took a deep breath and sighed.

“It’s been a while since I breathed air this bad,” she joked. “I guess I’m just a pearl returning to its oyster… or something.”

“Pearl? You sound like Chie.”

“Oh, god, really?” Rise giggled. “Although, a few extra powers wouldn’t be so bad. So, shopping?”

Before Marie could answer, Rise’s phone beeped.

“Sorry… ugh, spam. I get so much of that!”

“I used to, then I changed my number.”

“Seriously? They always find a way to get you, in my experience. And I don’t really wanna change mine.” She sighed and put her phone back in her purse. “I haven’t changed it since the move. What if someone from my old school tries to talk to me? I mean, no one has, but… it’s the principle of the thing. Or something.”

Marie shrugged. “I move around so much, I never really got close enough to anyone for them to call, so it’s not a big deal for me.”

Rise winced sympathetically. “Gee, that sucks. But I guess things are different here, right? We have each other, and Naoto-kun, and Kanji-kun when he gets better, and didn’t you join the basketball team?”

Marie laughed. “We have some weird senpai here.”

“Yeah.” Rise nodded. “And we’ve got something to do together, now. So we’ll definitely need to stick with each other, right… um… partner!”

“You got it… partner.” Marie liked the sound of the world. Partner.

And there it was. Nothing like a shared nickname to bring people together.

“Yeah,” Rise said, “partner. Speaking of which, I had an idea for fights, just in case. Maybe we can discuss it over a shopping spree?”

“Oh, yeah.”

--

April 23^rd

Envelope construction? Sounded boring. But it was 1,000 yen a night…

Translation? Ugh, she’d have to really brush up on her English for that.

Folding cranes… was that even a job? Who on earth wanted her to fold cranes?! Oh, it was volunteer work. Which made even less sense.

Assistant day care caretaker? Well, that sounded interesting…

And that was how Marie had found herself atop a hill, being tugged at by small children.

“Do you have a boyfriend, miss?”

“Don’t ask that!” The little girl smacked the little boy who’d asked on the arm. “That’s creepy!”

“Hey, miss, let’s play tag! You’re it!”

Somehow, she survived with nothing but slight exhaustion to make from it. Maybe this would help her get to know her cousin, or at least, it was something to do. At the end of the day, she tidied up and watched the kids leave with their families.

One boy, however, lingered behind. He stared mournfully out into the distance.

“How is everything, Marie-chan?” the head caretaker asked. “Are all of the kids… oh, Yuuta-kun’s still here. It’s always like this, though…”

As if on cue, a woman with brown hair walked up, an apologetic smile on her face.

“I’m sorry I’m late, Yuu-kun…”

“Whatever.” Yuuta scuffed his shoe on the ground. The woman – presumably his mother – looked at Marie in surprise.

“Are you one of the supervisors? I’m sure Yuu-kun will cause you trouble, but please take care of him…”

That was a weird thing to say, Marie thought as the woman left with her son. The supervisor watched with Marie as they left.

“Yuuta Minami,” the supervisor explained, “is full of energy during his play sessions. But once she arrives, he’s a completely different kid. She’s his stepmother, so I guess it can’t be helped. His father got married to that woman you just met. I hear she’s from the city, and honestly, I’m not sure what she’s thinking. Perhaps that’s why Yuuta’s a troublemaker at school, too…”

The two gossiped for a while, then Marie went home and finished her book about fish.

--

April 24^th

It was a little strange, Marie thought, for two teenage boys to want to hang out with their female underclassman on weekends. Then again, maybe they were just being nice. It was fun, to be honest. They talked about Junes and hung out in various shops without buying anything.

Just talking to people was weirdly fun, Marie decided during a discussion of a soap opera that Kou was apparently deeply invested in. She’d never seen the point, but now she had a good reason to try, it turned out people liked her.

Greasy food. City air.

I lift my cold cup to you.

And whisper kindness through the words on screen.

Bad television. Late nights.

I salute you.

And pray for a thousand spring days like this.

…needed work.

--

April 25^th

Marie decided that she was going to be a well-rounded individual or die trying! That meant joining the school band, obviously, and being immediately walked into by a girl in the class next door who came up to Marie’s chest and had a permanent blush stuck on her face.

Well, then.

“Ahh! I’m sorry!” Oh, god, that was the face of a kicked puppy.

“It’s okay, um, I’m here to join the band?”

“Oh, of course! Wait right here, please… Captain! Captaaaain!”

The captain of the band appeared soon enough, and after a few words were exchanged, allowed Marie to join the band.

“This is Marie Narukami,” the captain said to the rest of the band, “a first-year. Let’s give her a warm welcome, everyone. Marie-san, do you have much experience?”

“I play bass. And the trumpet.” Her bass was back in the city (she’d figured it would annoy her uncle), and she’d played the trumpet a bit in middle school, but technically she could play both of them.

“Sounds good. How about you just watch, for now? Oh, and Ayane, how about you introduce yourself?”

“Oh! Okay!” The small girl smiled embarrassedly. “Errr, I’m Ayane Matsunuga, a first-year like you. I-I play the trombone, and…”

“Ayane can get you up to speed,” the captain said. “Okay, let’s take from the top again…”

After the rest of the band had disappeared home, Marie was about to leave herself, but spotted Ayane struggling to put things away.

“You can go home now, Marie-chan… Oh! I’m supposed to give you the details, aren’t I? Sorry…  Ummm, we meet on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays… We don’t take attendance, so you don’t have to come if you don’t want to, but practise makes perfect!”

“That it does.” Marie nodded. “Does the club play anywhere?”

“Well, sometimes we do performances at hospitals, or senior homes…” Ayane glanced down. “But we’re not a big enough band to join any competitions. We put our hearts into our music, though! Um, usually I don’t play, though… I do the paperwork…”

She shuffled her feet awkwardly. Marie wanted to pinch those absurdly red cheeks.

“Anyway, I need to clean up… How about you just go home? I’ll see you soon…”

“Nah, I’ll help,” Marie said. “You look like you need it.”

“Oh! Um… I’m fine, really! But, thank you… It’s my responsibility, though!”

I ART THOU, AND THOU ART I.

Marie was extremely glad of this one. Poor girl looked like she needed a friend.

THOU HAST ESTABLISHED A NEW BOND. IT BRINGS THEE CLOSER TO THE TRUTH. THOU SHALT BE BLESSED WHEN CREATING PERSONAS OF THE SUN ARCANA…

Ohhh, that was who Sun was!

That night, Marie decided to try her hand at making pork. She’d never been much of a cook, but it looked fairly edible. Right?

--

April 26^th

“You know, I didn’t have you pegged for a good cook,” Naoto admitted as they and Marie ate pork on the school roof, “but this is delicious!”

“Aww, thanks. I’m pretty sure it was just luck, though, it doesn’t usually turn out this well…”

“Don’t put yourself down. I cook a bit myself, though I’m no expert.”

“Oh? I expect payment in kind.” Marie grinned.

“What was it you called it… Fsteak?”

Marie burst into snorts of undignified laughter.

Later, the two of them headed down to the riverbank. The sun glittered on the water. Marie had a brief discussion with an old man about a fishhook while Naoto examined the area carefully.

“Perfect,” they said as Marie walked up, “this place is perfect for training!”

“…Training? I thought we were hanging out?”

“Oh, er…” Naoto flushed slightly. “I want to keep my training up, so I can keep up in battle. I tried to practise at home, but my grandfather got angry when I knocked a vase over and broke it.”

“Yeah, I get that.” Marie could just picture Naoto’s foot colliding with some old family heirloom. “Keeping in training is a good idea, though.”

“So… shall we train together?”

Oh, god, more kicked puppy faces. Marie had the feeling that while they’d never admit it, Naoto was desperate to hang out with someone.

“Sure.”

“Yes!” Naoto’s face lit up. “Thank you, Marie-chan. After what happened… that Shadow. I feel awful, knowing that that’s my true self. I want to be stronger than that.”

Marie felt the tug on the bond between herself and Naoto, and wondered if Sukuna-Hikona had learnt any new tricks.

“Let’s see,” Naoto said, “I’ll be the Blue Swan, you can be the Red Eagle. Alas, you don’t have a motorbike. The latest version of Red Eagle does…”

“I want a bike. It’d be cool.”

“Mmm, me too. Let’s start with frog leaps…”

Several hours later, Marie returned to the riverbank and caught some fish. It was pretty dull, but if tomatoes could be magical restoratives…

Say, what about pork?

--

April 27^th

This was not going to work. There was no way this could possibly count as a Social Link.

But, hell, Yu needed to get out. Margaret was severe and Igor was creepy, and being cooped up with them wasn’t making the poor kid any less spacey.

And so, Marie came to his request and brought him out into the real world. There were spots of rain still on the street, and everything smelt faintly damp, but Yu didn’t seem to mind. He took a deep breath, and let it out slowly, enjoying the experience.

“So, this is your world,” he said at last. “Interesting.”

“It’s not much, but it’s home, I guess.” Marie patted him on the back. “C’mon, you should try fsteak.”

“Fsteak? That wasn’t in Margaret’s books.”

“Huh? Oh, they might’ve called it steak. It’s a common issue. People don’t use the proper names for things… C’mon, let’s go.”

Marie tugged Yu by the arm to Souzai Daigaku. He looked at the menu blankly for a while, then turned to Marie with an even blanker expression. Marie looked back at him nervously, trying to figure out how to ask him what he wanted to eat.

“Hey, Marie-chan! Ooh, who’s this?”

Marie and Yu turned to see Rise walking over, a breezy smile on her face. She looked Yu up and down, clearly approving of what she saw. Well, he was a pretty handsome guy, maybe even slightly cool-seemingly… if you didn’t know him.

“This is Yu,” she explained, “he’s, um, a friend. Yu, this is my partner, Rise.”

“Partner?” Yu looked as blank as ever. “Nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you too, Yu-san!” Rise giggled. “Are you guys getting steak?”

“I’m showing him around town,” Marie said, “and I figured, what’s more country than steak in croquettes?”

“Too true. Here, I’ll pay.”

“…You’re… buying it?” Yu tilted his head, mild curiosity flitting across his face.

Soon enough, the three of them were sitting around, eating steak. By the end of the meal, Yu had still not changed his expression. It was getting to be rather creepy. 

“So, what d’you think of the local delicacy, Yu-san?” Rise leant across the table, trying to look him in the eye. He seemed to be avoiding her gaze.

“It’s tough,” he said, “and hard to bite into. And it got cold while I was eating it. It was delicious. I like fsteak.”

“Fsteak… oh, my god.” Rise looked at Marie with a look of dawning comprehension and strong disapproval. It was all Marie could do to not burst out laughing. “Uh, you didn’t eat all of it, though.”

“There’s too much,” Yu answered. “What should I do with it?”

“Mrow.”

A small orange cat had appeared by their table. It blinked at them slowly, eyes fixed upon the source of the delicious smell of steak. Yu’s eyes went as round as dinner plates as he stared back. His whole face lit up.

“Hello,” he said softly, “do you want some fsteak?”

“Mrow.”

Yu took the meat from his plate and put it down in front of the cat, which looked at it as if Christmas had come early. It immediately set about wolfing the steak down. Yu stared at it the entire time. When it was done, it jumped up onto the table and sat there. Yu reached out and petted it, enraptured by the sound of its purrs.

“You like cats, huh, Yu-san?” Rise smiled. “There’s a lot of strays in Inaba. Dunno why…”

“Cats.” Yu smiled. “It’s pretty.”

“Yeah, it – oh, crap, I left my key in my locker at work! See you round, you two!”

Rise ran off in the general direction of Junes. Yu stared after her as he continued to pet the cat.

“Your partner is strange,” he said.

“Yeah, but I like her.”

“Yeah. She bought meat, and told me what a cat is.” He smiled. “Do you know where there’s more cats?”

Soon enough, they were on top of the hill overlooking town, where the few cats Marie had seen while on her way to the day care. Yu petted them with absolute delight.

“It’s green here,” he said. “Green, and a bit brown. But it’s pretty. In the Velvet Room, everything’s blue.”

“I noticed.”

“Mmm. It hurts my eyes. Igor never talks, and Margaret scares me. But this place…” He stood up and looked out over the city, cats brushing his legs. “I like it. It reminds me of something.”

“Of what?”

“I don’t know. Is there anywhere else nice here?”

“Oh, yeah, there’s a ton of places.” Marie pointed each place out as she said them. “That’s Junes, that’s the Samegawa, and down there is my school.”

“Do you think you could show me a little more?”

“Hey, sure.”

I ART THOU, AND THOU ART I.

Spacey otherworldly cat boy! Marie had done her research and placed a modest bet on Star or Moon.

THOU HAST ESTABLISHED A NEW BOND. IT BRINGS THEE CLOSER TO THE TRUTH. THOU SHALT BE BLESSED WHEN CREATING PERSONAS OF THE AEON ARCANA…

Aeon?! Where was THAT in the deck?!

--

28^th April

“Cut! Cut! The trombone is flat again! Is that you, Ayane?”

 “I-I’m sorry!”

“All right, let’s try the second movement again…”

The rain poured down outside all day, so for lack of anything else to do, Marie returned to band practise. She quickly remembered how to play the trumpet, and things went reasonably well.

“You’re really good, Marie-chan!” She and Ayane had stayed behind after practise again. “You have such great tone, but you look so tired… and here’s me, sticking out again. I wish I had that kind of talent.”

“Hey, you’ve got way more guts than me. And you’re pretty good yourself!”

“Oh, thank you!” Awww, Ayane smiling was unbearably sweet. Marie resolved to drop the edgy teen act around her. “But we have another trombone-player. Takeru-senpai. He's really good, so he always gets picked for performances. That's why I've never gone to one. But it doesn't matter... I can't play in front of an audience anyway.”

“Don’t be so hard on yourself!”

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t be bothering you with all this…” Ayane looked down at the floor. “I should clean up…”

“I’ll help, and don’t try to chase me off this time, okay?” Marie looked around. “They left it a mess. Let’s just do this and go home.”

“O-Oh! Thank you!”

Ping!

--

29^th April

A good leader, Marie decided, could overcome any challenge set to her. Naturally, the challenge of the Rainy Day Meatbowl Challenge was too much to resist.

As she sat at the family table at the Dojima residence, too full of meat to move, she swore her vengeance on that bowl of meat and the dimension to which it was clearly connected. Her stomach had overflowed trying to eat it and now all of her pathos was gunked up. She couldn’t get that damn meat out of her head.

At least it had saved Dojima money on dinner?

“Due to the weekend rainfall, clear skies seem unlikely in the area. A thick fog is expected to set in tonight and remain until tomorrow morning, with heaviest concentration in the Inaba area. Anyone planning to go out tonight should take care. Now for our hourly weather breakdown...”

“More fog, huh?” Dojima sighed wearily. “There’s been a lot of that lately. Hope it’s not a sign of more trouble…. Ah-ah-ah, what did I say about changing the channel without asking?”

Nanako flicked back to the news in time for the Junes jingle to start.

“Every day’s great at your Junes!” Nanako giggled as the tune finished. “Dad, they’re going to be open on Golden Week!”

Oh, yeah, that was coming up. Marie was looking forward to a break, assuming a certain someone didn’t try to murder anyone again. Maybe murderers took Golden Week off too?

“I heard.” Dojima smiled frankly. “Do you want to go somewhere in the long holiday?”

“We can go somewhere?” Oh, bless her heart. “Let’s go to Junes! Junes, Junes, Junes!”

Marie nodded. “Well, I don’t have any plans…” Assuming no murders, of course.

“Junes? Really?” Dojima sighed. “We can go there any time… Come on, girl, it’s late. Time for bed.”

“Okay… Every day’s great at your Junes!”

--

It was nearly midnight, and still raining.

My heart is: a flower

Beautiful, transient, fragile

My heart is: a clock

Beautiful, timeless, complex

My heart is: a crown

Beautiful, royal, eternal

I give it to you

Do not betray my fragility!

Do not mistake my complexity!

Tear me apart, and I will rise again eternal

From the ashes of your cruelty!

At least she’d managed to get the damn meat out of her head.

A minute to go. Marie put the pen down and stood to watch her TV. Sure enough, it flickered to light, but with a blank screen. Success – the killer had, at last been thwarted! Job well done.

And somewhere, in the fog-shrouded shopping district, a figure stared at the power lines and waited for something that never came.

Chapter Text

The Investigation Team – sans Chie, plus Kanji – stood atop the Yasogami High roof. Kanji and Naoto had acquired hot noodles, and were just waiting for them to finish cooking.

“Ahhh, there’s nothing like noodles for deducing on,” Naoto said. “How much longer?”

“It still needs a few minutes.” Kanji sat down with his. Marie was instantly jealous, because the smell was amazing. She wanted noodles. Where could she get instant noodles in Inaba… silly question, the answer was almost certainly “Junes”.  Or “Shiroku”, but if the ice cubes from there were grenades, then who knew what the noodles would do?

Back on topic!

“Kanji-kun,” Rise said, “I feel mean bringing this up again, but… you really don’t remember anything?”

Kanji shook his head.

“No, sorry.” Kanji sighed. “I figured it’d get easier if I slept on it, but it just gets hazier… I think, uh, the doorbell rang? Someone asked for me, yeah, but the next thing I knew I was in that castle place. Sorry.”

“There’s no need to apologise,” Naoto said, “but does that mean that Kanji’s visitor was the culprit?”

Rise gasped. “A killer who rings the doorbell? Scary. The police are looking for witnesses, but I kinda doubt they’ll be much use…”

“Yeah,” Marie said, “doesn’t matter what the killer wears or does, with a killing method like this they’re about as obvious as a speck of dust.”

“I have to wonder why they’re doing this,” Naoto said. “What possible motivation could they have?”

“Dunno,” Rise said, face growing solemn, “I guess we’ll have to ask them when we catch them. But at this point, they have to know what happens when they throw someone in! It’s definitely murder.”

The entire group nodded, sharing in Rise’s solemnity.

“Hey, Kanji-kun,” Marie said, “wanna help? Me and Rise and Naoto-kun are trying to catch this guy. We’ve got Personas, so we can do what the police can’t. And since you’ve got a Persona now…”

“Yeah, Take-Mikazuchi…” Kanji thought about it. “…I wanna know why someone wants me dead. I have to wonder why they’d do that. Yeah, count me in!”

Kanji nodded. Rise pumped her fist.

“Let’s do this!”

A sense of camaraderie washed over the scene. They were an odd little investigation team, to be sure – an angsty teen poet, the bubbly unpopular girl, a sentai-obsessed martial artist, and the slightly rough inn manager. If Marie knew her movies, they would be the unlikely heroes who saved the day despite – or perhaps because of – their total incompetency.

Cue the theme tune?

She felt the usual tug in her head, directed at the entire group this time.

“Um, do we have any leads?” Naoto said. “Any at all?”

“I’m the third target, yeah?” Kanji hmmed thoughtfully. “Okay, so, what if we figured out who the killer’s after next?”

“Ooh, we could catch them in the act!” Rise nodded. “Okay, so what do the victims have in common? Mayumi Yamano, Saki Konishi… senpai, Kanji Tatsumi… Um, do they have anything in common?”

Everyone scratched their heads and mulled it over. The smell of noodles made it hard for Marie to concentrate. Mmmmm, noodles. She really wanted some.

“…We all live in Inaba?” Kanji offered.

“No,” Marie said, a flash of clarity striking her like one of Izanami’s lightning bolts, “you all have connections to Ms Yamano.”

Rise squealed.

“That’s it, partner! You’re a genius!” Rise started counting off on her fingers. “Ms Yamano, that’s obvious. Senpai found the body. And Kanji-kun, wasn’t she staying in your inn before she died? I remember there was a whole thing on TV about it!”

“And they were all on the Midnight Channel before they vanished,” Naoto added. “It sounds to me like the killer is trying to clean up after themselves.”

“So… we have to rely on the Midnight Channel,” Rise said.

“The next time it rains, huh?”

Kanji looked down, suddenly melancholy. Then he perked up.

“Hey Naoto, our noodles’re done!”

Naoto and Kanji wasted no time in peeling off the lids. The smell of cooked noodles hit Marie like a pair of freight trains. She felt dizzy from how hungry she suddenly was – and she’d had a perfectly respectable lunch not a few hours before!

“Hey, Naoto-kun,” Rise said, batting her eyelashes, “could I try a bite of that…? Please…?”

“Get your own!” Rise intensified the eyelash-batting. “Oh, fine. One bite!”

“Oh hey, d’you want some, Marie-chan?” Kanji offered the bowl.

“Oh, sure, thanks!”

Rise and Marie took the bowls of noodles and took their single bites. Oh, god, Marie was in noodle heaven! It was perfectly cooked, and tasted delicious! Where had they gotten these noodles?! Surely a corporation that had such a stranglehold on local instant-noodles-that-aren’t-bombs production wouldn’t bother putting so much effort into their creation? Junes needed to maximise their surplus value! Was she wrong about everything? Were the noodles unlocking a new level of pathos?

Oh fuck, she’d eaten the lot…

Marie and Rise looked up guiltily to see Naoto and Kanji glaring at them. They quickly handed the now-empty bowls of noodles back, sweating profusely.

“You ate the whole thing!” Naoto’s face set into a vicious scowl. “Why, you…”

“My fried tofu…” Kanji slumped sadly. “Why would you eat a guy’s tofu? C’mon, that’s just not cool…”

“You’re paying for this,” Naoto snapped.

“…Um, um, meal at Junes!” Rise said, throwing her hands up in a panic. “I’ll pay for everything! Promise! I’ll replace all of your noodles with fresh steak from the grill!”

“I’ll pay half!” Marie added, thinking guiltily of the money she’d collected from Shadows.

“…Free meal?” Apparently even the great Naoto Shirogane was not immune to the promise of freebies. “Well, okay. Kanji?”

“…I’ll take it,” he said with a sigh. “But man, it’s just not the same…”

And so, sometime later, the intrepid quartet found themselves at Junes, consuming freshly-grilled fsteak with the assistance of Rise’s employee discount. Well, Naoto and Kanji were – Rise and Marie were too full of capitalist noodly goodness to eat any more. Kanji still seemed down from not getting to eat his noodles, but at least he’d taken the steak.

“Talk about great timing,” Rise said as they finished, “we just started selling grilled steak today!”

“Back on topic,” Naoto said, wiping their mouth, “I wonder what sort of a person the killer is?”

“A psychological profile,” Marie said. “I learnt about those on TV.”

“Same here.” Was Naoto blushing? “If you focus on the announcer’s case, it looks like revenge… the ex-wife?”

“I thought the same thing,” Rise said, “but she had a solid alibi, right? And she was already separated from that Nametame guy. Saki-senpai found the body, so that’s a motive for the second case? A cover-up.”

Marie snorted. “It’s so obvious, it feels like a red herring. Coincidence, maybe?”

“Uh, well, maybe, partner? But what if Senpai saw important evidence…”

“Rise-chan, the killer’s throwing people into a TV,” Kanji said. “There isn’t gonna be any evidence there that a high schooler’s gonna see.”

Everyone sighed and stared down at the table, almost as if they were hoping the answer would have been carved into it, along with the week’s winning lottery numbers.

“Maaan, I thought the countryside was gonna be a snooze, but it’s proving to be a lot more exciting than I thought. Ooh, they updated the menu!”

The quartet looked up to see none other than Detective Tohru Adachi standing by the menu, examining it with a carefree smile.

“Isn’t that the detective who threw up?” Kanji said.

Adachi looked over at the sound of the word ‘detective’, and spied Marie. His smile became broad and friendly, and he came over to the group, eyes fixed on Marie.

“Heyyy, you’re that niece of Dojima-san’s!” he said. “Great! Listen, could you pass something on for me? Dojima-san says he’s gonna leave work on schedule tonight. Lull in the case, you know? Can you tell Nanako-chan?”

“Yeah, sure.” Marie felt warmed slightly at the thought that they’d get to be a weird little family again tonight. She was sure that Nanako would be very happy about that. Hopefully, though, Dojima would not bring noodles home for dinner…

“Sorry to butt in,” Naoto said, “but is it possible that Saki Konishi was targeted in order to shut her up?”

Adachi’s smile flickered to surprise, and then to confusion. He turned to look Naoto up and down, confusion growing at the concept that a high schooler was asking such a pointed question of a detective regarding a murder case.

“Wow, you sure get to the heart of the matter.” Adachi chuckled nervously. “Of course, we're also thinking along those lines. She was killed right after the announcer's body was found. If the killer was trying to silence here, there might've been something at the scene only she would have understood. Which would mean that the culprit may be someone close to Ms. Konishi. Nothing like that points to Misuzu Hiiragi, so... Ooh, I might have stumbled across something here!”

Adachi’s growing smile immediately gave way to panic.

“Wait, were you listening to all of that? Crap! Me and my big mouth! Don’t tell anyone I said that, or Dojima-san will flay me alive!” Adachi hastily arranged his face into a professional expression. “Relax, kids, the police are on the job! See you around, Narukami-chan!”

Adachi fled the scene quickly. Marie, Rise, Naoto and Kanji stared after him in disbelief.

“The police,” Naoto declared, “are useless.”

“We literally have gods on our side,” Marie added, “and I’m still not sure that’s enough to save this town…”

*

The TV world was the same as ever – foggy, yellow and creepy. Marie put her glasses on and it got less foggy, but no less creepy or inexplicably yellow.

“Whoa… we really are inside the TV…” Kanji shook his head. “And there’s Chie. Guess it really wasn’t a dream.”

“Are you feeling better?” Chie beamed up at Kanji, who was nearly twice her side. “I’ve been keeping guard!”

She saluted, which was quite impressive given her body shape. Marie was surprised she could reach that far. Then again, she was surprised by everything that Chie did. Salutes were acceptably weird.

“This dragon’s part of why we’re trying to solve the case,” Rise explained. “She’s super helpful.”

Marie patted Chie on the head for good measure. Chie blushed at being patted by Sensei and looked down at the floor awkwardly.

“Cool,” Kanji said. “Can’t say I feel bad about having a dragon helping out. Oh yeah, I’m part of the team now too.”

Chie looked up happily.

“I thought you’d say that!” she said. “That’s why I got these ready while I was standing guard!”

She produced a pair of glasses for Kanji. Then looked at the glasses that Kanji was already wearing. She took a moment to process the issue that she faced.

“Oooh. That could be a problem.”

“Huh?”

“You’re already wearing glasses… I guess those ones don’t let you see through the fog?”

“Uh… they help me see, but not through the fog…”

“Ooooh. Uh, can you wear two pairs at once?”

“…no, I can’t.”

“Figures.”

Everyone stood there blankly for a minute, trying to think of a fix for this issue.

“I have an idea,” Chie said. “I made a couple of duds with bad lenses, but they might fit over your current glasses... let me test to see if it works, then I’ll make a proper pair like that.”

Chie reached behind herself to take out an extra pair of glasses from somewhere. She handed them to Kanji, who examined them sceptically, then put them on over his current glasses.

Marie nearly doubled over with laughter. Rise failed to hold it back, and gripped her sides to stop them splitting open as she laughed and laughed and laughed. Naoto clapped a hand over their mouth and giggled.

“Seriously?”

“I told you they were duds!”

“But, man…” Kanji shook his head. “I’m not wearing gag glasses!”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Naoto said slyly, “they look quite good on you!”

“…really?” Kanji went a bit red under the glasses, and Marie wondered how that factored in with his Shadow. Naoto was pretty boyish… “I mean, no! I’m not wearing gag glasses!”

He took them off and threw them far away into the fog. Chie growled.

“Hey! Did you have to throw them away?”

“They’re gag glasses! And they’re duds!” Kanji shook his head. “You don’t hold onto shit that doesn’t work and you can’t fix!”

“H-hey! Who says I couldn’t fix them?!”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Marie said, stepping in between the steaming manager and the smoking dragon, “let’s chill.”

“Chie,” Rise said, “can’t you just tweak Kanji’s existing lenses?”

Chie thought about it.

“Ooooh, yeah, I can do that, it’ll only take a second…”

Kanji hesitated.

“If they break,” Naoto said, “I’ll kick her over and smash them further so you can pretend you tripped and get a new pair.”

“You’re the best.”

Kanji handed Chie his glasses, squinting as he adjusted to the fuzz and fog. Chie tinkered with the glasses for a minute, then handed them back. Kanji put them on carefully, then drew in a sharp breath.

“Whoa.”

Marie facepalmed. That had taken far too long.

*

“The fourth and the fifth…”

The Dojima household was the same as ever. Marie and Nanako sat at the low table, watching TV. The light from the screen flickered on Nanako’s face, mesmerising her and making Marie worry deeply about her cousin. Dojima was sitting on the sofa behind them, reading the newspaper.

“I think I can get the fourth and the fifth off.”

Nanako’s eyes went wide, and she turned to look at her dad.

“Really?” Her face fell. “Really…?”

“What, you don’t believe me?”

“It’s always cancelled.”

Nanako stuck her lower lip out. Marie felt her heart sink.

“N-not every year!” Dojima quickly changed the subject. “I know you wanted to go to Junes, but I wouldn’t mind going a bit further out of the neighbourhood this year.”

Nanako’s face lit up again as she considered the endless possibilities implied by leaving Inaba.

“Really? Can we go on a trip?”

“Sure, but I’m sure it’ll be crowded everywhere…”

Nanako did not care. “Yaaaay! We’re going on a trip!”

“All right, all right, I need to think of somewhere to go.” Dojima looked over at Marie. “What about you? Do you want to come?”

“Yeah, I’d love it.” Marie glanced over at Nanako to see that her cousin’s smile had only grown broader.

“Let’s all go together!” Nanako said, giggling. “Oh! Let’s bring boxed lunches!”

“Hm?” Dojima considered it. “Yeah, we’re always eating side dishes for dinner. But I can’t cook, and Nanako’s not good enough to make them by herself…”

Oh, no. Nothing would stand in the way of the Dojima family trip. Not if Mariko Narukami, summoner of divine power, had anything to say about it. Boxed lunches were nothing compared to abominations born from the personal crises of teenagers.

“I’ll do it,” she said. “I can cook.”

“Yaaaaay!”