A/N: I decided to finish Naoto's arc with a little closing scene. I take a few things out of game order (Naoto gets her glasses from Teddie inside the TV, for example) but it's mostly consistent. I'm planning to do Kanji's arc next. Persona is copyrighted by Atlus and used here without permission.

Borderline of Madness, Part 1: Secret Lab

Epilogue

"This way." Souji beckoned Naoto to follow him. "The others are already there."

Naoto was only half listening to the sliver-haired leader as she craned her neck to take in the strange sights of the so-called "TV World." The sky—if you could really call the misty vortex above them a sky—was striped red and black, and fog hung heavily in the air.

Listen. Listen to him. Always thinking, never caring. Listen. Sukuna-Hikona buzzed restlessly.

Naoto stopped and looked at Souji. "Where exactly are we going again?" She bit her lip and shifted her eyes down to stare at her shoes. "I-I'm afraid I wasn't listening. There's…so much to look at."

Souji smiled. "No worries, Naoto. It is a lot to take in. The first time I was in the TV, I could barely focus on the task at hand because I just kept staring at everything, wondering if it was real." He chuckled. "Yosuke and Chie weren't exactly helpful either…Yosuke kept screaming about how badly he had to pee, and Chie was panicking about getting out."

"That sounds quite like them." Naoto smiled. "From what I've observed of your group, you all seem quite close."

Souji nodded. "We share an unbreakable bond." He turned to Naoto. "But you don't need to refer to them as "my" group. You're one of us now. You're part of that bond."

Fortune. Arcana. Social link. Persona.

Naoto glanced up, as if to look at her persona. That was illogical, of course. Her persona was inside her head. But what exactly was it talking about? More importantly, why?

"Does your persona…talk to you?" Naoto asked hesitantly. If she was the only one with a talking persona, she did not really want to know.

"All the time. I mean, it's a zoo in my head. With twelve personas at a time, it gets pretty noisy up there." Souji tapped his head with a chuckle.

Naoto was more than slightly relieved. Also slightly annoyed. The buzzing didn't stop outside the TV. She'd conversed with the Investigation Team after her recovery, and all Sukuna-Hikona did was tell her to "Listen."

Because you don't. You know that. Never listen.

"Senpai, you still haven't told me where we're going."

"You noticed that I was evading that question?"

Naoto nodded.

"Of course you did…foolish of me to try to distract a detective from details." He adjusted his glasses and sighed. "Promise you won't shoot me. We're headed to the place where we found you."

Naoto's eyes widened. "No. No way. Not that…lab place."

"This is why I didn't tell you. It's the best place to train at this point. I want you to get experience with your persona, but I don't want to waste a training session for the rest of the team either."

"But…" Naoto could find no suitable argument to combat Souji's logic. "Alright."

"Great. We're almost there." Souji continued walking and Naoto kept step beside him.

Kanji paced back and forth near the entrance to Naoto's dungeon. This place always made him uneasy—probably because it was connected to Naoto, and everything about Naoto made him feel nervous. No, Naoto didn't make him feel nervous. Naoto made him feel…something else. That "something else" was what was making him so nervous.

"You okay, Kanji?"

He looked up to see Rise staring at him quizzically. "Yeah. Uhh…I'm fine."

"You're pacing a hole in the ground."

Kanji looked down to see that there was a slight indent in the ground where he'd been walking. "I…uhh…just tryin' out my…new shoes. Yeah. New shoes."

"Hmm…right." Rise shrugged and resumed what she'd been doing: looking in a pocket mirror and began adjusting her hair. When Kanji looked a question at her, she shrugged. "I've gotta look good for Senpai."

Kanji quickly turned away from Rise, his eyes wide. "Shit. I shoulda paid more attention to what I looked like today. I mean…Naoto—"

Take a freakin' breath, kid. Take-Mikazuchi growled.

Kanji did as suggested. As he slowly exhaled, he felt himself relax…if only a bit. He looked over at the rest of the team.

Chie and Yukiko were talking and Teddie was trying to show a clearly uninterested Yosuke the glasses he'd made for Naoto.

"Senpai!" Rise's squeal brought Kanji out of his thoughts.

He looked up to see a blur of pigtails tackle Souji. Naoto, who had been standing near the leader, had deftly avoided being included in Rise's greeting.

Naoto adjusted her hat and looked around the entrance to the lab. Kanji could see that she was distressed. He couldn't blame her. Every time Souji suggested training at the sauna, Kanji felt like crawling into a hole to die.

"Uhh…hey, Naoto. Feelin' any better?" Kanji attempted conversation as the detective walked near where he was standing, investigating the lab.

Naoto mumbled some sort of greeting, but didn't seem to really hear Kanji.

"Err…it…it ain't too bad, goin' in your own dungeon. 's worse thinkin' about it."

Naoto looked up this time. "You have trained in your dungeon?"

Kanji grimaced. "Yeah. It ain't the most comfortable place for me to train, but it isn't as bad as I thought it'd be."

Naoto nodded and turned her attention back to the dungeon's entrance.

Meanwhile, Souji had managed to detach Rise's arms from his waist and was heading over to the rest of the group.

"Alright everyone. We're here to show Naoto the ropes and to do some training."

"How are you feeling?" Yukiko asked Naoto.

"Fine. I've had a sufficient time to recover."

"I made you some glasses, Nao-chan." Teddie tugged at Naoto's sleeve.

Naoto looked at the bear, slightly annoyed with the name he called her. Her annoyance dissipated as he handed her a beautifully crafted pair of glasses. The frames were purple and complemented her face shape and hair color nicely. She couldn't help noticing a deeper meaning behind the glasses too: she was part of Souji's group. She belonged.

"Thank you, Teddie." She smiled gently and put on the glasses. The fog cleared instantly.

"These are spectacular! How did you manage to construct them?"

"Well, I've got a lot of time to myself. When I lived over here, all I did was make glasses while I was waiting for Sensei and the others to come and visit. Now that I live in your world, Yosuke makes me work. It's so cruel. In fact, it's almost…un-bear-able."

Naoto looked at Teddie quizzically and Yosuke heaved a giant sigh. "Hey, you have to pay for room and board, you know."

Souji shook his head. "I'd like you to try and summon your persona now, Naoto."

Naoto turned her attention to the leader. "How?"

"Just think, 'I'm summoning my persona now,' and it'll happen naturally."

Naoto nodded and closed her eyes.

"Persona!" A glowing blue card appeared in front of her. Without really thinking about it, Naoto drew her revolver and shot the card. As it shattered, a small, insect-like creature appeared.

"She's got a gun!?" Yosuke stammered.

"Holy crap, it's got a lightsaber!" Chie pointed to the weapon in the persona's hand.

"Yeah, and she's got a GUN." Yosuke was staring at the weapon in Naoto's hand.

"It's…tiny." Yukiko said a little louder than she meant.

"What's it do?" Kanji asked as he watched the bug persona flit around Naoto's head.

Rise had summoned Himiko and was scanning Sukuna-Hikona. "Hmm…it's got light and dark…and some sort of physical attack."

Naoto looked up in wonder at the figure flitting about her. "Are those…helpful?"

Chie bit her lip. "Well…yeah. Hama and Mudo are both one-hit kills…the only thing is…you have to actually hit in order to one-hit kill."

Naoto raised an eyebrow. "What exactly do you mean?"

"Light and dark are really powerful. They're also really inaccurate." Souji shrugged. "But you've got physical attacks too, so no worries."

Naoto nodded. "That seems reasonable."

"So uhh…what's it called?" Kanji leaned closer to get a better look at the small persona.

"Sukuna-Hikona." Naoto smiled.

"Alright, I think we're ready to go." Souji pressed on his glasses and shifted into leader mode. "We'll go in two teams. Yukiko, Kanji, and Naoto will come with me starting on the first floor. Chie, Yosuke, and Teddie will start on the bottom floor. I want Teddie to act as both scanner and healer for the second team. Be sure to take it easy since you're a team of three. Ah, and take the Fox with you too."

The group broke off into the two teams, and Naoto followed Kanji and Yukiko into the lab. She no longer felt as apprehensive about training. Souji's group accepted her. They had all experienced similar situations and this brought them closer together. Perhaps this was the "bond" that Souji had mentioned.

They would solve this case. Naoto was sure of it. With their personas and the bond they shared as a team, nothing could stop them. Nothing.