-XXXX (Time is nothing in the Velvet Room)-
Margaret wakes.
Thoughts, memories, and yes, even feelings come back to her slowly, as though they are being re-installed one by one. She does not have words for where she sleeps; she only knows that it is outside of the Velvet Room, but also not in the world beyond it. Sometimes, she suspects that she ceases to exist until she is called upon.
She finds her feet, and walks until she has re-entered the room where her master sits, waiting. The room has changed again. She had known that "today" (to the extent that such a word had meaning here) was when it would do so. A new edition of the Compendium was to begin. Though she was surprised to be called upon so soon after last time.
The Velvet Room was in the form of a private train cabin, with the usual opulent touches. She instinctively glances out the window, to see that there was nothing beyond the windows but void-no fog, no speeding lights, just emptiness. This was not entirely unusual, but still somewhat unsettling. But then she gives her full attention to her master, who is giving her a look that, for once, she does not understand.
"Welcome," says Igor, "to the Velvet Room."
For the first time in some time, since before even meeting The Boy, Margaret is speechless. Igor offers a solicitous wave to the chair across from him.
"Do not be alarmed," he says, "This is a place between consciousness, and the other. To appear here, means that you have agreed to enter into a contract."
"But... Master." She had never before understood fear, the way that her younger sister had. Even with The Boy, his presence had only given her greater confidence. Now, however, she feels cold-but there was no temperature to the Velvet Room!-and she knows her eyes are wide and pleading. "I have not... And..." She clutches at her arms. "I... am a resident here."
"Which makes you a truly remarkable guest indeed." Igor smiles at her, the way he only smiles at his guests, and she looks longingly at the book lying on the empty seat beside him.
"Are you... to have no attendant? Perhaps my brother..." Her brother the fool, the weakling, yes, but surely better than nothing... But then she sees on the table between them: the telephone is back. She looks down and wonders if she is a being capable of tears.
"You are about to embark upon a journey." Igor holds out a hand to her, and yet... it is as if he ignores every word she speaks. Has she offended him somehow? She glances again at the phone. Would the others be returning, then, as well? That horrid painter, perhaps? She was fond of Nanishi's piano, it was true, but... "Your journey may be long, or it may be short, but you must recall your agreement: to accept fully the consequences of all that results from your choices."
"I... I understand." She bows her head, in part so that she no longer has to look at his face.
There was a long pause. Finally, Igor speaks again, and his voice is soft, quiet, and just a little afraid.
"Perhaps you should best start by finding your sister."
When she looks up, Igor is gone. Igor, who always abided by the rules, who never spoke out of turn and dare risk his service come to an end, and who always made sure that his charges did the same, even when their missions hurt so awfully and severely...
With nobody else in the Velvet Room, Margaret allows herself to cry. She hadn't even cried for The Boy.
Persona: After The End
-An Apocrypha-
(This story was written before the release of P4:G and P4UM)
Chapter One: The Prince and The Policeman
-2021-
Officer Satonaka's partner had a second firearm.
This was very strange in Japan, where guns were hard to come by, but not completely inexplicable; part of what concerned her was that he seemed dedicated to hiding the weapon from sight-and, she strongly suspected, the eyes of her superiors. She'd seen it exactly twice. Early on, he'd slammed a desk drawer quickly but not quickly enough for her to recognize the white shape that was clearly a holster; and much later, after things had changed, and just before he'd nearly taken her fingers off when slamming the glove compartment closed.
It was a lingering doubt for her, a cold fear in the pit of her stomach, but it wasn't the only one.
The fluorescent lights glinted off of the Chief's red sunglasses as he led Officer Satonaka to meet her partner.
"Sanada." The fellow cop didn't look up from his desk. "Sanada! You've been assigned a-" The Chief was not fazed by the man's deathglare. "No attitude, Sanada. You've got a partner again. Deal with it, or I deal with you." Chief Suou offered Officer Satonaka a disarming smile – guess he wasn't that big of a hardass – and leaned in closer to the Sanada. "I don't know how things were in Ayanagi City..."
"Okay, okay!" He grabbed the folder from Suou's outstretched hand.
Her first day on the force after moving to the city, her first day on her own without Dojima-san looking out for her, and Chief Suou had assigned her to partner up with a man who clearly would rather be working alone. She was so excited! Ever since Dojima-san had offered to guide her entry into the police force, she'd been alternating cop flicks with the martial arts films that had been her bread and butter since childhood, and the idea of such a clichéd partnership just tickled her pink. Until a little later that day, when she realized that what the idea actually entailed was her very first partner being kind of a raging asshole.
Sanada-san was good, there was no question, and he sure was professional. He was also incredibly affected – the way he carried his jacket over his shoulder looked a lot more forced than the way Dojima-san had – something about Dojima-san's rumpled, long-lived-in look. Officer Sanada was too pretty to get away with gestures like that. And he was always, always wearing gloves. His character was so constructed... he reminded Officer Satonaka a little bit of Naoto, early Naoto, before she'd become more comfortable with herself.
"It is not... out of the realm of possibility, no." Naoto Shirogane's voice was guarded. Chie knew that she was weighing over the facts that she'd given her, teasing out one theory at a time and discarding them. She hadn't wanted to ask Dojima-san, not if there was a chance that her partner would get in trouble over nothing, and so there was only one other person she could call. "It is possible to acquire one legally, the laws are actually less strict than they once were. My grandfather has four, actually, which is certainly a high number. But it is very unusual. To be just an afficionado, it is very, supremely, unlikely."
"Right..." She cradled the phone against her shoulder, while gazing at her own deep, dark, secret: beneath her polished uniform shoes, her high school sneakers, even the metal greaves she'd worn inside the television world, even with her boyish haircut and trimmed-down fingernails... she'd always had perfectly painted toenails. She used to wonder, back then, if maybe Naoto had a similar hidden sign of the gender she'd been born with-really, was Naoto going to wear boxers, or men's briefs?-but she'd never had the courage to ask her.
"It's not reason enough to suspect him of wrongdoing, I agree, but it is suspicious, and you were right to take notice. As always, I am genuinely impressed with the growth you've displayed since choosing this as your career path." Chie was glad that Naoto couldn't see her blush over the phone. "Now, I could make separate inquiries on my own, if you'd prefer, to keep your working relationship in good order. What is the officer's na-stop it."
Chie's eyebrows raised. "Stop what?"
"I am on the phone." Naoto's voice had a very familiar strain behind it, one that, outside of her small circle of friends, nobody would likely notice. "I said I am... would you quit it? There is a perfectly appropriate time and place for-"
"Hi, Chie-senpai!" There was a deep, brusque voice from somewhere a bit farther from the phone.
"I am talking! Go finish her platypus, and leave me to-stop that!"
Chie found herself smiling, despite herself. "Hi, Kanji!"
"He cannot speak at the moment..." Naoto sounded like she was struggling. "There is a hat jammed into his mouth rather forcefully."
"How is the shop?"
"Well enough." Naoto sighed. "Konishi-san and... this one... have been working on a neighborhood association, to help shoulder the struggles of the shopping district as a whole. Rise's grandmother has been very supportive." And turned away from the phone: "Did you remember to thank her?" Muffled groaning.
"I can see that you're very busy." And it had taken three weeks for Naoto to return her voice mail-which meant that she'd only just returned from a case. "Tell everyone I said 'hi,' okay?"
"Of course..." There was a long pause, the kind of awkwardness that Naoto had largely seemed to leave behind, at least in the company of people that she already trusted. "No, never mind, it is not my place to say."
"What?"
"Urgh." Her discomfort could only be regarding one thing, and Chie almost hung up on her to spare them both. "Hanamura has been calling after you. Frequently. And he has been quite insistent that I deliver... messages."
She'd rather get dragged down by Izanami's curses again. "Consider your... responsibility filled." The each gave their clouded good-byes, and Chie threw her phone down on the floor and crushed it with one powerful kick.
Over time, the "perfect" shell of Officer Sanada cracks open. There are some things, apparently, that really set him off.
The first case is a run-of-the-mill domestic, and as ugly as that can be, even she had dealt with them before, in Inaba. A small town, a beautiful town, does not make a perfect town, even without the intervention of... other. So she tries to calm the small child down, figures Sanada will get a statement. But the offender, apparently a foster father, doesn't even open his mouth before Sanada has thrown a punch that busts the man's face open like a summer watermelon.
It should be enough, but her partner keeps his job. Well, she rationalizes, who can blame him wanting to hurt someone who hurt children? She thought about December, hospital rooms, and how close they all came. No, she can't blame him, even if he'd nearly killed the guy. Not that she doesn't file her proper report. And he doesn't seem to blame her in the slightest for it, even after Chief Suou tears him apart in his office.
The next case, though, is worse, and he doesn't hurt anyone at all. They're called to support fire teams as they suppress a really raging one, a whole apartment building had gone up in what seemed like seconds, and she's barely out of the car to work crowd control when Sanada's got his hat and jacket off and running for the building. She hasn't even her extended her arm, let alone called out to him, before his fist punches in a boarded up window and he's inside.
A firefighter tries to drag him out, but he's too strong to hold, his arms seem to move on their own, shoving people aside so hard and so fast, like he was a member of Featherman. In the end, the only thing that seems to stop him, is when Officer Satonaka has finally caught up and all but flies into the air, spinning out into a perfect roundhouse kick that drives him into the ground, and into unconsciousness.
He never once seems to blame her for that one, either.
Even with a new phone, a new phone number only given to a few select people (Souji, of course, and also Naoto, Dojima-san... she's still trying to figure out if she dares call Yukiko), Chie still opens her phone one day to find two dozen text messages from Kou Ichijo.
This time she drop-kicks the phone so hard it seems to fly into the sun. She turns up the collar of her faded green jacket and stalks off, trying to ignore the stares from the other people on the crowded city street.
-2012-
Okina City. A middle school student looks around to make sure he isn't being watched, and takes a set of bolt cutters from his jacket. After a deep breath, he pops the lock off of a single pay-locker and drops it into his pocket.
Ken Amada takes a second glance at the crowds as he hides his cutters. His face is hidden in the depths of his orange sweatshirt, and his fingers tremble, just a little, as he opens the locker. He has any number of outs if he gets caught, but he knows that if he is, there will be no way to hide his actions, and his intentions, from the one woman he wants to avoid: the woman who is, in fact, paying for his scholarship, and arranged his internship with a major newspaper.
Inside the locker, as suspected, is a single file folder. The locker's owner likely has similar such lockers and other hiding places all over the country, and perhaps overseas. She is a consummate professional. Unfortunately, she never expected to be tailed by someone shorter than she was.
...When the folder was stashed inside his sweatshirt and the locker closed, Ken took a new lock of the same model out of his pocket and snapped it on. That would buy him time, at least.
He slipped away into the crowds. He had to get back to Inaba as quickly as possible; his school's baseball team was going up against Inaba's, and Shu Nakajima was a surprising terror at bat. And then, back to the paper, where Miss Amano would no doubt be wielding a red pen.
-2021-
"Your hometown is Inaba, right?" She looks up from her beef and broccoli (too much broccoli, not enough beef), but Sanada-san isn't looking at her. "You were there for the Hanged Man Killings."
Officer Satonaka slammed her chopsticks back inside the white box, and knew that she was trapped in the car. She couldn't abandon him during a stake-out, no matter how much she wanted to. "Yes, I was." What's it to you, she wanted to ask. So sick of tourists and reporters and every hyped-up power freak she'd had to sit next to at the academy wanting a piece of the story to claim as their own. "I was in high school, then."
The guy was only three years her senior, even if his Superman persona (Don't say Persona) seemed to reach past his arm-strength all the way to acing the academy in record time. He had five year's experience, and if he never said more than six words to her in a day, it had still been helpful. She thought of Naoto, suffering in Inaba back then with a police department who didn't take her seriously. But even then, there were some things that even he couldn't...
"I met Detective Dojima-san once." Sanada had kept his eyes trained on the warehouse, as she was supposed to have done. "A fugitive case. He seemed pretty sharp."
Her shoulders eased back down. "He's the greatest."
Some of the other female officers, even the receptionist, they all looked at Officer Satonaka with distrust, envy, even outright hate.
It took a while before she figured it out. All of them, every one, looked at Sanada-san like God's gift. And damn it, she wasn't blind. It had to be the hair. Sanada-san's face was more angular, but if Souji cut his just a little shorter, they could almost pass for...
She shivered.
Then one day, as if she didn't need the complications:
"Satonaka?" She was down at the firing range, when a disturbingly beautiful plainclothes detective approached; silently, at first, but at a respectful distance. When she had removed her headphones and goggles and the firing pattern was slowly working its way down the track to where she stood, he stepped a bit closer and offered her an awkward wave.
"Do I know you?" She placed the pistol on the counter and crossed her arms.
"Uh, not exactly." He shrugged, smiled. "My name is Tatsuya. Ah, Detective Suou." The Chief's little brother. Oh, geez. "I was wondering if I could buy you a cup of coffee?"
Was there an escape route somewhere? Could she traesto out of the station? Perhaps use the television in the lobby? "I'm sorry, er, Detective... I'm really pretty, ah..."
"Oh!" Tatsuya blushed. "I didn't... sorry." He backed away.
She let her head thump against the dividing panel.
"Please don't hang up!"
Yosuke's voice went silent as Chie snapped the phone shut, tossed it up, and spun around to kick it apart the way she had her Persona card.
The constant replacing of phones was getting expensive.
"Yoooooooosuke!" He clamped his hands over his headphones. Maybe if he pretended, he'd go away? "Yooooooooooooosuke!" No, of course not. When in his life had he ever been so lucky?
Teddie, human form Teddie, was racing back and forth across their shared bedroom, stuffing things into his suitcase and then taking other things out. Wait, what was with those clothes? Teddie only owned one outfit (how did it never get dirty? Best not think), which meant all of those were...
"Teddie, those are my clothes."
"Yosuke!" Teddie dashed over and shook him. "Yosuke! I can't find my copy of Magical Witch Detective! What am I gonna do?"
"You're not gonna need it!" Yosuke Hanamura clawed at his own face. "You're only going over there for a week, man! Just pack some food and, I dunno..."
Teddie shrunk. Better to leave Yosuke alone. He'd been fighting with Chie again. He looked at his suitcase—there was a coloring book, his 'Miss' Yasoinaba Award, his claw weapon (just in case), a toothbrush, and one of Yosuke's magazines stolen from the hiding spot behind the desk (he'd be on the other side before Yosuke found out), and they'd already prepared a cooler full of Topsicles and other foods that he could cook on a campfire. He was basically ready.
And when the sun went down, Yosuke did end up helping to carry Teddie's luggage the long way to Junes Department Store, and he'd given Teddie a bag of candy to boot. He'd used his assistant manager's key to let them in and disabled the alarms, and as they approached the electronics department, it was Yosuke who first nudged Teddie, muttering something about "staying safe."
"You're gonna miss me, aren't you, Yosuke?"
"Yeah, I'm really going to miss picking blue fur out of my shower drain for a week." But there was something sad in his eyes, and Teddie knew that Yosuke didn't see the others as much as he used to.
They dropped the baggage through the television into the other world, and Teddie grabbed Yosuke in a hug before the other could protest. But with nobody else in the darkened store, Yosuke reciprocated the hug before finally giving Teddie's shoulder a shove.
"All right, go on. You'll be fine... but, come on out if you need anything. And don't forget what time you're expected back!" Time was strange in the television world, but Teddie always seemed to know what time it was in the real world, and the trip was planned for a single week only, a chance for Teddie to get some alone time in his own world, and to make his irregular patrol to make sure the world was in no danger of being used as it once had before.
Teddie waved to his roommate as he slipped inside the television, and Yosuke had a moment alone in the dark, where he was free to wonder why every once and a while, being with the strange little bear in the sometime human body was almost as comforting as the time he'd spent in the company of his partner-in-crime and best friend Souji Seta, whom he missed far more than he'd care to admit.
With nothing to do and nobody to call, Yosuke sighed and grabbed a broom to sweep the Junes floors. He had a decision to make, soon, about the future.
One time, Officer Satonaka entered the gym to find him already shadowboxing, and almost turned around and left. But no, there was no point in acting like she was afraid of him (she was afraid of him), and besides, she had to know. After seeing his arms, his fists, in action, she had to know how she'd fare.
She dumped her towel and her water off to one side, and approached with her hands on her hips. "You want a partner?"
"You already know I-" He closed his eyes and winced, and the I'm-an-idiot look on his face was actually kind of adorable. "You meant a sparring partner."
She let it slide. "I'll bet I could take you."
The challenge brought one of the only genuine smiles she'd ever seen him have. "Think so, huh?"
He shifted into a basic martial arts stance, turning sideways to make a more slender target (did he ever eat at all?) but left his fists closed, one arm forward, one back. She turned to the opposite side, and stretched one leg up to cross his arm in salute. And then they started.
"So how are you doing?" Souji Seta's calm voice always settled her down. Sometimes, it even made her wonder; what if he'd been... but that was stupid for any number of reasons, not the least of which was she'd no longer have one of the only friends that she trusted.
"Oh, you know the cop shop." Chie thumbed at the duct tape wrapped around her phone. "I don't want to sound like your uncle." She could hear him chuckle. "How's Rise?"
"Touring. Again. But I'm keeping busy." She knew what that meant-he was wandering the city, talking to strangers, taking odd jobs, reading children's books, and eating paper and bits of porcelain instead of just going to the grocery store. Souji was the kindest, most well-adjusted person she knew, but a childhood with jet-setting parents had still left its mark. "So, listen..."
"Don't. Don't even." She closed her eyes. She knew this would happen if she called. "Don't try to fix this."
"..." Telling Souji Seta to not try to fix something was like telling Naoto to become a fashion model. "I just think..."
Crunch. Time to go phone-shopping again.
The room was silent except for the series of thumps and smacks, arm against leg, fist to shin or heel, so quickly that she suspected that a witness would think they were engaged in a mutual seizure, rather than a fight.
He would fake one way, then spin around with a haymaker, but she'd already be up with a high kick. She would leap and attack from high, and his arms were already crossed to block a dropping stomp.
There was a cop bar down the street, where Chief Suou – where Katsuya - would go sometimes at the end of his shift. Most of the officers there answered to him, and so they'd give him polite nods or raised glasses. The man who sat in the far, dark corner that Katsuya always came to see, though, he always snorted like Katsuya was a private joke that only he understood.
Officer Kurosawa had a pair of shots lined up for them already, as he always did. Katsuya slumped into the booth and downed it without looking.
"Hard day at the office?" Kurosawa always sneered when he asked the question. They had worked the same beat for a while, years earlier, and he knew better than anyone that to Katsuya, getting bumped over to a desk was essentially a punishment.
"Don't start. It's your protégé that I'm always dealing with, you know."
Kurosawa chuckled, waved the bartender to bring over two more. "I thought you'd settled that."
"I put him in check, that's all. Kid's like a wolf on a tether."
"You only say that because he reminds you of you." Kurosawa studied his empty shotglass. "You both like to bite off more than blah, blah, blah..."
"Right." As if the older officer hadn't been dealing the kid weapons under the table for a year. "I forgot how you always keep your nose clean."
Kurosawa shrugged. "Seems like it all worked out. How's Tatsuya? Heard he's making waves."
Katsuya rolled his eyes. "My brother's running out of places in his house to hide all the commendations. Kid's going to get himself killed one of these days."
"I suppose..." He accepted the glasses handed over by the bartender, "...That it would probably make things easier for you, hmm?"
Katsuya removed his dark glasses and glared at his friend. "That isn't remotely funny."
"I didn't say it was."
...We're all trapped in a maze of relationships
Life goes on with or without you
I swim in the sea of the unconscious
I search for your heart, pursuing my true self...
Chie jogged down by the river every morning before her shift. It didn't have the view or the calm of the Samegawa basin, but there weren't too many people out at that hour, and she could work up a good sweat.
That morning, there'd been a letter in the mail. She knew that it was from Yukiko without looking at it.
It wasn't fair, that facing down and accepting the worst parts of herself in the television hadn't really fixed anything. It also wasn't fair that each of them expected her to choose... anything. Why she was expected to stay, when the others weren't.
She never heard Suzuku Gongen anymore. Without that voice, she was never sure what to do. She'd thought that becoming a police officer at last would make that easier, but...
Chie crashed headlong into someone before she could finish her thought. "Oh! I'm so sorry!"
"It's okay!" The other woman smiled. She was blonde, and her face was... was she American? Though her Japanese was perfect.
"Lisa!" Someone called from up the street. The blonde woman offered her one last smile.
"Oops, that's me. Don't worry about it! Thanks!" And she ran off.
The woman had been beautiful. Like an idol. Chie watched her go, before zipping her jacket up tight.
The stereo in the gym blasted hip-hop as they pulled away from each other, then came back, then pulled away.
...If you wanna battle then I take it to the street
Where there's no rules
Take off the gloves ref, please step down
Gotta prove my skillz so get down...
Tap. Tap. Tap. Thump. Thump. Thump.
He rolled out of the way, she somersaulted to her feet, he threw an uppercut and she dodged.
...Every man's gotta fight the fear
I'm the first to admit it shear thoughts
Provoke the new era become a big terror
But my only rival is my shadow...
They were both laughing. But they didn't stop.
"Yo."
"Hey, Kanji...?"
"Hey, Chie-senpai. Naoto's out. Not a case, though. Wanna call back?"
"No, I..." She bit her lip, and curled her toes away so that she couldn't see the paint. "I wanted to ask you..."
"...Yeah?" After she'd paused for too long.
"How did you know that you were..." She made faces in the mirror. "Never mind. Sorry. Tell her I said hi."
"Uh...?" She hung up before he could find his wits, but didn't have the energy to damage the phone this time.
There was shouting from the Chief's office, and possibly thrown things, and everyone could guess who else was in there. Everyone kept glancing at Officer Satonaka, who shifted uncomfortably, and went to wait by the door for her partner to emerge. They made this part seem like so much fun in those movies.
When he finally emerged, head bowed low, she wondered if facing a Shadow would be enough for a guy like him.
She fell into step behind him. "How about food?"
"Huh?" He looked up.
"Well, it always makes me feel better. Meat is the answer to this life."
"Answer to life, huh?" He smirked, just a little. "Maybe I'll do that."
There was a pause before she figured out what he was saying. "No, I meant... I'll buy you lunch. If you want."
"Me? Really?" He looked sucker-punched. "O-okay. Sure. I guess."
As Officer Satonaka followed him to the cruiser, she shook her head in amazement. She hadn't figured it out before-it was just like Naoto. Underneath all those levels in badass and mystery and bad attitude... her partner was a tremendous dork.
Which just made her think of Yosuke, and she was sulking by the time she climbed into the passenger's seat.
Rise had swept in like a hurricane, in town for a concert, and had chosen Chie's couch, rather than a hotel room, without consulting with her.
Chie couldn't be happier.
"I'm sorry Senpai couldn't come... you know how he can be. He muttered something about helping the old woman at our laundromat, and there was no budging." She sounded frustrated, but her face gave it away, how much she adored their former leader, with all of his digressions and private quests and bizarre friendships. Chie picked at the dinner that her friend had insisted upon making for her, afraid to test whether Souji's cooking lessons were helping, and looked up, blurting it out without thinking.
"I've always been so jealous of you."
"Huh?" Rise blinked, and made movements with her mouth.
"You..." Chie fumbled with her napkin. "You always knew what you wanted." Who you wanted. "You were the only one of any of us who decided and just... went for it." Her and Kanji, maybe, but hadn't even he given Yukiko the occasional eye, before Naoto came along? Who didn't count, either, because Naoto had to be dragged kicking and screaming into the whole thing, regardless of how she chose to portray it now.
"Oh, Chie..." Rise shook her head. "You are so wrong." She giggled. "Like my knees weren't quaking every time we went out. I know what you all thought about me..." She worked at a pigtail with one hand. "I didn't think he liked me at all, at first. And then I thought, well, maybe he just liked Risette." Her eyes were just a little wet. "I'm just... lucky I was wrong, that's all."
"I know, but..." How could she explain it? She couldn't voice pain and strangeness of her life after Rise had left Inaba, like her beloved Senpai before her.
Rise made the most overly-dramatic sigh that Chie had ever heard, and pointed her chopsticks at her. "Your heart's just bigger than mine, that's all. You had room for more than one person." Before Chie could speak, Rise sat up straight and haughty. "They love you too much to let it ruin everything, you know. Just let them back in, you're giving Senpai and Naoto such big headaches."
Officers Sanada and Satonaka finally stepped back from each other, both sweating through every inch of their clothes, and looked each other over appraisingly. They were too evenly, perfectly-matched. The fight could have gone on until they'd both passed out, without a single one giving an inch of ground.
"Bet a girl's never given you a work-out like that, huh?" She then flushed beet red, realizing how that sounded.
Sanada-san, though, didn't notice. "Once. But... I'm not sure that counted." He was toweling off, and the work-out had left his muscles much more visible as he turned and stretched each in turn. "It wasn't really a fair fight. Not that it mattered at the time."
This interested her, but he clearly wasn't going to be any more forthcoming on the matter, and so turned away, reached for her water, so that he wouldn't be able to see her face any longer.
"Well, based on what you've told me, this 'Asura Queen' and the entity we called Nyx have certain similarities." Mitsuru Kirijo reviewed the reports and looked up at her colleague, who knocked his knuckles against his motorcycle helmet.
"There's too much we don't know." Kei Nanjou frowned. "The incidents in Paris, off the coast of the United Kingdom, that small African village, we don't have much data at all on those. I find it peculiar that so many have been focused in Japan."
"National arrogance aside, I tend to agree." Mitsuru placed the folder back down. "What concerns me more, is that we're due for another incident any time now."
Nanjou made a small sound in his throat, and closed his eyes. "Well... this time, we intend to be ready."
One day, rather than tackle any of the mounting paperwork on her desk (never her strong suit), she drew a chart.
Kou's arrow only pointed to her. Yosuke's and Yukiko's arrows, though, both pointed to her, and to Souji. Then she thought for a long moment and drew lines from Yosuke to Yukiko, and to Rise (whose only line was to Souji, of course), and then after a moment drew another one to Saki Konishi, before scribbling all over the name. Then she crossed out Yosuke's line to Rise. Then she drew one from herself to Souji, and immediately scribbled it out. Then just scribbled Yosuke's name out all together.
Let's just forget about Tatsuya Suou entirely.
Officer Sanada had appeared behind her without a sound. "Organized crime?"
"Anything but organized," she muttered, before tearing the paper into confetti.
Chie sent a text message, or rather, a series of them, to Kou.
im sorry - u r a great guy - if u were what i wanted it would be easier - tho not so great to send dozens of txts like a stalker - pleez stop - really am sorry
She slammed the phone against the corner of her kitchen table, but her arms didn't quite have the destructive power that her legs did.
They were having an unusually quiet patrol when Officer Satonaka mustered up the courage to ask her partner a question.
"What's your biggest failure?"
He squeezed the wheel so tightly that his gloves creaked.
"I have to choose just one?"
...I'm not a princess
(a lot of anger in it)
not a cutie girlfriend oh no
don't you know?...
They used to sing along to it together, when it was on the radio. So bitingly ironic. Neither of them would ever, ever tell another soul. Not when they'd both made such a fuss about not caring when "Risette" first came to town...
She pressed one button and the phone dialed. Every one of them had still kept her on speed-dial, even though she'd never called.
"Hello?"
Chie tried to find the words. "You must hate me."
"I... thought you hated me."
"How's Muku?" Since taking control of the inn, she'd only really changed a single rule - that it was okay for dogs, for one dog, to be inside. And that only for her, Chie's, benefit.
"Misses you."
"He... he knew I had to go." Why was this so hard?
"Well... maybe it's best." Yukiko's tone was very measured. "We've always fought over him. Maybe now he won't have to make a choice."
Sometimes Chie wished she could kick strongly and highly enough to shatter her own skull, and then this would all be solved.
"I... wanted to try to make things right."
"I know." Yukiko's voice wavered a bit. "It's just... It can't happen all at once, I think. I'm glad you called. But... I have a large group reservation coming in now, and..."
"Oh, okay." One of her toenails, the paint had chipped.
"Do... call me again, though."
"...Sure." When they'd both hung up, she pitched the phone into the trash bin.
Officers Sanada and Satonaka had taken to training together. First once a week, then two, then three. They'd meet to run in the mornings, and they'd spot each other at the gym.
Some of the other cops had noticed, and the rumors had already started. He didn't notice, like he didn't seem to notice anything that wasn't casework, but she did.
They still didn't talk much at all, either during training or during their shift. But that suited her fine.
She still wouldn't talk to Yosuke.
Sometimes, Katsuya would pick up the phone, and he would dial, and he'd get the newspaper office's receptionist on the line before he would hang up. He'd pad around his tiny apartment in his boxers, feeling sorry for himself, and then try again.
He knew he shouldn't – he always managed to hang up before it was too late – but sometimes, he just wanted to hear her voice again.
It was, no doubt, for her benefit that he'd taken Sanada under his wing, and then done the same for his rookie partner. That he'd renewed ties with his old drinking buddy. For Maya Amano, the only thing better than flowers would be information, and they were both sitting on opposite ends of the story of the century.
For all the good it was doing him, since calling Maya, trying to reach out to the person he loved, would be sentencing his brother to a living Hell. He looked at the photograph on his desk. It had been taken upon Tatsuya's graduation from the academy – he was holding his cap and beaming into the flash. He looked, in that photograph, like he had his whole life figured out.
It was for that smile that police chief Katsuya Suou had given up everything. He could hear her telling him to "Think positive." But that was easier said than done.
He'd take his heavy dosages of antihistamines, and let his cat jump into his lap, curl up and purr. He'd look at his phone, and make a different call, instead. His other great secret.
Chie still wasn't sure why she'd agreed to come, but his stumbling, stuttering invitation had been hard to shut down. That might have been part of her problem with Kou, too, come to think, but this was...
It was a small house, well-kept but haphazardly decorated. Sanada-san had introduced her to the owners casually, stressing that they were partners when the man in the ratty old ballcap kept ribbing him. The man's wife, though, kept staring at her in the strangest way, and so she'd snuck away from the backyard barbeque under pretense of using the bathroom, figuring she'd hide in the house for as long as she could get away with.
It was then that she saw the old dog, curled up quietly on a mat in one corner. She approached softly, and the Shiba Inu looked up lazily, fluttering his tail just once. "Well hey there, you." God, she did miss Muku. But this old boy was something else. He looked real healthy for his age, but it was clear the dog got tired out pretty quick. She scratched behind his ears, and got a kind lick in return. "You are one handsome devil."
"I see you found him." Sanada-san was there, behind her, again without noise. Scratch Superman, he was Batman-she'd spent a year sneaking up on monsters, how the Hell did he do that? "Careful, he doesn't like his belly rubbed. But anything else and you've got a friend for life."
"So I see." She ran her hand down the dog's beautiful gray fur. "How did you know these people again? The Yoris?"
"Ioris." He sniffed once. "Kind of a long story."
"Everything with you is a long story," she muttered, preferring to lavish more attention on the dog, who true to character had apparently fallen in love with her.
"Nngh." Sanada-san sounded like he'd been punched in the gut. "I, uh..." He turned and walked away.
She eased herself to the floor, and the dog placed his head in her lap.
It all ended up happening more or less by accident. That is, Chie remembered making decisions, but it was such a blur that it wasn't until she'd woken up beside him that she realized it had all really been happening. And she might have freaked out about it more than she did, except that it was that moment that she remembered the second gun.
"Hey, Chie-chan, the burgers are ready, and he said you love some beef, so..." The husband in the ballcap stopped mid-sentence when he saw her expression, and rubbed at his face. "Aw, was he bein' himself, again? Sorry, I'll go, or, uh, I'll just go. Outside. Of my own house."
"No, wait." She held up her hand before he could keep talking. Now this one really, really reminded her of Yosuke. Better that the adorable dog's head was in her lap, lest she kick her host between his legs on sheer account of resemblance. "Sorry. I've been very rude. I just..." She twitched. "Why did he invite me here? Does he have a crush on me or something? I don't get it."
"Oh, uh, wow." He looked like a truck was coming for him. "Huh. Um. He's just... you know, he's not so good with women. Any women. Anywhere." Some of his color returned, and he puffed up a bit. "Not like some of us, you know?"
"Junpei?" His wife's head emerged from the back door. Her long red hair almost swept the floor.
"Uh, yeah... coming..." He shrunk back down and eased backwards. "You know... go easy on him... mumble lonelymumble..." He was out the back door and shutting it without ever turning around.
It was possible that she'd gotten it wrong, that he didn't have a possibly-illegal firearm. All she had to do was go look. But then he wouldn't trust her at all, and she'd... been through that already.
When Officer Satonaka was bringing the food back to the car, she heard her partner on his cell phone.
"No, I haven't. No. Don't..." Sigh. "Don't be like that."
She placed the bag on the car's roof and waited for him to finish, ostensibly offering privacy but listening closely.
"I don't doubt that you can handle it. Just try to take it easy. Don't overdo it. That's... not funny. No, I don't expect everyone but myself to..." He pounded the steering wheel once, and she winced, hoping that he didn't just break the car. "We agreed not to involve him anymore. Because he's earned the right! They all have!"
A pause.
"It's different for you and me. Because it's always been different. No. No. Oh, for... I don't care what he says. Ken shouldn't be involved either. He shouldn't have been involved the first time, and he shouldn't have last time! No, that's not what I'm saying! Of course he was! Don't..." He sighed. "No more traffic accidents. You know why. It's disrespectful. Well, if you didn't want my opinion, you wouldn't call me. Yes. Yes!"
A longer pause.
"Are you going to be there, for... Because I promised him. It's not morbid, it's going to visit him. Because... because I wouldn't be comfortable with anyone else there. Yes. Fine. Okay." He sounded exhausted. "Right. Thanks. Yeah, you too."
She waited a moment before slipping into the car. After a moment, she decided it was best to play ignorant. "Were you on the phone? Who was that? Your, er..."
He looked at her, then started the car with a snort. "Not exactly."
"Oh." Meaning...? "Only, because... I mean, I didn't hear... much... but, you sounded close. Sister?"
"Not exactly." He pulled onto the road, and didn't say anything else.
Finally, she couldn't stand it anymore, wrapped a sheet around herself, and quietly padded out of the room, careful not to wake him.
One day, Chie got a text message from Naoto:
BE CAREFUL.
No explanation ever came, and she never answered when Chie tried to call her back.
...He said
I'm the one who's got to leave
I said
Nobody's really got to leave 'cause
I don't hear enough explanation...
They ate in silence, matching beef bowls. They were spending more time together, and she didn't know what it meant. Didn't really know what she wanted it to mean, either. Sometimes she thought it would be easier if she just kicked his face in. But then, they took turns saving each other's lives, and she knew that meant they'd never be rid of each other (Don't think about Yosuke).
"Seriously, though." He didn't turn to look at her. "Tell me about the Hanged Man Killings. What, erm... what was it like?"
She placed her palms on the table. "Why do you want to know so bad?"
He looked into his bowl, and that was a legitimately guilty face if ever she'd seen one.
"We were just kids." She rubbed at her eyes. There was a pair of glasses on her nightstand. She couldn't (don't say "Bear") to get rid of them. "Stupid kids. We didn't know anything." About anything.
He looked like he wanted to say something. He didn't.
It was in his desk drawer. It was lighter than the police regulation model. She placed it on the desktop and stared at it. There were four letters carved into the side, along the barrel. It didn't match any model that she was familiar with, from training or from movies.
When they were training, they moved as one, in perfect sync. His arms, her legs, like two halves of the same person.
"Hello?" Souji sounded a little stressed. Rise was gabbing in the background.
Chie clutched at her face. "So help me, already!"
"I understand your frustration, Katsuya, I do." Maki Sonomura rubbed at her eyes and looked at the clock. The chief of police had a tendency to call her at frightful hours. She sat up in bed, her husband stirring slightly before resuming his snoring. "But you can't keep calling like this. Maya's a smart woman. If you're making all of these calls, she's going to figure out who you are, and I can't imagine she'll be thrilled."
He grumbled something on the other end of the line, and she eased her way out of the bedroom, cradling the phone under her ear as she grabbed her robe.
"I know, I know..." She sighed. "Maya had to make a very difficult choice—you both did—but it's for Tatsuya's benefit, and more than that, the repercussions of..." She winced as he replied with something cutting. "No, I'm not accusing you of not taking it seriously." She filled a glass with water from the kitchen sink. "Katsuya, hold on a moment, please."
She held the phone away from her head and slowly gulped the water. She woke up with dry throat often; sinus problems, too, tended to plague her. Compared to how it had been, there was no question which she'd prefer. But the persistent, lingering reminders of a life spent bed-ridden could hardly put her at ease, either. Especially when her sleep was so often interrupted by a patient whom she helped for free. Becoming a psychiatrist had, on the one hand, eased her mind considerably—every person that she helped made up just that little bit for what she'd nearly done—but on the other had left her at the beck and call of a half-dozen neurotic and crumbling Persona users.
"Okay," she said finally, placing the glass on the counter, "Katsuya, honestly, this needs to stop. You know this as well as I do. Now, I'm here to help you work through things, but I can't be just a voice that you call upon to commiserate with after you do what you want. That's not healthy for either of us."
Her patient mumbled something.
Maki settled into a chair in the living room and let him mumble as much as he wanted to. She tried to blink away sleep. Yukino still called her often, as well, both distraught at losing touch with Maya, as Katsuya was, but also slowly coming to terms with no longer having access to her Persona, a devastating loss that Maki wasn't entirely sure how to help her with. Some of the others, too, from time to time, and for various reasons.
And those were only the non-paying clients. She had a full docket most days, now: just recently, a singer had been referred to her by that charity group, the Kirijo Foundation; apparently "Haru" had been trapped in the Tokyo Lockdown incident, and she was a handful on her own.
There was a rustling behind her, and she turned to see moonlight glinting off of a single earring. Her husband had woken up. She offered him a weak smile, and he waved sleepily before staggering off towards the bathroom.
Katsuya seemed to have worn himself out. She offered him some reassurance, and finally hung up the phone with a sigh. Sometimes, she thought, Katsuya's problem would be the one that she could not help. How did you tell someone to stay away from the one he loved, when she almost surely loved him back?
Chie opened the door, and there was Yosuke, without a bag, without flowers, without even his damned headphones. Just a white shirt and slacks (like Souji, basically), and afraid to look at her.
If she kicked it closed, she might be able to break his nose without the neighbors figuring out the cause.
She let him come in.
"Okay, so..." He was all but talking down his shirt. "I know 'sorry' doesn't cut it, but, uh, I figure I should say that first, anyway, and then..." He stopped moving. "Um... figure out... what to... oh crap." He clutched his head. "I knew I needed to write it down first!"
She watched him struggle, flopping around like a fish, and to her surprise... she thought it was cute. A little. And funny. And that she was just... tired of being angry. "Come here."
"Uh?" Yosuke's hands went to cup his groin instinctively.
"Yosuke, it's okay. Come here." He approached slowly, and she wrapped her arms around him. The hug lasted until he was comfortable, and returned it, and then it was nice. It was. She hadn't realized how much she needed her him back in her life. Just... not like before.
When the hug broke, finally, and they both smiled at each other, Chie decided that maybe everything really could be okay.
But she kicked his balls in hard anyway, just to be sure.
She looked at the gravestone: Aragaki Shinjiro, 1991-2009
"He was..." Sanada-san raised his head a bit. "Friend? Brother?" He shook his head. "He's laughing at me right now, but I suppose he almost always is. Do you have someone like that?"
"Yes." A slight smile. "But she's... Yes."
He nodded. "Thanks for putting up with this."
"It's... not a problem. Really." Apparently whoever had been on the phone couldn't make it. Or wouldn't.
"I have one more to visit, actually." He looked down to one side of the small plot. "I'd rather do that one alone, if..."
"I'm not offended, if that's what you mean." She shrugged, and he nodded, walking away quickly. She looked back at the stone. "So, who is he?" She muttered to the stone, but there was no response. She rolled her eyes. "Tell me this, then... why do I think he wants something from me other than..." She clutched at her jacket. "Why am I even talking to you?"
She was repainting her toenails while she tried to find the words for Yukiko.
"I don't know, he's... sometimes I think he creeps me out. But sometimes..."
"I've never heard you talk like this before." She sounded... how did she sound? "Not even with... or..."
She flopped back on the bed. "Rise called me, before I called you. She said, 'I know it's someone, Chie. Is it a man or a woman?' And I hung up on her."
"I'm surprised the phone still worked to call me."
"It didn't. I bought two last time, the prepaid kind."
"Oh, Chie..." And then Yukiko was in the middle of a giggle-fit. It felt so nice to hear that she was almost able to put Rise's comments out of her mind.
She picked the pistol up off of the desk, turned it over in her hands. It felt different. It was almost like a toy, though she knew instinctively that it wasn't.
The longer she held it, though, the more the buzzing in her ears sounded familiar. It was almost as if...
There was something else in the still-open drawer, and she glanced down to see a file folder.
"Yeah? How'd you like it, there?" Sanada-san was smiling, but he looked a little pained. It had been the Chief's idea to bring it up, but he didn't look entirely thrilled to be discussing it.
"Oh, it was nice... I wasn't really much of a city person... I mean, I like being here, I chose to move, but..." She shrugged. "I hadn't really left town much, before. And it was a class trip, so we didn't really... well, we snuck out a bit. Went to that mall, um..."
"Paulownia. Yeah." This actually seemed to bother him a bit. "Was it karaoke, the arcade, or the club?"
She blushed a little, and wished that she hadn't. "The club. I mean, we weren't really into it. Most of us, anyway. But we met a friend there, so... no, it was nice."
"Where'd you stay?" He kept his eyes on the road. Sometimes she got the impression that he really didn't actually enjoy driving at all, even though he'd made such a big deal about being the one behind the wheel. She remembered him saying something on the phone about accidents.
"Oh, that's... I don't remember!" She bit the inside of her lip.
"Yeah, sorry, it was a while ago."
"What about you, then? Where did you go on your class trip?"
For the briefest instant, there was a look of pure horror in his eyes. "I, uh, I don't remember."
"Okay." She sighed and looked out the window. She thought about the other gun, the hidden one. "You know, I'm not trying to, to see your darkest secrets up on a screen. You could just be a little friendlier, if we're stuck being partners."
"Ugh... sorry." He looked ashamed. "I'm just not very good at..."
"Yeah, I got that." She banged her head against the window. "Kill me."
He jerked the wheel suddenly, turned to her entirely, and his eyes tightened. "Don't!"
"Huh?" She scooched away from him in her seat.
"Don't ever say that! 'Kill me.' It's not..." He looked back to the road, then back to her. "It's just not... it's not funny."
She gazed at him in confusion, but he was again focused on the road, his fists on the wheel so tight that his gloves could burst open.
"It's not Kou, is it?"
She sighed. "No."
Yosuke's voice on the phone wavered. "What's he like?"
She didn't know how to answer the question.
"I'm going to be moving. To America. For a while, anyway."
"Oh! Well... uh..."
"Good luck with him, Chie. I, uh..." Silence. "Well, just... good luck."
There was a raid on drug peddlers working out of the back of a maid cafe. They were called in as back-up, and were loitering a bit as the perps were loaded away. She was... she was trying hard not to look, actually, and felt a little sick.
He, however, looked bored. "Don't see anything you like?" She tried to joke.
"I've seen enough maid outfits to last me a lifetime." He glanced at her. "You actually seem a little..."
"No!" She shook her head. "Don't get the wrong idea!"
He looked confused. That might have been when she realized that his perception mattered to her, a great deal.
He padded into the room in a pair of loose pajama pants. "Hey... I wondered where you..."
Crying, she pointed the pistol between his eyes.
"She's on a case." Kanji Tatsumi sounded glum over the phone. "She said it would be a long one."
"Oh..." Chie stared at the ceiling. "Okay."
"Are you... uh..."
"No. But yeah. Thanks, Kanji." She hung up, and threw the phone out the window. After a long moment, she went outside, dusted it off, and dialed Kanji back.
"Hello?"
"It's me again... Sorry. Can I just... I need help."
"Oh." He sounded a little terrified. "Maybe you should call Senpai."
"No, I just... You knew Naoto was the one, yeah? Even though she was... and you thought..." She kicked at wall of her apartment building. "I... don't even know what I'm asking."
There was a long pause before Kanji answered. "Okay, uh..." There was another long pause, and then she heard him yelp. "Sorry, needle. Look. I didn't know what the Hell I was doing. And it turned out that she didn't, either. I don't think anyone knows what the Hell they're doing, actually." Sort of a sick laugh, and then: "Maybe Teddie does, but he's the only one with worse advice than me. If you're all stuck up in a knot so bad that you can't think about 'em without wantin' to puke, and you still can't stop, then you're probably where I was."
She ground her bare heel into the sidewalk. "That's... you know, you sell yourself short sometimes, Kanji?"
"Nah. I know my limits, and I let Naoto figure out the rest of it." She heard the sound of a sewing machine turning on in the background. "Look, it ain't really any of my business besides what you asked me, but..." She heard the machine humming through fabric. "They're gonna forgive you for it. All of 'em. Don't... Senpai taught me not to give a shit what anyone else thinks. Ya don't have to be anyone but you. And that's all I got."
She nodded, even though he couldn't see it. "Thanks, Kanji. Just... thanks." She closed the phone and slipped it gently into her pocket.
Akihiko put up his hands, but he didn't look very scared, either. "I'm not sure what to say, here."
"You're a bastard." Chie threw the folder at him. "So you've been, what, keeping tabs on me for her?" Damn herself for crying.
"It's not what you..." He sighed. "Okay, that makes it sound worse."
The whispering. Just holding the gun, she could hear it. It was like being inside the television. Suzuka Gongen's soft voice, outside and in, telling her it would be okay. Telling her...
"Just, just listen for a minute, okay?" He took a step forward, very slowly. "I'll tell you everything. All of it. I just didn't think you'd believe me."
"You couldn't imagine what I'm capable of believing." She used her other hand to wipe at her nose, her eyes, trying to keep the gun steady. "I believed in you. Who could imagine that?" She stomped her feet on the floor. "God, I'm such an idiot! I'm so screwed up! This isn't fair, I went through all this already, I should be fixed!" She pulled the gun back and placed the barrel against her own temple. "Why didn't it fix me?"
"It doesn't." He took another step forward, and he'd lowered his hands down. And damn him, he didn't look any more scared to see the gun aimed at her. "It doesn't fix you. We thought it did, but... it doesn't work like that." His voice was soft, calming. "Shinji was probably the only one who really got it. Shinji and..." He shook his head. "It doesn't matter."
"Yes it does! It matters!" She tapped the gun against her head. "This matters! You don't care that I'm doing this! Don't tell me it's not loaded, I'm not stupid!"
"You're not stupid." He was close enough to lay a hand over hers, easing the barrel away from her. "It's just not a gun."
He held her, and she didn't stop him.
They'd been training in the police gym all day. He'd suggested that it would help burn off some of the sick that had built up through his long explanation, and she'd agreed. They hadn't talked since.
Somewhere into the sixth hour, they were both breaking for water and deep breaths on either side of the gym when her cell phone rang. If it had been anyone other than Naoto, she would have ignored it.
"It appears I have miscalculated."
Hello, Naoto... she was used to it by now. She toweled off with one hand and held the phone in the other. "How so?"
"I was not wrong to advise caution, but upon further investigation, I believe you can trust him."
She cast a glance in his direction. He was sitting on a stack of mats, looking at her. She knew that look. And she did want to trust it. Wanted more than anything. "You were checking up on him for me?"
Naoto didn't speak for a moment. Chie offered Akihiko a weak smile and pointed to her phone, but he waved her off. Finally, "I am following up on a separate case. For my own benefit. There's... probably a great deal for all of us to talk about. Later. But I was concerned, yes. I still have many questions, but... I am confident that he is not a danger to you."
"I wouldn't go that far."
"Pardon?"
"Nothing. Thank you, Naoto. Please hug Kanji for me." She hung up to Naoto's sputtering, and approached the center of the gym, as Akihiko did the same. He raised his fists, and she tapped a leg in salute.
-XXXX (Time slippage within the TV Realm)-
Teddie looked out at the verdant environs that served as a healthy television world, his world, took a moment to wipe tears from his eyes and pull on his old bear-suit, still the form that felt most comfortable in that strange place.
He saw the flying creatures that looked like birds, the ones that had reappeared when they'd purged the world of its shadows, and so he chased them a while. It was nice to be more of a bear again, for a little while. But eventually, he grew tired of that, and he came back to where he'd dropped his things, and flopped down into a sitting position.
Things were so quiet and peaceful now, and that had been all he wanted; but it felt less and less like home, the more he stayed in the human world. And something had been bothering him lately, words that he'd heard someone say... at some point... he didn't remember, exactly, and that was part of the problem.
"The Star Arcana... It's a strong card, one that gives hope to those on the ground below. It shines in times of need. But, eventually, it is destined to fall to the earth and disappear... Even if I can feel the sadness of this inescapable destiny... You are capable of being whatever you wish... Be it the sun, the moon, or the stars. You truly are a mysterious soul. Are you really even a 'person,' I wonder... It makes me want to test out... a variety of things."
He was fairly certain the person who had said it was a nice person, but that was all he remembered. And it made him strangely uncomfortable. He'd wanted to talk about it with Yosuke, but the man who'd taken him in and cared for him had grown more distant the longer Sensei was away, and he wasn't sure that Yosuke would understand, anyway.
Teddie thought, for the first time in a long while, of the boy he'd once met in the fog, and wondered if he was okay.
And that was when he smelled someone else entering his world.