Chapter 35: New Arrivals

May 27, 2011

Disclaimer: The Persona series is owned by Atlus and its parent company which is currently Sega. JustCharles owns Reiko Setsuka, but I do own any OCs that I will be using including Dylan, Stephen and Roz. Anything else that I reference is the property of their respective authors.

Amagi Inn

Dylan and Yukiko had woken up at almost exactly the same time, they'd spent the previous evening in his room. Yukiko had even brought in her uniform seeing as she didn't exactly want to have to go back to her room, get changed and go back out.

"So, you're not going to be teasing Steve about Rise are you, Blondie?" Yukiko asked.

Dylan raised his left eyebrow in mild surprise. "Why would I do that?"

"Because he likes her and you're probably going to make some highly inappropriate comment. Or maybe you won't." Yukiko briefly rested her head on Dylan's left shoulder.

Dylan thought it over. "Maybe. I mean, she did invite him to Tokyo and they did stay in the same hotel so something must have happened. I'd have made a move if I was him. Oh. Ah crap."

"If you weren't already going out with me?" Yukiko's voice sounded frosty.

Dylan made a sort of gulping sound. "Of course not."

"Good. We've got to get a move on Blondie, we wouldn't want to keep Steve and Roz waiting." Yukiko got up and made sure that Dylan got a good view of her as she did.

The blonde got out of bed, reached for his uniform and got dressed.

"We're the 2nd and 3rd highest ranking students in our class, so we could afford to be a little bit late." Dylan griped.

Yukiko decided to humour him a little. "We are. Of course, we also have to set an example don't we? Seeing as we've been betrothed as well."

"Oh yeah." Dylan feigned confusion.

Yukiko opened the door and stepped outside. "So, are you coming Blondie? No, not like that, you did plenty of that last night."

"You're welcome, Princess." Dylan just smiled, grabbing their backpacks and closing the door behind him.

Yukiko looked at him. "Did you forget the key?"

"Got it right here." Dylan took the key out of his pocket.

They made their way over to the lobby of the inn, not noticing the man in the suit who was waiting there. Stephen and Roz were there and they'd noticed him but hadn't made their presence known.

"Who the hell is that?" Dylan whispered.

Stephen turned around. "Some government dude. He's looking for Yukiko's dad, maybe we'd better get out of the way."

"Yeah, there's something top-secret going no doubt." Roz tiptoed through the lobby as quietly as she could.

Stephen sighed. "Right. I'm out of here."

"Uh, you did say that your dad was in the CIA right? Maybe he knows this guy." Dylan asked.

Yukiko noticed the man turning around and tilting his head as if to signal that he recognized the blonde. "How does he know you?"

"He probably thinks I'm Chase. Let's just leave him to it!" Dylan took a firm grip on Yukiko's hand and led her out.

The man kept his gaze fixed on the couple as they exited the inn. He heard his cell phone ringing and he picked it.

"Calloway, where the hell are you?" Calloway hung up.

The mission could wait, he had a friend to catch up with.

"Maybe Hikaru can help out." Calloway thought aloud.

Hopefully he was right about that one.

Inaba Outskirts

Hiroki Adachi waited impatiently for some members of his crew to arrive. Tohru had told him that they needed more help seeing as that Kubo kid was only good for finding people to kidnap and little else. They needed some muscle and they needed it fast.

Before carrying out Ogawa's murder, his crew had carjacked some Russian mobsters who had ties with Gregory Blake and his friends the D'Amicos, who probably wouldn't be all that happy about the theft. He decided to cross that bridge when he came to it.

Hiroki's face lit up as he saw a car approaching and it wasn't a cop car.

The door opened and a large, muscular, improbably tanned bald man wearing biker gear stepped out.

"Mad Dog you filthy fucking son of a bitch! How the fuck are you?! I thought you were in jail!" Hiroki hugged Mad Dog.

Mad Dog shoved him back. "Fuck off! That pig bastard had it coming, would've gotten away with it too."

"I know. Hey, you know why I called you and some of the others right?" Hiroki was suddenly serious.

Mad Dog shook his head. "Why did you do that Chief?"

"I'll explain more when they arrive, but I'm helping my brother with this little plan that he has. It's not strictly speaking legal and that's where you come in. And I think that's them now." Hiroki smirked as another car pulled up.

Hiroki and Mad Dog looked as the occupants stepped out.

"It's been a while!" Tozawa, the tall one shook Hiroki's hand.

A shorter, stockier man with a buzz-cut by the name of Hajime looked on silently. He had the presence and build of a pissed off Rottweiler.

Hiroki turned to face them both. "Well, it has. I was wondering if you guys would like to help me."

"Sure." Tozawa grinned widely, his currently facial expression resembling that of a hyena.

Hiroki patted him on the shoulder. "Good. I'd suggest keeping quiet. For now. And not staying near Inaba or Okina. I'm just a phone call away. Now, I've got some business to attend to myself."

The others nodded and got back in their respective cars. Hiroki watched them leave with a wicked grin.

"You'll thank me later, Tohru." Hiroki said sardonically.

He knew that it was time to make himself scarce.

Yasogami High

"Have you guys heard the news? Risette's in Inaba." Yosuke remarked casually.

Stephen rolled his eyes. "I know. She came back with me. You'd almost think that she quit for me. But I don't think that's true at all."

"Of course it's not. There's probably a lot of reasons why she quit." Chie had more-or-less come to Stephen's rescue.

Yu remained silent as ever, but his mind was on alert. Rise's early arrival could mean any number of things, including the culprit trying to kidnap her early. He also knew that he probably had to keep her safe for Stephen.

Dylan gave Stephen a wry smile. "So, you haven't tried making a play for Rise yet? There's going to be a lot of people expressing their interest if you know what I me… Hey!"

"You promised not to tease him remember?" Yukiko asked. She'd punched Dylan in the arm to get him to stop teasing Stephen.

Roz whistled. "I don't think he's the only one giving Steve a hard time about it. It's up to him really."

"If I make a move on Rise or not?" Stephen cut in.

Yu spoke up. "Look, we don't mean to put pressure on you but if everyone here knows that Rise's here then the culprit would know to. Maybe you should keep her safe and we'll help."

"I'm not her babysitter!" Stephen huffed.

Unfortunately, any debate on the subject was interrupted by Morooka, who'd only just breezed into class in his usual mood and with a noticeable lack of good humour.

"Alright shitheads, let's just park the gossiping and try and learn stuff." Morooka seemed a little bit tired.

Yu noticed the calendar hidden under Morooka's arm and he could sort of figure out why. Knowing Dylan, the blonde had figured it out and thought of something crude without verbalizing it.

After a few hours, it was time for a very welcome lunch break and the group made their way to the rooftop except for Dylan and Yosuke, who went to the latter's locker in order for Yosuke to get something.

"So, what do you want to show me Orange?" Dylan inquired in the most deadpan way possible.

Yosuke just handed him a small stack of magazines. "Look, I just want you to hold on to these and not ask any questions."

"So, you're giving your porn stash then? Gee thanks." Dylan took the magazines.

Yosuke almost face palmed. "What's it look like I'm doing?"

"What I said you were doing? Anyway, just tell Chie you've got them laying around." Dylan advised.

Yosuke looked a little embarrassed. "We've only just started hooking up. Besides, Yukiko would be open to that stuff. I mean, she's more open to that since you guys started dating."

"Oh for fuck sake. It's bad enough that Moron's called me a corruptive influence on her. Anyway, I guess I can take the magazines. I'd just have to be careful reading them around her." Dylan busied himself with hiding them.

After he'd hid the magazines in his backpack, Dylan and Yosuke headed up to roof, only to run into Kanji.

"Get away from me!" Yosuke leapt heroically behind the blonde.

Kanji seemed annoyed by that reaction. "That was my Shadow, calm down. I'm not into that sort of thing."

"Thank God. Glad you're recovered. If you're up for it, maybe we could train in a few days or a week?" Dylan offered.

Kanji brightened. "Hell yes! Tell your buddy to stop being such a wuss."

"HEY! Uh, we're heading to the roof, do you want to join us?" Yosuke asked sheepishly.

Kanji considered the offer. "Yeah, why not."

The group was starting to expand, but Dylan was still a little bit on edge because he wasn't sure when the culprit was going to strike.

Okina City

Spencer Nomura had eaten a glazed donut and drank a cup of coffee with cream that was liberally sweetened with sugar. He couldn't help but notice someone watching him.

Said someone was an attractive woman with short white hair and blue eyes. She was also wearing something that resembled a stewardess's outfit along with a blue hat, black leggings and blue knee-high boots. The woman was also holding a very heavy book.

Spencer seized the moment and went over to the woman.

"Excuse me miss! You don't need any help carrying that book do you? Oh, where are my manners? My name's Spencer." He held out a hand expectantly.

The woman was almost appraising him. "Hello Spencer. My name's Elizabeth. How exactly would I go about getting to Inaba?"

"Oh, that's easy! Just take the train, I'll show you to the train station. If you'd have lunch with me. Maybe you'd require a guide." Spencer suggested.

Elizabeth tipped her hat to him. "I'd like that. What's the best place to eat around here?"

"There's a really good pizza place here actually. If that's what you like." Spencer found himself looking at Elizabeth's legs and talking to them instead of to her.

Elizabeth noticed. "Seen anything you'd like? And yes, I wouldn't mind pizza. Shall we?"

Spencer led the way practically skipping for joy. Elizabeth on the other hand wondered about Spencer's role in the events that were transpiring in Inaba. Was it significant enough to merit further investigation? Possibly, but he was the cousin of one of the friends of the new guests of the Velvet Room and that was importance enough.

Amagi Inn

Being a Good Samaritan was exhausting. Dylan had spent a few hours after classes had ended helping out at the liquor store owned by Naoki's family and he was absolutely worn out.

He'd changed into a pair of jeans and an Iron Maiden shirt along with a belt and black shoes. The leather jacket that he always wore was placed on his bed and he was currently trying to get a little bit of rest.

It wasn't quite working so he reached for one of the magazines that Yosuke had given him. Just to have a little look through it.

He flicked through the pages and proceeded to read all of them until he'd gotten to the last magazine in the stack.

Dylan read it until he got to the centrefold mainly because the model bore a striking resemblance to Yukiko.

"Wait, didn't she say that she had a cousin who did adult modelling? And I've probably thought that having a three-way would be a good idea. Huh." Dylan decided to leave the rest of the magazine unread.

It was a good thing to as Yukiko had walked in announced before he could really start enjoying himself.

"I don't know what you're so embarrassed about Blondie." Yukiko leaned over.

Dylan feigned surprise. "I don't think I'm embarrassed. It's just that I haven't had a date with Rosie in a while so I just needed a little bit of time. You can help if you want, you know."

"Could I?" Yukiko's interest was piqued.

Dylan coughed. "If you want. Or you can watch, whichever you prefer. I'm not fussy."

"I thought you liked it when I was a little more hands-on." Yukiko was suddenly coy about what she was suggesting.

Dylan placed the magazine on the floor and moved the leather jacket off the bed before standing up. "As a matter of fact, you're right."

"Good!" Yukiko kissed him. Hard.

The couple proceeded to quite literally shed layers of clothing before spending a lot of time together before practically falling asleep in each other's arms unaware that their throes of passion were being observed.

….

Calloway and Hikaru were sitting in the latter's study reminiscing about the old days.

"Remember that coup in South America? I can't remember the country it was in but that was a crazy two weeks!" Calloway was on his fifth beer and he'd nearly finished it.

Hikaru took a swig of beer himself before laughing profusely. "It was! You and your team left me there for two weeks! I even ended up becoming the "Two-Week President" before you extracted me. Hey, I even got a little suntan despite the imminent death."

"That was more of an Agency hiccup. Besides, you got out didn't you?" Calloway allowed himself to smile, something that was becoming an increasingly rare occurrence.

Hikaru considered the point and conceded. "I did, barely. You know, running an inn might not be exciting or glamorous, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. Not even a chance to relive the old days. Plus, Inaba has gotten quite interesting over the last month or so, which is why you're here?"

"That's classified. Although, there is something that you could help me with. In addition to any assistance pertaining to my mission." Calloway let the thought hang momentarily.

However, Hikaru knew exactly what Calloway was suggesting. "So, you want me to keep tabs on Blake?"

"You mean Dylan, your future son-in-law? Congratulations." Calloway had veered into sarcasm with that last remark.

Hikaru was observant enough to notice that too. "Gregory might want something in exchange for the arrangement, I know that."

"Well, I'm glad that your training is still serving you well then. I really must be going." Calloway stood up.

Hikaru allowed his old friend to leave, pondering exactly what he meant by keeping tabs on Dylan seeing as he had been exonerated of any wrongdoing in regards to the murders and Yukiko's kidnapping.

Entrance, Mayonaka

"Nothing yet." Naoya seemed disappointed.

Kei grimaced. "Whatever's behind this is still waiting for an opportune moment to strike, and we've got to be patient."

"Patience is all well and good when people aren't dying you know." Reiji interjected.

Naoya sighed. "So what do we tell the rest of our team? That we have no idea what's going on? And that we've got a ways to go before we do? Because that'll go down really well. Dammit."

"That we keep looking. Simple." Reiji's response was curt and to the point.

They didn't mention the skeletal figure that had been tailing them or the rest of their team almost as if it was observing them. Or worse, hunting them.