A/N: I've just finished persona 4 Golden, I really hope Atlas puts Persona 3 on steam. I missed out on playing it seeing as my family was a Nintendo one up until recently. Weird how the third one is my favorite out of all of them.
33
You in Wonderland Finale
"Are you tired, Rei?" Zen asked as they entered the third floor of the labyrinth.
The red and purple color scheme was darker than the previous ones, the tea party design was gone and instead, the walls around them were similar to brick fences. Rosemary frowned in thought, they had entered a new part of the book. She looked to the side and wondered if they had ended up in the Queen of hearts garden.
"I'm okay," Rei said.
"Are you scared?" Ken asked.
"I'm not scared," Rei denied.
"But your hands are shaking," Ken pointed out.
"Shaking with excitement! So, my body temperature rises, and my digestion improves, and I can eat even more!" Rei continued to deny.
"That's not how that works," Three voiced muttered in unison.
Akihiko looked at his childhood friend with amusement. Sometimes the universe worked in mysterious ways and brought people together. Him and Ken had muttered the same thing showing that perhaps there was hope for the two to reconcile. That might just be him being oddly optimistic for once. He couldn't help but hope something good would come of it. Rei said something nice to Ken and Zen frowned in response. He didn't need to worry about Ken in any sense. It was obvious to everyone, even him, that she liked the dark-haired teen. He couldn't help but wonder if that's how it would be if Shinji and Rosemary could date out in the open without any problems. He pondered it for a few seconds and concluded that they'd be the same but more openly affectionate. It was hard to guess.
"Shall we continue into the labyrinth?" Rosemary asked before Junpei could point out that Zen was jealous.
She knew that saying such things would just lead to pointless banter. They needed to hurry on their way and finish the labyrinth so they could go home. Mitsuru looked towards her with a scrutinizing expression. She knew that she sounded like she used to, before she had allowed others to become close to her, but time was of the essence. Honestly, the longer that they were there the more uneasy she felt. It was usually in the labyrinths; something wasn't right with them. She didn't know what was causing her to feel that way, but it was growing the longer they stood still. Mitsuru gave a quick nod and they started to walk the labyrinth.
Junpei started to talk to Minato about something that was said about Yukari. Rosemary couldn't help but agree with what the other girl had responded with. It wasn't comfortable hearing your body be talked about by other people. It ducked even more when you could hear their thoughts and knew exactly what they wanted. She gave Shinjiro a pass because they were together, and he usually felt horrible when such thoughts popped into his head. She rubbed her bicep in thought as she looked at the walls. The full story of Alice escaped her, but that was mainly due to her dislike of it. Falling into a wondrous land where everything was topsy-turvy was not her idea of a good story. It sounded more like something out of a nightmare. The idea of never leaving such a place didn't sit well with her. She made sure to keep her emotions from her face and that made Shinjiro frown.
He had been watching her since they entered the third floor. She was walking around like normal, but it was her face that told him something was wrong. She was trying to act like she wasn't bothered by anything happening, when he knew that wasn't true. He looked towards Ken and noticed he was a bit more relaxed as they walked around. He slightly smiled, yeah, he was right. She'd…his eyes widened slightly as he stopped the rest of that thought from forming. He almost went too optimistic.
"Shinji?" She quietly called and he snapped to attention, "You okay?"
"…Yeah," He muttered.
"Elizabeth is calling everyone back to the velvet room, she said there was something she forgot to tell you," Fuuka informed them, "it sounds like good news."
They were doubtful about that. Elizabeth was a tsunami of chaotic energy and crazy ideas. It was almost improbable that it's be good news. Shinjiro slouched a bit more as he winced. Yeah, it couldn't be good.
"Sounds fishy," He stated.
"Judging from past conversations, the probability of this being good is quite low," Aigis confirmed.
He hadn't wanted to be told the odds, but he was going to anyway. Aigis still didn't understand conversational tones and came across as monotoned. It was worse than Rosemary's, and her's was natural. He brought a hand up to his head and scratched the back of it. He really didn't want to deal with Elizabeth or any of the news she could tell them.
They traversed back to the velvet room and were met with both siblings. Theo gave a kind smile to his guest and she gave one back. He looked back to his sister and made his expression blank. It was considered a sin in the velvet room to become close with one's guest, but when the guest was kind of was hard not to. He watched as the persona users waited for them to speak, their expression weary. Just what had his sister done to them?
"Theo, if you will," Elizabeth said, and a few of the users relaxed a bit.
"The velvet room is now allowing fusions to take place," He informed them, "if you are all to be using secondary personas the act of fusing them will allow you more abilities to help when fighting."
"How do you fuse them?" Junpei questioned.
"If I may?" He asked turning to the two wild cards.
Jack Frost and Pyro Frost were handed over. Theo studied the two and picked out small similarities to one another in their faces. He wondered if they were distantly related. The possibility was higher than one would think. Sometimes the ability of a wild card could run in the family. A family could be woven into the fabric of the velvet room and their destiny coincided with problems arising in their world. But that was neither here nor there. He brought the two cards together and they slowly floated into the air. He held the compendium and let the cards fly up before soaring into the book. He closed it and allowed the fusion to happen before opening it up and showing them the new card that came of it. It somehow messed up and he inwardly winced at the Anubis staring back at him.
"Oh, there he is," His guest quietly said before sighing in slight amusement, "always causing problems."
"I'm…sorry?" He asked.
"Don't be," She said as he handed the card over to Minato, "you've done nothing to apologize for."
"Very well." He said with a slight nod, "It took us a while to be sure if this room was suitable for fusions. Even though I performed an example of one, Elizabeth will be handling all fusions in the perceivable future."
"As the older sibling it is my duty," Elizabeth commented before frowning slightly, "I believe our masters absence is why you were able to wander into this rift. We shall continue surveillance to try and find what brought you here."
"Huh, I guess it turned out to be something good after all," Shinjiro muttered as Rosemary and Minato quietly talked about the newly fused persona.
Minato believed she should be using it as it was originally her's to begin with. She thought he needed it because he was their leader. The stronger persona would be better in his hands than hers. He stared at her and was met with a stubborn look. She was refusing to back down from her stance. Eventually, and with a little bit of smugness from Rosemary, he relented and added Anubis to his secondary position. She had never really argued with anyone before and it was strange to be on the receiving end of it. He wouldn't like to be there again.
"What a disappointment," Aigis said.
She got a few looks of disbelief at that before they headed back to the labyrinth. If they could clear the floor, then they'd see just how much they had left to explore. The shadows left them alone as they slowly made their way through the new floor. The secret passageways made things alacritous. Yet, the floor seemed to be different from the previous two. One passageway had one entrance point, and couldn't be entered from the exit. They made a note to make sure to keep an eye out for other passages like that one.
The shadows seemed to have stopped chasing them around the labyrinth, none of them had popped up in a while. As they crossed a threshold, they came across the reason why. There was an FOE standing beside a large rose bush with a paintbrush in its hands. It seemed to be painting the roses red. Everyone turned towards an incensed Rosemary who was glaring at the FOE. She wasn't the biggest fan of coloring white flowers, she believed they were too pretty to have false coloration put on them.
"It seems to be focused on its own area," Mitsuru commented.
"It's painting the roses red so that the Queen won't hurt them," Rosemary said, "if we wash off the paint it might be possible to go around it."
"What could use to wash it off with?" Yukari asked with a slight frown.
Koromaru barked and came running up to their resident gardener with a watering can in his mouth. She bent over and picked it up, scratching him behind the ears with a smile. It would work perfectly to get around the FOE. It would make things go faster, especially if they came across other FOEs of a similar type.
"C'est magnifique, Koromaru," Mitsuru said to the small Shiba, who simply barked in reply.
Minato gave Rosemary a nod and she walked up to the flowers and washed away the paint. The FOE came running towards the bush and they used the distraction to get past it. It was a relief when they found the new corridor, but they all paused upon seeing the rabbit. It was like it had been anticipating their arrival. Rosemary looked at it in a thoughtful manner. The rabbit from the book was white, right? Wearing a waistcoat of all things. She looked to the side, perhaps that was wrong. The modern conception of the waistcoat cladded rabbit was something from Disney. She'd never personally seen the movie, but had seen bits and pieces through the minds of others. Thy chased after the rabbit until they came to a crossroads. A portrait was on one end and a passage was on the other. Minato made note of that as they continued to chase the rabbit towards a different portrait.
It jumped through it before anyone could even get close to catching it. Annoyance began to show on their features as they went through the hole in the painting. There was the rabbit waiting for them behind a small pond of water. Shinjiro glared at it as the others slowly joined in.
"Look at it lounging around like that," He muttered, "its definitely mocking us."
They began their chase again, and this time Minato stopped the rabbit at the crossroads. He looked around at his members and planned which ones would wait on either side of the rabbit. Rosemary and Shinjiro ended up as one group. Ken and Akihiko the other. He left Shinjiro and Rosemary there and motioned the others to follow him. He just hoped that they didn't get ambushed by the shadows now that their numbers were smaller.
"How's your leg?" Shinjiro questioned.
"It'll be fine," She said before smiling softly, "you're better at bandaging things than I am."
He narrowed his eyes slightly at that and she looked at him in confusion. He had to be good at bandaging wounds, Akihiko used to get them all the time when they started out fighting the shadows. He brought a hand up and rubbed the back of his head in thought, there wasn't much that he could do. Rosemary was easily injured; he was aware of that it didn't mean he liked it. He moved to press his lips against the top of her head. He couldn't tell if he was growing taller again or she was slouching. She tilted her head up and he was welcomed to her serious expression. She went to say something, but hesitated and decided against it.
"Is something bothering you?" He asked.
"No…not really," She muttered with a slight frown.
He watched as she looked away and her hair shifted to show her ears, the tips a bright red. He knew immediately what she had been about to say. He scratched the back of his head and contemplated how much time they might have by themselves. He moved quickly and gently turned her around to face him before leaning down. Rosemary's eyes were wide and staring up at him as he pulled away from her. His face was burning and her's was a bright scarlet. He was a bit proud that he could get such a shade of red out of her. She brought a hand up to her lips and slowly looked away in a shy manner. He'd have to do that again sometime. Her lips were softer than they looked.
"Shinji…" She muttered in slight embarrassment.
"I ain't apologizing," He informed her, and she gave him a wry look.
She grabbed onto the lapels of his coat and brought him down to kiss her herself. He was a bit surprised by her forwardness. He had done it because he believed she didn't have the confidence to do so. For her to kiss him meant that she hadn't known if it was appropriate or not. He pulled himself away from his thoughts and returned it. They stayed like for a few seconds before parting when they heard voices approaching.
"Hey, sorry we got held up," Akihiko said as he and Ken took their places, "a couple of shadows tried to ambush us."
"Tried?" Rosemary questioned before she heard his thoughts and gave a small smile, "Yeah, that's definitely an attempt."
"Was it quiet over here?" Ken asked as he gave Shinjiro a slight glare.
"Yes, the rabbit hasn't moved an inch," She said before blinking when the others came through the passageway and scared the rabbit through another painting, "there it goes."
"This is ridiculous," Shinjiro stated before turning to everyone else, "let's get going."
They went though this new passageway and came across a locked door. It was the first time they had come across a door that was truly locked. It even had a padlock on it. Akihiko frowned at the sight of it and rubbed the back of his head in thought.
"It is imperative to begin a search for a key," Aigis said.
"Let's check this corridor," Shinjiro said.
They went down it and came to a dead end. That didn't bode well for them and Akihiko ended up next to Shinjiro. They started to quietly bicker to no one's surprise. Shinjiro was in a good mood, he wasn't about to let Aki guilt him into anything. No one wanted to intervene.
"I'm getting a faint reading of a door," Fuuka said.
"A door?" Mitsuru questioned, "There doesn't seem to be one nearby."
They looked down at a stool with four bottles on it and below that was a tiny door. Yukari and Rosemary stared at it for a few seconds. Wasn't this a part of the book? Where Alice needed to go through a tiny door and had to drink a potion that shrunk her. The bottles had little tags on them that said drink me. It was a bit suspicious and no one wanted to do that.
"There seems to be something beyond that door," Fuuka told them.
"So, you say, but this is a rather small door," Mitsuru commented, "even Koromaru couldn't fit through."
"Mitsuru-san, I found something," Aigis said as she handed over one of the bottles.
"I see, but what's in it?" Mitsuru asked.
"It's from the Alice in Wonderland book, drinking it makes you small," Fuuka answered.
"A drink from licorice in walnutland that makes you smell like delicious food?" Rei questioned, "I want some."
"How would the human body manage that?" Junpei questioned as he shot the much smaller teen a strange look, "Look, you really shouldn't."
"I'll pass too," Ken quietly said.
"Yeah, you don't want to get any smaller, right?" Junpei teased and got a glare out of the child.
"That's not a nice thing to say Junpei," Rosemary said, the tone of her voice matched the disappointed expression on her face.
"I'm sorry," He apologized.
Aigis moved ahead and went to test out the liquid inside the bottle to make sure that it wasn't poisonous to anyone. She even said it had a light fruity bouquet. The final consensus was that it couldn't shrink anyone, so they were forced to think of another way to try and get through the tiny door. All the while Akihiko and Shinjiro were delving deeper into an argument.
"What should we do, Akihiko, Shinjiro?" Mitsuru questioned before giving them both a glare.
"I mean, you've always been like this." Akihiko informed Shinjiro, "Is it fun acting all high and mighty, criticizing everything?"
"What? You think I enjoy dealing with a crazy person who starts wrestling matches in the middle of the night?" Shinjiro questioned.
"Look who's talking! When you smuggled in that stray cat, I ended up getting scolded right alongside you!" Akihiko exclaimed.
"If you're gonna bring that up, then maybe I should remind you about the time that you almost punched a little kid when they startled you," Shinjiro fired back.
"I don't think they'll be much help at the moment," Rosemary said, sighing quietly and Mitsuru joined her.
Those two wondered how the boys in their lives were so hotheaded. Mitsuru was quite glad that Minato wasn't like that and seemed to think before acting. She looked towards Rosemary who watched the two teens bickering with a tired expression on her face. She'd pull them apart, but didn't want to intrude. She could possibly get hurt if it came down to exchanging blows and that would make both boys feel mortified. They kept bringing up things that no one really knew about them. Shinjiro was fond of animals and cried during sad movies, though he had somewhat stopped since he left SEES. Akihiko had trouble watching romance films due to the fact that he was as dense as a brick.
"Who the hell would drink such a suspicious drink anyway?" Shinjiro questioned.
"Heh, I'll drink it, just to prove what a coward you are," Akihiko informed him.
"Psh, say what you want," Shinjiro muttered in annoyance, he was shocked when Akihiko actually drank out of one of the bottles, "Hey, stop!"
"Hmph, you can't do that, can you?" Akihiko questioned, "Then you better apologize to me! Say you're sorry you haven't cooked anything for me in a long time!"
"Seriously?" Rosemary quietly muttered as Shinjiro brought a hand to his forehead in disbelief.
"What?" He questioned.
"You're such a good cook, but I'm stuck eating beef bowls at Umiushi," Akihiko said, and Rosemary realized that was the beef bowl shop's name she hadn't noticed. "And you're fine with that?"
"You eat their beef bowls because you like them! I mean, why the hell should I cook for you?" Shinjiro fired back, "I'd rather drink this shit than cook for you and watch you slather that protein crap all over it!"
Rosemary couldn't argue with that, it's why she plainly told Akihiko that if he put protein on any of the food she cooked she wouldn't make him anything. He followed that rule to a t without any problem. She blanched when Shinjiro grabbed one of the bottles and started to drink from it. Akihiko wasn't surprised, he knew that Shinjiro secretly hated to lose. Junpei tilted his hat down to look away from the two. He looked up when everyone let out sounds of surprise when the two upperclassmen started to shrink. Rosemary held a hand to her mouth as they continued to fight, their voices were hilarious. It was like they had inhaled helium. A soft chuckle escaped her mouth and she quickly put her hand firmly against it as her shoulders shook. It was so ridiculous.
"Ah, you find this funny, May?" Junpei asked.
"Sorry," She apologized as she tried to regain her composure.
"That's quite enough," Mitsuru said as she picked up the shrunken, squabbling teens by the back of their clothes, "Do you want me to freeze you two together permanently?"
That stopped them from struggling as they thought about it. Shinjiro knew that if he and Akihiko ever got frozen together, he'd never get any time alone with his girlfriend. He winced at the idea of losing an argument, but there was something more important. He looked over at his amused girlfriend and noticed that she was trying to fight her humor so she wouldn't laugh at them. She couldn't help but find the situation a bit humorous and sent him an apologetic look. They called a truce and Mitsuru sent a sharp look towards Rosemary. She had the taller teen hold onto the two boys until someone else drank the potion so they could enter the door.
Akihiko plopped down on the edge of Rosemary's hand and looked up towards his little sister figure as she waited for the okay to put them down. She looked all right, there was even a bit of mirth on her face every time she spared the two of them a glance. She liked cute things, right? Were they not considered cute due to their current size? He wondered about that.
Rosemary couldn't look at them without resisting the urge to hug them. They were adorable when shrunken down. She blinked when something grabbed onto her left thumb and she looked down at Shinjiro and found him poking at a small cut on there. He was surprised that he missed it when bandaging her up. Ah, she had gotten that on accident as she was cutting up the chocolate bar for her cookies. She'd jabbed herself with the knife when putting it down. She noticed that Koromaru was staring at her hands with wild eyes and moved closer to the door.
"I don't think Koro-chan can hold back his urge to hunt them down," Rosemary informed Mitsuru as Yukari grilled Junpei about being a pervert, "they might look like toys to them."
"Right," Mitsuru agreed as Yukari and Minato drank the last two bottles.
Rosemary put down the two older teens next to the door as the other two shrunk down. Koromaru moved faster than she thought he would and began to chase them around. He seemed to enjoy picking up Shinjiro and carrying him around. As Minato opened the tiny door Rosemary moved to get a hold of Koromaru. She sighed in relief when they got through the door without any more problems. She raised a brow at a contrite Koromaru and gently placed a kiss on his head. She couldn't be too mad at him for doing what a dog would do. He even felt bad about it. They waited a few minutes, and everyone soon came back, though they were all varying levels of wet. Yukari seemed to have gotten it the worst out of all of them.
"Oh, welcome back!" Rei greeted them with a large smile as they returned back to their original size.
"Yeah, we're back," Yukari said in a gloomy tone.
"Are you okay? Would you like some yakitori?" Rei asked, and Yukari seemed to grow a little pale at the idea of eating.
"No thanks, the gamey smell is too much right now," She declined in a polite tone.
Shinjiro had to agree with her there. He could still feel his lungs protesting at all the running they had done. He looked down at the concerned face of his girlfriend and smiled slightly. She'd been able to buy them as much time as she could when Koromaru started his hunt, she just couldn't do anything when he was being held up. He blinked as he noticed something, he seemed to be a bit taller than he used to be. Maybe he had grown since he last checked. He thought he'd notice that before, but he had more pressing matters on his mind.
"We got the key," He informed Mitsuru.
"Well done," She congratulated him with a small smile.
He and Akihiko recoiled a bit when Koromaru barked. Their fight or flight senses were still going haywire due to the small dog. He felt a bit bad when Koromaru's perked up ears laid flat on his head as he bowed it. Ah, he couldn't stay mad at him for long. He was too cute to.
"He says he's sorry, he did not mean to lose control," Aigis translated the high-pitched whine.
"Heh, don't worry about it," Shinjiro told the small dog, "we aren't pissed at you."
"W-We get it!" Akihiko stuttered, "Just don't lick me anymore!"
"Ha, when those two start quarreling again lick them as much as you want to," Mitsuru told Koromaru, a smile on her face.
Koromaru seemed pleased with that order and ran around the two teens' legs with his tail wagging. Rosemary let out a soft series of laughs and that brought a smile to everyone's face. They hurried back to the door with the padlock and Minato quickly unlocked it. The group was oddly energized, they had the strange feeling that the labyrinth was almost done with everything it could throw at them. They looked inside and found that it was just a corridor with another door. They went through that and saw the rabbit along with a card soldier. They needed to think about it, and checked the rest of the room to see what to do. There was a small area with a secret passage that took them back to the previous room. They headed back and Minato watched as Rosemary went to the small alcove and rinsed the painted roses before heading to the other bush and cleaning it off.
It was an obvious puzzle, one that none of them had any problems figuring it out. It let them chase the rabbit to another painting, which it jumped through. They quickly moved through the new passage and chased it to a room where there were three FOEs. Akihiko dashed inside and Shinjiro went after his friend. He got his ear pulled by an upset Rosemary and he shot her an apologetic look. He didn't think she'd pull his ear.
It took a while to move around the FOE's to get them to paint specific bushes so they could get through to the stairs. The moment they went down the stairs they felt the atmosphere change. Rei slightly cowered behind Zen as she became nervous. Everything around them reminded Rosemary of a large forest, but there were objects from the previous floors as well. The rabbit stood there, waiting for them.
"So, this is where the rabbit was leading us," Yukari said.
"He's not running away," Junpei commented, "well, I guess we can catch him now."
It vanished and everyone jumped in surprise. Fuuka couldn't even get a reading of it anymore. Rosemary dragged her hand down her face as Zen tried to remember where he'd seen a rabbit like that before. She jumped when Shinjiro moved a bit closer to her, he didn't like the feel of the area around them. She was a bit incensed at the fact that he believed she needed protecting until she heard his motives. Her neck warmed up as he thought that keeping her safe was the best thing to use his limited time to do. She wanted to hit him and kiss him all at the same time. She sighed at how indecisive her mind could be.
"That was a rare one too," Akihiko muttered.
"It doesn't even matter anymore," Shinjiro sighed, "this place is obviously different from anywhere we've been so far."
"Rei, are you all right?" Zen asked the blonde.
"Yeah, I made my choice, after all I want to leave here," Rei said with a slight shake of her head as she spared the group of powerful teens a glance.
She wanted to leave with the friends she had found. The members of SEES were strong, though she could tell which ones had an obvious weakness. She found that most of them had deep-rooted issues and hated to talk about them. Ken disliked Shinjiro and glared at him often, but would smile at his guardian when she ruffled his hair. Rei wondered if the younger boy knew that his guardian and Shinjiro had romantic feelings for one another. Her guess was they he didn't know but suspected.
"Yes, let's continue," Zen nodded his agreement.
They moved towards the end of the hall where a gate made up of thorns was waiting for them. They all double-checked their equipment before tensing up in anticipation of a fight. There was a large shadow beyond those gates, one that had cognitive thought. Rosemary almost believed that it had formed an ego, but the thoughts didn't reflect that.
"Whatever is behind that door is strong," Fuuka informed them, "be on your guard!"
That made them steel their nerves and head through the gate. What awaited them was a large shadow that was dressed as a queen, it was hugging a large chest that was covered in chains. She didn't seem to notice them for a few minutes before turning to face them, a gold fan in her hand that had red accents along the ridges. Fuuka could sense how powerful it was, but knew that her friends were even stronger. Still, it wouldn't do for them to let their guard down. They had seen what happens when they did.
"Please be careful! That's the strongest reading I've seen so far in this labyrinth!" She informed them.
"So, it seems the boss has finally shown up," Akihiko grinned as he cracked his knuckles.
"Danger! I sense Danger!" The shadow said, causing some of the members to freeze in surprise, "Oh no you don't! I won't let you have this!"
"It can talk?" Mitsuru questioned.
"It has thoughts as well, but not enough to be considered having an ego," Rosemary informed her.
"You're going to stay here forever! I'll never let you out of this world!" The Shadow continued as if they hadn't spoken.
"Incorrect, we will leave it," Aigis corrected.
"Correct, that is what we have decided," Zen confirmed.
The shadow laughed at them and Rosemary narrowed her eyes as she was reminded of her mother back when she was a child. The shadow carried the same arrogance and coldness that had permeated her childhood. This thing wasn't going to find a bunch of pushovers. It was going down.
"How hilarious," The shadow said, "You're going to let us out, is it? How kind of you!"
That caused her to pause for a few seconds. Us. What did it mean by us? She tried to delve into the shadow's mind and found that strange haze covering every inch of it. It was just like Zen and Rei's mind. That meant they were connected to this more than she originally thought. Something was going on that she didn't like.
"It said, "I won't let you have this." Does it mean the thing behind it?" Shinjiro questioned.
"Who knows, it doesn't seem like we can reason with it," Akihiko stated with a frown, "doesn't this make you itch to test your skills, Minato?"
"Of course," Minato nodded.
"Maximum output here goes!" Aigis informed them as she narrowed her eyes at the shadow and readied herself to attack.
"I won't let you have it!" The shadow told them as she summoned a bunch of card soldiers.
They were quite weak compared to some of the enemies they'd taken care of, but they were persistent in retaining an alarming amount of their numbers. They kept coming wave after wave. It annoyed the hell out of everyone there. Yukari glared at a card as it tried to stab her with its spear. Rosemary came to her aid and swung her naginata at it, causing it to go flying.
"Sorry about the wait!" A voice exclaimed and they all stopped fighting to see who had said that.
A whole bunch of teens along with a velvet room attendant stood at an opposite door pulling strange poses. Yukari and Rosemary recognized the poses due to their weekly anime marathon. Jojo poses? Who taught them to do that? They looked towards the attendant, who happened to be a woman who wore a uniform that was classier in style than Elizabeth's. It had to be her.
"We'll talk later," A boy with silver hair informed them in a soft voice, a smile on his face, "we've come to help."
"All right!" A girl with chestnut brown hair said, a grin on her face as she pumped a fist into the air, "Let's do this!"
The teens, and a strange bear mascot, rushed forward and paired up with random members of SEES. Mitsuru nodded to Rosemary and the girl used her evoker to summon Themis and placed minor shields around everyone. They'd have to be maintained, but they wouldn't drain her like an ultimate shield would. She blinked when one of the newcomers stopped next to her. He was tall and had bleached blonde hair. He took one look at her and blanched slightly, he seemed to recognize her.
"May!" Minato yelled and he motioned towards one of the card soldiers near them.
"Right," She nodded her agreement.
Minato found that doubling up on an attack with Rosemary was a good way to go through enemies without a problem. A boy with orange headphones around his neck paused and watched as she easily forced a few of them into the air and the other bluenette disposed of them. A few of the newcomers were like that, some of them even watched Akihiko and Shinjiro take care of some of the shadows.
"Anyone else notice that they seem to know us?" Junpei questioned as he sliced through a card soldier.
"Yes," Mitsuru commented, "But we can think on it later, right now we have a clean shot at the Queen."
"Such annoying pests! Very well, I will crush you all myself!" The Shadow yelled, "I won't let you have this! Not even if our kind demands it!"
Rosemary filed that information away for later and attacked a card soldier alongside the silver-haired newcomer. He gave her a kind smile and she blinked in confusion. Why the hell did they all seem to know her? They were happy to see her but confused at the same time. She was younger to them? She blinked when he shrugged, and she sighed in slight amusement. She shouldn't be surprised by any of the weird things that happened around her anymore. They split into groups and Rosemary joined Minato to attack the Queen.
"Let's perform a spectacular coup d'etat," Rosemary said with a slight smile.
"Let's." Minato agreed.
They attacked the queen with their persona's the magic seeming to do more damage than their physical attacks. The summoners watched as their persona's attacked with as much anger as they were personally feeling. One of the newcomers whistled behind them in admiration. They were drawn to three of the personas. Themis, Polydeuces, and Castor. Those three came from the ones they knew more about, but it wasn't the ones they were used to. Castor slammed into the shadow and it let out a loud shriek that caused them all to wince. What a pair of lungs on it!
"How dare you attack me!" It continued to screech, "You dare to attack the Queen herself! We have not seen such insolence before! It's all so very vulgar of you!"
"It's our best trait," Rosemary muttered.
"Are you sure about that?" Shinjiro questioned with a slight smirk.
She stopped the blush from rising on her cheeks and shot him a look. He seemed pleased with himself. She sighed and they continued to fight the Queen. It seemed to have trouble getting in an attack of its own with the never-ending attack they were doing. It was making them tired, but it would be the fastest way to take it down. It couldn't even summon its soldiers to protect itself from their attack. Shinjiro and Rosemary gave their own attack in unison and it made the queen back up in order to stop herself from falling down. The naginata had caught her dress and he had slammed his ax into her stomach.
"She's made out of some strong stuff," Shinjiro muttered as he rolled his shoulders.
She nodded her agreement as she adjusted her grip on her weapon. That didn't stop them from attacking it, they refused to let up their assault even for a second. Ken was starting to grow worried that they'd exhaust themselves by using this approach, but it seemed to wear the Queen down even more. She fell, with as much grace as expected of her which wasn't much. She turned into a children's book. Rosemary picked it up with a slight frown on her face before placing it in her bag.
"Senpai's amazing!" The blonde boy from before stated and a girl wearing a male uniform gently smacked his arm with a frown.
"Not so loud, Kanji-kun," She chided, and he had the good graces to sheepishly blush.
"Senpai, huh," She muttered, "that's going to be my entire third year."
"Looks like you didn't really need our help," The silver-haired boy said with a good-natured smile.
"Who in the world are you?" Mitsuru questioned, "And how do you know us?"
"We're the wandering persona-users, the bear-illiant Teddie and his delightful friends," The one in a bear costume said, and Rosemary let out a sigh.
'He wonders why May has a habit of sighing at his shitty puns,' The one with orange headphones inwardly sighed.
"…Yo-chan?" Rosemary quietly asked and he tensed up, she switched to English, "Oh my god, you got taller and you dyed your hair!"
Shinjiro tried to ignore the shivers going down his spine as she spoke in her native tongue and looked at the person she was still talking to. Yo-chan was her cousin, right? He could remember the smart-aleck kid that had walked around the festival with them. He seemed to be a good kid, at least he cared about his cousin. He was too old to be the boy he'd met.
"Woah," The silver-haired boy said, "I keep forgetting that she could hear our thoughts."
"Yeah, it was a surprise to learn it the first time," Kanji stated, "but she's cool."
"Judging by the school uniform they come from two years in our past," The girl in the boy's uniform said.
"Judging based off of what you know of me in your time?" Rosemary asked with a small smile.
"Yes," The girl replied with a smile.
"Thanks for the warning by the way," Yosuke teased in a sarcastic manner.
"Honestly, I doubt we'll even remember that this happened," Rosemary sighed, "I would've warned you if I did."
"I know," He said as he felt bad for his tone.
They turned their attention towards the box and out came a rabbit from inside of it. Zen got some of his memories back, but not enough of them to know what his task was. He did inform them of four labyrinths', and they gathered they had just defeated the first one. Rei was in a similar manner, but she refused to even think of the memories she had gotten back. Rosemary didn't blame her, the feelings she got from them were dark and made her want to curl into herself. A bell-ringing got their attention and they all wondered what the hell it was about before it stopped.
"A lock on the doors in the velvet room is about to come off!" Fuuka informed them.
"Yamagishi, explain," Mitsuru ordered.
"One of the locks on the doors looks like it's about to come off, Elizabeth says that the doors connect to someplace else," Fuuka explained.
"Which must mean they're an exit?" The other blue-haired girl said.
"Then we might have to go through the rest of the labyrinths to open the rest of the locks," Rosemary added, and she let out a soft sigh.
"Whoever is behind this will see our little labyrinth excursion and hopefully get angry with us and show themselves," Akihiko stated.
That felt like it'd be a little too easy, but they nodded their agreement. They headed out of the labyrinth and found that the velvet siblings and Fuuka were waiting there with someone else. Rosemary blinked as she recognized who it was from her trip to Tokyo. Risette was a persona user? Huh, she guessed one couldn't tell just by looking at another person.
"Welcome back, guys!" Risette said with a beaming smile, "You were so cool in there, Senpai!"
"Which one?" The silver-haired boy teased with a smile, she seemed confused before looking over at Rosemary.
"May-Senpai is here too?" Risette asked.
"This is a younger version of our May," Kanji corrected, "She's the same age as Yosuke-senpai."
"It's nice to meet you, Risette-Chan," Rosemary quietly said with a shy incline of her head.
Risette seemed surprised before noticing the way that one of the taller boys was staring at the shy girl. She fought a sly smirk on her face, he had to be Shinjiro when he was younger. No wonder their senpai seemed happy in her relationship, he looked at her as if she was the most precious thing to him. The fact that he never changed in that regard was very telling of how well they worked together. Rosemary seemed to grow shyer at her thoughts and she felt a little guilty when she covered her face with her hands. It was a bit adorable if she was to be honest.
"I sometimes forget she's shy," Risette quietly said before speaking up, "Please, call me Rise."
"Right," Rosemary nodded.
"It seems as though you have all figured it out," The velvet attendant said, "What does it matter if they are from your past?"
"Not many people are comfortable with the idea of time travel," Mitsuru informed her, "But we should be more concerned on how this is even happening."
"Did you all go through a TV?" Kanji asked.
"Huh? A TV?" Shinjiro questioned in confusion.
"There's no dark hour?" Rosemary quietly muttered as she saw in their thoughts their way of accessing the world of shadows, "I guess we succeeded in our mission, but why do I feel sad about that?"
"Who knows, you keep quite a bit of information to yourself about what happened during your second year of high school," Yosuke informed her before smiling slightly, "still, you seemed happy."
"Yeah," She nodded before looking at everyone with a thoughtful frown on her face, "why don't we get to know one another?"
"We could enjoy the festival," The girl with chestnut brown hair suggested with a bright smile.
"We should know one another's names first," Mitsuru sighed at the excitable teenagers around her, though there was a small smile on her face.
Narukami Yuu was the silver-haired boy who turned out to have the same power as Rosemary and Minato. It made sense as to why the rest of his group referred to Rosemary as Senpai seeing as she helped them out with their investigation. Amagi Yukiko was their healer with fire abilities and was a bit quieter than the rest of her friends. Satonaka Chie reminded everyone of a female Akihiko who had more common sense and a love for steak. Shirogane Naoto was a detective and found a kindred ship with Rosemary before the others found out she was a she. Hanamura Yosuke was different than the kid they'd all met a month ago, he was a loudmouth and seemingly got into too much trouble. Anytime he went to tease Kanji about possibly liking men he got a disappointed look out of his cousin and would immediately apologize. Tatsumi Kanji was a sweet boy that reminded them of Shinjiro with his tough exterior, he stood over everyone but never used his height to startle any of them. Teddie threw them all for a loop, he was perverted yet innocent. It was hard to get a read on him, and Rosemary found the screeching of shadows in his head, but also the thoughts of something that had an ego. She decided to keep quiet about it and enjoy her time at the festival. They all went to enjoy the festival to get to know one another.
"How'd they end up in an eating contest?" Yosuke asked Rosemary as they looked down at the three teens who were snarfing down takoyaki as fast as they could.
"Well, Shinjiro and Akihiko were already on the warpath back in the labyrinth, so I get them, but is Chie-chan always this ready to win?" Rosemary questioned.
"Yeah, I don't think she'll allow herself to lose," He confirmed before frowning slightly.
"Congrats on your relationship," She quietly said, and his cheeks turned a bright red, "I approve."
"Hey, I didn't tease you when you started to date Shinjiro-san," He grumbled as he sent her a small glare.
"Well, that answers that," She muttered.
He blinked as she looked over at her boyfriend with a thoughtful expression before her cheeks tinted pink. She couldn't help but be amused by his thoughts, though there was one that made her a bit nervous. He refused to lose as if his loss would make her think any differently of him. She rubbed the back of her neck in thought before turning to her cousin. They were going to go and enjoy the festival while their idiots continued their challenge.
Rosemary ended up in a hallway by herself, a small cookie in her hand as she wandered the small booths on the floor. She came across one that claimed it was a group date café and questioned who allowed it to even be passed. She knew who had the idea for it. It was her cousins, he had probably suggested it as a joke. She sighed as she stopped next to a game with small ducks floating in a shallow pool and tilted her head in thought, that was an American game. Huh, maybe this small world didn't know much about their world. She found herself growing frustrated as the answers were seemingly out of her grasp. She blinked in surprise when fingers wrapped around her wrist. She looked back to see Shinjiro standing behind her, he looked like he wasn't doing too good.
"Are you going to be okay?" She asked him and he gave a slight nod.
"I won," He mumbled.
"I see, but please take it easy next time," She softly said as she placed her hands against his cheeks.
He looked to the side before pulling her close. She quietly agreed to walk around the rest of the festival with him. He intertwined their fingers as they looked around at the booths. Their conversation was quiet and about anything that caught their eyes. He didn't mind it, finding it to be more relaxing than the fighting they'd been doing. She said a strange word and he had to ask what she meant by it. Snogging? What did that mean? She had turned a bright red and quickly explained that it was British slang for a make-out session. He raised a brow, and she turned a darker red and hid her face in his arm.
"Do you want to?" He quietly asked and she looked up at him with a very sheepish expression on her face.
"I'm not the best at this, I'm sorry," She quietly apologized.
He smiled at her and she felt like the breath had been knocked out of her. He never really smiled a genuine one before, even towards her. He placed one of his hands against her cheek and she felt her face heat up. Yeah, she would like to snog him. He was happy that they were finally moving in their relationship, and so was she. They had more time alone than they had in months. When they finally appeared on the third floor their faces were still a bit flushed, her lips were a bit red as she fixed her dress shirt and retied her bow. She pushed her hair back from her face and a small, circular bruise stood out against her neck.
"Shit, I misjudged where your collar ended," He muttered as he looked at the mark with a slowly reddening face.
"I don't mind," She quietly said, and he felt his heart skip a beat at that, and a slight smirk appeared on his face.
"I think they have an ice cream stand on the second floor," He said as he began to walk towards the stairs.
She smiled at him and quickly caught up to him. They found that Ken and the navigators were having ice cream with Zen and Rei. Ken brightened up when he saw Rosemary walking towards them, but his expression faltered upon seeing Shinjiro. Rosemary got a cone with strawberry and mint ice cream and was pulled into a conversation with Rise and Fuuka. Her cheeks were a light pink when Rise sent her a knowing grin.
"I get the feeling that those four are a dangerous combination," Shinjiro muttered as they all giggled at something that was said.
"I don't get to see May like this, it's nice," Ken said with a small smile on his face.
"Even Rei is enjoying herself," Zen added.
It was nice to have some normal moments before they went into the next labyrinth. They all enjoyed it to the best of their abilities. Somehow the girls ended up with small gifts from the boys. Mitsuru had a small broach that Minato had won in a ring toss game. Chie a funny pin with a steak wearing sunglasses on it from Yosuke. Akihiko had somehow won Fuuka a small mascot for her bag that looked like Jack Frost, no one asked which game he'd gone to. Kanji got Rise a tiny mic charm for her phone. Yuu gave Naoto a small flower for her's. Shinjiro won a pyro jack for Rosemary's phone. All in all, the group had a good time.