A/N: Updates will become less frequent now as RL starts taking over. Sighs. I am really sorry about the longer-than-usual wait for this chapter, and the long wait for the subsequent chapters from now on. I'll definitely try my best to update quickly, but I can't make promises.

Thank you all so much for supporting this story! :)

April 19, 2013

Crystal Fortress, 6F

When Souji opened his eyes which he hadn't realised he had closed, he found himself awakening to a body that was unusually lethargic and aching all over. Trying to lift even a finger sent jolts of pain to the rest of his damaged body, forcing the grey-haired adolescent to remain on the simmering soil, almost completely immobile.

His vision was tainted red and orange, with bright sparks dancing before him mesmerisingly. Everywhere his eyes turned to look, all Souji could see was the same scenery - the slithering flames; the walls painted red; the crystals' vibrancy drowned by the fire. Toxic fumes filled his nostrils with every breath he took as the crackling of fire whispered sweet nothings into his ears and the heat of the fire swept over his skin.

"Yo-" Souji tried to speak, but ended up breaking into a coughing fit when the soot-filled air clogged his throat. His body protested violently against the strain on his lungs, but Souji could do nothing but wait. The pain only kept escalating.

Various thoughts raced through Souji's mind despite the pain clouding his senses. He thought about why he woke up only to find his clothes tattered and his body littered with bruises; about why the flames surrounded and never touched him. He thought about the fire burning around and from within him; about the heat, the smoke, the taste of metal and soot at the back of his mouth.

But above all Souji thought about his friends. Where they might be, how they were faring.

As the itch in his throat numbed, the intensity of Souji's coughs died down, and his breathing slowly eased. Pushing all his worries to the back of his mind, Souji focused on the cards, sifting through them to find the one he had been looking for. It materialised at his mental command, rotating slowly as it drifted closer to him. Souji struggled to raise and stretch his right arm towards it until he felt his fingers brush against the smooth edge of the card.

"No...rn..."

The card burst into a brilliant display of light.

Immediately after that, the joined golden figures of the goddesses of fate appeared before him in unison, their wings fully spread out as they hovered above the grey-haired adolescent. The hands of the clock in their possession began to spin. Once they stopped, which was always at the time of four - the same number which, when spoken, sounded like the word "death" - a translucent glow encased Souji's body, healing the wounds that had marked him.

When the glow and Persona faded away, they brought along with them the cuts, bruises, and even the soreness of the wound on his back. Souji found himself breathing normally again, without having to experience the stinging ache in his chest with every breath, and quickly pushed himself back on his feet. He ripped off a torn part of his left sleeve and covered his nose and mouth with it before he tried calling another Persona again.

After crushing the card in his hand, a lone woman, kneeling in the air and dressed in a plate of chest armour and undergarment that covered little of her ghostly pale skin, manifested above him. The base of the large, black hat on her head had four long, sharp edges, giving the appearance of a four-pointed star, and from the left and right sides of this strange hat base was a thick, black veil that stretched far beyond the upper half of her body. A simple, but cryptic, illustration of a rose and its thorns was painted on the left cheek of the white porcelain mask on her face.

Scathach readily held her right hand upright, in a pose that was identical to those of people capable of casting spells or muttering curses, and then a wave of ice swept across the room. Souji was careful in guiding the direction of the Mabufudyne spell, making sure that only the raging fire was targeted.

Once the flames disappeared, hissing as they did so, Souji dismissed Scathach with a wave of his hand and, after tossing away the cloth, sprinted towards the first person he saw. "Amagi," he said, kneeling in front of her. "Amagi, are you okay?"

He heard her groan softly before she raised her head from the ground, her unfocused gaze meeting Souji's eyes. "Seta-kun...?"

"It's me," Souji was quick to reply. "How are you feeling?"

Still in a daze, Yukiko lifted herself from the ground until she was kneeling on it; a natural habit of hers after having been raised in an environment rich in tradition. Souji took a swift glance at the condition she was in, and was glad to see that, aside from the dirt, a few bruises and some superficial scratches, Yukiko seemed to be alright.

"I'm fine...I think," she said, looking over herself as well. Her eyes suddenly widened. "Chie... Where's Chie?" Before Souji could reply, Yukiko started looking around frantically. She let out a quiet gasp when her eyes fell on the fallen figure of her friend not far away from her.

Ignoring any pain she might've had been feeling, Yukiko ran over to Chie, with Souji following her, and shook her childhood friend gently. "Chie... Chie, wake up," Yukiko repeated a few times when Chie didn't respond. Her voice was nearly cracking, especially at the sight of the burn holes through Chie's jacket and spots of dried blood on Chie's legs.

It was only when Souji and Yukiko saw Chie's hands clench into fists that Yukiko stopped. They waited as the brunette slowly regained consciousness. With a quiet moan she turned her head until they could see her whole face, which was covered in grime. When she fully registered who she was seeing, Chie instantly pushed herself off the ground, though not without wincing, and looked over Yukiko worriedly.

"Yukiko! Oh, Yukiko, are you alright? You're not hurt anywhere?"

Yukiko couldn't help but bite her lower lip, fighting the tears that were beginning to well up in her eyes. "Chie, you..." She paused, biting her lip again. "You...were the one who protected me from the explosion, but now you're worrying about me instead of yourself. I... I don't know what I should..."

Chie flashed her a reassuring smile. "It's okay, Yukiko. See? I'm okay, nothing major on me or anything. Something like that isn't going to kill me, right?"

At a complete loss for words, Yukiko gave out a shaky breath, one that was usually indicative of somebody close to crying, and then pulled her friend into a tight embrace.

Feeling like he was invading on a private moment, Souji left the girls to themselves and began looking around the now frost-covered room for any sign of his best friend. He took slow and small steps as he searched. When he found himself walking towards the other gate in the room and saw a familiar tuft of brown hair near it, a smile of relief found its way to his face.

"Yosuke." Souji knelt beside his friend, shaking him lightly; it was almost like the mirror image of Yukiko and Chie just a while ago. "Yosuke, can you hear me? Yosuke."

When Yosuke gave no response, Souji carefully turned him over until he could see Yosuke's face. It was slightly pale and his lips looked dry, which Souji initially attributed to the heat, but when he checked Yosuke's lower eyelids and pulse, his mind could only jump to a single conclusion. As calmly as he could muster, Souji proceeded to look over his friend's body, but found nothing out of the ordinary other than small cuts and bruises.

"...Souji?"

Souji immediately turned his head in the direction of Yosuke's murmur. "You're awake," he stated as he helped Yosuke sit up. "How are you feeling?"

Yosuke frowned, and held his head in his hand. "'m fine. A little lightheaded, though. Just...gimme a sec or two. It'll clear up."

Souji promptly unzipped his waist pouch and took out a bottle of water. He handed it to his best friend, who accepted it and gulped the water down dizzily. When he had quenched his thirst, Yosuke gave a long sigh. "Thanks, partner. That sure did the trick. Must've been the heat or something."

Souji's eyes narrowed slightly. "It wasn't the heat."

"...Huh?"

The silver-haired adolescent stood up and sent a stern look towards the ceiling. "Where is it?" he asked, his voice lacking any traces of emotion.

"S...Seta-kun?" Yukiko whispered.

"Oh, looks like you figured it out. How boring. I was hoping you'd struggle a bit more, but you're pretty sharp, surprisingly."

The voice that abruptly resonated throughout the room sounded anything but bored, however. In fact, it spoke those words with a sort of morbid fascination that would send chills down anybody's spine.

Souji, however, was not shaken by it. "The Shadow that we met three floors back... The type that drained our energy - it's here on this floor too, isn't it."

The others' eyes widened.

The voice laughed. "Aww, why such a hostile reaction? It's not like my dear viewers tried to kill you, after all. Just take it that you've done a bit of charity for them. Like participating in a blood donation drive. That changes how you see things now, doesn't it?"

Souji did not reply.

"I thought not," the Shadow said, sounding like he was smirking. "Well, if you really want to know...how about playing a little game with me? Nothing harmful, of course. Just plain, simple entertainment for all of us. How does that sound?"

"I'm not interested."

"Oh come now, don't be such a killjoy. Viewership has been dropping ever since you and your friends came here, you know. I'm just trying to boost the ratings by giving my viewers something worthwhile to see, that's all. I'll even reward you if you win. You can take it as me seeking some compensation from you. I take it as a convenient arrangement that benefits all of us."

"And if we lose? Then what?" Chie retorted.

Souji could imagine the Shadow's eyes glinting in delight when he replied with a question of his own, "Well...that goes without saying, doesn't it?"

The atmosphere grew tense with suspicion and contemplation until Yosuke shook his head, which, he soon realised, was a mistake when the room started to spin. "Forget it. We're not playing any game of yours. Come on, guys, let's just ignore what the Shadow said."

Chie was the first to agree with him. Souji and Yukiko, on the other hand, took a brief moment to consider their current situation before they nodded, agreeing with Yosuke's suggestion as well.

The Shadow did not seem at all offended or upset at the team's decision. Instead, he replied chirpily, "If you insist~ Just remember, my offer's always up for the taking." And then he was gone, leaving his last message to them in the form of an echo ringing in their ears.

Seemingly unaffected, Souji returned to the spot he was lying down on and picked up his katana. Then, without wasting another moment, he ran back to the gold-plated gate and turned the handle of the knife nearest to it.

As the gate slowly lifted, spurts of fire nearly burned his face before retreating, like waves of an ocean sweeping one's feet. Souji stretched out his right hand, ready to summon Scathach once more, but to his surprise Chie leapt in front of him and beat him to the chase, with Suzuka Gongen trailing after her. The female warrior spun her double-edged lightsabre as she floated past the flames, diminishing them with her Mabufu spells. Chie gave her leader a wink, which was both her own way of saying that she could handle flames as well as the signal for her teammates to continue moving.

They ran down the burning corridors, the wild flames being reduced to mere embers as they passed by, and into rooms that had been set ablaze. The black ponds that were usually located in the middle of these rooms were now boiling, spilling thick, dark fumes into the air carelessly. The crystals, which were normally shimmering with vigour and excitement, had turned into dull, lethargic liquid pooling on the ground like blood.

Under such circumstances, Souji would call for Scathach's Mabufudyne to extinguish the fire and disperse the toxic gases, but he was always met with the same result: a frost-covered room, where the pond was still spewing out poisonous steam but in lighter amounts; melted crystals solidified like hardened wax, and there was no other gate or staircase in sight.

Without Rise's guidance, the team found themselves running into rooms that were covered by a thin layer of frost, and down corridors where the flames had shrunk. And whenever it seemed like they were heading somewhere different, the vicious flames around them would appear tamer within a split second despite Chie not casting any Mabufu spells on them.

It was almost like...

"So it took you this long to notice. I have to say, though, I'm a little disappointed considering what happened earlier. Or perhaps you needed to experience that multiple times in order to test your theory?"

Souji didn't deny nor affirm the claim, and simply kept silent as he stared at the burning corridor before him. The others, however, had varied reactions. Chie mostly looked confused, wearing a blank expression at what the voice had said. Yosuke tilted his head slightly, averting his eyes from the fire and anything or anybody that might distract him as he tried to make sense of what he had heard.

A thoughtful look flickered through Yukiko's expression before it morphed into one of shock. "Wait... Don't tell me..."

The flames danced to the beat of the Shadow's gleeful giggle. "That's right. You haven't found any stairs, or come across any Shadows...and neither have you found any intersection between the rooms you've entered. You have been simply running around with no idea where you're heading; running into dead ends with no choice but to turn back. It's a neverending cycle, isn't it?"

"What...? So you've been leading us into a wild goose chase all over again this whole time?" Yosuke asked, his frustration evident in his voice.

"Pin-pon~ You said it!" the Shadow sung. "To be more precise, however...you were the ones who have been leading yourselves into this wild goose chase, not me. I was simply an observer."

"Yeah right! As if we'd want something like that to happen in the first place!" Chie answered back, her fingers curled into fists.

"Ahh, but do take the time to remember: I gave you an offer, didn't I? If you had chosen to take it from the very beginning, you would have been spared of all the trouble. But alas, you chose to turn it down. There was nothing I could have done. I am in no position to rob you of your right to make a choice, after all. All I can do is watch the result of your choice, and I must say, it was rather interesting at first, but it got dull when things kept repeating themselves."

"Wha...wha-but, you-this-" Yosuke ended his nonsensical muttering with a groan. "That. Isn't. Fair. You never said anything about all this crap!"

Chie was fuming as well. "And besides, you're the one who made this place! It's still all you after all's been said and done!"

"Now that's a little harsh, don't you think?" The Shadow gave a chuckle, completely carefree and jovial before it grew dark and sinister. "But this isn't what I'm talking to you for. And you know that, don't you?"

Souji, who had not spoken a word throughout the entire exchange between Yosuke, Satonaka and the Shadow, frowned even more intensely than before. He turned to look at his teammates and scrutinised their expressions, and then he finally sighed. It was not one of resignation, but of resolve and assurance.

"...Alright," Souji said. "We'll play your game."

The next thing he knew, his world was no longer red.

Instead it was painted with a variety of colours. Bright and dark; lively and dull. It was the familiar world of the cave containing the fields of crystals and the pond with shimmering waters, but much larger and colder than he remembered. Souji couldn't tell, but it was probably as vast and cold as the first room he entered together with the rest of the team on the third floor; the room where they first met Orihara-san's Shadow in person.

The drastic change happened within a blink of an eye, like what happened with the size of the fires lining the corridors shrinking or the hell that came in the form of the seventh floor of Kubo Mitsuo's video game. Souji couldn't help but close his eyes. When he reopened them, his vision was slightly blurred, and he took another brief moment to let his eyes rest and adjust to the new yet familiar sight.

When they did, Souji bit back any verbal expression of surprise.

For what was towering over him and his friends while standing on three pairs of extremely long, hairy legs was a colossal flea-like creature, its tube-like mouth parts – almost reminiscent of that of mosquitoes - stained with dried blood and its soulless blue eyes, unblinking. Under the dim lighting of the cave-like room, the body of the insect appeared dark and dry, but when it rubbed its front legs together as it rocked side-to-side, the sound of something slimy being smeared across a smooth surface grated his ears. It was only when he heard this that Souji realised that there was a terribly foul smell in the air, bringing tears to his eyes with just a single breath.

And leaning against this monstrosity's body while resting on one of its middle legs, unperturbed by its hair or the supposedly sticky and odourous bodily fluids of the creature, was the hooded Shadow of Orihara Izaya. His golden eyes were now fully masked by the darkness under the hood - either that, or they had been toned down to the colour of Orihara-san's eyes, like most Shadows during the airing of the Midnight Channel - but the smile on his face was still clearly visible.

Before anybody could say a word, a shriek erupted from behind Souji. He didn't have to turn to know that it had belonged to Satonaka, who was now being comforted by Amagi to little success. She, along with Yosuke, mentioned something about the smell, but was probably already covering her nose because it came out muffled. Souji, on the other hand, simply kept his gaze on the Shadow and his "viewers" – or, rather, his "viewer".

"That's quite the reaction you have there," the Shadow commented, stroking the flea's body. "Most humans would have tried to get away from the smell, or screamed in terror if they happened to have a phobia of insects, or simply given a look of disgust at the very least. But you're completely unfazed. How very intriguing."

"What are the rules of the game?" Souji asked, skilfully ignoring the Shadow's compliments.

The Shadow's smirk did not falter despite that. "Simple," he said, pushing himself on his feet on the flea's leg. "Just have fun."

And then, without giving the adolescents any time to reply, the Shadow leapt off as swiftly as a flea, melting into the darkness as the giant insect pounced towards them.

Crystal Fortress, Entrance

"-san? Kujikawa-san?"

"Get a hold of yourself, Rise!"

"Rise-chan... Rise-chan..."

"...Mm..."

The brunette slowly lifted her eyelids at the sound of other people calling out for her, allowing the light reflected off the crystalline wall and snow on the ground to peer into her eyes. She immediately shut them, and waited for them to adjust to the glaring brightness before reopening them.

Her vision blurred; all she could see at first was a spiral of colours. Rise blinked, and the colours slowly formed into shapes of human and bear faces with faded edges. She blinked repeatedly, willing the blurriness to go away.

"...Teddie...?" Rise said, her voice airy and filled with exhaustion, when her vision finally cleared.

Tears streamed down the bear's cheeks. "Rise-chaaaan!" he cried, pulling - or at least trying to pull, with his plump suit in the way - the brunette into a tight embrace. "Ohh, what a relief! You finally woke up! I was so, so scared... I... I thought you weren't going to wake up anymore..."

'...Huh? "Wake up"?' Rise blinked slowly, otherwise she remained motionless and allowed herself to be picked up and hugged by Teddie. 'I was...asleep? Was it all just a dream? It felt so real, though...'

"...Idiot," Kanji muttered, breaking Rise's chain of thoughts without realising it. "Of course she'd wake up. S'not like she had a...whatever, y'know."

Watching Kanji turn his head away while saying that sent Rise a pang of guilt. She had heard from her grandmother - either before or after moving back to Inaba, she couldn't remember - that Kanji had lost his father to a heart attack at a very young age, and that he was present when his father took his last breath at the local hospital. Things like that were bound to have some form of impact on the child, her grandmother said. Emotional scars that might not fade with time.

And it probably wasn't just Kanji. The same went for Naoto-kun and Teddie. In fact, the same went for everybody, she realised. When she recalled the incident one and a half years ago, the time when Nanako was lying on a bed in the hospital and struggling to stay alive...

Rise bit her lower lip. "I'm sorry, Kanji... And Teddie and Naoto-kun, too. I shouldn't have made you guys worried..."

Kanji fidgeted, but kept his head turned away from the brunette. "Why're you apologising? You didn't mean for it to happen."

But it did happen, regardless of whether she intended for it or not. And because of that, she had added on to the already heavy burden her friends were shouldering. To Rise, who had vowed to support the team wholeheartedly and to the best of her ability, that was unforgiveable. It meant that she was weak; that she couldn't be there for the people who loved and accepted her for who she was when they needed her the most, and the mere thought of the latter terrified her.

"Still..." Rise began.

She was cut off by Naoto, however, who had heaved a quiet sigh of relief. "There is no point in deciding who is at fault, Kujikawa-san. Whatever the case, the most important thing right now is that you are alright."

At this, Teddie seemed to sob even more loudly than ever, almost to the point of wailing. With a tired and apologetic smile on her face, Rise stroked the bear's fine fur and spoke softly to him, "There, there, Teddie. I'm okay now, see? There's nothing to worry about."

Teddie sniffed, saying nothing as he tried to calm himself down. When he lifted his head from Rise's shoulder, Rise could see tears welling up in his large eyes and on the brink of spilling over again. "Really?" Teddie squeaked.

"Really," Rise said.

Teddie's lips trembled. He pulled the brunette closer to him once more, and buried the upper half of his head into her shoulder. "But...but it was so cold, Rise-chan..."

Rise froze.

"What're you talking about, Teddie? It's been cold since we came here," Kanji said.

Teddie separated himself from Rise and turned his body towards Kanji. "Nooo, I meant, really really cold. Like going out naked during winter and bathing in the snow."

Naoto cleared her throat. "That's...a little..."

"Wait," Rise said. "Teddie, you said that you felt cold?"

Teddie turned back and blinked, his tears subsiding. "Uh-huh."

"Did...did that happen when I was unconscious?"

"Um..." Teddie fiddled with his fingers and looked to the ground before he stood upright. "Ah! I remember now. Rise-chan was saying something about a break, and then all of a sudden there was this voice and right after that Rise-chan collapsed!" His ears folded downward. "That was when it got really, really cold... I was so scared..."

"A voice..."

That was when Rise fell into deep thought, trying to recollect all that had happened before she blacked out. Like what Teddie mentioned, she was guiding Senpai and the others through the fortress before she suggested for them to take a break. Not long after that, the same voice that spoke to her when her seniors first entered the fortress whispered something again - "The sweeter the honeymoon, the higher the flames of despair", if she remembered correctly - and then the next thing she knew, she was in the middle of a blizzard. All alone. With nothing - not even her Persona - accompanying her except for the wind and snow.

Even at the mere thought of it, Rise couldn't help but shiver. She continued pondering about it; about why Kanji and Naoto didn't notice the change in temperature, and why she was the only one who went through that snowstorm even when Teddie and she both heard the voice...and then it struck her.

The scenery that she saw, the coldness that she felt, and the mysterious disappearance of everyone around her including her own Persona...

It was all just an illusion, a manifestation of Orihara-san's hidden feelings projected into her mind.

It wasn't exactly like the physical dungeon that everyone else normally created, but rather an intangible transmission of someone's innermost thoughts and emotions.

If Rise had to put it in another way, it was like hearing the voices when passing through the dungeon, but magnified to the point of creating a realistic illusion that only she could see and experience fully due to Kanzeon's extensive scanning ability.

She hadn't experienced anything like that before, though, so it was more of intuition that anything else. Still, Rise couldn't shake away the nausea that was beginning to creep up into her throat as she thought further on that intuition. The idea of taking even just a peek at someone else's innermost feelings and thoughts was already enough to make her ill, let alone being immersed in those very thoughts and suffocated by the sheer intensity of those raw, uncontrollable emotions. It made Rise feel like a trespasser in somebody's mind; like a sickening monster violating someone else by forcefully stripping their shields down and leaving their thoughts bare and exposed for herself to indulge in.

And what made matters worse was that those thoughts and feelings were still lingering in Rise's own body and mind, in the form of a cold sensation that had been planted in her chest and spreading its roots to the rest of her body. She felt herself slipping away, back into the illusion of the snowstorm, where her calls had gone unanswered and there was nobody but her and everything was just so cold that-

"O-oi, Rise?"

"Rise-chan?!"

Kanji and Teddie's concerned voices snapped Rise back to the present, and that was when she realised that she had, at some point, hunched over and trembling with a hand over her mouth, and that her eyes were tearing.

She noticed that Naoto's eyes had widened slightly. "Kujikawa-san, are you alright?"

"...Eh...?"

"You have been...well, looking ill for the past few minutes. Is there something troubling you?"

Rise blinked, and quickly wiped away her tears. "...I'm fine," she said. "I'm fine," she repeated, louder than before.

'That's right, I can't let them know... Something like that wasn't meant for anyone but Orihara-san himself to know. It's not mine to tell. I have no right to.

'...But what I can do, is save him. Make sure he gets out safely, back into the real world. Where there's somebody waiting for him. There just has to be. Even if it's just one person, at least there's somebody.'

With that resolve, Rise pushed herself shakily to her feet and fought back the nausea. "Enough about me," she said firmly, her sudden determination surprising her friends. "Kanji, Naoto-kun, why are you out here? And what about Senpai and the others? Why aren't they here?"

"Uh. Your guess is as good as ours," Kanji replied, recovering. "Me an' Naoto were about to head off when the whole floor was suddenly on fire for no reason. We tried to move on, but the fire got stronger and stronger the further we went, so there was no choice but to come back here."

"We thought Senpai and the others would do the same, but..." Naoto trailed off, looking vaguely uncomfortable. She was probably bothered by the fact that she had chosen to return to the entrance while Senpai had not, despite the fire - possibly - being stronger on the higher floors.

"There's this smell, though," Teddie said, his nose twitching.

"A smell?" Rise asked.

Teddie nodded. "I'm not sure if it's the smoke or anything, but it smells really, really bad. It's like the time I got Yosuke's worn and unwashed socks stuffed up in my nose and couldn't get them out."

"...Wait you smelled Yosuke-senpai's socks? Not only that, you got them stuffed up your nose before? Why would you go do somethin' like that?" Kanji asked, paling slightly.

Naoto looked like she didn't know whether to be appalled or impressed at Teddie's daring feat. "I-I think we can leave that aside until we have accomplished what we came to do," she said, effectively stopping Teddie from recounting his tale before he could try to.

Rise, on the other hand, giggled. And her friends who saw and heard her bubbly laughter, something they hadn't heard all day, allowed themselves a small smile. "Thanks, Teddie," said Rise. "You can leave the rest to me now."

Basking in the warmth of the company of her friends, Rise called upon her Persona, ready to lend her support to her teammates once again, but with renewed determination and resolve.

The cold sensation slowly wilted away.