Author's Note: Pretty simple Chapter here. Mostly setting up for next chapter. Still some fun expostion to help fill you all in on the reasons for some things. Next one's gonna be a bit crazy.
"So, here we are," Yuuta commented awkwardly. It had been a few days since their last excursion into the Mirror World. Nanako, Miwa, and Yuuta all sat at a particular table at the Junes food court. There was overcast today but no expectation of rain. The three of them were not entirely sure where to start. How does one continue a conversation when monsters were involved? How does one start one?
Miwa finally broke the silence again, "So we are assuming that your Big Bro was involved in something like this?"
Nanako nodded. "I remember something that Teddie used to talk about something he called the TV World," Nanako recounted. "He used to claim that he was from it and I'd call him the king. After a while he talked about it less and less. I remember there being monsters when I was young, but I could never really wrap my head around it."
"Ok," Yuuta said hesitantly. "So do we tell them what we have run into?"
After a few moments, Miwa finally announced, "I think we should handle this on our own. They are all adults with lives. Involving them, or letting them know there is something to get involved in, might be bad. Besides they must have been out of this game for years."
"True," Yuuta responded sleepily. While the other two hid it much better, it was pretty clear that all three of them were still exhausted from that last visit.
"Besides," Nanako started, "It is possible that they might try to push us out of it. This all started as a search for the truth, not to cover up more of the truth."
The three of them became quiet again. "Do we really think that the three of us alone could do this?" Miwa asked. The doubt started to creep into their minds. Suddenly she perked up and stood up from her seat. "We need to make a promise!"
"Wha-?" Nanako asked. Where did Miwa keep all these bursts of energy?
Miwa grabbed her drink. "We have to promise each right here and now that we will see this through to the end on the honor of our friendship!"
Yuuta began to laugh after a brief pause. Even Nanako giggled as she picked up her own drink and stood. Miwa began to get a little bashful and seemed to falter for a moment but then with a renewed intensity lifted her drink.
Yuuta followed suit with Nanako and the three of them all lifted their drinks. "To the truth?" he asked.
"The truth," Miwa and Nanako agreed. Nanako felt a swelling of pride inside as the three of them sat back down but Yuuta seemed to be lost in thought.
"Yuuta-kun, you alright?" Nanako asked.
"Y-yeah. I just wanted to apologize for what my shadow tried to do to you. I got a part time job yesterday. At my old daycare actually. I told my mom that I was going to start contributing to the household so she could have a break every now and then," he explained.
"Hey, it is fine," Nanako replied. "And you got a job?"
Yuuta hummed a confirmation. "Mom told me I did not have to and I told her that I insisted. I have never felt her hug me so tightly before."
"That's great Yuuta-kun," Miwa congratulated. "As long as we are getting all confessional here, I guess I should tell you guys that I talked to my parents."
Nanako leaned forward and tried to read her friend's face. Nanako had been aware that Miwa and her parents had been on rough terms. It was part of the reason that Miwa was with Nanako and her father so much. Miwa's face did not betray her though.
"They are disappointed," she said flatly. "However, they acknowledge that if their lines of work are not my strong suit then there is no point in hurting my future further in trying to force me into pursuits that I have no particular talent in. So we agreed I would become a stripper in America."
Nanako almost spilled her drink overreacting to her friends joke announcement. Yuuta turned beet red and it became very apparent that his mind went immediately to the conclusion. Miwa finally broke, almost falling out of her chair. "No, but we are going to look around and see what I can find."
"That is great!" Nanako exclaimed while Yuuta continued to recover from his internal show.
"Hey," Yuuta started to say as he finally came back to earth. "Why didn't Nanako-chan have to face something like we did when we came here the first time?"
"True, you didn't. Why do you think that it?" Miwa asked.
Nanako shrugged. "I don't know. But there is something really weird about it. When I first summoned my Persona, the card that appeared before me had a different picture on it at first. A blade with a balance. It then turned into a laughing man. My persona told me it was called the Fool Arcana. What do yours look like?"
"I really don't know. It is like a man levitating a ball of flame," Yuuta responded. "My Persona Hyperion told me that I had the power of something called the Magician Arcana."
"Rhea told me something something similar. The Chariot Arcana, I think?" Miwa recounted uncertainty.
Yuuta then asked, "What is an Arcana?"
Nanako shrugged and pulled out her phone to look up the information. "Let's see. According to the internet the Arcana are related to the Tarot Cards. Tarot is used for fortune telling among other things. The Major Arcana which is looks like all of ours fall under, are the more important cards of the Tarot Deck as they generally hold extremely heavy implications and strong definitions for divination."
"Dumb it down for Miwa, Nanako-chan, talk to her like she is 5," Yuuta commented after seeing the mild look of confusion on Miwa's face.
Nanako took his suggestion at face value and re-explained, "Magic symbols, great power, and fortune telling."
Miwa nodded then when she realized she just got insulted seemed to get steamed up, much to the delight of her friends who got a good laugh out of her reaction. Things were not exactly business-as-usual for the trio. In fact things were better than they were before, what had once been a fairly superficial connection with Yuuta and a dedicated but simple friendship with Miwa, Nanako realized that despite the hardship they went through they came out stronger and closer together than when they went into it. A lot of things about her Big Bro's relationship with his friends was starting to become clearer if they truly were fighting monsters back then. However, simply knowing the reason was not yet enough to satisfy her quest for knowledge. Somehow, she needed to get more information on his adventures without revealing that she knows about Personas or other worlds.
"So how do we proceed from here?" Nanako asked. "What does our next step look like?"
"How should I know?" Miwa asked. "I mean we just kind fell into the first time. Do we just wait and to find out if we hear about anymore ransackings, maybe?"
Yuuta nodded. "We don't really have a way to stop it, so we might as well be on standby to help anyone else who gets sucked into the Mirror World," he offered. They all agreed this would be the best thing.
"I just wonder why only some people get sucked into it. Cause the soulmate angle just doesn't make sense to me," Nanako commented. "Something clearly has to be targeting those that get taken."
"If it does, I can't think of any reason for it. All the people involved are almost completely unrelated except for the fact that they played the Mirror Game in the first place," Yuuta replied.
"Do you think Yukine could have been a Persona-user?" Miwa asked quietly.
Nanako thought about this for a moment and then it occurred to her. "Why don't we go and ask Eiddet? She has been in the TV World all this time, if there is something we would need to know about it she would be our best bet."
"Let's go find her!"
The three of them made their way to the mirror aisle. When the coast was clear, they all went into the Mirror World. I area around the Mirror however was different. When first they had come here, the Mirror World's mirror aisle was dark, faded. However, it was now almost like a real mirror image to the aisle they had left.
"Eiddet?" Nanako called out. The squeaking of shoes caught all of their attentions.
"What?" Eiddet asked with a hint of frustration. "Why are you here?"
"We had some questions for you Eiddet. About the Mirror World?" Miwa offered.
Eiddet groaned and then replied, "Alright…?"
"Do you know why it pulls people in?"
"It doesn't. Next?"
"Wait, what?" Yuuta asked.
Eiddet looks at him and shrugs, "What do you mean, 'what?' I have been here for eight years, I would know if this world was just pulling people in like it was a thing to do."
"Then why did I get pulled in here?" Miwa asked. "Or Yukine-chan? Or the other guy?"
"I don't believe that it did, otherwise where is everyone who would be in here if it did?"
"Wait, Eiddet you have been in here for 8 years?" Nanako asked.
Eiddet nodded. "Ever since that damnable Teddie stepped out of his little TV World," Eiddet explained. "This has been my own little place. Well as long as I don't mind sharing it with the Shadows, but they usually don't mind me."
"Does that mean you are the dark side of Teddie?" Nanako reasoned.
"No," Eiddet replied a bit annoyed. "To be honest, I don't know what I am. Like I said, Shadows are not meant to have reflections. I shouldn't exist. But I do. But I sure as hell am not a shadow."
"Teddie is a shadow?" Nanako asked.
Miwa at the same time moved forward and pulled on the mascot head. "Then this should just about prove it," she exclaimed straining against the force that Eiddet used to hold it on. However it pulled off and revealed within was… a blond long-haired girl.
"No!" Eiddet shrieked. Pushing herself back into a corner hiding herself inside her mascot suit. "Give it back," she demanded quietly. The suit looked like it was stuck in the wall from the angle the three teens were seeing this display.
"Eiddet? You are a human?" Nanako asked still holding on to the now inanimate mascot head.
"No. Yes. I dunno. Give it back."
Nanako approached the girl in bear suit. "Will you please come out?"
"No. I'm naked. Nude. Give it back. Go away."
Nanako looked back at Miwa who understood and immediately grabbed Yuuta and pulled him back through the Mirror into the real world. "It is just us now, Eiddet. Please come out," Nanako asked gently. She took off her light jacket to hand to the girl in front of her.
Eiddet pulled the edge of the suit down and saw that Nanako was telling the truth and offering a jacket. Eiddet grabbed the coat and disappeared back into the suit. A few moments after, Eiddet finally emerged from her suit sitting against the wall with Nanako's coat on. Nanako took another look at the girl in front of her. The long blond hair framed a doll like face with skin like porcelain. Her eyes were a particularly light shade of blue.
"How much do you know about Teddie?"
"I… used to know everything about him. But the longer he was in your world, the less like his Shadow I was and the more like a stranger he became. I couldn't stand seeing him out there enjoying everything while I was stuck here. After a while, our connection became so weak he began to have his own reflection. I was left alone here without a person to be connected to. After a while, I grew to hate everything that he was. I still do. So here I am, unchanging and in stasis here. Until you people started showing up around here reminding me what it was like to have people around. It is why I kept pushing you out of here. It is painful having people around here after so long," Eiddet explained.
"Just one more question, then. How is Teddie a Shadow if he can be out in my world? Why does he have a human body?" Nanako asked.
Eiddet thought for a moment. "I am not entirely certain. Shadows are discarded emotions and pieces from a human. They only really look like their owner when in close proximity like what happened with your friends. I suppose it could be possible for a Shadow to become so independent of its creator that it could start mimicking humanity again. Especially if they were never denied just forgotten. Like I was until last week."
Nanako nodded. "Then I will leave you be, Eiddet. If anyone else falls in here, we'll take them back out. Keep the jacket," Nanako handed Eiddet the mascot head and then stepped back out into the real world.
"So, did we find anything out?" Yuuta asked upon Nanako's return.
"Eiddet is adamant that the Mirror World is not the thing pulling people in. On top of which, she has been pretty much alone in there for the last eight years. So people getting stuck in there only started happening recently. I just don't get it. Why now?" Nanako asked with the new information on hand.
"Well then it has to be a someone rather than a something right? I mean I wouldn't imagine that worlds just start changing their own rules," Yuuta said out loud, then suddenly an idea came to mind. "It would have to be a someone. If someone has written new rules for the world. It is like when a TV show gets a new writer and things change. The Featherman shows do this constantly especially between the various difference series. Someone has to be doing it."
"I guess that kinda makes sense, except Eiddet says she has been the only one there for 8 years besides the shadows. Who could make that change?" Miwa retorted.
"I dunno, that would depend on how changes can be made to that world," Yuuta replied.
Nanako shrugged. "Well it is a working theory for the time being, until then, I'll keep an eye out for any more reports of ransackings. Let's get out of this aisle before we attract attention again," Nanako suggested.
Nanako split away from the others to make her way home. However, on her way down the floodplain she came across a familiar mop of blonde. Shima.
"Shima-senpai?" she asked the upperclassman who appeared to just be blanking out in the gazebo. Her voice calling his name sounded far away in that moment to even Nanako until she saw him realize that he was not alone anymore.
"Dojima. What are you doing here?" Shima asked.
Nanako walked over to him as she replied, "I was just heading home and noticed you here. What are you doing out here?"
Shima shifted his weight slightly then got himself to sit up a little straighter. "To be honest, I was just letting time slip by. Nothing much else to do around here in Inaba," was his reply. However, Nanako noticed a small grimace appear and just as quickly disappear on his face. It looked like he was in pain.
"Are you alright senpai?" Nanako asked.
Shima's eyebrow raised for a moment at the question. "So you noticed that, huh?" he asked Nanako. She nodded. "Have you ever heard of Phantom Pain?" Shima asked. Nanako shook her head, a little nervous to speak as if to mess up this conversation.. "Have you ever had a leg fall asleep when your sitting on it weirdly? It gets all sensitive once you let blood flow return where temperature changes hurt like hell, physical contact is like being torn apart. Take that sensation, multiply it, and be ready for it to happen at any and all times in the place where you used to have a body part. Phantom pain."
"I'm sorry to hear that senpai," Namako apologized.
"Why?" Shima asked. "What do you feel you need to apologize for?"
"I don't know," Nanako answered. "I guess, it is just an impulse."
Shima hummed in response and the two of them fell silent. "So here is a question, if you don't mind my curiosity."
"Um, sure?" Nanako replied uncertainty.
"Why aren't you scared of me?"
"Huh?"
"You heard me. Why aren't you scared of me? Your two friends see me and shrink a full three inches in height. Yet you straighten up and face off against me? Everyone at that school shrinks around me. Why not you?"
Nanako simply smiled and replied, "Because beneath it all, I know there is a real person in there. You are not the first tough guy I've met, Shima. People are scared of the image you put out sure, but I know that you are more than that. As my Big Bro Kanji once said, 'I was just trying to look tough. But if I am going to be truly strong, I'm gonna start by not lying to myself.' He said that to me once when I asked him about why he was unbleaching his hair and dropping his leather coat look. But he taught me there is always more to people, especially like you."
"Huh, you may have a point. Too bad the real me is something I can never go back to," Shima commented as he stood up. "Look, I know it isn't my place to ask you for a favor, but you are pretty much the only person who I think would be able to make much of a difference. There is a classmate of mine named Shiho. Could you maybe find some time to talk with her. She doesn't have many friends around here and could use someone like you around." With that he started walking away before Nanako could respond. He heaved a sigh and Nanako watched his shoulders drop further. Something was bugging him. Was it something to do with this Shiho person? Nanako would need to ask her friends if they knew anything. But he was not going to open up to her. She sat there in thought for a while longer until finally she pushed Shima out of her mind. She would need to just go home for tonight.