"Wanna join us for a study session after school today?"

I gulped down the bite of the energy bar I'd been gnawing on, which served as my lunch for the day as I was hunched over my textbooks, hastily scribbling down notes in preparation for the upcoming midterms. My immediate instinct was to deny the invitation, but when I looked into Chie's copper eyes, which translated her feelings of hopefulness, I was reminded of my own hopes to open up to the Investigation Team.

I nodded in reply, smiling gratefully. "I suppose that might be able to benefit me in some way, in terms of success on the midterms. I may be able to offer some help, as well. I guess I can find some time to join you."

Chie beamed, satisfied with my answer. "Great! We're all going to meet at the Junes food court at one of the picnic tables as soon as school gets out. We'll see you then!"

"Yes. Thank you for inviting me."

It was Tuesday, October eleventh, and exams were approaching very quickly. It seemed that all I heard about around school anymore was the complaints of students who insisted that they would fail miserably and live in their parents' basements for the rest of their lives. Now, I'm not particularly arrogant, but comments like these sure did influence me to picture myself as a genius. It was incredibly difficult to decipher why other students seemed like such imbeciles. Studying and receiving good grades was really not very hard. I didn't understand why others found it that way. Nevertheless, I had been studying ceaselessly to ensure that I would do well. As a result, I had refrained from talking to Rise-san and Kanji-kun in our classes together for the past two days. I hoped that they did not feel offended. Hopefully, being able to study together after school would make up for it. I was still dumbstruck by the fact that I actually had people to study with.

After the dismissal bell rang at the end of the day, I hurriedly made my way out of the school building, eager to meet up with the others. Not long after I left, I heard a voice call from behind me that almost made me jump.

"Naoto-kuuuuuuun!"

I broke out in a cold sweat before forcing myself to calm down. "Hello, Rise-san."

Her brilliant red hair engulfed my face when she stopped in her tracks beside me after sprinting down the hill, and began to walk at my pace. "Hi!" her cheery, jubilant voice had become normal to me.

"I presume you are meeting up with the others as well?" I said.

"Of course!" her high-pitched voice pierced my ears. "Believe me, I definitely need the studying… Maybe you could help me out, ace detective!"

I chuckled quietly. "Perhaps I would be able to."

"That would help so much," Rise whined dramatically. "I honestly don't know how I'm gonna pass."

"I will try my best to help out in any way I can. I have been doing some excessive studying in preparation."

"Thank you so much," she said with a sigh of relief. "So, on a lighter note…" She got unnecessarily close to my face and whispered with a smirk, "What do you think of Kanji-kun?"

My face suddenly went bright red and I lost my footing on the pavement, tripping forward, only to be caught by Rise-san. "K-Kanji-kun? W-what in the world do you mean, 'what do I think of him'!?"

"Ooooooh," she cooed, "Getting all defensive, are you? I see how it is."

"D-defensive!?" I had the mind to smack her right in the face, but of course, I would have never done that. "Rise-san, I-I apologize, but in all seriousness, if you think that there is anything…"-I squeezed my eyes shut to avoid her face, only to see Kanji's face, his icy eyes staring back at me-"ANYTHING at all going on between him and I… Y-you're sadly mistaken!"

"Hmmmm," Rise continued to smirk, eyeing me suspiciously. "Alright, then, if you insist." She snickered to herself, and I knew that she would never believe me. I stared at my feet, shoulders hunched as I continued to walk on down the road. Kanji-kun and I did seem to have some things in common, but of course, I didn't feel much toward him. Romance was the last thing on my mind as of late, anyway. I was here in Inaba strictly for police business, not to be flitting around in some absurd, maudlin relationship, damn it!

After a few minutes of walking, Rise-san and I finally reached Junes. By then, I had relaxed a bit and gotten over the things that she had said. We arrived not long after the others, and everyone else had already showed up. Teddie, in his human presence, was already sitting at the picnic table under the awning, across from a small girl, the girl I had seen at the summer festival, whom I presumed to be the young cousin of Yu-senpai I had heard about, as well as the daughter of Dojima-san. If I recalled correctly, her name was Nanako.

"Wow, everyone's here," Rise said, grinning sweetly.

"So many people," said Nanako. Her tiny voice sent shivers down my spine. I didn't normally regard things as being "cute," but if I had to describe her voice, that is the word I would have to use.

It brought a smile to my face to see everyone standing there by the table, happy to see each other, happy to see me. Still, however, my chest was tight with feelings of introversion. I was still not used to having other people around. Nonetheless, I would try my best to get along with the rest of the team. After sitting around the table and getting various notes and textbooks out of our bags, and of course, after everyone returned from buying their various snacks (Kanji-kun offered to share some animal crackers with me, although he seemed somewhat possessive over them), we all attempted to commence studying.

"Why did everyone come here?" Teddie asked.

"Exam study group!" Yosuke-senpai replied. He suddenly frowned and sighed in displeasure. "Times like these, I'm jealous of Teddie…"

"Come on now," Yukiko-senpai said, "Let's start with proving the trigonometric identities."

"Argh," Chie groaned, "Jumping straight into math…"

"Ours is the section on trig functions, right?" Rise asked, "The one where we find the area of a triangle given two sides and-"

"Huh?" Kanji interrupted, sounding confused. "You find the area of a triangle with… You know, that thing. Uhh, base by height by 2?"

I grinned reassuringly at his mistake, knowing that it was base by height by one half, not by two. "If you don't mind, shall I teach you?"

"Oh?" Yosuke seemed interested. "Are you as smart as I thought? Could you, uh… Lend me a hand too…?"

"Oh, um..." I said, shrinking slightly in my seat, "I wouldn't know where to begin with second-year subjects." I wished that I could help him, but sadly, advanced as I was, I was not yet on his level. After all, he was my senpai.

"Aww… What's up with that?" Yosuke scowled with a sense of forfeit. "Useless after all…"

My heart fell into my stomach, but with it, anger rose within me. I tensed up, suddenly feeling extremely defensive. My only instinct was to snap back at him. "D-don't call me useless!" I snarled, wrinkling up my nose. I suddenly regretted what I said, and shrunk a little more, breaking out in a sweat. I would have understood if he had gotten angry with me.

However, his reaction was very unexpected to me. "Hehehe…" he giggled teasingly as if I were a baby. "I think I've figured out what buttons to push to get Naoto-kun riled up. You're pretty cute when you're angry."

My face reddened yet again, and my eyes widened. I had no idea what to say. "W-what are you talking about!?" Those were the only words I could force out of my throat.

"That's it, I quit," Kanji suddenly said out of nowhere, "This just ain't my thing… The hell with the exams. 's time for my animal crackers."

"Ooh, can I have some too?" Rise-san pleaded, "I wanna find the penguin!"

"Hands off the penguin!" Kanji yelled, "It's mine!" The seriousness in his voice somewhat concerned me.

Yosuke sighed with a frown. "Forget it. I can't think…"

It seemed that our "group study session" had rapidly turned into a "group chatting session." Soon, everyone forgot about the exams. I was glad that I had done my studying beforehand, rather than waiting until now, because we certainly were not getting anything done. It annoyed me slightly that no one really seemed to care about the midterms anymore, but eventually I too let my guard down and began to converse with the others. Actually being included in a group like this, and not being taunted for my love of books or my social inadequacies was far better of a feeling than that of simply preparing for some silly exam that I would more than likely get an exceptional grade on anyway. We laughed, we shared various stories, we did everything but worry about what lay ahead. It was very ironic, considering the entire reason I was in Inaba. Eventually, one conversation arose which sparked a particular interest in me.

"Teddie says he doesn't know who he is," Nanako spoke up, "That's so weird."

Weird… Indeed, the feeling of not knowing one's true self is very strange, and also very scary. However, I had the sense that what Teddie had meant was more literal that that.

"…My life on this side is really fun," Teddie added, "But the more I feel that way, the more I want to know who I really am… I've surfed the net, read manga, watched TV… I even went to a place called the libeary, but I still can't find anything about me…"

"Dude," Yosuke shrugged, "I'd be surprised if you did."

"Still," Teddie said, thinking to himself, "I'm starting to get an idea…"

"An idea?" Yukiko-senpai repeated, sounding intrigued.

"Whoa," said Chie-san, "Isn't this your first time sharing a theory about yourself!?"

"I lived in that other world," Teddie pondered, "That world was my reality… But now, I have a feeling that it was born from the minds of people on this side… And over in that place filled with Shadows, I think I was some sort of special being…"

"A 'special being?'" questioned Yosuke-senpai.

"I don't remember anything from back then, though…" Teddie seemed deep in thought. "Maybe it's that 'amnesia' thing I read about in a book the other day."

"It's true…" I began to think as well about what he was saying. "There are some aspects of the other world that make it seem as though it's rooted in human thoughts. Still, there's no point in applying the principles of logic and deduction to a place like that… But the fact that you existed in such a world from the beginning adds credibility to your theory. There is little doubt that you are a 'special being' on the other side. If you yourself know nothing about it, perhaps it's true that part of your memory is missing." I longed to help Teddie find his true identity in any way that I could. "Tell me, what is the earliest memory you can call to mind?"

"It's from a while ago," Teddie replied, not making eye contact, as he was very deep in thought. "I've always lived there, as far as I could tell. Then it started to get noisy, so when I happened to bump into Sensei and Yosuke, I asked them to do something about it."

"I see…" I said, feeling as if I was running deductions on a case, "If you've always been on that side, you'd have no sense of time or days…"

Nanako was watching the two of us, listening intently. She looked as if she was thinking very hard, but she frowned, undoubtedly confused about what we were talking about.

"Oops, that's right!" Chie suddenly spoke up, not wanting Nanako to feel left out. "Nanako-chan's completely clueless about all this! I'm sorry, Nanako-chan. We didn't mean to leave you out…"

"Hey…" said Nanako, "I think Teddie must be a king." We all looked at each other in various expressions of surprise and confusion before she continued. "I read in a story that a king was all alone inside a forest because of a bad guy's curse. Isn't that what happened to you, Teddie?"

"A king…" Teddie said, eyes widening, "Well! When you put it that way it sounds about right…"

Yukiko snickered. "Teddie…? A king…?" She giggled to herself. "I can see him wearing a cape…"

"Sheesh, Yukiko…" Chie said, "You go into laughing fits in front of anyone now…"

Hm. So it seemed that I wasn't the only one beginning to open up to the others.

Kanji-kun seemed uncomfortable. "Can we… Not talk about Teddie being a king…?"

"Hm?" said Yosuke, "What's with the face…?"

"Teddie really was a king," Teddie began to smile to himself. "There were all these other Kings too, and we all-"

"Hey…" Chie-san spoke up, "He's talking about what happened at the club! Quiet, you! Not in front of Nanako!"

My eyes widened. Indeed, Nanako should not have been hearing about that… Er… Interesting event. I quickly stood up. "W-we should all go buy some drinks! Come on, Nanako-chan. I'll buy one for you. What would you like?"

After successfully drawing attention away from the embarrassing memory, all of us went to buy drinks, except for Teddie and Yu-senpai, who decided to stay and talk under the awning. While the others ordered, I couldn't help but smile to myself as I thought of how much fun I was having, just getting to be with all of these people. I had almost completely forgotten about exams.