Disclaimer: I do not own any part of Atlus or the Persona games makeup or production. This is a simple fic devoted to the love of it by myself who owns a copy of both Persona 3 and 4. I hope you all enjoy.

Description: Note, this is told from Naoto's perspective in first person narrative. So that should be interesting, in the least. Here's another thing: This is after the TV world drama with everyone's shadows. Everyone has defeated them and accepted them, they turned into Personas, etc. But, when it all came down to it in the end, they failed and the whole world they knew became the TV world. Their realities are now shrouded in the same fog as the TV world. What new mysteries are to come of this? By the way, this indicates a small time skip. Say a year. So everyone else would be juniors in high school besides Naoto, Rise and Kanji. Anyway, plot summary, alright to the story!

The Ideal Present

Chapter 1: A Reality Shrouded in Fog

Greetings to you all. Some of you know me as the Detective Prince. Some of you know my secret and either hold it in contempt or dismiss it in unimportance. It doesn't truly make a difference to me what others do with the knowledge they learn of, it is their choices after all. However, I am rambling. Allow me to introduce myself if you are not familiar with that which I have told you...

My name is Naoto Shirogane. I am 15 years of age, soon to become 16. It's been a year since the incidents with the first murder mystery case were solved out to be none other than Tohru Adachi. If you're unfamiliar with him as well, he is a former detective of the Inaba Police Force and a traitor, nonetheless, to his own kind. A human that blends well with the shadows. It's really a misshapen thing to even dream about. Allow me to stop myself before I grow obsessive over past events. It's 2012 here in the small town of Inaba and the fog, well, everyone has grown quite accustomed it. After all, it is the daily ways of life now. When it all came down to it in the end... no one could do it. We couldn't save Inaba from this fate and thus that grostesque and weird world became ours.

"Hey Naoto, whatcha workin' on?" A familar voice spoke to me in a rather cheery tone. It was none other than Rise Kujikawa, the former idol who quit showbiz because she was fatigued from acting like someone whom she wasn't all that time. I'm glad she decided to quit when she did though or else she may have lost her true self completely.

"Oh its nothing really. I happened to be reading the new detective book recently and decided to look over the facts of our last case. Everything added up and in the end we all failed. I don't quite understand-"

"It's okay, Naoto." She paused which confused me some. What was she going to say? "We all tried our best. So what if we failed? The world isn't half as bad as Adachi-san made it out to be. Sure, yeah, he's still twisted and he's probably still out there somewhere amongst the shadows, but at least we still have our Personas right? With them, we'll just do things like the last time. Mmkay?" She smiled at me so sincerely. I began to wonder: How could she muster a smile like that to form when all our world was shrouded in the dust that originally destroyed our spirits and determination? Rise may have some subliminal strength and I may have underestimated her a bit in her ability to mask what she's truly feeling.

"That is true. Rise you're quite logical when you want to be."

"Nah that was nothin'. You shoulda seen me when I was thinkin' about what I wanted to do. Stay in showbiz or get out while I can. I felt like I was losing my mind! Anyway, you mentioned something about the new detective book you were reading? Isn't that the made up detective character with his trusty sidekick who solves mysteries to simple cases? That's a children's book. Wow, Naoto, I would have thought you'd be the sophistocated reader of all of us, hmmmmmm, I guess not." She giggled and I found a flushing upon my face appear. She was making fun of me, how dare she.

"Well, when you're someone whom relates to the character, I don't think it's that childish or petulant. And furthermore, they're very interesting cases and I like to test my brain to solve them before the character in the book does. I want to see if my predictions come out to be correct. And anyway, what does it matter to you what I read? Just the other day I saw you reading something meant for children as well." She giggled once again and then settled down from her taunting mode.

"Take it easy there, Naoto. I understand you completely. I, sometimes, like to read them myself just to reminisce over past memories and stuff like that. It's fun when you reflect on the good times you've had growing up. Sadly, that isn't a possibility for me, but I do remember reading these books when I was younger and they provided an escape for me, so, sometimes I still read them. Anyway, is this detective series something you follow regularly?" Rise seemed curious as she took a seat right by me.

"Well, I wouldn't say I regularly follow them. I mean I don't make daily trips to the bookstore in the shopping district to see if they have new additions out. But, I do consider myself an avid reader of this series. It's relatively new and so I find it still has its charm compared to the other ones. I've already read them so the storylines may have become quite jaded, in my point of view, anyway." Rise nodded.

"I get what you're saying."

"Yo. 'Sup guys?" A taller man whom seemed to have his jacket draped over his shoulders walked in and yawned; He was obviously very tired.

"Good morning Kanji-kun!" Rise exclaimed rather enthusiastically. I simply smiled softly and gave a nod in his direction, uttering only a word.

"Greetings." Once again, Kanji yawned and sat down on the chair, facing Rise and I, which implied he was sitting the wrong way in the chair to begin with. If you can imagine this, I wish you luck.

"Oh class is starting soon! We should get to our classrooms! I have to go just next door, but, if you need me, you know you can text me right guys?" Kanji and I both nodded in agreement and Rise happily skipped off to her class. Kanji, however, looked like he had something on his mind. I decided to ask.

"What is it Kanji?"

"Wha-?"

"What have you got on your mind?"

"Ain't nothin' on my mind that's troublin' me, except for maybe how damn early it is. The person who thought getting out of bed this early just to learn some crap you'll never use in life should seriously get punched in the damn face." Kanji yawned again and heard the bell ring.

"Kanji, you'll be late if you don't leave now."

"Yeah, yeah, I know. I'm goin'. I'll be two doors down if you need me Naoto. But, seriously, I think we second years need to talk later. Just us three, y'know, without the others?" I only nodded, curious as to what was going through his mind. Kanji was always a man of few words and even fewer emotions, so it seemed.

"Alright students. How about we go about the creative learning processes in a fun way this morning? I'm not saying you have to participate if you don't want to, but, I thought this might wake you guys up a bit and get the ball rolling. Here's what we're going to do. We're going to roleplay a bit. This is a forensic science class and we haven't had a chance to deal with any sort of 'case' so far. So, why don't we learn in a fun way today? We'll elect people to be different roles and learn from their mistakes or their correct moves. Understood?" The class time passed by and soon it was lunchtime. I remembered that Kanji had something he wanted to speak to Rise and I about and so I texted them to meet me atop the school roof with their lunches. Both showed with their lunches in hand. Rise carried a bag with some tofu in a container in it, specially made by her grandmother before school. Kanji carried some food that he'd brought from home as well, some sort of ramen that his mother prepared for him. I, myself, was content with eating a simple sandwich I'd made myself.

"Soooooooooooooooo what's up guys?" Rise exclaimed again, taking a seat wherever she pleased and undoing the top on the container to eat her lunch.

"Kanji says that he wishes to speak with us about something."

"Yeah, it's about the case. You know the one we all solved together but in the end, we failed to beat that bastard...?" Kanji seemed a bit more tense than usual. All I had to do was shoot him a look and he snapped right back into check. He'd become rather good at controlling his rage.

"Yeah, I remember. What do you wanna do about it though?" Rise asked curiously.

"Well you see Rise, something is bugging both Kanji and I about the case, if I'm interpreting this correctly. We had all the evidence before us, everything fit together and fell right into place. We had the power and the means to beat him and yet, we failed in the end. Does that make any sense to you? I still soundly believe there is a chance that we can beat this Adachi and clear the fog that has become our world. I believe a restoration can occur, if we try just once more..."

"And we're the only ones that can do it." Kanji finished my sentence for me. I nodded.

"Alright, so let me get this straight here. We're going to take a whack at this old case again and try and bring down Adachi and peace back to Inaba? Sure, I have no problem with it, but, why not tell the others? After all, I'm only good for support and you two can't do it on your own. Plus, Senpai had multiple Personas he could use and Yukiko-senpai was great at healing. You need extra strength, guys." Rise took another bite of her tofu, further devouring it. She did speak of the truth, we'd be terribly outnumbered if we went in at our current status.

"You're correct Rise, which is why we have decided to wait on this a bit. The world over here won't change much. I don't suspect that, at least. All there is left now is to wait for the proper time to strike an attack. I suggest we wait for the holiday season to pass. Now isn't the time for such dramatic encounters as with Adachi, do you agree?" I spoke, then eating into my lunch a bit.

"Yeah. I don't want anything weird risin' up during this season. I kinda wanna spend time with Ma and relax. And oh, exchange presents and all..." Kanji stated while eating his lunch as well.

"Alright, then it's agreed. We'll wait for the season's holidays to pass before going into for another attempt at bringing Adachi to remorse what he has done. And when we do decide to go at it, we will inform the others of our decision." The others nodded in agreement with myself and then we moved on to talk about such lighter things as the upcoming holiday.

1 Week Later...

Today was a holiday, not the bigger one all the talk was about, but, a minor one in which we had the day off from school. Here was another possibility that I'd never even conceived before. If our world and the TV world have really become one, then there is the possibility that the shadows may reappear in this world without any such inhibition. If we lose control over our inner thoughts, it is quite plausible that they could break free of us once again and our powers of Persona would temporarily disappear. And recently, the fog had grown deeper. This was an eerie sight that I took as a rather dark foreboding.

Suddenly, I got a call on my cellphone. It was Rise.

"Hello?"

"Naoto-kun! Come quick! It's Kanji. He and I were in the central shopping district checking out some of the dolls he made when suddenly he fell to his knees and began to hold his head. The store seemed to transform right before our very eyes to a hotsprings and that's not even the worst part. You have to hurry and get down here!"

"Understood." I immediately hung up the phone. In a hurry, I grabbed my gun and began to rush to the shopping district around where Tatsumi Textiles was located. I wondered, if this were to be true, then my predictions really were palpable and not only that, but they'd come reality, at least, in Kanji's case. When I reached the central shopping district, my eyes, however jaded they'd become to things, still couldn't believe what they saw...

[End of Chapter 1]