(here's the new chapter! thank you once again to everyone leaving reviews-they really mean a whole fuckin lot! i daisuki all of you.)

The next day at school, I am one hot commodity. It starts before I even get on campus, with classmates coming up to me and Yukari and exclaiming things. Mostly those fake-worried "OH MAN WHAT HAPPENED YOU DISAPPEARED IS EVERYTHING OKAY" kind of things, but also the tilted questions aimed to figure out if I had some sort of terrible sexually transmitted disease that made me not able or allowed to come to school. Yukari acted as my bodyguard and told everyone I was just ill for a while and now I'm fine, but not fine enough to handle all this excitement, and we also have to get to class, so if you'll just excuse us. In the classroom there was more of a crowd, but Ms Toriumi comes in and saves me by coughing very loudly and everyone scatters to their seat. I notice my seat is being filled by a pimply guy, so I wander over to Ms Toriumi and ask what I should do.

"Oh, that's right, you weren't here for the new seat assignments," she looks over the class and points to the seat open next to Junpei, who seems to be asleep. "Well, you can just sit right there."

The girl on the other side of the seat raises her hand. "Ms Toriumi, it's not open, he's just absent."

"Well, if the seat is open, it's open, and it's Arisato-san's now. When he decides to come back, I'll find him a new seat."

I take my new seat and introduce myself to my new neighbour, Sugimura Kaiyo, a girl with a messy bun and large lips, and then settle into my seat, taking out the one notebook I own. Junpei wakes up after a scolding, the class has a laugh, and then our school day begins.

At lunch time, Yukari comes over to me before Junpei has time to open his mouth. "It sucks we can't sit near each other," she says, sounding genuinely disappointed. "Maybe next semester. I'm sorry you have to sit next to Stupei."

I start laughing, the dumbass nickname taking me off-guard. "Oh my god, Stupei?"

Junpei sighs a very morose sigh from beside me, lamenting his struggles as Junpei Iori, high school student. "It's her nickname for me. I don't know what I ever did to deserve it."

"You were born," Yukari huffs, crossing her arms very angrily. "Butt out of the conversation, alright? Anyway, Celia, I'm gonna go now, but don't you forget to eat, okay?"

"Yes, ma'am," I tell her, and she walks away, still huffy. Junpei seems very down in the dumps next to me. "What's your problem? And why weren't you one of the concerned members of Class 2-F?"

He sits up, knitting his eyebrows and smiling apologetically. "Sorry, Celia-tan. There were just already so many people around you, I figured it wouldn't mean as much if I went then than if I went later, y'know? Like, I don't see anyone else asking you how you are right now! I'm actually being a better friend than everyone else, got it?"

I roll my eyes. "You're only asking me now because of forced proximity, but, yeah, sure, you're a great friend."

"Enough about me and how wonderful I am. What's up with you? Yuka-tan refused to answer any questions about your absence, even though she was also gone the first day you were out."

She was? That wasn't ever mentioned in the game, I don't think. But man, that would make sense. After that massive Shadow attack, I'm surprised if anyone managed to make it to school the next day. Who knows how late they all had to stay up to get me to the hospital. Aw, man, I'm feeling guilty again. It's not like I could help it! Blame Igor, everything is all his fault!

I rubbed the back of my neck. "Yeah, I… Collapsed, I guess. I had to be hospitalized. It happened pretty late at night, so Yukari must've stayed up really late with our senpais, taking me to the hospital," As I speak I remember a Japanese grammar rule from many years ago where the plural of senpai should actually be senpai-tachi, but Junpei's face doesn't change at all, so I guess senpais works. "But I'm fine now. Just have to sleep and eat better."

He eyes my desk. "If you have to eat better, why don't you have any food?"

"Because I'm broke?"

In a rush, he stands up. "Now, that won't do at all! Stay here, Celia-tan."

"Oh my god, Junpei, don't buy me food," I plead, grabbing his shirt tail. "Don't waste your money, that is not a thing you have to do for me. I'll be fine."

He tuts, very obviously in his good guy mode, and absolutely refusing to listen to me. "I shall spend my money however I choose, and I choose to purchase baked goods for a lovely lady!"

I groan and let go of his shirt, and when he comes back five minutes later, he has his arms filled with packaged bread.

I spent what we had left of lunch eating most of the bread—melon bread is not as good as I hoped it was, but dang was takoyaki bread amazing—and also the rest of the class day munching on a curry bread, and when classes end, Junpei takes a bow as I thank him profusely (with a voice drenched in sarcasm) for his noble deed. Yukari comes up just as he's about to strike a pose on his desk.

"What's going on?" she asks, sounding disgusted. "Is he bugging you again?"

"He bought me food so I have to pretend he's my knight in shining armour for the rest of the day," I tell her, and Junpei looks like he's about to break out with a new dance number.

"You should get a part-time job at the mall," Yukari says, leaning against my desk with her back to Junpei. "They're not too difficult, and the pay's actually pretty good! I have a friend working at the café, and she says they even give her free tea on breaks."

"I'll look into it," I say, and right as my sentence ends, all of the attention in the room is diverted to the door, open and wooden and framing a very lovely upperclassman.

Mitsuru-senpai (I gotta start referring to her as that in my head, lest I accidentally forget to add a –senpai vocally and cause mass embarrassment and bring shame upon my family) strides forward, her most-likely school inappropriate high heels clicking on the tile floor. When she reaches my desk, currently home to Yukari and I, she stops and places her hands on her hips. "Can I have a minute?"

"Um, yes," I say, wondering what would happen if I said no.

"Come to the fourth floor when you get back to the dorm. I have something to tell everyone. I'll save the details for later, but don't worry about rushing. See you there."

And then she spins on her heel and strides right out of the room. Mitsuru is a very stride-y lady, it seems.

Yukari is a little dumbfounded, so I awkwardly chuckle, "That was fast. She doesn't like to waste time, does she?"

My dormmate sighs. "She's probably busy with things like Student Council, unlike us," When she says the 'us' it sounds awfully angry and annoyed, but I've spent enough time around people and played this game enough to know that the anger wasn't directed to Mitsuru-senpai, but most likely to Yukari herself, instead. But, I'm looking too much into it.

Junpei is done with his self-celebration and leans over again, smiling like a jerk. "Woah, Yuka-tan! Do I sense some hostility?"

"When you call her Yuka-tan, I think of the country," I tell Junpei, but I am universally ignored.

Yukari crosses her arms, very obviously flustered. "Well, it's not that I don't like her. She's just—Wait, why am I telling you this? Never mind. C'mon, Celia, let's go."

She storms away, her arms still crossed, and I look at Junpei, my eyebrows raised and my lips pursed. "You done goofed up."

"I just can't win," Junpei sighs, once again lamenting his tragic life, but I ignore his oncoming monologue in favour of packing up my very few things and skipping over to Yukari.

She stays silent and annoyed all the way past the shoe lockers and off campus, her aura keeping me from asking any questions. I mean, I know she's not a fan of either Junpei or Mitsuru-senpai, but does she really hate them that much? In the game, it came off as more of a general annoyance and displeasure, but, yeah, not really so much despise.

This sure makes this uncomfortable for me—I mean, I'm sure in the PS2 version they had something with flipped tarot cards and broken Social Links based off of being a jerk to your friends, but the PSP version never really addressed consequences from assholeishness. (If it did, I never experienced it, ha, I am such a wonderful fictional friend.) If I want to stay friends with Yukari, I can't be friends with Junpei, or at least I have to be secret friends.

Uhg, this is so complicated. Relationships are so complicated. This is why I played video games in the first place.

We take a little detour through the Port Island strip mall place to get some doughnuts from the sweets shop the game never let you enter (it is so cute and so yummy I am going there every day from now on), and as we climb down the spiral metal staircase, munching on the fried sweets, Yukari speaks to me again.

"A-about earlier…"

She's quiet again until we both reach the bottom and she turns to face me, but she doesn't look at me. "It's not that I don't like her or anything, y'know?"

"Mitsuru-senpai?" I ask, just making sure. This doughnut is so freaking good, oh my god.

Yukari nodded. "I think it's just—our personalities don't match? Y'know? I'm just not really good with her kind… She's just so self-sufficient and she never needs anyone else, and she's always so flippant and standoffish, and…"

I wave my hand in the air to stop her. "It's okay, man. I understand. You don't need to explain yourself."

She nodded, and then pouted, huffy again. "Man, why's Junpei always have to talk about stuff that isn't any of his business, anyway? Plus, he always says everything in, like, the creepiest, most perverted way. He's the poster boy for sexual harassment."

"I dunno if he's that bad, but he is pretty perverted," I allow, cautious. Junpei never seemed too degenerate to me, but I guess it might be because I'm just really used to his kind. And, uh, I'm probably worse than him. But, yeah, the creepy macking on girls thing is pretty discomfiting.

"That's because you haven't lived with him for years," Yukari scowls, and we're on our way to the station. "You know, last year he flipped this girl's skirt?"

I gawk. "No way."

"Yes, way! It was at the school festival, and he and a bunch of his buddies ran up to her and just flipped it! What a huge jerk!"

And I'd include the rest of the conversation, but we quickly got derailed by a stray cat running across our path, and then, yeah. Junpei apparently got quite the scolding and he and his buddies had to write a letter of apology to both the girl and the school. He does drop about twenty places on my list of friends, but it's nice to have Yukari talking again.

When we get back to the dorm, it's maybe an hour later than we normally get back, mostly because doughnuts, also because cats and I almost fell into traffic. Well, the latter didn't really make us late, but Yukari now forbids me from trying to make it across the street before the walk sign turns red. I'm clumsy.

We sign in, and notice that Mitsuru-senpai and Akihiko-senpai are both already here, which brings up curious looks from both of us to both of us. I ask her if we should just head on up there, and she shrugs, unsure.

"I guess? She said we didn't have to rush, but if both of them are already here…"

"Let's just drop off our things and head up."

When we meet at the imposing fourth floor command room door, I knock tentatively, and Mitsuru-senpai opens the door almost immediately afterwards.

"Welcome back," she smiles, a warm contrast to her appearance at school. She steps out of the way for us to walk in, and Akihiko-senpai is sitting in the same place he was the last time we all had a big serious talk up here. The Chairman is also here, sitting in his seat, sipping something from a mug.

Wait… What's going on? I forgot about this. Jeez, it hasn't even been the long, how have I managed to already forget. Um, so, first was the joining SEES, and then… Oh! That's right, this is when Junpei is going to join the ranks. Poor Yukari. I might have to go check up on her every now and again to make sure she hasn't hung herself from her ceiling fan.

Akihiko-senpai notices us and smiles as well. Dang, everyone is smiley. Dang, he's hot. "We were waiting for you. There's someone I wanna introduce. C'mon, sit down."

Yukari looks around. "Huh?"

I hold in a laugh, walking over to the sofa.

Akihiko-senpai steps out of the room, yells something down the hall, and I watch as Yukari visibly pales. I'm pretty sure she knows by now, and is maybe clinging onto her last string of hope/denial, and I'm just trying to not laugh. Where's the jaunty background music, let's get some electro jazz up in here, or whatever the fuck Persona 3's music style was. It was rad, whatever it was.

The door creaks open, and Akihiko-senpai laughs as a Junpei Iori stumbles in, carrying multiple backpacks. He sees me and Yukari, waves, and says, "Wassup?"

Yukari flies up, her face flashing red. "J-Junpei!? Why are YOU here!?"

Akihiko-senpai holds out a hand as way of introduction, waving it between us and Junpei. "I guess you might know who this is already, but… This is Junpei Iori from Class 2-F. He'll be staying here as of today."

"He's staying HERE!? You've gotta be kidding me!"

(I've given up on not laughing and now I'm laughing a lot.)

"Isn't there somewhere else he can stay? Why HERE? With US?"

Akihiko-senpai spares a chuckle. "I bumped into him the other night. He has the potential, but he just awakened to it recently… I told him about us, and, well, he agreed to help."

Yukari's jaw goes slack. "You have the potential!? For real!?"

Junpei speaks as I wonder why he got a one-on-one talk with Akihiko-senpai and I had to get pressured by the entire SEES team. I'd kill for a one-on-one talk with Akihiko-senpai, man. Actually kill. Don't get too close to me, I'm ready and willing to aim for your jugular. I'm so lonely.

"Yeah, he found me cryin' like a baby at the convenience store, surrounded by a bunch of coffins. I don't remember much, but… Man, that's embarrassing! He said that's, y'know, completely normal in the beginning, all the being confused and not remembering stuff. You guys knew that, right?"

"I was alright. Well, I mean, I was in a coma for over a week, but, yeah, no, I was cool," I say simply, but I don't know if I'm on mute or what, because I'm just ignored again.

Junpei grins at Yukari, and I touch my face to see if I'm even here. "Heyyy, don't feel bad! It happens to all us Persona-users."

Yukari flails her hands around, starting to look at other people in the room for backup.

"But, man, I was shocked to find out about you guys. I had no idea, about any of this. I'm glad I'm not the only one, though, it could've gotten pretty lonely. I bet you're stoked too, right? Having me join, being one of you. I bet it's nice to have a guy around too, wouldn't it?"

"Akihiko-senpai is also a guy," I point out, and I refrain from mentioning how he's both hotter and more eligible to date. Since, y'know, Junpei had that thing with that pastel goth lolita girl. Oh, god, Akihiko-senpai's lover route, WHAT AM I GOING TO DO? Let's not think about this now, Celia, you've got stuff going on in front of you. Stop thinking about it, stop thinking about how it fades to black, STOP IT.

Yukari has now lowered her arms and looks a little less disgusted and a little more absolutely defeated and drowning in despair.

"So, anyway, I'm glad to join the team."

I cough out a discreet 'fuck' and then stand up to meet Junpei's outstretched hand. "Don't fuck it up," I tell him, smiling as nicely as I could, and Junpei laughs.

Akihiko-senpai is apparently done with this and he sits down on the loveseat next to Misturu-senpai, who is fiddling with something that looks like a cell phone in her hand. Y'know, I knew there must've been some sort of wide-spread cell phone/laptop proficiency in the Persona 3 world, especially since the guy version lets you play this MMORPG thing, but I never really assumed anyone actually used them. Mitsuru-senpai puts away her cell phone that looks rather Blackberry-ish when Akihiko-senpai hits the couch, and gets down to business.

"Enough with the introductions," she says, neither kind nor unkind, just very matter-of-fact. "I think we're about ready. Chairman?"

The Chairman finally perks up, apparently having just watched us the entire time. Yukari plops down next to me, on my right side, with Junpei getting comfy on my left. I'm stuck in the centre of a hate sandwich and my happy mood plummets into a very uncomfortable one. Why can't these two losers get along? I swear, I will turn this car around. Play nice.

"Well," the Chairman starts, clasping his hands together. "Now that everyone's here, I'd like your undivided attention. For a long time, Mitsuru and Akihiko were the only Persona-users we had." I think of Shinji, but don't let him know I'm mentally correcting him. "But, now, that number has recently jumped to five. Therefore, starting tonight at midnight, I'd like to commence the exploration of Tartarus."

I do a mental tap dance number in victory for having reaching this far, but Junpei is busy being dumb next to me. "Tartarus…? What's that? Sounds like toothpaste."

"You haven't seen it, Junpei?" Yukari asks, leaning forward and tilting her head to side to stare at Junpei in incredulity. Well, sorry Yukari, not all of us have been trapezing around the town during the Dark Hour for long enough to see the monster of a building GEKKOUKAN HIGH SCHOOL turns into.

"It's no surprise," the Chairman says when Junpei just shrugs. "since it only appears during the Dark Hour."

Junpei nods, either faking it or actually understanding this. "And, the Dark Hour is when everything gets all green and weird, right?"

Akihiko-senpai nods. "Tartarus shows up during the Dark Hour, just like the Shadows… Interesting, huh? And, it's the perfect place for us to train. You can think of it as a Shadow nest."

I shudder. Uhg, a tall building filled with those disgusting black things, uhg, uhg, uhg. Junpei's eyes are filled with boyish wonder, our very own Pinocchio. I have half a mind to make him wear shorts and sing a joyful tune. "Their nest? Woah…"

Yukari asks the question Akihiko-senpai was dreading and Mitsuru-senpai was probably going to bring up anyway. "But, senpai… What about your injury? Will you be joining us?"

Mitsuru-senpai sits up, straightening her back and re-crossing her legs. "Since Akihiko hasn't yet fully recovered, he'll only be coming as far as the entrance."

Our poor injured senpai beside her sinks in his seat like a kid who was just banned from video games for a week. Or a teenage boy who was just banned from Shadow fighting for… a while. "Yeah, I know, you don't have to remind me."

Junpei grins, his confidence so overpowering I could smell it. "Relax, senpai, I've got their backs."

Yukari moans. "I'm not so sure about this…"

"I dunno, kinda sounds fun," I say, and Mitsuru-senpai shoots me a glare. Apparently, Shadow fighting and fun are not synonyms in her book. And here I thought she was just worried about her dear childhood friend, Akihiko-chan.

"What about you, Mr. Chairman?" Mitsuru-senpai asks. Wait, hold on, shouldn't that have been Chairman-san? I'm so confused by all these honorifics and translations, goddamn. I'm gonna make Igor write me a chart.

"I'll be staying here," he says, something more in his smile. "As you'll know, I can't summon a Persona…"

Junpei looks at me. "So, wait, people can be awake during the Dark Hour, but they don't have to have a Persona?"

"They're not mutually inclusive," I tell him. "Like, you have to be awake during the Dark Hour to have a Persona, but not vice-versa."

Mitsuru-senpai stands up. "It's almost six now—everyone, go back to your rooms and get ready. We'll be leaving at eleven pm. Rest up until then, we'll be spending quite some time out."

Junpei nods, Yukari sighs, obviously uncomfortable with this, and I salute her.

Later on that night, I wander over to Yukari's room, an actual legitimate question waiting for her opinion. Junpei and Akihiko-senpai had moved all of the former's junk into a room one floor below us and I liked to make things annoying for them by stomping on the floor a bit to confuse and frustrate them, but when Mitsuru-senpai asked me in a very cold voice to kindly stop, I did. Anyway, Yukari's room.

She opens the door, still wearing the sweater she wore to school, but the uniform pleated skirt has been switched out with some cotton shorts. "Yes?"

"Uh," I start, blanking out. "Um, uh… What should we wear to Tartarus?"

Yukari looks away, a little sheepish. "I… Don't know. I've never been inside… I've just seen it from afar."

"Like, I don't have battle armour, or any sports safety things. What if we get beat up, like Akihiko-senpai? I'm too frail and fragile for these kind of injuries."

She rolls her eyes at me, but steps out from her room and closes the door behind her. "Maybe we should ask Mitsuru-senpai. She's been inside before, I think."

"You think?"

"W-well, I don't know! Akihiko-senpai and the Chairman know a lot about it, so I assumed they had all went inside at some point…"

I rub the back of my neck. Back when it was Akihiko-senpai, Shinji, and Mitsuru-senpai, I wonder how they went about Shadow fighting. They didn't have those large monthly battles, but they must've been to Tartarus quite a bit, otherwise it wouldn't make any sense when they join the team, that they're all, like, level 25 and I never levelled up enough and was always really low down. (I'm not much of a grinder.)

We shuffle over to Mitsuru-senpai's room, and Yukari pushes me in front of her to knock on the door. Gingerly, I rap my knuckles against the door and wait for some sign of life.

Mitsuru-senpai opens the door, her tumbling red curls pulled back into a ponytail, but still in her school uniform, skirt and poofy shirt and all. "Yes? What is it?"

"Uh," I say, my head fading into white noise. From behind me, Yukari decides to step up.

"Senpai, we were wondering… What should we wear to Tartarus?"

A pause. "Anything you'd like. Something comfortable and easy to move around in."

"But, um, like," I start, shoving my hands into my pajama pants pockets. "Akihiko-senpai got really beat up, and, uh, I'd like to not get as beat up? I think I've had my fill of hospitalisations for this month."

Mitsuru-senpai stops, raising a manicured hand to her mouth, thinking intently. I shift my weight from one leg to the other, waiting, and Yukari stands completely motionless, also very awkward. In the game, everyone just fought in their school uniforms, but we did everything in our school uniforms, so.

After a very long moment, Mitsuru-senpai sighs. "Come in."

Her room is immaculate and very soft-scented, not at all as highly luxurious as I had expected. I don't even remember what it looks like in the game, but it's very neat, clean, and it actually feels a bit lonely. Mitsuru-senpai motions for us to sit on the floor next to a small coffee table in the middle of the room, and she digs into her very organized and shelved closet for something.

"Before you all came, Akihiko and I would visit Tartarus for training. After a bad injury early on, the Chairman commissioned a couple of things for us so we weren't extremely reliant on solely our Persona powers."

"Did you guys get weapons?" I ask, wondering if that sounded too much like an RPG-type question.

"Eventually, yes, we received formal weapons designed for Shadow elimination, but before that, we received specially made clothes."

She turns around, a shabby cardboard box in her arms, and she sets it down on the table in front of us. I peek inside, curiosity bursting out of my seams, and she opens it up to reveal… School uniforms.

I look up at her, and her cheeks are a bit pink. "I'm sorry, they're a bit big… But, if you're looking for protective clothes, these are all I have to offer. I'll contact the Chairman to see if we can order clothes to your specific body types."

I stand up, absolutely amazed. The game really skipped over this kind of stuff, man, dang. I hadn't ever even thought about this before asking Yukari—I just thought we could make an agreement on wearing school uniforms, not go to Mitsuru-senpai's room and get decked out. I can't believe I'm gonna wear Miss Beauty Queen Extraordinaire's old fighting clothes. Oh, man. I'm so blogging about this.

I grab a jacket and skirt and hold it up to my body. It's the standard uniform, not the fancy one she's wearing now, and it looks like everything fits somewhat… I'll have to belt or something the belt and roll up the sleeves, and oh my god Mitsuru-senpai literally has a perfect body.

"Thank you so much, senpai," Yukari says, still seated. "I promise we'll return them in perfect condition."

Mitsuru-senpai has this faint look of a smile on her face, and her words come out a little too cool. "That's not a problem. They were made to be used."

When we leave, we both have a pair of clothes in our hands—skirt, shirt, jacket, all of them made out of this slightly thicker, slightly more grainier fabric than the actual uniform—and we bow very low at the door. Mitsuru-senpai is still looking, acting, and sounding weird when she tells us not to worry, and if I didn't know any better, I could even say I heard a little bit of optimism seeping into her voice.