I'd like to thank everyone who made it this far. I'd also like to thank ZeroQant and cwblackcat.13 for following/favoriting. I'm really happy to know that people actually read this. Anyways, please review. I don't really know what you should comment about. I just want to know what you guys think. You can PM me if you want I don't really mind.
"It's not fair!" Ryoji pointed at Minako and Shinjiro accusingly. "How can you two be in the top three without even studying? I can understand Ken. BUT YOU TWO!"
It was the day the results of the finals were announced. Ryoji did well, ranking thirteenth. Shinjiro ranked third. Ken ranked second. And Minako effortlessly ranked first after getting a hundred in all her test.
"Calm down, will ya." Shinjiro said. "I've been studying my ass off these two weeks." Still, he couldn't believe his eyes when he saw his name on the near the top. He was getting worried when he couldn't find his name where thought he would be. If Ken congratulated him, he wouldn't have found out his rank.
"It's still not fair," Ryoji huffed.
"Stop acting like a brat," Shinjiro told Ryoji. "Besides," he stuck out his thumb to point at Minako. "You should ask this moron. She hasn't touched a book that's not a manga."
Ryoji glared at Minako with envy and annoyance. For Ken, it was rare to see the black-haired boy look at the girl maliciously. But he knew otherwise that the boy wasn't all that serious. Ken turned his attention to Minako and waited for her to respond.
"Well..." She looked away while nervously playing with her hands. "I guess I'm just too smart?" Ryoji's glare intensified. Not long, Shinjiro joined him. Minako flinched before looking at them shyly. "I needed to find the manga Elizabeth wanted," she said. Ken remembered her as the woman in blue.
"And why?" Ryoji asked suspiciously.
"If I found what she wanted, which I miraculously did, she'd give me a million yen."
The three boys froze at what she said. In their minds they tried to balance the value of a manga to a million yen. But no matter how hard they tried, they just can't without the manga shooting to the sky or the pile of money making a hole on the ground.
"What the hell are you gonna do with that much?!" Shinjiro looked at her incredulously.
"I thought we might need weapons..." Minako said soflty.
"What for?"
"So that you guys will have something to use to defend yourselves. The last time we went to that place, you guys got hurt. If Ken and his friends didn't come who knows what could've happen..."
Ryoji and Shinjiro looked at the girl, deeply touched by what she said, though the latter wouldn't admit it and tried to maintain a neutral expression. Ken felt a dull pain in his head but it was gone as soon as it came that he thought that he just imagined it.
"Still..." Ryoji said. The gentle look on his face was replaced with an irritated one. "That doesn't explain how you perfected all the tests! And don't you dare say because you're too smart or I won't treat you later!"
"NO!" Minako cried out in despair. Lunch break ended before Minako could have thought of an answer to Ryoji's question.
"Hey Ken, where did you get your spear?" Minako asked when they were heading back to the dorm.
"Makoto-san gave it to me," he said. "When he was still alive, he would buy us weapons from Kurosawa-san, a policeman."
Ryoji looked surprised. "Why would a policeman sell dangerous weapons to minors?" Ken shrugged, not really knowing why.
"Why would Makoto-san buy the weapons? I thought Kirijo-san was filthy rich," said Minako. She was more surprised about that than a cop selling weapons to minnors. Ken thought about it for a moment but shrugged again.
"But you do have a point," he said. I wonder why I never thought of that.
"Do you think he's still selling them?"
"I don't know. We could ask Mitsuru-san," Ken suggested. "We can't just barge in the police station and ask him to sell us weapons."
"Can you ask her, Ken?" Minako pleaded with hope in her eyes.
Shinjiro spoke before Ken could answer. "You can't avoid them forever." This caught Ken attention. She's avoiding them?
"But Kirijo-san and Sanada-san are scary..." Minako whined. At this Ken's suspicions quickly dissipitated. "If it's Yamagishi-san, maybe I could handle it because she's kinder."
"I'll talk to her," Ken said, earning him a grateful smile from the girl. "Knowing Mitsuru-san she might call for a meeting if she finds anything wrong with it - so you better prepare yourself, Minako-san."
"Alright."
The trio left to the other world when Minako received a phone call about a wandering human in the other world. Ken wanted to ask them how that happened but decided that it could wait when they're all with the other persona-users.
Ken called Mitsuru and reported all that has happened from the time they left the meeting in the secret room in Tatsumi Memorial Hospital to this afternoon when the three left for another mission.
"So Arisato not only ranked first, but perfected all the test." Mitsuru put Ken on speaker so that Fuuka and Akihiko could hear him. "Magnificent." Indeed, she was truly impressed.
"She also asked me where she could buy some weapons. I told her about Kurosawa-san and told her that he might not be selling weapons anymore. I told her that she could ask you but she said she was scared of you and Akihiko-san."
Akihiko groaned and Fuuka chuckled. Mitsuru smiled at what she heard. Arisato must really trust him to say something like that to him.
"She said if it was Fuuka-san, she'd do it herself." Fuuka smiled before her eyes widened. She looked at Mitsuru and saw that the older female was thinking of the same thing.
"Something wrong with you two?" Akihiko asked.
Mitsuru ignored him and told Ken "How exactly did she say it to you?"
"About Fuuka-san?" He tried to remember the conversation they had. "Well... I think she said 'If it's Yamagishi-san, maybe I could handle it because she's kinder.' I think that's it... I wonder how she knew Sanada-san's name."
"Amada, make sure that they don't leave on Sunday. And prepare the command room."
"What wrong, Mitsuru-san?" Ken was confused.
"She couldn't have known my name or Akihiko-senpai's, Ken-kun," Fuuka said. "How did she know who I was?"
Ken didn't know how to respond. He was too shocked of what he just learned. Then he remembered Ryoji and Shinjiro. "Maybe she heard it before, or Shinjiro-san or Ryoji-san told her."
"We're not even sure who those clones really are," Akihiko said. "They might look like them but it doesn't mean that it's them."
"But the two of them seem to know most us," Ken reasoned. "Ryoji-san even knows Junpei-san."
Mitsuru sighed. "Enough you two," she said with authority. "For now, I would like you to observe them, Amada."
Ken bit his lip before he nodded. Then he realized that they couldn't see him. "I understand, Mitsuru-san."
Before ending the call, Mitsuru said something to no one in particular.
"It's time we unlock the mysteries behind that girl."