Never More

by Jenna Riedell

When Aika Nakamura moves to Inaba at the start of the school year, a series of impossible murders shakes the sleepy town to its core. But things aren't what they seem, and before long, Aika, along with a few of her classmates, is forced to awaken to the power of Persona to solve this mystery. Persona 4 featuring a female protagonist.

9. Chapter 9

Aika remembered the few days after being saved only in flashes. She remembered waking up at home, which was strange, because she could swear that Yosuke had brought her to Naoto's apartment. She remembered being so completely exhausted and disoriented that she couldn't even move, let alone get out of bed, and she remembered being terrified that she might actually be alone. The next thing she remembered was her mother holding her up because she couldn't sit up on her own and her father feeding her something soft and somewhat bland. This was the second abnormality that she didn't quite register at first, but came to recognize later.

And then, five days after being saved from her own Shadow, Aika finally felt well enough to get out of bed, though she still felt sluggish and ill. She took a shower to wash off nearly a week's worth of dirt, brushing her hair for longer than necessary because it gave her an excuse to hide from her parents (who were in Inaba, and when did they get here?) for just a little longer (her hair now fell past her shoulders, she noted). And finally, she dragged her feet downstairs, where both her parents lounged on the couch, her father's arm draped around her mother as they both watched TV. It was so surreal, having them back, having them here, in Inaba, that she almost didn't think about how wrong everything was now that Uncle and Nanako were not here.

Dad saw her first, and Aika could see tears in his eyes before he trapped her in a nearly suffocating hug. "Oh, Aika… Thank god…"

And, as soon as Dad released her, Mom rushed over and hugged her even more tightly. "Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god…" her mother said over and over again.

Aika stiffened as both her parents hugged her. She wasn't done with her work – she couldn't move to Mikage-cho just yet. "What are you doing here?" she asked, and her voice came out so weakly that Aika mentally kicked herself for being stupid enough to get trapped in the TV world in the first place.

"Oh, no particular reason," Masami said sarcastically. "Only that we got a fucking phone call from your uncle's partner saying that Ryo-chan is in the hospital and you and Nana-chan went missing!"

… Well, that made sense. "I'm sorry," Aika said.

"Aika, did you run away?" Dad asked her, putting his hands on her shoulders and crouching down so that he was at eye-level with her. "Is that why you were reported missing?"

Aika looked away. "I… I don't know…"

"How can you not know?" Mom demanded. "You were—"

"Masami, it's worse if she doesn't know," Dad pointed out. "That might mean it wasn't actually under her control."

"Wait, like someone kidnapped her or something?"

"I'm not saying it was a kidnapping, but…"

Mom held one hand in the air. "Hold up. Aika, you need to call your friends."

"H-Huh…?" Aika mumbled. "I can just do it later…"

"Nope!" both her parents said simultaneously. "They've been coming over every day to see how you were doing," Dad continued. "You don't have to invite them over or anything – just let them know that you're doing better now."

But, as it turned out, Aika didn't have to do anything of that sort, for the doorbell rang right then and there. "That should be them," Mom said as she practically skipped over to the door. "I wonder who it is this time…" Aika heard the front door open, and her mother gave a squeal of delight. "It's the whole shebang! Come on in! She's up and awake and almost totally fine!"

Then, it was like a stampede. All of a sudden, everyone was on Aika, hugging her. It couldn't even be called a group hug, really, because it was so disorganized and disorderly. Yosuke was hugging her tightly to his chest, Rise was hugging her (and Yosuke) from the back, Chie, Yukiko, and Teddie had piled on at some point, and Kanji was on the outskirts, essentially hugging the entire group. Everyone was yelling and Rise was crying, and Yosuke flat out refused to let go of her, and Aika's head was pounding because she still couldn't understand what exactly was going on.

"Everyone, give her some space," Naoto said loudly and firmly. And then everyone slowly drew away, though Yosuke was still hugging Aika to his side in the end. "How are you feeling, Senpai?"

"My head hurts…" Aika mumbled weakly. "I don't know what's going on…"

Naoto gave the faintest of smiles. "Understandable."

"Nakamura-san, is it okay if we go out for a bit?" Yukiko asked.

"Sure!" Mom replied, clapping her hands together. "Just have her back at a decent time, okay?"

---

"You should tell your parents," Naoto said. "Just as you told Dojima-san. And I have a feeling that they'll believe you too."

"The thing is, it's so outrageous and specific that it has to be true," Chie added. "We couldn't make something like that up, even if we tried."

As they neared the Samegawa River, Aika pulled her sweater tightly closed as she shivered. All that was left of spending two days in the TV world without her glasses and five days in bed was her still shaking legs and an annoying sense of vertigo and lightheadedness that just wouldn't go away no matter what she did. And now that she'd been out and about for a substantial amount of time, she felt absolutely awful. "Can we stop for a minute? Sorry, I'm still…"

"It's okay," Yukiko said. "We can just talk here. I know it's not our special headquarters, but if you can't make it all the way, then that's fine."

Maybe it was the fog, that seemed so much thicker today than usual – maybe that was why Aika felt so sick. She sat down gingerly on the grass and pulled her knees up to her chest, burying her face in her arms. "Are you okay, Senpai?" Rise asked. "You don't look good at all. Maybe this was a bad idea…"

Aika lifted her head slightly and looked to her friends, who all stared down at her in concern. "I'm okay," she said. "Or… I will be."

"You should take it easy, Aika," Chie advised. "You were in the other world for quite a while."

"Two days…" Aika said slowly. "Right? Wasn't Yukiko in there for that long too?"

"Oh yeah, because of Chie's Shadow…" Yosuke mused.

"I think I know why you're still so out of it, Aika-chan," Teddie said with a smile. "Yuki-chan didn't have her Persona yet, so the Shadow we fought wasn't that strong. But you lost control of your Persona, and it turned back into a Shadow. Yours was way stronger than Yuki-chan's was, probably because it spent so much time fighting as a Persona."

"So that's what made it such a bitch to deal with?" Kanji asked.

"I-It wasn't that bad, was it?" Aika said shakily.

"What, are you kidding?" Chie deadpanned. "The only reason yours was better than Rise-chan's was because we could actually defeat yours."

"I'm sorry…" Aika mumbled. "I don't know how I lost control like that…"

Rise giggled. "It's okay, Senpai," she said earnestly. "You're allowed to have a Shadow too – just like all of us." She huffed in annoyance. "But next time, can you tell your Shadow to tone it down on the Almighty spells? You almost killed us."

Aika couldn't help but laugh. "Sorry…"

"Sorry to interrupt," Naoto said sharply, "but there are important matters we must discuss. Namely, what exactly transpired the night Nanako-chan disappeared."

"So, how are we gonna go about this…?" Chie asked slowly.

"Maybe Aika should go first," Yukiko suggested. "She was right in the middle of it, after all."

"U-Um…" Aika mumbled, hugging her knees tightly. "I-I don't really…"

"Try to remember," Naoto said. "Start at the beginning, and stop at the point where you can no longer remember what happened."

Aika exhaled slowly and stared up at the foggy sky. She still felt lightheaded beyond belief, but having her friends there with her eased things somewhat. "Okay… So Uncle came home that night, and he said he had a letter for me."

"It was a warning letter, right?" Yosuke asked. "Nanako-chan mentioned that you got a weird letter."

"Yeah, it was," Aika replied. "What did it say…? 'If you don't stop, someone else will be put in and killed'… Then again, I didn't really read it. Uncle did."

"He intercepted your letter?" Naoto asked.

"No… I don't think I opened it at all. I just saw that it was a warning letter, and I sort of… panicked."

"That must've been so scary…" Rise said quietly.

"So Uncle took it from me and opened it himself…" Aika continued slowly. "Then he freaked out when he read it, because he thought someone was threatening me… which is kind of happening, I guess… and he wanted to know why. So he just… took me to the police station because he thought that would be the safest place for me." Aika hugged her knees tightly and rested her head on top of them. "I was so scared… I-I couldn't stop crying…"

"Poor Aika-chan…" Teddie said solemnly.

"So once we got there, he asked me about what was going on," Aika continued, exhaling sharply. "And I told him everything. I just… I'm sorry. I couldn't deal with hiding things anymore because I thought…" The group exchanged uneasy looks. "I don't think he believed me at first, but then I stuck my hand in the TV. Then he went to get a tape recorder and he told me to be ready to say everything again. Then Nanako came on the Midnight Channel, and…" Her mind hit a wall there – it was as if there was a giant, gaping hole in her memory. "I don't remember… Why can't I remember…?"

"What don't you remember?" Kanji asked.

"How I got inside the TV…" Aika replied quietly. "I remember waking up on the other side, and I remember my Shadow showing up after that, but… How?"

"Are you sure you didn't just jump in yourself?" Chie asked. "'Cause that's what Adachi-san told us."

"I-I don't know…" Aika said again. "I don't remember."

"But wouldn't you know if you did willingly jump in?" Yukiko asked. "Actually, it sounds more like someone pushed you in."

"But the only person I remember seeing before I woke up inside the TV was Adachi-san and my uncle, and they wouldn't do that to me!" Aika insisted.

"Dojima-san wouldn't, without a doubt…" Naoto mused. "Perhaps Adachi-san? No, that's improbable, given his behavioral patterns…"

"Maybe someone else pushed her in," Rise suggested. "Maybe it was someone new. That's why Senpai can't remember who it was."

"What do you think, Aika?" Chie asked.

"I…" Aika mumbled. "I'm really sorry. I don't know…" Her head was now throbbing mercilessly, and she felt sick to her stomach as dark spots flashed across her vision.

"Guys, maybe we should just drop this for now," Yosuke suggested. "Aika's at her limit."

"But I still need to know what happened," Aika said. "On your side. Why are Uncle and Nanako in the hospital?"

They all exchanged uneasy looks. "Well…" Yosuke said slowly before sighing. "Might as well get this over with… Okay, so Teddie and I called your home phone, and Nanako-chan told us that you were at the police station because you got that warning letter. Then we all saw the Midnight Channel, and we saw Nanako-chan on there, so Naoto, Chie, Yukiko, and Rise all went over to your house to check up on her, and Kanji, Teddie, and I went to the police station to check on you."

"Didn't we run into Dojima-san there?" Kanji asked uncertainly.

"Yeah," Yosuke replied. "Then Adachi-san came running over and said you jumped into the TV. So your uncle just hopped into his car and started looking for you two, and we all managed to figure out who the murderer was."

"It was Taro Namatame," Naoto said. "The deliveryman. He confessed to kidnapping us all."

"N-Namatame-san…?" Aika echoed. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah, come to think of it…" Chie interjected. "He said a lot of weird stuff about you, Aika. Like how he was gonna save Nanako-chan for you."

Aika dropped her head down to her knees. "Yeah, that sounds like something he'd say…"

"So we told Dojima-san," Yosuke continued, "and he and Namatame got into this really bad accident, 'cause it was raining. That's why he's in the hospital. His spine got fractured or something."

"But is he okay?" Aika asked emphatically.

"His condition is stable," Naoto told her calmly. "Thankfully, that was the most severe of his injuries."

"But Nanako was already gone, right?" Aika asked. "A-Are you really sure it's Namatame-san?"

"You know him, Senpai?" Kanji asked.

"Well…" Aika said slowly. "Sort of. I, uh… I sort of had a Social Link with him. And every time we met, he'd talk about how he was doing something good for the people of Inaba, and… did he ever mention 'saving' people…?"

"So you definitely conversed more than once," Naoto said, "to the point that he recognizes you by face and name, and that he would be willing to kidnap someone for your sake."

"But that doesn't sound like him at all…" Aika said quietly. She groaned and buried her head in her arms. "My head feels like it's splitting open…"

"We'll just finish the story and take you back home then," Yosuke said.

"We're sorry, Senpai…" Rise said solemnly. "We knew both you and Nanako-chan were in the TV world, but we went to save Nanako-chan first because we thought you'd be fine for at least a little while. But…"

"Thank you," Aika said. "I… I would've done the same. A-And you couldn't have known that I'd get a Shadow, either…"

"Actually, we probably could've…" Chie said slowly. "Hey, uh… Remember… that conversation we had before all that stuff happened?" No, they were going to confront her about it and get mad and there was no way Aika could deal with that right now.

"A-Aika-chan…" Teddie whimpered. And then, he threw his arms around Aika and sobbed into her shoulder. "We're so sorry!" Wait… what?

"We didn't mean to gang up on you like that," Yukiko said. "We just wanted to know what was going on."

"Yeah, I didn't help things much, either…" Yosuke said in a low voice. "Sorry for… losing it. After you told me about Saki-senpai's Shadow. I mean, I didn't realize how I must've come off until later, but…"

"I'm sorry for hiding that from all of you," Aika whispered. "It just… It didn't feel right, using my relationship with all of you to get more powerful Personas. So I just… didn't."

"That's true," Chie conceded. "You used only Aoandon after a while, didn't you? Once she got strong enough to fight on her own."

"You don't have to worry about the Wild Card anymore," Aika said. "My Shadow got rid of it. And… I'm glad it did." A thought suddenly occurred to her. "Speaking of which… you guys should meet Igor and Margaret."

"Right now?" Yosuke asked. "A-Are you sure you can handle it?"

Aika stood up shakily, swaying unsteadily on her feet, and she latched on to Yosuke's arm to regain her balance. "Yeah, I'm okay," she said as firmly as she possibly could. "Let's go." But, by the time they finally reached the Velvet Room entrance in the shopping district, Aika had to stop to catch her breath, leaning against the Velvet Room door and slumping to the floor. "Maybe we should just take you home," Yukiko suggested. "You don't look well at all."

"Yeah, you look kind of sick," Chie agreed. "Maybe we should do this tomorrow."

"No," Aika said stubbornly as she stood up, leaning on the wall for support. "I promise, I'll go home and rest after this."

As if on cue, the door to the Velvet Room swung open, revealing Margaret. "Welcome," she said pleasantly.

"Hi, Margaret…" Aika said quietly. "Is it okay if everyone comes inside?"

The tiniest of smiles graced Margaret's features. "There is no rule disallowing that. Please come in." And so, everyone piled into the Velvet Room, which was now rather cramped due to how many people it housed now.

"Everything's so blue…" Rise said, spinning on the ball of her foot and gazing around the room.

"I-It's soft!" Kanji choked, running his hand up and down the couch where Margaret sat.

"Wow!" Teddie gasped. "You have a really long nose!"

Igor's eye twitched. "Teddie!" Chie yelled, smacking him across the arm. "You don't just say that to someone!"

Yukiko snorted in laughter. "It's true, though."

Chie groaned. "Not you too, Yukiko…"

"Um…" Aika mumbled. "Th-This is the Velvet Room. This is where I came to fuse new Personas. That's Igor, sitting in the chair over there, and that's Margaret."

"It's nice to meet you," everyone chorused.

Igor chuckled. "It's nice to meet you all as well," he said. "Now, if you would please leave the room for a few minutes. There is something of great importance that I need to, ah, discuss with Master Aika… of should I say former Master Aika?"

Aika clasped her hands together tightly and stared downward. "Let's do what Big Nose says!" Teddie announced.

"Teddie!" everyone yelled as they filed out of the room.

Aika sat down with her hands folded across her lap, her face burning as she avoided Igor and Margaret's gaze at all costs. "We received some interesting news a week ago," Igor explained. "It seems that you no longer possess the Wild Card."

"I-I can explain," Aika said suddenly. "I-It was my Shadow, it—"

"So it was you, then…" Margaret said with a serene smile. "We suspected as much."

Aika opened her mouth to protest, but clamped it shut and sighed. She had to accept and acknowledge what her Shadow said if she was ever going to keep it under control – Yosuke, Chie, Yukiko, and the others were all doing it every day, so she could do it too. "Please note that we are not angry, my dear," Igor said in a gentle voice. "Far from it, actually."

"B-But—" Aika protested.

"Allow me to show you something," Igor said. He waved his hand, holding his palm toward the ceiling, and a single shimmering card descended to it. He handed Aika the card, which depicted several three individuals staring up at a figure descending from the sky. The numerals "XX" was written on the bottom of the card, and the card felt warm with energy. "Your Arcanum alignment has changed. Before, you embodied the Hermit, but now, you lean more toward the Judgment."

"This card suggests that you have experienced an awakening in which you have come to the realization that you need to be true to yourself and your needs," Margaret explained. "It is a powerful card that implies that you now fully understand much of what has happened to you and that you have learned a great deal from your experiences."

"Most importantly," Igor said with a cryptic smile, "this card suggests that you are ready to confront any unfinished business in your life, that you will find absolution, and…" His smile widened. "… that you will be able to solve any, ah, unsolved mysteries."

"W-Wow…" Aika gasped as she stared down at her card. "Th-That's…"

"Now, my dear, flip the card around," Igor instructed, and Aika obeyed, staring at the card upside down. "Reversed, the Judgment suggests that you are being overly harsh and critical with yourself, and thus unable to learn from your mistakes and move forward. But more importantly, it serves as a reminder – a reminder that, no matter how difficult things are, in every decision you face, you still have at least have some element of control."

"When things seem hopeless, and you feel that you are entirely at the mercy of other people's judgment, remember that you too can choose your own destiny," Margaret said.

"I believe that your Shadow embodied the Judgment reversed," Igor said. "Every card has two sides, my dear – upright and reversed. The Wild Card is not inherently a negative card – you simply perceived it in the reversed position, while Master Makoto before you perceived it in the upright position. Neither interpretation is correct, and yet neither is incorrect as well."

And, for once, Aika didn't hate the Wild Card so much. "I understand…"

"Now, I highly suggest that you rest," Igor said, clasping his hands together. "You look unwell."

Aika huffed in annoyance. "Yeah, I know."

"Allow me to escort you outside," Margaret said, standing up and dusting off her dress. "So I guess this is goodbye, for the time being. It's been a pleasure serving you, Master Aika."

"I-I can't come back here?" Aika asked. "Now that I don't have the Wild Card anymore?"

Margaret's eyes widened, and she appeared dumbfounded. "You wish… to come visit me?"

"Yeah," Aika replied.

Margaret smiled. "Well, then… until next time, Master Aika."

"Thanks for everything, Margaret." And with that, Aika stepped outside to join her friends.

---

When Aika woke up the next morning, her body felt heavy and her head felt light, as usual. But the most disturbing thing was that it was nearly ten o'clock – she was sure she set her alarm the previous night to wake up in time for school… So when she made her way downstairs, she still wasn't entirely sure what was going on. Then she saw her mother sitting on the couch, drinking coffee, and her father in the kitchen. "Morning, Aika-chan!" Mom greeted cheerfully. "How're ya feeling today, sunshine?"

"Uh…" To be honest, she didn't feel any different than she did the previous day. "A little better… Say, Mom… Did my alarm go off this morning?"

"Oh, that's right…" Dad said slowly. "You wanted to go to school, didn't you?"

"Well, I missed almost a whole week," Aika said. "But either I slept through my alarm, or it didn't go off at all…" She sighed despondently, staring at her feet.

"Uh…" Mom said. "Don't take this the wrong way, Aika-chan, but… we kind of disabled your alarm after you went to bed last night."

In hindsight, maybe she shouldn't have gotten so angry with her mother for admitting that. "What?" she shrieked. "H-How could you do that?"

"Aika, you don't look well at all," Dad tried to explain. "And you were so wiped out after coming home yesterday, and you were out with your friends for barely an hour. There's no reason to rush—"

"What makes you think you can make these kinds of decisions for me?" Aika yelled, crossing her arms and glaring at both her parents. "I know my own limits!"

"Aika, you're being unreasonable," Mom said bluntly. Aika sighed as she stomped upstairs. "Where are you going?"

"None of your business!" Aika shouted back petulantly. She stuffed her wallet and glasses into a purse and came down quickly.

"Don't tell me you're planning on going out today," Mom said.

"So what if I am?" Aika shot back. "You're the one who said I needed to be more social."

"Aika, can't we just talk about this?" Dad begged.

"We'll have plenty of time to talk in Mikage-cho, won't we, Dad?" And with that, Aika slammed the front door shut and ran away.

She didn't even realize she was crying until her cell phone buzzed in her hand. She dried her eyes and sniffled before answering. "H-Hello?"

"Aika-chan!" she heard Adachi say on the other line. "Thank goodness… I ran into your friends earlier today, but you weren't there… They said you weren't feeling well?"

"I'm fine," Aika ground out.

"Anyway, they're finally letting people visit Nanako-chan now," Adachi said. "So she's getting better."

Aika stopped running when the world danced dizzyingly beneath her feet, and she made her way to the nearest bench to sit down and catch her breath. "That's good…"

"Yeah," Adachi agreed. "So, if you aren't busy today, you should go visit her… and you should probably pay a visit to Dojima-san too. He's been worried sick about you."

"I will," Aika said. "Thanks, Adachi-san. Sometimes, I don't know what I'd do without you." Suddenly, an image flashed through her mind – Adachi smirking at her, though not in his usual carefree way. There was something sinister about that smirk, and it filled her with such a horrible sense of dread that she found herself shivering. But then the image was gone as quickly as it came – probably because such a look would never appear on Adachi, of all people.

"Yeah, I was about to do the same. Hey, maybe we'll run into each other!"

Aika gave a small smile as she leaned backward. "Maybe…"

"Glad to know you're okay, Aika-chan!" Adachi said before hanging up.

And, as soon as the call ended, Aika forced herself to stand, though the ground still swayed unsteadily before her feet. She made it to the hospital in a daze, and the nurses recognized her immediately, telling her which room Uncle was in, and also asking her if she herself needed any medical attention because she looked so horrible.

She stumbled into Uncle's room after taking the elevator instead of the stairs, even though his room was only on the second floor. He was sitting up in bed, his face partially hidden by the newspaper he was reading. "I haven't been out of bed all morning, so leave me alone, already," he said as soon as Aika shut the door behind her.

"Hi Uncle," she said in response.

He promptly dropped the paper and stared at her in surprise, and she could feel tears welling up in her eyes because he looked so thin and so much weaker than she'd ever seen him in her life. She didn't so much run to him as practically leap into him, throwing her arms around his neck and burying her face in his shirt and crying. When he hugged her back, she could tell that he was using almost all of his strength, but his grip was still too weak – but she couldn't exactly talk, since hers was probably even weaker. "Thank goodness…" he sighed.

"You're okay…" she said in relief, her voice coming out muffled.

"Yeah, I'm fine…" Uncle replied. Aika drew away slowly, and Uncle wiped the tears away. "But… you look like you're in worse shape than I am."

Aika crossed her arms and turned away, frowning. "I'm fine. I don't know why everyone's making such a big deal… Speaking of which… Mom and Dad are—"

"Shirogane and your boyfriend asked me how to get in touch with them about a week ago," Uncle explained, "but apparently, they'd already planned to come here." He smiled sheepishly as Aika settled down on his bed. He put his arm around her, and she snuggled close to him, resting her throbbing head against him. "They told me… their plans for the new year." Aika sighed, already knowing where he was going with this. "They mentioned that you weren't too happy about it."

"I bet they did," Aika grumbled.

"You really took a shine to this place, didn't you?" Uncle asked, resting his head on top of hers. "It's not a bad thing… but they're your parents, Aika. They want to be with you."

"But I want to stay here!" Aika shot back. "I… I actually have friends here, Uncle, and…" She sighed. "The only reason we got so close was because of the case. If it weren't for that…"

"Did you tell your parents that?" Uncle asked. "Did you tell them about the case at all?"

"Of course they know about the case…" Aika replied tiredly. "They asked if I was okay every time they called."

"No, I mean… the TV stuff."

"What?" Aika mumbled distractedly. Then it occurred to her. "Oh… Oh."

"You should tell them exactly what you told me," Uncle said. "They'll probably have an easier time of believing you than I did. And if all else fails, then just stick your hand in the TV. That'll convince 'em for sure."

Aika sighed. "I guess…"

"Now onto more important things," Uncle said sharply, straightening up. "What happened the day you and Nanako went missing? Did you really jump into the TV after Nanako?"

"I don't remember…" Aika replied. "I remember up until the time Nanako appeared on the Midnight Channel, and then I remember waking up in the TV world. But what happened between that… It's like there's a giant hole in my memory."

Uncle sighed. "I hope you did just jump in after her," he said solemnly. "Because if you didn't, then that means…"

"… someone tried to kill me…" Aika finished quietly. "But… I think I'd remember if I really did jump in after Nanako. A-And no one else could remember what happened right before they were thrown in the TV, so…"

"And I'm guessing that, if someone really pushed you in, then it's the same person that sent you that letter… those letters. Seriously, I can't believe you tried hiding those from me."

Aika shrugged and smiled sheepishly. "I didn't want you to worry."

"Bullshit," he replied flatly. Aika giggled. "In all seriousness, though, I think you'll find the answer to everything that's going on. It won't be easy – hell, it hasn't been so far – but you can do it. You will. I know you can." Aika smiled gratefully at her uncle, but then yawned. She suddenly became aware of just how heavy her body felt, and just how tired she was in general. Maybe her parents were right, making her skip school for just a little longer… "You okay? You don't look so great."

"I'm just tired," Aika replied, because she honestly couldn't think of any other way to explain her condition. Besides – it was only natural for Uncle to worry, since Nanako was in the hospital for the same reason. "Um…" She slid off the bed and stood up, stretching, only to be rewarded with a rush of vertigo. "I'm going to visit Nanako, and then head home."

"Yeah," Uncle replied, nodding. "You need to get some rest. There's no point in pushing your body past its limits."

"Okay. I'll come visit again tomorrow, Uncle."

"Thanks," Uncle replied, nodding. "I'm bored out of my mind as it is." And, after Uncle told Aika Nanako's room number, she made her way there, making a strong mental note to collapse into her futon as soon as she got home. There was a nurse inside Nanako's room, checking the small girl's blood pressure.

Aika pushed open the door as quietly should. "U-Um…"

The nurse, a young-looking wearing a pink sweater over her uniform, with her black hair pulled up into a neat ponytail, looked up at Aika immediately. "Oh, Dojima-san," she said, and Aika didn't bother to correct her. "About time you showed up. Nanako-chan hasn't stopped asking for her 'Big Sis' since she woke up."

"S-Sorry…" Aika replied, smiling sheepishly.

"Come to think of it, I should probably check your vitals too," the nurse said, smirking slightly. "You look about half dead."

Aika glared at her. "I'm fine."

The nurse shrugged. "Suit yourself." She packed up her equipment and stood up. "Take it easy, Nanako-chan. Remember what my name is?"

"Sa-yo-ko-san," came Nanako's muffled response.

The nurse chuckled and smiled, patting Nanako on the head. "Good girl." She made her way to the door, smirking at Aika. "She's all yours."

And finally, Aika was left alone with Nanako. Aika made her way over to the bed, sitting down by Nanako. "Hi, Nanako…"

"Big… Sis…" Nanako said, closing her eyes and smiling as she entwined her fingers with Aika's.

"I'm here now," Aika said. "I-I'm sorry I was gone before…"

"Big… Sis…" Nanako said again, and then her grip loosened as she fell asleep. Aika stood up, tucking Nanako in the hospital bed just as she'd do at home.

She walked back home in a daze, and, as expected, her parents were waiting in the living room for her – but her eyelids were drooping, and it was nearly impossible to focus on anything. Her father hugged her as soon as she took off her shoes. "Aika, don't ever do that again," he said. "We were so worried…"

"Yeah, what if you passed out in a ditch somewhere?" Mom asked, coming up and glaring at her. "You have to take it easy, Aika! You can't keep pushing yourself like this, or you'll never get better!"

"I-I'm sorry…" Aika said quietly. "Mom… Dad… There's something I need to tell you."

"Tell us later, missy," Mom said, lifting Aika up and slinging her body over her shoulder. "You need to get some rest."

That was good, Aika reasoned – it would give her time to come up with how she was going to explain her involvement in the case to her parents, instead of just babbling everything like she did to Uncle. She must have fallen asleep, because the next thing she knew, she was lying in her futon, and she could smell food in the kitchen. She woke up feeling much better, but the annoying lightheadedness was still there – though that too was slightly better.

And, for some reason, Yosuke was downstairs, sitting next to Dad on the couch. They seemed to be discussing something serious, so Aika left them alone and joined her mother in the kitchen. "Can I help?" she asked.

"No," Mom replied bluntly. "You sit tight and relax."

"I'm not an invalid, Mom," Aika muttered, crossing her arms and frowning petulantly.

"You got that one from Nao-chan, didn't you?" Mom asked with a smirk.

"Maybe." Knowing that she wasn't going to get anywhere with her mother, Aika made her way to the couch, sandwiching herself in the large gap between Dad and Yosuke. "Hi."

"Hey," Yosuke said. "You feeling better?"

Aika nodded. "Yeah, I think I'll be able to come to school tomorrow."

"We'll see," Dad said with a hard edge to his voice. "Anyway, I must say, I approve of your taste in significant others."

"Nice catch, Aika!" Mom called from the kitchen, holding her thumb up in the air.

Aika felt her face heat up, and she gave a mortified shriek. "M-Mom…"

"You have much better taste than I did, at any rate," Dad deadpanned.

"Love ya too, honeybun!" Mom yelled.

"At least it wasn't as bad as Chisato's."

"Hey! Ryo-chan happens to be a wonderful young man! … Who isn't so young anymore."

"Ryo-chan?" Yosuke muttered under his breath.

"My sister's too good for him!" Dad yelled, though Aika could tell he was joking.

"Ryo-chan's too good for your sister!" Mom shot back.

"No offense, but your parents are weird," Yosuke whispered to Aika.

Aika giggled in response. "Tell me about it." She leaned into him and whispered so that her father wouldn't hear: "Let's go upstairs while they're still distracted."

He gave a mock gasp. "I-I had no idea you wanted something like that out of our relationship, Nakaumra-san! M-My heart isn't ready…!"

Aika just shook her head and smiled, grabbing his wrist and pulling him away from the couch with her. They were halfway up the stairs before her parents noticed. "You two better not be having sex up there!"

"We're not!" Aika shouted back, and Yosuke's mortified expression was so comical that Aika couldn't help but laugh.

"So…" He cleared his throat awkwardly. "We went to visit Nanako-chan today."

"So did I," Aika said. "Was she doing any better?"

"It looked like it hurt to talk…" Yosuke mumbled. "Your uncle looked a lot happier, though. And he kept thanking us for saving you. Did you visit him too?"

"Yeah…" Aika replied. "It was… nice."

Yosuke smiled. "I can imagine." They sat down on the couch in Aika's room, with Yosuke's arm around her and Aika leaning against him. Yosuke sighed heavily, his expression solemn. "The doctor said he couldn't figure out what was wrong with her, even though she's stable now. He… He said they're just going to monitor her condition for now, until they can figure out what's wrong or until she gets better, but she's not in any more danger."

Aika sighed in relief. "That's good…"

"Yeah…"

And, for a while, they just sat there, not doing or saying anything, and Aika couldn't feel more grateful that she wasn't so tired anymore. "Yosuke?" she said after a long, comfortable silence.

"Hmm?"

"Have you had your first kiss yet?"

Yosuke shifted suddenly. "Say what?"

"I-I know it's really random, b-but… I'm curious."

He rested his head on top of hers. "Have you?"

"No…"

"Do you… want to try right now?"

"N-Not really…" Aika looked up at him. "I just… I want my first kiss to be special, you know?"

Yosuke smiled and hugged her to his side. "It will be. I'll make sure of it. So… after all this is over?"

Aika smiled and kissed him on the cheek experimentally. She didn't miss the way he blushed and stared at her in surprise. "Sure. New Year's Eve. When the clock strikes midnight."

Yosuke could barely conceal his excitement. "You've got yourself a date."

---

"I'm going to fail," Aika mumbled.

"Aw, I'm sure you'll be fine," Yosuke replied.

"I missed so much school, though," Aika protested. "And on top of that…" She gripped her arm tightly, staring downward. "I barely studied at all. I… I don't know if it's what happened before, or if I'm really coming down with a cold, b-but… last night, I just… suddenly started feeling really sick, and I couldn't focus at all, so I went to bed really early."

"Are you feeling better now, at least?"

Aika sighed. "Barely… I swear, my head's going to explode…"

"I'm surprised your parents let you come to school at all then."

"They aren't here. They left on the first day of finals, remember?"

"Oh yeah… Well, you better dress extra warm then. The weather said it might start snowing soon, but what's going to happen if it snows with all this fog?"

"Whoa!" Aika heard Chie gasp from somewhere behind her. "Where'd you guys come from?" Yukiko, Rise, Kanji, and Naoto stood by Chie, each of them looking slightly uneasy. Chie groaned. "This fog's so thick that sometimes you can't see your nose in front of your face… We thought we'd be better off if we went in a group."

"It's definitely been weird lately," Yosuke agreed. "And it's so cold, too… Maybe you really are getting sick, Aika."

"Huh?" Rise asked. "Did you catch a cold, Senpai?"

"I don't know…" Aika replied, wrapping her arms around herself and shivering. "It doesn't feel like a cold, but I still don't feel well at all…"

"Visibility's so bad, it's scary…" Rise mumbled. "It's just like on the other side."

Suddenly, Kanji's eyes widened, and he reached into his pocket and shoved his glasses on his face. "G-Guys, put on your glasses!"

Aika reached into her bag and complied, and she didn't know whether to be happy or scared that it was as if the fog didn't exist when she put her glasses on for the first time in weeks. "Wh-What the…"

"Whoa…" Yukiko gasped. "It's all clear…"

"Wh-What the hell is going on?" Yosuke demanded.

"These glasses are meant to help us see through the fog in the other world," Naoto quipped, "but putting that aside, no glasses would improve one's visibility in a fog, under normal circumstances."

"Could the fog from over there be leaking into our world…?" Chie mused.

"Wh-What if that's really it?" Aika stammered. Suddenly, she sneezed, shivering.

"Anyways…" Yosuke said slowly. "Today's the last day of exams, right? Let's get 'em over with so we can meet up at the special headquarters after school."

---

"Hey!" Chie said at Junes after school as she pointed to a spot on the newspaper that lay on the table. "Here's a story about the fog! 'Some specialists are raising concerns that this fog may consist of harmful substances. More and more citizens are calling for an investigation into the cause of the fog and the facts about it. Though the government has begun its preliminary investigation, many feel that the causes will be hard to pinpoint.' Huh… Is the fog really that dangerous?"

"If it's the same fog that's on the other side, then definitely," Aika answered. "I remember, the fog made me sick after I spent a few hours in it. Remember, when we first went to the other side?"

"And it's probably what's making you sick right now," Yosuke said. "But you got over it in like a day back then, right? So is it because of the fog that you're taking so much more time to recover?"

"I would assume it has to do more with Aika-senpai's refusal to let her body recuperate properly," Naoto said stiffly.

"It does seem a lot like the fog on the other side…" Teddie conceded, "but beyond that, I'm clueless."

Naoto pointed to another spot on the newspaper. "There's another item of note here – a summary of Namatame's career, with details about the case. 'The suspect was having an affair with the first victim. It seems she was killed due to relationship troubles. Also in April, Ms. Saki Konishi's body was discovered. The police are looking into a motive for the murder. In July, a boy in Inaba performed a copycat murder. The boy was initially thought to be the culprit behind the killings, but later suspicion was thrown upon Namatame. Last month, the culprit attempted to kidnap a seven-year-old girl of Inaba, resulting in his arrest.'" Naoto sighed. "It seems Namatame is still confined to his hospital bed, so further investigation has yet to commence."

"I still don't think he did it…" Aika whispered.

"Aika, he kidnapped Nanako-chan without a doubt," Chie said.

"I know, b-but…" Aika protested.

"The stuff he was saying was so obviously nuts," Rise pointed out. "If he says anything about the TV world, he might be considered mentally unstable."

"B-But maybe he had a good reason for it!" Aika said suddenly.

"Are you seriously trying to justify him kidnapping Nanako-chan?" Yukiko asked. "And all of us?"

"You weren't there, Aika," Yosuke said. "He confessed to everything. It's over." He sighed. "Saki-senpai… no, not just her. That announcer lady, too… And it's his fault that Nanako-chan's in the hospital."

There was a gust of wind that made Aika shiver violently, and she gasped as she remembered something. "A kotatsu!"

"A what now?" Kanji asked.

"I promised Nanako that we'd go shopping for a new kotatsu," Aika explained. "Our old one's broken, and it's really cold now, so…"

"Oh, then why don't we check them out right now?" Chie suggested. "I know Nanako-chan would be psyched if she came home and found a new kotatsu!"

"Hey, why didn't you tell me sooner?" Yosuke asked. "The winter season's coming up, and we just got a bunch of 'em in stock!" He stood up and held his fist in the air. "All right! To the housewares section! For Nanako-chan!"

Aika giggled as she and her friends made their way inside Junes. Thankfully, it was a lot warmer inside, though Aika still shivered, and each and every kotatsu she saw looked more and more appealing. "If we're gonna buy a kotatsu, we might as well get some oranges to complete the set," Chie said.

"It's a cliché because it's true, dammit," Kanji added.

"The best complement to a kotatsu would be a heated rug," Naoto said.

"That sounds amazing…" Aika sighed.

"Hey, won't that much juice kill the breaker the moment you tried to microwave something?" Yosuke pointed out. His eyes widened suddenly in realization. "Oh yeah, you've never used a kotatsu before, huh Ted? It's nice and toasty.

Teddie stood with his head hung low. "C-Can I still stay here?" he asked. "Y-You all kept your promise to me, so I should be going back, but…"

Yosuke sighed in irritation. "Teddie, we've been over this a million and one times," he said exasperatedly. "Of course you can stay. How many times do we have to say this before it gets through to you?"

"Nanako-chan would be said if you weren't there when she wakes up," Chie pointed out.

"B-But…" Teddie protested weakly. "I couldn't save Nana-chan…"

"Teddie…" Aika said quietly. "The only person who couldn't save Nanako was me. I owe you so much for going and rescuing her when I couldn't."

"We caught the killer, man," Kanji said. "We couldn'ta done that without you."

"Teddie, you shouldn't talk that way when Nanako-chan is still fighting," Yukiko reprimanded softly.

"Should you ever tire of the Hanamura residence, you are more than welcome to stay with me," Naoto said.

"Y-You guys…" Teddie whimpered.

"Oh, I have an idea!" Chie exclaimed suddenly. "Why don't we pick out a Christmas present for Nanako-chan while we're here?"

"That's a great idea!" Yukiko agreed. "I'm sure she'll be out of the hospital by then."

"Ooh, I know!" Teddie said enthusiastically. "I read this one magazine under Yosuke's bed, where there was this giant box, and a guy was sitting inside with a giant red bow tied around his—"

"Wh-What kind of magazine was this?" Aika shrieked.

"Ew, Yosuke!" Chie yelled.

"H-Hey!" Yosuke yelled. "Ted! Remember what we discussed that time you brought those magazines to the dinner table that one time?"

"Hey, Aika-senpai, what kind of animals does Nanako-chan like?" Kanji asked suddenly.

"Uh…" Aika mumbled, not entirely sure where he was going with this. "Bunnies… cats… dolphins… the pink alligator from that children's book that came out a couple years ago…"

"A plush pink alligator doll!" Kanji said triumphantly. "With a white dress with lace and ribbons and—"

"W-Wait, don't tell me you're going to make this for her!" Aika cut him off. Suddenly her phone rang, and she pulled it out, frowning slightly as she saw Adachi's name flash across the screen. "H-Hello?" she said slowly.

"Hey, it's Adachi," said a frantic voice on the other line. "Um, I want you to stay calm and listen to me, okay Aika-chan? Nanako-chan's condition suddenly got worse… The doctor wants you to come to the hospital immediately. We'll be waiting." Even after Adachi hung up, Aika couldn't move. She couldn't think, and she couldn't say anything, and her friends were starting to notice, but she couldn't bring herself to care.

"H-Hey…" Yosuke said, putting his hands on her shoulders. Her phone slipped out of her grasp, and it fell to the floor with a clatter. "What's wrong? Are you okay?"

"Who was that?" Chie asked.

Yukiko bent down to pick up the dropped cellphone, and she flipped it open. "Adachi-san…? What did he want?"

"It isn't like Adachi-san to call on a whim like this…" Naoto mused. "Then that means…" She gasped. "Something must be seriously wrong."

"N-Nanako…" was all Aika could say.

"Wait, you don't mean…" Yosuke said slowly. "Come on!" He grabbed her wrist, and they all dashed outside Junes.

---

Aika gripped the railing by Nanako's hospital bed tightly, staring down at her sister. The little girl was breathing heavily, and her face was slightly blue. There was a cacophony of voices in the hall outside, demanding answers about the fog, and Aika's head throbbed mercilessly because they were too loud, but all she could do was just stand there, by Nanako's side, hoping that everything would be okay.

"What the hell's that supposed to mean?" she heard Uncle yell at the doctor above it all. "Can't you see how much pain she's in?"

"All we can do now is monitor her condition closely," the doctor said in much too calm a voice. "Dojima-san, you need to return to your—"

"I don't give a damn about myself!" Uncle shouted. "Do something about Nanako—" He groaned suddenly, crouching over in pain.

"Dojima-san!" Yosuke, who happened to be the closest to him, cried out in alarm, putting one hand on the older man's back to steady him.

"Just save her…" Uncle ground out. "For god's sake, please save Nanako…"

"We'll do our best," the doctor said with a sigh. "For the time being, I must ask you to step outside."

Naoto put one hand on Aika's back. "Come, Senpai." Aika walked outside in a daze, and she sat down in a seat right across from Nanako's room, unable to stop shaking.

"Hey!" Yosuke yelled hysterically at Teddie. "Can't you do something? This all ahs to do with the world you came from! Can't you figure something out?"

"I'm thinking…" Teddie mumbled. "I'm thinking, but…"

"Dammit!" Kanji cursed. "Why does this have to happen to a little girl like her…? He slammed his fist against the wall. "This is all that bastard's fault!"

"Nanako-chan's gonna be okay, right?" Chie asked quietly.

An indefinite period of time later, Adachi walked up to them. "You guys still here?" he asked.

"How is Dojima-san doing?" Naoto asked.

"His wounds opened up again," Adachi explained. "They're treating it over in his room now."

"Any luck with your investigation on Namatame?" Yosuke asked.

"A-About that…" Adachi murmured. "I won't mince words here. We're gonna have a hard time making the charges stick. It'll be next to impossible to find him guilty in court, especially given the reason why we took him off our list of suspects for the first case."

"Oh yeah, that whole thing about him having an alibi…" Chie mused.

"Yeah, and the whole angle about him putting people into TVs…" Adachi added. "There's no way that'll stand up in court. What the public wants is when, where, and how Namatame killed these people. And Dojima-san knows it…" But through it all, Aika couldn't shake off the feeling that there was something horribly wrong with what he was saying. Was it that he was lying, or was there an inconsistency with the true nature of the case somewhere?

"Well, ain't you calm about this," Kanji practically growled.

"I-I'm just telling you the truth!" Adachi replied shakily. Aika frowned – yes, something was definitely wrong.

"And you call yourself a cop?" Kanji yelled. "Huh? You saw Senpai go inside the TV before! You want more proof? Then hurry up and bring a TV, dammit!"

"Hey, stop!" Rise cried.

Then, all of a sudden, a nurse ran outside Nanako's room. "Is Nanako-chan's family here?" she asked urgently.

Aika stood up slowly. "I-I am…"

"Hurry inside!" the nurse said. "Please, talk to her!"

Aika ran into the room in a daze. "Nanako!" she cried, gripping the railing by her sister's bed. She was shaking so much that she was sure she was rattling the bed. All the while, Aika could hear Nanako's heart monitor beeping.

"D-Daddy…" Nanako whimpered, her face contorted in pain.

"He's coming," Aika said hurriedly. "He'll be here soon." Nanako whimpered in pain, and the beeping accelerated.

"Nanako-chan," said the doctor in the room. "Nanako-chan, can you hear us? Do you understand what we're saying? Your big sister's here with you. Just hang in there."

Aika gripped Nanako's hand as tightly as she could, as if it was a lifeline. Her heart felt heavy and she wanted to cry, but she was too panicked to do so. "It'll be okay, Nanako. You'll be okay." It sounded more like she was trying to convince herself of that fact than console Nanako.

"Where's Dojima-san?" the doctor yelled.

"We're calling for him right now!" the nurse replied.

"Big… Sis…" Nanako said quietly. "I'm… scared…" Her voice sounded more and more strained by the minute, and it looked like Nanako was struggling to keep her eyes open.

"Nanako…?"

"Big… Sis… Dad…dy…" Then, Nanako closed her eyes, and the repeated beeping noise turned to one long, incessant beep. Aika froze, her eyes widening, unable to comprehend what had just happened. She still held Nanako's hand, just staring at her sister, refusing to believe that she could possibly have…

The door opened, and Uncle came in leaning heavily on the nurse assisting him. "Nanako!" he yelled. Aika couldn't breathe. This couldn't be happening. "N-Nanako…?" The door opened again, and Yosuke, Chie, Yukiko, and Teddie ran inside, though Aika barely registered their presence.

The doctor hung his head. "I'm sorry, sir…"

"No…!" Chie gasped. She and Yukiko were sobbing by then, and Aika heard Uncle collapse to the floor.

"Damn it…" Yosuke muttered. "DAMN IT!"

"Nana-chan…" Teddie said quietly.

But Aika couldn't do anything – she was still frozen on the spot, holding Nanako's hand in both of hers, staring at the small girl on the bed who wasn't breathing anymore, the sound of the heart monitor ringing incessantly in her ears. Time seemed to slow down to a standstill, but Aika would have given anything if she could just have more time with Nanako.

Then, suddenly, Rise burst into the room. "Senpai! Senpai! Dojima-san might've gone after Namatame! Adachi-san said he was admitted to this hospital!" That snapped Aika back into reality, and she, along with Yosuke, Chie, and Yukiko ran outside.

Sure enough, Adachi was waiting outside, his head hung low. "You transported him to the same hospital?" Yosuke yelled. "For crying out loud, he's the suspect in this case!"

"Wh-What are you getting mad at me for?" Adachi shot back. "This is the biggest hospital, and he's in no condition to be moved…"

"We have to find him…" Aika said quietly, almost listlessly. "Where's his room, Adachi-san?"

"I-I can't tell you that…" the detective muttered.

"Just tell us where he is already!" Kanji exploded at him. "Dojima-san's on his way, ain't he? You don't know what he's gonna do there if we don't stop him!"

"K-Kanji-kun…" Chie said. "You don't mean…"

"No…" Aika whispered. "He wouldn't…"

"H-Hold on," Adachi said. "Just what are you guys talking about?"

Kanji grabbed the collar of Adachi's shirt and lifted him about a foot in the air. "Cough it up! Where's his room?"

Adachi grunted in pain. "T-Top floor in the second surgical ward, furthest room back…" Kanji promptly dropped him, and they all ran upstairs.

"Th-This can't be happening…" Rise said shakily.

"Nanako-chan…" Naoto said quietly.

They ran into Uncle there, with two police guards and Adachi by his side. The front of his white clothes was soaked in blood, and Aika gasped. "U-Uncle!"

"Don't worry, Aika-chan," Adachi said hurriedly. "He'll be fine. Don't worry."

"L-Let me go, dammit…" Uncle groaned in pain. "I… I'm gonna make him pay…"

"Now, now, Dojima-san, you can't do that when you're bleeding to death, can you?" Adachi said teasingly. "I'll call you when you can see him, Aika-chan." And with that, the four of them turned around the corner, leaving Aika and her friends alone.

"Dojima-san…" Chie said quietly. "Was he seriously gonna…?"

Yosuke exhaled sharply, hanging his head. For some reason, they all still walked up to Namatame's room. "One of his kids is dead," Kanji said sadly. "Nothing woulda surprised me."

"Dojima-san probably knew…" Yosuke said. "… that there's little to no chance Namatame would be convicted… Damn it… He killed Senpai, and now Nanako-chan… And the bastard's gonna walk away without paying for what he did…"

But it wasn't Namatame's fault… was it? To Aika, nothing made sense anymore. "That's not right!" Yukiko sobbed.

Naoto sniffled, furiously drying her eyes. "Why…?" Rise whimpered. "Why is he the one that gets to go on living?"

Suddenly, there was a loud noise coming from inside Namatame's room, and the group rushed inside. The room was dark, and Namatame was crumpled on the floor, his eyes wide in horror. The window was wide open, and it didn't take long for Aika to piece everything together. Seeing Namatame like this, looking so completely lost and deranged, Aika couldn't even recognize the kind deliveryman she'd gotten to know over the past several months.

Yosuke balled his hands into fists, glowering at Namatame. "You have your life…" His voice came out as a murderous whisper. "… and now you want your freedom, too?"

"It's your fault that Nanako-chan's…!" Chie yelled.

Namatame shook his head furiously. "I-I didn't… I…"

And then, the TV in the room whirred to life, and a golden-eyed Namatame, wearing his delivery uniform, appeared on the screen. "I failed to save her," he said in a distorted voice. "It's because you got in my way."

"Wh-What the…?" Yosuke muttered. "How? The real one's right here, and we already beat his Shadow!"

"No…" Naoto said quietly. "Come to think of it, Namatame never faced his other self. And we didn't witness his Shadow returning to his body as a Persona, either… Perhaps that's why we're seeing this now."

"I failed…" said the Namatame on the Midnight Channel with a deranged smile. "But it wasn't my fault. And the law can't touch me anyway."

"Wh-What…?" the real Namatame mumbled.

"Is that what Namatame's really thinking?" Chie gasped. "Then… He wasn't deranged or anything! He knew what he was doing!"

"To hell with the law!" Yosuke yelled. "I won't ever forgive what you did!"

"N-No!" Namatame yelped. He crawled over pathetically to Aika, gripping her skirt and staring at her with pleading eyes. "A-Aika-san, I wouldn't… I really wanted to save her! She was never supposed to…!"

"You hate me because the child died, don't you?" the Namatame on the Midnight Channel taunted. "I don't care either way. Living or dying makes no difference to me. But you… you're different. You can't do such a thing. You wouldn't dare, right?" He chuckled darkly. "I'll continue 'saving' people… It's my mission!" Then the TV flickered off.

"Mission?" Yukiko echoed.

"My god…!" Naoto exclaimed.

"No!" Namatame cried. "Aika-san, please! Save me! I would never…!" He gripped her skirt more tightly.

"Get away from her!" Yosuke yelled. And then, Kanji violently lifted Namatame up by the shirt and held him threateningly in front of the TV. Namatame's hand was partially submerged, and white waves rippled from it, filling Aika with an inexplicable sense of déjà vu.

Naoto walked slowly toward the TV, running her hand along its edge, carefully avoiding the screen. "This must be a luxury suite," she observed. "Most hospital wards don't have such large televisions. Why, with something like this in the room, this man could escape at any time. Although once he enters… he may find there's no way out."

"Wait a second…" Rise mumbled. "Y-You don't mean… Are you… serious…?"

"This bastard'll get what's coming to him," Kanji growled. "You just gonna turn your back and walk away?"

"That's…" Rise protested weakly. "B-But…"

"Wh-What's gotten into you guys?" Chie demanded. "This is crazy! How can we do something like that?"

"Chie!" Yosuke yelled. "Everyone… Listen to me. If we're gonna do this… now is our only shot. We won't get a second chance. At this rate, the guy's gonna get off the hook… and he'll go around 'saving' people again! You just heard what this bastard's really thinking! If that happens, it'll be just like Nanako-chan and Saki-senpai… Who knows how many innocent people will die this time? I can't just let something like that go! Someone close to me died… Her killer can't be convicted… And now I'm gonna let the same thing happen again? There's no way I can do that! It's just wrong, isn't it?"

It was as if Aika was watching the scene from somewhere up above, instead of actively participating in it. She couldn't bring herself to say or do anything. "Y-Yosuke…" Chie whispered.

"All we have to do is push him inside the TV," Yosuke said, his voice shaking with fury. "That's it. We do that one thing, and this is all over. If any of you want no part in this, just leave the room. I'm not gonna force you to stay."

"Y-Yosuke-senpai!" Rise gasped.

"Fuck it," Kanji muttered. "I'm doing it!"

"Stop it!" someone cried, and it took Aika an embarrassingly long time to realize that that someone was her. And, much too slowly, she became aware that her hand gripped Yosuke's wrist tightly, holding him back, even though Kanji was the one with Namatame at his mercy.

"What is it?" Yosuke snapped at her. "There's no time to waste! The cops could come back at any minute!"

"S-Something's not right…" Aika said quietly, her resolve wavering.

"What didn't you understand?" Yosuke yelled. "We heard that guy's true feelings on TV! Just because you had a Social Link with him doesn't mean—"

"Yosuke!" Chie cut him off. "Don't take it out on her!"

"Sh-She's right…" Yukiko said shakily. "L-Let's all calm down for a second."

"All you guys have to do is leave the room if you don't want to—" Yosuke started.

"Hey!" Rise shrieked. "Let's all take a deep breath. After what happened to Nanako-chan, and seeing Dojima-san… we're not thinking straight right now."

"Fine…" Kanji muttered, dropping Namatame unceremoniously to the floor. Aika wrapped her arms protectively around herself, fixing her eyes on the floor.

Naoto took a deep breath. "You're right. We should calm down and think rationally about this. I realize now that we've heard almost nothing from Namatame's perspective. There's no denying that this man brought great harm to Nanako-chan… But other than that, the rest comes from our assumptions based on watching the Midnight Channel a moment ago. I won't deny that we were blinded by the heat of the moment… trying to impute all responsibility to him rashly."

"The guy's not saying anything!" Yosuke protested, but in a much calmer voice. "Whatever reason he had, there's no doubt about the fact that he'd been throwing people inside the TV. It was him who put Senpai through that misery… How can we possibly understand someone who says killing people is the same as 'saving' them?"

"Failing to understand and failing to listen are rather different things," Naoto said in a low, dangerous voice.

"I-I think he talked to me about this before…" Aika said quietly, self-consciously. "He said… H-He said th-that he finally found something m-meaningful to d-do with—with his life… A-And he was so—so happy that he s-saved someone… I-I think that—that was the day Naoto d-disappeared…"

"What are you trying to say…?" Yosuke whispered.

"I-I don't think h-he's a bad person…" Aika whispered.

"There's too much we don't know," Rise said. "We can't just make such a decision when we don't know everything."

"That's right…" Kanji mused. "If we leave any unanswered questions behind, we'll just be lying to ourselves. Yeah, that ain't gonna cut it… All right, I'm convinced."

Rise sighed in relief. "Thank you… I'll thank as hard as I can, and try to help!"

Chie put her hand on Yosuke's arm comfortingly. "We all know how you feel, Yosuke. C'mon, we've accomplished this much together, haven't we?"

"Right…" Yukiko agreed. "Together."

"Yeah…" Yosuke sighed. "You're right. Sorry… and thanks. Aika, are you—"

Suddenly, the door to the hospital ward opened. "You guys?" Adachi gasped. "What're you doing? You can't be in here!"

A doctor had accompanied Adachi, and he made his way over to Namatame, who was still lying on the floor, shivering. "W-We were keeping an eye on the suspect," Naoto said in alarm. "The police officers outside seemed to have their hands full with helping Dojima-san. If Namatame were to escape, it would be a disaster for the police's reputation… and their trust in you, Adachi-san."

"I see…" Adachi said slowly. "We'll tighten security from now on, and I'll arrange for him to be transported out as soon as possible. So… If you guys could keep quiet about being in here, I'd really appreciate it…"

"Do you mind talking in the hall?" the doctor asked politely. "He really needs his rest right now."

---

"Okay, so there's something that's been bothering me," Yukiko said in the hospital lobby. "Why did he start killing people in the first place?"

"Well he said himself it was to 'save' them, right?" Chie asked. "So… he killed his lover in order to save her, and just kept going?"

"No," Aika said. "If he really did kill Ms. Yamano, that's not why."

"Do you know something of this, Senpai?" Naoto asked.

Aika shrugged. Her head was throbbing mercilessly, though whether it had to do with the fact that she hadn't been feeling well in general, or with all the stress that had accumulated that evening, she didn't know. "He told me before… Misuzu Hiiragi cheated on him first, and she got pregnant. Then, Namatame-san got involved with Ms. Yamano, but he felt so guilty about it that he told Ms. Hiiragi right away, and then she filed for a divorce and told the news station where Ms. Yamano worked about it. But I'm pretty sure Namatame-san still stayed with Ms. Yamano, even though his wife was kind of screwing her over."

"So… he killed her to save her from everyone screwing her over?" Chie asked.

"No!" Aika snapped. "That's not…" She sighed harshly and stood up – the atmosphere felt too suffocating for her to function properly. "I think I'll head outside for a bit… get some fresh air…" The cold air hit her like a punch in the gut, and she wrapped her arms around herself, shivering despite the fact that she was wearing a jacket and her warmest scarf. She sat down on the curb, tapping her toes together and staring listlessly up at the snow falling slowly from the sky.

"If it snows, can we make a snowman?"

"Yeah, of course. We'll make a big one… and we'll even get Uncle to help."

And, before she could process what was happening, she was sobbing, as everything that had happened that evening caught up to her at once. She pulled her knees to her chest and buried her face in them, unable to stop crying. Some time later, she could feel someone sit down next to her, but she didn't care how pathetic she probably looked. She lifted her head, only to see Yosuke there next to her, staring down at her in concern "Are you okay?" All she could do was shake her head. He pulled her into his arms, just holding her and letting her cry. He didn't say anything, but Aika couldn't tell if she wanted him to.

And for a while, they just sat there, not moving, not talking, and Aika slowly ran out of tears. When she was done, she straightened up and dried her eyes with the backs of her hands and hiccupped. "Wh-What if I was wrong…?" she whispered. "What if Namatame-san really is the culprit?" And then the tears were back. "What if I just threw away our only chance at stopping all of this?" Aika leaned into him as he hugged her more tightly. She really didn't want to start crying again, but her eyes were already watering.

"There's nothing we can do now but think this through as much as we can," Yosuke said gently, rubbing her arm comfortingly. "And we'll figure something out – something better than killing him, at least."

Then, Naoto strolled outside. "Aika-senpai, there's a nurse here who wants to speak with you."

Yosuke turned to look at the first year over his shoulder. "Can it wait?" he asked.

"She said it's urgent," Naoto said simply.

"Wh-What…?" Aika whispered, standing up and sniffling as she dried her eyes yet again. She exchanged confused looks with Yosuke and followed Naoto into the hospital, where the rest of the group hovered around a single nurse – incidentally, the same nurse that Aika had met when she first came to visit Nanako.

The nurse smiled brightly at them all. "Oh good, you're all here. Please come with me immediately."

---

Aika was sure she was hallucinating. Maybe she'd come down with a fever sometime over the course of the day, and this was all some sort of illusion brought about by delirium. Maybe she was dreaming. This couldn't be real – Nanako's heart monitor beeping steadily, the small girl's chest rising and falling, her hand warm with life. "Nanako-chan came around," she only half-heard the doctor explain to the group.

"Wh-What did you just say?" Rise gasped.

"Nanako-chan's… alive?" Yukiko mumbled.

"A-Are you serious?" Yosuke said shakily.

"It's very rare to be resuscitated after one's heart and lungs fail, but it does happen," the doctor explained. "But until I know why she collapsed in the first place, I can't say for sure how she'll recover from here on… Still, Nanako-chan's a fighter, and she's trying desperately to stay alive."

Aika was crying again, only this time, it was out of happiness. "Thank you… Thank you so much!"

"S-So this isn't a joke?" Yosuke said, his voice shaking so much that Aika was almost positive that he was crying. "You're actually telling the truth?" And, as it turned out, everyone, Kanji included, was crying. Aika threw her arms around Yosuke's waist and buried her face into his chest, and he hugged her back as well.

"You all should go home for the night," the doctor advised. "I'll speak with Dojima-san tomorrow about Nanako-chan's treatment. It started snowing a little while ago, so be careful not to catch a cold."

Yosuke pulled away slightly, though his arms were still around her. "Wait, where's Teddie? I noticed he didn't come with us when we went to Namatame's room."

Chie sniffled. "You're right… That's weird. I figured he wouldn't move from Nanako-chan's side…"

"Wait, he has his cell with him!" Yosuke said. "I'll call him once we're outside." Aika left the hospital with her friends in a daze, still not entirely convinced that Nanako was going to be okay. Maybe she really had been dreaming… She remembered going home that night and collapsing into her futon right after changing because she was so exhausted.

But then, a short while later, she found herself in the Velvet Room. "Welcome," Igor greeted pleasantly.

"Wh-What am I doing here?" Aika mumbled, staring down at her hands.

"Do not be alarmed," Igor said calmly. "You are fast asleep in the real world. I have summoned you within your dreams."

"But… why?" Aika asked. "I don't have the Wild Card anymore."

"But I hear you promised Margaret to come visit nonetheless," Igor said. "Now then, my dear… Your journey has taken you quite a distance so far. Do you believe you will be able to solve this mystery?"

"We're so close…" Aika whispered. "We're almost there – I can feel it."

Igor's grin widened. "Splendid. The precise destination of this vehicle… That, too, is getting rather hard to judge."

"Wait, you mean this thing is actually going somewhere?"

"If we end up driving blindly, we may end up leading you farther away from the mystery you must reach," Igor said cryptically.

If this were reality instead of a dream, Aika probably would be nursing an Aoandon-status headache. "You're not making any sense."

"Let us take a moment to reflect on your journey, shall we?" Igor said. "That is the reason that I summoned you here tonight."

"Allow me," Margaret said, smiling gently. She held her hand out toward Aika, and there was a blinding white light that forced Aika to close her eyes. Voices started echoing in her mind – familiar voices.

"I think you'll find the answer to everything that's going on," said Uncle's voice. "It won't be easy – hell, it hasn't been so far – but you'll do it. I know you can."

"Though I want you to save the world as well, I cannot allow you to sacrifice your life to do so," Margaret's voice echoed in her mind.

"Wh-What is this…?" Aika whispered.

"We are experiencing the words engraved into your memory during your journey," Igor explained.

"Failing to understand and failing to listen are very different things."

"There's nothing we can do now but think this through as much as we can."

"If we leave any unanswered questions behind, we'll just be lying to ourselves."

"I'll think as hard as I can, and try to help!"

"C'mon, we've accomplished this much together, haven't we?"

"Right… Together!"

Aika didn't even realize she was crying until the light faded, and she sniffled and dried her eyes immediately. "Do not fear," Igor said. "You have comrades with you as well – those heading in the same direction through this dense fog." And, suddenly, the Velvet Room, which always seemed to be moving forward, stopped.

"We'll be parked for the moment while I confirm our current heading," Margaret said.

"As I mentioned previously," Igor continued, "this year will signal a great change in your life. Though there isn't much time left, it can be worth your while to take the time to stop and reflect."

"People are like water flowing in a river," Margaret said. "There is only one stream, but all who pass through it are affected differently. Some travel fast, some change their course… Experiencing countless events as they travel down the river of time…"

"The state of this room reflects the scenery of your heart," Igor said. Aika stared down at her feet – didn't everyone say that her Shadow's dungeon was a train station, of all things? Of course her version of the Velvet Room would be a moving vehicle… "Perhaps this may be a time for contemplation rather than action."

Then, the doorbell rang. Wait… what? The Velvet Room faded before Aika's eyes, as the doorbell kept ringing and ringing. When she woke up, she was lying in her futon exactly how she was when she first fell asleep. The doorbell was ringing, over and over, and Aika hauled herself up, which took way more effort than it should have because her body felt so heavy. She was shivering too, and her head was throbbing, no doubt due to her mental trip to the Velvet Room the previous night – and she'd really need that kotatsu soon.

She dragged her feet downstairs, rubbing her eyes sleepily. Though she'd slept for longer than usual, it felt like she hadn't rested at all. She opened the front door, revealing a panicked-looking Yosuke. "Teddie's missing!" he said immediately.

That sufficiently woke Aika up. "Wh-What?"

"I looked all over the neighborhood, but I couldn't find him anywhere… And he was acting all weird lately, too…"

"Maybe he went to the other side," Aika suggested.

"Rise and the others are checking in there right now," Yosuke said. "I'm sorry… you must be exhausted, but—"

"Just give me a minute to get dressed," Aika said much more confidently than she felt. "We'll head down to Junes."

Yosuke sighed in relief. "Thank you…"

---

"It's no use, man," Kanji grumbled. "We can't find him."

"No luck for me either," Rise mumbled. "I didn't sense anything over there. The fog's so dense, it might be affecting my readings… I'm sorry…"

"He didn't seriously go back to his world, did he?" Yosuke asked. "He kept asking us if he could stay, b-but…"

Aika's trip to the Velvet Room the previous night suddenly occurred to her, and Igor's words echoed in her mind.

"Perhaps this is a time for contemplation rather than action…"

"L-Let's think about this for a minute," Aika said shakily.

Yosuke sighed. "I guess that's all we can do for now… He plays dumb a lot, but he's still attached to us deep down… He wouldn't disappear without saying anything, right?"

"I'm worried for Teddie myself, but let's trust in him and await his return," Naoto suggested. "Right now, we must concentrate on the case. It won't be long before Namatame is transferred to another location. We must hurry, or we will miss our only chance to get his perspective on this."

"W-Wait a minute!" Yosuke protested. "The last person to disappear like this was Aika, and she definitely wasn't okay! What makes you think—"

"It was different for me, wasn't it?" Aika asked. "You all knew where I was, but you chose to come for me later. But we don't know where Teddie is right now…" Aika clapped her hands together. "L-Let's just review the facts for now," she said. "Maybe we'll figure out something about both the case and Teddie."

"Very well," Naoto said briskly. "Of all the victims, only two were killed: Ms. Yamano, the announcer, and Saki-san. From the documents we found in the car, we know Namatame had some sort of dealings with them. After that, there were multiple attempted murders, in which we were targeted… It was only when he took Nanako-chan that we caught him in the act, identifying his modus operandi in the process."

"When I hear you put it like that, sounds like the dude's guilty," Kanji said.

"But that still doesn't explain what happened to Aika," Yukiko said.

"But…" Chie protested. "Adachi-san said that Aika jumped in the TV after she saw Nanako-chan on the Midnight Channel."

"Yeah, but she'd remember it if she did that," Rise pointed out. "Maybe the fact that she doesn't remember means that there's more to her disappearance…"

"Can we just leave me out of this for now?" Aika asked. "What happened doesn't matter if I can't remember it."

"Not now, at least," Naoto said. "We will contemplate your situation further later. Anyway, as a result of Namatame's arrest, the police admitted that Mitsuo Kubo was a mere copycat killer."

"That's what he told me," Aika said. "I went to visit him a few times. But… it doesn't make sense for Namatame-san to kill Ms. Yamano… I-I think he really did love her…"

"So either he's completely nuts, or we're misunderstanding something," Rise grumbled.

"You lost me," Kanji said flatly.

"She's trying to say that if Namatame really is sane, then there may be facts in the case we don't know about yet," Yukiko said helpfully.

"I think we're thinking too normal," Yosuke said. "Nothing about that world makes sense, so we should try thinking outside the box."

"He called that place a 'wonderful world'…" Naoto mused.

"Namatame-san's honest, though," Aika said. "Maybe he really did think he was saving people?"

"But by killing them?" Chie asked. "I don't think so."

"There's something that's been bothering me for a while," Yukiko said. "When we encountered him, he said, 'You're the ones I saved. Don't worry, I'll save this girl too.'"

"Right, and then his diary said that Aika would've wanted him to save Nanako-chan too," Yosuke added.

"So if he saves people by killing them, wouldn't he have failed to save us?" Yukiko pointed out.

"Wait a minute," Aika said. "Okay, so Namatame-san said that you all were the people he saved. And he didn't say anything about failing to save everyone? So that means…"

"If he thinks that salvation comes only through death, then his words make no sense," Naoto said. "And another thing – the Namatame on the Midnight Channel said he failed to save Nanako-chan."

"Well, maybe he really was trying to save the victims by putting them inside the TV," Chie said quietly.

"That has to be it," Aika agreed, nodding.

"But he's still the one who threw in Saki-senpai and that announcer, right?" Yosuke asked, a hint of desperation to his voice. "Sure we haven't nailed down his motives, but that doesn't change the fact that he killed them!"

Aika stood up suddenly, as the answer occurred to her. "I think I've figured it out! Well… sort of. Okay, let's just assume that I didn't jump inside the TV after Nanako showed up on the Midnight Channel – that would mean that someone pushed me in, right? If that's what really happened, then I think that someone killed Saki-senpai and Ms. Yamano. But…"

"That's all just speculation," Naoto pointed out. "There should be something more conclusive that will prove, once and for all, whether Namatame is the killer or not."

Aika sat down and sighed. The answer came to her quickly. "The warning letters," she said. "'Don't rescue anymore' and 'If you don't stop this time, someone close will be put in and killed'…"

"Isn't that kind of odd?" Rise asked. "Would someone who thinks he's saving people by killing them write 'don't rescue' or 'kill'?"

"Yeah, and the 'will be put in and killed' part doesn't make sense either," Kanji added. "If the killer was writing it, wouldn't it be more like 'I'll put in and kill'?"

"So Namatame-san didn't write them!" Aika said. It should have made her happy, but she couldn't explain why it filled her with a horrible sense of dread.

"Only the killer would write such a letter and deliver it to Dojima-san's house, right?" Yukiko asked. "Since someone else wrote it, couldn't that mean…?"

"Then Senpai's theory falls into place, assuming that she didn't just blindly rush to the other side when Nanako-chan was kidnapped," Naoto said. "The person who may have pushed her in… that person wrote those warning letters. That is the culprit. This third party, who observed everything that transpired, who orchestrated this entire case. My god… All this time, and I assumed there was only one culprit."

Aika shivered, though only partially from the cold. If someone really did push her inside the TV, then it meant that someone tried to kill her. This person knew where she lived, and he knew exactly how to frighten her so that she wouldn't think of confronting him. And since the previous night, the image of Namatame with his hand submerged partially in the TV, with the screen rippling around it, remained stubbornly in her mind. "Aika!" Yosuke's voice snapped her out of her thoughts, and she stared at each of her friends. "What's wrong? Are you okay?"

"Senpai, are you feeling okay?" Rise asked concernedly. "I remember you saying you didn't feel well yesterday morning, and then all that stuff with Nanako-chan happened… Maybe you really did catch a cold, and it got worse?"

"Maybe…" Aika mumbled. As if on cue, she sneezed, and she finally paid attention to just how badly her head was throbbing. Maybe it was like what happened to Nanako earlier… "Either way, I want to be there when we talk to Namatame-san."

"Okay, but promise us you'll take it easy for a while afterwards," Chie said. "You can't keep getting sick like this because you never let your body recover properly."

"I know," Aika said, nodding. "I will."

"Then let us hurry," Naoto said. "The sooner we finish our interrogation, the sooner Senpai can get some rest."

---

Aika led the group into Namatame's room, clasping her hands tightly together. The anxiety had only partially to do with the possibility that Namatame really was responsible for the entire case, but she also felt incredibly guilty for doubting him at all. "N-Namatame-san…? U-Um…" The deliveryman failed to even acknowledge her presence, choosing to stare at the covered window instead. While there was always a sort of heaviness in his shoulders, it was more profound now.

"Namatame-san, there's something we'd like to ask you," Naoto said. "It's tempting to think that you were the culprit behind this entire case. And, to be honest… there are many in this town who hope you are."

"Namatame-san, I don't think you did it," Aika said earnestly. "I never did. But… We need to know the truth. Please… C-Can you answer our questions?"

"Aika-san…" Namatame whispered, and his eyes looked so clear that Aika couldn't understand why everyone thought he wasn't mentally sound. "Y-Yes… I-It's the least I can do after…"

Aika couldn't help but smile. "Thank you," she said, bowing our head. "Um… So I wasn't there when this happened, but apparently you confessed that you did throw a lot of people inside the TV. So… Who was the first person you…?"

Namatame pointed a shaking finger at Yukiko. "Her," he said faintly.

"Huh?" Yukiko gasped. "M-Me?"

"S-So you didn't kill Ms. Yamano or Saki-senpai then," Aika sighed in relief.

Namatame shook his head. "I couldn't save them…"

"U-Um…" Aika mumbled, unsure of what to say.

"Allow me to ask you this," Naoto interjected. "Is killing people the same to you as 'saving' them?"

"No…" Namatame replied. "If no one saves them, they'll be killed… That's why… I put them in there…"

"Then tell me if my estimation is correct so far," Naoto said. "After discovering the Yamano and Konishi incidents, you realized an appearance on the Midnight Channel meant certain death. Thus, to 'save' her from that fate, you kidnapped Yukiko Amagi… You couldn't let her be killed, so you threw her into the TV, preventing the killer in this world from reaching her."

"A-And…" Aika piped up. "You just kept doing that for everyone else… right?" Namatame nodded, and Aika's eyes widened. "So… You really were trying to save everyone! B-But that means…"

"So now we know for sure that there's another killer who murdered the first two victims…" Rise said disbelievingly.

"The same guy who threw Senpai into the TV, right?" Kanji asked. "Maybe. If Senpai didn't just jump in herself."

Namatame's eyes widened in horror. "A-Aika-san… You were…"

"Do you know who it was?" Aika asked.

"I have no idea…" Namatame said quietly.

"Okay, let me ask something," Yosuke said. "What's the deal with the warning letters, huh?"

"What are you talking about…?" Namatame asked.

"So you didn't send them…" Aika said quietly. "Um…"

"Why did you enter the TV?" Yosuke asked. "After you and Dojima-san's accident, you went into the TV with Nanako-chan. Why?"

"I didn't know…" Namatame whispered. "I never thought… it would be that kind of place…"

"As I thought," Naoto said quietly to herself.

Aika sighed in relief. "Thank goodness… You're innocent."

"Y-You believe me?" Namatame asked, twisting and turning in his hospital bed, scrambling to get out. "D-Did they find him? Did they find the one who did such cruel things? M-Mayumi…"

Aika grabbed his wrist to stop him. "Namatame-san!"

"Please calm down," Naoto said. "Our ability to find the culprit rests on you, especially since Aika-senpai herself isn't entirely sure of what transpired that night."

"We did blame you for everything at first," Yosuke said, "but now, I think we can accept whatever you got to tell us… as truth."

"Namatame-san…" Aika said. "Please, tell us everything you can. We're the only ones who can actually understand."

Namatame sighed. "All right." His voice came out so clearly that Aika couldn't help but smile. "Soon after my affair with Mayumi became common knowledge, I returned to my parents' home, as if to run away from the scandal… and I started drinking heavily to drown my anxieties. Mayumi and I swore to stand up for each other and protect each other… but after some time, I couldn't reach her at all. She'd been disgraced on all the afternoon shows and forced to resign from the program she was on. I-It was my fault… I was so weak, so naïve to think that Misuzu wouldn't let this go, even though she did the same to me… The least I could do was apologize to Mayumi, but I couldn't even do that. I lost the will to do anything. Then, one day, the rumor I heard some time ago came back to me. Since I had nothing better to do, I sat down in front of the TV and watched my own reflection…

"And all of a sudden, there was Mayumi. She looked like she was calling to me for help… When I reached out unthinkingly to touch her… my arm disappeared into the TV, as if I had dipped it into a pool of water. I was so shocked that I lost my balance, and I nearly fell face-first into the TV. I was so scared… I couldn't understand what had happened. I thought maybe I'd gone insane… In the end, I decided to think of it as just a dream, and I went back to the city the next day after finishing work."

Aika smiled bitterly. "I can relate to that… It was the same way for me."

"The next day, when I got to work… I was fired on the spot, as I expected. That wasn't what broke me, though…" He wrapped his arms protectively around himself, his eyes widening in horror. "It was Mayumi being found dead. And not just that, but it had happened in my own hometown." He shivered, and Aika averted her eyes downward. "I was dumbstruck… But later on, I remembered the image of Mayumi I'd seen that night. 'Was it not a dream…? Could it really have been an SOS from Mayumi…?' I hadn't touched another TV, because the first time was so terrifying, but I decided to try it again…"

"And it worked," Aika finished. "It wasn't a dream."

"So that image…" Namatame whispered. "Was it something Mayumi showed me, calling for help…? I remembered that when Mayumi was alive, she was chasing a rumor about some bizarre TV program. I'd heard about it before, but I thought it was just an urban legend. But then Mayumi appeared on it, and later turned up dead. The more I thought about it, the harder it was to believe that the two events were unrelated. Soon after that, I came back to Inaba to answer the police's questions."

"Saki Konishi," Naoto said. "Did you meet with her at all?"

"She appeared on the Midnight Channel, and she looked like she was calling for help… just like Mayumi."

"So you thought she was gonna die too…" Chie guessed.

"I'd been following all the news about Mayumi, so I noticed right away that she was the one who found Mayumi's body," Namatame explained. "I didn't want her to die the way Mayumi did… I was consumed with the idea of rescuing her. Then, little by little, her image on the screen came sharper and sharper into focus."

Yosuke exhaled sharply. "How did you find out it was her?"

"After I came back, my father couldn't bear to see me in such low spirits, and he gave me a job with the family business," Namatame said. "I met that girl when I delivered a package to the liquor store… I told her to be careful… But that same night, on the TV, she looked like she was being engulfed by some black shape… She was writhing in pain… I tried to warn the police, but nobody answered. The next day, they found her dead." Aika squeezed Yosuke's hand comfortingly. "I knew she was gonna be murdered, but I couldn't save her… I'm sorry… I couldn't forgive myself for doing nothing! Then another girl appeared on TV…" He looked straight at Yukiko. "That was you. My opponent was a murderer who left no clues about his identity. I thought hard about what I could do to protect her from someone like that. The girl inside the TV looked as if she was smiling at me… And… that's when it hit me. I apparently had the power to go through to the TV screen to the other side… Then what if I put her into the TV and give her shelter there before the killer gets her…?"

"N-Namatame-san…" Yukiko said quietly. "You… You really tried to save my life…"

"I thought that no matter what kind of place it might be, it's better than being slaughtered," Namatame said. "Once things calmed down, I could just… let you out again. If you were inside the TV, then no one could get to you, and you wouldn't be killed. But there was a big problem… If I explained the situation to the victim, they'd never understand. I'd already tried that and failed miserably. It seemed the only thing I could do was take them away… kidnap them. I-It was my mission."

"Mission?" Chie shrieked. "Give me a break! You never stopped and wondered about any of this?"

"Ch-Chie!" Aika squeaked.

"I thought I was the only one who could help them," Namatame said sadly. "I tried calling the police, but they didn't believe me. I knew the area well, thanks to my job. I had a large truck, and I could move around without suspicion. I thought my job as a deliveryman would be the perfect cover for my mission. I thought no one else could do it… But… Are you telling me I wasn't saving them?"

Aika stared downward. "No…"

"If a person is still within the TV world when the fog appears here, they will die," Naoto said. "Beginning with Yukiko-san, the people you thought you had been saving were, in fact, in mortal peril. It was my friends here who really saved us all."

"I had a feeling that was it," Namatame sighed. "When I went after Aika-san's sister and went inside the TV myself… For the first time, I had some doubts about myself. The police were after me, so I had to get away… But I still had to do everything I could to protect that little girl – for Aika-san, if not for anyone else."

Aika covered her mouth, her eyes widening in surprise. "So you… You were…" You were risking your own life to save Nanako.

"But the TV world was completely different than I'd imagined…" Namatame whimpered. "Such an abominable, grotesque place. I knew that the four of you that I had 'saved' went back to your normal lives, so I didn't realize how terrible that world was. I never knew… you couldn't even get out of that place on your own… No. That's a cowardly way to put it. I'd probably already begun to realize that it was a dangerous place… But inside the TV, I was going insane… And you know the rest. When I came to, I was lying in a hospital bed." Namatame sighed. "I'm so, so sorry… I was trying to save you all, but I ended up doing just the opposite… I'm such a fool. I always wanted to enter the world of politics, and become useful to society… But after losing my job and the woman that I loved, all I had left was this power. I convinced myself that that world was some sort of sanctuary, and that I was a hero… I still saw them on TV, but I never did anything to protect them… I'm to blame for all of this!"

"There's nothing you can do about that now, Namatame-san…" Aika said quietly.

"I suppose so," Namatame replied. "But the things I've done are too serious to be brushed aside like that…" He hung his head. "I have no intention of running away from my crimes. I'm prepared to face the consequences. Kidnapping is already a serious crime… and on top of that, I put all those lives in danger."

"It's not your fault that you didn't understand the Midnight Channel and the other side," Aika said. "We don't understand it either…"

"We must apologize as well," Naoto said. "Had we let our emotions blind us to the truth, we would have piled all the responsibility on you."

"I guess from your point of view, once people stopped dying, you were 'saving' people," Yosuke said. "The more you did it, the more you really believed that you were preventing their deaths."

"I'm sorry…" Namatame said again. "I've caused you all so much trouble… If there's anything I can do to make this up to you, please let me know."

Just then, the door opened, and a policeman rushed inside. "H-Hey! What're you all doing in here?"

"My apologies," Naoto said briskly. "We'll be leaving now."

---

Aika wrapped her arms around herself as she shivered. She felt so much worse than she did that morning, but she still insisted on visiting Nanako at least once. The little girl was breathing heavily, wincing in pain, and Aika had to admit that she thought at least for a second that Nanako wouldn't make it. "Th-This was the last place we saw Teddie, right?" she asked.

"Yeah…" Chie said. "He was so worried about Nanako-chan…"

"How can he flake out like this when we have to find the real killer?" Kanji ranted.

"The police consider the matter closed," Naoto said. "We have to conduct the investigation ourselves from this point forward. Let's revisit Ms. Yamano and Saki-san's incidents and see if we can turn up fresh details."

"But it's been over six months," Chie protested. "Wouldn't the trail have gone cold by now?"

"But there's still my case," Aika said. "I'm sorry… I'm trying to remember, but nothing's coming…" Her nose tickled suddenly, and she sneezed. "S-Sorry…"

"Hey, you should probably get home," Yukiko said. "You said you weren't feeling well before, right?"

"I'll walk you back," Yosuke said. "So… How about this? Aika's going to be out of commission for a little bit, so until she gets better, the rest of us will ask around town and see if we can learn something new from what people remember."

"Sounds good," Chie agreed. And so, they parted ways outside the hospital, and Yosuke insisted on carrying Aika on his back all the way back to the Dojima residence.

Aika rested her head on top of his and sighed. "Hey…" Yosuke said, lifting his head slightly. "You're burning up!"

"I know," Aika moaned. "I'll just take some cold medicine and sleep. I'll probably be fine by tomorrow."

"Even if you are, you still should take another day off to rest," Yosuke advised. "Otherwise you'll get sick again." By now, they reached the house, and Yosuke let Aika down so she could open the door. They made their way upstairs – while Aika went to change and unroll her futon, Yosuke went to the bathroom to retrieve a thermometer and some medicine. Aika flopped down on her futon and almost fell asleep. "Don't go to sleep yet," Yosuke said hurriedly as he quickly walked into the room and crouched down next to her. He handed her the thermometer first, and then opened the bottle of medicine and let two capsules fall onto his hand.

The thermometer beeped, and Aika pulled it out from under her arm. She groaned when she saw the 38.8 that flashed at her, handing it reluctantly to Yosuke. "Ouch," was all he said. "Yeah, you should definitely stay in bed for a while." He pressed the capsules into her hand and handed her a glass of water. When Aika swallowed the pills, a wave of exhaustion hit her like a punch in the stomach, and she felt herself sinking quickly. The last thing she saw before falling asleep entirely was Yosuke's face hovering above hers…

… and, when she opened her eyes again, she was in the Velvet Room – only Igor and Margaret were nowhere to be found, and she didn't feel nearly as tired and ill as she did before, which could only mean that she was dreaming. Actually, the only person in the room was…

"Teddie!" She ran over to the bear, who just barely turned around to face her, and hugged him tightly. "You're okay! Why did you just disappear like that? We were so worried…"

"A-Aika-chan?" Teddie said slowly. "Where… am I? Why are you here…?"

"I think this is a dream," Aika said. "Don't worry – we're safe for now."

Teddie's smile widened. "So I really did visit you in your dreams…" But his statement lacked the usual vigor that such statements from him usually did.

"I think I might've visited you here," Aika said. "Maybe. I don't know."

Teddie sighed. "Neither do I… There are so many things I don't know about." Teddie looked downward sadly. "Aika-chan? Can I tell you something?"

Aika sat down next to him, staring at him seriously, and nodded. "Yes, of course."

Teddie hung his head. "All this time… I've been thinking about who I really am. But I couldn't find the answer… I was 'no one' from the start…"

"No…"

"Humans live in the other world, and Shadows live in this world… From the beginning… that's all there was to it."

"Y-You're not saying…"

The look of complete anguish on his face made her heart break. "I was just a Shadow in that world… I figured something out. That day, at the hospital, I realized that I really can't do anything. As soon as I thought that, I lost consciousness. Then, when I woke up, I was inside the fog. Shadows can't stay in the human world… They aren't allowed. I walked and walked, but there was nothing all around me… Just when I started thinking that I couldn't go anywhere, I heard the a car… And then I was here…"

"Teddie…" Aika sighed.

"I remember lots of things now," Teddie said sadly. "My world is a place shaped by human thoughts. One day, a Shadow living in that world awakened to human emotions. But humans and Shadows are completely different entities…" Teddie put his hands on his head, and Aika knew that he'd be crying right now if he could. "… so he made himself forget that he was a Shadow… He wanted to forget… He wanted people to like him… And that's how he came to look like this…"

"Teddie…"

"I really am stupid. What the other Teddie said before… it was all true. No matter how much I search for myself, I have no self… There's no 'me' to begin with. I'm just a Shadow that took a different form so humans would like me… It would've been better if I had never remembered, but I did…" Aika hugged him tightly, but he didn't hug her back. How he felt right now – it was similar to how she felt when she first met her Shadow, so she could relate, to a certain extent. "I'll… probably turn back into a regular Shadow soon… Aika-chan? One day, when you meet Nana-chan in heaven, apologize for me… Tell her… I'm sorry I couldn't do anything… Tell her I'm really sorry…"

"But Teddie…" Aika interjected. "You saved her."

Teddie's eyes widened. "Huh? R-Really?"

"Yeah!" Aika told him. "She's okay. She's not dead."

"Nana-chan's… That's wonderful… I'm so glad…" He chuckled. "Glad that I could at least hear that."

"T-Teddie?"

"My heart feels so much lighter now… I'm starting to feel sleepy… What a strange place… It feels so soothing… It's not like my world. Something just feels so nostalgic about this place… Could this be your dream world, Aika-chan?"

"I have no idea," Aika answered honestly. "This place doesn't make much sense to me either."

"But…" Teddie said slowly. "I wonder why I met you here… What am I supposed to do now?"

"We need to look forward now," Aika said. "We're so close to solving this case, and we really need your help."

"But I don't know what to look for or how to find it… No matter how hard I think, there's too many things my little brain can't understand…" He smiled. "But I do understand one thing now… I'm glad I met you, Aika-chan."

Aika smiled back, stroking his fur. "I'm glad I met you too, Teddie."

Teddie stood up and turned away from her, his expression solemn. "But I have to go now."

"Wh-What?"

"This is your place… It doesn't seem like somewhere that I'd be allowed to stay… Goodbye… Aika-chan…"

"T-Teddie?" But then there was a bright flash of light, and Teddie was gone. "Teddie! No!" When Aika could finally see again, Igor and Margaret were sitting before her, as they normally would be. "T-Teddie… Where is he? What happened?"

Igor smiled cryptically. "It seems the words in your memory weren't the only things you summoned here," he said. "This is a room for guests who have an ego that can be nurtured… Shadows – mere fragments broken off from the ego – have no place here."

"S-So you just threw him out?" Aika cried.

"The water's strength has moved a single stone that had stopped, returning it once again into the flow," Igor continued, chuckling. "Very interesting…"

Aika sank to her knees, suddenly exhausted, and she vaguely wondered if the real world and the Velvet Room were blending together. "Things are about to come to a head," Margaret said.

"There is no reason to tarry here for long," Igor said. "It is time we continued onward to our destination."

Margaret nodded. "We're ready to go. Let us depart."

Igor chuckled as the Velvet Room started moving. "You are quite the unusual guest, my dear. You forsook the very ability that set you apart, and yet here you are. But now, it is time for you to return." He chuckled again. "I am even more intrigued now as to where this is all headed.

"We will eagerly await your next visit, Master Aika," Margaret said. And then, the Velvet Room faded before Aika's eyes.

Consciousness returned to her slowly, and her eyelids felt so heavy that it was an effort in and of itself to open them. While she still didn't feel well, she felt much better than she did before. She glanced at her alarm clock, taking note of the 15:00 it read. I only slept for a few hours…? When she finally regarded her phone, she saw a few missed calls from Yosuke – all from the previous night. At that, she bolted upright. I slept through the day? But then there was a rush of vertigo, and she collapsed back onto her futon. Throwing an arm over her forehead, she sighed. Though the headache, exhaustion, and chills were gone, she still felt feverish and ill.

She sat up again slowly and reached for the thermometer that Yosuke helpfully kept nearby. A few seconds later, 37.4 blinked back at her, and she sighed in relief. If she took another day to rest, she'd be completely fine in no time. She lay back down and threw an arm over her forehead, staring up at the ceiling. Her friends were no doubt still asking around town for any information on the first two incidents they could find, and if Aika couldn't participate, then the least she could do was think about the case and try to remember just what happened the night Nanako appeared on the Midnight Channel.

She squeezed her eyes shut and ran through the events in her head. I got the warning letter, and Uncle saw it, so he took me to the police station. I told him everything, and he left to get a tape recorder so I could tell him again. Then Nanako appeared on the Midnight Channel, and… I'm missing something here. She backtracked, and slowly, more details came back to her. I was crying because I was so scared, so Uncle told Adachi-san to get me some water. Then Adachi-san came back right after I finished telling Uncle everything, before he went to get a tape recorder. He was there when Nanako appeared on the Midnight Channel, so he'd know what happened… A shiver ran down her spine, completely unrelated to the fever. But he told everyone that I jumped in the TV myself… but if that's not the case, then what was he trying to cover up by lying to everyone…? The answer was obvious, though Aika didn't want to believe it. He'd only lie if… if he pushed me in himself… She covered her face with both her hands. Wait, no… That's wrong. Adachi-san wouldn't…

She groaned, and her head started to throb. Start at the beginning. I got the warning letter, and Uncle saw it, so he took me to the police station. I was so scared that I was crying and I couldn't talk properly, so Uncle told Adachi-san to get me some water. So Adachi-san wasn't there when I told Uncle everything, because he came back after I finished. He didn't know what was going on, so he couldn't have pushed me into the TV… Then an image struck her – a hand accidently submerged inside the TV, the screen shimmering. That only happened with Namatame-san, though… when Yosuke and Kanji were ready to kill him… But come to think of it, that bothered me then, too. Why…? Aika sighed as her cellphone vibrated, and she answered without checking to see who was calling. "Hello?"

"Hey, it's me," she heard Yosuke say on the other line.

"Wait, hold on," Aika said before he could get another word in. "How long has it been since we talked to Namatame-san? I kind of lost track of time."

"About a day," Yosuke replied.

Aika smacked her forehead. "I don't believe this… I really slept for a whole day…"

"Wait, seriously?" Yosuke asked incredulously. "I mean, I tried calling you yesterday, but you didn't pick up, so I figured you were sleeping, but… Seriously, you never woke up until now?"

"I know…" Aika moaned.

"Well are you feeling better, at least?"

"Yeah, a lot better," Aika replied. "I still have a slight fever, though."

"Okay, then you should take it easy today," Yosuke advised. "Otherwise, you'll get sick again."

"Yeah…" Aika sighed. "Any luck with the investigation?"

"Not really… We're gonna meet up soon to discuss what we found… or what we didn't find…"

"Why don't you all come over? I'd like to hear what you guys have to say, even if you didn't find anything. And… I sort of have a new theory."

"Really? Okay then! See you soon!"

---

Chie flopped on the couch in Aika's room as soon as she entered. "I'm seriously pooped…" she moaned. "This stuff's a lot harder when you don't have a badge to flash… I walked around for two days, and I still couldn't hear anything good."

Yukiko sat down gingerly by Chie's feet. "It was the same for me. There was absolutely no talk about the case whatsoever, let alone the true culprit."

Rise lay down on the futon next to Aika. "Ditto for me. Actually, in my case, I kept getting bombarded with questions and couldn't get them onto the main subject at all…" She sighed. "The killer must be pretty good to pull this off without being seen in such a small town…"

"Senpai, have you eaten anything?" Naoto asked.

"Yeah, we're hungry," Kanji agreed. "We didn't even get lunch."

Come to think of it, Aika did feel hungry, which was probably a good sign. "I haven't eaten anything since yesterday…"

"Let's get delivery then!" Chie said excitedly. She pulled out her cellphone and called Aiya's, and everyone told her what they wanted to eat as she ordered. And no one said a word until everyone was finished eating. "Okay then," Chie said once everyone was done. "Let's share what we learned… Even if it wasn't much."

"The guy I talked to thought the case ended when they caught Mitsuo," Rise said.

"At least you got something," Yosuke grumbled. "The person I talked to just kept going on and on and on about how time flies because the cases were so long ago."

"The person I spoke with was convinced that Namatame was the true culprit," Naoto said.

"I asked Naoki what he thought," Kanji said. "He had no frickin' clue…"

"So, to sum up," Chie said, "there really was no new information. The end?"

"The police had an unusually large number of investigators in their initial investigation of the first two incidents," Naoto said. "To find facts that even they overlooked would be difficult indeed, now that over half a year has passed. There wasn't a single report of suspicious persons being witnessed to begin with. Ms. Yamano had ardent fans whereas Saki-san didn't, but otherwise the conditions are the same."

"Oh yeah, another thing," Kanji said. "Every time I tried to ask about the case, people ignored me and kept ranting about the damn fog."

"Yeah…" Rise agreed. "That or the Midnight Channel."

"Aika mentioned that she thought of something before," Yosuke quipped.

"What is it, Senpai?" Naoto asked. "There isn't much I can do, since I have no new data to work with. But if you have anything you can bring to the table…"

"It's…" Already, Aika could feel her resolve wavering. "It's about how I ended up in the TV. I figured that, if anything, that's what'll help us figure this thing out."

"Assuming that you didn't jump in yourself," Naoto said.

Aika nodded. "Right. A-Anyway, I pretty much ran over everything in my head. I still can't remember what happened after Nanako appeared on the Midnight Channel, but…"

"Can you tell us what you remember again?" Yukiko asked.

Aika exhaled sharply. "First I got the warning letter. Uncle saw it, so he took me to the police station. I was panicking and crying, so Uncle told Adachi-san to get me some water… so Adachi-san wasn't there when I told Uncle everything. He only came back after I finished talking, just as Uncle left to get a tape recorder. Then Nanako appeared on the Midnight Channel."

"Maybe we should just ask him," Chie suggested. "He was there, right?"

"That's just it, though!" Aika protested. "He told you guys that I jumped in myself, right? If I really was pushed into the TV, then that means that he was lying!"

"Tohru Adachi…" Naoto mused. "He had some connection with both Ms. Yamano and Saki-san. He was in a position to observe our actions periodically, to some extent. Furthermore, he could safely approach Senpai's house without arousing suspicion…"

"That's right!" Yukiko gasped. "He's a detective, and he's Dojima-san's partner, so no one would think twice about him coming to Aika's house or being near Ms. Yamano and Saki-senpai!"

"Nah," Yosuke said. "I think we're just twisting everything around to find someone who'll take the blame. Besides, he's not the type."

"When he told us Senpai was missing, he looked panicked…" Kanji mused.

"… but he didn't look all that unsettled either…" Yosuke added, his eyes widening. "Does that mean he knows about the other world?"

"How could he, though?" Aika asked. "He wasn't there when I explained everything to Uncle. The only way he'd know about it is…"

"… if he had direct experience with the TV phenomenon," Naoto finished. "In fact, he could use his position to his advantage and hide critical information."

"Wait," Chie interrupted. "We're talking about Adachi-san here, right? Really? He's your textbook lousy detective!"

"I just remembered something," Yukiko quipped. "He said he came to escort Ms. Yamano, and—"

"What?" Naoto said flatly. "Was he at your inn when the announcer was staying there?"

"When Ms. Yamano was staying at our inn, the media was swarming all over it," Yukiko explained. "That's when Adachi-san arrived, saying he had been assigned to guard her… He told our waitress that fame could be rough…"

"Guard her?" Naoto echoed. "He didn't spend the night there?"

"Huh…" Chie said slowly. "I wonder if he knew Ms. Yamano…"

"I dunno about that," Kanji said, "but I heard he called out to a girl in my class. I heard this afternoon. But I thought, y'know, that's just how cops are, so I didn't think it had anything to do with the case…"

"Detective Adachi also questioned Saki-san on numerous occasions," Naoto pointed out. "I heard it was because there was so little information about the case at the time, but… It's certainly unusual to question someone with as strong an alibi as hers on numerous occasions."

Aika wrapped her arms around herself as a shiver ran down her spine. If Adachi really was the culprit, then she'd really gotten to know a murderer, and let him get close to her. Hell, she even had a Social Link with him. Suddenly, an image flashed through her mind – Adachi, with a cruel smirk painted on his face. She gasped and recoiled from the image, squeezing her eyes shut and trying desperately to dispel it. "Aika?" she heard Yosuke say, as if from far away. "Are you okay?"

"I just…" Aika said. And then, another image flashed through her mind – a hand, partially submerged in the TV, the screen rippling around it. "No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no…"

"Aika…?" Yosuke said faintly.

But by now, she was sure. "I didn't jump in myself. He pushed me in. I still can't remember all the details, but I know he did."

"S-So you remember?" Naoto asked.

"No, I don't…" Aika said. "Well… I remember one thing… Something's been bothering me for a while. Before, when Nanako… you know… Yosuke and Kanji were ready to kill Namatame-san. Remember? Kanji was holding him toward the TV, and Namatame-san's hand was partially inside it, but you could see it, because the screen was rippling. And for some reason, that's been bugging me, but I never realized why until now." She stared up at all her friends. "Because the same exact thing happened with Adachi-san! And I confronted him about it!" Her heart was racing, and she was sure she was hyperventilating. "I-I still don't remember… but he probably threw me inside the TV to shut me up. And Uncle wasn't there when it happened, so there weren't any witnesses!"

"But if that's true, then there was a huge risk involved," Naoto pointed out. "Namely, that you'd remember exactly what transpired and testify against him."

"Wait a minute…" Yukiko said. "None of us could really remember the details about how we ended up in the TV world either. That's what made us think that Aika didn't jump in herself, remember? Maybe Adachi-san knew that too, so he gambled everything on the chance that Aika wouldn't remember."

"And he was right!" Chie gasped. "She didn't remember!"

"And he just told us that she jumped in the TV, because that'd actually make sense for Senpai to do!" Kanji said.

"Oh my god…" Yosuke whispered, trapping Aika in a tight hug. "He really tried to kill you…"

"S-Senpai…" Rise mumbled, tears in her eyes. She let out a wail and threw her arms around Aika (and Yosuke) as well.

"You guys, I can't breathe," Aika choked.

"But you still don't remember the details, Senpai?" Naoto asked. Aika shook her head sadly, and Naoto smiled bitterly. "Perhaps it's a self-defense mechanism – you suppressed the memories of your own attempted murder… and the fact that you were forced to face your Shadow soon afterward covered it up even more…"

"Okay, so what're we gonna do?" Kanji asked. "We don't know for sure that Adachi pushed Senpai in the TV."

"But it's a lot more likely than Aika jumping in by herself," Chie pointed out. "So… we just confront Adachi then?"

"Yes," Naoto said. "As soon as Aika-senpai feels well enough to do so."

"I feel a lot better now," Aika said. "I should be completely fine by tomorrow."

Naoto nodded once. "No doubt because of the fact that you spent almost all of yesterday and today resting. You should keep taking medicine nonetheless, if only to ensure that you will not fall sick again."

Aika nodded. "Okay. I-I'll call Adachi-san." Everyone stared anxiously at Aika as she pressed her cell phone to her ear. Adachi picked up on the third ring. "Hello, Adachi-san?"

"Oh hey, Aika-chan!" Adachi greeted cheerfully on the other line. "What's up? Did you need something?"

"I-I needed to talk to you about something…" Aika mumbled.

There was a pause. "About what?"

Aika froze. About what…? "It's about Uncle and Nanako," she said quickly, her voice coming out much more strongly than she'd anticipated. "I feel like I don't know much about their… condition, and I want to know the details."

"Oh, that's understandable," Adachi said, and Aika could swear she heard him sigh in relief. "You haven't been feeling very well yourself, have you, Aika-chan?"

Aika smiled wistfully. "Not really…"

"Yeah, come to think of it, I expected you to be pretty much hovering over Nanako-chan all the time after that scare the other day," Adachi said.

"Well, I caught a really bad cold, and I've been in bed all day for the past two days," Aika said. Then she realized that she was getting horribly off topic – whether this was intentional on Adachi's part or not, she had no idea. "A-Anyway, can we meet up tomorrow to discuss all the… hospital stuff?"

"Yeah…" Adachi drawled. "You see, tomorrow's the day Namatame's being transferred to another hospital."

"What?" Aika almost shrieked. "It's tomorrow? C-Can we meet up sometime before then?"

"Uh…" Adachi said slowly. "Sure, I guess… How does tomorrow at nine sound? At the hospital lobby?"

Aika nodded. "Perfect. See you tomorrow, Adachi-san."

"Take care and feel better, Aika-chan!" Adachi said before hanging up.

When Aika flipped her phone shut, she released the breath she didn't even realize she'd been holding. "Tomorrow at nine at the hospital," she said quietly. "We'll be meeting him right before Namatame-san is transferred to a different hospital." Aika slipped one hand into Yosuke's and the other into Rise's. And the others followed suit until they were all sitting in a circle, just holding hands.

"This is almost over, you guys," Chie said. "We can do it."

"First Saki-senpai, and then Aika…" Yosuke whispered. "I won't ever forgive him."

"Hey, I just noticed another pattern!" Rise said cheerfully. "Besides Ms. Yamano, the killer's victims were all girls that Yosuke-senpai likes!" Needless to say, Yukiko didn't stop laughing for a long time.

---

Okay, so I cut this chapter short because it's already really ridiculously long, and the whole Adachi thing will take at least another ten thousand words to wrap up.

So Aika's kind of a brat about her parents in this chapter. But the thing is, her Shadow called her out on the fact that she isn't being entirely honest about her feelings – at least, not like she was before. So now she's making a huge effort to be open about her feelings – not just with herself, but with her friends and family as well. So yes. She's being petulant and a bit bratty – the good thing about it is that she's being totally honest about it.

Also, Aika has just about the weakest constitution out of everyone in the investigation team, even though she's not really a sickly person in general. The fog affects her way more than it does everyone else, and it's in both the TV world and the real world. Even worse, Aika didn't start wearing her glasses all the time until right before Nanako shenanigans happened, and she's so obsessed with solving the case before she has to move that she absolutely refuses to waste any time resting up and actually getting better, which is stupid, but she's not really thinking straight at the moment. So that's why she's been feeling so crappy pretty much this entire chapter. And it reached its worst point the day they interviewed Namatame because of all the stress that built up on top of everything. But she'll be fine now – don't worry.

Shit will be obliterated by fans in the next chapter, so stay tuned, and please review!