"Whoa!" Rise exclaimed in awe as she clapped her hands happily.

The Investigation Team was currently standing in the home Gremory had arranged for them, and to say they were impressed was an understatement. They had expected a modestly sized home, perhaps big enough for them all to fit in if they doubled up in the bedrooms.

Instead what they found was a small manor on the outskirts of town that was big enough to fit double their number, with a gym, an outdoor pool, and a spacious yard. Honestly, it could make for a nice little inn, if one wanted to use it as such.

"Are you sure this isn't too much?" Yu asked the redheaded devil that was standing by the entrance with her Queen, watching the humans inspect their new home with a smile on her face.

Gremory waved the concern off. "There's no need to worry. This is well within my means. As long as you come through on your end of the bargain I have no issue with providing you with this home for your use until you find a way back home."

Yu bowed to her in thanks as his friends' impressed exclamations rang out throughout the house as they began to explore. "We'll definitely do so, if only to repay this kindness."

The devil smiled, pleased, before Himejima held an envelope out to him. "Here are the debit cards for the shared bank account where Sona and I have deposited your advanced payment for the job." Gremory explained. "If we find more work for you in the future we will deposit the payment into this account."

Yu took the envelope, nodding in understanding. "Thank you. This will be a big help."

Gremory turned to leave before pausing and turning back to Yu. "Oh, I should let you know that when I reported to the Maou the Beelzebub was extremely interested in you and your team, as we expected. He said he would be stopping by within the next few days to speak with you and take some readings and samples to see what he can learn, if you're amenable."

Yu nodded slowly. "I think it would be alright. You did say he was the head of the devils' science division, so letting him learn more about us could help with finding a way back home."

"Excellent. I'll let him know." With one last smile she turned and left, her Queen following behind.

Shortly after the devils left Yu called a meeting in the house's living room. "Well, I think it's safe to say we're in a lot better position than before." He said with an amused smile on his lips.

"No kidding!" Yosuke said with a small, slightly incredulous laugh. "Gremory-san must be loaded to just give us something like this when we haven't done anything to earn it yet."

"She did mention she's a member of the Underworld's nobility, even if it was in a roundabout way." Naoto explained. "It wouldn't surprise me if that meant she's wealthier than Kirijo-sama, considering the fact that her lineage can be traced for thousands of years and her family has likely amassed as much wealth as they could in that time."

"That means we have to really work hard to prove our worth to her." Yukiko said. "She's paying for everything, after all. Plus she's our best chance at getting home."

Yu nodded seriously. "Right, that's why we're going to organize a gameplan to perform our search." He looked around at his team. "Now that we don't have to worry about supporting ourselves we can focus all our efforts on finding the Fallen that attacked Hyoudou-kun. Rise, what have you been able to find out?"

"There are a lot of places that I think they could be hiding in, Senpai." She said, voice serious. "I'll mark them on a map for us to search. Unfortunately I'm not familiar enough with what we're looking for to actually tell you exactly where they are. Sorry, Senpai."

"It's fine, Rise." He said with a reassuring smile. "You narrowing it down is already a big help, considering the size of the town. This isn't Inaba, where you could search the entire place in an hour or two, after all." Then he turned to the team as a whole. "Alright guys, we're going to work in teams of two and in shifts. The teams will be the same as when we were searching for Ito, with Rise staying here to monitor the rest of us. Two teams will be out at a time, one searching the places Rise will point out, the other doing a general patrol, with who is pulling what duty alternating per shift. Whoever isn't out on shift will take care of any chores around the house and rest if there isn't anything that needs to be done. If we don't find the fallen in the first sweep we'll start from the beginning all over again, in case we simply happened to miss them while they were out or something like that." He glanced around at his friends, finding them all to be focused on him, listening intently. "It's getting late, so we'll start working tomorrow morning. The first shift will start at six in the morning. Yosuke, Teddie, Chie and Yukiko, you're the ones on that shift. Got it?"

There were some grumbles at the early start, but everyone nodded in agreement, and Yu smiled, pleased that his team was willing to put in the work. "Alright, in that case, let's order something to eat now that we've got the money for it. What does everyone want?"

He really should have known better than to ask that, as a huge argument erupted over what they should get now that they could afford to splurge a bit.

Yosuke shifted the strap of the backpack that held his and Teddie's weapons as he pondered on the way his life had derailed yet again while he waited for his patrol partner to finish with the kids that surrounded him.

Honestly, after the team had beaten Izanami-no-Okami he had figured that everything was done with, and he'd likely never have to worry about the supernatural side of the world again.

Then the entire debacle with Hi-no-Kagutsuchi happened, and Yosuke realized that things rarely had such a neat and tidy end in the real world. Honestly, it had been naive of him to believe that there weren't any more threats to the world once Izanami was dealt with. For all he knew there was some god in Italy or Mexico trying to pull the same sort of crap. That was why he had followed Yu when he had decided to join the Shadow Operatives. If they were going to get mixed up in all that BS, then they might as well have official government support.

Not that they'd had much of that during the Love Meets Bonds incident, but that debacle was just odd in its own way.

And now here he was, hunting for literal fallen angels from the Abrahamic religions in an alternate reality. (And yes, he knew they were Abrahamic and not just Christian. He'd done some googling on world mythology when Yu had started to pull Personas based on fairies and demons out of his ass, thank you very much.) Seriously, his life could probably be a manga. Well, Yu's life. He was self aware enough to know he was the sidekick and not the main character.

When Teddie finally finished entertaining the kids, who were led away by their parents, he approached Yosuke with a smile on his face. "Nice to know kids in this world have good taste too!" The bear suited former Shadow chirped happily before perking up further. "Say, you think Gremory-chan would help me become Kuoh's official mascot?"

Yosuke resumed walking on the patrol route he and Teddie had been given, since their team was the one on general lookout for the day. "Do you really want to do all that work? You'd spend most of your time putting in public appearances or making videos to put up on social media."

"True." Teddie admitted. "On the other hand, think of all the hot babes!"

"Ted, the only girls that would be interested would be younger than Nanako-chan, and I'm pretty sure you aren't a lolicon." If he was then Yosuke was reasonably sure that the girls of the Investigation Team would be happy to reeducate him. At least, assuming Yu didn't get to him first.

"Aww…" Teddie said, slumping slightly in disappointment.

Yosuke rolled his eyes a bit. He knew that he was paired up with Teddie because he was the closest member of the team to the former Shadow, since they were living and worked together, so their synergy was pretty good, but that didn't mean he couldn't sometimes wish he would get paired up with someone different on occasion, if only for variety's sake. Not to say he didn't like Ted, everybody in the Investigation Team loved the guy, but that didn't mean he couldn't wear on your nerves after a while.

"So… What's your take on the mess we've wound up in this time?" Yosuke asked to fill the silence.

Teddie hummed thoughtfully before turning to his friend. "Well, it could be worse? I mean, we got lucky with finding someone to take care of us, didn't we?"

Yosuke nodded in agreement. "Yeah, that was a lucky break for us." He tilted his head thoughtfully as he considered that. "Do you think it was maybe too lucky?" He asked.

Teddie frowned at the question. He was somewhat simple minded, but he wasn't stupid, and he could make some impressive intuitive leaps of logic. "You think someone put us in Kuoh on purpose so we could meet Gremory-chan?"

"It's a pretty big coincidence if not." Yosuke said.

Teddie tapped a finger to his mouth. "Maybe, but that doesn't mean there's always a plan, Yosuke. I mean, was Sensei coming to Inaba when he did a coincidence?"

Yosuke shook his head with a sigh. "I've wondered that a dozen times now." He admitted. "If he hadn't arrived when he did, our world would probably be covered in Ameno-sagiri's fog right now, and we'd all be Shadows, so that's a hint at something bigger being at work, especially since something similar happened with Kirijo-sama's team."

"Destiny or coincidence…" Teddie pondered before shrugging. "Well, whatever it was, I got to meet everyone and save my world, and see the human one, so I'm not gonna worry about it too much."

Yosuke shook his head with a small chuckle, amused at Teddie's simplistic view. It all worked out, so why worry about it? He couldn't fault that reasoning. Glancing at his watch the teen noted the time before turning to Teddie. "It's after noon. What do you want for lunch?"

Teddie considered the question with all due seriousness. "How about some udon?"

Yosuke smiled. "Sounds good." As they made their way to the nearest udon place he spoke again. "I wonder how the girls are doing with their search?"

"Look out!" Chie yelled to Yukiko as she dodge rolled to avoid a stream of acid that nearly hit her, the liquid eating into whatever it touched.

This just kept getting better and better.

The day had been relatively calm for her and her 'd searched a few of the dozens of locations marked on the map Rise had prepared without finding anything worse than an abandoned house that gave them a chill to be near. She was calling it already, that place was haunted.

It was as they were searching the fourth location that they'd been attacked. A huge monster in the form of a female centaur with clawed hands instead of front paws or hooves, a mouth along her belly, and freaking breasts that shot acid from the nipples, decided that they would make for a nice meal.

Thankfully she seemed to be relatively low level, she was just relentless, not giving Chie or Yukiko much chance to attack.

Quickly getting sick of this Chie kicked a large metal pipe at the monster, who slashed it to ribbons. "Come get me, you damn exhibitionist!" She called, beginning to run away from her opponent.

"Stand still, little morsel." The monster called as she laughed, groping herself as she turned towards to follow Chie, spraying more acid from her nipples, trying to catch the green clad girl in the stream.

Yukiko took the chance Chie gave her to catch her breath before drawing Boundless Sea. "Konohana Sakuya!" She called, slashing her card with the fan and summoning her Persona.

The monster turned at the call and the sound of the Persona's appearance only to receive an enormous blast of flames to the face. She screeched and fell back, instinctively trying to get away from the conflagration. Chie, who had turned when she heard Yukiko summon her Persona, got ready for her own attack. She could see that their opponent was terribly wounded, but they'd underestimated her, so Yukiko hadn't used enough force to finish her off.

The centaur thing was too large for Chie to hit a weak area physically, so she'd need to use her Persona as well. "Tomoe!" She called, kicking the card that appeared with her Moses Sandals.

The female warrior immediately appeared, bringing her double bladed naginata around in a Black Spot, slamming the blade against the monster's charred head and cutting it in two, silencing the thing's cries permanently as its body slumped to the ground, its upper body still burning.

The two girls caught their breaths, trying to ignore the stench of cooked monster that was filling the area. Then they joined up and walked away for a bit to get away from the aftermath. "Well that was fun." Chie said sarcastically, grimacing at the carnage left behind. Shadows normally faded away after being killed, after all, so this was a bit much even for a hardened member of the Investigation Team like her.

Yukiko's own nose was wrinkled in distaste as she fished about in her pocket. "You said it. I hope there aren't any more of those hiding around town." Finding what she was looking for she pulled a piece of paper with a magic circle drawn on it out and focused a bit of power into it as she'd been taught before tossing it aside.

As they waited for a response Chie's grimace grew. "Ugh, I'm so out of shape." She whined. "I mean, we've fought freaking gods, and this weakling gave us trouble." She crossed her arms under her breasts and grumbled in annoyance.

As the ground around the thrown paper began to glow, a magic circle appearing at the location, from which Himejima appeared, Yukiko leaned forward and gave Chie a peck on the lips. "I think we're all out of shape, Chie-chan. Yu-kun is the only one of us that's been fighting regularly thanks to Minazuki-san challenging him every once in a while." Then she turned to the waiting devil. "Thank you for coming."

Himejima waved the thanks off. "Please, don't worry about it. We gave you those summoning papers for a reason after all." Then she turned to look at the dead monster. "Ara, I see you encountered Viser. Pity, we were going to use her to introduce Hyoudou-kun to our Stray Devil hunting duty tonight."

Chie blinked. "Wait, that's a devil? And you knew about her?"

Himejima turned to explain. "You remember our explanation to Hyoudou-kun about the fact that he'd need to stay with his King if he became a devil, correct?" When the girls nodded Himejima continued, motioning to the monstrous corpse. "Well, that's what happens to devils that leave their Kings for selfish reasons. They lose control of their powers, often going mad and turning into monsters that attempt to kill and consume humans. Official policy is that they be eliminated on sight, as they are too dangerous to leave alone." She turned back to look at the now named Viser's corpse. "We received information on Viser recently and were going to use her to give Hyoudou-kun a practical demonstration of this duty."

Chie scratched the back of her head sheepishly. "Sorry to ruin your plans then. She just jumped us when we were investigating the place."

Himejima brought her hand up to her mouth to hide her giggle. "Oh, there's no need to worry. We can't exactly blame you for defending yourselves. We'll have other opportunities. Stray Devils are, sadly enough, rarely in short supply. Please go ahead and continue on your way. I can deal with the cleanup here."

Yukiko bowed to the devil, Chie following suit relatively quickly. "Thank you, Himejima-san. We appreciate your help."

As the two Persona users made their way away from the site, Himejima waving goodbye to them, Chie turned to Yukiko. "I think we need to train more if we're going to be sticking around this world for long."

Yukiko sighed but nodded. "You're right. We'll discuss a training schedule with Yu-kun. It might have to wait for us to finish this job first, though."

Chie stretched and yawned lightly. "Eh, it can probably wait. I mean, how likely is it we're going to end up fighting something on Izanami's level again?"

Yukiko nodded, even if she looked somewhat unsure as to the answer, but was prevented from answering when Chie let out a whoop. "Woo, a beef bowl shop!" Without another word the martial artist rushed into the restaurant, leaving Yukiko to sigh fondly at her girlfriend's carnivorous tendencies and follow her inside.

Kanji yawned as he slipped the coins into the vending machine, punching the buttons for his soda irritably, feeling parched.

He and Naoto had been on general patrol, and it had been boring as hell. They'd heard Chie and Yukiko's report on the Stray Devil they encountered, but apparently that was an outlier, because nothing even remotely interesting had happened during the five hours they'd been on patrol, and the sun was beginning to set.

Naoto, detective that she was, took advantage of the opportunity to familiarize herself properly with the town, making note of places of interest and subway stations, and no doubt making plans for any fights they might need to engage in wherever they went.

Kanji left her to it. He was well aware that his mind just wasn't built for that sorta stuff. He generally left the heavy thinking to Naoto and Yu-senpai, focused on getting whatever job they assigned him done. That's not to say he couldn't contribute to the planning and investigating portions of their operations, but he knew his strengths. He was the muscle, and he was damn good at his job, if he said so himself.

It was probably why he was paired with Naoto, now that he thought of it, beyond the fact that they'd hung out together before becoming part of the Team. Naoto was the precise thinker and investigator, more brains than brawn. That wasn't to say she couldn't fight. She was a terror with her gun, and fighting someone that specialized in status afflictions and would nuke you once you were helpless was a nightmare to fight, as they all remembered from the encounter with her Shadow. But she could definitely use his brute strength for any heavy lifting that needed done.

Opening the can and taking a big gulp of his drink he made his way over to the bench where Naoto already sat with her own can of tea, the bluette making some notes in the pocket notebook she carried around with her wherever she went.

Heaving another yawn the burly teen flopped down beside her. "Notice anythin interesting I missed?" He asked, hoping the answer was yes, if only so the hours of boring walking hadn't been wasted.

Naoto let out a hum as she jotted down her notes with her pencil. "Not really." She said, much to his disappointment. "Kuoh in general seems to be pretty calm. The devils must keep a tight rein on things as far as the supernatural side goes." She made another note in her notebook. "I studied the crime statistics of the area before we left as well. The crime rate is rather low compared to the national average, and the police department is well funded and equipped thanks to donations from 'concerned citizens'."

Kanji grunted in understanding. Even he could figure out who the 'concerned citizens' were. It made sense. The devils ruled this town, even if it was from the shadows. They'd basically said as much themselves. They'd obviously want to keep things quiet, if only for the sake of their reputations.

Naoto put her notebook away before taking her hat off and running her fingers through her hair to let her scalp breath, yawning lightly as well before taking a sip of her tea. She may not be overt about it, but Kanji had known her long enough to tell she was bored too. Still, she was a detective, so she was used to this kind of work, no matter how annoying it was.

Seeing her let her calm, composed image down when she was alone with him and the other members of the Team reminded Kanji of the crush he'd had on her. That fact that he'd been crushing on her before he'd even known she was a girl had just confused the hell outta him at the time, which likely hadn't helped the feelings his Shadow was emphasizing.

Still, he'd let the crush go when she got together with Yu, though it would occasionally flare up, much to his annoyance. His lips quirked up at the memory of him, Yosuke and Teddie gathering to commiserate with each other on Yu's absurd luck when they found out the girls of the Team, along with others like Marie, had all basically bullied the silverette into being a Harem King.

Still, there were other fish in the sea. His mind automatically went to a certain member of Kanamin Kitchen at the thought, his cheeks turning a bit pink.

"We should resume our patrol." Naoto said as she put her cap back on and finished the last of her tea. "You can continue daydreaming about Nakahara-san later."

Kanji's face exploded into a blush. "Wha-hey!" When the detective gave him a teasing smirk he grumbled before downing the rest of his drink and tossing the can in the recycling bin. "Fine, whatever…" He growled as he stood up and began to walk after her as she left, the bag holding Black Hole out of sight slung over her shoulder.

Only a few more hours before their shift was over, Kanji thought with a sigh.

So boring…

It was getting close to 10pm, and Labrys and Yu were on their way to the last location they'd be hitting before heading home.

Not much had happened for most of their shift. From what they could tell Rise had primarily registered remnants of magical activity at most of the sites she'd marked down, if the anomalous readings Labrys had obtained were any indication. Unfortunately that led to a large number of false positives. It made the leader of the team wonder if this was normal for the world they'd found themselves in.

That's not to say all the places had been empty. One small house had held a group of itinerant youkai passing through on their way to Kyoto that had settled in for the night. Apparently it was under the ownership of the Kyoto Youkai Faction as a safehouse/waystation for travellers. Yu had assured them that they were just security employed by the local devils that were patrolling the town, and that they had no intention of causing trouble for the youkai as long as they did the same.

The last place, however, looked to be quite different. Down a small alley lay a reinforced metal door leading into the building they were going to investigate, with a neon sign over the door proclaiming it the Twisted Bar, the image of what looked like a long, partly coiled spring next to the words. Yu almost rolled his eyes at the pun before he opened the door, the bokken carrying case he was using to hide the Blade of Totsuka ready for him to reach in and draw his sword.

When the door opened a blast of noise escaped into the formerly silent alley, which was quickly cut off when every eye in the bar turned like something out of a western to see who had come in.

Most of the patrons looked completely human, likely magicians or other supernatural-adjacent people, but here and there were some obvious nonhumans. And to a one they stared at the unknown newcomers warily.

"Be careful, Yu-kun." Labrys whispered behind him as her red eyes darted about, cataloguing potential threats, noting some of the nonhumans' ears twitch, a tengu shifting slightly as it kept its eyes on them.

Yu stepped into the bar and made his way toward the counter, ignoring the stench of cigarette smoke as best he could, making sure to appear confident and unafraid. Which he was, to be honest. He'd faced much scarier things than a bar out of a fantasy novel.

"You're a bit young to drink here, kid." The kappa behind the bar said from where he was polishing a glass in the tradition of every bartender cliche ever, a cucumber in his mouth like a cigar.

"I'm not here for that, luckily." Yu said as he leaned lightly against the counter, making sure to avoid seeming threatening while also showing he wasn't a pushover. His intuition and arcanas told him that appearances and reputation would be important among this crowd. "I've simply been familiarizing myself with the town, since it's my job to keep an eye on it now."

The kappa eyed him, but before he could say anything a patron sitting on a barstool at the counter snorted. "Think highly of yerself, dontcha sonny?" The dodomeki croaked from where she sat nursing her drink, the multitude of eyes on her arms focused on him and Labrys.

Yu glanced at her before addressing the barman. "We're not here to cause any trouble, only end it if needed." He assured the room at large. "The local devils have hired us to keep an eye on things for them after a local human was attacked by some Fallen." He said. "They figured it would be better to be safe than sorry…"

Before he could continue speaking a bang rang out near the door, and he turned to find Labrys pinning a man who had clearly tried to grope her to the table, the man apparently too drunk to realize there was no real point in trying that with her. He was trying to struggle out of her grip, glowing tattoos showing on his body each time he strained, indicating he was using some sort of magic to enhance his capabilities. Labrys held him easily, having locked her joints in place to keep him from moving her, a glare on her face.

"...And we've proven our skills to them, so they've given us the authority to deal with things as needed. Some of our teammates already dealt with a Stray Devil near Okazu Street." He motioned for Labrys to let the drunk girl, the android doing so as he once more strained against her, making him launch himself out of his chair and onto the floor, his beer bottle falling on top of him and spilling its contents on his face.

Yu stood up and bowed lightly to the kappa. "I do not think we'll have any issues, so please don't hesitate to approach us if you have a problem we can assist with." With that he turned and began leaving the bar, Labrys warily following behind him. As they left the room Yu let out a breath, pleased that had gone well.

Neither of the two Persona users noticed the middle aged looking man in a black fedora that had been watching them intently since the moment they stepped into the bar. Dohnaseek sighed in annoyance and downed his drink, knowing Raynare would want to know about this.

He could already tell this was going to be a headache.

Yay, it updated! And not at the end of the month, like I've been doing lately!

So here's the third chapter of New Investigations, as voted on by my patrons. I hope it met expectations.

Things are beginning to get moving, with the Investigation Team getting to work hunting down the Fallen while said Fallen become aware of their new job working for the devils. This can only end in fun. :P

I hope you all liked the character interactions. I wanted to focus on that a bit before we got into the more action packed parts of the story. I've always found such things important, and easier to write than action scenes.

The next chapter should have the Team's first meeting with a Maou, and then we'll get to the fun. Mwahahaha.

In any case, I don't think I have anything else that needs to be said, so I'll go ahead and get to my customary reminders.

The first is that you can have a say in what I write when you donate to my Pat A Ron. Every dollar donated equals a vote in my monthly poll, and now I've made it so that the votes for the things that don't win in a given month roll over into the next, which is why some fics that haven't gotten much love for a while have been updated recently. So if you want to donate and see your favorite stories of mine updated more often, go to Pat A Ron dotcom /athanmortis. The current poll closes on June 1st, and is a bit special, as you will be voting for three stories instead of just one: A current story poll, a poll to update a fic that's been dormant for a while, and a poll to decide which unwritten story idea of mine gets a first chapter. So get over there and vote!

The next two reminders are more important to me, however. First is that my best friend has a Pat A Ron for their original fiction. Donate any amount you want and get access to some objectively excellent writing (far better than mine, if I'm being completely honest). Their first story, which is a supernatural steampunk detective thriller that I very much enjoy called 'The Curious Investigations of Mister Jonathan Scott', is currently at 18 chapters, the first of which is free, so you can see what his style is like. So if you like, say, The Dresden Files, but want it more steampunk, this is for you. And they've now started another story that will be updated while they build up more Jonathan Scott chapters, this one being a cyberpunk (the genre, not the game) story called 'Tales of Luminous City', the first chapter of which is now also free. And they're working on a third story, this one a space opera (at least from the prologue I've read. Might be wrong). You can find their stuff by searching for Grimm Tales in Pat A Ron. Unfortunately their updates might be a bit delayed seeing as their computer suddenly went kaput, making them lose all their stuff.

I would appreciate it a lot if you could help them out, as unlike me they've had employment trouble due to some disabilities, which this pandemic hasn't helped.

Second, my sister has also begun a Pat A Ron. She recently got her Bachelor's in Digital Animation. She's trying to make her own series to post on Youtube, but needs money, so she's making art and plans on accepting commissions. She primarily does tokusatsu themed fanart (Super Sentai, Kamen Rider, Power Rangers, etc.), and she plans to let people have a say in what she makes, much like I do. That's at Pat A Ron dotcom /linduarte. (Oh no, now you know my last name! The horror!)

Please keep in mind though that we've been made aware of a bug with the site that makes it seem like you can't donate less than $5. If you don't want to donate that much, to any of us, just put a zero before the number you want to donate, such as 03. That should get you going.

Thank you all for the support, even through the dry spells I've gone through. I promise to try to improve. Till next time!