Ghost Force 969 Field Base, command center, June 1st, Dark Hour local time, New Moon.
"Christ, there really hasn't been any suspicious activity in the area recently." an unnamed mercenary griped.
"Quit bitching, soldier. Those Omoikane-damned police are freaking worthless." Dmitri remarked.
"Even then, no Shadow has appeared tonight for some strange reason. It's like they're preparing for some major bull-" Louis said as he got interrupted by Enforcer coming by and saying that a Shadow has been detected. With that, the mercenaries immediately got ready. The Shadow had appeared near the northern part of town, so it was relatively easy to reach. However, once they reached where the Shadow was, it was clear that the Shadow had decided to run off instead of fight. "What the fuck!? That Shadow got away!" Enforcer said, disappointed.
"[We can confirm that the Shadow escaped instead of staying around and fighting you.]" HQ transmitted.
"Well then, what do we do now?" the unnamed mercenary said.
"We head back to base and wait."
For the next two weeks Yu spent his time with Social Links and the like, however on the 15th of June, which was a Wednesday, Enforcer confirmed that even though a Shadow appeared in town on the New Moon, it had escaped and Apathy Syndrome had started up again. Sure enough random people in town were found alive and unable to move. Also at school, Kinshiro Morooka was apparently co-teaching with The Reaper for today and from both of them Yu found out that the upcoming weekend was the school camping trip. Apparently the first and second year students were required to attend unless sick and Morooka guessed that the third years were lazy as hell because the only third year students that wanted to come on the trip were Saki Konishi, Minato Arisato, and Minako Kujikawa. As preparations were made for the camping trip, Yu had ended up getting a severe cold that incapacitated him for the entirety of Friday the 17th. Even though Yu hated getting sick, the cold he got was a blessing in disguise as it meant that he would not have to taste Mystery Food X.
School Camp, at dusk. . .
Minato was sitting with Yosuke at one of the table underneath a small bit of roofing at the school camp. "Well today was f***ing boring as shit." Minato said.
Yosuke moaned, "Ugh, picking up all that trash was murder on my back. . . I can't believe that someone threw away an entire bike. Damn it, litterers should have to deal with their own garbage. . ."
"That's because you're a freaking moron. You must be even denser than Junpei to use your back, for Lucifer's sake!"
"Anyways, time for dinner! I'm starving here. Dude, the girls cooked just for us. Not much that I would expect much out of Satonaka, Kujikawa-sempai or Saki-sempai, but Amagi-san's got the full tradition of the Amagi Inn behind her food. You know it's gotta be out of this world!"
"Somehow, I get the feeling that this is going to f***ing suck."
Meanwhile with Chie, Yukiko, Saki, and Minako, the four girls were looking into what should have been curry. Minako and Saki frowned as they saw purple steam rise from the pot. Chie and Yukiko gave similar expressions. Minato then decided to come by and get a spoonful of the curry and swallowed it with great difficulty.
"This is edible, but it's far from perfect. Personally, I find it to be on par with Fuuka's cooking two years ago." he said.
Yukiko frowned as she knew that Fuuka had said it herself that she was an incompetent chef two years ago when the teal-haired girl had first joined S.E.E.S., having stopped trying to cook after failing to make a riceball. Deciding that it wasn't worth it, the girls just flat-out offered Hanako their curry. Unsurprisingly she accepted and actually liked it.
Later, Minato found himself sharing a tent with Yosuke and Kanji. Kanji explained that his teacher threatened to hold him back a year if he didn't attend camp. "And the first-year's tent is all quiet like someone died." he said.
"Well, if you were in there with 'em, I'm not surprised." Yosuke said.
"By the way, is it just you two in this tent?"
"Yeah. The other guys called in sick and Yu wasn't here at all because he was legitimately sick. Probably caught a nasty disease or something. Smart move, I'd say." Minato answered before continuing, "Kou and Daisuke are also here, but they're in another tent. Think someone threw away a bunch of basketballs?"
"Probably." Kanji replied.
"In any case, I have to watch over everyone else tonight because Reaper-sensei isn't taking any chances when the Dark Hour comes. That means that I won't be getting any f***ing sleep! Mind you, Saki is in the same situation."
Once Minato said that, he left the tent and sure enough it was uneventful until the Dark Hour came. That's when Enforcer arrived with Fuuka and said that a Shadow was coming. Minato then woke up Yosuke and Kanji, telling them to get ready for battle and aware that he had his stuff with him. Suddenly, an explosion was heard from the roofed area of the camp and then a large Shadow that looked like a European dragon was seen, its mask being the 'face' of the dragon. The dragon also had three towers with spiked tops sticking out of its back. The Shadow let out a loud roar that woke up Kou and he emerged from his tent with iron gloves on.
"If you ask, I wore these because I was expecting to handle toxic material." Kou said to Yosuke.
Saki immediately arrived with Chie, Yukiko, and Minako arrived and got ready for battle as the Shadow approached.