The day started off as usual for Midori: Wake up, eat breakfast, walk to the school and be in school. So far so good. After those steps, the Fool expected only a few boring lessons with Rise, Kanji and Naoto, while yearning to get to the team meeting and to plan the next step.

Sadly his predictions began to fail him at this point, since instead of the usual school day, their teacher had made an announcement about a new student.

Said student was sitting right in front of him.

Poking him in the face.

That student happened to be non-human.

"Teddie, I swear to the collective consciousness of mankind, poke me more and I will poke you with a knife!" the poked one exclaimed angrily with a twitching eyebrow.

"Sorry, but you looked like you were asleep with your eyes open and your head on the table!" the new student said while tilting his head like an innocent child...which on second thought he was.

"More like in a shock state...do I even want to know how you got into this school only now?" Midori asked after leaving out a sigh. Let it be known that the American did not like surprises. His tired face showed that he at least wanted to be informed beforehand. Obviously only Naoto picked up the meaning, while the others only thought he was tired.

"There is a good reason for it!" Teddie proclaimed like he was a politician. He even stood up dramatically and raised his arm in the air.

"Enlighten us then," Midori played along with fake interest, so fake that Rise had to chuckle a bit, while Kanji smiled a little and Naoto gave him a disapproving look. Because he made fun of Teddie or because he didn't try at all to fake something, he didn't know. Could be both.

"Simple, I didn't know enough yet to get in, but Yosuke said that I was smart enough now!" Teddie said proudly as he puffed out his chest and had his arms at his information took a while to register, but the quartet sitting around Teddie widened their eyes when they progressed what the bear just said and how long the bear was in the real world.

"So...let me get this straight...ya powered through more than a decade's worth of school stuff...in about a year," Kanji clarified slowly and since he said out loud what the others thought, it sounded even more ridiculous. Teddie naturally didn't notice or care about the impossibility of his actions and beamed as he took in their shock.

"Yup! I wanted to be with you guys, enjoying the bearific sides of a students life! It seemed fun, so I learned beary hard!" Then the shadow laughed loudly as he said down again, gathering the attention of the other students, whose reactions were between amusement or adoration. In both things, Teddie enjoyed himself.

"...Naoto, correct me, but doesn't he need an Eidetic Memory to be able to do that?" Midori asked quietly to his seat neighbor while the adopted Hanamura was distracted.

"Actually...he probably has that," Naoto replied, who still stared at Teddie in shock like the Fool, whose suspicion got confirmed by her. The idol and the tailor on the other hand had a blank expression.

"Ei-what memory?" Kanji asked bewildered for the two of them and the Velvet Room guest suppressed a sigh. He knew that not everybody would know about it, but it was annoying nonetheless.

"He can remember and memorize stuff much better than normally," Midori explained bored, giving a pointed look at Naoto to leave it at that, since the actual explanation was way longer.

"...Why do I have the feeling you used dummy language on us?", Rise asked with narrowed eyes at Midori and Kanji also frowned as she said that.

"I prefer the term "simplistic". Next question is: Since when did he have that?" Midori brushed the question of and shrugged. He looked at the others with expectation since they knew Teddie better than him.

"I think it's related to his emotions. If he doesn't want to, so to say, his mental capabilities aren't used by their full potential," Naoto assumed in a thoughtful manner as she held her leaned back at that assumption and nodded in agreement. Given that Teddie is a shadow, and therefore consisted fully out of information, emotion and thought that is, it made sense. Since the bear acted more human however, means that he couldn't access that potential under normal circumstances and for longer time periods, or else he wouldn't be himself anymore.

The American held these thoughts back, not wanting to disturb the others with them. Who wanted to know that there was a risk of losing one's self in exchange of mental "perfection"?

He shook his head, resolved to keep this from the others.

/

The Fool walked alongside the river bank after buying some supplies for the team. Today was the day they would get Chie-sempai's persona back. Midori wanted to get Yukiko-sempai's healing persona in order to have their support line stabilized, but they first had to get past Shadow Chie first, as far as the order was still the same.

The exchange student sighed loudly. It has been around three months since he arrived in Inaba and he still had no idea who the murderer could be. The only things he managed to accomplish were getting his ass kicked, piecing together his memories slowly over time, having a persona again and bringing other personae back.

Suddenly he heard a man's voice yell in discomfort nearby:

"I already told you all I know! Please leave!"

Midori looked down up and saw two people on the side walk. One of them was Takeru Kenshiro, the detective alongside Dojima. The other person was unknown to him. That man had very short black hair and wasn't someone you would call special. He wore a simply white shirt with black pants and his aura overall wouldn't make him stand out anywhere. The only special thing about the man was the mole in the middle of his forehead.

At the moment the man seemed agitated and pressured, shown by his nervous and sweating face. Kenshiro on the others side seemed polite on the first glance, but the fact that he leaned into the other man's personal space and made himself bigger showed that this was a power play by him.

"Sir, with all due respect, I believe you are hiding something from me...I can't really do my job without any information, are we clear?" The hissing showed that the guy didn't even try to be polite anymore. Before Midori could intervene however, the detective abruptly turned around and walked away, leaving behind a very distressed victim of bullying.

The American sighed and decided to calm the person down at the very he was behind the man, he cleared his throat, accidentally startling the man, and asked a bit concerned:

"Everything alright, Mr...?"

"Namatame. Taro Namatame. Major of Inaba. You must be John Connor...yes, I'm alright. Just a bit riled up, that's all," the man said with a nervous chuckle and a rather subdued stance.

Midori raised an eyebrow. He heard from the others how the major was responsible for over half the kidnappings back in the Hanged Man case, simply because of a misunderstanding and a little bit of a savior complex. It was amazing how different the current Namatame was from the one described in the files.

"Yes, I'm John...say, Namatame-san, what did Kenshiro want?" Midori asked after a short bow, looking at the direction the man in question walked away.

"Oh...he was just a bit paranoid...he believed because I was involved in the last kidnapping series, I was the culprit again this time," Namatame said with a sad smile. It was as if he didn't blame Kenshiro for his suspicion. To Midori, it was obvious that the man knew that he did wrong things. Before the American could say some more, he heard a beeping noise in the area and looked around, only to see the major gasp at his watch, which was the source of the sound.

"Look at the time! I'm sorry, but I have to go now. Pleasure to meet you."

With those words, the man left Midori alone at the riverbank. Seeing that nothing else in the area demanded his attention, the persona user made his way back to his home.

Kenshiro was suspicious. But it seemed...too obvious. There had to be more behind the man's actions. If that man would be the culprit, the bully would try harder to conceal his not so pleasant side, so it had to be someone else.

Namatame was out for him. Not only did the team assure him that he never killed somebody, the major could not have been in America, since he was in Inaba almost all the time. Rise also made it clear that he had no persona powers, or the potential to enter the TV-World, anymore. Lastly, Namatame did not seem like a psycopathic killer. At all. Sure, he was unstable in the past, but now he was a respectable member of society.

Maybe he could be like Namatame. Becoming a better person than the one in the past, the one who was an ass all the time.

He could copy him like all the others, to better him-

Midori slapped his face and began to sweat. What was that? He wouldn't think like this! He shook his head, hoping to get the bad feeling of his chest and walked to his house.

The feeling never left him.

/

"Dodge!"

After Yosuke's exclamation Midori followed the order and jumped away. Susano-o then kicked the saw blade against the Avenger Knight, knocking it away and stopping its charge. When it tried to regain its stability, a strong lightning crashed down on it, followed by a wind storm caused by Yosuke's persona.

The Magician sighed in relief. When the others kept insisting that Yosuke should be the field leader, he worried that he wouldn't be able to live up to his partner's example. Thus far however it went well, especially with Naoto and Midori giving strategies when possible.

They were in the castle of Yukiko's shadow and were on their way to take care of the shadows of Chie and Yukiko, in that order.

Still, something was off with Midori's performance today. Yosuke wouldn't call it sloppy, but the Fool was a bit unfocused.

Apparently Naoto noticed too since she walked up to him and had a concerned look on her face.

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah...why?" Midori said as he tried to breath calmly again. The exchange student raised an eyebrow as he said it and seemed genuinely confused.

"You seem...out of it today," Naoto replied as she tilted her head. Midori's eyes widened for a split second before he broke eye contact.

"Just...have a lot on my mind. The case and all that. Don't worry," the Fool replied a bit tired. Naoto nodded, but with a small frown, before she went to Rise.

Youske crossed his arms as he observed that. There was obviously more to it, but unless he knew what Midori thought, he couldn't confront him. Hell, even if he knew more, Yosuke would be reluctant. This was Yu's area, not his. With those thoughts, he let the matter be and continued to walk with the rest of the group through the castle.

"So...do you usually find firearms?" Midori suddenly asked when they found a treasure box at a dead end. So far they were clear, but none of them let their guard down yet.

"Yeah, for Naoto sometimes," Rise replied as she scanned the area with closed eyes.

"So I can assume...that you never found...let's say, a shotgun?"

"What?" Yosuke snapped his head towards Midori after he only listened halfheartedly like everyone else and saw the Fool pulling out a shotgun from the chest.

"A Winchester 1200 to be exactly. It even has ammo!" Midori exclaimed with wide eyes and did a test shot against the wall. Said wall froze instantly when the bullets hit it.

"...We did not need a demonstration," Naoto said in a dry tone as she shook her head. This caused everyone to chuckle a little, especially because the Fool's face flushed a bit.

"Hey, better wasting it now than accidentally healing a shadow," the American said with a light chuckle, but then abruptly stopped.

"Say, do you even know where this stuff even comes from?" Midori asked slowly as he stared at the chest.

"Not really. It's random as far as I know," Yosuke replied, sounding equally intrigued. He was the senior member, so to say, and yet he never found out why those treasure boxes had what they had.

"How random?"

The question of the Fool made the entire gang go silent.

"Well, we found medicine, bread, some kind of rare holy weapon..." Yosuke counted with his fingers as he looked up to the ceiling before he had a disgusted look on his face. Now that he thought about it, why did nobody question the fact that those items could have been god knows how long in those treasure boxes. He was surprised that nobody of them suffered any terrible diseases yet.

The "second in command" trusted Yu with his life, but this was not the first time he questioned his decisions. Yosuke was not the only one since everyone else, even Midori, had the same look of discomfort or disgust.

"Nah, the weapons were in golden chests," Kanji said in order to distract himself apparently, as he shook his head.

"I bearlieve we found those after these special shadows that appeared after we got our bearsona..." Teddie said with furrowed eyebrows. Yosuke groaned at the bear puns, but didn't say anything. It happened so often already, he wondered how he could not get used to it yet.

Speaking of Teddie, the Magician smiled. They had a talk about what happened back then in his dungeon. All his doubts, that may have remained despite the talk with Chie, about the bear vanished the second he saw the fear of blonde. Fear of himself. It was the same shadow Yosuke met when he first got into the TV-World. Because of that he wasn't, couldn't be afraid anymore. If he was, how could he expect Teddie to be calm? The bear would be able to control this berserker form, he just knew it.

"Anyways, Chie-sempai's shadow is just right behind that door. Are you ready?" Rise asked, shaking Yosuke out of his thoughts. and everyone nodded. Beside the sweat and the little heavy breathing, the Magician was confident that they could take the shadow of the Chariot. Taking a calming breath, he opened the door and everyone followed him in.

/

Meanwhile in New York, at around six am, a certain married pair sat in their living room, eating breakfast. The black haired and rather young looking woman, who was barely 160 cm tall, put down her eating utensils and was about to stand up, when the blonde man, Joe Connor, cleared his throat. The woman raised an eyebrow and sat back down.

"So...when do you think Midori will lay out all the cards?" The man with the goatee asked as he took a sip from his coffee. His wife sighed and gathered the plates, before she walked over to the sink and dumped the stuff in it.

"Probably not until he got all his memories back," she replied with a frown as she began to wash the items.

"There is no way we will wait for that long, right, Misaki?"

She turned around immediately and only had disbelief on her face, as if what he said was the most stupid thing ever. He had to hold back his laughter at the reaction while she exclaimed angrily:

"Hell no! I don't want him to go alone through this..." By the end of the sentence she let out a deep sigh. Her sad face however morphed into a sadistic one as she held a knife in her hand, making the man sweat nervously. "Besides, I think I should teach him why not to lie to us."

Joe slowly nodded his head with a slightly open mouth before closing it and showing a nervous smile. He did not envy Midori's situation at all. After he processed the last sentence however, he stared at Misaki's back with a tilted head and squinted eyes.

"Isn't Megumi going there already?" Joe asked confused.

"Well, I wanna be there too," the woman said nonchalant as she twirled the knife loosely around in her hand. The man opened his mouth, but slowly closed it again when he noticed the luggage next to the door to the outside. Normally he would question how he could not notice something like that or why Misaki didn't tell him sooner.

But he had his priorities straight.

"But who is going to cook for me?!" The man exclaimed as he slammed his hands on the table like a child.

"Joe, you have enough money to live off five star restaurants for a few months and still have not a single dent in your wallet," the small woman said with a deadpan expression as she dried her hands off the sink water.

"But compared to your food, it's crappy! And why don't you call me Joseph?!" The police man complained, but then threw up his hands in defeat, fully aware what the answer was going to be.

"The goatee. Anyways, let's get back on topic...got anything else on Midori?" The housewife asked as she checked her inventory. Joe took a few deep breaths and when he calmed down, he leaned back on his chair and scratched his goatee everyone apparently hated. He touched upon the memory thing and he updated her on the case, which was more dead than a fish on land.

"...Except the fact with the Investigation Team, not really," the man said with a shrug.

"Still can't believe that some brats with barely months of experience managed to beat down a goddess..." Misaki muttered a bit angrily as she looked down to the ground, but Joe knew why she reacted like that. She wouldn't be jealous of children getting into danger like that. The opposite was the case.

"Well, they had Velvet Room support," the man said and let out a deep sigh.

"Yes...Velvet Room..." Joe flinched a bit at the sight of his wife getting a bit more depressed and letting out an even heavier sigh.

"Things like those make me feel old..." When was the last time he met those people? Twenty five years or so. Back when the team was complete and he still had-

He shook his head. Before he could derail into darker memories, he cracked his neck and put his cup to the rest of the dirty dishes.

"Speaking of brats, I'm a bit worried about that Amada kid they sent to Inaba..." The American mumbled and Misaki raised an eyebrow.

"What, is he getting impatient?" The small woman said with a smirk, but it had a little twitch of worry on it. The police man scratched the back of his head awkwardly, since she hit the nail right on the head.

"I think the kid is going into the TV, whether Aragaki allows it or not." Misaki groaned to his reply and her head hit the wall, which made Joe hold his hand in front of his mouth in order to prevent his laugh.

"Let's hope it doesn't happen until Megumi gets there..." Misaki said, though the sound got muffled by the fact that her face was against the wall.

"Not until you get there?" Joe asked a bit confused. As far as he knew, his wife would hog all the action to herself.

"Nah, our resident "Auntie" will be enough for now," she said with a light chuckle, but her face morphed to a guilty one as she whispered, "...Think it's our fault?"

"That the kid is planning to kill himself? Not really. He wants to prove himself. Though I guess that Kibou firing them didn't help that self esteem..." Joe said relaxed, but then realized that it wasn't comforting at all and bit his lip as Misaki looked at him with a blank look.

"...Yeah, I think I'm just going to get my ride...if there is no emergency in the next twenty minutes, don't call me to get back," she said with a sigh and a disappointing look, ramming a metaphorical dagger into Joe's heart as he fell on his knees and whimpered. Then he realized what his wife said and stood back up.

"Wait a second, don't you need to use the plane to get to Japan?" He questioned and Misaki froze in mid motion as she was about to open the door with the luggage in her other hand.

"...I can swim and walk," she said slowly and had a determined look on her face.

"Oh my- Fine! I come with you on the plane!" The man yelled after groaning at her plans. It wasn't that she wouldn't be able to swim all the way to Japan, she totally could. However, it would take too much time, so he had to deal with her vehicle phobia.

"...Yer hand is going to get destroyed, ya know that?" She said quietly and her fake accent was the last blow to destroy his resolve. Why did his wife have to be so adorable?!

"...I know..." He muttered in sadness, looking at his left hand with tears in his eyes.

"Love ya!"Misaki exclaimed with a laugh and Joe followed her out, dreading the flight.

/

The Fool tried to ignore the blank looks directed at him. He tried to pretend that only Teddie who was humming around, oblivious to his surroundings, was here. But sadly the looks of judgment were upon him, despite the few injuries they had.

"Oh, come on! What was so bad about it?!" Midori exclaimed angrily, not able to bear the silence and the stares at him anymore.

"...My turn to be on top? Really?" Yosuke asked dryly and the green haired boy tried to fight off the blush forming on his face.

"Okay, it wasn't my best line, but I had to think of it on the spot!" He defended himself loudly , gesturing with his hands.

"Ya don't have a list for something like that?" Rise asked with crossed arms and a skeptical look and Midori looked at her with an open mouth and squinted eyes.

"No! It's only artistic if it is improvised!" Midori exclaimed angrily and the others nodded slowly, not helping his fight against his blush. Well, except of the bear of course.

"Indeed! I fully agree with Mido-boy! My puns for example are only at their beary best when created in the heat of the moment!" Teddie yelled with passion as he widened his arms and stood next to Midori.

"Not the support I was looking for, but yeah!" The Fool said with equal passion as he crossed his arms and nodded towards Teddie.

As expected, the rest of the team decided to shake their heads and move on, ignoring the matter. Teddie also made a 180 and walked alongside them as if nothing happened. Midori on the other hand sighed and frowned, thinking back to the battle against the shadow.

Shadow Chie felt off. Even more than the previous ones. Not only was it rather...weak, it didn't even show any emotions. It was like it was simply a security sentry or something like this.

Suddenly enormous pain ran through his sides and he gagged out blood. Midori turned his head and saw cloaked figure with some weird joker mask punching him in the side.

Where the hell did he come from?!

The only thing out of the norm around was a small box, but it couldn't even fit a dog.

The last thing he saw was a black blur smashing in his head and he heard some muffled screaming as he lost his consciousness.

Shortly before vanishing into the darkness however, he only had one thought

Not the ribs again...

/

This was not checked by a beta, so mistakes may be there.