April 28th, 2017

It had already been a year since his life changed. Ren Sakura, a 17 year old, was meeting with his old friends from Tokyo. Just a little over a year ago, he had moved into Yongen-Jaya, due to being under probation. In the year that followed, Ren had a less than normal year. He had made countless friends, awakened to the power of Personas, been the leader of the Phantom Thieves of Hearts, gotten arrested, killed a god… It was certainly a memorable year, to say the least. He faced countless hardships, but he managed to survive the year thanks to his closest friends. That included his best friend Ryuji Sakamoto, his girlfriend Ann Takamaki, his cat Morgana, his mentor Yusuke Kitagawa, Haru Okumura, and Makoto Niijima. He was also very close to Sojiro Sakura, his adoptive father, and his adoptive younger sister, Futaba. Sojiro seemed rough around the edges at first, but he had warmed up to Ren, and Futaba and the two of them were like a family.

To celebrate Golden Week, they were taking a vacation to Inaba. Inaba was famous for being a quiet town, but in 2011, a murder mystery and fog hazard got the town featured on the news. Though it has been 6 years since then, the man responsible for the murders was just arrested, which is what Makoto had alerted everyone of.

"They finally caught Tohru Adachi. Isn't it incredible that, despite turning himself in back in 2012, they've only now linked him to the case?" Makoto asked.
"Damn, for real!? Who knew Inaba's police force was so shitty..?" Ryuji commented. Ryuji's disdain for adults, specifically corrupt or incompetent ones, was one of his defining traits.

"No, it's not like that," she explained. "He was in their custody, but they couldn't prove his methods. He claimed to have ordered Taro Namatame to throw people into TVs. The police, of course, didn't believe this, and nobody bothered to ask Adachi to prove it. Once he did, there was also the matter of proving Namatame's innocence."

"Hah, Adachi… Kinda reminds me of Akechi, don'tcha think?"

Futaba groaned. "Don't remind me of him. Multiple people in this group-" she pointed at herself and then gestured to Haru- "are missing a parent thanks to him. Not to mention, he could've easily killed Niijima-san," referring to Makoto's elder sister. "By the way, Makoto, what's this about TVs?"

"I was just about to inquire about that myself," Yusuke added.
"I'm honestly not sure. According to Adachi, there's a TV world that only certain people had access to. Namatame had this access, as did Adachi. He threw people into television sets, where they couldn't escape. Or at least, if they hadn't been saved."

"Huh? Who saved them? A world like that…" Futaba stopped to think, and Ren picked up her train of thought, something he had learned while living with her.

"It certainly reminds me of the Metaverse. Do you guys think they're connected?" A few people nodded. The possibility of the Metaverse being connected to the so-called TV World was not unlikely, given the circumstances. Ren wondered if the group that prevented most of the kidnappings was a bunch of teenagers, much like his own. If that were the case, were they using Personas in that world? A smirk grew on his face. He'd save it for later, but he had a feeling his group wasn't exactly done with dungeon-crawling…