Chapter Seventeen

"Go Ryuji!" Yume cheers from behind the fence. "Crack that ball out of here!"

Two balls, one strike, and he makes contact.

"Yes!" Yume shouts, along with the rest of the make-shift team. "Run! Get to second!"

It takes another couple batter before Ryuji gets to home plate. He takes the pats on the back and high-fives with a bright, stunning smile. Yume waits until the attention has petered off before going up and lightly hugging him. "You were awesome!"

"Thanks for sticking around to watch," he replies, hugging her back. "You got to go?"

"Yah," Yume step backs and makes a face. "Chores aren't going to do themselves."

"Blugh," Ryuji makes a face and she giggles. "Get out of here, then. Oh, and my mom wants you to know that we won't be at the park this Sunday."

"Aw," Yume pouts, trying not to show her disappointment. Suddenly she's trapped in another Ryuji bear hug. "I'm going to miss you."

"I'll miss you too," he says, cheeky grin on. "But you'll be back next Wednesday, right?"

"Of course," Yume replies maybe a bit too quickly. Apparently not seeing Makoto, Miwa, and Ms. Eguchi as often as she'd like is affecting her more than she'd originally thought. "Win this game!"

"You got it!" he shouts as she jogs backwards, holding his thumbs up. "See you later, Yume!"

"Bye!" she shouts back, running towards home. She pops into the arts and crafts store for some more thread, waving to the cashier that's free for the moment. In her haste, she almost bowls over a kid. "I am so sorry!"

The blue haired kid frowns up at her with narrow eyes. "Red and black hair…"

Yume almost sweat-drops. The kid looks at her a heck of a lot like Futaba did when they first met. "I love your blue hair. It's a really nice shade."

The kid raises a single eyebrow and Yume blinks back her awe because how does he do that? "T'ank you."

And now she wants to coo because he doesn't have his 'th' sound. "I'm-"

"How does'th red and black not mix'th?" the boy mutters, going on his tiptoes to try and see her roots. Yume yelps and holds still when he pushes her head down. "Be red or black."

"Yusuke!" snaps a voice, and suddenly the boy's off her person. "You don't touch people without permission." Yume looks up to see an aging man holding the boy's hand in the air by his wrist.

The boy's ducks his head. "Yes'th masther…"

"It's okay," Yume breaks in, hiding her concern behind a smile. The boy peeks up while the man turns. "No harm done! It's my fault for running into him."

The man frowns and turns back to the boy. "Apologize to the young lady for invading her privacy, and then come to the checkout."

The kids wait until the man is gone. The boy turns and gives a deep bow. "I'm s'th-orry for invading your privac'th-y."

Yume shrugs. "It was just my hair, so no harm done. I'm sorry for running into you."

The boy nods. "I forgive you."

Yume cracks a smile at how formal he is. "Thank you for apologizing. I'm Yume!"

"Kitagawa Yus'th-ke," he lisps. "I paint."

"Awesome! I sow!"

"Good art," he nods. "Good bye."

"Bye!" Yume waves until he's gone from sight. "Neat kid."

She does wonder why the small one's she's run into like her hair so much.

;;;

"Bye Haru!" Yume calls, waving until the limousine is out of sight. Then she sighs and starts the trek home. She's glad their idea worked, and now Haru has a list of activities she wants to do from her father. It's a little disheartening to think they won't be seeing each other almost every day after the recital. So, Yume is stuck in a purgatory of wanting these days to continue as they are while hoping she can one day do something to help the lonely rich girl who's been nothing but friendly since they've been acquainted.

Having her head bowed, she almost misses the pair of stationary legs she could have run into. Yume startles and jerks her head up to see who stands watching her out of reflex and-

-water and gasoline-

-she freezes in place.

"I'm sorry," Yume says to break what threatens to become a silence. Tetsuya blinks at her voice, his wide-eyed stare lessening. The feeling of two things that can't mix still runs up and down her spine, but it fades little by little so she keeps pretending that this isn't happening. "I'll get out of your way. Sorry."

"Hey, wait a second, kid," the teenager calls, jogging up to her. Yume tries not to tense as she turns back; it's easier with the feeling trickling away. "Are you alright? You look a little down."

Something in Yume flinches away, because this boy is plot. This is the main character. Of course the world conspires to drag her into it all. The girl straight-up said she'd challenge the mechanics yesterday in the Metaverse. Why wouldn't it challenge back?

This is also her best chance to learn. How does a person Persona properly? Strength in numbers and Takara – Madam Himura's – dungeon isn't exactly a tutorial dungeon. And, now that Yume won't ever unlock her other self, what's stopping her from dying a pathetic death in the other world? Being sneaky can only get a person so far. A one-person team does not win fights effectively.

Yume's mouth moves almost without her say-so. "One of my dance instructors, Takara Himura, er… Madam Himura isn't nice to a lot of us… I know I shouldn't let it get to me, but the other day…" Yume pauses and shakes her head. "Never mind. I'm sorry. Have a nice day, mister."

With that she leaves, chickening out. Yume scolds herself the whole way home, because that was her chance. She may not want to be involved, but the other dancers don't deserve to be put through the verbal abuse she hears in the hallways. One girl in Makoto's group actually ran crying to the bathroom. She could have said the words, the keys to the dungeon, and just let Tetsuya's group handle it.

And her excuses – what if they don't go into the dungeon; what if they fail; what if they die – seem weaker and weaker the more she beats herself up over it. She could have tried.

She could have… tried.

Yume goes into the Metaverse after a lonely dinner that night. The girl glares at all the large and flashy dungeons she can see from her apartment's roof. She turns away when her head starts to hurt, but only to turn a glare at her phone.

The nightclub a few blocks away if rather low leveled. Not as much as she'd like, but the nearest tutorial-level dungeon is an hour drive away. And that's the one with an address. All those in the Mementos happen in two paths, some on the same floor. There are three, too-easy levels on the Path of Qimranut. Another four spread around the Path of Aiyatsbus. The main problem, besides the many dungeons inside of Mementos, is the unlisted entrance. Yume has no idea how to go about getting under the Earth to access these dungeons.

There are two – three – problems Yume has with going to check out the nightclub. The first is the risk of running into more monsters on her way there. The second problem is the high-leveled hotel right next to it. The final problem – that she refuses to think of as a problem because she doesn't want to think of it – would be that, if she does consider this a tutorial dungeon, she would focus her efforts there instead of dealing with the cabaret.

And the cabaret does need to be dealt with, preferably before the recital.

"Look at me," Yume mutters, still glaring at her phone. "Setting a deadline and everything."

There are pluses to stopping Himura before the recital. Haru's father would probably be more inclined to let Haru choose her own activities after the reveal of the awful teacher. Makoto's father is a cop, and if the truth came out while Makoto was still dancing then he could get the woman charged, or the very least force a public apology, for the mental abuse of her students. And, Yume wouldn't have to take practices with the woman if she can clear the dungeon ahead of time; however unlikely that may be.

"Well, I have time to start sneaking next week," Yume mutters, glancing at the calendar on her phone. "The recital is on the fifth of June, and May starts this Sunday."

It feels like a lot of time, but she's worried.

"-telling you, hee ho. It's always Japan!"

Yume stiffens at the faint voice. Then she exits out of the Metaverse as fast as possible. "Nope."

That about makes up her mind. No walking to the nightclub unless she has to.

;;;

Tetsuya holds up his phone to the group in the Library. "Thoughts?"

"We can't take on another palace," Daichi says sternly. The teen looks around and sees only Tae agree with him. "We can't. Ignoring that we don't have all the information we need about this dance teacher, we have to start preparing for the trip to the marine center."

"That's a few weeks away," Kayo says, pursing her lips. "I could start looking into it on the side while you guys prepare."

"We don't have time to take on another palace," Tae breaks in, lifting her head up from the medical textbook. "We are nowhere near close to finding the treasure in the hotel, and that should be our first priority. Until we finish what we've started, this shouldn't be a topic of discussion."

"What do you think, Hitoshi?" Hiroki asks, curious. "You've been rather silent all night."

The man sighs and leans forward, clasping his hands on the table. He stares for a few seconds before explaining. "My mother's neighbor goes to that dance studio. She's just a kid; not even six, I don't think. How old was the kid you saw?"

"Not school age," Tetsuya replies.

"So we help," Sadayo says, popping her gum and swinging her legs off the table to stand, "because I would kill someone who didn't save my younger sister from a palace ruler if they had the chance."

"It's not that simple," Daichi stresses.

"No," Hitoshi interrupts. "It is. You guys start preparing for the marine palace, and I'll look for clues to the new palace."

"I'll help too," Kayo says with a shrug. "It's not like I can do anything to help you guys in the marine center. The least I can do is start looking into this Takara Himura."

"Um," Mary holds up her hand to get their attention. "I can get information for both. Just remind me to give you them, alright?"

"Thank you," Tetsuya says to her with a small smile. She returns it before hiding behind her blue, goggle mask. "Daichi, I know you and Tae have been stressed with your studies, and you don't have to be part of the research for this. We are the Phantom Thieves, though. We're doing this to help people, and we can't just ignore a palace."

"Especially one with kids going in and out all day," Sadayo throws in.

"You know it's not that," Daichi sighs and shakes his head. "Whatever. Let us know how the search goes."

"Will do," Kayo nods, and then turns to the other adult. "Make sure you talk to your mother's neighbor."

"I will this weekend," Hitoshi confirms.

Tetsuya nods and stands. "Then that's all we had to talk about. Thank you guys for coming."

"We're going to the Mementos soon, right?" Hiroki asks.

Tetsuya nods again and walks towards the Librarians' counter. "Yes. I've just got to talk with Tristan and Sofia. There are a few things I need to ask."

Specifically if they know why he felt so strange – stranger than his normal foreshadowing feeling – when he met the small girl from the dance studio.

A/N: Thanks for reading! I've forgotten how much I love just sitting down and writing. Anyway, two more character introductions incoming; one next chapter and one after that. Any guesses as to who?

Thank you, quirkydragonfly, for your review! That would be a great story to read, but unfortunately Yume isn't; she's just a 'normal' person from a world with Persona as games. I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and thank you again for your review!