N/A: New chapter! Also: This chapter was beta'd by Immortal Thunder! You all remember the Dialogue rules right? HUZZAH

*April 29th, Friday, Afternoon*

The next few days went by without much incident. On the previous Monday, he was practically forced into joining a cultural club. Yu however, really did not want to join the band again, not that he had anything against Ayane, of course, it was mostly just the fact that the most of the people in the band were really judgy. He looked at the Drama Club, but decided against it in the long run. Sure, he might have the ability to change his Persona, and thus his personality, at will, but then where would the fun be in that? The Fool wanted to do something new. A trip to the teacher's lounge informed him that the Home Economics club recently ended, with all the clubs members leaving with the third years, and with a little bit of (reluctant) help from Hope, he was able to start his own Cooking Club. They would meet Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays for around an hour, starting next week.

Today, however, was a day that Yu had been waiting for. He had trained since his stay in Inaba the last year, and he refused to give up on his goal. Hope and Chie were supporting him, one on each side of the Wild Card. Only one emotion could be seen on his friends faces. Concern. They had asked him if he was sure about this, if he really thought he was ready. Yu answered in the affirmative, determined to do what he needed to do.

He took a deep breath in, and then with as much bravery he could muster, called out "ONE MEGA BEEF BOWL, PLEASE!" The shout gathered all the attention in the Chinese Diner, and very quickly the restaurant had gathered around Yu as the chef slowly brought out the Mega Beef Bowl. There were several people calling out encouragement, and once he had the chopsticks in hand, a chanting started in the crowd, as was custom for the challenge.

"NIKU SUNPO! NIKU SUNPO! NIKU SUNPO!"

"Itadakimasu!" Yu called out, and began savagely attacking the bowl. Hope watched in awe, while Chie looked on in admiration. She had tried tackling the Rainy Day Mega Beef Bowl Challenge before, and didn't even make a dent in the massive amount of meat. It was, as the crowd was chanting, like a portal to the Meat Dimension. Yu was a beast, tearing into the dish with all of his might. From her point of view, he treated the meat like he treated Shadows. He pulverized, decimated, and annihilated the meat. It was slightly scary, and if she was honest, kind of hot.

She looked over at Hope to get his thoughts on the challenge, but as she opened her mouth to speak to him, Hope's eyes glazed over, and the expression on his face was one of fear.

*Flashback*

Giant jaws descended on the small pack of Uridimmu, turning the beast into chunks of meat as the beast cried out it's last cry. The Humbaba finished eating the Uridimmu, then turned its attention to him and his allies. He was terrified. But they were counting on him, he was the leader of the party this time. He couldn't let them down. Hope cried out to his teammates. "Guerrilla!"

A deep purple glow came over him, and in his peripheral vision, he saw the gray and blue glows meaning a successful Paradigm shift. Synergist. He thought, as he threw several spells at his comrades behind him. "Protect! Haste! Enfire!" He learned his lesson from the last battle with the dreaded Humbaba, the spells 'Watera' and 'Blizzara' did not do damage and did half damage respectively. Fire, and it's upgraded version, Fira, however did do damage to the beast. Double the damage in fact.

Once the three of party members had been buffed, he called out again to his comrades. "Relentless Assault!" A blue glow washed over him, and over one of his other allies. A red glow went towards the other ally. Ravager. His goal was to stagger the beast, to make it more susceptible to spells and attacks. He was joined by the other Ravager, who flew past him along with the Commando of the party. A flash of Pink jumped around the Humbaba, striking it with the physical Ravager spells, as he threw the magical spells. With the Commando's lance now enchanted with Fire thanks to his buff, the beast was quickly staggered, causing the leader of the party to call out "Smart Bomb!"

The only real change to the glows was the Commando's changing to a gray glow. The now Saboteur continuously threw the same five spells to debilitate the behemoth, Deprotect, Deshell, Slow, Poison, and Imperil. With the spells now dealing more damage to the beast, he knew the debuffs successfully stayed on the beast. It was time to finish the fight.

"Aggression!" Hope's glow stayed Blue, while the other Ravager's and Saboteur's glow changed to red, marking them now as Commandos. The assault continued, with Hope raining down 'Fire' spells as the Melee attackers descended upon the beast. It was almost over, and he felt joy and pride at the fact that the dreaded mark, Humbaba was destroyed under His leadership, not the infinitely stronger Fang's or the amazingly fast Light's. Hope's.

As Hope was about to throw the final spell, a large wind started up and launched the fighters into the air. Oh no. He had forgotten, at low health, the strongest of the Behemoths stood up. The beast grabbed it's horn and yanked. In the past, Hope would have been confused, but now the fear he had initially felt had come back with full force. As the horn gave way, it was revealed to be a giant sword, which it promptly used against the party slamming the broad side of the sword into his allies, flinging them away from the beast. Due to the sword just barely missing him, he fell to the ground below him, the force of the wind following the blade to spin him around. He was sure if the situation had not been so dire, the sight would have been comical. The impact of the ground took away his breath and as he struggled to get up. We're gonna die, it's all my fault. We're gonna die here!

Hope looked up and saw the beast closing in on him, it's giant jaws opening at the sight of the snack in front of it. His vision started to fade and his body swayed. He tried to place his hand down to try and catch himself only to fall. Confused, he looked down to his arm to investigate what happened. It's… gone. In his right arms place, was a rather large pool of blood. I guess the blade didn't exactly miss me.

The beast was upon him now, he was sure of it. His vision was covered in white.

"Hope?" He heard a woman's voice. ...Mom?

"Is that you… Mom? Don't worry… I'm coming to be with you." Hope spoke as his breath grew shallow, .

"Hope!"

"Hope!"

*End Flashback*

"HOPE!"

The Velvet Fool opened his eyes, seeing Yu and Chie… on top of him? "W-what happened?" He asked. Almost immediately after he closed his mouth, his head began to throb, signaling the pain his always felt after regaining a memory. He subconsciously ran his hand up his right arm, comforting him from the memory he just had."Oh. Sorry…" Hope sat up as he noticed himself on the floor of Aiya, a decent crowd around them, shock and worry on the face of the majority of them. His face felt wet, so he reached up to wipe the wetness away. He was crying.

Quickly, Hope got up and ran from the diner and into the rain, embarrassed and ashamed. He had distracted Yu from his challenge, and probably embarrassed him in front of that group of people. He kept running and running, all his thoughts leaving him except for a select few.Run. Breathe. Don't Stop. Run. Why? Keep Running. Don't. RUN. Stop.Hope looked up, and noticed he was at the Samegawa riverbank. The singular awning was empty and he quickly took cover under it. He panted from the exhaustion and slammed his head down on the wooden table.

His phone rang. He ignored the ringing. Only a few people had his number. Yu, Yosuke, Kou and Daisuke. At this point, probably Chie, as Yu was now looking for him. He let it ring. Eventually it stopped, only to start up again. He ignored it again.

"You really messed up this time Hope."

"Hope-san?" Called a voice. He sat up and looked at towards the voice. "Oh did I startle you?" The girl sat across from him, closing her umbrella. He knew her name, he was sure of it.

"I'm sorry, I'm not the best with names, but you're Yukiko-san, right?" He asked. She nodded.

"I think we've only met outside of school one other time." She offered as an excuse which he gladly took.

"And what a disaster that was." Hope dryly told her. Yukiko gave a small smile.

"It was indeed. Hopefully next time it will be a bit better." There was a pause, then an "Oh no…" A hand moved to her stomach, the other to her mouth as her eyes widened. Is she gonna throw up? He worried. His worry however was unnecessary. "Hahahahahaha!" She laughed loudly, and used her whole body when doing so. Her eyes were filled with mirth, and she moved the hand covering her mouth to her thigh as she slapped it. The boy had no clue what was so funny.

The continuous laughter eventually caused Hope to start laughing as well, the sheer absurdity of the day catching up to the boy. "Hahahahaha!" it had been much too long since the boy had laughed, the noise sounding foreign to his own ears. After time had passed, the two had stopped laughing. The atmosphere now much lighter, Yukiko started to talk to Hope.

"What are you doing out here?" Came the innocent question that Hope didn't want to answer. They were on the same team, and she already knew of his situation, so it shouldn't be that bad for him to tell her… Right?

"You remember what I told you the other day?" It was a rhetorical question, but she nodded anyway."Well, sometimes when I regain memories, the memories that are really intense drag me into them. It's like I'm watching through a different person, a first person movie if you will. I am seeing through the old me's eyes, and remember what I was thinking then. When it gets like this, I have no control of my actual body. So, I was with Yu-sama and Chie-kun, who decided to do that challenge that Aiya has on rainy days, and as he began to eat, I was pulled into a memory. And when I came out of it, the entire group that was chanting for Yu was now surrounding me instead. I left before I could cause them anymore embarrassment." Hope simply stayed silent after he told her his story.

Yukiko sat there for a moment before getting up and walking over to the other side. She did nothing but sat next to him. Not knowing what she was doing, Hope shrunk down on himself, trying to do the impossible and hide from the person right next to him. He was completely unprepared when the unexpected happened. She hugged him. "It's going to be okay Hope-kun…" she whispered into his ear, comfortingly stroking his hair.

W-what is she doing? Why is she… hugging me?

Eventually, Hope felt his face get wet, and his body was shaking. The Velvet Fool's chest felt heavy, and he was slightly confused, until he heard Yukiko whisper, "It's okay, let it all out." He was crying. And once that realization his him, he openly sobbed. He cried, and cried, about how unfair it was, for both him and the others, about his lost memories, and about his previous friends and family. He cried until he couldn't cry anymore. Yukiko didn't let go the entire time, and simply comforted him. "Better?" She asked, with a simple smile on her face. And if Hope was being honest with himself, he was.

"You know what? Yeah, I do." And for a brief second time stopped.

"Thou art I... And I am thou... Thou hast established a genuine bond... The innermost power of the Priestess Arcana has been set free. With this bond, the truth of who you are grows ever closer. Remember young one, I am always with you. Whether you believe it or not, Time is on your side."

And with those words spoken to him by the mysterious voice that accompanied by the Social Link being Maxed out, he remembered the specifics of one of the spells he used in his most recent memory. Haste.

"Thank you… Yukiko." And they sat there together until the rain let up.

AN:/ Please leave a Review, so that way I can better my content for all of you! Let your voice be heard! I will most likely reply to the review as well, so, until next time~

TheFallenAlphaAngel