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Summary- Chapter 7: Mysteries of the Fog
After that show of overwhelming loyalty showed to me by my team we quickly walked down to the electronics department. Luckily for us no one was there, so with Chie and Yosuke standing guard I stuck my hand in, just to make sure we could still get in; other than Teddie, we hadn't tried since before I left. It worked so I dove in, followed by Naoto and the others. Yosuke was the last one. Once we were all in we looked around and were surprised by what we saw.
The land was still as beautiful as we left it, but the whole thing was covered in fog. It wasn't as thick as before, but to see fog here again was not reassuring.
"What! What is going on here? I thought we got rid of the fog last spring. Why is it back?" Chie said looking around.
"I don't know Chie, but look it's not that thick, we don't even need our glasses to see." With that Yosuke gave me a bit of inspiration. I grabbed my glasses out of my pocket and put them on.
"Guys, put on your glasses, you are not going to believe this." They all did and from the way things looked and sounded they were just as shocked as I was.
"What the, why aren't they working? Teddie! I thought these things were suppose to work here."
"Chie calm down, I'm sure Ted there is just as confused as the rest of us." Yosuke was right, looking at Teddie I could see that he had no idea what was going on.
"Yea, I don't know anymore about this then the rest of you. This fog wasn't here when I left yesterday. Something must have happened while I was with you guys." We looked around a bit then Yukiko spoke up.
"Wait, so Teddie, you didn't come back here last night after you left Souji's house?"
"Nope, on the way back Yosuke and I decided that I would stay the night with him, for old time's sake." We looked at Yosuke.
"What? I thought it would be easier then having to wait for him to come back." Yukiko stated speaking again.
"Okay so that explains why he didn't see anything, but it doesn't explain why the glasses aren't working. I am assuming that everyone saw the same thing."
"I believe that it a correct assumption Yukiko-senpai. We also must take into consideration that they did work for Souji and me earlier, when we were being attacked." Silence fell over the group for a few minutes, until Kanji spoke up.
"Maybe this here is just normal fog."
We all looked at him then I asked, "What do you mean?"
"Well, if the glasses aren't working then maybe there is nothing mystical about this fog. Is it really so hard to believe that just because this world is mystical that it doesn't have normal weather"
"Interesting theory Kanji, I don't know if I concur, but it does seem like a possibility. It could also be that Teddies glasses were made for that specific kind of fog. So if this is an entirely different kind, with a different source, then it also stands to reason that the properties in the glasses that made them work before are no longer effective. Furthermore the fog earlier was accompanied by a shadow, so maybe the shadows somehow create the fog surrounding them, thus allowing Souji and me to use the glasses and our persona. That is another thing we seem to have forgotten, we summoned our person, in the real world. That is not something we have been able to do previously. For that I have two possible theories, either we were able to do so because of the fog, or it is possible that it was because we were in immediate danger."
"I don't know Naoto; I mean I was able to speak with my person last night. As you said that is not something I have been able to do before, and there was no fog and my life certainly was not in any danger. It could be that we are simply getting stronger and have a deeper connection to them. When we leave I was the rest of you to try to summon your personas or at least contact them."
"Wow, all this thinking is making my head hurt, I thought we were suppose to be on vacation."
"Chie, just because it's summer break does not mean you can give up on thinking. I mean at the very least we do have homework to do."
"I know Yukiko, but still I have got a killer headache." During their exchange I realized that Rise hadn't said anything in a while, and let's face it, she likes to talk. So I looked for her. I found her over by a large rock, just staring off into the distance.
"Rise,"she didn't answer me, or even acknowledge me so I tried again a little louder, "Rise!"
"Huh, what? Oh Souji-senpai, what's up?"
"I was just about to ask you the same question. You were just staring off into space. Is there a problem?"
"Oh, no I just thought I felt something over there. I'm happy to know you were care enough to worry about me though."
"Of course I care about you; you're part of the team. I care about everyone here. Now you said you thought you felt something, like what? Was it a shadow or another person?"
"I don't really know; it kinda feels like it could be a human, but at the same time it doesn't. I don't think it's a shadow though."
"Have you tried to summon Kanzeon?" She looked surprised at that, I'm pretty sure the thought hadn't even crossed her mind.
"No, why didn't I think of that. Okay, give me a sec." With that there was a flash of light and behind Rise stood a ten foot tall woman with a satellite for a head. By then the others had noticed what was going on and started coming over to use. Yosuke was the first to speak.
"What's going on Partner, why's she got Kanzeon out?" There was a slight chorus sounding the others mutual confusion.
"She thought she felt something or someone's presence. Now she's trying to get a better idea of what's out there." Then Naoto stepped forward and spoke.
"Hmm, so we now know that we can still summon our personas here, but what do you mean, she felt something? Like a shadow or was it human?"
"She wasn't sure, let's just give her a minute to figure it out. She did say that it was almost definitely not a shadow." Just then Rise shouted.
"I got it; there is a person a few meters from our current location, about where Yukiko-senpai's castle was. But there is something different about this person, I can't quite tell what though."
"But how did someone else get in here, does that mean they have a person too?" Chie looked around trying to find someone to answer her question.
"I don't know Chie, probably, but we can't count out what Rise said. She said this person felt different, can you describe to us what you meant Rise?"
"I can try. It was like this person was human, but with a little bit of shadow in them, not like Teddie though. I think if the person was like Teddie, I would know. I was almost like the feel I get when I sense another persona user, but darker."
Kanji then took a turn speaking, "Darker, like how?"
"I'm not quite sure, like I said it was almost like a shadow was looming over them, but there was only one presence. I don't know it doesn't make much sense."
"No it doesn't, and the only way we will be able to figure it out is to go see for ourselves. You said it was over by where the castle was, alright Yukiko and Rise lead the way." I looked at them, putting as much confidence and authority in my voice as I could.
I could see Yukiko's dislike of the idea. She didn't even like going to that area, even knowing that the castle was no longer there, but she didn't say anything. She just turned toward the place in question and began walking. Chie ran up to her and grabbed her hand trying to comfort her. I know there were a lot of questions about Kanji's orientation, but sometimes looking at those two girls I have to wonder if they have something going on.
If there is then I have to feel sorry for Yosuke, he told me in an e-mail just last month that he had gotten over his thing for Saki Konishi and now had his eye on Chie. I thought it was a bit strange at first, but now I could see it, unless of course she wanted Yukiko instead. Oh well, nothing I could do about it, I just want as many of my team member as possible to be happy. Instead I focused on my own happiness. I walked up to Naoto, who was in the back of the group and grabbed her hand. She looked at me and smiled, then leaned up and kissed me on the cheek and we ran to catch up with the others. Yea, as far as I was concerned, life was pretty good. If only I had known how drastically things were about to change.
A/N: So another chapter is here at last. Sorry I haven't been posting very often, I'm having a bad bout of writer's block and can't decide how to take some things. As of right now I have not decided on final parings, so if there is a specific one you want then review and let me know. I am open to any except changing Naoto and Souji; they are the only paring set in stone at the moment. Chie will almost certainly be with Yukiko or Yosuke but I have yet to decide which, and I do not have any ideas for Rise, Teddie, and Kanji, if I even decide to do something with them at all. So, yeah, if you have a particular favorite then let me know.
Now I am not going to set a specific number of reviews I want before I continue, but I will remind you all that the more reviews I get the sooner I will post and the more likely I will be to end this well, I still haven't even decided if it's going to have a happy ending or not, so review and they might just come out of this alive and well.