NOTES: Happy Persona Revival Day! I was planning to update something this weekend, but figure this makes for a great excuse to listen to the P4 soundtrack and post a chapter of this fic. At long last, you can get yourself a copy of Golden on PS4 or Persona 3 Portable on Steam - whatever makes you happy!

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

By the time Ai finally got back in contact, she was screaming about the picture and demanding to know why she was having so much fun without her. It was hard not to feel guilty, considering she knew her girlfriend was mostly kidding but was a lot closer to the mark than she knew.

Coordinating via text, they were able to meet up by a takoyaki stall so they could begin searching out the rest of their party, all of whom were scattered to the winds by now. Kanji was closest, so they started pushing through the crowd in that direction.

"Yeah, I should probably apologize for coming down so hard on her," Ai admitted begrudgingly.

"You should. We both know they were only trying to help Naoto feel more comfortable being girly; she convinced herself she had to be a boy to be taken seriously as a detective, but I mean, I'm sure there are great women detectives!" Not that she knew of any…

"Hmm. I wonder." But that was all her girlfriend said on the subject for now. Instead of pursuing that, she smirked and nudged her with her elbow as they walked. "So are you ever going to tell me what's in that bag, and why you look like they ran a panty shot of you on the news?"

Flustered, Rise waved her free hand as she sputtered, "D-don't worry about it. I promise, I'll show you when we get back to the hotel!"

"Uh huh."

"I will! And hey, you already got a preview, remember? Be patient."

Ai smirked a little wider as she reached down to take that hand and give it a squeeze. "I'm the wrong bitch to ask to be patient. For you, though… I guess."

"Thank you," she said in an overly formal tone. They both laughed a little, enjoying that warm moment-

Before they began to hear the telltale sounds of Kanji freaking out. Glancing at each other in concern, they began to push through the crowds of shoppers in the sprawling marketplace until they reached a velvety tent. Sure enough, standing right outside the flap…

"You fuckin' threw your money away, God damn it!"

Who else but Naoto was standing across from him, expression a little pale but resolute as she folded her arms across her tightly-bound chest. Even now that they had unearthed her gender identity, she still made a regular habit of trying to appear as masculine as possible in spite of her trim frame and short stature.

"I believe it is my money to 'throw away' if I so choose. Isn't it?"

"You… that's… dumb!" He turned away slightly, crossing his arms even more tightly over his barrel chest — as gruff as was humanly possible. Of course, that's when he noticed the two girls approaching and looked like a kid with his hand caught in the cookie jar.

"What's dumb?" Rise asked in a tone that was deceptively sweet.

"Uhhhhhh nothin'."

With a heavy sigh, Naoto explained, "Kanji is expressing his disappointment that I decided to consult with a fortune teller."

"Who needs it?" he scoffed. "Just a buncha whack jobs that don't know shit. You make your own destiny, damn it!"

Trying to be patient with Kanji, Rise laid a hand on his forearm. "Yes, but it's Naoto's decision if she wants to talk to someone. And anyway, what's the harm? Even if whoever's in there isn't really psychic, maybe he still can help Naoto feel better?"

"She," Naoto corrected mildly. "Referred to herself as the 'Maiden of Relief'. I found her insights to be quite… enlightening. Also, at least now I have a souvenir."

They leaned in to observe the small box Naoto had just opened. Sitting on a bed of red velvet was a small stone, a light purple and iridescent. Kanji immediately scoffed and stood back up, but Rise couldn't help gasping at how beautiful it was, running her fingertip over its surface.

"Cool! Um, what is it?"

"A Holy Stone, or so she claimed. Honestly, I'm not convinced it has any supernatural or spiritual properties whatsoever, but I appreciated her assistance enough to purchase it regardless. As I said, a notable keepsake, if nothing more than that."

"A piece of trash," Kanji scoffed gruffly. But when Ai literally smacked the back of his head, he shouted, "HEY!"

And turned around to punch her. Not particularly hard; just across the shoulder. But it was enough to get Rise pushing him backward with both hands, a wild look in her eyes. He stumbled to a stop against the corner of a booth, clearly shocked at her retaliation.

"WHA-"

"Don't you ever do that to her again," she told him in a voice more vicious than she could ever remember using. "Or I'll never forgive you."

Lip curling slightly, he looked between the two of them before responding. Every word made the blood rushing in Rise's ears grow louder. "Why the hell not? I mean, we all know what he's rockin' under that skirt! Not like I was really gonna hurt him none — I'd do the same thing to Yosuke if he popped me one!"

"You're about to get-" Rise sighed, glancing over at Ai. As she had pretty much expected, she looked resigned and hollow — as if she had lost her third pet in a row. The pain wasn't even fresh anymore. "Okay, we're going to have to have a meeting or something, because you're all doing so badly with this. I don't wanna wait for Yosuke to put his foot in his mouth, too - he has less tact than you."

"Why the hell would he do that?" Kanji asked, still not catching on at all. Rise did notice Naoto watching them all very curiously.

"Just… you… I'm going to wait. But in the meantime, don't punch my girlfriend again, okay? Or I'm going to perform an emergency castration. With rusty scissors."

The way his face paled told her the message was received.

~ o ~

The Ebihara summit went fairly well, all things considered. Even though Rise didn't want to have to make such a big deal about this, she also didn't want Ai to have to handle it alone; this may have been her "fight" but she needed an ally so she wasn't alone in facing off against bigotry and shame that the others didn't even know they were guilty of in the first place.

Yukiko accepted it very readily. She suspected that Chie had already explained; she couldn't even be mad about that since they were dating, and likely shared everything. In fact, the little innkeeper offered to give Ai any tips should she need them, and though Ai looked for a moment as if she would snap at her, she caught herself and thanked her for the offer. Rise knew she was trying not to look a gift horse in the mouth just because she had already done a lot of work on her femininity and was clearly the girliest of their entire group at this point, despite some stiff competition.

As for the boys…

"So let me get this straight," Yosuke sighed some twenty minutes later as they all reclined around the table at some restaurant in the far off corner of Makishi. They had specifically selected it because there were virtually no customers; no one to eavesdrop.

"Probably won't," Ai muttered around the straw of her boba.

"Like, I've heard of cross-dressers and all that stuff. Weird, but whatever, all kinds of crazies in this world. But now you're trying to tell us this is like… some kind of chick really trapped in a guy's body?"

"Close enough. If that helps you, fine."

Clearing her throat, Chie interrupted, "That's not it? Can you… tell us what it is instead?" Apparently, she was tired of screwing up all the time and had figured out more listening worked better. Good on her, in Rise's opinion.

"It's more like…" She set the cup down thoughtfully, choosing her words with care. "A birth defect. I got born with the right brain, but my body didn't match. I got told I was crazy, and gay, and demented — you name it, I've heard it. But I'm sure you've all been told you're something you're not at least once. Even deeper than that, I'm sure you've had someone not believe you before, and act as if you were 'silly'. Especially us ladies," she remarked with a glance over at Yukiko, who sighed and frowned down at her own bowl of soup.

"Ohhhhh," Teddie breathed in a voice full of his usual childlike wonder. "That's beary interesting. So how did you get the new body? Oh — did you make it like I made mine?!"

Though Ai was tilting her head, clearly very interested, both Chie and Yosuke slapped their hands over his mouth to keep any further words from spilling out. "Hahaha!" the latter let out nervously. "This guy! What a kidder! A-anyway…"

"He's almost right, though," she responded with a shrug. "Took a lot of money and a lot of pain, but yes. I made it myself; literally a self-made woman."

"Pain, huh?" Chie asked nervously. "Like… what kind? The boobs, or… well, I dunno."

"That's kind of personal," Rise hissed across the table at her. But Ai answered, anyway.

"Hey, I don't really care. They all know now, anyway, so it's not like details are really gonna change shit for us. Tit job, apple shaved down, a little facial work but not much. Just girling it up mostly. But before you ask about lipo… only a little. I worked most of it off the old-fashioned way, alright?"

Most of them looked as if she had been speaking in a foreign language. But Naoto began to nod a moment later. "Yes, fascinating. How painful was the chest surgery — what was the recovery time like?"

"Uh… you seriously wanna hear about shit like that?" Kanji asked, looking a bit green around the gills.

"It's pertinent to the situation, yes. 'Want' is a strong word; I don't enjoy thinking about surgeries in particular. But I do think it's important to understand the journey Miss Ebihara has undergone."

Rise and Chie exchanged a glance, and then she watched as Chie exchanged another with Yukiko. They were all struggling to understand, but they definitely got it more than the others — excepting Naoto, who always seemed one step ahead no matter the subject. Though she could tell the boys were finally starting to catch up; Teddie had been listening attentively the whole time, as if this were a lovely bedtime story, but even he had picked up on how serious it was for Ai.

"Hey, man, it's your business," Kanji finally said. "Just don't get why Rise punched me."

"Clearly you don't," Rise answered before Ai even got a chance. "Or you wouldn't call her 'man'."

"What? Like, if he's got what he's got, then that's it. Ain't a big deal. Naoto liked to wear guy's clothes, she ain't no guy. They're just clothes."

Ai shook her head, though she did glance over at the grimacing Naoto before continuing. Rise wondered why she had been paying her more attention lately. "Right. Except they're not just clothes; this isn't a costume change. There are plenty of men who just like to feel a little pretty once in a while, and that's great for them. Love those queens. But I'm a different kind of queen; I'm all woman all the time."

"But you ain't downstairs," Yosuke said with an uncomfortable shrug. He clearly disliked thinking too deeply about Ai's anatomy.

"Look, bitch boy." Oh, Rise could have clapped from how offended he looked — but she decided that would detract from the topic of this impromptu meeting. "My dick's probably bigger than yours, but that's just a fun fact. It's a girl's dick. Now focus up — I'd appreciate it if you tried active listening skills just this once. I am a woman — not my plumbing. It's all about attitude, heart, and how you fucking walk the walk, you know? This girl on the inside got tired of not getting to see the sun, so she did something about it. Even if I never had all those surgeries, never switched to an almost-exclusively-pink wardrobe, I'd still be a woman. Because that's just who I am under this meatsack. Understand?"

"Well… not really, but like, I hear you saying you're not a cross-dresser. You're really a woman. Doesn't make sense, but we've seen a lot of shit that doesn't make sense in Inaba."

Yukiko looked at him in alarm before clearing her throat and adding, "Yes, far too many murders for such a small town. Tragic, really." Rise felt her stomach unclench; at least Amagi was always on the ball. Having to stop and explain the Investigation Team would only have further detracted from helping them understand Ai's situation.

"It's like…" Kanji had been furrowing his brow particularly hard at the surface of the table. "Your hidden self." The others exchanged glances yet again, but Kanji was being more careful — especially after that near-miss. "Somebody you had down deep inside. But… but you never had any trouble findin' her, did ya?"

Ai's expression didn't so much soften, as it moved toward an absence of its usual hardness. "I always knew who I was. I just used to hide the real me from everyone else."

"That's why she never got sucked in," Chie suddenly gasped, smacking her fist into her palm. "Like, ever since I found out about this, I've been kinda wondering about that, y'know? A cross-dresser is exactly the kinda guy who'd be- who'd be targeted by the killer." Another close shave. "But if she's really a girl inside, too… then it makes sense. Right? She was already good with who she was."

"Oh, was that what that whole thing was about?" Ai asked with raised eyebrows. "I guess you guys were in on it, since you know the Detective Prince or whatever his name is."

"Her," Yukiko corrected. Ai said nothing — and Rise noted the way she shrugged very, very carefully before continuing.

"Anyway, I see you working on it, Bowl Cut. Appreciate that. You too, Tatsumi." Kanji nodded back at her, curt as it was. "Like, I know this is new info and it's absolutely a trip, but… my girl's pretty fucking smart. This was a better idea than waiting for multiple tiny bombs to drop. Set 'em all off at once."

Rise reached under the table to squeeze her hand as she whispered, "Boom."

"So… I must apologise, Ebihara-san," Yukiko said with a low bow, her silky black bangs actually brushing the surface of the table. "We have been calling you something that has harmed you, and it was never our intention. I hope one day you can forgive us, but if you cannot, I will understand."

Now Ai actually did look uncomfortable. "Wow, God, you didn't shoot me or anything. Calm down." Glancing over at Chie, then at Kanji, she sighed. "It's fine. You just can't go telling people again. Think about how easy it was for you all to start calling me a guy and treating me like one, acting like I was just supposed to accept feeling like I'm not myself in your eyes. Multiply that by a thousand."

Grimacing, Chie hissed, "Yeah, I guess the whole school already kinda lost it. Pretty much started trying to make you prove you're a girl. That'd be…"

They all fell silent. Of course, it was Yosuke who said, "That'd be what? I mean, it's still normal for anybody to react like we did — like they did. I know the only time I've heard about girls like Ebihara was like, drag queens on TV doing funny stuff. Or, uh… y'know."

"We know… what?" Naoto asked, genuinely not having followed.

"You know." He looked vaguely embarrassed to even have brought it up.

"Porn," Ai provided with a roll of her eyes, drinking off the last of her beverage. "Which, by the sound of it, our boy here has definitely encountered before."

It was like flipping a switch. Yosuke sat up twice as straight, holding his hands in front of his chest as he yelped, "N-no, I- I've never looked at that stuff before! Especially not Thai ladyboys or whatever!"

"How do you know they're Thai if you haven't looked at them?" Chie accused with a suspicious squint. One that Rise and Yukiko were also sharing by now, though the latter was blushing brighter at the mere idea of pornography.

"Wha- I dunno, guys hear things! There's like a whole category of porn just for- shut up!"

"Oh yeah, you've looked," Rise teased with a little giggle.

"Do you wanna pound me, Hanamura?" Ai asked with a positively diabolical smirk. "Or get pounded?"

The poor boy went entirely blank. Chie leaned over and snapped her fingers in front of his face a few times; no response. "Wow, I think you broke him."

"How do we hard reset?" Naoto asked curiously, tilting her head as if to better inspect the nonfunctional Yosuke.

"I think 'hard' is the problem," Kanji laughed gruffly, and the others joined in. Slowly, Yosuke began to slump lower and lower in his seat.

"Oh — I get it! Because Yosuke doesn't want to get beat up!" Teddie bounced a little in his seat with a huge grin. "By a girl!"

Now they were all laughing harder — and Teddie was laughing with them. Always so innocent, even though he had picked up a few extremely raunchy habits from the boys. He was just very impressionable.

"Okay, though, Ebihara," Chie finally said when they had calmed down somewhat. "Like, I'm probably still gonna be apologising until graduation, but I think I'm starting to get it. We all wanted to hide from our true selves, tried to be something we're not… and you did, too. It's just the opposite of how we thought."

"This girl is the real me. Not some boy I 'stopped being'; he was never me at all. Nothing but a mask my classmates and my stupid mother told me was better than the authentic Ai." Even though they were starting to get it, Rise understood why her girlfriend repeated it plainly. She wanted the concept to be very firmly outlined for them so they wouldn't have to relive this conversation in the future.

"Authentic Ai sounds like a restaurant," Rise finally broke the contemplative silence after it had started to get close to a minute long.

"Mm, well who knows? Maybe I'll open one. A Thai restaurant." Rise giggled, but the others looked uncomfortable. "Oh, I can make jokes about myself. It's just mean when you do it — unless I know you well enough that you can get away with it."

"Can I get away with it?"

Ai squinted at her girlfriend for a moment. "Mmm, maybe soon. We'll see."

"Good," she breathed with a big smile as she leaned up to kiss her cheek. Yukiko let out a very soft giggle; at least they were all starting to get comfortable with the idea of them dating now. Maybe it could even pave the way for Chie and Yukiko to tiptoe out of the closet soon.

"Man, my brain hurts," Kanji finally sighed. "Like, it's cool and all, and I guess we misjudged ya, but damn."

"Yeah, it's a lot," Ai admitted, surprising Rise since she had been so defensive on this topic. "But it's important, and at least now you know why. You probably also know why I'd rather just keep it in my pants, very literally; this shit is way more work."

"Yeah," Chie admitted, arms folded over her chest as she nodded sagely. "And like, not everybody's gonna have a Rise they care about enough to wanna listen."

"Very true."

"Wait, what about me?" Rise asked. "This is about Ai, completely."

"Not really, sweetie," her girlfriend laughed as she squeezed her hand. "They want to believe me because you want them to. I'm not deluded here. You have some good ass friends here. Even the mannequin."

Yes, Yosuke was still frozen in place. Eventually, Yukiko had to toss her cup of water into his face to bring him back to life; they all laughed when he fell out of his chair. Still, it was progress. Rise couldn't believe how well this had gone; maybe everything wouldn't turn out so bad after all.

To Be Continued…