Daichi: And this is where things start changing. Not that it's the most interesting planned change, the Gekkoukan trip's going to be fun...

Verity: We don't own anything.

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Souji pushed himself up, and tried to figure out where he was. Except for the little problem of being completely surrounded in fog. That was strange. It wasn't supposed to fog up again for another five hours.

Souji reminded himself that he had just fallen through a television set, and that maybe trying to apply reality was a bad idea. "Are you two okay?"

"I'm fine," Chie stated. Yosuke just groaned. Today just wasn't their day, it seemed. At least there was a conveniently placed mattress.

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Ryoji enjoyed his days off. They were a chance to relax, even if he generally didn't return home for some time for the sake of not sitting in an empty space filled with fog.

Okay, so it was apparently a TV studio, now. That didn't change the fact that there was nothing to do aside from homework, and he'd never enjoyed homework. Metis did, but he suspected that she used the internet to cheat, at least when she was in a place that got internet.

Today, however, didn't seem like one where he would get to relax. "Um... Mochizuki-senpai?" Naoki asked, "Have you seen my sister at all today?"

He'd noticed that Saki wasn't in class. It was hard not to notice, given that she normally sat in front of him. "She didn't come to school. The last time I saw her, our shift had just ended."

Naoki frowned at that. "I was hoping you knew where she was. She never came home last night, and I'm kind of worried. Especially since..." Ryoji had been trying not to think about that.

Well, he had a plan for his day, now. Find Saki Konishi. Even if he had to search two worlds to do it.

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Souji kept one hand gripping the railing at all times. Things were just falling apart right now. Yosuke was panicking, Chie seemed to be too curious for her own good, and he just wanted to go home. Preferably to someplace that things made sense, although he wasn't entirely sure such a place existed in Inaba.

At least they'd left the room with the noose in it. That had just been creepy.

"So, which direction did we come in from, again?" Yosuke asked.

"Up."

"...Besides that." Souji shrugged, although he wasn't certain that the others could see it. He could barely make out their outlines in the fog.

"I think it was... east, maybe?" Chie suggested. It did seem to be as good an idea as any.

As they walked, eventually Souji began to hear an odd squeaking noise. "Do either of you hear that?"

He thought Chie nodded, but couldn't really be sure. "It's getting closer." A round shape appeared in the fog, although Souji couldn't quite think of what it might be.

"Who are you guys? Did you fall through a portal or something?" The creature tilted his head to the side, voice questioning.

"It was his fault!" Chie immediately declared, pointing at Souji. "He's the one that opened the portal."

"You and Yosuke knocked into me. I wouldn't be here otherwise." Yosuke, meanwhile, buried his face in his hands.

"I knew I shouldn't have gotten up today... so... Mr. Bear... do you know a way out of here?" The bear- and Souji was surprised Yosuke could tell what he was, given that he could barely see- nodded.

"I've still got a portal open from this morning. Follow me. My name's Teddie, by the way." It didn't occur to any of them to ask why Teddie would have opened a portal that morning. With Souji, at least, it was because he was simply too tired to care.

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Ryoji had looked everywhere for Saki, and came to the conclusion that she was not, in fact, in Inaba. Which was bad, given the circumstances. The most likely place for her to be was in the other world, and as far as he knew, she didn't have a Persona.

If he could find the television she fell through, he'd be able to get directly to her location. It was someplace between Junes and the liquor store... which really didn't narrow it down all that much. There were far too many paths she could possibly have taken.

In the end, he decided to walk the equivalent distance in the Shadow world and see if Teddie could catch her scent. It was a lot more reliable than wandering aimlessly, and they could get her out immediately if things started going wrong.

Because of course they would.

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Saki didn't like this place much. The voices were one thing. She knew people said those things about her. They said the same about everyone else who worked at Junes except for Ryoji, and most of them didn't know Ryoji, or had some other reason to complain about him.

The odd creatures there, though... she noticed another one of those balls with the giant tongues and ducked back into the false version of her home.

"They won't go away, you know," Her lookalike stated, leaning back on the counter. The other Saki had showed up several hours ago, and also wouldn't leave. Or just shut up. "And nobody's going to find you here. Not that many of them would go looking."

She wasn't sure that was true. She thought that her parents might care, if she went missing. Her brother, certainly. The police would go looking, if only because it was their jobs. Everyone else? She didn't know.

"She's right this way!" Saki didn't recognize that voice, but it sounded like someone was coming. The other her dropped her composure for a moment. She would have made a run for it if she weren't worried about tripping over something or someone in the fog.

"Thanks, Teddie. Now, stay outside for a bit, okay? I'll need you on hand if things get bad." She knew that voice. She didn't know why Ryoji would be there, though.

"But there's a powerful Shadow in there! How can I help?"

"You can give us a quick retreat, and once we're gone, the Shadow won't hurt you." That said, Ryoji stepped in the door. Saki really didn't know what to think at this point. "Hey, Saki-san. How did you get here?"

"Oh, it's Mochizuki. Tell me, do you expect him to actually be able to help? He can't even be bothered to work for half an hour without being distracted by a pretty girl."

"I'm not that bad..." Both Sakis glared at him. "I tried to tone it down... for a month... I'm just making this worse, aren't I?"

"You know, he's even more annoying than Hana-chan. At least he has an excuse for being so irritating. Mochizuki's just a pest!"

"That's not true..."

"Then why are you thinking it? Don't forget, I'm you. I know how you feel about people. And we are sick of the shenanigans pulled by Ryoji Mochizuki!"

"Sh-shut up! There's no way... you can't be me!" The other girl laughed, and the room's sole human realized she had made a grievous error about the same time the glowing dragon knocked an entire shelf down on top of her.

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It was immune to Mudo. Of course it was immune to Mudo. Why wouldn't it be? Everything else was, that had a decent amount of strength and that he would actively challenge.

He couldn't even concern himself with that at the moment, because he was busy dodging Agi spells, picking the shelf off of Saki, who looked to have a broken arm to go with the cuts from broken glass, and trying not to get her lit on fire by the residue of said Agi spells mixing with alcohol. It wasn't entirely working, but she was still alive, if rather burnt, and he'd take what he could get.

He didn't like physical skills much. They were far too messy for his tastes, and required being relatively close to the enemy. But given that Shadow Saki seemed to be charging up a Mahamaon, well... what did he have to lose?

"Okay, change of plans, Thanatos! Tempest Slash!" At least the dragon had lost her concentration. The attack wasn't anywhere near as powerful as it could have been. This was bad, as he was working on a time limit. The fog would clear in less than an hour. At that point, every Shadow in the area would converge on their location.

At times like this, Ryoji wished he knew somebody with Dia spells. Or that he had a proper weapon. Preferably both. Though he did have one type of magic that would still work, If a bit too destructive to be practical in just about any setting.

"Megidola!" The dragon was gone, and the Shadow of Saki remained. The human Saki shifted, but couldn't quite get up.

"That... it's not..." Ryoji sighed.

"If it helps, I met one of these my first time here, too. That's how I got Thanatos, actually... by confronting the side of myself I wish wasn't there. And I know I tend to rub people the wrong way." He shuddered, remembering Aigis. "You shouldn't worry so much about it."

"So that... that really is me? I... maybe she did have a point..." Ryoji didn't know what Saki's new Persona was called. He didn't particularly care, either. So long as they got out, and he could call an ambulance, everything would be fine.

Perhaps, if he kept telling himself that, it would even become true.

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Daichi: Next time, we see the fallout from Saki ending up in the hospital... she's not returning to school anytime soon. Also, Souji and Ryoji have their first meeting inside the television.