Her name was Amagi Yukiko. Her parents were the owner of the famous Amagi Inn. She was the only daughter, and no doubt she was the only heir.

Honestly, she hated this idea before. But together with Yu, she understood that she couldn't escape from the fact and her feelings, and at the end, she's willing to take the role.

Watching Narukami Yu walk into the classroom, she smiled.

He never changed, that's for certain. He was kind and gentle, so kind that he would believe in Adachi instead of her. Maybe she wasn't that important to Yu - not as important as Adachi - so that he didn't want to believe the man's betrayal. This made her feel sour in her heart. She knew he was the type of person that valued each relationship, still it didn't wave off her jealousy. He must have struggled a lot when she revealed the truth to him.

No matter how, Adachi was dead now. There's no way he could harm Yu.

However, the Midnight Channel was still there, she had no other choice but to take the role of the culprit. If Yu and the rest didn't awaken the power of Persona, they wouldn't be able to chase after the one behind everything.

She had killed Adachi twice. It wouldn't change the fact even if she refused to take the role. She didn't have to do it by herself. All she needed to do was manipulate Namatame, like what Adachi did in the previous cycles.

Without any help - or rather, no one could help her - she had to be very careful. Being a fiend and comrade at the same time, she had to be very focused. She ignored the guilt in the deep of her heart, and decided to go on with the plan.

She must be the worst comrade they had ever had.

It wasn't the time she should be desperate. Before manipulating Namatame, she had to take care of Konishi Saki. Since Adachi was dead, she might have to do it by herself.

With this idea struck her head, she felt her hands were trembling. She held both of her hands together, pressing them on her chest. Yeah...she had to hang in here. She couldn't lose here. Although she knew Konishi Saki was someone dear to Yosuke, she still had to do this. Without her death, Yu and Yosuke wouldn't awaken as Persona User.

Holding the tears, although she felt extremely bad for Yosuke, she reminded herself that she had to do this. Oh wait...maybe, maybe she could manipulate Namatame to do this on her? Even if that didn't erase or reduce her guilt, she could cheat herself from this point. Having this in her mind, she exhaled, going to start her plan.

First, she got the phone number of the delivery service, knowing that Namatame would be working for his family. After a few tries, she managed to contact Namatame. To avoid being found out, she had learned to imitate boy's voice and talking, and everything went smoothly as she planned. Namatame was so focused on 'saving' people, he didn't seem to doubt her suggestion at all.

And so, Namatame started his first 'saving people' job by throwing Konishi Saki into the TV, instead of Amagi Yukiko being the first victim of him. Watching the girl struggle inside the TV, she shut her eyes. This was too saddening. She wondered what Yosuke was thinking when he saw this.

There's no turning back. From the moment she killed Adachi, she had no turning back. No matter how worse it would be, she could only move on with sins and guilt.

While busy with the inn, Yukiko also took note of Yu and Yosuke's action. After Konishi Saki died, Yu and Yosuke went into the TV to investigate the TV World. The two awakened the power of Persona through a difficult battle with Yosuke facing his other self.

She sighed in relief, knowing the two were safe and sound at the end. She knew, whenever Yu was around, nothing could have gone wrong. Now, the problem was Chie. Supposedly, she was the next victim, and Chie would awaken her Persona during the process in saving her. If she was not involved in the matter, how was Chie going to awaken her Persona?

For this, she came up with a plan, a plan that she had to force herself to accept it. Honestly, she hesitated for some time whether or not she should put it into action. She felt that she was heartless if this plan was really going on, but she kept convincing herself that she had to do this.

She had left no choice. In truth, from the moment she killed Adachi, there's no option left for her.

Enduring the bitterness in her heart, she braced up to accept the plan. With the plan going on, she intentionally injured herself so she wouldn't show up in the interview. Her mother took her place instead, and with her mother becoming the target, she had enough reason to work along with Yu and Yosuke. She knew Chie wouldn't let her go alone, so she could drag Chie along too.

It was a perfect plan, yet her heart was screaming. She would wake up at midnight, crying all of the sudden. The emotion and guilt struck her deeply, driving her to the limit. How much her mother would suffer in the TV world? Whenever she thought about this, she couldn't stop herself from crying. For a moment, she cursed her unknown repeated fate.

Seeing through her worries, Yu also hurried up his pace to clear the dungeon as soon as they could. During a battle, she was too careless to be knocked down by a Shadow, almost getting herself killed. In order to save her, Chie took the blow for her. Although it wasn't a severe injury, it made Yukiko feel bad for Chie.

Chie was deeply worried about her, she knew it. During half of the exploration, Chie faced her own shadow and awakened her Persona Tomoe. It was good news to Yukiko. Honestly, she started to worry about what she could do to awaken Chie's power, now she didn't have to worry about it. Her only concern was her mother. While she just summoned her Persona, lying she had no idea how she obtained her Persona. It convinced the others since Yu summoned his Persona without facing his true self, maybe some of the people were an exception.

Inwardly, Yukiko felt glad and regretful at the same time, to lie and to be able to convince her friends.

With Yu, Yosuke, Chie and Teddie's help, they came to the top of the Amagi Inn. Her mother laid on the ground tiredly, face paled like a sheet of paper. Immediately, Yukiko felt part of her heart melted in guilt and regret, tears rolled down without the way she could control.

She was a worthless daughter to put her mother into this terrible condition. She was the one supposed to suffer through this, not her mother. She let her mother take her place because of the plan she made.

"Mother!"

She rushed over to her mother, tears unstoppable. It was her fault that her mother was under such a terrible condition.

"Yukiko...?" Her mother half opened her eyes, smiling when she saw her beloved daughter.

"I-I'm here, mother! You're safe now!"

Yes, it was her fault that her mother turned to be the victim. It was now her responsibility to keep her mother safe. This was what she could do to reduce her sins.

"Teddie, do you sense any Shadow nearby?" Yu asked while checking the surroundings. Aside from Yukiko's mother, he didn't see anyone. Not her Shadow, too.

"No...I don't sense any Shadow nearby, sensei." Teddie sniffed around, said with a soft sigh.

"I'm glad we made it on time." Chie comforted her.

Her mother fell unconscious again after seeing her beloved daughter. Yukiko carried her mother out from the TV World with the help of Chie and Yu.

Apparently, her mother was just mentally exhausted, but no injury was found. Some rest should help her to recover in a few days. Seeing her mother was safe and sound, without being harmed by the Shadow, Yukiko cried in relief.

If anything happened to her mother, she would probably kill herself to start another cycle.

But...why her mother's other self didn't show up? She was prepared to fight her mother's Shadow, but of course, it was best that she could avoid the fight. She just somehow wondered...why her mother's Shadow didn't appear before them?

Yu and the others seemed to have the same question as well. Teddie had completely no idea about this condition.

Deep down in her heart, she thought perhaps her mother was old enough to go past and see through many things, and wasn't as persistent as the young people like her. Her mother was an open-minded person. This good nature of her could be the key that they didn't meet her Shadow in TV World.

Anyways, it was enough as long as her mother was safe without being hurt. She couldn't ask more.

With Chie awakened to her Persona, she could just leave the rest to Namatame. He had done a good job in the first cycle, successfully cheating them to think that he was the true culprit. If Yu hadn't remained his calm, they could have thrown him into the TV. Well, it didn't matter now, because she already knew the true culprit and more mysteries behind everything.

And next just as expected, Tatsumi Kanji was kidnapped. This once again proved Namatame did a great job in concealing himself and throwing people into the TV. The only difference was the shocked face of everyone when Kanji dealt with his Shadow.

Unlike the Amagi Inn in TV World, they saved her mother without going through a fight. But here in Kanji's dungeon, they witnessed the confrontation of Kanji and Shadow Kanji.

Unlike previous cycles, this was the first time the group came to see this. Yu and the others were confused at first, but soon they realized something was not right.

The real Kanji and the Shadow Kanji were arguing about their true selves. Shadow Kanji insisted that he was Kanji's true self, while Kanji kept denying it. At the end, when Kanji shouted: You are not me!, and everything started to turn fierce.

She was ready for this, as she knew what would happen next. With her help, Yu and the others managed to overcome it and knocked Shadow Kanji out. At last, Kanji faced his true self to materialize his Shadow to Persona.

At least, it worked smoothly. She guessed she could have plenty of rest until Namatame was caught. But...it would put Nanako into danger. It was a pain to see the little girl struggling to live, and thinking how Yu grieved over the little girl's pain, Yukiko felt a moment of difficulty in breathing.

Biting her bottom lip, she let out a trembling sigh, trying to push the little hesitation to the back of her head.

She was unforgivable when she made the decision to frame her mother, so it made no difference to her if she just let the little girl suffer through this.

Nanako would be fine at the end...although there was a tough path she had to go through first.

Nanako was a tough girl. She believed the little girl could make it through. Once again, she reassured herself for not worrying too much. She's been going through Nanako's kidnapping many times since the cycle repeated. She shouldn't feel it this way again.