Mitsuha

"What is this. . . ?"

Taki stares at the shaky name written on his hand. Mitsuha? Who's that? And why's her name on his hand? His right hand, for that matter—speaking of, he doesn't remember his right arm being this sore after finishing up with Yukiko's Castle. He can hardly muster any strength when forming a fist.

Only after a few moments of opening and closing his hand and rotating his arm in its socket does he notice that he apparently went to bed in his school uniform.

"What. . . ?"

"What?!"

Over breakfast, Taki stares at his phone as he reads and rereads a diary entry he has no recollection writing. Went to the TV World yesterday to do some training and help Yukiko learn? By his count, that should be the plan for today—just yesterday, they had defeated her Shadow.

"What is going on?!"

At lunch, however, the rest of the Investigation Team looks at him strangely when he mentions taking Yukiko into the TV World for the first time later today.

"You remember how to get to the TV World now, huh?" Chie asks lightheartedly.

Yosuke joins in with a grin. "Forget that, at least he remembered how to get to school today!"

"What are you two talking about?" Taki asks a bit aggressively. "Wait, did one of you mess with my phone?" Before either Chie or Yosuke can answer, Taki decides it might be better to just drop the subject. "You know what—never mind. Let's meet up at Junes after school today. I've got a few things to do before then."

Taki hastily packs up his belongings and leaves.

"I don't know Taki too well, but he certainly was acting strange yesterday, wasn't he?" Yukiko wonders. "But it looks like he's back to normal."

"I think he was kind of. . .cute, yesterday," Yosuke says with a blush.

Chie gapes at him, unsure of how to even respond.

Mitsuha stares at her hand. And her forearm. In hastily scrawled handwriting is a series of questions she mostly certainly didn't write on herself.

Mitsuha? Who are you? What are you?

So whoever wrote this is asking who she is—understandable, to a degree. But what's with that third question? 'What are you?' Is it asking if she's a thing, or is her questioner starting to get philosophical?

On cue, there's a short knock at her bedroom dorm before it swings open, hinges slightly protesting.

"Well, at least you aren't, uh. . ." Yukari stammers as she struggles to find her words. ". . .feeling your own boobs today," she finally finishes, her voice getting smaller and smaller. "Anyways, you better get ready soon, or we'll be late."

The door closes, leaving Mitsuha with her jumbled thoughts, a series of questions written in marker, and the implications of Yukari's words.

Mitsuha wraps her arms around herself, as if to protect herself from unwanted gropers, or even her own hands.

"M-my boobs?!"

"Morning," Mitsuha mumbles as she makes her way into the classroom.

At the sound of her voice, all chatter in the room ceases and Mitsuha can feel all eyes on her. She slowly makes her way to her desk, where Yukari is already waiting.

"I feel like everyone's staring at me for some reason. . ."

The corner of Yukari's mouth quirks upwards. "Well, you did kind of make a scene yesterday."

"Wha. . . ?"

Mitsuha and Saori sit at the desk in the library together, but it's clearly obvious that the few students using the library are avoiding Saori. It's obvious enough that even Saori notices, and the ostracization makes her feel uncomfortable.

She looks down at the desk, slightly hunched over as if to make herself smaller. ". . .Hey, Mitsuha? Would it be okay if I asked you to take care of the counter yourself? There aren't many people here today. . . .And. . .it seems like nobody wants me checking their books out anyway, so. . .I'll go put the book returns back on the shelves."

Just behind the shelves within earshot, both girls can hear a group of boys gossiping and staring.

"Is she the one that was in the magazine. . . ?"

"You hung out with her? . . .Seriously?"

"She'll do anything if you ask. It's like she can't say no."

Mitsuha rockets out of her seat, fists clenched and blood pumping. "I'm going to punch them."

Saori grabs Mitsuha to stop her. "N-no, don't. It's not going to change anything. I was a fool. . .thanks. I'm really happy that you're willing to stand up for someone like me. . . .Everything about that article is a lie. . .all those things about having sex and seducing boys and acting superior. . .I don't care how other people see me. . . .But I want you to know that."

The tension leaves Mitsuha's body and she lets herself relax. She turns back to Saori. "I believe you."

Saori smiles weakly. "Thank you. . .as long as you understand, I don't need anything else. . . ."

No. This isn't right. None of this is fair. Just because Saori was two years older than everybody else in her class, she was shunned and excluded. Saori is kind, if a bit formal, and is undeserving of the bullying and slander. But nobody else knows the truth.

The truth. . .that's it!

Mitsuha grabs Saori by the hand and drags her out of the library.

"W-wait! Where are we going?" Saori frets even as she lets herself get swept up in Mitsuha's pace.

"To tell the truth!"

"I. . .I. . .I did what. . . ?" Mitsuha's grip on her chopsticks goes slack, and the egg held between them flops back into her bento box.

"Yeah, you took Saori and stormed the broadcast room! And when the teachers tried to stop her, you almost picked a fight with Mr. Ekoda! Man, what I'd pay to see the look on his face then!" Junpei raves.

"I'm glad everything about her got cleared up," Yukari admits. "I wish I were as brave as you were, Mitsuha. You've been doing an excellent job leading us with SEES, but I never imagined you'd do something like that outside of the Dark Hour."

"Yeah, uh. . .me neither," Mitsuha nervously laughs.

The minute Mitsuha returns to the dorm, she makes a beeline for the stairs and her room, completely ignoring Mitsuru and Ikutsuki in the lobby. In the relative safety of her room, she flips through her notebook, her own relatively neat handwriting interrupted by a boy's messy scrawl. She settles on a page where her family and friends are listed and described, as well as a rather decent drawing of a torii gate.

"Huh?! Could this. . .could this mean. . . ?"

Taki rapidly swipes through the diary entries on his phone, noticing a pattern of his own entries alternating with entries he knows he didn't write—what's with all of the heart emojis, anyways?

"No, no, no, no! Could this mean. . .that we're really. . .?"

Mitsuha stares intently at those unfamiliar notes in her notebook, shock draining the color from her face as she slowly puts the pieces of the puzzle together. It seems impossible, but after everything that's happened during her short time in Iwatodai she can't dismiss any possibility.

"That we're. . .in our dreams, that guy and I. . . !"

Taki can feel himself break out into a cold sweat as everything clicks into place. He didn't feel this way when he suddenly learned he would have to leave his home behind for a year, or even when he ended up inside a TV and had to fight for his life against monsters. Despite such a fantastical experience, his mind still struggles to wrap itself around his realization.

"That we're. . .in our dreams, that girl and I. . .!"

". . .We're switching places?!"

Mitsuha's finally realized what's going on. This Taki is in high school, living in some town called in Inaba. He's also a transfer student, who's had to leave his home of Tokyo because of his dad's work. She can't help but feel like there might be someone out there with a sense of humor listening in on her, and they decided to throw her a bone in regards to her offhand comment to Junpei.

Most importantly, however, is the fact that they both seem to have gotten caught up in their own predicaments revolving around Personas and Shadows. In Taki's case, it seems after a pair of bizarre murders he found his way into the TV World, where he and the rest of the Investigation Team use their Personas to save others who end up there. And on rainy nights, by watching a turned off TV at midnight, it's possible to see who the next victim will be.

Any memories of the switches get more and more hazy after she wakes up, yet the strange reactions of the people around her only confirm her hypothesis. So, in order to protect each other's way of life, she and Taki established some ground rules for each other. Things to watch out for, and a list of stuff they should never do.

Mitsuha sighs, yet again, as she reads another entry from Taki. "And yet. . ."

Taki's begun to recognize a vague pattern to these switches he's experiencing. Maybe two or three times a week, he and Mitsuha will randomly switch places. It always occurs after they fall asleep, but otherwise, the cause is unknown. Mitsuha is originally from some place called Itomori, somewhere out in the boonies, but somehow finagled her way into an exchange program of some sort at Tatsumi Port Island. It's either quite a coincidence or some cosmic joke that the two of them, who moved from the city to the country and vice versa, are switching places and ending up back in familiar environments.

Perhaps the most interesting coincidence is that just like him, Mitsuha is a Persona user—a Wild Card, in fact. Over in Tatsumi Port Island, she and SEES experience what's called the Dark Hour, a 25th hour that occurs when midnight strikes. He's yet to experience it in Inaba, so he imagines that the effect might be constrained to Iwatodai. During this time, Mitsuha and SEES explore the massive tower known as Tartarus, while exterminating larger Shadows when the moon is full.

In addition to the rules he and Mitsuha established, they also agreed to leave reports on their phones on the days they switch, so that they can work together to get through this weird thing that's happening.

Taki furrows his brow in consternation as he reads Mitsuha's latest diary entry. "And yet. . ."

"I cannot believe this guy!"

"I cannot believe this girl!"