Not knowing what to do while they waited to hear word from Souji, the second years left campus and strolled lazily towards the shopping district. Yukiko and Chie walked ahead of Yosuke, he being too busy dragging his feet to notice the growing distance between them. Just as Chie turned around in order to goad him into walking faster, Yosuke's phone began to ring in earnest. He jumped, startled both by the noise and the unfamiliar number flashing on the screen, and he answered with a hesitant, "Yeah?"

"Hanamura?" said the gruff voice on the other side, and it took Yosuke a moment to place it.

"Uh, yeah, hey, Akihiko," Yosuke said, stumbling through his words. "What's wrong?"

"I need you to call the rest of the group and tell them to meet at your headquarters in around fifteen minutes."

Yosuke pulled his phone away from his face, staring at it incredulously. "Dude, you can't just order us around. What, are you trying to replace Souji, now, too?"

"I-what?" Akihiko said, confused. "Aren't you the second-in-command here? Look, I'll call Ryoji and ask him to gather the troops if it's a problem. Just meet at Junes with the others."

"No, wait," Yosuke said, scratching his neck. "Sorry. I'll call them. See you in a few."

Yosuke flipped his phone shut and looked over at the girls. "Akihiko wants us to head to Junes. Something must be wrong."

"Oh my…" Yukiko said, her voice skittish and her eyes rabbit-wide. "He must have gone after Adachi."

Yosuke's brow knit. "Wha-…wait, why would he go with Adachi?"

"Go with-? No, not-" Yukiko clenched her fists, her tongue rubbing strangely against her teeth as she struggled to get her words straight. "Souji," she said, upset and earnest, "Souji must have…but he said we should wait and play it safe. He wouldn't have done something reckless unless…Youske! Did Sanada sound upset or panicky?"

"No. No, he just sounded stressed. What's going on? What about Adachi?"

"Souji thinks Adachi's the killer, or at least he, Sanada, and Naoto strongly suspect it. Souji and Ryoji were arguing about it the other day while we were fishing. I think Sanada found something at the station, something about how Konishi was killed."

Yosuke's stomach dropped. "How…what did he find?"

"Umm…there's some weird stuff with security recordings," Yukiko said, "but the long story short is that she was pushed into a TV inside the police's interrogation room. Only a member of the police could have done it, and I remembered the other day that Adachi was the cop on duty when Yamano disappeared."

"Fine, but seriously? That goofball? Isn't all that evidence…damn it, what's the word…circumstantial? Yeah, that's it. Adachi couldn't have been the one who killed Saki," Yosuke said, his throat tight. "He just…that isn't right. Why didn't Souji tell me any of this?"

"I don't think it was purposeful neglect," Yukiko said. "He told those that knew that we shouldn't do anything until we were sure. That's why it didn't come up. Oh, I really hope that Souji confronted Adachi and not the other way around. I wonder what we're supposed to do now."

"That's prob'ly what Sanada's calling us together for," Chie said, her face set and serious. "Do you think it could really be him?"

Yukiko nodded. "It's…I hadn't even considered it before I listened to Souji and Ryoji talking about it, but in retrospect, it does make a certain amount of sense."

"But why didn't Souji…" Yosuke muttered to himself, his eyes locked on the pavement. "Why does Akihiko suddenly know more about this case than the rest of us?"

Chie knocked her shoulder against his roughly, making Yosuke look up. "Stop being stupid. You're Souji's best friend, but Sanada's known him for a while, too. You have to give them their space."

"Sanada is a good person," Yukiko said, smiling reassuringly. "I don't think he's trying to encroach on your position."

Yosuke knew that they were trying to be nice, but before he could censor himself, his mouth went ahead and said, "He's a dick, but you can't see that because you're so caught up staring at his pretty ass."

Yukiko stopped, staring Yosuke down with her shoulders stiff. "Do you really think that I'm that shallow? I don't like people just because they are attractive."

Yosuke snorted, something mindless pressing him forward. "Yeah, well, your track record sure doesn't support that. I knew it was about time for you to break the Amagi Challenge, but damn, I didn't know you were so easy to-"

The punch to his shoulder was not unexpected, but it still hurt like hell. He stumbled forward with the force of it before wheeling around so that he was facing the blazing eyes of his attacker.

"Stop being a brainless, petty, jealous wimp for five seconds and realize that we're all in the same boat as you, you idiot," Chie snarled, her hands curled into tight fists. "You think I don't get it? Souji's my friend too, moron, but you don't see me attacking Yukiko for it. Actually, I've been crazy impressed with Yukiko, 'cause unlike us, she's actually trying."

Chie turned to Yukiko, who looked simultaneously pleased and pissed. "It's worth it," Yukiko said quietly. "I assumed that, because they were Souji's friends, they would be good people, and I was right. They are kind but introverted. They won't come to you. Give them a chance and stop seeing them as a challenge. Souji is going to be with them whether we are included or not, so I don't see the advantage in disliking them."

"Well said, Yukiko," Chie said, grinning. "I feel like Sanada could be a cool guy. He was a boxer, you know," she said and began walking towards Junes, her back to the group. "Kirijo, though…"

"She's quite something," Yukiko said, smiling determinedly at Chie and ignoring Yosuke. "She is beautiful."

"She's got Sanada totally whipped," Yosuke said, trying to make his words airy and unconcerned.

"That's true," Chie said, chuckling lightly. "She's got power."

"Yes, but she's practically demure around Souji," Yukiko said. "I wonder what the history there is."

"Well, this is Souji we're talking about," Yosuke said.

Yukiko sniffed. "He does have a way to him."

The three laughed lightly, but there was a forced quality to the whole exchange, and they soon settled into silence. Chie swung her arms, and Yukiko stared at the sky. Yosuke glared at the ground, the cold rot that had been eating at his stomach for days, weeks…hell, that had been there ever since Souji stayed out all night in Iwatodai doing who knew what with…with Akihiko…

"I'm trying to imagine how Souji's assault against Adachi could have gone, but I can't picture it," Yukiko said softly, her chin tilted back.

"I'm sure we can ask our leader for a blow-by-blow once the whole group's together," Chie said.

"I should call the rest of the guys," Yosuke said, flipping his phone open.

Chie and Yukiko walked quietly ahead of Yosuke in they grey afternoon light as he called each member of the team, convincing each to gather at the food court. His calls took up much of their walk to Junes, but even once they were done, the three did not speak. Yosuke knew he would have to apologize to Yukiko eventually, but his stomach felt too sour at the moment to deal with social norms.

Surprisingly, they weren't the first to arrive. Teddie and Ryoji were already sitting comfortably around the table, and the Kirijo chick sat next to Ted, prim as could be with a duffle bag and a long, thin case set in front of her on the table. Ryoji waved placidly as they approached, a smile tight across his face.

"Do you know what's going on?" Yosuke asked, pulling a chair out with his foot and swinging it around so that he could slump into it.

Ryoji shrugged. "More or less. I figured this was coming sooner or later. Souji's miserable when it comes to letting sleeping dogs lie," he said with a soft smile. "I wish I had been there."

"It's not like you were doing anything else, right?" Yosuke asked, shrugging. "I mean, what the hell do you do during the day, Ryoji?"

Ryoji blinked, and Yosuke wondered how much of his kicked-puppy routine was an act. "I don't…I mean, I'm not sitting around bumming off Dojima's kindness all day, if that's what you mean," he said, shrugging down into his new scarf. "Mostly I've been filling out forms and making calls to Iwatodai to get my affairs in order."

"Filling out forms?" Chie asked, head cocked slightly to the side.

"School stuff, work stuff," Ryoji said, shrugging. "I've been debating whether or not it's worth applying to Yasogami when I'm going to transfer in April, and there's no way that I can complete the year anyway. I mean, I've filled out the application, but I've also been filling applications out for schools in Tokyo. To be honest, I'd rather, you know, work for the rest of the year so that I can pay Dojima back and support myself, at least superficially, when we get to Tokyo."

When nobody responded, Ryoji grabbed the black edge of his scarf, pulling it up over his chin and leaning against his hand. "I have to do something, right? I don't technically exist, and so if I'm going to, you know, live, I've got to get my life straight. Last time I wasn't…I didn't know what I had, and I didn't know what I had to lose. I do now, so I'm going to protect it."

Mitsuru's face looked odd, and Yosuke couldn't read it. It was a strange mix of disturbed and satisfied, all tight, diagonal frowns, creased eyebrows and wide eyes, and Yosuke tried to parse the useful bits of it for a minute before giving up. Besides, there was a far more important issue to address.

"You're leaving with Souji?" Yosuke said thinly, looking at Ryoji.

Ryoji smiled, unabashed. "Of course," he said. "Frankly, I'm not sure I could not go with him even if I wanted to. We are unified at a basic level, and being apart is…unpleasant."

"Like twins," Chie said.

Ryoji did not blink, and Yosuke didn't like the set of his smile. "It's much more fundamental than that. Luckily, I have no qualms with following him wherever he wants to go."

"I always forget that he's got to leave," Chie said. "He seems so…permanent, if that doesn't sound too dumb."

"It doesn't," Yukiko said, smiling sadly. "I wonder what he'll do afterwards, especially now that he's got the Arisatos' memories."

"Plural? Why 'Arisatos' plural?" Mitsuru asked, softly.

"Um," Ryoji said, chuckling uncomfortably, "I'm not sure how to put this for someone who was involved. Let's…you know how…in December, I asked you all, specifically Arisato, to…well, you know how I thought it was the only choice, right?"

Despite his disjointed delivery, Mitsuru nodded. "You asked him to kill you," she said, plainly. The breath Yosuke took in was much sharper than usual.

"Yes," Ryoji said. "Let's just say…once upon a time, Arisato made a different choice."

Mitsuru froze, her face slowly changing from surprise to horror as she considered the full implications of what Ryoji meant.

"Are you saying that the Fall came, then?" she asked, leaning forward so that she seemed, despite her stature, to tower over Ryoji.

Ryoji's scarf covered half of his face, and when he nodded, his nose brushed along the top edge. "Yes, it did. It was a whole different set of circumstances, though…in a way. That year happened more than once, Mitsuru. You simply do not remember."

"That's not…" Mitsuru began to say before catching herself and revising her position. "I suppose…that is possible. I once forgot the year entirely. I suppose it is not wholly improbable to believe that events may have conspired that escaped my memory. How do you mean, Mochizuki?"

Ryoji's hand hovered, reaching in mid-gesture as though he was not sure what to do with it. At last, he set it down on the table, shaking his chin free of his scarf and smiling at Mitsuru softly. "The year happened, the world ended and then the year happened again. Any description beyond that would be…irrelevant detail. Suffice to say, things were different the second time."

"Does Arisato remember?" Mitsuru asked.

Ryoji closed his eyes and nodded.

"I see," said Mitsuru, lacing her fingers together and leaning over them. "What disturbs me most about the idea of this is that things could happen many more times than we are aware of, and we would have no way of knowing about it. The very idea of futilely repeating the same events, making the same mistakes…it is similar to my idea of purgatory."

"The one upside is knowing that the events that were recorded were the ones that led to the Fall being averted," Ryoji said, his eyes serious, and Yosuke thought that, for the first time, Ryoji did sort of resemble Souji. "If you stop and take a moment to realize what that actually means, it's actually rather inspiring."

"The world wants to be saved," Mitsuru said, the beginnings of a smile sliding onto her face. "It is willing to do what must be done to survive. Yes," she nodded, closing her eyes and leaning onto her locked hands. "That does inspire hope."

Ryoji grinned, tilting back in his chair. Mitsuru's smile slowly faded, however, and she soon looked grim.

"Um, is something wrong, Ms. Kirijo?" Yukiko asked.

Mitsuru blinked, looking up. "No. No, it is simply…" she said, turning her gaze slowly towards Ryoji. "Did Arisato remember? Did he know? The whole time? Did…did you remember?"

Ryoji shook his head emphatically. "No! No, of course not. He did not remember until...actually, I'm not sure when he remembered precisely. I know he knew before his body died, but I'm not sure what that means. If I had to guess, I'd say he probably remembered when he got the Universe Arcana. That would make sense, right? If you're one with the Universe, I'm pretty sure that you get to know what's going down."

"Is that when he became the Seal?" Yukiko asked.

"The seal?" Mitsuru asked, her gaze sharp and calculating.

Ryoji nodded. "Yes. His soul became the Seal a little while before his body actually died."

"I have a question about that," Yosuke said, his eyes hard. "You said that the tower people had to become a seal to keep some big ass end-of-time monster from killing everybody, right? So how can they be off the Seal now? What's stopping the monster?"

Ryoji's expression turned stony. "I have an answer to that," he said softly, his impossibly blue eyes burning Yosuke with their solemnity, "but I doubt that you will like it. It is also pure speculation, so you should not take my word as absolute truth."

"Yeah, I don't think I'll have any problem with that," Yosuke said, gesturing for Ryoji to continue. "Tell us what you have to say."

"The monster on the other side of the Seal is formed by humanity's ill will, cruelty and selfish desires. It…let's be honest. I believe that humanity is beautiful and, at its essence, good, but you cannot hope to purge the world of absolutely all meanness, any more than you could hope to stop all of the world's kindness and beauty. It is impossible to have one without the other, and it is foolish to try, so as long as humanity exists, the Seal must also."

Something cold settled alongside the rot in Yosuke's stomach. "So," he said, the pitch of his voice suddenly frighteningly low, "If the tower people are off the Seal, that means-"

"-that somewhere in the future, humanity must have ended, yes," Ryoji said, softly. "That is the only conclusion."

The foodcourt's buzzing ambient noise roared around the silent table. From the other side of the patio, they could hear Kanji, Rise and Naoto chattering as they approached, but nobody could muster the energy for a greeting.

"How long?" Mitsuru asked. Yosuke wasn't sure he wanted to know the answer.

"A couple of centuries, I think," Ryoji said with a shrug, and damn had Yosuke not wanted to know the answer. "It's difficult to judge time in that position, but if I had to wager a guess-"

Kanji, Rise and Naoto pulled up chairs around the table, but sensing the tense atmosphere, stayed quiet.

"How?" Chie said, and she was not quiet at all, but bright with fury. "What happens in the next couple hundred years that could wipe us out? How can that happen?"

"I don't want that," Teddie said, his voice stricken. "How do we stop that?"

"Nobody wants it to happen," Ryoji said, clasping Ted on the shoulder. "And the best thing we can do is fight and keep fighting."

"If the world is going to end in a couple of centuries, though, why were you all sent back to now?" Yukiko asked, softly. "Why Souji?"

The whole table quieted, because, really, that was the question, wasn't it? Yosuke leaned forward, staring imploringly at Ryoji. Why was it Souji that got saddled with all of this? He knew his Partner was pretty cool. Hell, Souji was one of the best guys Yosuke had ever known, but what made their crazy leader special on a cosmic level?

Ryoji stared at the middle of the table, his eyes thin and his dark brows drawn. Without looking up, he said, slowly, "Because it always had to be him." Ryoji frowned, clearly unsatisfied with his own answer, but when he lifted his head he looked resigned. "I'm sorry," he said. "I know that isn't helpful, but that phrase sticks out. It had to be him, but I couldn't tell you why."

Yosuke's sigh was more of a snarl. "Well, when we're left totally clueless and it comes back to kick you in the nads, I call that I get to say 'I told you so,'" he said, flopping his head over the back of his plastic chair so that the ridge bit into his neck.

"Yosuke," Chie said darkly.

"Thank you, though," Yosuke continued, looking down his nose so that he could see Ryoji. "At least knowing this is better than knowing nothing, even if it sucks. You're right. We have to keep fighting and pushing until we've done all that we can do."

Ryoji smiled. "I agree completely."

"So, guys," Kanji said, shuffling in his seat and trying to push his way into the conversation. "Where's Akihiko?"

"He does not have a car, so he might be a minute," Mitsuru said, pulling her phone out of her coat pocket. She lifted the phone to her ear, and Yosuke silently enjoyed the way her head tilted into the device, making a show of her long neck.

"Are you nearly here," Mitsuru said without greeting. She hummed after a few beats and hung up, looking satisfied. "He's walking across the parking lot."

"Um, what are we supposed to be doing?" Chie asked.

"Deciding on the best way to pursue Adachi, I suppose," Naoto said, passing her hat from one hand to the other.

"So, you guys know?" Yosuke asked.

"Naoto filled us in on the way over," Rise said. "I guess I should head over to the other world and start scanning, right?"

"Eventually, yes," Mitsuru said, unzipping the duffle bag on the table and setting aside a dark pair of pants and what looked like fencing pads in order to pull out a metal case. She set it on the table, sliding it slowly towards Rise.

"What's in the case?" Rise asked, pulling it in front of her with both hands.

"Open it," Mitsuru said, and Rise unclipped the clasps, opening the lid to reveal the plush, velvet interior and the piece it held. "Akihiko asked me to bring my evoker. I think he wants you to scan the town."

Astonishment widened Yukiko's eyes. "W-wasn't Sanada using one of those when he-"

"-blew his friggin' brains out," Yosuke finished, staring fixedly at Mitsuru.

Mitsuru's nostrils flared, nothing but disdain on her face. "That was in the other world," she said. "Evokers were designed for this world, and I can promise you that they work. Does anyone know of anywhere around here that is free of surveillance?"

All of the investigation team members turned to look at Yosuke. "Yeah," he said, scratching his head. "There's a kind of alley place where the employees go to smoke because you won't get caught. We could go there and block the doors so nobody stumbles out accidentally."

"Let us move, then," Mitsuru said, standing. She zipped her duffle up with a single, controlled movement and settled her thin case across her back, slinging her duffle over one shoulder to join it. Once she was settled, she began to move away from the table.

"Wait," Teddie called, standing. "Weren't we supposed to wait for Aki?"

"We'll run into him on the way," Yosuke said as the others stood. "He should be almost here, really."

Sure enough, as they left the food court and moved into the main area of the department store, they caught sight of Akihiko who was walking so fast, he was practically gliding down the aisle. He trotted into a full jog as he neared them, and though Yosuke knew the guy had been flying like a bat out of hell, he barely looked rumpled and his breathing was only slightly shallow. Geez, that wasn't fair.

"Where are we going?" Akihiko asked, slowing at Yosuke's side.

Yosuke was startled by the fact that the cop had come to him, but he shrugged it off, saying, "There's an empty area down on the first floor where Rise can summon her Persona."

"You took your time getting here, Akihiko," Mitsuru said with a smug smile.

"I should have gone ahead and stolen the keys to Adachi's car," Akihiko said, grumbling. "I've done just about everything else today."

"What did you and Souji do?" Yosuke asked.

"We, uh," Akihiko said, embarrassed. "We lied to the police. Shit. We lied to police. Speaking of…Mitsuru!"

"Yes, Akihiko?"

"You and I are now members of SEES-"

"-I'm aware-"

"-which is a secret government task force. You're the boss."

Mitsuru stared, her expression turning thoughtful. "That is not too far from the truth," she said after a moment. "Actually, now that it has been brought to my attention-"

"Yeah, why the hell isn't there a task force," Akihiko said. "It makes no sense."

Mitsuru folded her arms. "That should be remedied. New people should not have to face these things when there are already those that are trained and experienced."

Akihiko nodded, and Yosuke's mind began to race at the possibilities.

Before he could let his imagination run away with him, Yosuke clasped Akihiko on the shoulder, making the man turn, hunching in surprise. Yosuke felt weirdly young as he looked sideways at the cop, and he sucked in a breath, straightening to his full height so that he was able to look down at Akihiko. "Do you really think that it's Adachi?" Yosuke asked.

Akihiko chuckled. "Oh yeah, it's definitely him. We got that son of a bitch to actually crawl through the damned television screen while Dojima watched. It was, well," he said, his smile wry and twisted, "honestly, it was exciting. I had more fun in there than I should have, and that's including the big Souji-shaped bruise I've got on my side."

"What, did you and Souji stage a fight?"

Akihiko shook his head. "Nah. He tackled me."

Yosuke decided to leave it at that.

The group made its way in single file down the escalator, moving to the far back of the store and slipping silently into the Employees-Only section. After moving through a series of hallways, they dodged around a corner and out a door into a narrow, dark alley.

Yosuke leaned against one of the walls. "This should do, right?"

"It's perfect, Yosuke," Rise said, opening the case and pulling out the evoker. "Not to be a buzz-kill or anything, but how do I know this won't make my head explode?"

Mitsuru sighed. "Like I said, we've used these hundreds of times. What you witnessed was a fluke."

"I'd still feel better if you showed us how it's done first," Kanji said, his voice a rough rumble.

"Gladly," Mitsuru said, holding out a hand for the gun. Rise passed the evoker to her and stepped back. In the same motion that she had used to grab the gun, Mitsuru pulled it back, pressed it against her temple and pulled the trigger, the soft murmur of her Persona's name lost behind the explosion of the gunshot and the hissing swirl of released power. Billowing black folds and sharp, cool armor rose in waves above Mitsuru, two white eyes staring blankly from behind a beak-like, red mask. The Persona stared down at them, silent and still as a specter, and Yosuke shivered, feeling very cold and very frail.

Mitsuru, on the other hand, smiled. "Thank you," she said, looking up at creature's red mask, "for coming when I called."

It nodded, disintegrating into light and dust.

Mitsuru turned back to Rise, who was practically glowing, her eyes ecstatic.

"That was so cool! Can I try?" she asked, squealing when Mitsuru handed her the evoker. "Watch out, real world. You're about to have to deal with Kanzeon and me, and we're one heck of a team."

She closed her eyes, tilting her head back and placed the tip of the gun flat against her chin. Before she had a chance to talk herself out of it, Rise clenched her eyes, brought her free hand up to brace against the butt of the evoker and pulled the trigger. Bars of white and black rose in columns above her, and when the blue light cleared, Kanzeon towered above them, the reflective panels of her satellites trained towards the sky and her fingers loosely wrapped around Rise's visor.

Rise laughed joyously. "This changes everything," she said, struck loopy with excitement. "If I can scan in the real world, I can actually use this!"

Yosuke laughed. "Why don't you start by using it to track down Adachi?"

"You got it, kill joy," she said, gently grabbing Kanzeon's hands and lowering the visor over her eyes. The air hummed with anticipation as everyone watched Rise's head swing in one direction, then another.

"This is kind of trippy," Rise said, laughing softly. "It's really different out here."

"There's probably loads of interference, huh," Chie said.

Rise shrugged, her expression difficult to read behind the mask. "Yeah, that's part of it, but it's just different. I guess…it's more like I didn't know what it was doing before, but now I get it better."

"What do you mean?" Akihiko asked.

"So, you guys know how, when Naoto disappeared, it took me forever to find her even though we knew her and a lot of stuff about her? That really bummed me out, because I can tell that Yosuke didn't eat breakfast from a dungeon away and that Teddie's taken too much damage and needs to be pulled out of battle. The same's true with shadows, you know. I can barely tell the weak ones are alive, but the strong ones have their weaknesses all laid out in front of me like they're begging to be slaughtered," she said with a grin. "I mean, the human shadows are different, but it's all the same principle. It's weird, right?"

"What makes that happen?" Kanji asked, settling against the wall beside Yosuke.

"What I'm seeing when I look around the town is kind of cool, actually. There's three tiers of people, in a way. There's the normal people, and they barely register. If I focus really, really hard on trying to find somebody specific like…there we go…I've found Nanako. Looks like she's at a friend's house," Rise said, smiling. "I know her, so I could find her, but it's really tough, 'cause she looks the same as almost everyone else."

"Does anybody stand out? We need to find the accomplice," Akihiko said, leaning forward.

"Hold your horses, boxer boy," Rise said, grinning toothily. "There's a second group of people. Apparently, you can have a Persona without knowing you have a Persona."

Mitsuru nodded. "That's how the Kirijo group found test subjects back when they were in the first stages of shadow research. They designed machines that could sense a person's latent ability, or their potential. There was a problem to that method, though. It is impossible to tell how much potential a person has based simply off the readings. They could just as easily have a full, fledgling Persona already developing as they could have barely anything at all. Because of that, some of the subjects were not quite…up to the tests."

"I'm dealing with a major case of that right now," Rise said, backing up so that she could rest against Kanzeon's dress. "You guys show up as clear as day. Like, I can tell you that Souji's in a car on the way over here, because he's moving too fast to be walking, but I only can tell the person next to him is Dojima because I know Dojima pretty well. Then there are the people who aren't like us big time persona users, but are pale dot-like things that stand out, but not from each other. There's a handful in the residential district, a few scattered through the shopping district- oh, hey! The fox is one. Anyway, they all kind of look the same, so even if one of them has been into the TV world, if he hasn't killed himself some shadows and toughened himself up, he won't look different from the others."

"So, there's no one else in town that looks like, well, us?" Akihiko asked.

Rise smiled at Yukiko. "Only the ones that you would expect," she said cheekily, "but, no, not really, no. Sorry. If it's any consolation, though, I'm pretty sure that means that Adachi hasn't come back to this side. There's no way to go anywhere over there without having to fight, and unless he went over armed with machine guns and strapped into a suit of armor, he's gonna have to call his Persona."

"Should we go to the other side to look for him?" Chie asked.

"Yeah, probably," said Akihiko. "Souji told me to split you guys up into teams, but if you've really searched the whole town already, I don't see any reason for all of us to not go over together."

"Seconded," Yosuke said, nodding to the group. "Let's go over, scan and leave. We can plan back here when we're done."

"Hold on," Rise said, lifting Kanzeon's visor off her head and shivering lightly as the Persona faded. "Souji's on his way here. Shouldn't we wait for him or at least call him to make sure everything's okay?"

After a few mumbled agreements, Rise pulled out her cell and put it on speaker as Souji's phone rang.

As soon as Souji answered, Rise began talking. "We scanned the town, and we can't find anything, so we thought we could go to the other side as a group and look there. What're you up to?"

Souji's laugh was strained but true. "I'm in the car with my uncle. We…talked," he said, a shuffling sound crackling in the background. "I'm going to put you on speaker phone for his benefit if that's fine with you."

"Go for it," Rise said, and the sound quality changed.

"So, my uncle and I talked. I explained some of what's been going on to him, and he's seen some rather undeniable evidence, so he is willing to suspend some disbelief, but-"

"You kids are going to show me what kind of crazy you've gotten yourselves into," Dojima said, growling.

"About that," Souji said, softly. "I do have some rules that I would like you to agree to, uncle. I refuse to show you the other side unless you accept my conditions."

"You cannot declare law in this family," Dojima said, lowly.

"And you cannot cross to the other side without my help," Souji said, his voice flat.

Dojima made a noise that practically epitomized exasperation before saying, "What rules?"

"There's just two," Souji said. "The first is that you are not allowed to leave the first area. Shadows start to form once you leave our haven, so for our sake as much as yours, please do not try to barge ahead."

Dojima grunted but said nothing.

"Secondly, no matter what you see on the other side, you cannot try to stop us from continuing our investigation. We've been doing this for some time now and we're good at it, and, more to the point, we are the only people that you've got. It is dangerous over there, I'll admit, but somebody's got to do this, and we are the best people for the job."

"Why should a bunch of kids like you have to do all of this. It's the police's job to capture criminals and deliver justice, not children's!"

Souji's breath hissed across the line. "At what point, exactly," Souji said, painfully calm, "would it be okay? What, do I have to pay rent to be willing to die for something I believe in? I made these rules because I am responsible for keeping my team safe. I'm not trying to usurp our familial hierarchy, but I will if you do something that might put my friends in danger."

Yosuke hardly dared to breathe as he waited for Dojima to crack. Almost a minute passed before Dojima finally responded.

"I guess I have to respect that," Dojima said quietly. "You…it's damn hard to admit, but you've clearly done a better job figuring this mess out than the force has, but if I'm going to let you guys keep at this, I need to see what I'm pushing you guys into."

Yosuke sighed in relief. "We understand, Sir," he said, grinning.

"Thanks, Dojima," Souji said. "Guys, we're almost there, so why don't you go ahead and cross. We'll be there in just a few minutes."

"See you soon," Rise said, flipping her phone closed. She turned to the rest of the group. "I'll go on over and start searching."

"We'll be right behind you," Yosuke said, propping his head against the wall to wait. As per usual, the team staggered themselves as they crossed, only going one at a time or in pairs to ensure that they were not seen. Once everyone save Souji was gathered in the backlot, Mitsuru and Akihiko having come last and Mitsuru somewhat flustered from the fall and the fog, Rise turned to the group, her face stony.

"Did you see anything?" Yosuke asked.

"Yeah, I did," she said, pushing her glasses up on her nose and chewing on her lip. "There's definitely someone here, but that's not all. You know how I said people could be bright or dim or whatever? There's more than one person in here, and I'm thinkin' that, you know how Souji thought Adachi had an accomplice? Well, I'm kinda sensing that that's wrong. I found Adachi, but he's…dim. Like he hasn't used his Persona all that much, but the other person is blazing."

"You sayin' our accomplice is really the mastermind?" Kanji asked, frowning.

"At the very least, he's more powerful," Rise said, nodding.

"Where are they?" Yosuke asked. "Can you tell?"

"Pretty much, yeah," Rise said, gazing to the left. "They're near Iwatodai, but…guys, something's wrong. Really wrong."

Susano-O silently agreed, and Yosuke felt the last of his good will ebb away.