Chapter 10: Debriefing
Wordlessly, they all made their way through the halls of the Shadow World's Deva Yuga without encountering a single opponent and left through the stack of TVs in the entrance area, finding themselves once again standing in the middle of Junes' electronics department.
Yosuke watched the customers walk back and forth as they had on any other day. "It doesn't look like anyone's panicking."
"So… does that mean it hasn't been found yet or…?" Chie trailed off as she proposed the possibility to the group.
"Or, perhaps, it never appeared at all." Nanjo bought in the counterpoint, if only for the sake of facilitating a discussion.
"It never appeared at all…?" Yosuke repeated the words, "There's no way, it has to have shown up somewhere." He looked around again as if expecting the passing customers to suddenly start losing their minds over yet another incident, but got nothing but the occasional stare wondering why so many high-schoolers were gathered in the electronics department. Still, he felt uneasy. "I'm… gonna go check anyways. I need to be sure."
"Wait, Yosuke!" Chie shouted after him as he turned to walk away. "I'm going too! You can't search the whole town by yourself!" Not heeding her own instructions, she walked past Yosuke and towards the store's exit to begin searching right away.
"Does that mean the rest of us should go looking too?" Mark asked, his eyes following the two out of the door. He and everyone else stood in place, unsure of how to deal with the situation.
"I think there is no need. If it were there, there would be no need to search it out; such a job is better left to the authorities. Moreover, is it not suspicious to see a group of teenagers asking around about such a thing?" Nanjo shot down the idea before anyone else could leave to go searching.
"Um… I don't understand bear-y well. What are you guys talking about? Is it tasty?" Teddie asked, and although the question was stupid, it helped everyone to notice that they were all just as careful not to draw suspicion, whether they were succeeding was a different question, but at least for the moment it seemed no one was paying them any attention.
"You don't need to know." Nanjo turned his back to the group, "how about we cut this pointless discussion short and head somewhere where our presence would not be considered loitering?" he said over his shoulder as he began to head for the elevator to the roof areas.
"That sounds like a splendid idea! Shall we go to the food court like yesterday?"
"I did not think that needed to be said, Kirishima… but perhaps you were right in saying it. After all, it would be a grave mistake to overestimate the intelligence of some of our… companions here."
"Nanjo… Why do you have to always be so mean? It's not nice to treat everyone like they're beneath you!" Maki complained.
"And who says they aren't?" That complaint, however, seemed only to make Nanjo even more smug. "I only treat people they way they deserve to be treated. Clearly, most people don't deserve very much."
"Ooh! Ooh! What do I deserve?" Teddie asked as he continuously jumped around in his bear suit.
"You are nothing more than a feral creature." Nanjo answered without skipping a beat.
"Nanjo!" Maki tried to berate him, but she was ignored.
"Ooh, fur-ral! I like that! Is it like fur-rocious?" Teddie bared his teeth as if to illustrate his 'ferocity,' but of course he looked far more ridiculous than ferocious.
"I… don't think that's what it means, Ted." Kanji said to him, but it could not stop Teddie from making more and more ridiculous poses.
"… As you can see, my judgment is always correct." Nanjo said as he turned away from whatever Teddie was doing to face the group. "Now, if you don't mind, how about we actually go to the food court." He then turned away and headed for the elevator.
"That… seems like a good idea." Yukiko soon followed suit along with the rest of the group.
They all made their way out of the electronics department to head towards the food court. Normally, such a large group of high school kids wandering through the department store while wearing their uniforms in the middle of the summer would have turned some heads, but the people of the town were used to their presence now, for better or for worse.
It didn't take long for them to find their table and sit down once they reached the food court. As before, they sat in largely segregated groups, but at least this time both groups sat much closer together than they did earlier.
Still, the atmosphere was heavy as they sat there thinking about what had happened that day.
"You know… the line for food is really long today…" Yukiko observed, trying to break the ice and lighten the mood a little. "I wonder why…"
"Maybe there are just a lot of people here today?" Mark guessed.
"No, it looks like there are just as many people as yesterday…" Maki added to the observation and, by extension, the mystery.
"Maybe it's because a certain someone decided it was a good idea to skip on his work." Nanjo said, hoping everyone else would understand what he was saying.
"Well, whoever that person is, we at least know it's not Yosuke." There was a long pause as everyone looked at Kanji in disbelief. "What, he told us he didn't have to work all week!"
"And you believed that?" Nanjo asked. "You are seriously—no, I have no one to blame but myself. I have set the bar far too high in estimating your intelligence."
"Nanjo!" Maki scolded him again. "How can I get you to stop doing that?"
"I recommend a spray bottle." Yu suggested with a trademark lack of emotion in his voice. "It's very handy for behavioral training."
"I am not a cat!" Nanjo shouted. "I'll have you know that I can control my temper extraordinarily well—What?" He was cut off as he heard a strange noise coming from the other side of the table.
Said strange noise turned out to be Yukiko, laughing her stomach off as usual. "I can just see it! –A cat! With little glasses and a scarf! Oh—I can't take it!"
When Nanjo turned to his other friends looking for support, he found Eriko, too, was enjoying a nice chuckle of her own. "You too, Kirishima? I did not take you for that sort of person."
"I can appreciate some verbal irony from time to time."
The rest of them decided it would be best to wait for most of the laughing to subside before they continued talking. After a while Naoya cleared his throat and began to speak. "Anyways, Yosuke clearly isn't here, so I guess we won't be getting food here today."
"But wait," Kanji said. "Doesn't Ted also work here?" He turned his head towards Teddie who sat next to him.
The rest of the group did the same until all eyes were on Teddie. "Is that true, Teddie?" Maki asked.
"Huh?" It took a while for the thought to fully register in his mind before his face suddenly lit up in recognition. "Oh, right! I totally forgot! Yosuke told me something like 'we have to go to Junes Tomorrow' a while ago, but we're here now, so I guess that wasn't a problem."
A stunned silence hung over the group. "… Well, now that that's answered, how about we discuss something more meaningful."
"More meaningful? Like what?" Kanji asked.
"Don't tell me you forgot, you gigantic imbecile!" Nanjo sighed and planted his face into his hands. "We still do not know what exactly happened today."
"What don't we know? We showed up, the shadow offed some guy, and then we beat it up!" Kanji almost looked proud of his simplified explanation of the day's events.
"Um… Kanji, I don't think that's exactly the best way to say that…" Rise quietly objected.
"It's certainly a start, and to be honest, that is in fact all we know." The others were surprised to see Nanjo agree with Kanji… until he continued. "However, contrary to what this mass of muscle believes, there is more to the issue than that."
"Indeed, we still do not know how that shadow appeared, or how monsieur Kido found himself in that world." Elly laid out the mysteries to be solved.
"Or whether or not either of those were even who they pretended to be." Nanjo jumped off of her statement to introduce a third mystery.
"And how do suggest we answer those questions, smart boy?" Mark asked, almost more hostile towards Nanjo than usual.
"Well, I would suggest using the Scientific Method, but I have a feeling Sonomura would object on some sort of 'humanitarian grounds.' A pity, really, there is nothing more valuable to research than a well-designed experiment."
"Don't say it like I'm the only one that would disapprove! And that's just because your 'experiments' would get one of us killed!" Maki, as predicted, objected to Nanjo's proposal.
"Preferably the monkey first, but that's beside the point." Nanjo, on the other hand, was completely unapologetic.
"See! That's what I was talking about!"
Naoya cleared his throat to get them to stop arguing. "Ahem, does anyone have any… other suggestions?"
"How about we just talk about it?" Yukiko said. "That's how we usually do it, and it seems to have worked so far."
"Tres bien!" Eriko approved. "I know I, personally, have plenty of ideas about what happened-!"
"And I'm not sure we want to hear them." Nanjo shot her down before she could get started.
"Come on, Nanjo! I'm telling you alien abduction makes perfect sense! That's why everything looked so different!" At first, people were angry at Nanjo for shooting her down, but once they heard what Eriko had wanted to say, his action just seemed a little more justified.
"What if it's Kandori himself?" Mark asked, getting not a small number of weird looks. "I mean, he was a god, right? Maybe he didn't actually—"
"I'm going to stop you right there." Nanjo interrupted. "Despite his claims to the contrary, that man was not a god at all at any point in time. He was merely consumed by his persona and the surge of power led him to believe as much."
"Well… what if it's the persona?" Kanji suggested. "If it was powerful enough to take him over… why are you all looking at me like that? I have no idea what I'm talking about."
"It's a crazy idea… so crazy it just might…" Nanjo paused. "No, I shouldn't doubt you. You're right, you have no idea what you're talking about. There's no way a persona could do something like that of its own volition."
"Really? Because I think it just might work. You see, Kandori's persona was—"
"That's enough, Kirishima. You're a smart person, but understand that that only applies in certain fields." Nanjo turned to face her directly. "This is not one of them."
Naturally, Maki did not approve of his attitude. "Nanjo! If you want people to help you, at least let them talk! I can't believe you're saying things like that! And to Elly, of all people!"
"Are you implying something?"
"I think she's implying that you need to be less of a prick!" Mark answered for her, although it was less of an answer and more of an insult.
By this time, Naoya had had enough of his friends fighting and decided to step in. "That's enough fighting." He said. "Nanjo—"
Nanjo sat up straight and tried to regain his composure. "… You're right. It would be best if we kept this civil."
"Good." Maki nodded, pleased with his response. "And that goes for you too, Mark." She said, noticing his smug expression at seeing Nanjo get talked down.
"…Sorry." Mark lowered his head.
Nanjo turned back to the group. "Anyways, shall we get back to the topic?"
"I'm not sure that's the best idea…" Yukiko said quietly.
"And what could that possibly—" Nanjo began to talk, but he stopped when he felt a hand on his shoulder.
"What she means, mon ami, is that this particular topic is causing too much strife to pursue further." Eriko calmed him down. Even though she hated to drop such an interesting topic, she knew it would be best for the group if they did.
"Good point, Elly!" Rise joined in, excited that the mood seemed to be lightening up a bit. "You guys have all been so on edge, why don't we try to do something else for a while?"
"…Something else?" Nanjo asked.
"Yeah! There's all sorts of fun things to do around here! Just because we're in the middle of a mystery doesn't mean it isn't still summer!" Rise did her best to be as cheerful as possible despite how heavily the day's events weighed on all of them. Thankfully, looking cheerful even when you're not (although she usually is) has always been part of her job description.
"Yeah! We can go to the bear-ch, go bear-fishing, or even play bear-d games! It'll be so much fun!" Teddie joined in, as vivacious as ever.
"That second one wasn't even a pun!" Kanji yelled at him.
"Not to mention the others were absolutely atrocious" Nanjo said under his breath, carefully so Maki couldn't hear and scold him again.
"I'm sorry, Teddie, but I think you have another mission to accomplish…" Yu said.
"What do you mean, Sensei?"
"You must restore your family's name!" He made a dramatic gesture towards the food court's stalls and the long lines in front of them. "Go forth, and flip some burgers!"
"Roger that, Sensei!" Teddie then happily got up, and ran off to report in for the work he was supposed to be doing this whole time.
"You seriously got him excited about that?" Mark asked, incredulously.
"You really are quite the leader." Nanjo said. "Sun Tzu would be proud."
Maki let out an audible sigh, but she decided to let it go, turning to face Rise. "So, what should we do next?"
Rise went through the options in out loud, trying to find the perfect activity that would bring a smile to the grim faces here. "Well, going to the beach would be a little hard this late in the day, and the festival isn't until Friday… Ooh, I know!"
"What is it?" Maki might have been the only one really invested in Rise's planning, but that didn't bother her.
"We should go shopping!" After getting a few strange looks from the guys, she continued. "You guys still only have one set of clothes, right? Well there's this place in Okina city that has some things I think you'll look great in!"
"Okina city… Where's that?" Mark asked.
"Wherever it is, would it not be more practical to search for such things… here? After all, this is a department store." Nanjo said, not all that excited about Rise's plan.
Rise pouted. "But that's not any fun! Besides, the selection is much better over there."
"Ooh, that sounds intriguing! I would love to see how fashion has changed over the years!" Eriko, for her part, was actually excited about this now.
"That's the spirit!" Rise turned to face the others in the original Investigation Team. "You guys should come too! I'm telling you, it'll be lots of fun!"
Yukiko opened up her phone to check the time. "Oh, dear." She gently stood up from the table. "I'm sorry, Rise, but my mom wants me to help her with the guests this afternoon; we're expecting quite a few with the festival coming up soon."
"Oh, so that means you won't be able to come?" Rise asked although she already knew the answer. "That's a shame."
"Yes, I'll try to make it up to you next time." She bowed slightly and began to walk away. "I shouldn't keep her waiting. See you later!" She waved to her friends before she left.
"Later!" Maki and Rise both waved to her as she disappeared into the crowd.
"It's too bad she can't go." Rise looked saddened, but it didn't last long. "But that doesn't mean the rest of us can't have lots of fun!" She jumped up from her seat. "Come on! Let's go!" Maki jumped up with her, followed by a somewhat more graceful Elly coming to stand beside the pop star to announce their desire to go.
Maki turned back to face the guys still seated. "Come on guys, it won't be that bad!"
Mark looked around as if he wanted to say something but was too afraid to say it. He caught Naoya's eye, who nodded before speaking. "Why not?" He stood up. "Come on Mark."
Author's Note
I sincerely apologize for the long wait, and hope you haven't forgotten me and my work like I seem to have done. I encountered a large workload shortly after posting the last chapter, and by the time it was done, this fic apparently fell through the cracks. This chapter here is shorter than the others because it was what I had actually written of Chapter 10 before the work hit me, I am just cleaning it up a little bit and sending it out so you don't have to wait any longer. Also I'm considering starting something else, but I wouldn't want to do that if it means abandoning my favorite project here.
But, hey, at least it isn't three years late like last time!
Re: guest 16
Thanks for your review! I know I was somewhat on the fence about killing him off like that so soon, but I'm glad you are (or were) still invested in this story and the mysteries it offers. I hope I don't disappoint in future chapters (provided I still make them).
Re: ILoveErikoandNaoto
Thank you for the continued support, sometimes it feels as if you've been more invested in this story than me; I am very sorry for making you wait (you even had to wait the whole three years the first time!). As for your review, it speaks to a delicate balance I've been trying to strike while writing this: These people aren't idiots, but at the same time, they're all high school students. Even the smartest of them tends to get things wrong just as often as they get things right. They hardly ever know what they're doing, and even if they do, they wouldn't know. I hope my portrayal of this is at least balanced enough to be realistic, but if I do mess up, don't hesitate to tell me.
Re: An Anon
I'm glad you liked it! Given that you're using a guest account I can't know for sure if you'll get the alerts to continue reading in the future, but I am honored to hear you speak highly of my writing. If you can continue reading this story, I hope I can continue to write engaging chapters like that one.
All in all, thank you to everyone who stuck with me, and a warm welcome to anyone who is just finding out about this fic now. You're all welcome to send feedback: I'd love to know how I'm doing. And maybe, just maybe, I can remember this thing exists in time to put out another chapter on time.