Well, this took way too long to make. But I got slightly absorbed in Persona 3 Portable and Shin Megami Tensei Persona (PSP). Anyway, here it is. I hope to get the next one up before long. At least, not half a month long sort of thing.

Oh, and I'm going with the continuity of 36.5.

Also, something amazing, I think I posted this around the beginning of the school year. Now it's the end of the first semester. Man, am I surprised!

Also+ I love Nutella covered chocolate chip Eggos. Those things are amazing, and if you haven't tried them, and aren't allergic to chocolate or hazelnut, I recommend you try it. Shit's good!

This is my longest chapter, running 7,777 words long.

Chapter 37

(28th) (Thursday)

Yu was woken from his slumber by something wet dragging itself across his face. Slowly, he pushed the thing away as he tried to return to sleep. Instead, the thing started to lightly gnaw on his fingers.

Yu groaned and opened his eyes. Meinu was standing on top of him, a look of expectation on her face. "What do you want?" He moaned.

"It's 6 o'clock. Time to get up!" She howled.

"I went through hell yesterday. Give me a fucking break." He rolled on his side, knocking the puppy off his stomach.

"I have to go pee." The dog informed him.

Five minutes later, Yu was standing out in the cold of their backyard as he watched Meinu run around trying to find a good spot.

"Just pick a spot and go. Is it that difficult?!" He sighed.

"It is if you're a dog." Meinu replied.

Yu rubbed his eyes, trying to get the sleep out of them. "Good point. Did you have to drag me out here? Nanako was already up. And this is a fenced-in backyard."

"I tried to tell her, but she told me it was too cold outside to play. I think."

"To think that you actually understood the vast majority of what she said. Alright, but from now on, I'm doing everything I have to in order to get Nanako to understand that you need to go, not wanting to play." Yu yawned and walked back inside, closing the sliding glass door behind him. "Hey Nanako." He called out to his cousin, catching her attention. "If you're awake at 6, and Meinu is jumping around, let her outside. She woke me for the sole reason of she needed to pee, and you thought she wanted to play."

"Oh, sorry Big Bro." Nanako apologized.

"Don't worry about it. Just let her out before she wakes me early after a trip through hell. Let her back in if she wants. I'm going back to bed." Yu waved to Nanako a little, before walking in a half-sleep daze back to his hopefully still warm bed.

(About 9 o'clock…)

Yu woke, feeling a lot better than a couple hours ago. Though he still didn't want to roll out of bed. Begrudgingly, he did so anyway. He stared blankly at his door for a second. Then it hit him. His door had been closed last night. How'd Meinu get in?

Yu sighed and got ready for the day, ignoring for the moment that Nanako couldn't get that the dog had to go, but understood that she wanted to go into his room.

He walked downstairs and popped a chocolate chip Eggo in the toaster. "Hey Nanako." Said girl looked up from her cartoons. "Did you really let Meinu in my room earlier?"

"No." Nanako replied. "Now that you bring it up, your door was closed, wasn't it?"

"That was me." Rie popped up out of nowhere.

"Why?" Yu questioned.

"Because she looked like she wanted something from you, so I let her in."

Said dog came up and poked his leg. "It's true, she let me in." Yu removed his Eggo from the toaster, pulling out the Nutella and a butter knife, smearing the hazelnut goodness on the already chocolaty food.

"That looks nasty." Nanako said, looking at the food as he put away the Nutella.

"It's actually really good." He pulled off a small bite. "Want some?"

"Um… sure." She opened her mouth, and Yu popped it in. She chewed thoughtfully. "That is good." She said, swallowing.

"It's the only reason that I request Nutella for when you go shopping." Yu took another bite.

Meinu poked his leg. "Um, Yu-kun, can we go see Naoto-kun when you're done with your food?"

Yu swallowed his most recent bite. "Yeah, I have to check in with her, don't I? Got to see those new ears of hers." Then he remembered something else. "Shit, I haven't seen Unten-shi in awhile. I have too many things on my to-do list."

(At the hospital…)

"Get this leash off me!" Meinu whined.

"Oh, will you shut it? You're a spoiled princess, you know that?"

"Yes I am!" The dog proclaimed boldly.

Yu sighed as he entered to room. "We're here." He crouched down and removed her leash.

"The collar too!" She demanded.

"No." Yu replied simply. "So long as you are living with humans, and are out in public, you have to wear a collar in case you wander off."

Meinu huffed in annoyance, but complained no further. Instead, the dog jumped up and sat down on the bed Naoto was sitting on.

"Morning." Yu greeted. "Meinu isn't happy about wearing a collar."

"She does seem rather unhappy." She replied, scratching behind the dog's ears, turning off the small TV that she had been listening to, which had an episode of Rehab Addict on. "In other news, I think I have cat ears now."

"That sounds likely. Mine have changed to a wolf's. Your dog is obnoxious, by the way. She woke me at 6 so she could go because Nanako wasn't getting the message."

"Well, you're the one that fed her for a couple months; shouldn't you have guessed something like that would happen, considering her attitude?" Naoto pointed out.

"Right, but I never had to live with her until today. Does she always get you up at 6?"

"If my alarm clock doesn't. Though it is a bit annoying on the weekends. You have to teach me how to speak dog so I can tell her when to shut it."

"Yeah, but I suggest you hold off on it. I really should have named her Chatty. She is, even more so when you can talk back. Um, let's just move away from the dog."

"Right, I'm assuming you want to see my ears?"

"Yep. Have you had anyone question why my uncle showed up for the sole reason of placing a hat on your head?"

"I haven't had anyone mention it actually. Then again, I'm pretty much alone here." Figuring from the fact that they were talking about cat ears that no one was around, she removed her hat.

"Oh, those are cute." Yu commented on the ears. "They're a Megidola purple with some black and white splotches mixed in."

"Megidola?" Naoto questioned.

"Persona skills have some very strange names." Yu answered. "I'm guessing if the strange trend of ear colors showing off your skills continue, I'm going to say that you are going to be great at clearing out large mobs."

"Why's that?"

"Well, I'm guessing the dark and light splotches are dark and light skills, which if you have the energy, could just murder anything provided it won't block it." Yu stopped. "Wait… I have no idea how I know that."

"E-excuse me?" Naoto asked, seemingly disturbed by his knowledge, and lack of at the same time.

"Don't question me!" Yu yelled.

A strange silence filled the air. It stayed for a minute.

"Um…" Naoto spoke up. "No one else was there when I had to face my shadow, right?"

"Yeah." Yu confirmed.

"OK, don't tell anyone that I hold a grudge for these things, alright?" She requested.

"You would look like a bit of a hypocrite, huh? Don't worry; I hardly understood a good chunk of it." Yu said. "As a matter of fact, the most I understood was you hate the ears and tails, you almost punched a hole in a wall, and you had some issues with your grandfather as a kid."

"I'm technically still a kid." Naoto pointed out. "And yeah, you're right. That's the gist of it. Though I don't know how we got onto the subject of my problematic childhood."

"Maybe your Shadow wanted to vent some anger about it?" Yu suggested.

"No, I'm not angry about it. As a matter of fact, I'm not sure what I feel about it."

Yu gazed at her, slightly confused. Apparently, the young detective could pick up on that.

"My parents died when I was 6 in a car accident." She informed him. She continued before he could say something sympathy filled. "My grandfather was the only relative I had that was still alive. So I was sent to live with him. Sadly, he wasn't much different from Dojima-san, and basically ignored me. If he did see me, the most I would get would be a nod or a small hello.

"Considering he was a detective, he had the money to hire someone to babysit me. Every morning my schedule was to get up, walk downstairs, eat the bland stale cereal that was given to me, go back upstairs, change, brush my teeth, and so on and so forth. It slowly killed me on the inside."

"But wouldn't someone who just lost their parents at a young age need some sort of love, attention, something?! My parents are horrible at paying attention to me, and they still do that much!" Yu felt slightly annoyed at the thought.

"He never noticed, and after no more than a week, I had completely lost the will. After about a month, the day came when he had stupidly left his gun lying around."

"You mean you…" He couldn't get the words out, so he mimicked putting a gun to his head and pulling the trigger. Naoto must have picked up on that as well.

"Nearly. Initially, I was just interested in it because it was something new around the house. I twirled it around a little, nearly dropped it, I think I almost shot myself in the foot. I don't really know where the thought of killing myself came from though."

Yu stared blankly. Of all the people he knew, he didn't expect this girl to be in any way mentally unstable, even when she was 6 and her parents died.

"And though I'm not sure where it came from, it was there, and it almost successfully pushed me off the cliff. I put it to my head, and then my grandfather walked into the room. He screamed some things, I screamed some things, and after that, I don't really remember anything.

"After that, everything started to get better. My grandfather gave a shit about me, talked to me, and even took a couple weeks off after the accident to ensure I wasn't going to try that little stunt again."

"Well, better to be safe than REALLY sorry later." Yu muttered.

An awkward silence filled the air as they ran out of things to talk about.

"Um… So!" Yu quickly changed the subject, or at least brought one up. "You want to play a game of Tennis?!"

"What's that?" Naoto asked.

"Give me your hand." Yu requested. Though seemingly unsure, she complied, sticking out her right hand, and Yu grabbed it. "You ready?" He asked. Naoto shrugged. "Alright." With that, he slapped the back of her hand, lightly, but enough to inflict some pain.

Naoto yelped in surprise and pain. She pulled her hand away, lightly rubbing it. Yu snickered. "You lose."

The glare she would have given him would have been fatal. "So that's Tennis, huh? Fine, now that I know what's going on, I demand a rematch!" She stuck her hand out again.

Yu chuckled as he pulled up a nearby chair, getting comfortable. He grabbed her hand. "You get the first shot this time."

Naoto reached forward with her left hand, ensuring that she wouldn't miss completely, though it was a simple matter to lead one hand to another, and therefore the back of the hand it was grabbing. She pulled back a little, and suddenly slapped the back of Yu's hand.

Yu flinched slightly, but he had played before, and though that stung, he'd felt worse. "Don't hold back now." He advised as he slapped her hand with much more might than before. Meinu watched them with interest.

This went on for a couple minutes, just back and forth slapping. After a while, they both were digging their fingernails into each other's skin, but refusing to back down.

Yu looked at their nearly purple hands. "You would totally give up if you knew what color your hand was turning at the moment."

"Yeah, this is getting a little painful." Naoto muttered.

"You've gone on much longer than anyone else I've played with. Want to just call it a draw?"

"Yeah." Slowly, they released their grips, rubbing their sore hands. Naoto laughed. "The stinging on the palm of my left hand hurts worse than the back of my right."

"That normally only happens when you're playing against someone weaker than you, last I checked." Yu took out his phone, taking a picture of his hand. "Hold out your hand for a second. I want a picture so you can see how bad your hand looks when you can see again." Naoto obeyed.

Yu noticed the clock on his phone. He sighed. "I've got to get going. See you later."

Naoto muttered a goodbye as Yu reattached the leash to the whining dog and dragged her out.

"Alright, Meinu. I have a small number of things I have to do today." He pulled out his notebook, where the back page had been effectively turned into mostly random notes. "First, I have to go get that motorcycle and take it home. Next, we have to go to the TV and get some materials so Daidara can make a shit ton of cool armor. After that, I have to learn how to make these ears invisible or whatever. Looks like I'll have to drop you off at home girl."

Meinu didn't seem unhappy with being left behind at the house, so he had a lot less of a painful time than dragging her out Naoto's room.

After saying a quick hello to Nanako, he then walked down to Unten-shi's. He knocked on the door and awaited the man. A couple seconds later, the door opened, and the man stepped out.

"Morning Yu-kun." He greeted. "I haven't seen you in awhile."

"Sorry, things have been pelting me, saying, 'Hey, look, listen!'" Yu explained.

"Ah, understandable. Anyway, I'm assuming you're here for the bike?"

Yu nodded, so Unten-shi opened the garage door where he stored the motorcycle. He brought it out. "All your stuff's there in the trunk. Passenger's stuff in the one on the side here. Don't go killing yourself, got it?"

Yu reassured him and pulled out his wallet, handing him his money. He then strapped on every protective thing that one could ever need, somehow managing to get Unten-shi to not notice his ears. He climbed on and turned the engine on. He waved slightly to Unten-shi, and drove away.

Not far from Junes, Yu saw Yosuke walking along the street. He honked. Yosuke jumped in surprise. Yu came to a stop. Yosuke took a step back.

"Why're you backing away?" Yu asked as he lifted the rather dark face shield.

Yosuke stared at him. He looked down at the motorcycle. "What the hell?!" He yelled. "When did you get this!?"

Yu looked at it. "Technically today." He answered.

"Dude, this thing is sweet!" Yosuke muttered, looking at the various parts.

"Want to take a short ride? I have to do to Daidara's and I'm planning on dragging you with me anyway." Yu offered.

"Even though it's a short drive, isn't that unsafe?" Yosuke seemed to be considering his options.

"Course it is!" Yu said all too happily as he opened the side trunk, and watched Yosuke immediately put on the helmet and coat. He climbed on, obviously excited.

Less than a minute later, they arrived at Daidara's. They disembarked the vehicle and entered.

"Morning Yu-kun, Yosuke-kun." Daidara greeted. "What's you need?"

"How many materials do you need for more armor?" Yu asked.

Daidara thought for a second. "I'm assuming you need it for Yosuke?" Yu nodded. He looked Yosuke up and down. "I'd say I can make the legs and most of the chest from the leftover materials from yours."

"What's this about?" Yosuke asked, nervous.

"Oh, I never showed you, did I?" Yu tapped the button on his watch, getting engulfed by his armor. He struck a pose as Yosuke's mouth fell open. "Like it?"

"Dude…" Yosuke whispered. "Can I get one of those!?" He yelled excitedly.

"Actually, yes." Yu answered, smacking the shoulder plate and having the armor turn back into a watch. "Just let Daidara to get the measurements he needs, and we can go to get more materials."

Yosuke agreed and Yu called up their friends while that was happening. They sighed and agreed to meet up at the usual table at Junes. They placed on their helmets again and drove over to the parking lot.

(Inside the TV…)

"So where we going to train, Alpha?" Yosuke asked.

"We're gathering materials, not training." Yu reminded him. "As such, because that's all we're doing, we're going to go murder some creatures at Yukiko's castle."

"It's not my castle." Yukiko huffed.

"Yeah, I know, but that doesn't mean I won't give you shit about it." Yu smiled. "Anyway, I'm putting a timer on my phone for two hours. Time starts… now." Yu started walking to the castle.

In the castle, the group sliced and diced anything that moved, opened some chests, and collected enough materials that they could probably finish Yosuke's armor, and make Chie and Yukiko's as well.

Rise scanned the area for any more enemies, chests, or anything of interest. There was none. "You've completely cleared this place out. I'm not sure any more Shadows will appear here even if you give it a million years."

"So then… ONTO KANJI'S TOY STORE!" Yu yelled, lightly nudging Kanji.

Kanji snarled at him, but didn't complain, though he did look like he wanted to punch his leader in the face.

Yu looked at his phone. "We have 45 minutes left. We can clear out a floor or two, right?"

Not. They only got halfway through the first floor because they were distracted. More like Kanji was distracted by the fluffy things surrounding them.

Teddie teleported them to the entrance when the timer went off. "Well, that was semi-successful." Yu stated. "Except next time, if Kanji decides to stop for any reason involving fluffy things, we leave him behind, alright?"

"Hang on a minute!" Kanji yelled. "At least give me a Goho-m if you go through with that, alright?!"

Everyone stared at the manly, yet soft boy. They weren't sure of how they expected him to react, but that certainly wasn't it. And so, unable to properly respond, they all just jumped through the TV without a word, leaving Kanji to watch them go, confused.

(Back in the real world…)

Yu traveled by himself to Daidara's. He dumped the materials on the table and watched the metalsmith's jaw drop at the amount and quality of the crafting items. "I'd say that's enough to pay for Yosuke's armor at least should you not pay me for these."

Daidara looked through the bag that contained to items. "Normally, I'd pay you, but yes, this is enough to complete the armor, and if I don't pay you this time, I won't have charge you for it. I could probably reduce the next amount by 3,000 yen or so. I'll have to count what I got and everything, and then I'll give you a better picture. Come back tomorrow. I'm really pent up now! This'll be done in no time!"

Yu smiled and let out a small chuckle at his attitude. "Thanks, Daidara-san."

Yu left the man to his work. He looked at his watch. He had plenty of time to do whatever he wanted. He figured that there was enough food at home that he wouldn't have to waste time shopping. So the rest of his day was free. Thinking back, maybe he should have paced himself in regards to the Social Links he possessed outside of school.

However, he knew that Kanji should be available today, so it didn't matter at the moment. Unless he was really tired or something, but because of the nature of the oddball Social Link system, it's highly unlikely that's the case.

Sure enough, Kanji was more than ready to see him, standing outside his mother's shop as though he was awaiting his leader. He was basically staring into space. Kind of creepy really.

Yu approached him. "Morning, Kanji."

Kanji glanced at him. "Ah, just the guy I wanted to see."

Yu raised an eyebrow. He couldn't have said something when they were gathered, but apparently the good ol' Social Linking system had a nice strong grip on him, and he was sticking to a strict schedule as a result.

Kanji forcibly dragged his friend to the hill overlooking the town, seemingly in a half-awake trance, now that Yu was paying some attention to details. 'Could he look any more dead?' He asked himself. 'Actually, course he could. He just needs to be on the ground, actually dead.'

At the hill, Kanji sat down at the bench, forcing his friend to do the same. "The other day, I went to visit my dad's grave." Kanji muttered robotically.

'Um, Margaret, Igor, someone?' Yu tried to contact his strange Velvet hosts.

'Yes, young guest?' Igor answered.

'I think Kanji's broken.' Yu informed him, referring to the automatic-ness of his actions.

'Hm…' Igor seemed to contemplating the situation as he listened to Kanji drone on.

"It was the first time I've gone on my own."

'I can't say what happened. Margaret has stepped out with Marie for the moment, so it's possible her and the Persona Compendiums lack of presence has caused this, but I cannot say for sure. I guess you'll just have to deal with it this time.'

'But none of this seems relevant to his relationship with the kid and certainly doesn't concern me!' Yu almost wanted to beg Igor to just change Kanji's Social Link structure, this was nuts.

'Sorry, can't help you. I can only fuse Personas and offer advice. As a matter of fact, here's some advice right now: Suck it up!' Igor then, er, disconnected from Yu's mind and left him alone to listen to Kanji's awkward droning.

"Um, that's amazing?" Yu posed it as a question, as he wasn't sure why he was hearing this if this was a Social Link event.

"Why do you sound so weirded out by me talking about my dad?" Kanji asked, somehow picking up on the strangeness.

"Nothing. Continue, please." Yu hoped he would drop it. And drop it he did.

"Anyway, I felt like I could finally face him." Kanji sounded really proud of himself. "He told me before he died, 'If you're a man, you got to be strong.'" Kanji chuckled. "Got real mad at him for that. Sounded like he was saying I'm not a real man. So I became the tough guy every sees. Beating up gangs; those were the sort of thing that I assumed he meant by 'strong.' But… it wasn't. I'm still not really sure what he really meant, but I'm not planning on lying to myself anymore. I have to stop shying away from my hobbies, and other people. So from now on, if someone asks me if I like to sew, I'm going to tell them, 'Hell yeah!' So long as there is one person to accept me, I'll be happy, and no longer afraid."

"Good, Kanji. You would definitely be able to accept your Shadow with no trouble now. Didn't I tell you that you wouldn't need me?" Yu lightly elbowed him.

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Kanji smiled. "Hey, guess what, my dolls are going up for sale at my mom's shop, since they were such a big hit with the kid and his mom. Speaking of the dolls, I have to go get those supplies to make them." Kanji got up. "Bye." He walked away.

Now with nothing to do, Yu looked up at the clouds that dotted the sky. "Hm, never noticed how nice of a day it was." He muttered to himself. "Well, I still have a couple hours of my day left." He walked out to a nice grassy spot and lied down. He stared at the sky until he fell asleep…

(29th) (Friday)

Yu awoke that lovely Friday… only to find that he slept from around 5 p.m. yesterday to about 6 in the morning the next day.

He groaned slightly as he stretched his stiff muscles. "This'll teach me to fall asleep in a nice grassy spot after murdering dangerous creatures."

Slowly, he walked back to the residence he was staying in.

"Nanako!" Yu called out to his cousin.

"Big Bro, you're back! You're lucky I didn't tell dad you disappeared." Nanako scolded him as she ran up to him in glee, Rie following not far behind with a look of amusement on her face.

"I'm sorry, Nanako-chan. I fell asleep at the hill, and somehow didn't wake until earlier this morning." Yu apologized. "Anyway, have you let Meinu out this morning?"

Nanako's expression changed to one that read, 'oops.' "That would be a 'no.'" Rie answered for her friend.

Yu sighed slightly and walked to the back door. He whistled for the dog, who jumped off the couch she had been lying on and ran outside with obvious urgency. "Stupid mutt, why didn't you give Nanako a sign that you had to go?" Yu called out to the dog.

"I'm not going to try after what happened last time!" The dog barked back. "Now leave me alone!"

Yu turned around and looked at Nanako. "Close the door when she comes back in, please. I have to change."

Nanako nodded and so Yu went to his room upstairs to change his clothes. The ones he was currently wearing were covered in grass.

About a minute later, Yu came back downstairs to find that Nanako was watching cartoons, the back door having been shut. Meinu was lying on the couch, a look on her face that clearly showed that she had just relieved herself after holding it for a long time.

"I'm off to see what the day throws at me. Don't kill yourselves. Again, in Rie's case." Yu said, Rie giggling at the fact that she was dead.

First thing Yu had to do was see Daidara. He called up Yosuke, and told him to meet at the metalsmith's, before calling and tell Chie the same message.

Yosuke got his armor, at which point he almost ran out into the street to kill some people before Yu stopped him.

He thwacked his Beta upside the head for his recklessness. "Do you know how much trouble we would get in if my uncle, or any of the other police for that matter, saw you running around in full body armor and waving your weapons around like a lunatic?"

"Oh, right." Yosuke sighed.

And the Chie entered the picture. "Hey there guys, what's cooking?"

"Cooking?" Yosuke asked. "Hopefully not something you made."

Naturally, in retaliation, she kicked Yosuke in the gut. He fell to the floor in pain.

"Um, so anyway," Yu looked briefly at Yosuke, before deciding that he deserved it, and left him to writhe in pain. "We need some measurements from you." He decided to just be as direct as possible. Too bad he didn't think about what Chie might have thought it sounded like. Not that he really knew. The next thing he knew, he was on the ground, clutching his stomach in pain. He shouldn't have worded it like that.

While Yu and Yosuke were lying on the ground in pain, Daidara explained what they really wanted. Chie had a blank stare on her face as she muttered, "Oh, um, sorry Yu-kun, Yosuke-kun."

In reply, Yosuke muttered to her, "Yeah sure, that totally gets rid of the pain in my gut."

Yu crawled out of the store, probably looking like a bug, slowly moving to a nearby bench. Some random bystander saw him whispered to a nearby companion, 'Looks like he said something wrong to Chie.' They laughed, unaware at how correct that statement was.

Slowly, Yu pulled himself up onto the bench. He took a deep breath. "OK," He muttered to himself. "Note to self, don't make Chie mad. EVER."

He waited for a couple minutes for the pain to subside. After which he got up and hightailed out of there, for fear that Chie might come out of the store, and that he might say something stupid again.

In any case, with nothing good to do, he decided to go see Naoto, who was probably bored out of her mind listening to Judge Judy.

Correct he was, as the girl in question was lying on her bed, extremely still as some TV show droned on in the background. When she heard the door creak open, however, she perked up. "Hello." She greeted him.

"Morning," Yu replied, taking a seat on the nearby chair.

"Yu-kun." It seems that it was then that she realized who he was, not that it was much of a surprise. She sat up.

"You seem really bored." Yu pointed out.

"No way, you think?" Naoto snapped, clearly not happy that she was stuck in one spot.

"OK, I know this is my fault, but don't take it out on me." They both sighed.

"How many days has it been?" Naoto asked him.

"Let's see… it was Tuesday when we finally got rid of Junko, and it's Friday now, so… two days in between, half of today, half of Tuesday… three days."

Naoto groaned. "This is driving me crazy!"

"It's a short drive." Yu joked.

"This is serious!" Naoto yelled at him.

"I know; I just couldn't help it." Yu muttered.

The door creaked open. Both the teens turned their attention to the newcomer. It was a doctor. "Morning, Shirogane-san." He greeted.

"Good morning, Dr. Halsey." Naoto muttered.

"Did I hear you yelling a minute ago?" The doctor asked.

"Yeah." Yu replied for her. "She's kind of losing it." Naoto smacked his shoulder. "What, it's true! You said so yourself!"

"Don't mean you can go around telling other people." She sighed. "But yeah, I do feel like I want to tear my hair out by now."

The doctor smiled gently. "Tomorrow, Shirogane-san." He promised.

Naoto looked absolutely miserable as the doctor exited the room.

Yu put his hand on her shoulder. "Tomorrow, Shirogane-san." He mimicked the man's words.

"You're not helping." Naoto growled, turning her head away from him.

"Sorry." Yu muttered. "But on the bright side, 'tomorrow'." Naoto didn't reply. "You're no fun when you're depressed." He got up. "If you didn't want to talk to me, you could have just said so." He turned to leave.

"Don't go!" Naoto begged desperately.

"Make up your mind." Yu reclaimed his spot. "So anyway, how have you been?"

"Absolutely terrible." Naoto replied rather bluntly.

"Oh yeah, should have realized that." Yu tried to find something else of interest to say. "So, what are you planning on doing after getting out of here?"

"Doing anything I have to in order to get rid of all of this pent-up energy I have." Naoto answered.

"In that case, all of my Investigation Team is going to be worn out if they join in. Meinu as well." Yu smiled as Naoto laughed, though she seemed confused, as though she didn't even understand the reason she had for laughing to begin with. Suddenly, an idea popped into the wolf eared boy's head. "Actually, that's a great idea. Have a bit of a mini-party. Why am I just now coming up with this?"

"Is a party really necessary? Shouldn't we wait until we actually accomplish something?" Naoto questioned his reasoning.

"Well, let's see, what have we done?" Yu decided to just name off the simple stuff. "Rescued Yukiko from a guarded fortress, fought our way through a toy store for Kanji, went through a strip joint to save Rise, and wandered around for at least an hour in total darkness to save you. I think I can safely say we have something to celebrate here."

"You have a valid point." Naoto nodded. "When do you think we'll have it then?"

"Some time after you get out of here, duh." Yu answered.

"That's a lot of time though. Narrow it down a little."

Yu thought for a second. She had a point. "OK, before I leave Inaba, better?"

"Slightly."

Yu smiled and continued to narrow it down only slightly, like, before Christmas. Finally, they had narrowed it down to this month.

"This month, huh?" Naoto thought for a second. "That doesn't leave a lot of time. I believe it's the 29th, correct?"

"You don't know the day of the week, but you know the day of the month?" Yu laughed.

"What's so funny about that? I just remembered what day it was when school ended, and from there just added two days. It's not that difficult."

"Yeah, but this is you, Naoto Shirogane, Ace Detective, I'm talking too. Anything that is remotely like a puzzle is overly simple for you." Yu pointed out.

"Not everything. I'm horrible at block puzzles." She admitted.

Yu laughed. "Block puzzles?"

"No one is perfect, Senpai." She muttered.

"Whatever you say." After saying this, his stomach growled at him to go get some food. "I forgot to eat this morning." He realized.

Naoto shook her head. "Go get some food then."

Yu, having no real reason to complain, was gone in a second.

Thinking it would be best to not go to Junes for some cheap food that really wouldn't satisfy his hunger, Yu decided to go to get some beef at Aiya's. Due to his extreme hunger from not eating dinner, breakfast, or lunch, the owner made him a Rainy Day Mega Beef Bowl, though it wasn't raining.

Slowly, he dug into it. Half an hour later, he was poking at the rice at the bottom, though he felt like his stomach wanted to explode. The owner came over to check on his progress. His mouth dropped open.

"You ate all the way to the rice?!" He screeched in disbelief. "But… how?!"

"I missed dinner yesterday, forgot breakfast, and this is basically a late lunch." Yu explained.

The poor owner couldn't respond, just simply staring at the greasy rice in the bowl.

Yu picked up his chopsticks again, slowly eating the remains of the dish. "You're not going to make me pay for this, are you?" He asked as he shoved more food into his mouth.

"That's how the Mega Beef Bowl works. You get to the rice, you don't pay." Aiya replied slowly.

"Good, because I think I forgot my wallet at home." Done with the bowl, Yu put his chopsticks down. He waved a little at the owner and left.

Aiya's daughter, Aika, returned from a delivery a second later. She looked at her father, and then to the empty bowl sitting on the counter. "Someone finished it?" She stared for another second, before shrugging it off and returning to her duties.

At a snail's pace, due to his full stomach, Yu walked down the sidewalk. Suddenly, someone called out to him. "Senpai!" Yu turned around, finding Rise running to him. She reached him, stopping and looking up at him with a happy expression. "Notice anything… different?"

Yu looked at her, not seeing anything. He shook his head.

"Geez, you're dense." Rise huffed.

Teddie then came running up, calling out, "Wait up, Rise-queen." He stopped beside her, bending over and panting.

"OK, what's going on here?" Yu asked.

Rise sounded annoyed as she gave him a hint. "The head area, look there." Yu studied her face. That was the end for Rise. "The ears, dammit!"

Yu looked at her ears, only to realize they were gone. "Oh!"

"Oh, don't sound so proud." Rise sighed. "But yeah, I've been working on it all day, and I finally have decent enough control over my powers that I can hide my ears."

"Don't get too excited, Rise-queen." Teddie advised. "If you do, you might lose what little control you currently possess."

Rise took a deep breath. "You're right. That would be saddening."

"So…" Teddie sneaked his way into the topic that he decided was a good idea to talk about. "It's been at least a month now, and I've helped you hide your ears… Will you be my queen now?"

Rise sighed. "You're persistent."

"But of course!" Teddie yelled passionately. "I won't just give up! Just one date, that's all!"

Rise was about to reject him, but then Yu spoke up. "You know, one date won't kill you, and Teddie won't stop bothering you about it."

Rise looked helplessly at him. "Since when did you get a say in this?"

"I don't, really. It's up to you, but I suggest that you just get it over with." Yu said.

"Fine." Rise muttered.

Teddie yelled in glee.

"Don't look so annoyed, Rise-chan. If it makes you feel any better, before the month is over, I plan on having a bit of a celebratory party. You know, because we've all gone through the TV world so many times now."

Rise perked up. "Really? When?"

"Before the month is over." Yu repeated.

"Cool! Can I have a cooking competition with the other girls?" Rise seemed really pumped to get him to approve.

"Well, if you do, I sure as hell am not eating anything." After what happened with Chie and Yukiko's cooking skills, he didn't have high hopes for Rise.

"But why!?"

"Um, because Chie and Yukiko can't cook for shit, and if I eat yours, but not theirs, they'll be mad." Yu thought up on the fly.

"Let's just try anyway!" Rise yelled.

"I have no objections." Teddie piped up.

Yu sighed. "Fine, but if someone dies, it's on you females."

"Yay!" Rise jumped for joy. "I'll call Chie and Yukiko and tell them to prepare. You should go tell Naoto-kun. I want her to join in too."

"Hell no." Yu rejected the thought. "Three females, two of which are horrible cooks, in the kitchen are enough. We don't need to add any more. Besides, she'll still be trying to get rid of all of her pent-up energy."

Rise sighed. "Fine. But you have to make something then."

"Wait, when was I thrown into the mix?" Yu knew he would be the one to win, especially if some sort of prize was involved, so he didn't want to take part in it.

"There has to be an even number. I'm a bit OCD about that sort of thing." Rise explained. "Plus, I really want to try your cooking."

"Right… Fine. Let me warn you though. I'm an amazing cook, and am going to kick your ass." Yu warned her.

"We'll see about that." Rise said smugly, turning around. "Come on Teddie, let's get this over with."

It was impossible to describe how much joy Teddie must have been feeling as he followed after Rise, talking excitedly about what they could possibly do during their date.

Yu snickered, before calling out to Rise, "What are we going to cook?"

Rise looked back at him. "Isn't it your job to decide?"

Yu shrugged. "It's your idea."

"Good point. Um… Oh, I know! We can spend the night, and when we wake, we can have the completion over omelettes."

"I'm not sure I want to wake up in the morning to eat Chie and Yukiko's cooking, but sure, I'll try to get my uncle to allow it." Yu sighed.

"Then it's decided, it'll be tomorrow!" Rise said happily.

"We never decided the date though!" Yu pointed out.

"Why can't we have it tomorrow?"

"I never said that."

"Then it's tomorrow. Tell everyone for me, OK?" Rise decided for him, and walked away with Teddie following her like a puppy.

Yu stared after the two. "What just happened?" He asked himself.

Shaking it off, Yu called up all of his friends, telling them that he was planning on holding a party at his place tomorrow, at which point they all immediately cleared their schedules. He decided it was for the best to not inform those not in the cooking contest that there was one going on, and that the two cooking failures were active contestants.

As his final act before going shopping to get enough ingredients for the four of them, he went to inform Naoto about what was going on with the party. He spent about 20 minutes just trying to explain what happened while he was out, just to simply get some lunch. He then left to go shopping.

At home, Yu spotted Dojima reading the newspapers. "You're home for once." He commented as he put away the supplies.

"Yeah, that happens on occasion." Dojima said bluntly.

"Right. Anyway, do you think we can have a party tomorrow?" Yu decided to just ask right away.

"Who's going to be involved?" Dojima asked, not looking up from his paper.

Yu stared at his uncle. "You aren't going to reject the idea outright?"

"You're teenagers. I shouldn't be surprised that you want to have a party." Dojima replied.

"Oh, well, it's just going to be us Persona-users. And you and Nanako is you're both there." Yu answered, feeling weird talking to his uncle about Persona-users.

"That's 8 people, not including Nanako and I, correct?" Dojima asked.

Yu nodded. "Yeah. Rise was talking about holding a cooking contest for her and the other girls, and me as well. She said that she wanted for the contest to be with omelettes. It's probably just an excuse to allow her to spend the night, since it's a breakfast food."

"I heard the girls are really bad cooks. Just keep them from blowing the roof off the house, and you can do it."

Yu stared at his uncle in shock. "You're just going to let us do this?"

"Like I said, you're teenagers. And there will only be 8 of you, not counting Nanako. I don't see too much of a problem."

Just to make sure that his uncle hadn't been replaced with an alien, he did a quick sweep of the room to check for any signs such a thing occurred.

"What are you doing?" Dojima asked.

"Just making sure that you haven't been replaced with an alien." Yu replied, looking under the table.

Dojima shook his head, muttering something about his nephew's humor. "Alright, I have some rules though."

Yu stopped looking around. "There's the Dojima I know!"

Dojima sighed. "If the house is trashed, you're cleaning it. I won't lend you any money, and you aren't allowed to have more than those 7 over. Nanako has to go to bed on time, and you can't be up past midnight. Don't think I won't enforce those rules."

Yu did a sort of mini-salute. "Yes sir!"

"Now what was that for?" Dojima asked.

Yu shrugged. "Got to show you I'm serious somehow, right?"

Dojima shrugged back and went back to reading his newspaper. Yu spent the rest of the night preparing for the party the next day.

Anyone remember the omelette cook-off that occurred after taking down Mitsuo? Yeah, that's what this is based around, of course, with some of my own special personal touch to it.

Oh, and I'm sure not one of you people noticed the fact that Naoto called the doctor 'Dr. Halsey.' For those who did notice and question its existence, good for you! I actually have a reason for that particular name. See, I have/had (I think it's just seriously better now) scoliosis. For those unaware, it's basically where your spine curves in a C or S shape, and you lean to one side. It's really awkward. Anyway, I had/have that, and the doctor that did the surgery to correct it was named Dr. Halsey.