Some time later-

"Are you done changing? I need to see how you look right now, and we can build off of there," Yukiko said, a blush softening her businesslike demeanor. "I'm sorry. I didn't exactly have your measurements when I went shopping for your outfit."

The curtain Souji was changing behind blocked his shrug from Yukiko's view, but that didn't stop him from rolling his shoulders and clenching his fingers. He'd been attempting to keep his mind blank for the past hour, but the more he suppressed his own thoughts and misgivings about his current situation, the louder the not-voice got. It seemed to find the whole situation as amusing as the girls did, and kept muttering-

if it's going to happen it might as well be done correctly and with those lines and those hips the others can't pull it off but I can we can I used to be able to and wouldn't he look better wouldn't I look better in something shorter that showed some leg

-and Souji looked down despairingly at his own legs and wonder what the hell his mind thought it was talking about. He stepped carefully into the long, black skirt he had been provided with, pulling it up high above the waistband of his underwear and instinctively fastening the button on his left side. He smoothed his hands over his hips and shuffled his boxers down a bit so that they didn't mess with the lines of the skirt. He looked down at himself, turning from side to side before he called to Yukiko, "I think I might need…tights, or high socks maybe."

"Can I see what you look like, first," Yukiko said, softly, and he could hear the smile in her voice.

Souji sighed, folded the uniform's outer jacket so that he could try it on later, and pushed the curtain aside. He expected his muscles to lock in embarrassment, but the wave of shame never came. Instead he threw his shoulders back and stalked forward with ease. 'If it's going to happen, I might as well do this thing correctly,' he thought. The not-voice approved and muttered hints on how to sway his hips without looking ridiculous. He mentally rolled his eyes at it.

"Souji," Yukiko breathed, pulling out a chair for him to sit in. Souji did not take it, stopping instead in the middle of the classroom floor and turning in a full circle so that Yukiko could admire her work.

"It fits," he said, pulling on the cuffs of his white collared shirt. "More or less. My shoulders are a bit big, but I don't think anyone will be nit picking on the fit."

"Souji," Yukiko repeated, her soft smile spreading until it overtook her face, "You look…" she snorted.

"That bad?"

"No, no no no," she smiled, a trill of laughter ringing through her voice, "No, not at all. I mean, makeup and your wig will help a lot, and you are probably right about the stockings. You have man legs."

"It's a curse."

"But," she continued, still smiling, "I have to say, I thought you would look just terrible, and then you came sauntering out of that changing room like you owned the place," she broke off, giggling.

Souji smiled in spite of himself. If he could make Yukiko laugh, then this was ok. At least, it was ok until he was out onstage in front of the entire school. He grimaced, moving forward to take the seat Yukiko had pulled out for him. He leaned back, crossing his legs, and tried to ignore how being in this outfit made them naturally want to cross like a woman's would. He looked over at Yukiko.

"So we have two hours until we need to be ready. Do you know how we can get a pair of stockings?"

Yukiko nodded, her laughter finally ebbing to a pleased glow, and she moved to the classroom's door. She cracked it, slipping her head out to peer down the hallway.

"Ah, Rio," she called to a girl in the hall, "I was wondering…" but the rest was lost to Souji under-

tennis and tournaments with a girl that was strong like a chariot relentless like a chariot and she needed a friend and I was her friend but the inn girl doesn't remember and the chariot wouldn't remember and nobody ever remembers because it didn't happen and that link didn't happen and the chain falls to pieces

-and he had thought this was getting better, damn it. Souji pulled his head out of his hands, looking down at them in confusion. When had he buckled? The pounding in his head kept on and on, and he fumbled at his waist looking for his phone until he remembered that he was currently wearing a skirt and that his phone was still in his pants' pocket.

"Rio is running to find a pair of tights for you. She should be back pretty soon. So many people are working with costumes this week," Yukiko said, and then seemed to actually look at him. "Is everything all right?"

Souji swallowed and nodded. "Yeah, everything's fine. Could you fetch my pants for me?"

Yukiko looked scandalized.

"No, uh, my phone. My phone is in my pants' pocket," Souji said, too distracted to be embarrassed. He needed his phone. There were very few things that would make the not-voice stay truly quiet for any period of time, and he had learned to take full advantage of them when he could.

The first, blessedly, was when he and his team fought in the TV world. The moment he jumped through the widescreen in Junes, the voice would move to the back allowing his personas to fill the space in the forefront of his mind. He could think when he was over there, and he found himself looking forward to their afternoons on the other side more and more.

Music also had the power to placate the voice, and the moment he realized it, he had begun to badger Yosuke for more music lessons. Placate really was the word for it, he thought, because while being in the other world actually pushed the voice away, music simply made it happy. When it was happy, he was happy, and Souji soon found himself with a nice MP3 player, a respectable pair of headphones and more archived music than he knew what to do with.

Everyday things like cooking and doing little tasks calmed it down, also, but one thing helped more than any other. Souji was not sure what to think about the fact that talking to Sanada provided the greatest relief of them all.

Souji had kept his promise to Akihiko and had called him the night he returned to Inaba. Souji had curled up on his small couch, turning the phone over in his hands before finally biting the bullet and going to his contacts to call 'Supercop'. The phone had rung twice, and, when Sanada answered, their conversation went like this:

"Yeah, this is Sanada."

"I think that it's time that we both got answers."

"Seta?"

"Yes."

"Oh. Hey. I thought that you weren't going to be free tonight."

Souji readjusted his phone, "Not in person. I'm not in Iwatodai. Have you ever heard of a small town called Inaba?"

"Uh, yeah, actually. My high school competed in a sports competition there during my senior year. I didn't personally go, but everyone was talking about it. They said that the place was miniscule."

"That isn't doing it justice. Anyway, that's where I am now."

"Ok."

Souji frowned, "Look, if you can't talk or you don't want to, that's fine. I mean, I'm not going to pretend I'm not curious as hell about last night, but I have enough on my plate right now as it is."

"No, damn it, I'm sorry. I just didn't expect you to call. I didn't get your number, you just got mine, and I kind of figured that you would just disappear someplace. I wasn't…hell, I wasn't entirely sure last night actually happened."

"I know the feeling," Souji smiled.

A chuckle buzzed across the line, "Yeah. So, uh," Sanada said, his tone trailing off.

"Personas?"

"Personas. What do you know about them? I know I accused you of having one last night, but do you actually? You know, there are some people out there who know about them but don't personally have one."

Souji frowned, "I guess if somebody met their shadow but didn't accept it, they wouldn't have a persona. That seems a bit odd, though."

"What do you mean, 'met their shadow'? Shadows don't actually belong to people. They are just general reflections of human kind."

"Well, yeah, the small ones, but…wait, are you telling me that you've never met a humanoid shadow?"

Sanada was quiet for a long moment.

"Just one," he said, quietly.

"Did he look like you?"

Sanada snorted, "No. Although, now that you mention it, he did kind of," he trailed off before starting again, "That's weird. Now that I think about it, he looked a hell of a lot like a friend of mine. Same build, same face. Their eyes were different, though."

"Were the shadow's yellow?"

"Nah, they were blue. Like, scary blue. So bright it was almost creepy."

Souji froze. Blue eyes. Piercing blue eyes looking joyfully up at him through blond hair, and no, he was not going to think like that. Not about Teddie. Not about his Star.

White wings flapped in the back of his mind, and Akihiko was talking again.

"But that was the only human shadow I've ever seen, and his circumstances were kind of odd."

"You sound like you knew him. Like a friend."

Sanada sighed. "I did. We weren't close, but I knew him."

"He didn't try to kill you?"

Sanada laughed, but it was only ten percent humor and ninety percent pain. "He did."

"Oh."

"Yeah. Look, I've got to go," Sanada said, hurriedly, in a way that made Souji doubt Sanada actually had anywhere to be. "I'll talk to you later," he said.

"Alright," said Souji.

"No, I mean, really," Sanada said with a soft growl. "Sorry. Can I call you tomorrow or something?"

"Sure," Souji said, and Sanada was gone.

It wasn't until the line had been dead for a couple minutes that Souji realized that the not-voice had been quiet for their whole conversation. Something about talking with Akihiko satisfied the other enough to keep it quiet even long after their conversations had ended.

So, Souji had begun to keep up a regular correspondence with the white haired cop. Through trial and error, Souji learned that, while talking about the people and events that had surrounded Akihiko's experience with shadows and personas was off limits, Sanada was always up for a discussion about fighting shadows. It had simply amused Souji at first, but he soon realized that Akhiko knew more about fighting than Souji had ever hoped to know. He had begun to mine that knowledge and apply it wherever he could.

Sanada still did not know about Souji's ability to wield multiple personas, and Souji planned to keep it that way for the time being. Any time he got close to revealing his power, the not-voice would wake back up and caution him away, and Souji was not in the mood to fight with it.

"Um, Souji? Here," Yukiko said, snapping him out of his reverie. He looked up to find Yukiko standing right next to him, holding his phone practically under his nose.

"Thanks," he murmured.

"It's not a problem. You have a text, by the way. Is Supercop your uncle or Adachi?"

"What? Oh, neither," he said, then smiled, "Why exactly would I be getting texts from Adachi?"

She smiled, "I don't know. I'm sure that he'd be capable of riveting conversation if he were given the chance."

"Have you ever had an actual conversation with Adachi?"

Yukiko giggled, "No, I've never had the privilege."

"It is an experience," Souji grinned, leaning back in his chair. "I've learned so much about cabbages and magic from him, I can barely hold it in."

"Don't you think that you're being a little hard on him?"

Souji's grin softened, "I know. He's an easy mark, and that's not fair. I just feel like I can make fun of him a bit because he's practically part of the family. He's around almost as often as Dojima is."

Yukiko smiled, "I wonder if he realizes."

"Probably not. He can be a dunce when he wants to. He and my uncle share that trait."

They sat comfortably in the quiet that followed. Souji looked down at his phone, noting the brief text from Akihiko:

Oct 10, 2011 13:32 PM - Supercop

'Are you in a skirt yet or should I wait an hour more to mock you?'

Souji rolled his eyes, lips quirking in spite of himself as he sent a brief, affirmative response. The not-voice seemed satisfied and quieted.

"Amagi? I have your stockings," a girl called from the hall.

"Ah, thank you, Rio," Yukiko said, fetching the garment from the girl. "So, how do you want to do this? You can't," she blushed, "you, uh, they aren't going to fit over your boxers."

He leveled a flat look back at her.

"They will if I want them to. Toss 'em."

Yukiko handed him the stockings, still looking embarrassed, and moved so that Souji could stalk behind the curtain.

"Do you know how to put them on," she asked after a moment, a hot blush coloring her words.

"You just scrunch the material down near the sock part and put them on one leg at a time, right?"

A pause. "Yes, that's right," she said.

He shrugged and finished pulling the stockings on. He tucked the elastic part at the top around he waistband of his boxer shorts and shuffled, trying to prevent the wedgie he knew was fast approaching.

He looked absolutely ridiculous. The whole situation was ridiculous, but at least the skirt hid most of his sins and his legs no longer showed. He quickly decided that was he saw was the best that he was going to get and moved back out from behind the curtain.

Yukiko was looking at him strangely.

"Souji, do you have a sister?"

He blinked. "No. Not unless you count Nanako."

"Oh," she said softly.

"Why?"

"Oh, um, well it's just that you look good, and you knew how to put all of those pieces on and I was just wondering how you knew, I guess."

Souji frowned, "It seemed pretty obvious to me."

The smile that wormed its way onto Yukiko's face was incredulous. "Tell that to every little girl who tried to dress herself and ended up with her skirt pleats all over the place."

"I'm not a five year old girl, Yukiko," Souji said, looking down at himself with a wry smile. "Despite current appearances."

Her speculative gaze shifted until she simply looked embarrassed, "No, of course you're not. That's our leader, excelling at everything. Even this," she gestured around. She looked at Souji fully. "I'm really sorry, you know. Chie, Rise and I just got so excited over the idea, and I think we went overboard. You are being such a good sport, and it makes me feel a little guilty."

Souji shrugged. He privately agreed – they had gone overboard - but he wasn't angry, especially not with Yukiko. He could tell that she was trying to make this tolerable for him, and he knew that he had lucked out when Yukiko stepped forward to help him dress. Rise, he knew, would go for something showy and shocking, while Chie would take full advantage of the situation and make her costume choice as embarrassing as possible. Yukiko, on the other hand, seemed to take the job seriously and had picked a rather practical outfit when it all came down to it. He still felt utterly foolish, but it was better than the alternatives.

"It doesn't really matter now. Let's just get this over with, alright?"

She nodded. "Go ahead and get your outer jacket on so that we can start working on your wig."

He gestured vaguely in response and moved to put on his jacket. By the time he had finished shrugging the garment on and adjusting the yellow bow so that it sat flat against his chest, Yukiko was back with two bags in hand. She set them both down on the table then asked him to stand so that she could pull his chair away farther out to make room. Souji watched her pull a flattened, grey wig out of one of the bags. It was still wrapped in netting, but he had to commend her on the color choice. It matched his hair almost perfectly. She fussed about for a couple of moments, sorting through pins, powders and small pencil shaped things.

"May I ask you something?" He said, softly.

Yukiko made a distracted noise, but darted her eyes quickly his way to prompt him to continue.

"I was thinking about the group date from yesterday."

That got her attention. Her hands tightened around the brush she had just picked up, and the blush reemerged on her cheeks.

"Oh, gosh, that was so embarrassing. I was so uncomfortable, and I was sitting with friends. I can't imagine what it must have been like for any body else that visited."

Souji smiled in agreement, but pressed on, "It was a bit painful, but I actually wanted to ask about something you said."

"You can't hold me responsible for anything I said during that. I was so embarrassed; I just said the first thing that came to mind. I mean," she said, wringing her fingers around the brushes handle, "I even mentioned fighting shadows to a complete stranger."

"That's actually what I wanted to ask about."

"Oh. That was probably a really bad move, wasn't it? We never know who might take the crazy stuff we say seriously, do we?"

Souji shuffled. What Yukiko said was true, but he was far from innocent on that front, so he refrained from commenting.

"Is that why you asked about it," she said. "You wanted to make sure I didn't say something like that again?"

"No," he said, honestly. "I was just wondering whether you meant it. Is fighting shadows your main hobby?"

"I really just said the first thing that came to mind."

"I know. That's my point. It's just…is that it?"

"Are you saying I'm boring, Souji?"

Souji grinned. She was playing with him. "No, I'm not. You know what I mean."

She set the brush down by her side before looking back at him, her lips tight as she considered. "In a way, I suppose it is," she said after a moment. "I keep up with schoolwork and, you know, I've been learning how to cook and such things, but I feel like the best work I do is on the other side. We accomplish things, and I'm good at what I do. I may not be strong like you or Chie, but I have my job and I've been getting so much better. It's neat, you know. Magic," she said, eyes warm.

He did know. Souji leaned back in his chair, looking up at the paneled ceiling before saying, "But what happens when we're done. When we win."

Yukiko remained silent. Souji's mind fled back to his memories of Iwatodai and how reverent Sanada's voice had sounded when he called Caesar. He had whispered 'diarahan' like a confession, and having his persona respond in turn had brought a light to Akihiko's face like nothing else Souji had seen. Souji wondered, then, what it must be like to have personas always in your mind but to have no need to call them. It was a painful thing to contemplate.

"I guess that we will go back to normal," Yukiko said at last. "Or, most of us will. You'll be leaving, won't you?"

"Probably. Eventually. I try not to think about it."

Yukiko launched back into motion, picking pins and a small thing of hair gel out of the mess.

"Well, we have time. Let's think about the end when we know we're close to it."

Souji breathed out a sigh, and heard his phone buzz on the desk. He reached out and flipped it open. Akihiko's response read:

Oct 10, 2011 13:42 PM - Supercop

'joking aside, enjoy today. Not the dress but you know, other stuff. Talk tonight?'

Souji smiled, and typed out an affirmative reply. The not-voice whispered softly-

he's right and she's right take this time and hold it and maybe later you can ask him how he used diarahan

-and Souji's had to wonder at how coherent the whispers were getting.

"Souji?"

He shook himself and looked back at Yukiko, pushing thoughts of the other voice as far away as possible. He had more pressing matters, mainly the amused glint in Yukiko's eyes and her hand full of hairpins.

"You are going to look so pretty when we're done!"

Souji rolled his eyes, but a resigned little chuckle managed to escape.