November 9, Wednesday

The beep turned into a painful droning noise. He watched her heart monitor as it flatlined.

"Nanako? No Nanako stay with me" he panicked as he got up in a frenzy.

"WE NEED A DOCTOR RIGHT NOW!" he yelled into the hallway, but his voice just echoed through the empty hospital. He rushed back to her and took things into his own hands. He began to perform CPR on her, pressing her chest and breathing into her mouth periodically to try and revive her. He was hysterically crying as he continued, the realisation that she was dead slowly sinking in.

"NANAKO!" he screamed.

…

"NANAKO!" he screamed. He woke up in a panicked sweat yet again. He began to cry as Yukiko woke up and turned over to hug him.

"Same dream?" she asked. He nodded in response.

"It's not real, Yu. She's still here" she reassured him. Even though he knew this time that it was just a dream, it still hurt a lot. While the events weren't real, the immense fear and panic and grief that he experienced was very real. He hated his brain for repeating the same horrible scene, but it was no surprise considering Nanako was on his mind constantly.

She held onto him tight as she let him cry on her shoulder. He did exactly that as he clutched her tight, not even trying to hold back his tears. He felt so comfortable and safe with her that he was willing to let everything out.

"You're so strong for facing your nightmares. You should be so proud of yourself" she whispered before she gave him a slow but sweet kiss on his cheek.

They stayed like this for a moment, but thanks to her, he managed to calm himself down fairly quickly. If this dream became recurring, he would at least know it was a dream now. They finally withdrew from each and noticed that the sun was beginning to creep into the window. He checked his phone to find it was just past 6AM.

"I'm really sorry about waking you up again" he sighed.

"It's ok. I'm just glad I was here to help you" she said.

"We should probably get ready for school… oh and good morning" he said.

"Good morning. How about I go cook while you get ready? What would you like?"

"Um… same as yesterday, please. That was better than anything I could ever cook"

"Coming right up" she smiled as she disappeared downstairs. He changed into his uniform and packed his bag with the various books and stationery he needed for the day.

He came downstairs to the nice smell of fresh cooking.

"Smells good" he smiled.

"Thank you. I try my best" she said.

"Is there anything I can do to help you out while you take care of that?" he asked.

"Um… well actually, I haven't packed my school things into my bag. If you could…"

"On it."

He opened up her travel bag and took out her school bag. The great thing about Yukiko's notebooks was that they were all very clearly labelled and organised, so he had very little trouble picking out what she needed. He tried his best to place them all into her bag as neatly as possible.

"Alright, I think I got everything" he said.

"Thank you" she smiled.

He waited patiently for her to finish cooking. She seemed to cook with more confidence than yesterday. It was really nice to see, as he knew how much she wanted to improve and get good at it. It didn't take very long before she delivered their food to the table. She sat down with him and they started to eat.

"It's really good, thank you Yukiko."

"I'm so glad you like it. It's good to know yesterday wasn't a miracle" she grinned.

"So uh… how are you feeling about today?" Yukiko asked.

"I'm nervous" he said.

"That's very understandable. This uh… this situation reminds me of when you guys came to rescue me in the castle" she said sadly.

"That day I had to admit some really embarrassing and shameful things to Chie. To tell you the truth, when my shadow started saying those things about Chie, I was so terrified that she would hate me for it. But she didn't hate me. She understood me and found it in herself to forgive me. But what truly amazed me was how open and honest she was with me too. She admitted some really embarrassing things about herself too, even though she really didn't have to. When she told me those things, I felt so bad. I wish I knew how sad and lonely she felt earlier so I could have fixed it. I never hated her for it either. I forgave her instantly, and all I wanted to do was help her.

I think what I'm trying to say is… we've all been through this before. We all understand what it's like to confront our own feelings. None of us would ever shame you or be mad at you for any of those feelings. All we want is for you to be open and honest with us so we can help you. So try not to worry about it, Yu. They'll all be so supportive, I promise."

"I really hope you're right. I don't want to lose any of you."

"You won't, I promise."

"Hey, Yukiko?"

"Yes?"

"What was it like having me around for all that? I can imagine it might have made you uncomfortable that some random guy you barely knew was there when you were expressing all of your innermost feelings."

"I was just embarrassed about making such a terrible impression on the new cute exchange student" she laughed.

"You think I'm cute?" he asked as she gasped, realising what she'd just said.

"I…I do" she blushed.

"That's very flattering, especially from someone as gorgeous as you" he flirted, making her blush even harder.

"Th-thank you" she barely got out. She was so adorable when she was flustered.

They finished their breakfast. He began to wash up their plates as she went upstairs to go change.

"Does my hair look ok?" she asked as she came downstairs. He dried his hands and came over to look at her. As always, her silky-smooth hair looked absolutely flawless.

"It looks perfect. I don't understand how you have such good hair."

"Thank you. It's an Amagi secret, so I can't tell you" she teased.

"Maybe I should try become an Amagi just so I can have amazing hair" he joked.

"Yu!" she blushed, making him laugh.

"So… are you ready to get going?" he asked.

"I think so."

"Go get your bag then, we better leave as early as we can" he said as she nodded. He went upstairs and got his bag before joining her at the entrance to his house. He reached out his hand to her, and she held it. They began to make their way out of his house before she suddenly stopped.

"Wait… um… a-are you sure we should do this in public?" she asked nervously.

"You can just say if you don't want to, Yukiko. I want you to be comfortable."

"N-no, it's not t-that I don't want to! I-I like it I promise! It's just… people will make assumptions about us, and I don't want them to do that while… while we still don't even know what we are" she explained. She made an excellent point. They hadn't had a chance to actually discuss their relationship, or where exactly it was going.

"Don't worry, I understand" he said.

"I'm really sorry Yu, I really am…"

"Come here" he said as he hugged her tight.

"You have absolutely nothing to be sorry for. I never want to make you uncomfortable or make you do anything you don't want to, so I'm glad you're being honest with me. If you want to keep this… thing… we have private for now, that's exactly what we're going to do" he said.

"Thank you, Yu."

They began the walk towards Yasogami High School. As they got closer, he started feeling anxious. He'd had such a difficult time opening up to one person; the idea of opening up to another six in one go was scary. He knew in his mind that they would all be very understanding and supportive of him, but logic didn't appeal to his currently very emotional state of mind.

He could feel himself tense up as he got onto the main road into the school. He was only a few minutes away from them, and his stress levels were starting to spike.

"Are you feeling ok?" Yukiko asked.

"I'm… anxious I guess" he sighed.

"If it makes you feel any better, even if it goes wrong, I'll still be there to support you. I won't leave you alone."

"Thank you, Yukiko. Truly. I couldn't ask for a better… friend" he said, struggling to find the right word at the end of his sentence.

As they got closer, he could finally see his friends all stood in a group on the left side in front of the school. They all noticed him too, watching as he made his way toward them.

"Hey guys" he said.

They all exchanged sombre greetings, worry clearly etched on everybody's face.

"Thanks for coming early and meeting with me. I have some things that I need to tell you all" he stated.

"The floor is yours, partner" Yosuke said.

He froze up for a second. He'd given many speeches to his friends, but they were always about something or somebody else. Giving a speech about himself was a very new and frightening prospect for him. But he couldn't give up now. He'd made his way all the way here and gathered everybody together for a reason, and he couldn't just run away from this. He had to confront his friends and his feelings whether he liked it or not, and that was exactly what he was going to do.

"I uh… shit, I don't even know where to start" I think… I think the first thing I want to say is… yesterday I confronted my shadow" he said, the six who didn't know seeming completely shocked.

"Don't worry, I didn't fight it. There was no combat and I am completely physically fine. I'll be honest, I was as shocked as you guys are that I had a shadow. As most of you will know, I don't really know how or why I gained my persona, so I never had to confront my shadow to gain those powers. To be completely truthful, that made me feel good about myself… to the point where I felt superior to you guys for it. That wasn't right of me. We're all equals, and I was wrong for thinking I was better than you guys, so I'm really sorry for that" he said.

Their reactions were mainly just shock. He felt so worried about what they were all thinking right now. Did they all think he was an egomaniac now? Would they hold this against him? Would they no longer be his friend because of this? He looked over to Yukiko, who simply gave him an encouraging nod. He paused for a brief moment to let them all digest what he had said, before continuing.

"The second and much more important thing to me is that I've been hiding my feelings from all of you. I fully closed myself off from you guys as soon as Nanako was in danger. I did that partially because I felt that as the leader of our investigation team, I needed to stay strong for all of you and give you the support you need. But my obsession with being the leader of our team made me neglect the most important part of it; the friendship we have.

You have all been so open and honest with me and let me into your lives and I can't tell you how grateful I am for that. You guys are so amazing, and I could never ask for better friends. But I've been a bad friend. I haven't been open and honest with you guys because I was so scared of letting any of you in. I've been so scared that you would all hate the true me and I would lose you all because of it. I am so sorry for doing that to you all and I want to rectify that.

I'll l be honest with you all. I'm… I'm… I'm not doing well right now. I'm really scared for Nanako and… and…" he began to cry. He couldn't even look at them as the tears continued to form in his eyes, a mix of shame and embarrassment washing over him.

He suddenly felt something around him. He looked up to find that his friends all had him surrounded in a group hug.

"We're here for you, Yu. I think I speak on the behalf of everyone here when I say that you are an amazing friend that we all love. I know for me, you really helped me come to terms with what my shadow said. And I… no, we, wanna do the same thing for you" Yosuke said.

"We are all much stronger because of the friendships we have with each other. So please, let us lend you our strength like you have to us so we can help you through this together" said Naoto.

"It takes a real man to admit the stuff you just did, senpai. We're gonna kick those feelings in the ass and get you happy again" Kanji said.

"I'm going to do everything I can to help you sensei! You better bear-lieve it!" Teddie said, making Yu snicker in amusement.

"Your shadow is only one side of you, senpai. You're still the Yu Narukami we all know and love, and we're going to stick with you until the end" Rise cried.

"We're going to be there for you and Nanako no matter what, so you have nothing to fear" Chie said.

"See, we're all still here. You have nothing to fear, you're not going to push us away. We're here, forever" Yukiko finally said.

It took a moment for him to process what was happening. All his worries had been for nothing. He'd opened himself up to him and yet they stayed. They weren't going to abandon him; they were still here. He felt so relieved and happy. He soaked in the love and support from all his friends, letting them hug him. It felt so nice to know that he could talk to all of them about anything without any judgement. He cried for only a brief moment before attempting to regain his composure.

"Thank you all so much. You're all such amazing friends and I'm so lucky to have come here and met all of you. I'm so glad we all found each other, even if the circumstances weren't ideal" he sniffed.

They heard the bell ring, indicating they only had a few minutes until classes started.

"God damnit. Why does that stupid thing have to go off now?" Kanji complained.

"Well… I think I've said everything I wanted to, so we should probably go to class anyway I suppose."

"Hey, if you need more time we'll stay out he…" Yosuke started to say.

"No, I'm ok for now… thank you. I know I can talk to any of about my feelings anytime, so I won't bottle my feelings up anymore, don't worry" he reassured them.

"You better not, or else I'm gonna have to get Kanji to force them out of you" Rise said.

"Hey! I ain't gonna do that! You're on your own" Kanji said, making everyone laugh a bit.

"Alright well, let's go" Youske said.

"Wait… what do I do?" Teddie asked.

"Go back to work, dude. Aren't you meant to be working the early shift today?" Yosuke asked.

"Oh! I think I forgot to tell your parents that I wasn't going to be there early morning! I need to get back there! Call me if you need anything sensei, I'll come right back to you!" Teddie said in a panic as he began to sprint off. They all laughed as they watched him sprint off into the distance.

He stood for a second as he watched his friends make their way towards the school building. It was so nice to know that he had such a tight-knit group of friends who got along with each other so well. He almost took it for granted before, but now he realised how lucky he was that he had such a good group of friends.

"See, what did I tell you" Yukiko said as she stood with him.

"Yeah, you were totally right. I had absolutely nothing to worry about" he said.

"You did good, Yu. I'm really happy for you" she smiled as they sneaked in a short hug before finally joining their friends to get ready for the rest of the school day.

Class went better than he was expecting. Even though he sometimes found himself getting distracted or feeling too tired to keep up, he managed to pay attention for most of his classes and write down his notes. Even when he couldn't quite keep up, Chie was there to show him her notes so that he could copy anything he missed.

"Thanks, Chie" he would smile at her.

"No worries" she would always smile back as she took back her notebook and began to write more notes again.

Lunch was nice too. They all caught him up on the things that had happened over the last couple days, not that there was much to report on. He felt so happy seeing everybody just having fun hanging out together again. It was as if he was absorbing all their energy, as he felt much happier and energetic in their presence

"Hey dude, you free later? We gotta catch you up on the last couple days of classes you missed" Yosuke asked.

"That sounds like a good idea. Let's do it" Yu replied.

"We took really good notes yesterday! We didn't want you missing out on anything, so we did the best we could" Chie said.

"Wow… that's really thoughtful of you. Thank you."

"Think of it as us repaying you for helping us with our studies for the past half year" Yosuke said.

"Oh and you too, Yukiko. I'm sure you'd go crazy if you missed a day of notes" Chie joked.

"Nothing wrong with wanting to be prepared for every question" Yukiko said defensively.

They did their last block of classes before making their way to the library.

"Look at these and be proud of us" Yosuke said as he presented Yu with their notes from yesterday. He began to flick through them and noticed they were much more detailed and thorough than he would expect from either of them.

"Woah, these are actually really good" Yu said.

"Let me see" Yukiko said as she took them and looked through them herself.

"Oh my, they are" she said in surprise.

"If you need us to explain them, just let us know. Other than that you can just copy them all down" Chie said.

"Maybe I should take more days off school so that you guys pay more attention in class" Yu teased.

"No but seriously, thank you guys. I appreciate it."

"Of course" Chie and Yosuke smiled.

They all spent the afternoon doing homework, while he spent the afternoon writing down notes from the other three's books. He didn't actually absorb much of the information, but that wasn't the goal right now. The goal was to have those notes available so when exams were closer and hopefully Nanako was better, he could learn them in preparation for those exams.

At some point Yukiko's phone began to ring. She ducked out for a minute before returning.

"My parents need me back at the inn to help out. I better go" she said sadly.

"You need me to walk you home?" Chie asked.

"No I should be ok Chie, thank you."

"Alright well, see you later Yukiko-san" Yosuke said.

"Yu, a word? Outside?" she asked. He nodded and got up, going outside the library with her. She checked to see if the hallway was empty before she tightly hugged him.

"Are you going to be ok alone?" she whispered.

"I'll be alright Yukiko. I'll miss you a lot, but I'll be fine" he reassured her.

"If anything happens, please call me. I'll come straight to you if you need me."

"I promise I will."

"Can we… can we stay here for a minute?"

"Of course."

They just stood for a minute and enjoyed each other's company and warmth.

"Ok, I better go. If I stay any longer I might be tempted to just stay with you for the rest of the day" she said.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Yukiko."

"See you tomorrow, Yu" she said. They stared at each other for a moment before she left him. He made his return to the library.

"What was that all about?" Yosuke asked.

"Ah, it was nothing important" Yu laughed.

They spent a bit more time studying and completing homework, Yu surprised at the other two's work ethic.

"Man, it feels good finishing my homework so early" Yosuke said as he put his pen down.

"When do you usually do your homework, then?" Chie asked.

"Well uh… most of the time I do it right before I go to bed… or I just don't do it…"

"I assume that's what you do most of the time" Yu said.

"Oh cmon, most people don't do their homework! Right Chie?"

"I do most of my homework."

"That's probably why the teachers are always picking on you" Yu remarked.

"Wait… maybe you're actually onto something there" Yosuke said, making the other two laugh.

"Oh crap, I better head home. My parents are making me do tons of chores and they'll get mad at me if I don't come back soon" Chie sighed.

"Yeah, I gotta go do a closing shift at Junes so I better get outta here too" said Yosuke.

"Well, thank you both for catching me up on everything" Yu said.

"Don't mention it. Anyway, I better go. See you two later" Chie said.

"See you tomorrow, Chie" Yu said.

"Cya later" Yosuke said.

Chie made her way out of the library, leaving just him and Yosuke there.

"You're going to Junes, right?"

"Yeah, gotta work unfortunately" Yosuke groaned.

"You wanna walk home with me then? It's on the way so I just thought it'd be nice to catch up a bit"

"Hell yeah, partner! Let's go" Yosuke smiled as they made their way out.

It was nice hanging out with Yosuke for a bit again. They talked about random things as they slowly made their way towards Yu's house. It'd been a bit of a while since they'd hung out one on one together, and this walk made Yu miss those times. Yosuke was his first true friend here in Inaba, and was his first best friend ever. It made him feel bad for being so closed off to him, but it didn't matter now. He was being open and honest with his best friend now, and that's the best they could both hope for.

"Well, we're here" Yosuke said as they turned into Yu's street.

"That was fun, man. Thanks for coming with me" Yu replied.

"We need to do this more often! But yeah, I better get going. I think I'm actually supposed to be working already."

"I'm sure the place is in chaos without you" Yu joked.

"I'm sure they are without their best worker" Yosuke joked back.

"Oh! Yu?"

"Yes?"

"You free tomorrow? I was hoping we could hang out tomorrow; just us two for old times sake."

"Hell yeah. It's been way too long."

"Awesome! Well, I'll see you tomorrow, partner."

"See you tomorrow, partner."

As he entered his house, he was confronted with the reality of being all alone there yet again. He hated it, but he would just have to accept it would be like this most of the time for now.

He reflected upon that day as he ate the leftover Tofu from the previous day. It had been a difficult day, but it had also been good as well. He'd opened up himself up to his friends, and that was a big step for him. He felt proud of himself. He felt as if he wasn't a lone man fighting his shadows anymore; he had so many people now in his corner.

He got ready for bed and tried to rest early, but he couldn't fall asleep no matter how hard he tried. As he finally came to a rest and was stuck with only his thoughts, he couldn't stop thinking about Nanako. With nothing to distract him, his mind inevitably went straight back to her and the bad thoughts took over again. He was still so worried for her. It had been a few days since she got to the hospital now. He had no clue whether the lack of change in her condition was good or bad, and he certainly had no clue whether things would get better or not.

He tried his best to not let his thoughts and emotions get to him. Even though his feelings of guilt and self-hatred remained, he now had the words of his friends in his mind to combat them. They didn't think it was his fault. They thought he did the best he could to protect her. It didn't make much sense to him, but their opinions were incredibly important to him, so if they all truly believed that then perhaps it was true. It was comforting to know that. It made him feel a bit better about it, and that was extremely valuable for him right now.

But while that was true, none of this would help with his battle to fall asleep. He checked the time and realised it was still fairly early. He pondered calling up Yukiko just to chat for a bit, though he didn't want to bother her in her personal time. After taking a while to decide, he decided just to do it. He picked up his phone and found her name in his contact list.

The phone rung for only a bit before she picked up.

"Yu?"

"Hey Yukiko" he replied.

"How are you? Is everything ok?" she asked with great concern.

"Don't worry, I'm alright. Are you doing anything right now? I don't want to bother you too much if…"

"I'm just laying in bed right now, so yes I'm free."

"Me too" he said.

"So um… did you want to talk about anything in particular?" she asked.

"No I just… I can't sleep, and I find your voice very relaxing so I just wanted to talk to you."

"My voice… relaxing?"

"Yes, very."

"Thank you."

"But uh yeah… how's the rest of your day been?" he asked.

"Nothing too special. I just had to clean some rooms and help with the dinner service. You?"

"I've just been laying around a while. I was pretty tired after studying at the library. It feels like I get tired easier than before" he sighed.

"I'm sorry, Yu. It's probably because of all the stress you've been experiencing over the past few days."

"Yeah, you're probably right. I try not to worry about it, though. I guess everyone goes through parts of their life where this happens, so I just have to power through."

"But don't push yourself too hard. I really think that you should take it slow right now. It makes me worry."

"It's really cute that you worry about me so much, you know?

"I'm just trying to be a good… friend!" she said, making him laugh.

"Yu… can I tell you something?"

"Yes, of course you can" he smiled.

"W-well I um… I just wanted to say that… my futon f-feels lonely without you in it with me" she said. He was happy they were on the phone or else she would see him blushing. Hearing her say that made his heart race a little. He had been thinking the same thing, and the fact she felt the exact same made him so happy. He wished he could just race over to her place and scoop her up in his arms so that she no longer felt so lonely. He could give her all the love and affection that he could offer her and…

"I-I'm sorry! That was weird. I shouldn't have said tha-" she said in panic, as he realised he was still on the phone with her.

"No wait! I feel the exact same way."

"R-really?"

"I do. I miss you too"

"O-oh… well then we should sleep together more often" she suggested.

"My door will always be open for you, so come anytime you like."

"You're so sweet, Yu. Thank you."

"Of course. Anything for you" he smiled.

As they continued to talk, he could begin to feel himself start to become sleepier and sleepier. Her calm and soothing voice helped him finally relax and get ready for bed.

"I'm starting to get tired over here so I might get off the phone soon" he told her.

"I should sleep soon as well, so that might be a good idea."

"I know I've probably said this a million times at this point, but thank you. Thank you for being in my life."

"You never need to thank me for that. I like being in your life, and I will always be here as long as you want me to be" Yukiko said.

"You're going to be here a real long time then, trust me" he joked before yawning.

"We better get off before you fall asleep on the phone" she teased.

"You might be right."

"Goodnight Yu."

"Goodnight Yukiko. Sweet dreams" he smiled.

His eyes began to feel heavy as he put his phone away. His mind was too tired to think, finally giving him a break from the overthinking, and allowing him to sleep.