The group invades the other world once more and finds a surprise waiting for them.

Another week, another headache. With the events at the farm now a day behind her and school once again emerging to bother her, Mana almost found herself longing to fight more Shadows in that other world. At least then she'd be using her time to do something important.

While swapping out her shoes at her locker, she could hear the sounds of mockery coming from the other side. It was a sound she knew quite well given how cruel people could be, spurring her into action despite her annoyance and reservations. She wasn't a good person by any stretch, but bullying others was something that really pissed her off.

"What even is this?" a light haired male student said through his laughter, holding what looked like a long black wig in hand. "Why do you have something like this? You going bald, or something?"

"Give it back," another student mumbled, reaching for it futiley as the first passed it to one of his friends. Upon closer inspection, Mana recognized the one apparently being victimized as the kid who sat in front of her in class.

"You some kind of actor now?" the other said, his laughter cut short as Mana grabbed him by the collar and slammed him against the lockers.

Taking the wig, she placed it on her own head clumsily. "Holding it for me," she said, forcing a vein to pop in her forehead to appear more intimidating. "You going to hassle us any more?" She tossed him to the ground next to his friend.

Both of them shook their heads, backing away slowly for fear of what the delinquent of rumor might do to them. It was safe to say they wouldn't be stealing any wigs for quite a while. "Here," Mana said after they'd both run off, tossing the wig back to its owner.

Wordlessly, the owner turned back to the locker the wig came out of, nestling it into a dark canvas bag. Looking her classmate up and down, nothing seemed all that out of the ordinary save for the very obvious lack of confidence and having a wig for some reason. Probably what attracted those assholes in the first place. "You got a name?" she decided to ask.

Hesitating for a few seconds, he eventually said, "Aoki." Mana could almost swear she saw his icy blue eyes waver for a moment when saying that, though she had no reason to suspect why that might be. As she'd observed before, Aoki seemed pretty plain all things considered. Almost boring, if anything, with uniform buttoned up to the neck, no modifications, and neatly trimmed hair the same color as the wig from before.

"Why do you have that, anyway?" she asked, leaning against the lockers. It wasn't that she particularly cared about the reason so much as she wanted to continue talking to this kid. Not to make a friend, obviously, but because it almost seemed like they were being drawn together.

Though she hadn't noticed until a while after the fact, she remembered feeling that sensation the day before with Kosaku, so she suspected it might have something to do with Personas. It was probably too early to jump to any conclusions, though. That was mostly what she was trying to find a way to confirm by continuing the conversation.

"None of your business," Aoki said, slamming the locker door closed and picking up a schoolbag from the floor.

"Whatever," Mana said with a roll of her eyes. "Not like I care. Just wondering."

"Then don't ask," he said firmly, stomping away. Seemed like kind of an overreaction, but who was she to judge? She'd learned pretty recently what prying too deeply could lead to. Either way, there didn't seem to be anything to indicate her classmate was also a Persona user.

Deciding to show up to class, Mana took her usual seat and tapped at her phone under her desk. While she attempted to converse with Sotaro and Kosaku in their new group chat, her focus continually shifted back to Aoki in front of her. It was seriously getting distracting, made all the more annoying based on the fact she couldn't place why. Things were almost bad enough to force her to start watching porn in the middle of the day just to have something more interesting the look at. Obviously, that was a joke; she promised herself she'd never do that again.

She turned down an offer to eat lunch with Sotaro and his friends, instead staying at her desk and picking at some egg while continuing to watch Aoki. She was aware of how strange and creepy her behavior was but wasn't sure of what to do about it. Some kind of vibe just kept setting off alarms in her head, almost like it was saying they were similar. That being said, it was entirely possible she was just projecting her deeply repressed desire for friends onto what seemed like the only other kid in school as unpopular as she was.

This couldn't last forever, though, as school was only so long. Leaving her bizarre fixation behind, Mana found Sotaro as he was leaving school, the newly forged trio having agreed to go hunting for paths into the other world once they got out of school.

They hadn't realized just how soon after they were meant to get to work, though, spotting Kosaku waiting outside the school in a beat up blue pickup truck, tapping the wheel idly while the stump of a cigarette hung between his lips.

"You want to get put on some kind of watch list?" Mana greeted him, startling him slightly as the two students approached without him noticing.

"What's wrong with a kindly father figure coming to pick up his kids after school?" he asked, snuffing out his cigarette as the two climbed in through the passenger side.

"I don't need another of those in my life," Mana said, arm hanging out the window as Sotaro gestured for her to get buckled in from the center of the backseat.

"You strike me as kind of a screw up older brother, honestly," Sotaro added.

"I have a job and a car!" he wailed. "What am I screwing up? I never even mentioned how I dropped out of college to either of you!"

"I guess that's true," Sotaro replied, nodding his head. "We should all try to question our preconceptions and biases from time to time. Still can't replace my dad, though. Mostly because he's, like, alive and active in my life, so I'm not really looking for a replacement."

"Replace mine," Mana said lazily, placing a cigarette between her lips as the truck began to move. "You probably won't keep trying to call me every night."

Deliberately avoiding that clearly loaded topic, Kosaku instead chose to say, "Hey, probably shouldn't smoke in here. I don't care, but my bro's not into it." He'd apparently taken to the older brother label despite his earlier protest.

"Noted," was all she said, immediately lighting up and taking a large puff, blowing the smoke out the window. "Anyway, where we headed? We just going to wander around like assholes and hope we get lucky again?"

"I've actually got some ideas about where we should go this time," Sotaro said. "I started asking around at lunch to see if anyone's been finding any weird stuff going on in town. Not that many people had, but one guy did point me to an old cafe. Apparently, the owner's been closed for the last few days and no one's really sure why. Some people have seen him through the windows and he kind of just wanders around inside doing nothing."

"Could just be depressed," Kosaku replied. "I do that sometimes. Usually not wearing pants, though." He paused. "Is that guy wearing pants?"

"Didn't come up," Sotaro said. "I think we should at least take a look, though."

"Yeah," Kosaku agreed. "Not wearing pants in a restaurant ain't very sanitary."

"He means for the Shadows," Mana said, flicking ash out the window. "Seems worth a shot, at least. Guess we'll head there." And so they did, arriving at the closed cafe and parking on the side of the road, Kosaku grabbing his own pitchfork while handing Mana a shovel he'd brought for her. As described, a person appearing to be the owner wandered aimlessly inside, beard shaggy as if he hadn't shaved in a good amount of time and eyes bloodshot (though his pants appeared to be intact for the time being).

They walked the perimeter of the building to no avail, inspecting the locked doors for both the front and back as well as the windows. They even tried sitting at the single outside table just to see if that would do anything but still couldn't find a way to pass between worlds. The prospect of breaking in wasn't exactly the next option on the list, but it wasn't out of the realm of possibility.

"We ready to call it?" Kosaku asked, kicking his feet up onto the table.

"I guess," Sotaro said. "We should probably call the police, at least. I don't think the guy inside is doing too good even if this isn't a Shadow thing."

"Good call," he agreed. The three stood up from their seats and prepared to leave. It was frustrating to already be out of ideas for what to do, but there didn't seem to be anything they could influence around here. Whatever was going on in there clearly wasn't something they were able to solve.

Or was it? While they began to walk away, Mana stopped in her tracks after stepping onto a manhole cover. "Hold up," she said, crouching down to examine it. "Probably nothing, but help me move this thing."

"You know those weigh a ton, right?" Kosaku said, though he still came to assist nonetheless. Both of them worked their fingers into the small openings around the sides, lifting with all their might and just managing to raise it out of its housing. Sotaro reached under from there and all three managed to flip it over and out of the way of the hole.

"Did you want to inspect their plumbing?" Sotaro asked skeptically. Mana didn't answer him, focused on climbing down into the hole to test her theory. Without so much as a sight or sound to confirm it, she seemed to blink out of existence from the perspective of the two left behind.

"Damn, looks like she was right," Kosaku said, nodding slowly.

Sotaro crouched down, peering into the hole to make sure she didn't just fall in and knock herself out. "Guess we're next."

"Well, I mean...we could just go." Sotaro looked at him, shocked. "Just hop in my truck and get out of here. Maybe grab some burgers, I don't know."

"Come on," he sighed, jumping into the other world followed shortly by a reluctant Kosaku. The two seemed to fall a short distance onto a cobblestone road, though where they ended up was a bit different from the areas before. Rather than simple non-descript buildings, their path was lined by shops, their signs illegible save for a large, red CLOSED in the windows of each. It was too bad, too, since the various punk/goth/superhero/high fashion couture and distressingly shady-looking desserts on display from several of them were just bizarre enough to be interesting.

Mana had already begun to walk away from where she'd landed, stopping only to look over her shoulder and shout, "Hurry up already or I'm leaving you behind." The group reformed quickly, all of them silently alternating between admiration and confusion at what they saw in the shop windows.

"Guess we can confirm that this place changes now," Sotaro said, voicing the conclusion they'd come to after setting foot inside this world.

"Wonder what would happen if we broke into one of these stores," Kosaku said, sidetracked briefly looking at a really gnarly leather jacket he kind of wanted. "It's probably not illegal, right? Does this place have laws?"

"If it does, there's definitely not one against murder," Sotaro told him. "Whenever we come here something always tries to kill us."

"Which is why we've decided to jump in here with no plan, I assume," he replied.

"Quit whining," Mana barked. "We've been able to handle whatever's come at us so far."

"I mean, I almost died, but I guess I got better," Sotaro said, receiving a dirty look in response for undermining her point. "Anyway, we should probably be trying to figure out where we're going. Usually we just have to walk until we get to a place, but this is kind of different."

Tapping the glass with the end of his weapon, Kosaku suggested, "Maybe we are supposed to break in." In truth, he just really wanted that jacket.

This wasn't what they had to do, obviously. Their true goal came charging at them like Hades himself (the mythological figure, not demonic creature that may or may not be roaming this world) riding a chariot out of the underworld. Flowery description aside, though, the actual creature was a far cry more disappointing, being little more than a little blue demon shoved into a jar.

At least until it spoke. "Finally!" it shouted in what could most accurately be described as a high-pitched growl. "I knew there were humans running around in here!" As all three of them summoned their Personas, the creature immediately dropped straight down onto the ground with a thunk, sinking inside its jar. "Wait, no! Don't kill me! I want to talk to you!"

"Talk to us?" Sotaro asked, Merlin slowly fading away behind him. "Wait, Shadows talk?"

"Not many, but I do," the thing said, peaking out from the top of its jar.

"It's a trick, kill it!" Mana yelled, Mu Guiying raising her sword to strike.

"Wait, let's hear what it has to say," Kosaku said, putting his arm in front of her.

Sotaro nodded, agreeing with Kosaku. "It looks weak enough to deal with if it is a trick, so there's no harm in just talking." With some grumbling, they managed to get her to agree.

Coaxed out of hiding and having raised up, the Shadow revealed its true intentions. "I'll just cut to the chase – I want to join you losers."

"Master negotiator, huh?" Kosaku mocked. "Not really sure we need a mascot."

"You're weak, too," Mana added. "You'll just slow us down. Besides, you'd be killing other Shadows and you'll probably wimp out when it comes down to it."

The creature shook his head. "Nah, I'm fine with that. It's not like Shadows have any real loyalty to each other. Most of us aren't even sentient." After a confused look between the humans, he asked, "You knew that, right? You actually...know about us and Neirosoi, right?"

"The what now?" Sotaro asked upon hearing the unfamiliar word.

The Shadow began to laugh uncontrollably, pounding a tiny hand on the rim of its jar. "You chumps just ran in here one day not knowing anything? What's wrong with you?"

"I ask myself that every morning in the mirror," Kosaku said. "Explain. What do you know about this place?"

"Damn, you guys are funny," the creature said, reigning in its laughter. "So I'm going to talk to you like you're babies, since you apparently don't know anything. This place you're stomping around in? It's Neirosoi. It's like a world made out of the dreams of you humans."

"Can I call it Dreamland instead?" Sotaro asked. "That's easier to pronounce."

"I really don't care," he replied, continuing the explanation. "That's what we are. Shadows, I mean. We're like the leftover dreams from people that clump together and form creatures. Most of us don't have much of an identity because of that, but some of us end up pretty handsome and cool like me."

"I think we should still kill it," Mana interrupted. "It's started lying to us." They waved her off, intent on listening to more.

"You're probably about to ask about good dreams and bad dreams and all of that. It kind of doesn't matter. I guess there are some pretty nasty guys out there who seem like they're made of nightmares, but I've never really wanted to get close enough to ask. Point is, we're the unconscious thoughts of humans. That's why we're called Shadows."

"Branding's on point," Kosaku said with a nod. "So what about the weird stuff Shadows do to our town? How's all that work?"

"Well, it's like being asleep and being awake. You get good sleep, you have a good time. You get bad sleep and you're trudging through your day wanting to die. If too many Shadows come to one area or too much of our energy builds up in a place, you'll probably see some affects over there."

"Would that mean there's a bunch of Shadows around wherever that guy's shop would be?" Sotaro asked.

"I don't know what guy you're talking about, but probably. I can feel some not that far off from here."

This made all three of them immediately jump to attention. "You sense Shadows?" Mana asked. "Are they coming to attack?"

"Pretty much," he answered. "We've all got kind of a sense for each other. We can tell where humans are, too, which is probably why those guys are waiting for you."

"How many?" Kosaku asked, cracking his neck on either side.

"Only three," the Shadow said. "They don't seem that tough. Shouldn't be that tough for a bunch of scary Persona users like you."

"We'll talk more later," Sotaro said. "For now, show us where they are." Surprisingly, the Shadow was more than happy to comply, leading them down a path between two of the shops that they could have sworn wasn't there before. It was now readily apparent there really was quite a lot about this place they didn't know yet. "Oh, hey, what's your name?"

"You talking to me?" the Shadow said as it floated in front of the ground.

"Yeah. If you want to be part of the Nagaka Warriors, we should at least know your name first."

"Stop calling us that," Mana pleaded, almost driven to hit him with her shovel.

"It really sucks," Kosaku said.

"Changed my mind, I don't want to be part of a group with a name like that," the Shadow agreed, officially bridging the gap between species just to further dunk on Sotaro.

"I don't see you guys coming up with anything better," he said defensively.

With a grunt, Mana was forced to make an alternative. They'd been struggling with this for far too long and it was time to put an end to it. "Redeemers. First thing that came to mind. We're that now."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Sotaro asked. "I don't get it."

"Sounds kind of metal, so I'm into it," Kosaku said.

"I could live with that," the Shadow agreed.

"You don't get a say," Mana shot back despite the fact it would undermine her decision.

With a sigh, Sotaro threw up his hands. "I guess that works. I don't hate it, at least. Oh, and you never said your name, Shadow."

"Agathion," he finally said. "Humans have names, too, right?"

"Oh, right," Sotaro confirmed. "Yeah, I'm Sotaro. He's Kosaku and she's Mana."

"You know what happens in fairy tales when you give the monsters your name, right?" Kosaku asked, mostly just complaining because he didn't get to introduce himself.

"That's not how this works," Agathion said. "We can't make you stay because we know your names. That doesn't make any sense. That was made up by humans so kids wouldn't talk to strangers."

"See? There's no problem." Sotaro scratched his chin, adding, "You act like you know a lot about humans, Agathion."

"I do considering I want to be one." The casual way in which this Shadow stated this desire came as a shock to them. "What? You think I want to be pals out of the goodness in my heart? I want something in exchange for all the knowledge I'm dishing out, you know."

"Being human's not that great," Kosaku warned. "Just a whole lot of bullshit."

"Seems more fun being a Shadow," Mana agreed. "At least then the only people who bother you is...us."

"Yeah, don't count on that," Agathion said sternly. "It's like only ever getting to see those cheap knockoff versions of movies when you know there's a theater playing all the really cool stuff right down the street. Nothing ever happens here or changes or evolves. We're all just stuck here, able to feel the things going on on the other side but never being able to enjoy any of it for ourselves. Most just give up, even the ones who are smart enough to know what they're missing."

"But not you," Mana said.

"I figure if we all started out as a part of humans, there's got to be a way to make it work in reverse," he explained. "Hanging out with some humans is probably the best way to see if that's true. Whatever you're all hoping to find in here might give me some kind of clue about how to get what I want."

Ironically enough, Agathion's motivations already seemed pretty human to them. In essence, all he wanted was to find a place to belong where he could find a way to be who he wanted to be. Even Mana couldn't really mock him for that. It's something everyone grappled with at one point or another.

"Personally, I'm not against you joining us if that's what you're after," Sotaro said.

"Doesn't sound like you're trying to back stab us, so I'm on board," Kosaku seconded.

As the last unofficial vote, the final decision came down to her. "You can stay as long as you keep being useful," she said, making it unanimous. "Don't count on any of us to save your ass when we're in a fight. We've got enough to worry about on our own."

"I'm not tough, but I can handle myself," Agathion said. "I don't need a bunch of people who don't even know how to walk around this place protecting me." He'd soon get to put that statement to the test, as the path opened up into another square with the eleventh hour clock towering over them. Two of the horned horse Shadows and a tiny dancing demon were already on the attack.

Considering how weak they were, though, the group made short work of them. Surprisingly enough, it was Agathion that did the bulk of the work. Apparently wishing to prove himself, he conjured up a small bolt of lightning and struck the ground in front of the other Shadows. All of them appeared weak to it, jittering and falling to the ground after just that, easily blown away by the trio of Personas a moment later.

"Great work, team," Sotaro congratulated, high fiving Kosaku and predictably being left hanging by Mana. Given his arms were too tiny for it, Agathion also declined the gesture. As they celebrated, another door opened up to allow them safe passage back to their world.

"Guess we did what we needed to do," Kosaku said.

"Looks that way," Agathion concluded. "Guess I'll come find you guys when you're here next."

"You aren't coming with us?" Sotaro asked, feeling a bit concerned about leaving someone who admits to being weak in a dangerous place like this.

"Don't exactly have a body that can hang out where you live. Not in most places, at least." He waved off the concerned he could sense, adding, "I can handle myself until then. I've been doing it ever since he came out. Get back to school or job or whatever it is you people do."

"Not like we could do anything about it anyway," Mana added, already preparing to leave.

"Guess that's true," Kosaku said with a nod. "Either way, we'll be back in a day or two, so don't get yourself killed until then. Things would get a lot tougher if we didn't have you navigating for us. And it'd probably be a lot tougher to be a human if you're dead."

"Yeah, that's kind of a problem for us," Sotaro agreed. "Most people can't act all that human if they're dead."

"You don't have to joke around with me," Agathion said. "We're not friends. We're just working on the same team. When we get what we want out of each other, we'll go our own ways and we won't have to deal with each other again."

"Hey, I'm starting like you," Mana said before walking out the door. Both Kosaku and Sotaro followed shortly after, the latter feeling a bit disappointed at hearing their new teammate say those things. It would be a stretch to say any of them were friends, that much was true, but he didn't have to leave that out in the open like that.

Upon their return, they found themselves walking behind the shop as if they'd exited from the backdoor. Going around to the front, the owner was looking around like he'd just snapped out of a trance, frantically running from place to place inside the store as he realized all of the things that had gone wrong since he fell into a stupor.

"Guess our job here is done," Kosaku said, feeling quite proud of himself.

"Good work today," Sotaro told the both of them. "I'll let you know if I hear anything else. Until then, I guess we'll just head home." This was the end to a surprisingly successful day of exploring the other world, now correctly identified as Neirosoi. Kosaku gave the two a lift before returning to his own apartment. They could only hope every excursion going forward was this fruitful, though something told them it was probably just going to get harder from here.

Another new member of the party and another Social Link. If Mana had anything above the social skills of a slug, maybe she'd be at something beyond level 1 for everyone. Kind of makes Ueno dumping his backstory like that funnier in retrospect knowing they're demonstratively almost strangers still.

It's good to know Mana's standards are slightly higher than ten feet in the ground, at least. Pretty soon she'll be the defender of the weak throughout the school. Or just a stalker. Still not a good person.

Agathion here uses electricity instead of fire since we're mostly working on Persona 5 elements considering that's the newest game. Not the exact same element system as we'll soon find out, but close enough in many areas. That said, their party isn't half bad between one Physical/Light user, one Dark user, one Fire/Ranged user (we'll see that next chapter), and now a weak Electric user.

About all I've got for now. Thanks for reading. Share if you're enjoying. Always remember to wear pants in a restaurant unless it's a very specific kind of restaurant that allows you not to.