My first response to the situation was to kick the demon in the side. That response might have worked in the real world but since this was a demon I was kicking, it felt like I had kicked a brick wall.

My kick, however, had the effect I was wanting. Shizuka took her thumbs out of Chikako's mouth and turned to me.

"Who are you? It's only supposed to be me and Chikako here," Shizuka said taking steps towards me. Her cheeks cracked further, widening her hideous grin. "No matter, I'll get rid of you so Chikako and I can have some time alone…"

"Persona!" I yelled as blue aura flashed around me.

My Persona Ran appeared behind me in an instant. Ran tackled into Shizuka and grabbed her arm, flinging her across the room an instant later. The demon crashed through rows of chairs until she smashed into the red curtained wall.

My attention quickly went to Chikako. The girl looked ready to faint and after seeing this world and my Persona, I wouldn't blame her if she did.

I spoke while Ran ripped off the steel bands trapping Chikako. "There isn't enough time for me to explain," I told her.

"Shizuka's behind you!" Chikako yelled pointing behind me.

I spun around by reflex and was surprised to see the demon Shizuka standing there, still grinning. I was surprised to see her behind me but I was more surprised by how quickly she got there despite being on the other side of the room. This demon may look like a twisted middle school girl but her speed was just as insane as she was.

Shizuka chuckled as she opened her wide mouth. She had teeth but other than that there was nothing other than a deep darkness.

"Garula!" Shizuka screamed.

Ran jumped in front of us while a blast of concentrated air shot out of Shizuka's open mouth. Ran was hit by the blast at close-range and I felt every bit of damage done to her. My body felt like someone took a hammer and swung it at every inch of my body. Ran flew across the room and I ignored the throbbing pain in my body as I grabbed Chikako's hand.

"I'm not letting you take Chikako!" Shizuka screamed.

She threw her hands out to grab me but Ran felt what I wanted her to do and blasted her with the Bufu spell, freezing her where she stood. The ice, however, was quick to crack and I knew it wasn't going to hold her for more than a few seconds. I took the time given to me to run with Chikako to the theater's exit. Shizuka shattered the ice trapping her and screamed while we exited the theater, Ran hurrying to my back while I looked around for something to bar the door. Ran, however, swung her arms at the doors and flooded them with a massive wave of water. She then froze the water in an instant with the Bufu spell, creating a thick wall of ice preventing Shizuka from exiting the theater, at least for a while. It gave us time to look around for our exit. Ran disappeared while we looked around.

Chikako was silent as we walked into the theater's lobby. The lobby was twisted in appearance, having a checker-patterned on just everything in the room. Other than the checker patterns, everything else in the lobby looked the same as any theater lobby I've been to. One thing that stood out though, was the ticket booth placed next to theater's exits. Instead of facing the outside, the ticket booth's window was facing the inside of the theater. There was a person standing inside the booth and I knew who it was the moment I saw that ocean-themed suit.

Poseidon grinned while he leaned against the booth's glass, his trident in between his crossed arms.

"It's so nice to see you again, Kimi Amaya," he said through the booth's microphone, making his voice louder than it should be. "I knew you would the type of idiot who couldn't keep her nose out of our business. That man last time surprised me but this time, I made sure no one could ever enter or exit our little realm…"

Poseidon gestured towards the theater's exit and I noticed that on the other side of the door were several thick chains that surrounded the doors. Unless Yosuke was carrying a powerful blowtorch with him and we had more time, we couldn't leave and the chances of outside help were none. Poseidon chuckled, knowing that I had no way of escaping this time around.

"Having you unable to escape is great and all but it really takes a toll on my restricted powers to block off all exits and entrances to Persona-users," Poseidon told me. "I'm stuck in here with nothing to do but watch my beautiful Kuchisake-Onna tear your friends cheeks open."

"You mean Shizuka?" I asked.

"I don't know who this Shizuka is but her demon created from her worst memories is the Kuchisake-Onna," the god answered. "Just like the Gashadokuro was created from the memories inside that head of yours. This demon was created to devour her memories, most likely killing her in the process, and that's what it is going to do."

Poseidon might not know but he had just told me that these demons aren't out to kill their creators but to devour their memories. It was a piece of information that didn't help our situation but did answer a few questions for me…

Poseidon chuckled again. "But don't worry, Kimi Amaya, the Kuchisake-Onna won't kill you unless you provoke her," he said. "I'd say there's no way out but since I'm a nice guy most of the time, how about I offer you a deal? I let this girl leave alive, without her memories, and you give me your heart. Great deal, right?"

"That's a horrible deal!" I yelled back at him. "Even if I don't except, you'll still take Chikako's memories and my heart!"

"And here I thought I could end this quickly," he sighed. "Oh well, have fun trying to escape the Kuchisake-Onna."

With that said, the inside of the ticket booth became black and we couldn't see the god anymore.

"That was a god?" Chikako asked. "He didn't seem very… godly."

"He controls this world, Kimura-san, and he almost killed me the last time I was here. He's really powerful," I told her.

Shizuka's screams from behind the ice wall got louder and if I focused, I could hear what she was screaming. It was mostly screaming at Chikako to answer her question whether she was beautiful or not. I remembered that Poseidon called Shizuka a Kuchisake-Onna, the name of a demon in a well-known story in Japan. Most of the details escaped me but what I did remember was what would happen if Chikako had answered Shizuka's question. Answering the Kuchisake-Onna's question had dangerous consequences if you answered either yes or no.

The Kuchisake-Onna had a tendency to slit open the cheeks of anyone who answers her question, forcing them to have the same hideously wide grin as they did.

The ice wall stood while Shizuka banged harder against the wall.

"Let's go look for another exit," I said grabbing Chikako's hand.

She was hesitant to follow but she knew that I was the only one who could protect us until we found an exit. The loud cracking of the ice wall, however, made her hurry to run with me. We looked around the lobby until we found the door to a stairwell. Without thinking, we ascended up to the second floor while Shizuka's screams got louder. The second floor was a short hallway with only one door at the end.

"This looks like a dead-" Chikako said before letting out a scream.

"What's wrong?" I yelled looking around but not seeing the demon.

"I stepped on something!" Chikako answered pointing in front of her foot.

I looked down and to my surprise, something small was where she pointed. It came out of the floor like some kind of viscous liquid but it was entirely black and moving as if it had a mind of its own. The thing let out some kind of terrified cry while it tried to get away from us. Whatever this thing was, Chikako was freaked by it. She screamed again and begun stomping the creature until it stopped moving and sunk back into the checker-patterned floor.

"What the hell was that thing?" Chikako yelled.

"I don't know," I answered.

Until another glob of whatever that thing was fell on my shoulder. A shiver went up my spine as I turned my head to the viscous glob. A sad blue mask came out of the glob and I felt like it was staring at me through those tiny eyeholes in the mask. I didn't scream like Chikako but my response was pretty much the same. I bashed the tiny thing with my fist until it let out a tiny cry and fell to the floor.

"Those things are everywhere!" Chikako yelled looking around.

Chikako and I ran past the black creatures, knowing our only choice was to run into the room since Shizuka was at the bottom of the stairs. We shut the door behind us and locked it. We both caught our breath as we looked at the room we were trapped in.

We had trapped ourselves in the projector room. The wide room had shelves of movie films placed against the walls and a single projector playing in the middle of the room. The movie in the theater we were just in was playing and the voices coming out of the speakers were louder than the film in the projector. The color in Chikako's face drained as we heard her voice speaking from the speakers.

"That Shizuka is so easy to manipulate," Chikako's voice laughed. Her voice has a sort of haughtiness that she didn't speak with now. Her voice also sounded a bit higher so I guess it must've been her younger self. "All I got to do is say I'll make her beautiful and she does whatever I say."

Tears welled up in Chikako's eyes as more voices joined.

"Sounds like you got a loyal slave, Kimura," a girl's voice said.

"You don't know how dedicated this girl is," Chikako's voice laughed. "She's pays for my things and since her family is in charge of the local theater, I get to watch movies for free. Sometimes I even get to watch the movie a day before it's released…"

"Shut up," Chikako whispered tears trickling down her cheeks.

But Chikako's younger self continued talking. "That girl gets perfect scores on the tests but she's so stupid to not know I'm only using her!" Chikako cackled. "She's so stupid for thinking that I can turn that ugly face of hers into something bearable!"

Chikako's laughing continued while the Chikako next to me screamed, trying to drown out the laugh of her younger self. It felt like the speakers were turning up the volume because no matter how loud Chikako screamed, the speakers could still be heard clearly over them.

Chikako's younger self stopped laughing and for a second, I wondered why. The Chikako next to me knew and cried even louder as Shizuka's voice came out of the speakers.

"You were lying?" Shizuka's heartbroken voice said. Her voice seemed to echo throughout the whole building, making Chikako cry even harder.

The sounds of Shizuka crying and running away came out of the speaker while whoever was with Chikako were speaking in haste.

"This is bad!" a girl's voice yelled. "What if she does something to herself? It'll be your fault, Chikako!"

"I didn't… I mean…" Chikako's younger self tried to speak but couldn't spit out more than two words.

"Shizuka locked herself in her room for the next week until she was found hanging from a noose…" a voice from inside the projector room said.

"She killed herself because you lied to her…" another voice said.

"You took a family's only daughter from them…"

"AND IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT!" the voices screamed.

Every case of film in the room began to shake violently while the voice continued to scream at Chikako. She fell to the ground and covered her ears, trying to scream over the voices with no success. She was falling apart in front of me while I couldn't do anything about it. She wouldn't be able to hear my voice over the others.

Whatever those globs of black were, they were starting to come into the room in large masses. The globs fell onto the cases of film and they exploded, the film forming a human-shaped being made from movie film. Red masks appeared on the film creature's faces and every one of them was staring at Chikako. The creatures then charged towards the crying girl.

"Persona!" I yelled.

Ran appeared in a flash of blue aura and tackled the horde of film creatures trying to throw themselves upon Chikako. My Persona, however, was having a hard time holding the creatures back. I could feel the strain Ran was feeling in my whole body and that she was becoming weaker with every passing minute. The film creatures were striking my Persona with their fists and I could feel their punches wherever they struck.

A film creature caught me by surprise, coming from behind and embracing me with its arm. I struggled, kicking it and throwing my weight around, but the creature was far stronger than me. Ran tried to help me but the moment she tried, the film creatures overwhelmed her. They piled on top of her and pinned her to the ground. It took most of the creatures but Ran was successfully pinned and unable to fight back.

A single creature unlocked the door and the Kuchisake-Onna Shizuka walked in, her cheeks cracking even further to allow her grin to widen.

"Finally we get some time together, Chikako," Shizuka chuckled as she moved closer to the still sobbing girl on the floor.

The demon grabbed Chikako by her hair and pulled her up off the ground. Chikako gritted her teeth in pain as she hung an inch from the ground by her hair. The demon chuckled as she lifted Chikako higher in the air.

"Let her go!" I screamed trying to tear the film creature's arm off of me.

"Oh, it's so sweet that you care for this horrible person," Shizuka chuckled turning her face to me. "Don't you know what she did to me by now? I was so depressed when I found out she was only using me. I couldn't even get out of bed till I decided to hang myself. Are you really sure you're going to defend this bitch?"

Chikako cried louder. "Please forgive me, Shizuka," she cried.

Shizuka turned back to her victim. "Oh, listen to her cry," Shizuka said shivering from pleasure. "She's acting like she's feeling guilt over killing me. Isn't this nice, Chikako? Our roles have switched, now you're the girl wanting something and I'm the one not giving it to you!"

Chikako continued to cry while Shizuka shook from the pleasure of watching her.

"I'll be better than the horrible person you were, Chikako, and actually give you a chance," Shizuka said. "If you answer my question, then I'll forgive you for killing me…"

I struggled harder to free myself from the creature. Chikako was going to answer her question and since Shizuka was the Kuchisake-Onna, it was only going to end with her slicing Chikako's cheeks open. I wasn't going to let that happen. The creatures, however, were too strong and they kept my Persona pinned to the ground.

"Don't answer her question, Chikako!" I yelled.

Shizuka dropped Chikako, a film creature wrapping its arms around her before she could run, and the demon turned to me. She was still grinning but her eyes told me she was annoyed.

"I am sick of you trying to get in between us," Shizuka said. "Chikako is a repulsive person who deserves everything that's happening to her in this place. You didn't even know her for longer than a few days! I know everything there is about Chikako Kimura! She's the type of person who uses people for her own comfort! I died because she used me as her personal slave! How do you know she's not using you just so she can live?"

"I'm not using anybody," Chikako cried.

Shizuka laughed at her cry. "Oh listen to her, she said she's not using you," the demon laughed. "She believes she's a different person…"

The demon was a blur as she spun around, punching Chikako in her gut. Chikako coughed violently while the demon cackled at her pain.

"You are never going to change who you are!" Shizuka screamed in her face. "You will always be the girl who killed me! That past will always come back to torture you! You can keep trying to change into a better person but I know that it's all an act! That manipulative bitch who killed me will always be you!"

Chikako was breaking and the demon reveled in her pain.

"But I'll make it all disappear, Chikako," Shizuka whispered in a kind voice. The demon placed her hands on Chikako's head and spoke again. "You done so much to me but I'll still give you this comfort. I'm beautiful now that I've been reborn and I want to return the favor. You'll never feel the guilt of murdering me again…"

Shizuka's cheeks cracked as far as they could to widen her grin as she went on to devour Chikako's memories. The girl didn't resist anymore and was letting the demon take her memories. I couldn't do anything to stop it but that didn't mean I wasn't struggling. I was kicking the creature in its legs as hard I could and flailed my whole body around in the hopes the creature would lessen its grip. Ran was doing the same as me but she actually ripped a few film creatures apart, only for those creatures to be replaced by a few more.

"Huh?" Shizuka whispered still holding Chikako's head. "I… I can't take her memories!"

Both Chikako and I were surprised by her yell. Shizuka's purpose was to devour the memories Chikako had but for some reason, she couldn't. She wanted to know the answer just like I did but she seemed to find it much faster than I did since she turned back to me.

"You are doing something, aren't you?" Shizuka screamed at me. "I can't take my sweet Chikako's memories because of you! Well, this can be easily fixed…"

I felt the film creature's grip on me weaken, as if it was being affected by Shizuka's anger. If the creature holding me was weakened, then that means the creatures holding Ran down are weakened too.

Ran knew what she had to do.

My Persona gave a loud battle cry as she threw the mass of film creatures off her. Taking the small amount of time before the creatures threw themselves back on Ran, my Persona swung her arms in a circle. Torrents of salt water smashed into the film creatures and Shizuka. The film creatures were ripped apart by the water and exploded in a cloud of red and black smoke. Shizuka screamed as she was pushed out of the room by the wave of water. The film creature holding me had exploded like the rest, letting me run over to Chikako and hold unto to her so she doesn't get swept up by the water.

In less than a minute, every one of the creatures in the room exploded in the same cloud of red and black smoke. The projector room was drenched and so was Chikako and I. Ran had blocked the room's door with another wall of ice and we were safe until Shizuka broke through this wall like the other. While the demon struck the wall of ice over and over again, I checked Chikako for anything serious. Skipping over the broken expression she had, Chikako had no serious physical injuries.

"You can still run," I told her.

"I'm not going to run," she responded. "I deserve everything Shizuka is going to do to me…"

"Don't listen to what that demon says," I said grabbing her hand to help her to her feet.

Chikako, however, slapped my hand away. "Didn't you hear what I did to her?" Chikako cried holding her legs close to her chest. "I'm a horrible person, Amaya-san. There's nothing I can do to earn her forgiveness. It'll be better if I just let her kill…"

"I won't let her," I interrupted. "That demon will not take your memories or kill you. It'll never happen as long as I'm with you."

"But I'm…"

"If you want me to damn you as a horrible person later, that's fine but as long as we are in this world, I'll protect you until we both leave alive with all of our memories," I told Chikako. "But despite everything I learned about you in this world, I still don't believe you are so bad that you deserve this fate."

"It's my fault Shizuka killed herself," she cried. "She wants me to suffer-"

"That thing isn't Shizuka! It's a demon called the Kuchisake-Onna, a demon created from your memories of Shizuka!" I yelled at her. "The only reason it's condemning you is because you still believe that you deserve punishment! You still believe that you're the same Chikako who caused a girl's suicide!"

Chikako looked ready to cry again but I had to tell her or else we weren't going to live through this. She needed to deal with her past and be ready when that demon comes back.

"Tell me, Chikako, do you honestly believe that Shizuka's suicide didn't change you?"

My question did the trick. Chikako stared at me, her tears stopping. I could she was thinking hard about my question while we stared at each in this silent room…

Wait, why is it so quiet? Shouldn't that demon be banging against the ice blocking the door?

"Garula!" Shizuka's voice screamed.

"Chikako!"

Ran jumped in front of us while the wall facing the theater had exploded, sending chunks of debris at us. The damn demon was acting smart and decided to force her way in through the movie theater instead of taking her time breaking the ice wall. Chikako was left unharmed while I felt the pain my Persona was currently feeling. My back stung as if several pieces of rock were lodged in there, which might be true but I didn't want to look at Ran while she removed the debris. I was still feeling the pain of the demon's surprise attack while Ran flew out of the hole in the wall and into the theater.

"You aren't getting in my way again!" Shizuka screamed moving with that insane speed of hers. Ran tried to hit with the Bufu spell but she moved too fast. By the time she stopped, she had already run up the wall and into the destroyed projector room where Chikako and I were still recovering. Ran couldn't fire another spell when the chance of hitting us was present.

"Come back, Chikako," Shizuka said taking steps towards us. "Don't you want my forgiveness? Just tell me that I'm beautiful and I'll forgive everything."

I was afraid she might say that the demon was beautiful and have her cheeks slit open but Chikako reacted in the way I hoped she would. She stood on her feet and stared at the demon with determined eyes. She wiped the drying tears off her eyes and took a deep breath.

"You are the ugliest thing I have ever seen in my life!" She yelled at the demon trying to look mature while she did.

If it was possible, Shizuka's grin got smaller. She stared at Chikako with a shocked look in her eyes. "I'm… what?"

"You heard me!" Chikako yelled back. "Amaya-san was right, you aren't Shizuka! You are just some ugly twisted version of her created from my memories! You could never be considered beautiful!"

I was shocked to see that just like me before, a blue flash of aura surrounded Chikako. She must have been feeling the same rising power in her body because she yelled louder and with more emotion.

"Everything about you is just wrong! Shizuka looks nothing like you! Shizuka could have been beautiful if only I helped her! I regret my choice to not help her every day but seeing your ugly face ruin her image, I'm not going to hold back! You are hideous and that's all you will ever be! Compared to you, even a person like me is still beautiful!"

The demon Kuchisake-Onna was struck silent by Chikako's answer. She shook more and more violently while grinding her teeth. Her fists clutched so tight that black blood was dripping out.

"I WON'T ACCEPT THAT ANSWER!" the Kuchisake-Onna screamed as loud as she could.

She leapt at Chikako, ready to rip her cheeks apart with her claw-like hands. "I'M BEAUTIFUL, YOU BITCH!"

The demon was ready to kill Chikako but she didn't get any closer to her. A golden hand appeared and slammed the Kuchisake-Onna's face into the floor.

"I am thou and thou art I," A woman's regal voice said.

Chikako and I were struck speechless by the appearance of the most beautiful sight we have ever seen. Standing behind Chikako was her Persona, a tall woman with a body sculpted entirely out of gold and precious gems. Her incredibly long and golden hair fell to the ground and shined brightly in the light. A silver mask hid the top half of her face but we could see her bright red lips smiling at us. Chikako's Persona was so radiant that the light coming from her seemed to illuminate the dark projector room. Electric sparks flew off her body while she placed her hands on Chikako's cheeks.

"I am Aphrodite, Goddess of Love and Beauty," the Persona told Chikako. "Let our enemies be smitten by our beauty and strength!"

The Kuchisake-Onna recovered quickly from Aphrodite's surprise attack and swung her hands at Chikako. Chikako's Persona, however, kicked the demon out of the huge hole in the wall. The demon smashed into the movie screen and fell to the floor with a loud crash.

"This is my Persona?" Chikako whispered in awe of Aphrodite. "It's just like yours, right Amaya-san?"

"It's different but they're both Personas," I answered. "It means you can help me defeat the Kuchisake-Onna."

The Kuchisake-Onna, however, wasn't going to go down easily. She screamed as she jumped back to her feet. She continued to scream while the globs of black from before began flinging themselves onto her body. The globs of black continued to pile on the demon while she screamed until they exploded in a cloud of red and black smoke. I had hoped it meant she died but when the cloud cleared, it only showed me that things got worse.

The Kuchisake-Onna was now far larger than she was before, being almost as tall as the movie screen behind her. Her arms and legs looked like someone had twisted them as far as they could while making sure they stayed arms and legs. Her huge school uniform was torn and hung loosely on her incredibly thin body. She no longer had a face too, only a wide grin on her twisted head. The demon screamed as long and dirty black hair fell to her waist.

"This is my beautiful true form, Chikako!" the Kuchisake-Onna screamed. "No more forgiveness, I will have my revenge on you for calling me ugly!"

"Looks like she's going to be stronger this time around," I said.

"I'm ready to fight," Chikako responded.