Author's Note: I have finally gotten off of exams, and now I can finally post the continuation of this story. Don't worry. I haven't quite given up on this yet. It's gonna be kind of chapter-heavy in regards to the plot until the Yukiko arc completes. After that, we get a little break before the next challenge our heroes get!/Author's Note

-...-

Outside the gym, Yui and Chie waited for practice to end. Sitting lazily as the boys on the inside ran laps and went through shooting drills, Yui quickly got bored and looked around. To her surprise, she saw Ai sitting off to the side, looking huffy as usual. Yui tapped Chie on the shoulder and mouthed, Don't follow me.

She stood up and walked over to Ai, taking a breath and tentatively tapping her on the shoulder.

"What is it?" Ai snapped.

"Are you okay?" Yui asked. "I- I'm sorry that I didn't help you as much as I should have." She looked away, embarrassed.

"I'll say." Flipping her hair back, the other girl sighed. "I've been trying to talk to Kou for days, but he just won't talk to me. He's always too busy with his stupid basketball team."

Yui gritted her teeth and resisted punching Ai in the face. "Maybe he'd like you more if you'd appreciate his choices more."

"Like the choice that he made to cut me from being manager?"

"No," Yui growled, close to yelling, "The choice he made to stick with his team! The choice he made to not give up when he could have walked out!" By this time, she towered over Ai, at least in a metaphorical sense. "And, now that I think about it, yeah! The choice he made to cut you from being manager! Because you didn't care for the basketball team!" She had turned huffy and red in the face from yelling so loudly, and the noise had attracted Chie's attention.

Ai was about to interrupt, but Yui continued. "If you want to be team manager, go ahead! But either way, it's about time you cared about someone besides yourself!"

-Persona4-

CHAPTER 9: KNIGHT IN SHINING ARMOR

Courage- Brave

Knowledge- Expert

Expression- Persuasive

Understanding- Kindly

Diligence- Strong

-Persona 4-

Ai looked away and said nothing. Small tears formed in her eyes, but at this point Yui didn't care. "Fine." The white-haired girl got up silently and walked into the gym, completely ignoring Chie. But just before she was going to push open the door, she stopped. Turning toward the brunette, she locked eyes with Satonaka. Chie, taking this as an act of aggression, glared back. But her glare softened as she realized there was no emotion in Ai's eyes. Suddenly, Eibhara blinked and whispered, "I'm sorry."

It was Chie's turn to blink. "What? Sorry?"

"I've done enough to hurt you all." Ai turned away from the gym and stepped toward the outside door. Yui jumped up. "Wait!" She grabbed Ai's shoulder to find that she was smiling sadly.

"You don't have to worry about me. I'm not going to hurt myself. I just need a little time to think." The smile turned into a frown, and she continued to walk out.

As soon as the door closed, Yui silently swore herself out. Stupid, stupid, stupid! I screwed up yet again! It's no wonder she hates me! She caught her breath. Okay, calm down. It's not that bad. I can get through this. The best thing to do here is to calmly see this mess out to the end.

"Um, Yui?" Chie asked.

"What?" The grey-haired girl groaned.

"The guys are getting out." The bouncing of basketballs had stopped, and there was some chatting and laughter from in the gym.

Yui turned around to see the gym doors swing open. Most of the basketball team poured out, including Yosuke, who was panting and sweating, even after having taken a shower. Yu was slightly disturbed by this fact, and stepped back.

"Um, so, how did it go?" She asked tentatively.

"Awfully." Yosuke dropped his bag on the floor and slid down next to it. "We ran dribbling drills the whole damn practice!" He groaned and rubbed his legs. "Thank God he said practice was canceled until Friday's game." He looked up. "Rain was gonna be a problem for the guys that walked home Thursday, and Wenesday half of the guys have Drama or some shit."

"Where's Mogura?" Yui asked. "Shouldn't he be with you?"

"Um… Yeah.. about that… apparently, he got picked up for more questioning… Lucky bastard." Yosuke groaned again, rubbing his biceps tenatively.

"WHAT?" Chie screamed. She grabbed Yosuke by the scruff of his collar and shook him. "You mean we have to go to the police office after him?"

Yosuke pushed Chie's grip off of him and slipped to the ground. "Hey, lay off, okay? My legs still hurt. But, yeah, unfortunately, you're right." He sighed. "It's really late, and my legs really hurt. Could we please just skip the trip today? After all, we have tomorrow and Thursday." He made his best pleading face.

It didn't help. Chie shook her head. "No way. Yukiko may die in there! We've got to go as soon as possible!"

Yui nodded and picked up Yosuke's bag. "Pull yourself together and get to Junes. Chie and I will get Mogura and meet you there."

Yoskue groaned and struggled up. "If I die of exhaustion, my ghost is coming after you."

Chie and Yui ignored him, running out the doors of the school and carrying both their weapons and Yosuke's bookbag.

-…-

Inaba Police Station

Chie beat Yui to the door, carrying Yosuke's bookbag on her back. Yui stopped to put the weapon bag down in the lobby with her backpack, and followed Chie to the front desk.

"We need to talk to Mogura Inja, please!" Chie tapped on the desk.

The lady behind the counter looked up and smiled sadly. "Oh, I'm afraid he's in questioning right now, but he should be out in five minutes…"

Chie drummed her fingers impatiently. "Could we at least talk to whoever is interviewing him?"

The receptionist shook her head. "I'm sorry, but we don't allow people to just burst in on police business. If you could wait a few minutes, maybe…" She saw Yui's pleading look and sighed. "Fine. I'll call Dojima."

She picked up the desk phone and punched in three numbers. Putting the earpiece up to her head, she waited for a second and then spoke. "Officer Dojima, there are two girls out here that want to talk to Mr. Inja." She listened and looked at the girls. "Yes, one of them has grey hair. Should I send them in?"

She put down the phone. "Dojima would like to talk to you himself."

The girls were walking down the hall when they saw a shoddily-dressed but clean-shaven detective sulking outside the interview room. When he saw them, he perked up. "Hey, aren't you Yukiko-chan's friends?"

Chie stopped and nodded. "Yeah? What's wrong? Did you find her?"

The policeman frowned. "Uh… No, but we do have an idea who the killer is!"

Chie perked up. "Really? That's great! Who is it?"

The detective frowned again. "Well, because I only saw him from the back and Mogura is blind… Our range is pretty wide, to say the least."

"Oh." Chie looked down.

Yui looked around, feeling kind of nervous. She had never really been in a police office before.

"But still, we are almost entirely sure that the culprit was male!" He smiled. "Just so you know, my name's Tohru Adachi." He held out his hand. Yui shook it, still slightly nervous.

"Don't worry. Dojima can tell you all about the fish-eyed kid. He came in saying he did everything."

Chie looked up in surprise. "Wait. What fish-eyed kid?"

Adachi swallowed and looked around. "Um, I don't think I should have said that…"

Satonaka glared at him. "Well, what else shouldn't you say? Who is this fish-eyed guy?"

She intensified her glare, and Adachi started sweating heavily. "Um, Ah…" The door behind Tohru opened, granting him a line of escape. "H-here! Dojima can tell you! I have to get to interviewing the suspect. Bye!" He half-ran towards another room, pulled out a set of keys, and unlocked it. He closed the door behind him quickly and another click was heard.

Ryotaro stepped up to replace the other detective. He had a coffee mug in one hand and a confused look on his face. "What was that all about?"

Yui shifted and asked him, "Adachi said something about a fish-eyed kid who said he committed the murders. Can we see him?"

Ryotaro looked at the door which Adachi had entered. "Soon. Right now I need to ask you some questions."

They entered what appeared to be an interrogation room, the two girls noticed Mogura sitting quietly in one of the chairs. He carried his guidance staff in one hand and didn't look up. Dojima sat down opposite to Mogura and cleared his throat.

Mogura said nothing.

"Yui, when did you first meet Mogura?" Dojima looked up.

"Um, I think I saw him on the train to Inaba, but I really only met him when he frightened off…"

Yui remembered the creepy guy that had confronted them and actually tried to attack them. Mogura had scared him off. It was his first time actually meeting Yui or Yukiko.

"…This creepy-looking guy that was asking Yukiko Amagi out and almost hurt me and Yukiko."

Ryotaro burst from the table eyes wild with surprise. "He tried to attack you?"

Yui nodded. "Yeah. He had a backhand ready and everything when Mogura overheard us and stepped in." Ryotaro clenched his fists and sat down, seething with anger.

He turned to Mogura again. "Well, is there anything you'd like to add or correct?" His tone was sharper, more impatient.

Mogura nodded. "What seems strange to me was how quick he was to try and use physical force on them. I was very close to school… Not more than a five-minute walk. Why would he have done something like that? He could have easily been arrested or interrupted, like the way I did." He stood up and tapped his staff on the floor. "It just doesn't make sense… But, then again…" His head turned toward Yui and Chie. "…neither does hanging someone up on a telephone pole, eh?"

Chie nodded. "Yeah." She scowled. "But whoever this guy is, he's going to pay for what he did!" She shifted from one foot to the next excitedly. "I'd like to know where he is so I can kick his…" She cut herself off after catching a glare from Dojima. "Oh… Sorry." She blushed abashedly and stepped back, hands behind her back.

Dojima sighed. "Fine. As soon as Adachi is done interviewing him, you can talk to him. But I will have to be in the room at all times."

Yui nodded. "Sounds good."

Mogura pushed his chair in. "That seems reasonable. So where is he?"

Dojima moved to outside the door. "Follow me. It's only about two doors down, though."

Following him out and down the hallway, they came across a larger interrogation room. It was darkened, but there was a large window that could be used for viewing the room. The room was spacious and appeared to only have a table in it, like the room Mogura had been in. Mitsuo and Adachi seemed to be having an argument, one that seemed to be heating up at an enormous rate. Adachi slammed his fist on the table, and Mitsuo got up with a wild look in his eyes. He jumped at Adachi, and the lamp clattered to the floor. There was a smash, and the room went completely dark.

Dojima pulled out his pistol and grabbed at the keys on his belt. Chie went to the door's handle and pulled down on it. Yui tried to stop her, but the door wasn't opening anyway. "Come on!" Satonaka shoved down hard on the doorknob, but it didn't budge. "Move, you stupid thing!"

Dojima pulled out the correct key, pushed Chie and Yui to the side, and unlocked the door. Kicking it open, he lowered his pistol to shoulder height and shouted, "Freeze! Get down on the ground!" Chie reached her arm around and turned on the regular lights, revealing Adachi lying on the ground. He had pulled out his pistol and was pointing it around the room. Looking scared, his eyes darted around, and his holster was still unclipped.

Both detectives checked the whole room, including behind a television set and around the upturned table, but found nothing.

Dojima swore, stomped out his cigarette, and hammered the wall with his fist. "Goddamnit! Every time!" He hit the wall again, each time harder. "EVERY-" Crack- "DAMN-" Crack! "TIME!" Crack!

Yui stepped forward. "Dojima-san… I…"

Ryotaro turned around and pointed a finger out the door. "Get out and go home, all of you."

"But..." Chie stepped forward.

"I SAID GET OUT!" Ryotaro slammed the butt of his pistol into the wall, this time causing a visible dent. "Get... out… Yui… I... will… speak… to… you… later…" he huffed, barely containing his anger.

Yui took Chie by the shoulders, turned her around, and marched her out of the police office without another word. Mogura followed a little behind them.

"What was that all about?" Chie shifted her friend's grip off of her when they had left the building.

Yui looked down. "I… I think Mitsuo went into the TV World."

"The TV World?" Mogura stopped and tapped his staff on the ground again. "If he could, that would pin him as the murderer, dead-on. Nobody else fits the criteria as of yet."

"Yeah… But…" Chie clenched her fists. "That means Yukiko is stuck in there with a creeper that not only is a killer, but wants to rape her, too!"

"That won't end well." Mogura kicked the ground. "Grr… We don't have enough time! We can't go tonight, but after that we have until Friday? Dammit!"

"I'd better call Yosuke." Yui pulled out her phone. After a few rings, she heard a receiver click. "Yosuke… I have some bad news…"

-…-

Next Day:

Wednesday, March 26

"All right. Is everybody ready?" Yui asked, hefting the bag of weapons into the T.V. Yosuke stood guard as the heavy bag slipped into the plasma screen's vortex.

"As ready as I'll ever be!" Chie chirped, balling her hands into fists.

"Nope." Mogura leaned on his guidance staff lazily and tipped his shades off. He smirked in disbelief. "We've been standing here for fifteen minutes. Of course I'm ready!"

Yosuke looked around again. "Coast is clear. Let's go." He checked one more time, then walked over to the TV. Yui stood there, expectantly. "What?" He asked. "Go already."

"No." Yui glared at him. "You go first."

"Huh?" The slacker looked confused. Then he smirked. "Oh… Scared, are we?" He nodded. "That's fine. I'll go first and make sure it's safe."

Before he could make it into the TV, however, Yui grabbed him by the collar, pushed him into the side of the TV, and growled, "I'm telling you to go first because you're gonna try some perverted crap if I try to enter it before you. If you so much as imply that I'm scared when I'm not again, I will personally castrate you with the kunai I bought you." The slacker could finally see the city girl's family resemblance with someone from Inaba, and it wasn't Nanako.

He smiled nervously and gulped. "Y-You bought me kunai?"

"T.V. NOW."

Hanamura entered the TV. Then Yui stepped in with the duffel bag of weapons, still uncertain. When Mogura was halfway in, he paused. "Chie?" he asked.

"Uh, yeah?" The brunette checked to see if anyone was watching. When nobody was looking, she turned to look at the Hermit. "What is it?"

"Yui spends way too much time with you."

He slipped in with a laugh just as Chie lunged for the boy's neck.

-…-

TV World

Yui dusted herself off and hefted the bag off of her shoulder. "Alright, everyone, Chie and I got you guys weapons. Mogura, you got a heavy metal staff to replace your flimsy plastic guider."

"Natch." He picked up the heavier bar and checked it for balance. "Not bad. This could crack some serious heads." He placed his regular staff inside the duffel bag.

"Chie got a pair of greaves, or special armor that covers her shoes…"

"Yep." The martial artist cheerfully attached the reinforced covers over her school shoes and took a few kicks to prepare for battle.

"Yosuke, you get kunai…" She tossed the two dagger-like weapons towards the boy.

He deftly caught them and twirled them around. "Nice."

"And I…" She pulled the old sword she had bought out and held it out in front of her. "Sweet blade, right?" She swung it around and checked its balance again before sheathing it.

"Dude, not fair. Why do you get a freaking sword?"

Yui rolled her eyes. "Because I paid for this freaking sword, that's why. That reminds me. You and Mogura owe us money for the weapons."

"What? Aw, come on." Yosuke rolled his eyes. "I bought you steak, right? So do I get off from this one?"

"No way." Yui shook her head. "That was a gift, remember? You're not going to sneak out of this that easily."

"But I pay for all sorts of stuff! Come on, Yui! My next paycheck is in two weeks."

"So how were you magically able to come up with the money to pay me with, huh?" Chie butted in.

"Very carefully. Now, can we drop all of this and go?" Yosuke spun around his newly-acquired kunai nervously.

The leader sighed. "All right. But Mogura, you can't get off the hook for this one." The American shrugged and nodded. "Makes sense."

Narukami rolled her shoulders and drew her sword again. "All right, let's go find Teddie."

-…-

Cowering near the obliterated gate of a huge castle was the ever-furry Teddie. He jumped up and ran away when he heard the team's footsteps. "AIEEE! Please don't hurt me! I'm just a cute little bear!" He tripped over some rubble and fell flailing to the ground. "NOOOO! I'm too cute to dieeeeee! Waaaaaaaaaaaaaa-Why?"

Yosuke stepped over and picked the little bear up by his right arm. "Hey, come on, you stupid bear! It's just us!"

When Teddie saw Yosuke, he stopped crying. After about half a second, he began to cry again. "You- You guys came for me!" Yosuke dropped him back on the ground, but he bounced back up and waddled toward the rest of the group. He smiled and waved. "I knew you'd come for me! I'm bear-y happy to see you all! Even Yosuke!"

The auburn slacker did a double-take."Wha- Okay, I kind of deserved that one." he conceded.

"So what happened here?" A formerly pristine castle made out of dull pink bricks and grey mortar had been blown apart where a gate used to be. "What is this place?" Dust and huge chunks of stone were scattered across the area. It almost looked familiar, though Yui couldn't put her finger on why. "It looks like someone took a wrecking ball to this gate."

"Hey, Yui, look at this!" Chie ran her hand along the wall and a dark powder came off. "It looks like someone burned this part of the wall." Rubbing her forefinger and thumb together, she saw ashes dissolve off into the air and drift to the ground.

Yosuke shook his head. "That's really weird… only Yui has Fire Personae… But you haven't even summoned your Persona, right?" He looked at his friend.

"Yeah! The guy that came through here…"

Yui nodded. "We've never seen fire-based Shadows before, and even if this was an area they'd be in… What were they fighting?"

"So is there another Persona-user in here?" Mogura wondered. "Mitsuo is in here, but there's no way he could have gotten his Persona. Our shadows tried to kill us, and that guy wouldn't stand five seconds versus Polyphemus if he couldn't stand up to me."

"You guys, I was a-bear-t to tell you…"

"Whoever it is, we have to stop him!" Chie pulled out her card. "Tomoe!" The yellow-suited warrior and her master rushed forward into the halls of the castle.

"Hey, wait!" Teddie screamed, and everybody left looked at him. "There was a guy that came through here! He had a Bear-sona, and that thing nearly destroyed the whole front of the castle trying to get in. I had to run for my bear-y life! You guys need to be careful!"

Yui nodded. "Don't worry about us. We can take care of this." She soon hurried after Chie. "Chie, wait!"

"Come on!" Hanamura and Jiraya were soon close at her heels.

Mogura cursed and ran after them. "Hey! Wait up! Do you know how hard it is to run around not knowing where anything is?"

"Oh, cry me a river!" Yosuke snapped.

"Follow my voice, Mokura!" Teddie dashed ahead.

"It's Mogura." The American was looking slightly peeved.

"Momura."

"No."

"Mosura."

"No."

"Mohura."

"No. Stop trying." The Hermit furrowed his brow in irritation.

"Mofura?"

Mogura sighed. "For the love of-" He was interrupted by a burst of ice and fire that went careening around a corner and into the wall to their left. Steam smoked off of the wall, and everybody went on guard before turning the corner.

As they creeped around the wall's edge to see where the explosion came from, they saw that Tomoe had hacked and flash-frozen most of the enemy. However, a few scragglers got around her and hurtled at Yui. In a flash, Izanagi-jo appeaerd and swung her bladestaff, blowing several Shadows to bits. They were shaped like two mummies held together by bars that passed through their shoulders and legs.

"Come on! Jiraya!"

The wind-based Persona threw the stars on the edge of his sleeves like shiriuken, destroying two more foes. In a flash, Antigone made a full sweep of the area. She was attacked by a leftover Shadow, which grabbed at her legs, but Oedipus pointed his sword at it and it crumpled to the ground, purple smoke billowing out of its wrappings.

"What was that?" Yui turned to the American.

Mogura blinked and realized she was talking to him. "Oh. Um, it's... Uh, what exactly did that do? I couldn't see."

"A little help here?" Chie growled. Several shadows had attached to Tomoe, and she was having a hard time shaking them.

Yosuke grinned. "No problem." Jiraya caught his shiriuken and jumped over Tomoe, catching the Shadows by surprise and tossing the blades. Some of the shadows detached to the Persona detatched due to pure surprise, others got slashed up by the blades. After making a graceful flip to the ground, Jiraya did a spinning dance and caught his blades without missing a beat.

As Tomoe lowered herself to the ground and the Shadows dispersed, Chie rolled her eyes. "Diva."

"Whatever. You're just hating on my ninja skills." Yosuke strutted away, quite proud of himself.

Jiraya flipped Tomoe a thumbs-up. The samurai replied by popping him in the face with the flat end of her staff.

"Wow, these are really manifestations of ourselves." Yui snarked. Mogura looked as confused as ever.

"Wow, Yosuke! That was really cool!" Teddie hurdled towards Yosuke, an amazed look covering his face. "It was almost as cool as Sensei!" Yui smirked triumphantly and readjusted her glasses.

Yosuke grimaced and turned to his leader. "Always one-upping me, aren't you?"

Izanagi-jo twirled her staff around and hurled it past Jiraya and Tomoe. It skewered three new shadows and glanced two more before embedding itself in a wall. Yosuke stood there with a dumbstruck expression on his face before shaking his head in disbelief.

Izanagi-jo swooped around and pulled her weapon into a fighting stance. "Yes I am, Yosuke. Now, let's go." Yui ran around the corner, her Persona readied. Mogura and Oedipus followed her, the latter pulling along Antigone, who had stopped to applaud the awesome feat.

Chie huffed and stomped after the two. Passing by Yosuke, she glared at him.

"What? Jealous?" Yosuke elbowed her in the ribs, and she punched him in the face.

"Don't touch me." She looked away, trying hard to keep her face from flushing. Stupid Yui and her stupid cool attacks. My Persona can do stuff like that too, right?

Apparently, Yosuke didn't listen, because he soon put his arm over her shoulder, to Chie's eternal irritancy. "I'm sorry, but you have to admit that was cool, both times."

The martial artist couldn't help but notice the creeping nature of Hanamura's hand and arm. She glared him down again. "Yosuke, do you ever want to have children?"

The Magician couldn't resist a quip. "Who's asking?"

-…-

Yosuke had to explain in painful detail exactly why he had to have some aspirin to Yui before she would fork it over.

-…-

Oedipus pulled his sword out of the tattered remains of another tongue-monster and kicked it off of him. Tomoe flash-froze two more in quick succession, and Jiraya danced around like he had before, tossing the pair of disks and sending up gusts of wind. Yui, on the other hand, was changing Personas at lightning speed, going from an angel to a ball of slime to Izanagi and back. Whenever one enemy fell by her hands, she pulled out a different card.

Soon there was little to stand against the team but dissolved remains of fallen shadows and the wind that blew them away. Mogura stepped up to the others and wiped sweat off of his face.

"Well… I, Uh, expected this to be a little more… exciting."

"Exciting?" Yui asked. "We're inside a television fighting weird creatures with gigantic spiritual weapons. What isn't exciting about that?"

Mogura shrugged. "I guess the impact of this whole thing really hasn't sunk in yet."

Yosuke slapped the American on the back. "Ah, you'll get used to it…"

"What are you blabbering about? You've had your Persona for less than two weeks yourself!" Chie exclaimed.

"Shh. Shut up!" Yosuke waved her objection off. "And anyway, I have more experience with this than you!"

Teddie sniffed the air and began to tremble. "G-guys… It's that Bear-sona from earlier… the one that blew up the front of the castle."

The others looked at him before realizing that there was something wrong twith the room in front of them.

"Black smoke is creeping under the door. It must be in there." Chie stepped back and charged towards the door, trying to ram it with her shoulder. To her surprise, it opened without her touching it, and she slipped through the door , falling on her face. Tomoe was not so lucky and ended up stuck between the open gap and the other part of the double-door. With a large explosion of ice and wood, the Persona swung her staff around, ready for just about anything.

It was lucky she was, because no sooner had she looked around then she was thrown back by a blast of fire. She didn't collapse, but she did hit her back on the remains of the door, bringing it beyond repair and revealing the situation to the rest of the group.

Inside this room, tiles had been cracked and fancy decorations were strewn around in piles of rubble. What appeared to be a Persona crouched on the other side of the room, holding two bastard swords, one in each hand, and was wearing a flaming wheel attached to his back. However, it seemed to be a shadow, given that red smoke hovered around its edges.

"Let's go, guys!" Yui burst in, Izanagi-jo throwing the left door open and charging at the foe The enemy held its swords up to defend and then breathed fire at the Fool Persona.

"Jack-o-Lantern!" The fire was swallowed up harmlessly, caught into the lamp like a flash. Returning the favor, Jack blasted the warrior with some fire of his own. It bounced off, and with a mighty swing from the fiendish being, one of the blades caught Jack in the stomach. Yui winced, but put her hand out again, summoning a Chariot card.

"Slime!" A green pile of goo bounced to the floor, splattering before reforming into a semi-shaped figure.

"Heh. Impressive." From behind the red smoke came an eerily familiar figure. "I never guessed anyone else would get this far." Mitsuo Kubo looked up and grinned, eyes glowing yellow. Red smoke flowed around him like it flowed around his Persona. "Do you like it?" He tipped his head toward the warrior. "His name is Ixion. He's really powerful." A darker smirk passed by Kubo's face. "SO powerful, in fact, that he might be able to kill four people and their 'Persona'-whatevers as well." He held out his hand, and Ixion rushed forward.

Antigone darted towards the enemy and between the flashing blades. Ixion turned around to strike at her just as Oedipus caught him with a haymaker to the face. Snapping back and swinging blindly, the dark warrior stumbled back and teetered side-to-side. "You!" Mitsuo gritted his teeth and pointed at Mogura accusingly. "You just had to come and follow me!" Red smoke started to surround him, like it did his Persona. "You… You think you can save Yukiko, don't you?" His eyes glowed more brightly yellow.

Yui and Chie moved their Personas directly in front of Ixion, and Oedipus and Jiraya flanked him from the sides. Jiraya had his shiriuken out, and Oedipus pointed his broadsword at the dual-wielder. Antigone disappeared behind her father, obviously frightened by Ixion.

"That bastard… He thinks he can just do whatever he wants with women, doesn't he?" Mogura gritted his teeth.

Mitsuo audibly hissed and clenched his fists."What else am I supposed to do? Sit by while idiots like you take all the pretty girls? No… I need privacy… And what's more private than a world only you know about?"

"So you did throw Yukiko in here! Where is she?" Chie screamed. "I'm tired of waiting! Spit it out!"

Mitsuo clutched his head in disgust. "You… You think you can save Yukiko? Is that it?"

"Hell yeah! You don't think we came in here for nothing, do you?" Yosuke stepped forward. "Actually, now that I think about it, we're here to get you, too! You… You killed Saki-senpai, didn't you?" He gripped his kunai tightly. "And that announcer too, right?"

"Heh… He he he… Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!" Mitsuo grinned evilly. "Of course I did. That's the only thing that makes sense, right?"

"You can't just kill people, Mitsuo! Who do you think you are?" Yui put her sword at guard.

Mitsuo gave off thicker, darker smoke. "I'm the hero! I'm the guy who's gonna save the day!" He laughed again, this time more insane than evil. "Only I can save Yukiko!" He dissolved into his dark Persona, who swelled in size and clashed his blades together. "I'm her knight in shining Armor! I'm the savior of the world from corrupt people! I'm Mitsuo the Hero! And I will slay you all!" In an explosion of red and black, Ixion roared and clattered his armor together before holding out his two blades.

Teddie shivered. "He's ready to attack! Go, go, go!"

Yui held out her hand. "Izanagi-jo!" The Fool Persona dutifully appeared. Yui looked around at her friends' faces, gritted in expectation.

"Attack!"

And all five Personae rushed to battle.

-…-

-Persona4-

NEXT SCENT: CAGED IN

"Can't they tell it was him?"

"Yukiko!"

"You're not my girlfriend!"

"If you won't be my Prince, I'll make my own!"

-Persona4-