"Ready to go Minato?" Naoto asked Minato who had just entered the hallway. The team were meeting at Junes in a few minutes and the two of them intended to be on time today.

"Yes. We have to be there before the others this time." He was hastily wandering out of the door with Naoto following moments after.

"Should be fairly simple as long as you refrain from falling into the Samagawa river again." She joked a he set of at a brisk pace.

"I don't plan on doing that again anytime soon..." He mumbled in annoyance. "Um... Ace? Why do you think they're starring at us?" Now that he mentions it most the people they had passed always seemed to be throwing cruel glares at them for seemingly no reason.

"Woah! I didn't think Shirogane-san would stoop that low!" Do what now? What were they gossiping about? Suddenly a complete stranger approached them curiosity obviously getting the best of the black haired teen.

"Hey your Naoto-kun right?"

"Yes. What can I do for you?" Her reply was as calm and professional as can be before she waited patiently for a reply.

"Why are you cheating on Souji-kun? He's such a good guy!" Wait what? Cheating? On Souji? What?!

"Huh? I'm not cheating on him." Still as calm as ever as she responded to the question.

"Then why do you spend so much time with this guy?" She sighed in annoyance. Of course only her friends knew who was so she should have really expected this to happen. With him being Minato of course.

"This is my cousin Minato Arisato. He is staying at the Shirogane residence for awhile and we have been close friends for a while now. However nothing like that is going on between us." Her calm voice seemed to make the teen settle slightly.

"Oh great! Well nice to meet you! It's nice to know that such a nice guy would talk so highly of someone who would stay loyal to him. Anyway I should go and put these rumours to rest for you two. Bye!" With that he left. Well that was... weird...

"Um... Lets just continue onwards for now."

"Agreed."

"Hello everyone. We're not late I hope?" Naoto greeted the team as they approached before she realised that the entire team wasn't there yet. Kanji, Souji and Yukiko were still missing whilst the others all sat around the usual table.

"Nope. Not today." Chie replied as the two blue haired cousins took a seat with them.

"Hey guys! Sorry a'm late!" Kanji suddenly appeared behind them as he came running towards them Yukiko came shortly after before Naoto's phone rang.

"Hello? Shirogane speaking." She answered her mobile in her professional tone in case someone from the agency was calling her.

"Shirogane-san? We have a knew lead in the case that we think you should see immediately." One of her colleagues spoke with great urgency towards her.

"What is it?"

"Shirogane-san, I can't really –"

"Just tell me. If it is this important then you should be able to at least describe to me the situation." She interrupted him with slight annoyance that refused to show in her tone.

"Well, its... We have a victim. A murder." The young detective flinched at his words. A murder? What? It was only a few robberies!

A man had been caught on security camera just once breaking into a computer shop and there have been many security guards as witnesses but their evidence was unreliable as they had always been unconscious at the time from the culprit drugging them. I the culprit is suddenly killing people then they had an even bigger problem on their hands as this culprit was incredibly talented at covering his tracks.

"Who was it?" She asked calmly though her face showed a different story. A security guard maybe? A bystander? A janitor? Hmm...

"The victim was the janitor of Seta corp. A mobile phone developing company with many prototypes on the scene and other valuables. Shirogane-san, I belief it would be best if you joined us here at the station." His voice was now slightly worried as she hesitated to respond.

"Of course. I shall be there momentarily." She replied professionally. Seta corp? When did her boyfriend become the presumed successor of a corporation?

"Good. We will undoubtedly require. your assistance here." He hung up before Naoto hurriedly put her phone away.

"I apologise but I must go. There has been a development in a case I'm now working on that may involve... Souji-kun." The others all froze and stared at her as she rose to leave.

"Hey everyone. Sorry I'm late." Souji suddenly appeared behind her not expecting her to jump in surprise at all.

"S-souji-san! I-I was just about to..." He raised his hand to silence her as she panicked. What if he's heard them? What if he wanted to leave Inaba to go and help his family? What if – No! Stop it! She inwardly scolded herself as she waited for him to do something.

"Don't worry. I already know. In fact because of the incident I'll be staying here in Inaba for a year like last time." She tensed slightly as he asked if she wanted to hear what he knew.

"No. The police have called me to explain it. I was just heading there now. I'm sure they can tell me what's going on." Her calm tone brought a nervous expression to his face.

"Er... Right." She watched him sit down through narrowed eyes before giving Minato a look that said 'keep an eye in him.' He nodded before turning back to the group and she walked away.

"Ah Shirogane-san. Its about time you arrived." The second Naoto stepped through the doors of the station a large thud could be heard which was presumably the doors closing behind her and a sinister voice of a former colleague. Wait... former?

"Yes. May I ask what you are doing here? I don't think you should still be here, correct?" Her calm professional voice brought a small hint a snarl in return. She could hardly see anything. The entire station was in complete darkness as she discreetly moved her hand towards her gun. This didn't seem good...

"Why no. I'm not supposed to be here, but what does that matter? I'm here now." He paused for a moment as the sound of footsteps reached her ears. "And now, so are you." This man was definitely doing something undesirable as his footsteps drew closer. This is bad!

Her former colleague Waru Akuyaku was a tall pale man with a scar that slithered across his eye. He always wore the same styled dark blue suit and like her always had his gun loaded at all times. This man was definitely a formidable foe to be against as he also had extensive knowledge of herbal remedies and knockout drugs. Wait... Knockout drugs? Could it be...? It makes sense! He could have been seeking revenge for being fired and striped of his detective status! It all makes sense!

"Are you the one who was behind those robberies and that incident at Seta corp?" She called into the darkness as the footsteps stopped. He was still concealed in blackness and completely impossible to see.

"Incident? Ha! What incident?! I just threatened the Seta family to tell the kid that and did the same with some rookies here! Ha ha! Your too gullible! Just what I'd expect from the child of the Shirogane name!" He chuckled hysterically as he suddenly sprinted forwards towards her! Both guns at the ready she dived for cover from the rapid fire of bullets hurtling towards her!

The cover she had chosen was an oak desk that stood strong next to a wall with many things such as chairs and boxes of case files stacked in front of it. Once the rapid fire had ceased she popped her head over the top of the desk and in mere moments she had shot a barrage of bullets that pierced the former detective! However she hadn't expected him to come sprinting at her with a needle sharp silver blade...

"So... What happened?" Chie asked Souji as he sat down next to Minato and he watched nervously as Naoto left the food court.

"I'm not sure, but I was told that a janitor was killed at my families main company store during a robbery. My parents had told me about it but they didn't seem too sure about want they were supposed to say." He replied calmly with a hint of worry in his tone.

"Well, we can talk about that later. Right now we should go over what we know about the case." Minato spoke up calmly. "I'm sure Ace can fill in any gaps when she gets back. Now what do we know so far?"

"Okay... Um... That shadows are making us go through challenges to get our Persona's back." Chie spoke up.

"Each of the challenges were linked to what the person liked. So Rise-san's was a singing contest and Kanji's was an pets contest thing." Yosuke mentioned calmly.

"Yes. About that. Kanji-kun? Why do you think your shadow spoke differently to the way you speak?" Minato inquired curiously. Naoto was much better at this then he was.

"Er... I dunno." Kanji just shook his head in confusion. For once he hadn't shouted like the world was going to end.

"Well, remember that the shadow had literally insulted itself by saying the shadow was flimsy and pathetic. Perhaps we had seen a fragment of what was causing this whole thing." The blue haired theorised calmly.

"Now I see where Naoto-kun gets it from! You sound so similar!" Rise had spoken up in slight excitement towards him.

"Actually Ace told me that the day we got back from Kanji-kun's dungeon." He admitted calmly.

"Well that explains it." Souji's jokingly mocking comment brought a smile to his face.

"Whatever."

"Well you two seemed to be getting along now." The two of them nodded at Yosuke's observation.

"Yes. Anyway is there anything we've overlooked?" He changed the subject back to what they should have been talking about.

"I don't think so." The music loving teen replied calmly.

"Right. Well then lets get going. We'll just have to make do without Naoto today." With that the team left for the next dungeon. Unaware of the battle taking place elsewhere...

"Are you ready to die?" Naoto swiftly dived out of the way, barely hearing her attackers comment as she moved away from her opponents knife. She was almost out of bullets and had tried everything she could think of to gain the upper hand in this fight but with no luck. Almost everything. Suddenly a thought crossed her mind as she turned hastily and made a mad dash towards the evidence storage room. This was possibly the most ridiculous idea she'd ever had but it might just work!

The room was filled with dozens of case files and over such things that at first glance would seem completely useless, however with her assailant chasing her down this was all she could do...

"Argh!" She cried as a blade sliced the side of her leg leaving a deep cut in its wake! This was bad...

Authors Note!

Okay! So this all ties in together! I promise! But until then I'd like to mention how great cliff-hangers are! Yeah I tried to explain it all the best I could so yeah and this is the case that Naoto has been on for ages now if you haven't already guessed. So I had this idea to go back to the previous chapters and to just rewrite some of them because I don't really think I've done a very good job of some of it so yeah. And when I asked before if anyone liked Five Nights at Freddy's as much as I did then I said Yukiko's dungeon was gonna be interesting or something those were two separate messages by the way. NOT the same one! So yeah if that got you worried then that's just there to clear things up! :D :D :D Anyway! Please Read & Review! I absolutely love hearing from you guys and its a true honour to be able to entertain you for at least a couple of minutes! Just hearing from you guys is enough to keep me excited for a good twenty minutes and keep me in a good mood all day long so yeah! Please Read & Review because its you gys who keep this thing going! Oh and I LOVE criticism as it tells me how to get better! :D :D :D :D :D :D Happy Reading People!