[Summary: Nanako awakens and has some visitors.

Content Warning: some disturbing imagery in the opening scene.]

Floating in a void of darkness. It seemed peaceful... until thousands of tiny eyes opened up around her. They rolled in their sockets to stare directly at her. She shuddered as their unblinking gazes bore into her, making her feel more exposed than if she had been naked before them.

She took a step forward but stopped with her foot still upraised because something was there. She turned her head down and saw that it was a fetus.

'Everyone has a different role in this farce that we call life, Dojima.'

The fetus began to wail at her, waving its stubby limbs at her. Shut up, she told it, but it continued to cry defiantly louder and louder.

'You kids are all starry eyed and naive.'

The countless eyes half-closed. Her ears began to ring in protest as the cry's pitch reached a painful level.

'You have a bright future ahead of you.'

She put her foot down with force, crushing the unborn child and shutting it up permanently.

Nanako opened her eyes to a pristine white ceiling. The blankets clung to her... She was sweating. With an involuntary shudder, tears blurred her vision, and she tried to wipe them away but couldn't manage to lift her damn arms, leading her to weep further in helplessness.

"Nanako-san!" a familiar voice called to her. She felt a hand grab her wrist and rub the back of her hand. "It's all right. You're in the hospital. You have no serious injuries... Please calm down."

"Sh-Shirogane," she whimpered, unable to see the detective at all through the haze of tears. "I can't fucking move... Hurts too much..."

"I didn't say you were uninjured," Naoto murmured in reply. "Perhaps your dosage of painkillers will have to be increased if you find it intolerable."

Nanako let the tears fall from her eyes, and after over a minute of blinking, she was able to clear her eyes enough to take in the room, for what that was worth. She was in a hospital bed, hooked up to an IV drip. The room was small and private, although there was a green curtain bunched up by the head of the bed, probably to divide the room in case another occupant needed to be housed here.

"I feel like a truck ran over me," she replied candidly. She frowned, because her own voice sounded muffled to her own ears. No, single ear. She still could only hear from one ear. The doctors might not have detected that injury.

"You have no serious injuries," Naoto repeated. "I suppose the healing capabilities of your friends' Personas are to thank for that. It's caused some confusion among the hospital staff. By rights, a fall from the Samegawa bridge should leave you with more than the heavy bruising you've received."

"They aren't buying my story?" she asked.

"I suggest you stick to it, regardless, as it is the simplest explanation, although it paints you as irresponsible for going outside in the middle of the night and in the middle of a storm."

"No one expects any better from me, now," Nanako said, wanting to sigh but physically unable to manage it. "The police won't come to question me, will they?"

The detective shook her head. "We seem to be in the clear. Hanamura-san was able to convince the police that he'd found the Junes's staffroom door broken when he came in for work this morning and discovered Kubo inside as a trespasser and ended up in a scuffle with him. It's worked out well enough. Hanamura-san's father supports him, reporting that he was scheduled for the early morning shift even though in truth he wasn't. And Kubo hasn't been coherent enough to throw suspicion on the claim."

Naoto paused for a moment, and then continued. "As for myself, I spent most of the day in the police station. I told the authorities that the serial killer kidnapped me and that I was captured along with Kubo. I claimed that Kubo escaped, and that the culprit had gone to recapture him, allowing me to enact my own escape. They questioned me repeatedly for details on where I had been taken, but then I described the preparations we had made and informed them that my laptop in the apartment would have collected some data. The police are likely scouring my apartment now for further clues to the kidnapper's identity."

"And looking up your laptop's browser history," Nanako joked with a weak little snicker.

"I can't say that they won't try such underhanded tactics, but I know how to hide my tracks," Naoto said with a smile of her own. "I'm told that our cameras indeed recorded the moment of my capture. I... was unwilling to watch the footage."

The young detective was no longer smiling. "It's all right, I understand," Nanako said. She tried to move her hand to pat Naoto's in a comforting way, but couldn't manage to move them. She noticed now that her hands were bandaged and shivered at the memory of those teeth she'd cut them on.

The detective noticed her whimper of pain and ended up patting her on the arm instead. Nanako wanted to laugh, but her eyes teared up instead and it took a moment for her to blink them away.

Naoto turned her head suddenly, and Nanako stared at her, wondering why, until she noticed that someone was standing by the open doorway. She couldn't hear it, but it seemed that the detective was listening intently to a conversation going on just outside the room.

Moments later, Aunt Seta walked into the room, little Souji clutching the woman's hand and looking apprehensive—until he saw his big sis on the bed. He broke away and began to run up to her, but paused halfway to look up at his mother for permission. Aunt Seta nodded and seconds later the boy was at her side.

Nanako struggled to turn in the bed, fighting the protests of all of her bruises to face her cousin and give him a hug. He put his arms around her neck hesitantly, and she managed to get her own arm around him and rub his back with a bandaged hand as reassuringly as she could.

"B-big sis... are you... are you... okay...?" he whispered into her ear.

"Yes," she gasped. "I'll be fine, just need some rest, Sou-chan. I'll be home soon. Be strong, okay?"

"Y-yeah," he murmured.

He didn't want to let her go, which was adorable, but soon the pain became just too much. She bore it as long as she could and then broke away to collapse back onto the bed. She caught Naoto wincing in sympathy and hoped Souji hadn't caught any sign that she was in pain.

"Ah, Nanako-chan," said Aunt Seta, standing by the bed. "I was called at work and told you were in the hospital. They tell me you fell off a bridge! I came as soon as I could... Are you able to speak? Are you all right? They allowed you to have visitors, but..."

"Yeah," Nanako replied. "I'm told I'll be okay."

"What happened last night that made you leave so suddenly?" Aunt Seta asked. "Souji noticed you were missing early this morning. You'd left your door open. You didn't leave a note, and I wasn't sure what to do."

Nanako didn't answer immediately. Souji's gray eyes, large with concern, were staring at her. She didn't want to worry him further, but at the same time, he didn't need to be sheltered.

Aunt Seta had followed her gaze. She pressed her fingers into the boy's back and began to steer him towards the door. "Wait outside for us, all right, darling?"

"N-no," Nanako protested. "I'll tell you, but Souji-kun should hear this, too. Let him stay, please."

Aunt Seta paused, her head tilted, considering. "Well, all right."

Nanako waited for them to gather around her bed. "First," she said, "Aunt Seta, are you familiar with Shirogane-san?"

When her family had arrived, Naoto had stepped into the background to give them the stage, but she was still present in the corner of the room. Aunt Seta glanced at the detective briefly. "Yes, we have met, actually. The last time you went missing. I appreciate that he is concerned for you enough to visit you so soon."

"Yes, well," said Nanako, "you should know that he was kidnapped last night—"

"Kidnapped?" Aunt Seta's eyes widened.

"Yes, kidnapped," Nanako continued, "right from his own apartment, and that's what made me leave the house in the middle of the night, even in the pouring rain. We'd suspected Shirogane-san might be targeted, and set up all sorts of systems to leave a trail that could be followed. I'll admit I panicked when it actually happened, so I wasn't thinking straight. I even left my umbrella at home when I went out... When I got to the Samegawa Bridge, the storm picked up, and the wind was strong, and somehow I got knocked into the railing and fell over the side."

Aunt Seta pulled her son close to her. His eyes were even bigger now as he looked at Nanako. "Big sis... you fell into the river?"

"That's right, Sou-chan... It's a good thing I know how to swim, eh?" She smiled without much humor. "It's hard to swim in a skirt, though. I don't recommend it. I guess I managed to pull myself out of the river, but now I'm here, so..."

"It could have been so much worse," Aunt Seta murmured.

"Yes," said Nanako. "I know."

"And you." Aunt Seta looked at Naoto. "It can't have been easy for you, either, Detective... You're all right?"

"I-indeed," Naoto replied with a short nod. "Thank you for asking, ma'am."

The woman's shoulders slumped in relief, then she looked at Nanako. "Well, I spoke with a doctor, and she informed me that it may be several days before you will feel well enough to leave the hospital. You are on some heavy painkillers." She smiled almost playfully. "I was surprised that you're conscious, let alone coherent."

"I haven't been conscious for long, actually," Nanako admitted, "and I won't be conscious for much longer. I can feel it already."

"In that case," Aunt Seta said, "there is something we should discuss in private. Shirogane-kun, would you mind taking my son outside?"

"Of course," Naoto said swiftly.

"Souji, go with the nice detective." Aunt Seta pushed the boy forward. Souji held his hand out towards Naoto, who stared at it for a moment before taking it with a small smile, and then the two left the room hand in hand.

"A-Auntie?" Nanako asked when they were gone.

Aunt Seta sighed. "Nanako-chan... Ryotaro warned me about this, when he was here the last time, that you might, in his words, try to 'butt in' on the investigation."

Her dad knew her well, that was for sure. Nanako was glad he'd warned her aunt, but supposed it hadn't done much. Aunt Seta was simply too busy to watch over her all the time. Her father probably hadn't expected her to go this far, either...

"Right now I'm just glad that you are alive," Aunt Seta continued. "Do you realize what could have happened to you?"

"…Yes," Nanako said in a small voice.

"Then I won't lecture you. I have a feeling authority doesn't mean very much to you. Your father was the same way."

Nanako blinked and wondered if she was going to hear an anecdote.

But Aunt Seta just sighed again. "We should probably have this conversation when you're feeling better. I do wonder what your father is going to think about this. What can I tell him so that he won't worry?" The woman rubbed her temple, and her voice had a desperate tone when she added, "I really don't know."

Yeah... so much for his exhortation to 'Stay out of trouble.' "I'm sorry," Nanako whispered. Impelled as she'd been, she hadn't even thought of Aunt Seta and the rest of her family, nor what her actions meant to them.

The woman shook her head. "I don't think it's me you need to apologize to, child, although I am supposed to be your guardian here, and as such I am responsible for you... I understand that it's thrilling to help a detective, and that you've become friends with young Shirogane-kun, but after this I hope that you realize you might be in over your head. You're always doing that, trying to take on the world's problems as your own. Have you noticed?"

Nanako frowned. "If I don't do it, who will?"

"The world tends to manage on its own well enough," Aunt Seta said. "Most of the time, that is..." The woman looked sad and vulnerable all of a sudden... She blinked several times, and then went on. "I just worry that it will become too much for you at some point. You've already almost broken down... Please think about it while you're resting here, all right?"

Though she lowered her gaze to the blankets covering her, Nanako didn't reply.

"With that said," Aunt Seta continued, "I won't try to stop you. I know a futile endeavor when I see one. But, do promise me that you'll be careful. I don't think Souji could handle another loss in his life... and neither could I, to be perfectly honest."

"Yeah," Nanako croaked, barely managing to meet the woman's eyes.

Aunt Seta smiled faintly at her. "Good. I think that is all I wanted to discuss... We'll let you get some rest. I'll bring Souji back in to say goodbye. You'd like that, yes?" Her smile was larger now as she turned towards the door.

"W-wait!" Nanako called. "Umm..."

The woman turned back towards her. "Yes?"

"Shirogane-san... his apartment is now a crime scene. He doesn't have a place to stay. He could get a room at a hotel or something, but... he was kidnapped, and he doesn't really want to be alone. He would never think to ask you, but... could he stay with us? At your house?"

Aunt Seta's expression turned into a thoughtful one.

"He is a professional," Nanako added quickly. "I trust him with my life. And..."

Aunt Seta had drawn an arm over her stomach and her shoulders were heaving. It took Nanako a moment to realize she was holding in her laughter. "And you still want to elope with him," Aunt Seta finished for her. "Yes, Ryotaro told me about that!"

"Th-that was a joke!" Nanako squeaked.

"Of course." The woman's eyes danced with amusement. "Well, would he mind watching over Souji while you're here...?"

"He and Souji-kun already get along!" Nanako reported. "Shirogane-san is even a big fan of Featherman. I'm sure he'd be delighted."

"I will speak with him about it, then," Aunt Seta promised.

Nanako relaxed on the bed. Then she sat up again, which she regretted immediately due to the pain that shot through her back. "Ahh!" she gasped. "O-one more thing... D-do you know where my cell phone is? I think... I think I should call Dad."

"Ah. I think it's here." She moved to the table by the bed and held something up. By the cracked screen, Nanako knew it was her phone. Since her hands were bandaged up, she had her aunt place it before her on the bed. She'd be able to work it since the tips of her fingers were still free, but holding it would be a bit much. She would have to set it to speaker mode when she called.

When Aunt Seta opened the door to the hallway, Nanako caught a glimpse of Naoto and Souji playing some sort of clapping game, which made her dearly wish she could pick up her phone to take a picture. She couldn't hear them speak, but a few moments later, Souji came into the room and walked up to her. Nanako held out her hand and he took it.

His fingers played over her bandages with curiosity. "Big sis... get better soon..."

"Yeah," she whispered. "Sou-chan... I'm sorry."

"S-sorry...?"

"I wanted to play with you all day today..."

He beamed up at her. "S-summer just started, so... there are other days..."

The urge to hug him was too great, but god, the pain...! She ended up bending towards him just just enough to plant a kiss on his forehead before collapsing back onto the bed. "I promise," she told him, and this, she knew, was a promise she could keep.

Aunt Seta returned with Naoto at her side, and after a final round of goodbyes, Nanako was alone in the room once again. Although she was beginning to feel fatigued, possibly from the painkillers but more likely simply from exhaustion, she poked at her phone.

But instead of calling her father, she called her mother.

The next time Nanako awoke, the doctors performed a bunch of inscrutable tests on her. One of the nurses undid the bandages to her hands, cleaned her still-healing wounds out with some sort of stinging solution, and then wrapped them up again with fresh bandages.

"Are they... gonna scar up?" Nanako asked.

The nurse didn't say no, but informed her the impact could be reduced with repeated applications of an aloe solution over the coming months. Nanako held in a sigh. Seeing the scars would be a daily reminder of her mistakes.

But according to the doctors, she was recovering at a reasonable clip. The decision to leave the hospital would ultimately be hers. When she was feeling well enough to walk around, she'd be well enough to return home.

In the meantime, she slept a lot. Whatever painkillers she was on kept her mostly sedated, which was just as well, because being conscious when no one was around was infinitely boring. Her phone had died right after she'd called her mom. The next time Naoto visited she'd ask her to bring the charger from her room at the Seta residence.

She wondered how Naoto was doing, if Aunt Seta had indeed allowed her to stay at her home. Was the detective staying in her room while she was away, or sharing Souji's room? Probably the second. It'd be a scandal if a 'boy' was staying in her room, right? Oh, man, when her dad found out... it was gonna be grand.

She was daydreaming about how the hell a conversation with her dad would go when she noticed some shapes in the open doorway, a tall one and a shorter one. A nurse came in and told her that she had visitors. Did she want to see them? "Heck yeah!" Nanako declared.

It was Kanji and Saki. She blinked at them, hardly expecting they'd come together.

"Senpai," Kanji greeted, waving a hand.

Saki strode right up to the bed and gave Nanako a hug against it. She smelled sweet, like lilac, and Nanako couldn't resist planting a kiss on her cheek before she pulled away. "I'm okay, I promise," she murmured.

"I tried visiting yesterday," Saki said, "but they told me it was family only."

Family only? Then how did Naoto... Nanako began to snicker, thinking it'd be funny if Naoto had pretended they were engaged or something. Of course the detective hadn't, she hadn't a clue that Nanako had been thinking that way about her, but it was an amusing thought nonetheless. "Should've told 'em I was your boyfriend. That makes you family, right?"

Saki play-hit Nanako's arm. Nanako did her best to mask her reflexive wince. The older girl hadn't intended it to hurt, she knew, but...

"Oh," Kanji muttered from the back of the room.

Nanako waved him forward. "What's the matter, Kanji-kun? Don't mind us."

"Nothing," he said. "Jus'... things clicking."

"Heh heh. Yeah."

"You gonna be out soon, Senpai?" Kanji asked. "Wanted to bring you a get well card, but... now that school's out, it's hard to, you know, meet with everyone without you to get 'em to sign it. 'Sides, Yukiko-senpai, her arm's still hurt, so she might not be able to write at all."

"That's sweet of you, anyway, Kanji-kun. Though you have their phone numbers," she pointed out.

"Yeah, I called," he said. "Yosuke-senpai just said he was workin', and Chie-senpai wasn't answering at all. And Naoto's been real busy, haven't wanted to bother 'im."

Saki's face warped into a frown. "Hana-chan's been working? But he took the whole week off. Something about that Kubo guy hurting him."

Now Kanji was frowning, too. "'S what he said, but you're right, senpai. He got knocked around a bit, yeah. Don't think he'd be workin' at all after that."

Nanako lowered her gaze to the bedsheets. "I really screwed things up, didn't I?" she muttered. After blinking a few times, she looked up at Kanji. "Please don't ask anything of Yosuke on my behalf. Please."

Kanji glanced at Saki briefly before saying, "Had a feeling you and Yosuke-senpai had a falling out. He wasn't all that happy when we left you to, err, pick up Naoto the other day."

"He was probably on his period," Saki said with a wicked grin.

Under normal circumstances, Nanako would've laughed at Saki's joke—especially since it was at Yosuke's expense—but right now she was too dispirited over the situation between her friends to appreciate it. Part of her was seriously dreading getting out of the hospital because she would have to form a meeting with them all, and they'd have to talk about, well, everything. How she'd been so impelled to achieve her goals that she'd ultimately failed them all.

"Wait, Amagi's arm was hurt?" Saki's frown returned. "And Hana-chan's hurt, and Nanako's hurt from... what? And Kanji-kun, you've got a big bandage on your forehead and another on your forearm right there..."

"S-sewing accident!" Kanji defended quickly.

Before he could flinch away, Saki was inspecting his arm. "The hell you'd managed to do that much damage with just a needle? Look, don't try to tell me it was a big one." She let him go and glanced at Nanako, but by the look on her face, she wasn't really seeing her—she was thinking. "Kubo... Kubo killed Mr. Morooka. It's all over the news, and that detective boy said so in that show, and you were working with him, weren't you? You told me so yourself."

Saki glanced back at the boy in the room. "Kanji-kun, what was that you said about Nanako picking up Naoto? And Nanako, what did you 'screw up' exactly? You fell off a bridge on the same night that our tall, dark, and scraggly Hana-chan managed to take down a known murderer inside Junes? And then Amagi hurt her arm. Kanji's all beaten up too... I know all of you hang out together. I've seen you. What are you guys doing...? Literally fighting the serial murderer or something? I can't imagine how all this is happening."

Nanako looked at her for a few moments with her mouth set in a grim line. "I screwed up in that we all almost died."

"Senpai," Kanji began, but Nanako shook her head.

"Saki-senpai, I'm supposed to be the leader." Nanako paused, then snorted. "Heh, actually, I made myself the leader. No one chose me. You know me. But no one would call me level-headed. Like, you know, a leader should be." She leaned back against her pillow with a sigh. "I wanted Kubo so, so badly..."

"The police issued a press release about what happened at Junes," Saki said. "That detective Shirogane said that both he and Kubo had been kidnapped. You went after them. You led everyone on the rescue, is that what you're saying?"

"Yeah," said Nanako. "I rushed it. I rushed it, forced everyone else to rush it, and everyone got hurt. We're just damned lucky that no one... d-died..."

Except Teddie had died, and... who would guide them in the TV World now, who would cheer them on in battle, who would warn them when they looked like they could use a break...?

Sensing her emotion, Saki put her hand in Nanako's, though with the bandages, she couldn't squeeze as much as she might have wanted to.

"I know you want to ask," Nanako murmured. "About how we got hurt. It wasn't fisticuffs with the murderer, if that's what you're thinking. It's... more complicated than that. Look, have you heard of the Midnight Channel?"

"Yeah, I tuned in to it a couple of times," Saki replied. "After my brother died, people were saying they'd seen him on it right before it happened. So I had to check it out. My TV turned on, just like the rumor said, but I never saw anything on it."

"The people who appear on it end up targeted by the murderer. We don't know how it works or why. It just does. Are you okay with that?"

"Someone said that it still turns on even when their TV is unplugged," Saki said, "though I never tried it myself. So, yeah."

"With that in mind, if I told you that there's more to this world than we know, would you believe me?" Nanako looked directly into Saki's eyes and held her gaze.

"Yeah?" Saki hazarded, her eyebrows knitting together somewhat in uncertainty.

"There's another world," Nanako went, "that only some people can go into. We call it the TV World. When people are kidnapped, they're put into that place, and we have to go in and rescue them. It's not a nice place. It's dangerous. It's..."

She went on to explain as well as she could. At least she had practice after telling Naoto all about it.

"I know it's hard to believe," Nanako finished, "but—"

"No, I believe you," Saki interrupted.

"What?"

"I said I believe you."

"...What?" Nanako repeated.

"I know you, Nanako. You wouldn't joke about something like this. You barely ever joke."

Nanako blinked at her. "W-well, I used to joke to myself about putting Shirogane-san in there myself just because I wanted him on the team so much," she confessed. "I was so freaking excited when he came up with his plan to trap the murderer by being on the Midnight Channel himself! At the best, we'd catch the killer! At the worst, we'd have to rescue Shirogane-san from the TV World. No problem, we rescued everyone else just fine! And then he'd be on the DEATH Squad!" Nanako laughed bitterly. "I'm such an idiot."

"Y-you're not an idiot," Saki began, but Nanako cut her off.

"No, I totally am an idiot. Kubo ended up in there, too, and I went after him without any sort of preparation. I was going to break my own rules and try to go in there after him all by myself! I would have tried it, too, and I would've died. Either to the Shadows on the way or Kubo's Shadow itself. I would've died... if it hadn't been for Yosuke braving that damned storm on his bike to come after me and try to stop me! He's the one who made the others come with, called them all up and begged them to come though it was the middle of the night, and you know what, I almost didn't wait for them!"

"You were pretty, uh, driven, Senpai..." Kanji remarked in a low voice. "I wasn't sure what to do. When you told us you were gonna go alone after Naoto, try and save him yourself while the rest of us went after that Kubo kid... Well, I don't think Yosuke-senpai was wrong to worry about you. It made him an absolute dick to fight with in there, though, and to be blunt, Chie-senpai wasn't much better. They were bitchin' at each other the whole way through. Every time I got between them it was like stereo."

"We didn't have to split up like that," Nanako muttered. "Hell, we shouldn't've. But I... I wasn't thinking straight at all. Driven, yeah, that's a good word for it. Because I couldn't go with you after Kubo. I'd have killed him."

"Killed him?" Kanji repeated. "Sounds extreme, Senpai, but I can see why you'd want to. Dunno if I could see you actually doing that, though..."

"I could," said Saki without a pause. "It's kind of frightening. Nanako is... She's run by her heart. And if you think about it, what's in a person's heart isn't always beautiful."

Nanako held her lower lip in her teeth. Her heart, huh? It was pretty ugly, wasn't it? And it wasn't going to get less ugly anytime soon.

"But," Saki went on, "even though I miss Naoki every day, I've never really wished his killer dead. If the murderer was tied up and helpless before me right now, I... I wouldn't know what to do. I don't wish much of anything towards him, except that he not kill anyone else."

"That's probably for the best," Nanako murmured. Saki didn't want to feel like she did, that's for sure.

"But Nanako," Saki said gently, "don't beat yourself up over this. There are other passions in your heart, too. You love your little cousin, and you love his little friends, too. And your other friends... They might be upset with you over what happened, but despite all that, you're still worried about them, aren't you? You're going to take it upon yourself to make it up to them. I can tell."

Nanako sighed. "Souji-kun and I were gonna do something for Chie's birthday. I'm not sure if I'll be out by then, though..." Or if Chie will even want me to, at this point.

"Even if you don't, you can have a party with the kid, anyway," Kanji told her. He was grinning. "Maybe just an 'I'm out of the hospital' thing. I think the little guy would love that."

"We can totally do that!" Saki exclaimed.

While Saki and Kanji began to make plans, Nanako beamed up at them almost shyly, her mood improving by the second. That they cared about her and Souji too... maybe it added a new passion in her heart.

"I wanted to show you these," Yukiko said. She was sitting in the chair next to Nanako's hospital bed, and she began to rummage through her purse, a medium-sized bag with a pink flower pattern. Apparently her purse wasn't nearly as organized as her school notebooks had been, for it took some time for her to find what she was looking for.

When her fingers apparently clasped it, she paused and told Nanako emphatically not to look. Then she realized her friend would look anyway and turned her body away while she took the object out.

Yukiko bowed her head, and when she turned back, Nanako nearly jumped out of the bed in surprise. The girl was now wearing novelty glasses complete with a bulbous orange nose, black mustache, and spiral-patterned lenses.

Then Nanako began to giggle, and Yukiko followed suit, and it took them over a minute to calm down again.

Yukiko took the glasses off and wiped her eyes. "I f-found them when I was shopping with Chie, and they were just too f-funny!"

"Thanks, I needed a good laugh," Nanako said, grinning at her even though her sides were totally protesting now that no, she didn't. "Speaking of Chie..." She sighed. "I was gonna try to get everyone together for her birthday, but I dunno if I'll be out of here by Saturday. I was gonna make a meatloaf cake and a normal cake."

"Oh!" said Yukiko. "I was thinking of planning something, too! I was wondering if I could get everyone to wear kung fu uniforms. It would be... s-so funny!" She began to titter again.

Nanako stared at her, because she'd had the same idea and had dismissed it as too silly.

"J-just imagine Yosuke-kun crossing his arms in the uniform," Yukiko gasped. "He'll complain but secretly be enjoying himself."

"And Kanji-kun," Nanako contributed. "He'll end up with a uniform meant for a shorter person, so his ankles will show."

"Yes," Yukiko replied fervently. "And I'll wear a red uniform, because Chie likes me in red."

Nanako vaguely recalled Yukiko's dungeon. Hadn't there been an announcement from Yukiko's Shadow about the color red...? "The castle was pretty red, now that you mention it," she murmured. "Like a rose."

"I, ah, didn't really mention it," said Yukiko, "but you're right. The decor in that place is fiery, to say the least."

"That leopard-print carpeting, mrowr!"

Yukiko blushed, nowhere near as red as her cardigan but just as noticeable. She cleared her throat. "Did you have a chance to look around the game dungeon when you went through it?"

"The dungeon kinda made a shortcut," Nanako admitted, "so Shirogane-san and I only had one floor to go through."

"Normally I enjoy creepy ambiances," Yukiko said. "My favorite event at Culture Festival last year was the haunted house. But that dungeon... it was a bit much. But that could have also been caused by the tension between us all as we went through it."

Nanako suppressed a pang of guilt. "You guys haven't seen Shirogane-san's dungeon. It was lifted right from Featherman. It was funny, at least until I ran into some Shadows. I approached the dungeon like it was going to be a stealth mission, but honestly, it was more like a survival horror. Whenever I was spotted by a group of Shadows, you could almost hear the violins as I ran in terror, not daring to look behind my back to see them gaining on me...!"

Yukiko was leaning forward eagerly. "And then what happened?"

She went on to describe how the crowned beetles were surprisingly fast and tenacious. There was a lull in the conversation as they contemplated their numerous close calls.

"You know," Yukiko began, "when Yosuke-kun called us up that night, we were both upset. Although Chie takes being woken up worse than I do... I've learned to deal with that at the inn. But all things said, I thought the timing was nice."

"The timing...?"

Yukiko nodded. "After midnight. It was very dramatic. Especially with the rain."

"Yeah, that storm helped set the mood, didn't it?"

"Very much so..." Yukiko was quiet for a moment. Then she moved closer in her seat to the bed. "I... I never gave Teddie much thought. He never left much of an impression on me. He tried to be funny, but... I think we all wish we'd been kinder to him."

"Yeah," Nanako whispered.

Yukiko put her hand on the bed. "But we can try to learn from our mistakes, Nanako. And, well... we should also celebrate that we put Mitsuo Kubo behind bars again, where he won't be able to hurt anyone. Just like Mr. Morooka would have wanted."

Nanako found her voice to lodge a protest. "You don't know that. Maybe what Mr. Morooka really would've wanted was to give him a big fat rant about abstinence and nocturnal emissions."

Yukiko stared at her for a moment, then Nanako grinned. Yukiko's shoulders rolled, and the laughter that overcame her almost made her fall out of her chair.

[Author's Note: Hey there! It's been a while, huh? We've decided we'll go to a once-a-month update schedule. We'll update on the first Thursday of every month. I think that's an update schedule we can safely keep up with. If we end up writing more, we'll speed it up, but for now, that's how it's going to be! I've written up through 8/25 or so, in case anyone was curious!

(Please notice who has visited Nanako-and who hasn't!)