Disclaimer: I do not own Persona or Fate Stay Night, any resemblance to any other Persona 4/Fate Stay Night fan fiction is coincidental and plagiarism is not intended. No flames please constructive criticism only.

AN: Holy crap this has got to be the longest chapter I have ever written ever. Also if no one got it, Morooka was the Church Agent. If you're wondering how Kubo killed him, well not everyone who works for the Church can be a badass. Sorry if you don't like that but that's the way it is.

[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]

[07/27 July, TV World]

On Tuesday night the team had watched the Midnight Channel, and as expected the suspected killer, whom they knew as the strange boy called Mitsuo Kubo had appeared taunting them to come and get him. Rise was staring deeply into Tamamo's mirror using it to try and divine his location.

"Rise, did you find him yet?" Yu asked.

"Yeah…He's that way." Rise said pointing to a path that leads east from the exit.

"Wow, Rise-chan! Your sniffer is better than mine!"

"Dude, you're not due to work as Mascot. Why the hell are in you in costume?"

"I told you it's bearcause I'm more comfortable wearing my fur over here!" Teddie yelled at Yosuke. "I swear you are one stupid bear!"

"All right, Geez!"

"All right…let's get going," Yu said cutting across everyone.

"Yeah lets do this."

"Hey dude, you looked out it for a few seconds there whats up?" Yosuke asked.

"I was thinking about a story I heard." Yu replied with a shrug.

Yosuke seemed to accept the answer and it was technically true, he had been thinking about a story, as he'd been telling it to Margaret.

[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]

After stepping into the Velvet Room once more taking a moment as Rise searched for Mitsuo Kubo using the mirror, Yu noticed that the room was empty once again and Margret was by herself.

"Hello again." Margret greeted Yu with a thoughtful look on her face. "I have been pondering about the bonds between family, according to some they are supposed to be some of the strongest, but those bonds can lead to some of greatest tragedies which bring great sorrow to many. That being the case are the bonds of family strong or are they just like any other bond?"

Yu sat for a few moments in silence, truthfully his own relationship with his parents had been tense ever since they gotten rid of Alice. Though they were ignorant of his reasons for not being pleased with them he'd made them assume it was because they always moved around so much.

"Let me tell you story that involves the bonds between family. Long ago a girl was born in Antium known in modern times as Anzio and Nettuno on the fifteenth of December in thirty-seven AD, her name was Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus and she would become infamous as a tyrant..."

[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]

The team eventually found itself in front of a pixelated castle that seemed to be like a 16-bit style video game from the late eighties. There was a sign that said above the entrance that said "Void Quest" and a retro game melody played like background music. Below the title sign was another that read New Game/Load/Option

"What is this?" Yukiko asked "A Game?"

"He did say 'Catch me if you can' so he might see this thing as a lame ass game," Kanji said.

"OHHH, now I'm pissed! I sentence him to a kick in the face!" Chie growled extending her foot in a kicking motion.

"We should not underestimate him." Diarmuid warned.

"Indeed." Gawain said agreeing with the other knight. "These dungeons are often reminiscent of the mental state of the person in question, If this boy is no longer able to discern fiction from reality we could be in trouble, the shadows have been getting stronger and more numerous even as your prana reserves have grown."

"Danger is half the fun of these dungeons, no adventure would be worth going on without some danger." Drake commented with an excited smirk "I wonder if we could plunder some treasure while we're there."

"When we saw him on the Midnight Channel, behind that childish exterior there was definitely a threat of death. He is no assassin but he has definitely killed, I can sense it." Li Shuwen stated.

They went into the game and it was modelled like a castle, as the team walked through it whole place looked like a retro video game, everything was pixelated even the doors. As they advanced a few text boxes even popped up occasionally.

"I know the creep from the midnight channel is in here…" Chie growled.

None of them seemed noticed the dice shadows that were appearing from out of the walls behind them.

"You wanna mumble a challenge to me again? With those beady little fish eyes you got? Come on I dare ya!" Kanji demanded, Hercules letting out a roar of challenge along with him.

As the moved forward a text box suddenly popped up into their vision.

"What the hell is this?" Kanji asked.

Inside the text box was written two options.

Begin a new Quest

End your Quest

A cursor selected the first option, as they continued walking the box closed itself but another quickly took its place.

Please enter your name:
Mitsuo

The name of the person they were after wrote itself inside the text box without any input from them.

"All geeks love little game time…" Yosuke said.

"And all girls love Teddie!" Teddie said. "INSTALL"

Snatching his card out of the air a red magic circle formed under Teddie and released a burst of prana which engulfed his form. When the smoke cleared they saw that the bear costume vanished and now he was in his human form, but his skin was slightly darker and the curse-tattoos from Avenger covered his body, the sword breakers Tawrich and Zarich where in each hand both looked like the claws of a wild animal.

"I always wanted to do that! How'd I look wasn't I awesome?" Teddie asked before being tackled from behind by a dice shadow causing him to fall to the ground and the team to sweatdrop.

"Hey!" Teddie growled getting up and pointing Tawrich at the shadow "Attacking someone from bearhind is a cowardly thing to do! Take this!"

Teddie attacked clawing the shadow apart but was caught off guard when another one

"Do you think Teddie will be fine by himself?" Yu said.

"He'll be fine," Rise said.

"Hey…" Yukiko said began. "Chie and I were talking about it and about what you said at Aiya's do you think this guys is a fake?"

"The suspect is a male high school student" Yu said with a nagging feeling of doubt in the back of his mind. "The police caught onto him after he turned himself in for killing King Moron and apparently the other two as well."

"He's approached Yukiko twice now, each time he was standing at the school gates waiting for her." Chie said.

"He poked his head into my grandma's shop once and started talking, he went on and on about the biker gangs and how they're all toothless unless they've got their whole gang behind them." Rise put in.

"GRRR I WAS NEVER IN A BIKER GANG" Kanji growled

"Take this! And this! And that!" Teddie yelled as he clawed apart some of the dice while other simply self-destructed as soon as he got close.

"If he's the real deal then we'll soon find out." Yosuke said.

"Even if he is the real killer we still don't know what his motives are or why targeted people who showed up on the TV" Yukiko pointed out.

"We'll find out the truth when we locate him, it should be easier than you think to tell if he's real killer or not." Yu said

Teddie growled and charged at the dice to attack himself only for the start exploding and blasting him to one another only to explode and send him to another dice, much like a beachball.

"Alright then let's go find this loser and grill his ass" Chie said clenching her fist.

"Yeah…" Yukiko said.

Feeling pumped everybody installed their Persona's. Yosuke got a slight nosebleed at the amount of cleavage Yukiko was showing, and Kanji had brought a spare shirt due to his regular shirt vanishing when he installed Hercules. Yu decided to Install Nero, he was now wearing a high-class elegant crimson-white garment, like something a noble of old would wear. It had no without buttons for the upper part, somehow showing a lot of his toned chest without falling off, much to Rise's delight also causing Chie and Yukiko to go red.

Upon locating the stairs and going to the second floor another Text box popped up, this time with someone speaking.

How dare you stand against me for being a rotten orange! I'll make a worthless human like you taste endless pain! Take this!

Critical hit! Punishing hit! Mitsuo has been knocked down...

"You know it's becoming pretty obvious that this Kubo kid is more than just 'insane', but 'broken' in a pretty dark way." Angra Mainyu said with a creepy smile on his face causing the others to shudder.

[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]

As expected the team met resistance in the form of shadows as the advanced through the various floors, and as was the pattern the shadows in this dungeon were even more powerful than the ones in the previous dungeons.

At first the shadows started off easy, large groups of lustful snakes which Kanji and Chie easily dispatched with their fists.

However as the team went up floor by floor they were swarmed by even more powerful shadows. Including strangely a large group of rare golden Shadows called Supreme Hand. All of which tried to overrun the group by summoning Platinum Dice shadows, but thankfully Drake was quick enough to obliterate them and the Supreme Hands, which didn't become wisps of smoke when they died like other shadows instead their bodies turned into piles of golden coins.

"See I told you this would be worth it!" Drake exclaimed materialising herself and rushing up to the piles of coins. She grabbed a handful and held them allowing them to slip through her fingers.

"Dude, is that real gold?" Yosuke asked breathlessly as the others all gasped at the sight.

Drake looked at one of the coins in her hand and seemed or weigh it for a second before putting it in her mouth and biting down on it, when she took the coin out of her mouth she inspected it thoroughly much like a detective would look at the piece of evidence.

"It's real!" She announced her eyes lighting up with glee.

"How much do this is all worth?" Kanji wondered.

"Let's see seven piles, Yosuke can split his share with Teddie…" Rise mumbled ignoring Yosuke's indignant 'Hey!' "Enough that if we fenced it all and put the money together we could buy our own private island still have enough left over to build a summer mansion on it with all the luxuries we could ever want."

"Man this is our lucky day!" Chie chuckled with glee.

"How are you so good at valuation Rise?" Yukiko asked.

"I got sent lots of presents from fans hoping to score a date with the idol Risette." Rise explained "Some of the things I got which looked homemade I tended to keep but the other stuff that I could tell was bought in a store I sold, I learnt the value of precious metals so that I knew I was going to get stiffed on the price."

"So how are we gonna carry all this?" Kanji asked.

"Rise can you?" Yu motioned towards the gold with his head.

"Sure." Rise replied grabbed her mirror and aiming it at the gold, a white light shone from the mirror and suddenly it began sucking up all the golden coins into itself like a vacuum cleaner, within moments all the coins were cleaned up. "This thing has a handy little storage space, I have some contacts who can fence this stuff for us at a good price, gold is pretty valuable these days."

"Our luck is getting better!" Yosuke cried jumping up with joy.

"Don't jinx it, man." Kanji said with a sigh, he knew that Yosuke was going to jinx them.

Eventually the group found themselves on the confusing seventh level, which had crossroads that lead in opposite directions both of which were seemingly dead ends. When they touched one of the walls of dead ends the team found themselves teleported to another crossroads.

Eventually they found themselves all rounded a corner with the tank like shadows hot on their tails and saw a door. Going inside they found a large room with a big chest near the back. However just as they took a step forward a pair of black hand shaped shadows appeared.

"What the hell is with these two?" Yosuke asked.

"Killing hands." Rise replied looking into her mirror. "They're strong, really durable and-"

Both hands suddenly shot at Yosuke, one held him in the air by Gae Dearg while the other made itself into a fist and punched the boy in the crotch.

"…fast." Rise deadpanned as the shadows dropped Yosuke as the boys winced.

"Why…..why does everybody go for my balls?" He groaned grasping his crown jewels painfully.

"You wanna piece me? Bring it on!" Kanji growled gripping his axe-sword tight as one of the shadows clenched into a fist and seemed to imitate a boxer hopping around an invisible ring while the other darted away into the shadows of the room.

"Hey where did the other one go?" Chi cried looking around for any sign of the second one while Kanji tried hitting the Killing Hand in front of him.

"Damn it, it's running all over the place." Rise whined "It's moving from the walls to the ceiling and to other walls again, it won't stay….wait it stopped?"

"Where is it?" Yu asked her.

"It's…..Kanji behind you!" Rise called out to the other boy in warning, however it came too late as the other shadow now in the shape of a fist charged Kanji dodging shots from Yukiko and even briefly giving her 'the finger' before becoming a fist again as it slammed into his back breaking his guard. The other Hand quickly capitalised on this and punched Kanji across the face, the other hand joined and both rapidly punched Kanji making him dizzier and dizzier.

"Hang on Kanji I'm comi-AGH!" Teddie was cut off as one of the Killing Hands made itself into a fist again and slammed into Kanji sending him crashing into Teddie and ploughing both of them into a wall.

"Kanji, Teddie!" Chie cried out.

"Are you two ok?" Yukiko asked worriedly

"Do…we look ok?" Kanji snapped as he fell out of the wall with Teddie falling on top of him.

"My head is spinning." Teddie groaned unable to stand.

"Jeez, no need to be a jerk about it Moronji." Rise sighed before looking at the shadows again who were now before Chie and Yukiko….making a rather lewd gesture.

"Er…..what are they doing?" Chie asked the gesture lost on her. "What?" Chie asked as Yukiko blushed, while Rise gave her a raised eyebrow "What am I missing?"

Chie turned red as a tomato as Yukiko whispered the gesture's meaning to the meat lover.

"Alright you're in for it now!" Chie yelled furiously charging at one of the shadows.

The other Hand stopped as a shot glanced it, causing it to face Yukiko.

"I think it's time for you to disappear now." Yukiko said shooting at it again.

Yu, Rise and the now recovered Yosuke sweat dropped at the scene which was quite comical. The Killing Hands kept dancing around the room dodging the majority of the attacks aimed for them, that's not to say the girls missed entirely they did land some blows but most of them were small glancing blows.

"This is ridiculous." Drake sighed.

"Indeed, my student had let her anger take control." Li Shuwen sighed apparently disappointed in the cartoonish scene, the two girls were attacking the shadows which weaved and danced around them all while occasionally taunting them by giving them 'the finger'.

"It's hard for anyone to shoot straight while angry." Drake shook her head.

"Yosuke I have a plan." Yu told the other boy after taking time to examine the scene. "I'm going to get them to overlap when they do, nail them in place with your spears and I'll finish them off."

"On it."

"Chie attack its left side; Yukiko shoot it's right!" Yu yelled orders at the girls.

The two broke out of their anger enough to follow the commands and as expected the shadows dashed away, the moment they overlapped Yosuke saw his chance and tossed Gae Buidhe and Gae Dearg each spear nailing a finger of both shadows holding them firmly in place.

Now with both wide open Yu inhaled then exhaled charging prana into Aestus Estus. He moved the sword in a circular motion, becoming engulfed in flames as the motion completed.

"Fax Caelestis!" Yu charged slashing both shadows in one swift motion.

Flames erupted from the wound incinerating both hand shadows, leaving only the two spears which held them in place.

"Not bad Praetor, but not perfect you need to add more flair to it add showmanship to it." Nero chided him.

As Yosuke went to recover his spears there was a loud clunking sound got everyone's attention, Kanji now having recovered went to the chest which was the source and saw that the lock had opened up on it. He opened it up and reached inside pulling out a strange black sphere.

"The hell is this thing?"

"It's probably something important later on" Yosuke said "if this place is based on a game then we might need to open a door or something."

"Alright I'll keep it safe then" Kanji said pocketing the orb.

"So what now?" Chie asked

"Let's take a break in here for a while" Yu said "Then when we're rested up we'll keep going."

Everyone let out a sigh of relief and sat down to rest.

[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]

Eventually the team finished their break and got to the tenth level and a pair of double doors presented themselves up ahead. A red Warning! text flashed and buzzed at the doors. Yu presented the orb they received the doors began opening up.

"W-WHO ARE YOU!" a familiar voice demanded.

"Who am I? I am nothing, and you are me" a voice that sounded emotionally detached said.

"SHUT UP, IT WAS ME I DID IT, WHADDYA SAY TO THAT?"

"That guy sounds like the guy from the Midnight Channel doesn't he?" Chie pointed out

"I feel nothing." the emotionless voice replied.

"Hey look up ahead" Rise pointed through the doors that which had now fully opened.

"No even suspected I did it! That's why I had to kill the third one then they noticed me."

Yu and the team all ran inside and saw that they were in a strange pixelated arena type area.

"I fucking killed him!" Mitsuo yelled with a tone of desperation.

Yu noted that Mitsuo was desperate to convince his counterpart, clearly his shadow and most likely himself that he killed his victims, which didn't make much sense, it raised more questions than answers.

The other Kubo was sitting in front of an old-style TV, playing a video game on a console of some sort. As they entered the place they were in looked kind of like an arena or coliseum.

"I don't care what some poser like you has to say…just get out of my sight!" Mitsuo roared angrily.

"You still won't accept me will you?" The other Mitsuo said an orange aura gathering around it "I am a shadow come to me. I shall put an end to your emptiness…"

"Damn it, this was bound to happen…" Yosuke sighed disappointed, but unsurprised.

[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]

[07/27 July, Junes Food Court, Inaba]

"Listen up, everybody! I want to go to Yuki's Inn!" Teddie said. "Parties! Hot Springs! Yukatas! Geishas! Mt. Fuji! FUN FUN FUN!"

Everyone sweat dropped at Teddie's declaration, they had all gathered at the Junes Food Court after solving the case.

"Yes it does sound like fun, but maybe another time…" Yukiko said sounding uncomfortable

"Its tourist season being summer and all," Chie said.

"So it's a no then…?" Teddie asked sadly.

"Maybe later…" Yukiko said patting Teddie on the head.

"Let's go to Narukami's place instead" Yosuke suggested.

"That sounds perfect" Rise cooed. "I'd love to see your place."

"We can let Nanako in on the fun too" Yosuke proposed.

"Yeah, she'd like that" Yu replied with a smile

"Let's take it one step further and cook her up a big feast" Yukiko suggested.

"Nice!" Kanji apparently liked the idea. "Does that mean that you're really good cooks?" He asked Yukiko and Chie.

"Yeah of course we are?" Both girls replied, sweat dropping and smiling nervously.

"Have you two SERIOUSLY forgotten about the whole school camping fiasco?" Yosuke gave them both hard stare.

"Hey! I'm pretty good cook too you know!" Rise said. "What do you say I cook something special up for you?"

"Can you cook better than I do?" Yu asked the Idol with a challenging smile.

"Genius!" Teddie exclaimed loudly "I just thought of a beary good idea! Whaddya say we do a rice omelette cook off with everyone?"

[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]

[07/27 July, Junes Grocery Department, Dojima Residence, Inaba]

"Is that foie gras?!" Yosuke asked surprised at what Rise had in her hand.

"If you want to make a truly special rice omelette the foie gras is essential." Rise replied.

"That would be special…" Yu stated.

"I have a bad feeling about this…" Yosuke whispered.

"Ok so this cook off will just be between you the three girls?" Kanji asked

"Yeah" Yu confirmed "And Nanako will be the judge"

"Since we all know that I'm going to win, this contest is just for show right?" Rise asked smugly

"Enjoy being smug while you can because you're about to go down" Chie growled clenching her fist.

"I'll finish you in one blow" Yukiko said drawing her thumb across her throat in a cut throat motion.

"Whoa this is going to get pretty intense" Kanji chuckled "I see some serious sparks flying over there."

[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]

Later on at the Dojima residence Chie, Rise and Yu had finished cooking their omelettes for some reason Yukiko was not present.

"Hey where is Yukiko?" Yosuke asked curiously.

"She's not here; apparently her family needed her to help out at the inn, so she had to run home." Chie explained.

"Aw man for real?" Yosuke sighed dejectedly.

"Maybe we should celebrate closing the case later then," Yu suggested.

"Yeah that'd be best," Kanji said.

"So does mean the cook off is cancelled too?" Yosuke asked.

"Aw I was looking forward to bonding with everyone too," Teddie sighed.

"Wait…Where did all these rice omelettes come from then?" Kanji asked pointing out the rice omelettes that were on the coffee table.

"Yu made every single one of them!" Rise smiled.

"That's sensei for ya!" Teddie said, in awe.

"Can we start eating them now big bro?" Nanako asked.

"Yeah, dig in before it gets too cold," Yu said.

"Well, then enough of this silly chit chat…" Chie grinned picking up her spoon.

"Let's dig In!" everyone said in unison.

They all started eating.

"This is good!" Nanako said.

"Yeah, it's beary good!" Teddie agreed.

"Ennhh…It's about average," Kanji said, a little downcast.

"Yeah, it does taste average…" Chie commented.

"Dude you've got some seriously mad skills" Yosuke said.

"You cool with this?" Rise asked. "Senpai, this is just average, so the party's not picking up like it should…"

"I put wasabi in one of them…" Yu stated hoping to get everyone to liven up.

Everyone gasped and looked at him as if he had just confessed to the killings.

"So it's like Russian roulette with Rice Omelettes?!" Chie said nervously.

"Jeez, Partner! What would you do if Nanako got the one with Wasabi in it?!" Yosuke said.

"I was okay!" Nanako said happily.

"Okay…raise your hand if you got the spicy one!" Kanji asked.

No one raised their hand.

"Huh…Guess no one noticed…" Yu said.

"Ehhh, this party just doesn't have its zing…" Yosuke said, uncomfortably.

They finished their omelettes and then drank sodas.

"We may have had to postpone the celebration party, but I'm still stoked we did it…" Yosuke said.

"Yeah… we caught the culprit…" Yu said.

"We've been through so much it'll be kind of nice to go back to our normal routine …" Chie said.

"I just want to get that icky stuff out of my mind…" Rise said.

"We're all going to be going our separate ways…" Teddie said.

"I guess the group's breaking up" Kanji sighed.

"No," Yu said suddenly. "Let's keep meeting up."

"Yeah good plan" Yosuke said.

"Yeah, fantastic!" Chie agreed

They all laughed.

[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]

[08/28, Junes Food Court]

One month later the team were all having lunch in the food court when the discussion had turned to the topic of the murders.

"So hey, anything new going on with the case?" Kanji asked

"I haven't heard anything since they caught that Kubo kid" Yu replied.

"No one mentions it anymore, It's like everyone's forgotten about it even happened" Rise remarked.

"I'm so sorry…I know that the celebration party keeps getting postponed because of me…" Yukiko said apologetically

"It's okay it's not your fault." Chie said reassuringly to Yukiko. "Everybody's got stuff on their plate."

"Yeah. I'm swamped with my part time job"

"Oh jeeze, I really should get going now… see you later ok" Yukiko sighed as she read a message on her phone.

"See ya!" Yosuke and Chie said.

"Her inn must be busy…" Yu observed.

"I'm glad things are back to normal," Kanji said.

"Aw man…" Chie looked upward and stretching her arms behind her head. "Summer vacation's almost over and we never planned for anyplace cool to go."

"Yeah…that's too bad…" Yu said.

"Hey why don't we all get together and go the beach next year! Whaddya say Yu?" Chie asked cheerfully..

"Won't work Chie…" Yosuke hissed.

Chie was confused, and then she realized her mistake.

"Oh yeah I forgot" She said.

"Yu won't be here…You're won't be here next year…" Rise said, dejectedly.

"Yeah…" Yu sighed feeling depressed at being reminded of that.

"So what about summer homework?" Chie asked laughing nervously and trying to change the subject "Have any of you guys done that yet?"

The group seemed to lighten up at the change of subject except for Yu who had a bad feeling.

[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]

[9/24 Marukyu Tofu, Inaba]

Due to lack of business our store will be closing down. Thank You for all your years of support. Sincerely, Marukyu Tofu, The sign said.

"Wow Partner, guess the rumours were true then…" Yosuke said. "Did Rise say anything to you about this?"

"No…"Yu said, softly pounding his fist once on the door. "No answer…"

Yu opened his phone. "Rise hadn't shown up for our group meetings lately so I wondered if something was up."

Yu tried dialling Rise's number.

"The number you have dialled is no longer in service…" the automated operator replied.

"Girls don't make any sense…I can't believe she'd take off without telling us anything" Yosuke said.

"I'm sure she had her reasons…" Yu replied.

"No…it just goes to show that the only ones who thought we were friends was us."

Yu gasped at that, as it sent a chill down his spine.

"Let's go…" Yosuke said.

[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]

[10/4, Aiya's Chinese Restaurant, Inaba]

"We keep meetin' over those murders, but there's nothing to talk about," Kanji complained to Naoki.

"Really?" Naoki said.

"Yeah, and it's a hassle tryin' to stay nice all the time about it…" Kanji replied.

Yu had been walking by on the street and was about to open the door when he heard what Kanji had said.

"Seriously…you two sound like an old couple who's gotten bored with each other…" Naoki remarked.

Kanji spat out his food in disbelief. "Look ya douche! I was asking for some serious advice not a smart ass response."

"Sorry, Kanji! My bad…" Naoki said with an uneasy laugh.

Another wave of sorrow overcame Yu as he kept walking.

[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]

[10/13,Yasogami High, Inaba]

"Hey…There they are…" Yosuke said, looking into the library.

Yu saw at a table was Kou, Daisuke, Yukiko, and Chie.

"What are they doing?" Yu asked.

"Studying for exams…" Yosuke started to enter. "Hey let's ask Yukiko if we borrow the notes she took in class?"

"…..well"

"Is something wrong?"

"No…I'm fine," Yu lied

"well whatever dude."

[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]

Later on at home, Yu and Nanako were eating dinner. Dojima was at work and the two cousins were watching the TV.

"Big bro…?" Nanako asked.

"Yes…?" Yu said politely.

"No one comes around anymore…Wouldn't it be nice if everyone came around to play?"

Yu slightly gasped at hearing what she had said.

[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]

[10/18, Junes Food Court]

Yu was at the food court looking at messages on his phone. He checked one from Chie.

Sorry Yu, but I'll pass on today's meeting. Yukiko said she can't make it either.

"Of course not…" Yu grumbled, putting away his cell.

"No one's coming today?" Yosuke asked, Yu saw that he was wearing his Junes apron.

"No," Yu replied.

"Sorry man. I gotta work…" Yosuke said.

"What about Teddie?" Yu asked suddenly. "Don't you want to go back there and see?"

"You mean in the TV? Nah not me I'm done with that. I've got some seriously bigger fish to fry dude. I gotta start thinking about college and stuff. So what are you going to do about entrance exams?" Yosuke asked

"I don't know yet." Yu replied.

"Are you sure that's smart?" Yosuke asked. "Shouldn't you start thinking about that now? so you can be ready for when you go back to your old school?"

Yu had nothing to say and felt even worse at the way Yosuke had casually mentioned that subject.

"Yikes I've really got to get back to work. Later!" Yosuke waved him off and walked away.

Yu just looked after him total disbelief, everything seemed to just be falling apart, like everything they'd done together was meaningless.

[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]

Later that night the clock struck Midnight, and even as Yu stared at it the TV did not come on, it was like the Midnight Channel had never existed. He walked over to the TV and put his hand to the screen…..but his hand did not pass through there was no rippling like water it was like the other side didn't exist at all.

"But why not?" Yu wondered before a creepy voice cut in.

"I have nothing." Yu looked to the side and out the darkness was a floating baby with computer scripts encircling its head.

"That's a shadow, but why?"

"Everything is Nothing." It stated.

"What is it doing on this side?" Yu cried to himself, as far he knew Shadows shouldn't exist in the real world.

"Friendship is an illusion, you're on your own and you're empty!"

"Install!" Yu tried to summon Gawain's power but it wouldn't work, the Tarot Card appeared but was blank. He tried again, with Cu Chulainn this time but again nothing, no rush of power and the card was blank. "What the hell happened my Arcana?"

"You have no power, you have nothing at all, you are empty just like me." The shadow told him.

"Enough, you're wrong!" Yu cried desperately trying to stave off the despair that threatened to consume him.

The shadow gave out a cry and floated over to him, it reached for his throat to strangle him….and cried out in pain flinching back as a large slash appeared on its right arm.

"Stay away from my father." The voice belonged to the Persona Jack the Ripper who instead of being a man as one would expect was in fact a little girl.

She couldn't be older than eleven years old and had white hair, cut short and uneven along with silver coloured eyes and as the group noticed at least four sheathed blades behind her back. She was wearing a sleeveless black jacket with a belt going across it just below her small chest. On her legs were thigh high stockings and on her feet were dark purple shoes. Bandages were wrapped around hands; belts were on her arms as well tied just above the bandages.

"Jack…" Yu breathed out the name of the Hanged Man Arcana Persona.

"We're all here." Yu looked to see Cu Chulainn leaning against the door. "You didn't think we'd seriously just abandon you now huh?"

The shadow floated back and suddenly flinched as it bumped into Lancelot who roared at it. It looked around saw that they were all here; Gawain near the TV, Medea and Atalanta near the window with Neor draped out across the sofa, Both Joan's standing next to each other in front of the shelf, Semiramis and Nursery Rhyme on either side of Yu, while Medusa stood dutifully next to the TV. All of them had their respective weapons ready.

"Impossible, you cannot be here the connection…"

"Yes your puny barrier was easy to break through when he started calling out to us." Medea stated cutting the shadow off. "Did you truly think that a pitiful mental barrier like that could keep out a Magus from 'The Age of the Gods' such as myself?"

"His hold over you has cracked, now break it and go back." Medusa said standing aside revealing the TV behind her.

Yu letting his instincts guide him went over and placed his hand on the TV which suddenly cracked, yet the cracks did not stop at the TV they spread to the room and the world itself until the cracks had spider webbed all over the place.

"See ya on the other side kid." Cu Chulainn chuckled as the world shattered like glass and everything fell away.

[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]

As he walked through the main entrance of the school alone. Yosuke thought about how his life seemed had hit an all-time low. No one seemed to care about the case anymore and his grades kept slipping no matter how hard he studied and now everyone just seemed to be drifting apart.

"Looks like the exam scores are in, aw man better bite the bullet." Yosuke groaned and approached the board.

There was his name in Dead Last, Hanamura Yosuke. In their entire grade, he was dead last. Looking up he heard familiar giggling. At the top of the stairs near the windows was Narukami with Rise, Chie and Yukiko all hanging off him and laughing with him, naturally he'd aced the test and was first out the entire year with notes for special honours attached to his name.

"This sucks." He complained as made to walk away, Yosuke paused as the girls giggling and laugh had just stopped. Looking at the scene again he saw the girls slowly fade away as a bright light began streaming in through the windows behind Yu who was now halfway down the stairs and holding a hand out to him with a gentle smile.

As Yosuke made to take Yu's hand his Persona card LANCER appeared just above Yu's hand. Yosuke's eyes slowly widening as he reached for Yu's hand the realisation dawning on him. As he took the hand the card began to spin faster and the light from the windows become so bright that it was impossible to see.

"Of course...this is all...!"

[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]

Nearly a year had passed since the battle with Kubo and for one Yukiko Amagi things had gone completely downhill. First, her mother withdrew her from school and kept her working full time to become the new manager of the Amagi Inn. Then her friends had slowly drifted apart with Narukami being taken away early by his parents presumably to live with some new relative.

As she took away some plates that once had steak on them she thought about Chie and how her mother had banned Yukiko from seeing her again calling her a bad influence. Without Rider or her friends to talk to her courage to just leave the inn had crumbled to dust.

Looking back at the customer who plate it was the door she gasped, it was Yu talking to some other person she assumed was a relative or something. Yukiko tried to call out to him, to say something, anything but it became caught in her throat. He glanced over at her but didn't show even a hint of recognition as his gaze crossed her. Yukiko felt her heart sink, her feelings crushed she barely acknowledged her mother snatching the plate away and dragging the girl away by the sleeve.

"You see one day that this is for your own good as well as the good of the inn." Her mother told her as she shoved Yukiko into her room. "You need let go of this nonsense about leaving, out there you have no future here your future is waiting for you on a silver platter."

With that the door was shut and the clicking of the lock being sealed resounded as her mother's footsteps faded away Yukiko slumped against the wall, her vision blurring as hot tears fell from her eyes and rolled down her face and into her hands which were clasped on her knees.

"W-w-w-hy! Why have things gone so wrong?" She wondered tearfully "Everyone's just broken up, I can't talk to Chie and Rider is gone, someone please-"

Yukiko was cut off by three loud knocks coming from her door.

"What?" Yukiko found herself wiping her tears away with her sleeve and looking at the door.

Now from the cracks of the door, a gentle white light was streaming in. The door frame parts of the wall near it seemed to become translucent as the white light streamed over them. Hesitantly Yukiko walked over to the door but stopped before it as the knocks resounded again.

"T-the doors locked I can't-" Yukiko was cut off by the three knocks again as if whoever was on the other side disagreed.

"But the lock-" Three knocks interrupted her again.

Yukiko noticed that the knocks, while certainly loud never seemed to get impatient, they stayed at the same pace and sound level. Finally, the girl gave in and placed her hand on the door handle intent on proving to whoever on the other side that the door was...locked? Yukiko was shocked as she met no resistance when she turned the handle and no sound of jostling, instead the door gently swung open.

"I see the lock, it never really existed did it?" she asked Yu who was standing on the other side of the door, white light coming from behind him, a gentle smile on his face, as she took his hand she noticed her Persona card RIDER floating above their joined hands, the white light completely consumed the Inn leaving no trace of the false world.

[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]

Six months had passed for Teddie since that battle against the Fish Eyed Boy's shadow. It happened without warning, the Fog crossed over into Sensei's world but this time, it was different, the Sky changed having the same red and black pattern as his own world and wherever Teddie went there were shadows.

Nearly all of the Shadows he had seen were in their blob forms only changing into battle forms when Teddie tried threatening them. Other than that they all seemed to ignore his presence. But his friend they were all different. Appearance wise they resembled themselves before they rejected their shadows, a mirror image of their true forms. Naturally, upon seeing them the bear had tried to get their help but none of them seemed to even acknowledge him.

Yukiko he had found in the shattered remains of the building he presumed to be her Inn, there were only ruins and debris of it left with some blob shadows skittering through occasionally while Yukiko sat atop a makeshift throne talking about a Prince and being saved.

Chie had taken over the school, she had forced the lesser shadows into a makeshift throne while ordering the others around and kicking them violently when they made any mistakes. When Teddie tried to talk to her he received a harsh kick out of the school gates but other than that no response.

Yosuke meanwhile was hanging around in Junes but instead of working he had built an arena out of the Aisles and enticed the shadows into fighting each other for his amusement. Like the girls, he too didn't speak to Teddie not even recognising his existence.

Kanji meanwhile was easier to find than the others he could found charging around the town in nothing but a bath towel with several shadows slithering behind him. Occasionally he stopped to strike poses and give speeches to his audience about acceptance who all posed with him. Just like the others talking was futile it was like Teddie didn't exist to him.

Rise too like Kanji was fairly east to find she was in her grandma's tofu shop or what used to be a Tofu Shop. Now it had been trashed and changed into a club resembling the dungeon she had made for herself back in the TV World. Music played in the background as Rise would strip for her audience of shadows or try on skimpy outfits. Teddie had made the mistake of trying to stop her during one such session and was violently ejected by the shadows.

"How did this happen?" Teddie wondered to himself sadly as he wandered up the hill towards a park. "Why did the fog turn everyone into shadows, oh where is Sensei? Is he like the others? He's my last hope."

Teddie had tried summoning his Persona but even with the world like this he couldn't summon Avenger in this world. This realisation had led to a lot of bruises and injuries while trying to fight the shadows.

"Huh is someone there?" Teddie asked upon arriving at the hill overlooking the town and seeing a human shaped figure, the shape was unmistakable it was..." Sensei!"

A beam of white light from the sky illuminated him but it was definitely his sensei. Yu turned around and to Teddie's shock he was not like a shadow but his normal self, his grey eyes and smile directed as Teddie, a hand outstretched, the AVENGER card floating gently above his wrist.

"Sensei please, I need your help." Teddie cried as he desperately ran towards Yu and grabbed the offered hand, upon doing so the light grew brighter and brighter before enveloping everything and shattering the illusion.

[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]

A few months had passed since Kubo had been defeated and arrested for the murders, summer had come and gone and the gang had just gotten their results back. Chie found that she had gotten dead last much to her dismay. Teddie and Yu were not around as much and the others were acting really weird and distant lately.

Which was why Chie was surprised when they had called her to meet them in the North Shopping district just outside of Aiya's. Before her were Yukiko, Yosuke, Kanji and Rise.

"Hey guys, so why'd you need me to meet you out here?" Chie asked a little unnerved at the looks she was getting.

"Look Chie we've been talking and..." Yosuke trailed off looking to Kanji.

"You see the thing is..." Kanji trailed off too.

"Look Chie we've decided we can't hang around you anymore," Yukiko told her harshly.

"What do you mean?!" Chie cried in disbelief.

"Look Chie your results weren't just dead last in our entire grade you were dead last in the entire school, Kanji here beat you," Yosuke told her.

"Chie the thing is you use your stomach as your brain," Kanji said, "If you spent as much time studying as you did stuffing your face then you'd be a genius by now."

"So we can't be around you anymore, we don't need you passing your laziness on to us we have future's to worry about." Rise snapped at her.

"Please just do everyone a favour leave us all alone," Yosuke told her as they all began walking away.

"Hey wait, guys..." Chie was dumbstruck and tried to stop them and gained a little hope when Yukiko paused to look over her shoulder.

"I've told my mother your no longer welcome at the inn if you come around we'll call the police," Yukiko informed her in an emotionless tone before walking away with the others.

Chie felt her hopes and feeling all shatter inside of her.

"This...this can't be happening." Chie hiccupped as she started to cry "Someone please, come back...huh!"

Chie paused as she saw a familiar pair of shoes and a hand come into her view. Looking up she saw Yu standing there with a smile his hand outstretched and her ASSASSIN card floating just above his wrist.

"Of course." She realised seeing white light streaming from behind Yu which suddenly enveloped everything as she took his hand. "This is all just..."

[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]

It could be said, a mere two months after they caught that Kubo kid that Rise Kujikawa was anything but happy, in fact, she was the opposite of happy she was quite miserable. Not long after the case was closed her parents had got in contact and had demanded that she return to being Risette. Quite naturally she'd refused and the girl had thought that would be the end of it. Oh, she couldn't have been more wrong, her parents had gone out of their way to publicly humiliate or destroy her friend's reputations. They made claims that Yukiko had arranged Mayumi Yamano's murder due to her being such a demanding customer.

Even if there was no proof the allegation alone was enough to damage the reputation of the Amagi Inn. This combined with her parents making Chie and Kanji out to be violent thugs who threatened her and a restraining order for stalking on Yosuke had forced her friends to back off. As for Yu he had completely vanished beforehand, it was as if he'd stopped existing, neither Nanako nor Dojima seemed to recognise his name and the rest of her friends seemed to have forgotten about him and Teddie.

And so here she was in her dressing room getting ready for another concert. It was the third one in the same week.

"Risette stop spacing out get changed you're on stage in five minutes." Inoue snapped at her impatiently.

That was another problem, ever since she had been forced back into show business everyone called her Risette all the time like her real name didn't exist at all. Resigning herself to misery Rise stood up from her seat before her vanity and looked at the skimpy bikini outfit that Inoue was holding out to her.

Before she could take it, however, she heard a series of three gentle yet perfectly audible knocks at the door. Turning to face the door she could see a white light leaking in through the cracks in the door.

"What are you doing?" Inoue snapped angrily "Don't open that door it's not for you, now put this on and sing Risette! This is all you have now!"

Rise couldn't place the feeling in her stomach and ignored Inoue and pulled the door open. When it swung open completely her face illuminated brighter than the sun. Standing behind the door was Yu, a white light streaming from behind him and her Persona card CASTER floating gently above the wrist of his outstretched hand.

"Senpai!" Rise cried with elation.

"Risette do as I tell you and sing!" Inoue yelled angrily "You are Risette and nothing more."

However, the girl no longer cared for the fake's words.

"I'm so glad you're here!" Rise cried leaping into his arms "This was just a horrible nightmare!"

The white light began consuming the room, as it devoured Inoue Rise swore she heard the sound of a computerised cry of a baby.

[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]

For Kanji Tatsumi, two months had passed since they'd put that fish eyed punk behind bars for the murders. Despite it being a Monday he was not in school. No, he had reverted back to ditching class, the reason for this was simple, all of his friends had abandoned him and left him alone. Teddie and Yu had dropped off the map, like neither of them existed anymore. Yukiko and Yosuke had suddenly gotten nervous around him and were actively avoiding him sometimes running away when they saw him coming. The last time he'd seen Chie and Rise had been the encounter which hurt the most.

"Look Kanji just buzz off and quit hanging around us already will ya?" Chie had demanded angrily.

"Yeah, you delinquent freak, we have social lives and reputations to worry about!" Rise yelled stunning Kanji into silence.

"So why don't you just go knit your stupid dolls or whatever and leave us normal people alone," Chie told him taking Rise by the arm and walking away from him.

Kanji had been dumbstruck by their behaviour and even as he turned around to go home he heard Rise mumble 'Freak' as she went.

This was how Kanji found himself in his room, looking at the picture of his now deceased father.

"Pops, I've tried my best to be a man but...I don't think I have the strength to go on anymore." Kanji said trying desperately to hold his tears back even wiping them away futilely as they continued gathering in his eyes. "I'm all alone now, my friends...everyone has abandoned me, please dad what should I do?"

"Kanji no one has abandoned you." His father's voice echoed in his mind.

"Wha-pops?" Kanji was struck with disbelief was he hearing things.

"Your friends are still with you if you don't believe me just open the door behind you." His father's voice said as it faded away.

"The door?" Kanji stood up looked at the door to his room.

He gasped as from beneath the crack of the door a gentle white light streamed in. Kanji found his body moving on its own as it opened the door.

"Senpai!" Indeed, standing there with a gentle white light streaming from behind him was the Senpai he thought was gone. A hand outstretched and above his wrist was his Persona card, BERSERKER.

"Of course, this shit isn't..." Kanji took the hand and white light consumed the whole illusion.

[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]

The darkness went away, shattering like cheap glass. Now standing in the middle of what seemed like an all-white place, the members of the Investigation Team stared at each other, smiles on their faces and their hand extended as their Cards floated silently over them.

In the middle, looking at his friends as they stared back, Yu stood, the Saber Card in his hand suddenly turning into several more that spun around him while releasing an otherworldly light.

As one, the Personae materialized behind the other 5 teenagers and one 'bear', the Heroes staring at the display in awe as they felt a strange energy flooding them and their Masters...

"This feeling..." came Diarmuid's voice as he felt himself getting stronger.

"It's coming back, like something long-forgotten..." muttered Drake with a massive grin.

"...but that never has really gone away." sentenced Li Shuwen while raising a closed fist.

"I can feel it! My power...is all here again!" cheered Tamamo while spinning her mirror in her hands.

"So, breaking out of that pathetic illusion has let them break some of our restraints? Heh, about damn time..." snorted Angra with a feral look.

Heracles didn't say anything, but the small growl he released while gripping his axe-sword and nodding to his partner seemed confirmation enough.

'This feeling...' thought Yu as he saw the images of all his Personae, standing around him for an instant, before the image on the back of his mind flashed back to the Velvet Room.

Igor's ever-smiling visage stared at him, even as the Cards spun faster.

'It's time, my dear guest...You know what to do. You can feel it now. Let that guide you...and let the Legends take form, to open the path to the Truth you seek...'

Yu's eyes snapped open.

And at once, 7 voice's shouted as the sound of breaking glass echoed.

"INSTALL!"

[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]

The team found themselves back in the arena, their installed forms all ready for battle with new energy flowing through them.

"There he is!" Yosuke cried pointing at the shadow which seemed to be clutching its head in pain.

"I've got this!" Yukiko said taking aim with her pistol and firing directly at the forehead of the shadow.

The shot was on a direct course for Mitsuo's Shadow. It could have been fatal...if not for the red block which abruptly appeared and shielded it from harm.

"Oh come on, what is this crap?" Chie yelled as more coloured blocks began appearing and assembling themselves into a bit looking video game warrior.

"Damn it, you won't be able to take out the Shadow without first destroying its outer shell!" Rise told them after looking at the analysis in her mirror.

"Then let's take him out." Yu commanded.

The team all nodded and charged into battle. Shadow Mitsuo responded to the challenge by sending out many of the blocks from its form, at them. Using Galatine, Yu cleaved through block after block that was in his path, and it wasn't long before he got close to the shadow's shell.

"...no, Sempai, get out of there quickly!" Rise cried with enough panic in her voice that Yu instinctively obeyed.

Just as the Fool moved backwards a large bolt of red lightning struck the spot where he had been seconds before. More bolts came down forcing Yu to retreat eventually stopping when he was safely out of striking distance of the Shadow's shell.

"Whatever you do, don't let those bolt hit you! Those things are potent enough to possibly kill any of us in one hit! Even with Sempai's Magic Resistance the shot would have been crippling!" Rise warned everyone still looking in her mirror.

"So we need to destroy that damn shell from the distance?!" Yosuke groaned.

"Yeah, destroying the shell should stun the shadow itself letting you get good hit in on it..." Rise stated while biting her lips.

"I can do it."

"Yukiko?" Chie looked at her friend.

"Rider's Noble Phantasm has the firepower to destroy its shell...just cover me for a second!" Yukiko said as she began focusing allowing Rider's spirit and her own to synchronise as the power of the Noble Phantasm began to swirl.

The rest of the team were not idle in this time, the melee fighters staying on the edges destroying any stray blocks they could in order to give Yukiko a better shot at the shadow. Rise meanwhile began sending talismans at the blocks which stayed closest to shell easily decimating them.

"Ok...here I go!" Yukiko cried while backflipping into the air.

As she did so, a huge majestic golden ship appeared behind her, along with a fleet of much smaller ships, at the head was a ship with the name Golden Hind on the side, Yukiko landed on the bow of the ship. Three more cannons hovered just above her head.

"The king of storms, a swarm of ghosts! This is the beginning...of the Wild Hunt!" Yukiko shouted in the kind of free-spirited tone one would expect from Drake herself.

The team moved out of the way as all of the ships fired their cannons at once. The sheer number of cannonballs which peppered the Shadow created a huge fireball-like explosion which forced the team to shield faces from the wind and heat generated, the whole area behind the dark being reduced to rubble.

When it finally died away and smoke cleared, they could see the baby's form lying on the ground defenceless.

"Chie, Yosuke finish it!" Yu commanded.

"Right!" The two said.

Connecting with her Master's spirit, Chie closed her eyes and focused, a slight step forward, swaying her arms to the right, then stepped back, then forward once more as her arms swayed to the left. Everyone could see a symbol glow a bright red behind her, then a surge of explosions behind her as well. It seemed like something out of one of her Kung-Fu movies. Chie took another step and another quickly closing the gap, before thrusting her clenched fist towards Shadow Mitsuo. A mighty gust of chi rushed from her arm, in the shape of a lance decimating the ground, but the shadow remained, they could all tell that damage was done to it but it was still not enough.

"Damn it all!" Chie growled as she backed off "How was that not enough?"

"The inhumanity of the monster has prevented my No Second Strike from finishing it...a terrible insult, but not one you must feel sorry for, my disciple." spoke Li Shuwen with narrowed eyes.

"Here, I'll give it a try!" Yosuke cried as he dropped Gae Dearge, favouring Gae Buidhe with both hands.

He narrowed his eyes in concentration before charging with all the speed available to him as he felt Diarmuid's spirit resonate with his own.

"Let's go Gae Buidhe!" The yellow spear seemed to glow as Yosuke struck the shadow in the chest and skidded to a halt behind it, he kicked off the arena and charged striking again, he did over and over until he struck the Shadow eight times.

The unhealing wounds made by the cursed spear were easily visible on the Shadow but still it was not enough. Even worse, the Shadow appeared to be recovering, at least spiritually, as blocks appeared to be phasing in and out of existence.

"Son a bitch, how is this asshole not dead?!"

"I'll try now!" Kanji yelled while charging and letting out a war cry as he held his axe-sword aloft.

"Kanji, wait!" Rise cried too late Kanji got into striking range and cried out as a large red lightning bolt struck him.

"KANJI!" Everyone cried out as the boy's body crashed to the ground and stayed motionless for a moment, his skin charred black by the bolt.

"Is he...?"

"He's...dead..." Rise said looking at her mirror, the results of which were impossible to deny.

"RARGH!" before everyone's very eyes, and before their feelings could grab hold, Kanji started moving again, a dark reddish miasma covering his body for a moment before the boy appeared to be back to his normal condition.

"Ka-Kanji!"

"Ugh...hey there, everyone!"

"You're alive! Bu-but how?!"

"It's God Hand, Berserker's Noble Phantasm! I can revive myself immune to whatever killed me the last time, and while the amount of times I can do it is limited so are the ways this bastard can kill me!" Kanji explained with a grin before batting the Shadow into the arena wall, with such force that it collapsed and the stands above it dropped on top of it.

The digital growl of frustration from within the smoke and debris told them it was still alive despite all this damage.

"Aw, why can't I do something cool like the others?" Teddie whined as the others swarmed Kanji, berating them for making him worry

"Well, unless you want to be severely hurt yourself in order to activate Verg Avesta, which is mostly useless, you should shut up." Avenger snapped

"No...I can feel 'something more', deep inside..." Teddie tried to explain to his Persona.

Sighing to himself Avenger, paused as he felt a power similar to the 'dark evil' from when he had, another lifetime ago, been 'trapped' inside the Greater Grail...

"Use the mud." Avenger told the bear, a dark grin covering his face.

"O...kay? Here...we...go!" Teddie raised his hands into the air and focused. "Angra Mainyu: All The Worlds Evil!"

A black portal appeared just above and outside the hole which contained the Shadow. All of the Personae gained an ominous feeling in their stomachs and made their confused wielders back off. As they did, out of the portal came a tidal wave of the same black mud from when Teddie's Shadow had fought against them. More and more poured out until it took the form of a huge black serpent, which immediately dove into the hole, causing the Shadow to scream in pain as it was submerged in the terrible Ichor.

A few seconds passed, without warning, the fog of the TV World condensed above the Ichor for a few moments, dissipating itself into it. When it did, a hand emerged from the mud. Snarling, the Shadow pulled itself out. but now it looked different, its entire body half-melted. making it resemble something out a horror movie rather than a real enemy.

"Damn it, what is this thing made of?!" Kanji growled.

"There was...'something' there..." Rise whispered while looking into her mirror.

"What was it?" Yu asked her.

"I don't know, but it was that same power which intervened when Teddie's shadow appeared!" Rise informed them.

Emerging from the Mud completely, the half dead Shadow reformed its defences, albeit now it resembled a half melted action figure rather than the video game bit warrior of before. The half liquid defence solidified and the shadow began slowly walking out of the hole, as if each motion brought great pain.

"It rebuilt itself after all that?!" Yukiko gasped.

"Master, let's try it ourselves!" Tamamo said to her master. "With my Noble Phantasm back we can use my new super-secret move!"

"Ok, here goes! God who resides in Izumo...Aesthetically certain, Breath of the soul..." Rise began chanting as levitating Ofuda began appearing. "Residing in the mountains and watery heavens, Amaterasu...Let this freely become the proof of purification!" Torii archways which were glowing began to appear as the mirror levitated into the air burst with light as energy began flowing through it, "Thy name is Weighted Stone of Tamamo...become the sacred treasure, Mirror of Uka!"

"...Just kidding!" Tamamo added quickly with a grin.

The Shadow stomped towards them now out of the side of the arena. With the nigh infinite Prana at her disposal, Rise summoned hundreds of thousands of different talismans, that appeared forming a wall of white paper and black inked Kanji.

"…" suddenly, Rise sweatdropped and looked at Caster's spiritual form. "...Do I have to say it?"

"It's essential to the move!" Tamamo insisted jumping from one foot to the other excitedly. "Come on, I'll say it with you!"

All of the talismans began lighting up, igniting into elements of Ice, Fire and Air as Rise let out a sigh and acquiesced to her Persona's wish.

"Rise?" Chie spoke the idols name questioningly.

"What' the matter?" Yukiko asked.

"If any of you record this I'll kill you." Rise vowed before narrowing her eyes on the opponent.

"BEST WAIFU'S WRATH!" Rise and Tamamo yelled as one.

Everyone blinked.

In response to the cry, the wall of magic fired, becoming streams of red, blue and green, the presence within Yu twitching at the display not out of anger but more like intrigue. The bombardment quickly overtook Shadow Mitsuo, which once again screamed in pain as it was consumed. Eventually, the bombardment ended and smoke which had been kicked up cleared, the shadow's shell had dropped to its knees and its entire front side had cracks spider-webbing all over it.

"One...one more powerful blow should do it...!" Rise told them.

"I got this." Yu said releasing the Install and summoning another Card.

"Hey, it's trying to escape!" Yosuke yelled as the Shadow began using its shell to crawl towards the door.

"Not for long." Yu said as he crushed the Arcana Card, summoning the Tyrant of Rome.

"One always must save the greatest art for last." Nero stated while pulling out a rose and holding it to her lips. "Behold my glory... Hear the thunderous applause..." she began incanting throwing the rose at the shadow. "Sit down and praise... My Golden Theatre!" she swung her sword while slashing towards the Shadow three times, upon the third stroke a white light consumed everyone's vision.

When they could see again, they saw they were in a Golden Theatre whose size and beauty seemed to surpass even the famed coliseum of Rome. The shadow grasped feebly at the place where the door through where it planned to escape once was, now replaced by a red-golden wall.

Inside this Theatre, escape was completely impossible.

Left with no choice, Shadow Mitsuo commanded its shell to stand and fight intending to make its last stand.

"Realising the futility of his escape attempt our would-be hero turns to make his final stand even knowing that death is certain." Nero narrated readying her sword. "Meanwhile, our true heroine and her lovely Praetor shall end the battle with a single final master strike the likes of which not even Mars or Minerva themselves could hope to rival!"

It was then that Nero began moving her sword slowly in a clockwise motion, seeming to leave an afterimage as it did so. The Shadow threw out a fist, intending to crush her before she could finish...but it was too late as she completed the circle and dashed forward, its huge fist missing her by inches as she made a huge slash across its upper chest, leaving a massive, last wound.

Nero turned and walked away from the Shadow, which seemed frozen in place. Approaching her audience, she planted her sword in the ground. "Behold the Closing Rose that Fames Stars; Fax Caelestis!" Nero declared raising her arms in a flashy manner and, as she did so, flames erupted from the wound she had inflicted, growing larger and larger before completely incinerating both the shell and the screaming Shadow within.

The flames died away leaving just Mitsuo, albeit with slightly charred clothes, and his shadow now back in its human form. The team all released their installs and Yu dematerialised Nero.

"Huh? Who the hell are you guys?!" Kubo demanded as he opened his eyes to find the team staring down at him.

"We came to catch your scrawny ass…" Kanji told him.

"The police are after you" Yosuke explained "They think you're the one who killed King Moron and the other two murders in town…"

"Yeah…I did it…" Mitsuo laughed. "It was me…"

Mitsuo's shadow simply shook its head and disintegrated vanishing into nothing instead of turning into a Persona or going berserk again.

"It just vanished, what is this?" Yukiko asked at the sight.

"So if you're the killer then prove it. Tell us how you killed Mayumi Yamano and Saki Konishi." Yu demanded.

"I just smashed 'em on the head like I did with King Moron!" Mitsuo yelled.

"I've heard enough Chie can you?"

"Oh sure." Chie got the unspoken message and punched Mitsuo in the stomach sending him into unconsciousness. "Aw man I'm so tired." The meat lover groaned letting her shoulders slump.

"I feel as if I need to nap for a week...or two..." Yukiko agreed.

"I...really need some beauty sleep after this..." Rise said, feeling like she was about to keel over.

"I ache all over...damn..." Kanji groaned trying to keep his muscles from going stiff.

"Hey...who's gonna carry him?" Yosuke asked while pointing to Mitsuo, who Chie had knocked unconscious after their short interrogation.

"One, two three not it!" Chie said quickly.

"Not it!" Yu, Rise Kanj, Yukiko and Teddie said quickly.

"Not it...aww, damn it!" Yosuke groaned. "Why do I carry this fatass?!"

Cause you were last, dude." Kanji told him as the rest of team nodded in agreement.

Yosuke simply groaned in response and began dragging Mitsuo with him as the team made their way to the exit.

"So...even though he's not our guy the cops will still pin the murders on him..." Yukiko sighed.

"That is a strong possibility, but the police don't know the cause of death for Mayumi Yamano and Saki Konishi and if Mitsuo can't produce that then he might only be charged with King Moron's murder." Yu responded. "If the killer tries again while he's police custody, it'll prove that Mitsuo is a fake and he'll only get charged with King Moron's death. We will just have to wait and see..."

[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]-[-]

AN: Ok finally this is done, holy crap its long. So credit to SaintInfernalNeos he wrote that scene where everyone feels their Ultimate NP's being released and he amazingly beta'd the whole battle against Shadow Mitsuo and that last scene too, even putting in edits of his own so lots of praise and credit to him for being so kind and putting up with me.