Yu gathered everyone and we headed over to the second-year class 4's Evil Spirit Club display. It definitely looked like it was set up to be a haunted house.
"This is the next one. I guess it's a type of haunted house you walk around in?" Yukiko said.
"What!? What am I supposed to do if my knees give way!? The ghosts will be all over me!" Chie panicked.
"What're you all pissed about...? C'mon, this is just another display at a Culture Festival." Yosuke dismissed.
"I hope so..." Yukari replied uneasily.
"I kind of wanted to go in..." Fuuka said, a bit disappointed.
"You don't mind scary stuff, Fuuka-chan?" Rise asked.
"It scares me, but that's what makes it kind of fun...Can you not handle it, Rise-chan?" Fuuka replied.
"Maybe if I was with everyone else, but it's too creepy alone! I've never felt so relieved that I can only provide backup."
"Why can't my Persona do backup...?" Yukari said miserably before turning to Naoto. "You seem like you'd be fine with it, Naoto-kun."
"...Yes? Oh, pardon me, were you asking me something!?" Naoto jumped a little, betraying a bit of her nerves.
"Were you lost in thought there?" Yukari asked.
"Yes, er, well...I was thinking about optical illusions. Commonly known as pareidolia, it's the phenomenon where shadows look like faces and figures, and..."
"...You're scared." Yu stated simply.
"N-No-I'm just saying that paranormal experiences can be negated by science!" Naoto protested.
"Yeah, yeah. Aww, it's okay. There's no need to be scared." Yosuke said mockingly.
"S-Stop that!"
"C'mon, Kyoka's not scared." Yosuke motioned to me and I jolted a bit.
"U-Uh...You know, actually, when I was a kid my dad had to literally carry me through the haunted house the rest of my family wanted to go in so, um...Yeah, I'm trying not to think about it..." I muttered uneasily, looking away with embarrassment.
"S-Seriously...?"
"Well, at least you can just become an oversized coyote. Spirits don't usually mess with animals, right?" Yu suggested and I nodded a bit.
"That's the plan..."
"Just don't go staring at walls too much or it'll make us think there's a ghost there." Yukiko said lightly and I groaned at her.
"H-Hey! I thought you guys were done with the dog jokes...!"
Fuuka giggled. "You all get along so well."
"Mm-hm, that may be our greatest strength." Yukiko replied with a smile.
"I see...That sounds nice." Yukari said quietly, then paused before starting and saying, "...Oh, we should probably get going! Just standing around won't help."
"T-True...Let's go." Naoto replied, looking uneasy.
"I'll protect you, Naoto." Yu told her as blankly as ever.
"Th-There's no need for you to protect me! I'm all right! I'll be fine!" Naoto responded quickly. "I'm not scared at all! I know that any so-called "paranormal phenomena" can be debunked rationally..."
"Ohh...So, Nao-cakes is a girl after all." Junpei commented.
"Only two more to go. I'm sure that another guardian will be protecting something in the depths here...Rei, there's no need to be frightened. Don't worry. I'll protect you." Zen said.
"...Mm." Rei didn't look much less anxious.
"I will protect Rei-san as well." Aigis stated.
"Yeah, I'll help too if I can." I added.
"Yes, that would be helpful." Zen replied to us.
"I'll protect Rei-chan too!" Teddie added.
"No need." Zen rejected bluntly.
"Teddie discrimination isn't cool!"
"Arf." Koromaru barked, presumably in agreement.
"...Having a mutt be nice to me doesn't make me happy at all, you know!" Teddie said and Koromaru whimpered.
"Hey, Teddie. Will you stop picking on Koro-chan?" Yukari defended and turned to the shiba inu. "C'mere, Koro-chan. I'll pet you!"
"Arf!" Koromaru wagged his tail as she gave him attention.
"Teddie discrimination isn't cool at all!" Teddie continued throwing his fit as we headed into the labyrinth.
Inside was pretty dark, the walls had a couple broken things leaned against them, but I couldn't tell if they were mirrors or windows it was so dark.
"Whoa, they didn't do this half-assed. Hey, Chie..." Yosuke said.
"Wh-Wh-What do you want!?" Chie stammered while she had a death grip on my arm that was making me wince a little.
"Dude, don't yell like that! You're freaking me out too! And don't cling onto Kyoka like that just because you're freaking out!"
"I-I'm not freakin' out! Th-This is nothing a-and..." Chie let go of me, but was unable to take a step away while she protested.
"What are you so terrified of? It's just dark in here." Zen said.
"That's the worst part..." I mumbled uneasily.
"You're not scared, Zen?" Minato asked.
"I am not. Nothing scares me." Zen replied.
"Th-That's so cool..." Ken seemed impressed.
"Nothing scares me either." Teddie said dramatically, out of his costume. "...Rei-chan. Nothing scares me either."
"Hrgh...I'm so scared..." Rei whimpered, not even glancing at him.
"Totally ignored!?"
"Hey, uh...Does anyone feel like...they're being watched?" Junpei asked.
"Oh, stop it! That has to be your imagina-" Yukari began, but Aigis cut her off.
"I found this." She held up a creepy looking doll.
"Gyaaaaaaaaaaaah!" Chie screamed and clung onto me hard, not that I minded considering it kept me from bolting straight out the door and abandoning them due to the flight instinct kicking in.
"Noooooooooooooo!" Yukari screamed too.
"Chie, look...The eyes...Its eyes...!" Yukiko began one of her laughing fits.
"Please burn it. Please burn it and scatter the ashes so it can't come back." I said, thoroughly creeped out.
"No more...I wanna go back..." Chie whined miserably.
"There, there." Yu tried to encourage her.
"Hrgh...Fine, I'll keep going..." She began to release me, but then there was a strange noise and she was back to death gripping my arm. "Aaaaaaack! I take it back, I can't do this!"
"It's okay, Chie-senpai. It was only a spider which dropped from the ceiling." Naoto said, but then I began to back up with Chie.
"S-Spider...? Nope! Nope, I'm out! I don't wanna do this!" I began to panic involuntarily.
"Grrr..." Koromaru growled.
"I can't handle bugs either!" Chie cried, then changed her tune. "Fine, can we get going!? Let's hurry up and finish this!" She began dragging me off.
"Chie, that's the wrong way." Yukiko called, but before we turned around, Chie began freaking out again.
"Gyaaaah! I stepped on something! It went "squish"!"
"W-Was it the spider!? Is it dead!?" I panicked alongside her, beginning to back up and dragging her with me.
"O-Ow...Chie-chan...If you're gonna step on me, be more gentle about it..." Teddie whined.
"It's not dead. Chie, you didn't step hard enough." I muttered darkly.
"Sheesh...We've got too many people we can't let out of our sight." Yosuke sighed, rubbing the back of his head.
"Rei, make sure to never leave my side. If you're scared, then hide under my cape." Zen said.
"Mm...Thanks..." Rei seemed to be blushing, but it was hard to be sure in the dim lighting.
"Chie...We can't fight any Shadows walking like this..." I sighed after we began to move into the labyrinth.
"B-But Kyoka..." She whined quietly at me, still clinging to my arm.
"Well, I guess it's fine if they're not attacking right now." I muttered, feeling uneasy as I looked around the creepy hallways of what appeared to be a school and saw ghostly hands sticking out of the walls.
Soon, we came across a metal door.
"Looks like up ahead is the North Building. See, it's written in really faint letters here." Yosuke pointed out.
"Hangin' around here ain't the best idea. Let's make a note on the map and go someplace else." Shinjiro said when the door wouldn't open.
Yu nodded and made a note, then we continued on. We fought some Shadows and walked around for a bit before gathering some materials at a Power Spot and finding out the shortcuts here were marked with what looked to be construction signs that were damaged and possibly painted to look like they had blood spatters on them. Then, we found a doll on one of the walls that seemed to be staring at us.
"You know, this doll kinda reminds me of Yukiko..." Yosuke commented.
"Huh? No way." Yukiko looked surprised.
"I'm trying not to look at it, but...Isn't it just because it has black hair?" Yukari asked.
"Nah. Yukiko dresses like this when she's filling in for the inn's manager." Yosuke explained.
"...Inn's manager? Do you run an inn?" Akihiko asked.
"Oh, yes. My family runs a prestigious hot springs inn called the Amagi Inn." Yukiko answered.
"Ooh, hot springs! That sounds really nice." Rise chimed in through the comms.
"Yeah...I wanna warm up...I really wish I could warm up right now...Kyoka's kinda cold, too..." Chie sighed.
"S-Sorry..." I responded a bit sheepishly.
"Hey, Senpai! Let's go to the Amagi Inn with everyone sometime!" Rise suggested.
"You're okay with this?" Yu asked Yukiko.
"Mm-hm, of course." Yukiko nodded and smiled.
"Ooh, I like where this is headed! Please let Team Gekkou in on it too!" Junpei grinned.
"I'm more than positive it won't be mixed baths." Yukari said to him.
"H-Hey, I didn't even say anything yet...!"
We decided to move on then, getting a "Survival Guard" from a treasure chest before fighting more Shadows and heading back to the hallway. There were a lot of doors in these hallways, so I couldn't even fathom how Yu was keeping track of any of it, but I was glad he at least knew where we were going. Or seemed to, anyway. There were holes in the hallway floor, so we had to go through the doors to look for a way forward, but we headed back to the entrance area while Yu was deciding where to go. Though, we came to a dead end through one of the doors.
"Newspapers? Could this be some kind of hint?" Ken asked, looking at the papers plastered on a blackboard.
"Hm? Nah...There's nothing but gibberish written on them." Shinjiro answered.
"Hahaha! The headline on this one is "Serial Murderer Uncovered!?" but the article is talking about dolphins...! Pffft..!" I snickered, pointing out one of the ones I was reading next to Shinjiro.
"So they're just to set a mood!? That's so misleading!" Chie got mad.
"Y-Yeah, Chie's right! This newspaper is so insensitive!" Yukari agreed.
"You can tell they're so scared that they barely even know what they're saying..." Yosuke sighed at them.
"...Aren't they always like that?" Yu responded to him blankly.
"...I'll make sure not to tell Chie what you just said..."
"You know, it's probably true what they say...Fear just makes people angrier..." Junpei commented to Minato as well.
"You think so...? But aren't they always like that?" Minato asked bluntly.
"Dude...Every now and then you say stuff that's just..."
"Pfft...Heheheheh..." I continued to snicker at that similarity while we continued on, but it died pretty quickly in the eerie setting.
We headed back to try another door.
"Arf! Arf!" Koromaru brought our attention to something on the ground.
"Oh, there's something on the ground. Is this...a piece of paper?" Yukiko noticed.
"Arf." Koromaru responded.
"Koromaru-san says that he smells a mystery from that piece of paper." Aigis translated.
"...What does a mystery smell like?" I asked curiously, tilting my head a little.
"Could it be the scent of blood?" Yukiko asked.
"I-I have no answer to that..." Naoto shook her head and shrugged when Yukiko looked at her. "Anyway, let's take a look. We'll go from there."
Yu picked up the paper and some of the others gathered around him to look at it.
"Oh, what's this...? There's something written in red here...Let's see..."What you search for is deepest within...You cannot reach the lowest depths until all locked doors are opened..." ...That's all it says." Yukiko read it out for us.
"Hrgh...I wonder if this place will be deep too..." Rei looked anxious.
"I don't know...but we'll need to go to the very deepest part." Zen replied to her and she whimpered.
"It seems we'll need to find these keys and the doors they unlock. ...We may be in for a long stretch. Let's brace ourselves and take the first steps." Naoto told Yu.
Yu nodded to her and we continued on through the door. We headed through the hallway and another door. We came across a dead end with papers on the wall.
"There's nothin' here. C'mon, Teddie, let's head back." Kanji said.
"Wahhh!" Teddie cried out and we stopped. "My foot's fur is caught in the floorboards! I'm stuck!"
"Sheesh, how'd that happen? Here, gimme a sec..." Kanji went to try and help him pull his foot free. "Huh, it's caught pretty good..."
"Um, sorry, but...I think I heard a sound from the direction where we came from..." Ken spoke up hesitantly.
"Seriously!?" Yosuke looked alarmed.
Rei whimpered. "Nooo..."
"Is it a Shadow? C'mon, let's hurry and go defeat it." Akihiko was excited to go.
"Waaaait! Don't leave me behind!" Teddie cried as half the group began to leave. "Stupid old board! Lemme go!"
"Hey! Quit squirming around!" Kanji told him.
"Ow ow ow! This is gonna damage my cuticles!"
"Why don't I go check it out? Might've just been the walls settling." Minato suggested. "Teddie...Don't freak out. Just stay calm while we get your fur unstuck."
"You're so nice, boss...!" Teddie stopped struggling.
"You can't go alone. I'm comin' with. Let's go, Aki." Shinjiro said.
"Right." Akihiko agreed.
"No! It's just as dangerous to split up too much." Mitsuru protested. "If someone's going, it can either be Narukami and Arisato, or Shinjiro and Akihiko."
Yu decided to go with Minato.
"Okay. Time to go, Yu." Minato nodded to him and they headed off to find out what the sound was.
"Aaaaaaack!" Teddie screamed when we were attacked by a group of Shadows not too long after they left. At least he got free in the panic, but then Minato suddenly caught one of the Shadows off-guard and stunned it for a moment.
"All right, now's our chance. Let's do this, everyone!" Minato called.
"Ooh, nice one! C'mon, let's take this thing down!" Yosuke cheered and we all got ready to fight.
It wasn't too difficult to take them out with our leaders back. Then, Mitsuru turned to them and said, "You came back at a good time."
"I'm so sorry..." Teddie apologized to them.
"So, what did that sound turn out to be?" Yosuke asked.
"Didn't seem like anything, really..." Minato answered. "Maybe the wind blowing through some cracks moved something around. Hard to say."
"I-I see...I'm sorry." Ken said a bit sheepishly.
We decided to continue on with our investigation, but as we were walking, a strange noise sounded.
"Did you guys just hear a baby crying...?" Junpei asked.
"Yeah, but I really hope it wasn't..." I grimaced at the thought.
"H-Hey...Don't say stuff like that..." Chie protested.
"I bet you're just trying to scare us. Again. For no reason. Because you never learn." Yukari directed at Junpei with annoyance, apparently not having heard my muttering.
"No, I heard it as well." Zen spoke up.
"What? No way..." Yukari looked surprised.
"...You don't trust me at all, huh?" Junpei sighed.
"Z-Zen! There's nothing here!" Rei protested. "There's no ghosts of babies anywhere! I mean, ghosts don't exist!"
"I see." Zen responded. "Then I take back what I said. I heard nothing. That is all."
"Yeah, of course there's nothing here! ...Nope, there's definitely something here! Noooooooooo!" Rei seemed to fail at convincing herself of nothing being here.
"Make up your mind." Shinjiro sighed at her.
"Should I go look around and calm it down?" Kanji asked.
"You'll just make it cry." Yosuke shook his head.
"What the hell, man!?"
"Hey, be quiet. You're makin' it hard to listen." Shinjiro calmed Kanji down. "...Let's be careful here."
"Ughh...I hate babies...Why does it always have to be babies and spiders in these places...?" I whined quietly as I reluctantly followed the others forward.
Not too far ahead, we stopped again because we heard something rattling.
"Huh? What was that sound...?" Yukari asked nervously.
"Grrrrr...!" Koromaru growled and we turned around to see something fall from the ceiling.
It was a giant blue baby with a bloody bag over it's head with only one dark eye hole.
"Eek...!" Yukari shrieked.
"Gyaaaaaaaaaaaah!" Chie screamed and grabbed onto my arm again.
"Everyone, run! That's an FOE!" Rise warned.
"Wh-Where did it come from...!?" Fuuka asked.
"Figure it out later! We gotta run now!" Shinjiro responded.
"Y-You don't have to tell me twice!" Yukari said while I was already dragging Chie with me as I spun around and took off in the other direction.
We all burst through the door in front of us and slammed it shut behind us. We waited a moment, but it didn't seem to be following.
"Whew...That was close." Junpei sighed.
"No signs of the FOE anymore! I guess it won't follow you through doors." Rise told us.
"I've had enough of this place..." Yukari sighed.
"Y-Yukari-chan, don't lose heart..." Fuuka said to her. "I'm curious, did anything out of the ordinary happen when you were walking around that area?"
"Hmm...We heard the sound of a rattle, right? A baby's toy." Yukiko answered.
"It sounded like...a bell...It was a very mysterious sound." Zen added.
"Maybe the FOE was drawn to that sound?" Yukiko suggested.
"...Either way, we couldn't avoid passing through that area." Mitsuru stated. "If an FOE appears, run away with all your strength. Understood?"
We all agreed.
"Sergeant Junpei, reporting in! I've found something!" Junpei spoke up suddenly.
"Wh-What!?" Yukari asked nervously.
"See that bundle of paper up ahead? There might be something written on them. We should check it out." Junpei pointed out the papers scattered on the floor in front of us.
"...Can you PLEASE try to act normal in a place like this!?" Yukari got mad at him.
"R-Right..." Junpei acknowledged, then said quietly to Yu, "...You better be careful not to say the wrong thing now. She's seriously on edge."
We checked the papers and Yu picked one up to read from it. "The first key is in the schedule."
"...This practically screams, "Hey! I'm a clue!"" Yosuke said.
"But we have not come across a schedule during our journey here." Aigis pointed out. "I do not see anything like one here, either."
"Woof woof woof!" Koromaru barked, holding a piece of paper in his mouth.
"Hm? This looks related to a schedule...but it isn't one." Yosuke said, taking the paper to look it over. ""After Shop Class is Art. Before Geometry is Science"...That's the whole thing. Well, maybe it'll be useful later. Have you got it memorized?"
"I just copied it down." Yu answered, holding up his map notebook.
"Alright. Then let's keep going."
We then moved on, continuing with our exploration. We headed down the hallway to another door, then found another hallway where we stopped because we heard the rattle again. Of course, the creepy FOE fell from the ceiling and we escaped through a shortcut into a treasure room before heading back into the hallway to find the FOE gone as we headed for the next door. We continued around a pillar in the middle of the next room, but when we tried to get through the hallway to the area with the next door, an FOE fell in front of us and we had to lead it around the pillar so we could get ahead of it and dart through the next door. Inside that room, we found a bulletin board with a paper on it that said, "Tell me Monday's 4th period and Friday's 3rd period." written in red.
"...Another schedule-related hint." Naoto observed.
"I have no idea what it's about. The bits and pieces we're getting are too fragmented." Akihiko muttered. "We need the actual schedule."
"There is a schedule over here." Aigis pointed out a darker paper on a nearby wall.
"Ah, good job, Aigis!"
"...? Hmmm..." Naoto looked at the schedule thoughtfully.
It said, "M: Civics, Shop Class, -, ?, Music
T: Science, -, Home Ec, -, -
W: P.E., Civics, -, -, Language
Th: Music, Science, -, -, English
F: Study Hall, -, ?, Shop Class, -"
"The 4th period on Monday and the 3rd period on Friday are both utterly unintelligible..." Naoto said, then fell silent and seemed to be lost in thought.
"...I think I've got it." Yu said after a moment.
"Th-That was fast...I'm still coming up with a hypothesis." Naoto looked surprised. "May I hear your answer?"
"Monday's 4th period is Language and Friday's 3rd period is Civics."
"I see...Monday's 4th period is Language, and Friday's 3rd period is Civics. Yes, that fits." Naoto nodded. "It's quite easy once you notice the underlying pattern."
"Geez, you guys are fast." I muttered, impressed.
"Ha...Impressive. I've just figured it out myself." Mitsuru seemed impressed as well.
"Huh? Am I the only one who doesn't get it?" Yosuke asked.
"Man, you're stubborn. I gave up trying a while ago." Junpei told him.
"I-I see...Well then, allow me to explain." Naoto said. "The schedule is actually repeating a certain pattern. If you'll recall, the information listed on the torn schedule looked like this..." She wrote down the schedule on a blank page Yu had given her from his notebook. "Now, if you add the bits about Art being after Shop Class, and Geometry being before Science...It looks like that." She filled in the blanks that could be with that information and showed everyone.
"So...what?" Shinjiro asked.
"Hm...I get it. There's not enough periods for P.E." Akihiko snapped his fingers and nodded.
"Just shut up and listen, you idiot. It's distracting." Shinjiro told him and he seemed a bit confused.
"Come to think of it, it's weird. There's way too many electives like Music and Art. A normal class schedule would have a lot more regular subjects..."
"Let's use some abbreviations to make it easier to understand." Naoto moved on, writing out a simplified version of the schedule that honestly was more confusing for me personally, but I already understood the pattern, so I didn't need to get it at this point. "Notice anything?"
"Oh...The two Cs and two Ss line up diagonally." Yukiko gasped.
"Huh? Do they? What does that mean?" Chie asked in confusion.
"That is correct, Yukiko-senpai." Naoto nodded and I tilted my head, not getting the relevance. "Monday's 1st period and Wednesday's 2nd...Tuesday's 1st and Thursday's 2nd...They form a repeating pattern. If you were to line up the classes Monday through Friday, from 1st period to 5th, in order...The way those two classes line up diagonally is no coincidence."
"And that is your hypothesis, correct?" Mitsuru asked.
"Yes. All that was left after that was to fill in the blanks."
"I-I'm sorry. I think I missed a step somewhere..." Ken didn't seem to get it.
"Basically...Civics, Shop Class, Art, Language, Music, Science, Geometry, Home Ec, English, Study Hall, P.E..." Naoto listed the pattern. "You can see how the eleven subjects repeat in that order. Now, if we fill in the remaining blanks according to that pattern..." She completed the schedule and showed it to everyone. "That's how it would look. From there, it's simple to pick out Monday's 4th period and Friday's 3rd. The answer has to be Language and Civics. That concludes my demonstration. Does it make sense now?"
"Yeah...I see the pattern." Shinjiro replied.
"I knew it! There weren't enough periods for P.E." Akihiko said.
"Just shut up." Shinjiro sighed at him.
"Alright...I've figured it out." Kanji said confidently.
"No way! Guys like us are supposed to let the others do the talking at times like this!" Junpei said to him in surprise.
"Yeah, exactly! I don't get it at all, and that's what I figured out!" Kanji seemed a bit too happy to say that.
"Oh. I spoke too soon..." Junpei sighed.
"Well then...let's try putting these into the schedule." Naoto entered the answers into the question mark spots on the schedule and a sound echoed from the chalk tray on the blackboard.
Yu found a key there with a tag that said, "Practice Building" on it. He also got a Balm of Life from it too.
"Well, the mystery has been solved. We should move on." Naoto said.
"Nao-chan! Yu-kun! You're so cool!" Rei beamed at them.
"...Let's proceed." Zen said, looking off to the side.
"Oh, okay!" Rei returned to his side and we continued on our way to go find the Practice Building door.
Once we found it, we opened it and found a treasure box. Then we proceeded through the next door to another hallway and got chased by another FOE before hearing yet another weird noise.
"What's that sound...?" Akihiko asked.
"It's...A piano playing a lullaby...?" I muttered in confusion.
"This melody..." Mitsuru said thoughtfully. "Schubert...No, Brahms' Lullaby."
"You actually know what it's called...?" I asked, somewhat impressed.
"It's creepy..." Kanji commented.
"Hey! Now's not the time to be standing around! That thing! Baby! Behind us!" Chie shouted and we continued on our run from the creepy FOE.
We tried to go through the door in front of us, but it wouldn't budge, so we were forced to turn and go down the hallway instead. However, when the FOE got to the door where the piano music was coming from, it stopped chasing us and seemed to curl up and fall asleep.
"Hey, look. The FOE...fell asleep." Akihiko said in surprise.
"Because of the lullaby...?" Mitsuru asked.
"K-Kids who sleep grow more! So it should just keep sleeping there! Just stay there and sleep forever!" Rei said, seeming to panic.
"Talk about desperate." Yosuke muttered.
"...Staying up late is dangerous." Ken commented quietly.
"Hm? Did you say something?"
"N-No. It was nothing."
"Either way, this is an opportunity for us. Let's use this time to look for the key." Zen said and Koromaru barked in agreement.
We continued on and found another door into the piano room, but of course there was no one inside to play the damn thing. Hell, the piano was broken, which made the whole thing creepier. Either way, we continued on, but ran into another FOE blocking our way and had to lure it over to the door to the piano room so it fell asleep and we could get around it to the next door.
"Arf arf!" Koromaru barked when we walked into the room.
"Koromaru-san says that the locker in this room smells fishy." Aigis translated.
"Do they keep fish in this locker?" Yukiko asked.
"I don't think that's it. Anyway, let's look around." Shinjiro responded.
We gathered materials from the Power Spot before checking out the locker, though. Yu found a key in the locker with a tag that said "North Building" on it.
"Good job, Koromaru! You're such a good boy." Ken praised.
"Arf!"
""North Building"...I'm gonna guess that's to the north. Let's go check it out!" Junpei said.
Yu nodded and we backtracked to a shortcut back to near the entrance and we went to unlock the other door.
"I guess the only other place on this floor we haven't been to is through here..." Akihiko said as we stood in front of the door.
"I hope we're almost to the end..." Yukari sighed.
"Uh, this is only the first floor..." I pointed out uneasily.
"...Let's unlock it." Zen said, so Yu went ahead and opened the door and we continued on.
We tried to go through the door in front of us, but it wouldn't open, so we went through the one to our left instead.
"...Hm? What the-!? The door's blocked!" Akihiko said, apparently having tried to open the door we had come through again. When we turned to check if what he said was true, there was an eerie giggle from beyond the door. "Whatever this is, it's proud of its strength. It's not budging an inch."
"C-Could this be...a paranormal phenomenon!?" Chie began to get panicky.
"P-Paranormal phenomenon!?" Rei repeated in alarm.
"H-H-Hey, Kyoka! Do something!" Chie said, clinging onto me again.
"Wh-What am I supposed to do? You're clinging onto me so I can barely move!" I protested, trying to pry her death grip off my arm.
"Th-That's an FOE!" Fuuka spoke up.
"An FOE that holds a door closed? Boring, but also kind of nasty..." Yosuke muttered.
"A-Anyway! Let's hurry to the next room! I really don't want that thing chasing me!" Yukari said.
So, we went through another door and the FOE blocked that behind us too. Then we went through another door.
"Hm? Someone's written something on the wall..." Akihiko noticed. ""Let's play..." Huh."
"A-Akihiko-san...You're gonna upset the girls again..." Yosuke told him uneasily.
"...Oooooooooh. I wonder what we'll plaaaaaay. It sounds like fuuuuuuuun." Rei's words didn't match her expression at all.
"...She's gone waaaaaay out to lunch."
We decided to move on through the next door without responding to that. Having made a circle, we were able to get through the door that was being blocked first and came across a dead end plastered with more papers.
Kanji sighed.
"What's up?" Shinjiro asked.
"Just wonderin' if there's gonna be more puzzle stuff ahead..." Kanji answered.
"Who knows...But I know one thing, it ain't going to be easy."
"I got no problem bustin' up Shadows, but these brainteasers are too much for me..."
"Don't worry. Every mystery has its clues, and they're always present on the scene." Naoto said. "Through observation and the careful application of logic, the answer inevitably presents itself. Now, let's go."
"...The Prince has spoken." Shinjiro said as Naoto moved to walk on ahead with Yu.
"I know she means well..." Kanji muttered.
"Kanji-kun...We'll all work together on this puzzle stuff, so sometimes you offer a different perspective than everyone else and that can be helpful." I smiled a bit awkwardly at him as I attempted to cheer him up. "That, and we really need you for this Shadow fighting stuff, since you're a total tank, so don't worry too much about the puzzles making you feel useless. We still need you either way."
"Uh...Thanks, Kyoka-senpai..." He didn't seem to fully understand what I was saying, but seemed to be a bit more encouraged by it and continued on ahead.
"Hey, those are some pretty words there." Shinjiro commented with a slight smirk as we walked together after the others.
"Really? I'm not great at talking, but...I don't really want him to feel left out or anything either..." I replied quietly with a sheepish laugh as I rubbed the back of my neck. "I guess...I got a lot more considerate since meeting the others though. I still feel kinda bad..."
"...About what?"
"It's kinda...Um, to put it simply, I was friends with Kanji-kun when we were younger, but I kinda said some insensitive things and we stopped talking until recently when he got his Persona and all, y'know? So, I want to try and encourage him now...Or something like that..."
"You guys are really a tight-knit group, huh?" Shinjiro looked a bit wistful for some reason.
I nodded and looked downward a bit. "That...tends to happen when you see and accept someone when they're at their worst..."
He seemed to either not know what to say to that, or else decided not to ask what I meant despite looking at me a bit oddly for a moment afterward. I didn't really know what else to say either, so I didn't say anything. However, my thoughts turned onto something I'd noticed. Team Gekkou was really different from Team Yaso. I couldn't really say what it was before, I didn't really think about it, but just now it occurred to me that they weren't as close to each other as we were. Their relationships seemed more like...Coworkers or distant roommates or something akin to that. Mitsuru, Shinjiro, and Akihiko were pretty close, being childhood friends or something, but other than that, the others that seemed even remotely close were only Minato, Yukari, and Junpei, although that was questionable whether Yukari was actually close to them or not. The rest were...Well, distant. Hell, I think Fuuka actually seemed closer to Rise than she did to anyone on her own team. Maybe...Their Personas weren't born from facing their true selves...? Well, I guess they had those Evokers, so it could be a more forced thing...But then that brings the question of why the situations are so different between the two groups. If Shadows and Personas were common elements...Were they from a different reality or timeline or something like that? I mean, the Dark Hour wasn't a thing in the real world as far as I knew.
My pondering was cut short by the discovery of the stairs down to the next floor and we headed down them.
"Tch. I hate not bein' able to tell where this damn thing is..." Kanji grumbled.
"You're not scared? That's kinda cool, actually." Minato commented.
"Huh? Hell no. Not like those guys, anyway." Kanji motioned toward where Rei and Chie had both taken to clinging onto either of my arms for some reason.
"Rei-chaaaan..." Chie said, holding Rei's hand tightly with their arms stretched in front of me.
"Chie-chaaaaan..."
"Chie-chaaaan...Rei-chaaaan...Please let go of me." I complained, slightly annoyed that I couldn't even have one arm free right now.
"Noooo!" They both gripped me tighter in response and I sighed.
"Why am I the clinging victim here...?"
"Uhh, yeah...I think they might be overreacting a little..." Minato muttered.
"...You scared too?" Kanji asked Ken, who wasn't looking so confident either.
"D-Don't treat me like some idiot kid...please." Ken responded defensively.
"O-Oh, okay. Uhh, I mean...sorry."
"...W-We should get going." Ken walked on ahead with some of the others.
"Hear that? We're going, so please let me walk at least." I said with exasperation to the two koalas currently weighing me down. They whimpered a bit, but began to slowly shuffle forward with me. The only thing I could say was, at least being the one clung onto was making me feel less afraid and more like I shouldn't be scared of a stupid haunted house full of Shadows we dealt with quite often by this point.
We took a quick look around the area and headed through a door to find a weird hallway that led to two doors and Yu decided we should go back and take a short break to heal up and resupply.
I ended up going with some of the others to Sweets Hell, although the mood was a bit dull.
"Hrgh..." Chie hunched over the table.
Yukari sighed too.
"...You guys look like the walking dead." Akihiko commented.
"These two have been like this ever since we went into the most recent labyrinth." Naoto told him.
"Hmm...Is this a fish out of water?" Junpei asked.
"What?" Yukari looked at him questioningly.
"I thought you were mimicking one."
"Hell no. Are you stupid or something? Do me a favour and shut up or go away, right now."
"Yikes, scary..."
"I think the labyrinth has everyone exhausted..." Ken commented.
"What, that place? There's nothing in there worse than the Shadows we've always faced. The strongest wins." Akihiko responded. "It's true that they've been getting stronger, though...We'll have to stay sharp as we move on."
"...I feel certain that's not the issue at hand." Naoto told him.
"I'm gonna ask this straight out: Is Akihiko-san always like that?" Chie asked Yukari.
"Always." Yukari replied bluntly.
"Oh, wow...It must be tough..."
"Uh, no need to pity me...!"
"Chie. You've got great lower body strength, but you seem to be lacking in stamina." Akihiko said suddenly. "Do you run? If you neglect your basic training, you won't be able to shoot for the moon."
"The moon..." Chie repeated.
"What's this "moon" stuff?" Yukari asked.
"Why would you shoot at it?" Junpei also seemed confused.
"Master!" Chie looked determined as she addressed Akihiko.
"...Huh?" Yukari looked shocked.
"Please let me call you Master!" Chie said to Akihiko happily.
"What is this!? Is there a hidden camera somewhere!?" Junpei seemed shocked as well.
"Alright, then let's do twenty laps around the schoolyard! C'mon!" Akihiko seemed into it, though.
"Yes, sir!" Chie responded and they both ran off.
"...And they're off." Yukari said flatly.
"Maybe something broke in Chie-san from being so scared of ghosts...?" Ken asked.
"Nah. This isn't really surprising for her." I laughed a little.
"On the contrary, she's always that way." Naoto shrugged.
"Ugh...I feel even more tired now..." Yukari sighed.
"...Well, seeing them fired up, I'm starting to feel energetic too, so I'm gonna go get in some practice of my own. See ya." I smiled and waved to the group as I stood up and walked away to go work on my dance some more.