The enthralling final chapter to most popular game series in Shin Megami Tensei history - coming to the PlayStation 7.358/2 Junetember 2035!

Munch Munch Munch

"Anybody seen the TV remote?"

"Nope."

Conversations like this had been few and far between the gang ever since they left Shibuya for the third time that year. They'd driven as long as they could the first few days of their renewed freedom and then, when alternating between Makoto's steady hand and Haru's erratic diversions, it officially dawned on them - that without a sufficient lot of money, they couldn't exactly be anywhere for too long.

They decided to camp out on the side of a dirt road after a short while, surviving off of meals that Ren Amamiya, the 'group leader', would cook them until they ran out of ingredients to eat anything nutritious. They settled on a simple means for sleeping, too, and agreed that the very next day they would set off back to Shibuya with their heads held at least a little high.

But the engine wouldn't start at Makoto's touch that fateful morning, nor Haru's either. This left the gang with a dilemma on how they were going to do anything stuck in the middle of nowhere. Yusuke, the best-dressed of the group, amid a self-portrait that he was titling 'Inari Gray', was promptly booted out with an empty petrol can and the last of the group's money - and, albeit with significant reservation, he began the long trek back for a gas station. He didn't make it back that evening and so they ate without him - Ryuji, the rebellious one of their lot, cursed his usual string of curses as he accidentally spilled some ketchup over his missing friend's painting.

There was blistering sun and cooling night, still winds and blistering rain in infrequent patches; but eventually their friend returned, his arm looking a little lower down his body and the other joining in as he carried the petrol can with both hands back to their RV - but, alone as he was when he left, he was most certainly gifted with company on the way back.

A police car was trailing him slowly from behind (why they hadn't offered Yusuke a lift back remained a hot topic for the next few days of their journey - another point to their 'Adults Suck' list. It transpired, the officer explained as the ever bubbly yet concerned Haru fled the vehicle to help Yusuke fill up the tank, that a passing vehicle had put in a complaint of some potential squatters in the middle of nowhere; and though they stated the facts of their journey, the officer merely shook his head, tutted, and sent them on their way - in the complete opposite direction to Shibuya. They tried to make a turn back at at least three occasions, but as long as they were being tailed out of the nowhere they were stuck on the path they were being lead on.

Eventually the police car had turned around and left them be, but that left further problems for them as they faced only straight roads the rest of the way through Japan. There was only so much beautiful scenery for them to enjoy whilst they argued over the fact that fuel was quickly running low once more.

"Did you not have enough to get a full can?" Morgana said - or perhaps meowed, to the untrained ear, for he was in fact a cat.

"I could have done, but I spent a little on something a traveller was selling nearby - some magic beans-"

It took Yusuke another two days to finally catch up with them when, once again, they had taken a reluctant pause in travel, this time driving off of the road just in time to plant their vehicle amid a large open space of greenery.

That, was then, of course, and this was now; indeed, now was exactly one month later.

…

Whoever first shunned Ryuji in the beginning, when they were planning what necessities they should bring and he had already gone and bought a disturbing lot of junk food and sodas, soon kept their mouth tightly shut as they finished their second packet of Beef Monster Munch for the day.

The Japanese heat poured through the partially shuttered windows of the RV and had done so for the last week, keeping the entire vehicle hot and stifling and so difficult to sleep within that most of the passengers either slept naked within or partially clothed somewhere nearby outside. Ryuji in particular was finding it hard sticking to one space; his knee injury from some years back was coming back to haunt him as his bones stiffened up. Ann, one of his old classmates, had ditched her fashionista appearance for simple workout gear and at a point where everyone was starting to feel low, gathered the gang to some forestry a small walk away and set up an improvised workout routine for them all.

It worked, for the first week - but as the gang found they could sleep peacefully less and less, the energy to work out lessened too. Not wanting to seem a wimp, however, or perhaps just to keep his outlook on the positive, Ryuji continued his sessions with Ann each morning until, soon enough, only the two of them continued it.

It was no surprise, then, that when a hot flush caught them off-guard one morning their sexual appetites would break into the workings out. Be it out of feverish lust, or severe boredom, but the look of sweat on each other's bodies, his lips to her neck, hers enveloping every frenzied inch of him - all of it came together as hard as they would whenever they found the opportunity to.

And they were sure the others knew damn well what had begun between them, but they certainly had their own issues to deal with.

…

Yusuke had been sent back out onto the road they'd trundled off, this time moving forward to find another petrol station, if one at all existed further ahead. He hadn't been back for some time - what would otherwise have been a concerning length of time to go searching for anything - but after the magic beans debacle few of his friends were close to forgiving him. That, and the driving heat of the countryside, had scrambled their concerns for many things.

It seemed, though, as if Morgana had disappeared not long thereafter - a combination of catching Ann and Ryuji out one morning, to hearing a disgruntled Futaba consider the nutritional value of cooked cat.

…

And speaking of their computer geek - Futaba would be found most days in the top bunk inside the RV.

A shutaway for most of her life, the shortest of the group spent a lot of time before a computer screen - and the month was no different, though she was found to be at some fault for the RV's battery dying down faster than it would have normally, owing to her running out of juice for her portable laptop.

Somehow the laptop continued to operate, although she knew it would soon give way and, then, what would she possibly do with her time? Her life, she mused frequently. The glare of the screen, however, and a hefty portion of the warm sodas were the only things keeping her sane whilst the world was slowly dying down around her - that, and after the loss of their sentient pet mascot, the only mild distraction she had from the RV rocking under the weight of Ren and Makoto's bodies on the roof of the RV.

Ryuji and Ann had been expected, she thought, having shipped them well before now - but the group leader and the edgy chick? That ruptured something a little within her. Anger? Jealousy? Some days she could hardly choose between the two, wanting to tune out from the thoughts of a guy she admittedly was quite fond of herself, having relations with one of their friends in close proximity, or falling to the temptation of submitting to self-pleasure at the thought of just how close they were.

She growled, throwing another empty soda bottle aside and nearly hitting Ryuji in the head as he sat topless, breathless, in a slump on the floor, Ann fanning herself in the driver's seat, looking once more for the television remote.

…

On the days when Makoto wasn't enticing their bespectacled leader with a wristjob and a smile, she was dressed in the lesser of her leathers and walking through some of the deeper areas of the forestry with Haru who, though remaining an eerily positive demeanor, was clearly taking out some of her despair for their situation on some of the thinner trees, the axe that she had packed for emergencies slicing through the wood with unspeakable ease.

Together they gathered fuel for campfires and, though it pained them both equally, had even attracted some of the tastier looking wildlife into traps before humanely leading them to their execution and the spit.

Makoto was losing her mind a little being cooped up in the RV, and looking back through the trees she could see a silhouette through the dying sunlight - Ren, her friend and now frequenting lover, sat splayed fully into a deckchair, his shirt open and flapping in some gentle breeze from somewhere beyond. Truthfully, he had been there for a while, simply sitting up there and gathering up a sickly redness to his skin as the sun burned into him - Makoto wondered whether it was his way of keeping sane, but he was always so quiet with them that it was difficult to tell. For all she knew, it could simply have been his way of enticing someone up to coat him in sunscreen, only for him to attend upon them similarly...

A scream echoed through the forest, and Makoto returned to the real world, jolting across to Haru to cradle her once more as she broke down in her arms.

…

"I have to say, you all look like shit."

No-one questioned why it took Yusuke just over a month to return to them. No-one had the energy to ask how he kept an air of civility about himself, despite the roughed-up clothing and the new, full facial fuzz - but at the sight of an old friend of theirs from Shibuya, they couldn't really care.

"Can you get us home, Papa Sojiro?"

Sojiro ran a hand across his balding scalp, regarding Futaba's words and wincing as he looked over the RV. "I could fit some of you in my car, but I think I'm going to have to tow the rest of you. Did you bring any rope?"

Everyone looked to Yusuke. He sighed. "I'll start walking."

…

Eventually, through Sojiro's help and as he had advised, the RV returned attached to the back of Sojiro's car.

Futaba sat shotgun, with Ren in the back sandwiched by Makoto and Haru, a hesitantly happy Morgana returned to his lap, purring as he settled his sore feet through napping. Meanwhile, Ryuji and Ann were relegated to the RV - an uncomfortable ride at best, but it seemed they wouldn't be making much use of the vehicle upon their return home, so they took what opportunity they had to enjoy the ride a little more...intimately.

Unbeknownst to Sojiro, and despite the young man's assistance at the end, Yusuke once again found himself trailing along by foot - until the police officer that had found them so long before picked him up and escorted him back to Shibuya, at the small cost of two-million yen for wasting the man's time and causing him to drive so far out of his territory.

And they all agreed, battered and bruised, plates of curry, copious cups of coffee and several editions of Fast 800 Diet books littering the dining tables before them, that maybe they would just be sensible and settle the hell up in Shibuya.

Cue Credits!