Daichi: I'm not sure why I keep coming back to this one… I think it's because nobody really knows what's going on?

Verity: To be fair, I've seen more confusing universes. Mostly involving a greater degree of crossover material, but still….

Tsukaimon: Don't own these things. Probably should not have been allowed within three feet of these things.

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Exam week at Gekkoukan High was a time for students to panic. To pour over their textbooks like there was no tomorrow. To focus on studying. And, as such, very little would generally happen at school during that week.

Except, of course, for one third year class, which, on the first day of exams, was entered by someone that nobody could remember ever setting foot in that room, who walked straight over to one of the desks near Akihiko and Mitsuru.

"Hey. This seat open?"

"Shinji? What are you doing here?"

"What does it look like? I'm taking the exam." He didn't seem all that happy about it, but all things considered, that was probably to be expected.

"You haven't come to school at all this year," Mitsuru pointed out. "In fact, it is only my connections, and Akihiko's insistence, that keeps you enrolled. Which is why I wonder why you've returned now, of all days."

Shinjiro sighed. "Because I've had things to deal with recently, but if I get held back this year, I'll be in the same graduating class as my girlfriend." Which explained exactly nothing.

Actually that just opened even more questions. "Wait, girlfriend?"

"Yes, Aki. People have those sometimes when they don't see all the girls around as distractions."

Now, normally, this would have devolved into an argument. And it would have, were it not for the teacher choosing that exact moment to come through the door.

It was a quip of perfect timing. And their more observant classmates, to this day, would insist that Shinjiro had planned the whole thing. Which was, of course, ridiculous. After all, not even Minako Arisato, the craziest girl in Gekkoukan who knew everything, could predict people down to the second.

Well, not that she showed, anyway. It was hard to tell sometimes.

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Satoko had not been having a good week. In fact, she'd been having a downright boring week, because she couldn't go to Tartarus. Hadn't been to the tower, in fact, since some time before exams, as Minako had apparently lost her Evoker someplace, and going in without their field leader was deemed to be suicide.

She could understand why, given the number of Shadows about the place, but she'd been tempted to slip out a few times if not for the fact that the high school dorm was much harder to slip out of than the middle school one.

Souji didn't seem to care. "So, you're upset about not being able to risk your life every night… why, exactly?"

"It's either the adrenaline or my Pokemon instincts," She admitted. "It's hard to tell- some of my earliest memories involve this kind of thing."

"Your life is weird."

"It's actually not that bad once you get past the whole 'no memories before the age of ten' thing."

"Every time I hear about this sort of thing, I get a little more worried for your sanity."

"But that means you care, right?" Satoko asked. Souji didn't respond, instead paying more attention to his lunch. Which she admitted was a good idea.

Perhaps she'd go for a nice run after school or something. It wasn't like she risked running into trouble or anything- she could crack a person's ribs by accident. Which she knew from experience, thank the competent gods for Dia.

'At what point did you start using that modifier?'

'Long as I can remember. So Mew probably had something to do with it.'

'True. He wasn't exactly deity material whichever way you look at it. Too immature.'

'I mean, to be fair, if I had unlimited power…'

'It is a very good thing that you don't.' Well, she couldn't exactly deny that statement. Even Souji, Meiko, and Ken, who at this point knew more about her than anyone else in this world, seemed to be split on whether she was a genius or crazy.

Personally, her money was on both.

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"Arisato, what are you doing?" Mitsuru asked, standing at the entrance to the kitchen as Minako seemed to be intent on making seven dishes at once.

"A friend of mine asked me to deliver some cooked meals for them," Minako tried to explain. "Only they require more food than one kitchen can make, really, if I want to make as few deliveries as possible. So I have to assist with the cooking, as well. Don't worry, all compensation for the groceries came out of my own pocket."

It was a bit more complicated than that. For the sake of not scrambling people's minds or accidentally dumping them into the collective unconscious, they were only permitted to leave the Velvet Room from the same entrance that they came in. Which meant they couldn't simply have Sho walk through, never mind that it would mean abandoning his Star Social Link.

With the peaceful method rendered nonviable, the alternative was a breakout, and Minako preferred for as few people to know of her capabilities as possible. Shinjiro had volunteered, but that ran into a similar problem, as Castor was fairly recognizable by anyone who had bothered to dig through the old files, and in that sort of facility, that meant everyone.

This left Sho himself. Well, technically, it meant Minazuki, as that was the personality that currently had a Persona, though Sho's contract would fix that soon enough.

Except, without food, he wouldn't have the strength to summon, which was significantly harder than the matter of the Evoker- Satoko and Ken technically had them just in case, and nobody noticed her slipping around the girls' floor, nor would the jackal-girl ever notice it was missing.

Unfortunately, getting at Ken's would be majorly more difficult, even not counting the snake, so it had still been her personal Evoker that she slipped into Fuuka's bag, which brought up the usual complications, but she was used to those.

It had been Lavenza, taking a break from taking advantage of the time loop to travel the world, who pointed out the obvious solution: If they could smuggle an Evoker to him, why not get him food?

She had then ducked out of the Room and back to Italy before they could bring up the obvious question of where they'd get enough food to regularly feed a kid until was healthy enough to summon a Persona and break out of a secret lab facility, but the idea'd had merit, even if it meant everyone in on the loop with access to a kitchen had to cook all through exams.

There was also the fact that, if this failed, there was now a door to the Velvet Room in the basement of a secret lab facility. So if nothing else, they'd be able to set Elizabeth on them.

Hopefully, it didn't come to that. Nobody deserved to have Elizabeth set on them.

"And your exam grades will not suffer for this?"

"Senpai, I could have not attended school until exams, and I am still confident that I would have correctly answered all of the questions provided." She wasn't sure whether or not she was exaggerating, actually- she'd never personally tried that for reasons involving not wanting to be an ice cube. But it was something Shinjiro had pulled off before, and likely would again this year, so it was a fairly safe assumption to make.

What she wouldn't give for a normal life. But sometimes, the way things were did have their perks.

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Daichi: When you think about it, the friendship between Satoko and Souji is a pretty good mirror for Minako and Shinjiro's relationship- an insane girl who's pretty much a genius trapped in a bad situation, and a guy who gets constantly dragged around by her crazy.

Verity: Dragged, in this case, meaning...?

Daichi: Mina started dating Shinji mainly for his cooking. And then he showed up looking for her at the start of the next year. They rolled with it.