(Final stage... I mean, chapter)

The man was asleep as you took him to Robert's home. He had awakened from his unconscious state some time after Rage and Akira got him in Yuni's limousine, where you had to make up a story about how you found him passed out in the city.

When you arrived at his house that Friday night, the boy ran outside to greet you, eager to see his father safe.

"I... I don't know how to thank you," he said to you.

The only thanks you needed was for Robert to keep this a secret. After retelling him the false story that you told his father, you were too exhausted to ask for anything else.

-.

Days passed. You were about halfway through November when you rescued your teacher, and he took Monday off, claiming in an e-mail that he was sick and had to catch up on grading.

He relayed several questions to Robert about his whereabouts on Wednesday night, which was apparently the last day he could remember. You kept making up pieces of the story, until you haphazardly convinced him that you found him at the arcade, guessing that some kids had played a cruel reckless prank on him that knocked him out. You didn't know what to do, so you kept him at Yuni's mansion until he began to wake up... several days later. You could count about ten thousand holes in your story, but you kept a great distance from your teacher, hoping he would never ask about the rest. Emi was lucky that she wasn't in Yuni's car when he woke up...

-.

"AAAAAAGH! YES! YES!"

Rage had an unusual cheer whenever he beat someone in a competitive DDR match. He was even more enthusiastic when it was at such a difficult song, thanks to the random wheel.

"I beat you this time! Suck it!" He was actually talking to the machine, or specifically at the results screen of Pluto Relinquish. He and Gus were covered in sweat, gasping and leaning on the bar as if they had no legs while staring at a pair of Cs, but they were happy to have both passed the song.

"Take it easy!" Gus yelled. "You're really getting into this. It's getting kinda weird."

"You have no idea," Rage said, as they got off the machine.

"So what was last week about?" the mohawk man demanded. "I was the only one who showed up!"

Gus was probably the only regular player that really didn't know about the other world. Even Maid Zukin learned of what happened from her near-sister, so you came to an agreement with the others to finally tell him. You tried telling what happened over the arcade sound effects, with Rage butting in every other sentence, having his own bit of input.

"... yeah, I was out for that part," he said at the end, when you spoke of Pluto. "But I helped, you know, before the guy got me."

"... quit screwing with me," Gus reacted, with an expression of disbelief. "People with superpowers and stuff? That's for video games and movies."

"He's not joking," Akira seconded for you. "But you probably had to see it to believe it."

"I wonder," Emi said, staring at the ceiling for some sort of answer. "What would Gus's Persona be like?"

"It would probably have glasses and spiked-up hair," Rage simply proposed. "After that, I don't know."

"You guys aren't serious, are you?" The man still couldn't believe you.

"I'd rather know what his Shadow was like," Yuni butted in. "C'mon, what's your deepest, darkest secret?"

"I'm not gonna tell you," he argued. "Besides, secrets aren't cool when they stop being secrets."

The blonde stuck her tongue out at Gus. Maybe he would believe you all one day, but that was actually the truth, and you would stick with it.

As Emi and Yuni raced to the machine, Zukin came to your side. "I want to let you know," she began, "that the other world is closed off to me. It seems there really is nothing to fear anymore."

You thought she was right. You would spend the rest of your college year like any other student from then on...

"Oh yeah, Souji," Rage called. "About that party I mentioned a while back..."

You had no idea how to get to Disco's building, but most of the people in the town were able to help you. They would say things like "it's that loud place," "the place on the corner that never sleeps," "where all those cars block the road," and other phrases that made it sound troublesome to the city. But they always said it with a smile; it must've actually been popular with everyone.

When you arrived, the music was incredibly loud, but you recognized the song from DDR. Robert had come with you, but you boys split up to find different people. You scouted the room for someone you knew and managed to find Rage with Gus, and they waved at you. You asked them what song was playing... was it a DKC song?

"Yeah, Taj He Spitz," Rage confirmed. "Nice catch; we don't play that a lot."

"Sorry about giving you a hard time with your story," Gus told you. "But I am pretty mad you left me outta that. It sounded amazing."

"You couldn't fight anyway without facing your Shadow," Rage yelled over the background noise, "and you're uptight about having secrets."

You scanned the room while Rage continued to explain what a Shadow was to Gus, exposing pieces of everyone's dark side. Of course you had expected Rage and Gus to show up, and likely Emi, whom Robert was looking for. Yuni would likely attend with Akira... Alice may have been with Emi... were Zero and Devil Zukin the types to come to a party? Before then, you assumed Devil Zukin would've been around Rage, but maybe she was giving him some space.

"Hey, what are you just standing around for?" You heard an excited feminine voice and noticed that Yuni was standing to your right. "This is a party, so dance!"

Then you remembered you had no idea how to dance without arrows.

"There's nothing to know. C'mon, try it with me." She pulled you out onto the dance floor by both of your hands, and you hesitantly stumbled in her direction.

She stopped abruptly before running into some stranger. You watched Yuni stamp her feet a few times, circling her hips over her dominant leg. Upon finding the first beat of the count, she clapped her hands, and her whole body began to move. She lifted her arms quickly and allowed them to fall slowly while the lower half of her body swayed and rocked to the sound.

"You're not even trying!" she yelled.

She wanted you to do that...? You had too much testosterone to even have hips that moved like hers did. But you watched her feet; now that she wasn't restricted by the arrows, she kicked and tapped her feet in many directions. All right, surely your legs could do that. You nodded your head, and pretended you were playing the song on DDR. You felt a little awkward, stepping as if there were only four safe spots beneath you.

"Hey, there you go!" Yuni praised. "Just do whatever comes naturally to you."

Just as you thought you were understanding the song, it came to an end. The next one was much faster. What was it...

There were no vocals to identify it by, but the blend of repetitive high and low sounding beats reminded you that it was the song S-A-G-A. Well, at least it was another masculine song.

Just as before, you had to relearn the speed of the song. You were arching your back up and down, delving into the hard sound of the music.

The music began to get faster. You listened and adapted to the challenge, moving your arms rather than your comparably slow legs. Instead of swinging your legs, you hopped using your heels and toes. Even so, the song was progressing to a ridiculous speed, and you couldn't help but think you were doing this wrong.

As the song slowed back to a sensible BPM, you calmed down. How ridiculous did you look? Maybe it didn't matter. You had your friends with you. You casually looked around to see what everyone else was doing. Rage had his arms above the crowd, even higher than Gus's hair. Through the small gaps between bodies, you could identify Zero moving at about half the speed of the song (apparently, men really can move their hips). Alice was quite skilled, and you wondered if she'd been getting over her introverted nature. For your friends, you would do the same.

The minute of pounding music dragged on. Akira worked his way through the crowd to you and Yuni. She eyed him; he needed about as much help as you did getting into the song. He, too, began to move, mainly at his ankles and by moving his upper body. You quickly started learning moves from him; it was much easier to reference a man than a teenage girl.

With everyone there, you could do it. You could dance without having to think about it; you didn't need some complicated plan to know where to move. All you needed was to know how to have a good time with your friends.

You felt a grin across your face as the song began to die down. After a few lingering beats, S-A-G-A came to an end.

(Thanks a ton to my DDR buddy Feardancer, my Persona 4-playing reviewer, War; you two were really cool about putting up with my crud for the entirety of the fic. I hope you guys and everyone else liked how it turned out as a whole, now that it's finally over. xD)