A couple of weeks later, Emiko was back at school. She hadn't talked to the group yet as she had gotten there late (She thought it was Sunday, so she got up late) so she just went to class.

"Hey, Emiko-chan!" Kou called, waving her over. Emiko sat down next to him.

"You're a new student, and you're skipping already? Damn." Said Daisuke, grinning.

"I didn't mean to, I just got sick." Emiko protested.

"With what?" asked Kou.

"Uh...the flu? At least, I think it was." Emiko said hurriedly.

"Well, I'm glad you're back now. Without a girl around us, this guy," Kou said, indicating Daisuke, "Was just gross." Daisuke punched Kou on the shoulder.

"You're gross too, y'know." He retaliated. Kou shot him a look and pushed him off his desk.

"I henceforth ban you from sitting on this desk, Sir Daisuke the...uh, Fourth." He said, pretending Daisuke was a knight.

"The fourth? I should be the first!" Daisuke scowled, outraged. He hopped off Kou's desk and sat on Emiko's. "Well, Queen Emiko, will you let me sit on yours?"

Emiko laughed. "Of course, Sir Daisuke the First. What will you do for me in return?"

"I will, uh, explore uncharted lands full of riches and name the land after you! I'll also give you 50% of the profit." Daisuke said, grinning. Emiko nodded mock seriously.

"I would be pleased with that profit. King Kou the First over here should get none of it." She said. Kou scoffed.

"King Kou needs 55%, Queen Emiko gets 40%, and Sir Daisuke the First deserves only 5%."

"Excuse me, I explored the lands. And besides, I'm not naming them after you. Land of Kou. That's a stupid name." said Daisuke, making a face.

"Hmph. I de-knight you. Return to the horse stalls and clean out their poop. Menial, gross tasks for a menial, gross worker." Said Kou pushing Daisuke away. He laughed and ran back to his desk as the teacher walked in. Emiko high fived Kou.

"Nice. Now we get to split 50-50."


"So. Would someone like to explain to me what happened while I eat my lunch?" question Emiko as she opened her bowl of ramen. The group was sitting on the roof, eating lunch and explaining to Emiko what had happened.

"You know about Mayumi Yamano and Saki-senpai? They were thrown into the TV and were killed by their other selves, their Shadows." Said Souji.

"You mean the thing that looked like me, that was what killed them?" asked Emiko. Souji nodded.

"The Shadows only kill them when it gets foggy...I forgot if that meant foggy here, or foggy there..." Chie muttered. She shrugged. "Whatever. So we don't know why the person is throwing them in, or how, or the pattern, but it seems to be females with some connection to Mayumi Yamano. Yukiko was the last person to be thrown in."

"That's why you weren't at school for a while. And as for the connection, I am female, and I think my mom had contacted Mayumi Yamano for something." Emiko realized.

Yukiko nodded. "The place where each person is is different. Mine was a castle, and it had something to do with the 'show' on the Midnight Channel, and with my Shadow. Yours was a park."

"So this Shadow thing wants us to deny everything it says and then it'll transform into something much more powerful." Said Emiko, trying to organize her thoughts.

"Mm hm. And then we use our Personas; which are technically our Shadows, they're two sides of the same coin; to fight the Shadows." Said Yosuke. "We all faced our Shadows, except Souji. We don't really know how he got the power. But now we can enter TVs."

Emiko nodded slowly.

"So you're trying to save everyone who goes into the TV."

"Pretty much, yeah. And figure out who put them in there."

"Cool. Can I help?"

"Sure."


"So." Emiko started. Souji raised his eyebrows.

"So." He said. Emiko teetered back and forth on the balls of her feet for a few seconds.

"I think we need to talk. I've talked to everyone else, but not to you." She said. Chie and Yosuke had gone to get (read: steal) more food from people downstairs, and Yukiko had gone back to her classroom to study for the test she had forgotten was that day.

"Okay. What about?"

"Well, tell me about your life. I only know you came from the city a couple of months back because of your parents' jobs." Said Emiko, shrugging. "But that doesn't tell me about you."

Souji sighed. "My life wasn't really that interesting before I came here. It was just normal. Nothing like this."

"Obviously. But I can see you're doing a really good job of leading them—well, us, now." Emiko said, smiling. "Fine, you don't want to tell me about how boring your life was."

"Tell me about yours, then."

Emiko laughed. "Are you trying to find my problems and help fix them?"

Souji flashed her a crooked smile. "That's me. Always the helper."

"Just the helper...?" Emiko mused. She shook her head. "Never mind. My life wasn't that exciting either. I mean, I was a quiet person, and I had few friends. There were some fun times, but I'm sure everyone has a few fun times."

"It was pretty much, stagnant, huh?"

"Mm." Emiko sighed. "I really don't want to seem like a horrible person, but this is the most action filled part of my life."

"It's like that for all of us. We may have lived a life before, but we weren't alive." Said Souji.

"Well, just because you're breathing doesn't necessarily mean you're alive, persay." She said. "I should go back down now; you should too, actually, class is starting soon."

"Yeah." Said Souji as he got up and dusted himself off. He held out a hand to Emiko to help pull her up. "You know, that has got to be the most thought provoking conversation I've had since I came here."

Emiko grinned. "Yosuke, Chie, and Yukiko aren't much for talking about life lessons, then?"

Souji laughed. "You tell me." He frowned. "We've got to get you accustomed to fighting in the TV world soon. You're going to have to kill things, you know."

Emiko nodded. "Well, I won't do anything else bad; no maiming or torturing! And I'm going to only kill for a good reason, unlike them who kill for no reason. They may be stronger, but the moral high ground is mine!"

"We're going to have an interesting time with that one."

"Hey! Don't talk about me in third person. I'm still here, y'know." Emiko scowled. Then she ran off the roof to her classroom. Ah, fun times. (For those of you who are interested, if this were actually the video game, this would be rank 1.)


"Right, so I throw it...like this?" Emiko mimicked throwing the stick she was holding. Chie nodded.

"Yup! Go ahead, try it again!" she exclaimed. Emiko threw the stick and it whizzed just past the tree. Emiko sighed.

"Practice makes perfect, I guess. And hopefully, Shadows would be bigger than a tree trunk." She said. Emiko had asked Chie to help her learn to fight. She hadn't really figured out what she was going to fight with, but she had always wanted to use knives...throwing knives. Since they didn't have any with them, they were using sticks to act as knives.

"You'll get it! At least, I think. I don't even know if I'm helping..." said Chie. "I just use my own body to fight. Easier than trying to use an object."

"Well, I'm not exactly strong." Said Emiko, gesturing to her legs, which were lacking a lot of muscle. She picked up another stick and positioned herself.

"How are you not burning up?!" exclaimed Chie before taking a long swig of water. Emiko was still wearing a jacket, and it was an unusually hot day. There were no clouds in sight, just the sun beating down on them.

Emiko shrugged. "Used to always keeping a jacket on. I feel more comfortable with one, and...well, what the Shadow said."

"Since the Shadow, you haven't been...?" Chie started. When Emiko shook her head, she sighed in relief. "Good, cause your body isn't there to take the brunt of everything else going on."

"That's one way to put it." Emiko grunted as she threw the stick at the tree again. It hit the tree about a foot below where she had aimed it. Emiko threw her head back to the sky and squinted at the sun. "When is it going to rain next?"

Chie shrugged. "Dunno. Hopefully not soon, because yours was just a little while ago."

Emiko hummed happily. "Yeah."


"We need to talk."

Emiko raised her eyebrows. "Ooh, that doesn't sound good. What's up?"

"You lied to me."

Emiko sighed and patted the seat next to her. "About what, Yosuke, my stepmother, or my depression?"

"Well, both, but I'm not angry about not telling me your mother died. That's understandable. But you told me you were fine back then." Said Yosuke as she sat down next to her.

"When someone says they're 'okay', that doesn't mean they're actually okay. I told myself I was okay. But I obviously wasn't." said Emiko.

Yosuke scowled. "Still, you could have told me you were depressed. I could have helped."

"With what? Were you going to live at my house and hide all the knives? Force a smile on my face when I thought about my mother and other sad things?" Emiko said, raising her voice. "I was depressed, clinically depressed, Yosuke. Nothing would have helped me."

"You don't know unless you try, and you didn't try."

"So I lied to you. I know you're a happy, cheerful person, and I wasn't. You had already lost your friends because of me. I wasn't going to burden you with my depression. You were a light, sure, but when the light is surrounded by too much darkness, it goes out. I was protecting that light, because that light could sometimes make me happy. I didn't want to lose it." Emiko said.

Yosuke looked at her hand on the table. He looked up suddenly.

"Show me."

Emiko frowned. "What?"

"Show me your arm."

Emiko clutched her right arm tightly. "No."

"I never helped you. I want to know what you went through by yourself." Yosuke said, his eyes hardening. Emiko pressed her lips together. If she showed him, wouldn't that mean she was accepting what her Shadow said? When she faced her Shadow, she said she wasn't alone any more. And that meant sharing her troubles with others. With that thought in mind, she drew her left arm from her right, and pulled back her sleeve.

Yosuke held her arm gently as he looked at the numerous marks on her arm. Some were old, and were just white to serve as a reminder. But there were recent scars that were an angry pink. He closed his eyes as he realized how much blood that was. How her arm must have looked as she was cutting.

"How long?" Yosuke whispered.

"A couple of years before I met you."

"You should have told me." Yosuke said, regretfully. "I feel like a horrible friend for not realizing it."

"I'm just too good at hiding myself, I guess." Emiko laughed bitterly as she pulled her sleeve back over her arm. "Until you convinced me to cut my hair."

"I call that an accomplishment."

Emiko smiled. "Yeah. Thanks, Yosuke."


"Are you okay, Emiko?"

Emiko stopped halfway up the stairs. Normally, whenever she got home from school, her stepmother would give her a cursory glance and a "Welcome home" and occasional "How was your day?" She had never really talked to her. So why was she talking to her now?

Granted, that might have been Emiko's fault. After her father had remarried, Emiko was determined to not talk to her stepmother. She was still upset about the death of her mother. Her stepmother had been kind to her, and had tried to talk to her—had honestly tried to connect with her stepdaughter. Emiko hadn't let her. She always pushed away her attempts to talk, and her stepmother had just given up. Emiko hadn't really felt bad about it—until now, when she realized she might have just taken her stepmother's care for granted.

"Why?" Emiko asked suspiciously. Her stepmother sighed.

"Because you went missing and then you came home sick and tired. I was wondering if you were okay." She said. Emiko nodded slowly.

In light of everything that happened, she probably wasn't okay. She had faced her darkest fears and her secrets had been revealed to other people—so no, she wasn't exactly spectacular. But she had realized that she wasn't alone anymore. She had a Persona now. She was going to open up more. She had done so with Kou and Daisuke. Maybe...it was finally time to actually talk to her stepmother.

"I'm fine. Really." Emiko said. She hesitated. "Maybe...maybe later, we could...do something? Together?"

Emiko's stepmother looked surprised.

"...Yes. I would like that." She said, shooting her a gratified smile.


"So how do you think Emiko-chan's doing?" Chie asked thoughtfully, watching Emiko walk down the hallway. "I mean, after her secrets were sort of..."

"She seems better. I think she's trying to get closer to her stepmother. Stepmother. That is so weird." Yosuke frowned.

"Why, just because you didn't know her as such?" Yukiko asked.

"She does seem to be friends with Kou and Daisuke." Souji supplied, indicating the two running towards Emiko from behind. They jumped her and she screamed before realizing it was them. She punched them playfully before they looped their arms around her.

Yosuke immediately stared at them. "What? Really? They'd better not do anything. Hey, Kou, move your hand! And those two—"

"You're just like a mother hen." Chie said teasingly. "She'd better not even date anyone till she turns 30."

"I'm just protective because of who she is and what she's like."

"I was joking, Yosuke." Chie rolled her eyes. "Jeez, get a grip."


"You have got to be fucking kidding me." Emiko uttered.

Yosuke raised his hands in self defense. "Hey, don't blame the bringer of bad news. Midterms are coming, whether you like it or not."

"But I just transferred here. And I got thrown in a TV. They could give me a little down time." Emiko complained.

"Yeah, like you could tell them that. 'Oh hey, sorry, but I just had to face my darkest secrets and got a Persona, I can't take midterms!'" Chie mimicked.

Emiko groaned. "I actually need to study then."

"I can't even. I don't know anything. I am so screwed." Chie thumped her head on the table. Yukiko patted her back comfortedly.

"You think you have problems? If I don't do well, my dad's gonna give me so many more shifts at Junes." Yosuke said unhappily.

"We can study together, if it helps?" Yukiko questioned. Emiko nodded.

"Sounds good. I can rely on help if I need it—which I will." She looked at Souji. The rest of the table also looked at Souji.

"Why are you all looking at me?" he asked.

"Because you're smart. Help us!" Chie exclaimed. He smiled.

"Fine."

"Maybe I won't fail..." Emiko sighed.


After exams...

Emiko had gone to Class 2-2 to talk to the group after the last exam. She arrived just in time to hear Chie ask about the tallest mountain in the solar system.

"Olympus Mons." Said Souji.

"Oh, seriously? I chose the wrong one..." Chie said glumly.

"Oh, I put that one too." Said Yukiko.

"I got that too!" Emiko exclaimed delightedly.

"You too? Then it's probably the right answer..." said Yosuke, sighing. "Boy, I can't wait for our grades to be posted in the hall where everyone can see 'em. Oh well..."

The group was quiet for a moment, listening to the conversations taking place all around them.

"Hey, did you hear? A TV station is filming in town." Said a student.

"They're probably doing more stuff about that hanging corpse case." Said another student.

"No, it's not that. You know the highway nearby? They're gonna cover those biker gangs that hand around there."

"Well, anyways… Whaddya think about tomorrow's group blind date? We were gonna meet outside, but…it's gonna rain soon, right? Won't it be better to play it safe tomorrow too?" The conversation moved on.

"Biker gang?" Yukiko asked.

"Oh yeah, they raise a ruckus from time to time." Said Chie. "I guess your place is too far away to hear them."

"We live right by the road. The noise can drive you insane." Said Yosuke. Emiko nodded in agreement.

"They make it a point to drive by our street every night, I swear." She said.

"I hear some guys at this school are part of it too." Said Chie.

"Yeah, I know there are some rumors about a first-year student here who's a total hellraiser. One of the guys working at Junes said the dude's been a legend ever since middle school. Although... Was he in a biker gang…?" Yosuke said, furrowing his eyebrows.

"A-a legend?" asked Yukiko.

"Uh, it's not what you think, Yukiko..." said Chie hurriedly. Emiko frowned. Exactly what did she think? Whatever.

"Anyway, I gotta go. I promised my mom I would go somewhere with her today." Said Emiko, walking away. "See ya!"


A/N: Hey! So Temperance is back, and get ready for Kanji fun time next chapter! :D
Also, this story is technically based off of P4 from the PS2, but some scenes from P4 Golden are going to be in here, like the beach trip and the ski trip. I'll add them in somewhere.
In this chapter, I touched on a somewhat iffy subject...(cutting) and I just wanted to say that I hope no one cuts because there's always something to smile about in life. So basically, if anyone wants to talk (and I'm off the subject of cutting specifically now...) about anything, just message me! We can fangirl or talk about life! Whichever you want. ^^
It's spring now! (where I live) Hope everyone has a great season! :D