Quick Note Please Read
One of you guys have suggested that I try to use a lot less actual lines from the game so I will try to do so in this chapter. If you guys respond negatively to this than I will go back to the way it was before. If you respond positively or not at all then I will right this way from now on.
End of Note
After obtaining my gun from my room, I make my way back to Junes in order to meet Yosuke and Chie. While on my way there, I try to make up some sort of action plan. First thing we need to do upon returning to the TV world is find that bear thing. It seems to me that he could help us if need be. After that, we will explore without wandering to far from the place where we start out. Getting lost could be the end of us. Maybe we should try to create some kind of map.
The electronic center of Junes gives me a strange surprise as my eyes meet Yosuke with a golf club and rope tied around his waist.
"Hey, you came," is all he says. Looking around, I notice that Chie is no longer around.
"Where's Chie-senpai?" I ask.
"Oh, she said she would only go along with this if I gave her money to go get a soda."
"Okay then, next question. Do you mind telling me exactly why you have a rope tied around your waist and a golf club?"
"Oh, well, the golf club is for self-defense. The rope is so we can be pulled out if that bear thing won't let us out again."
"Do you mean like a lifeline?" He nods. "Okay, well then, um…" I have no idea how to respond to that. Oh well, I don't have any better ideas. "Why did you bring a golf club as self-defense instead of something more suitable for battle?"
"Hey, you got anything better?" After glancing side to side to see if anyone was around, I quickly flash him the gun hidden in my jacket. His eyes widen. "Oh, yeah, th-that is better, huh." He sounds embarrassed.
"Anyway, do you have any sort of plan for once we're inside?" The smile he had moments ago vanishes.
"Oh, well." I'll take that as a no.
"Oh, you did show up," I hear someone say behind me. Walking into vision, I recognize that person to be Chie.
"Oh course I did." Did she really assume I would abandon the two of them here?
"Are you two really doing this?" She whines.
"Chie, we don't have a choice. I need to know what happened here," Yosuke defends himself.
"I'm going to guess by your words that you're not coming with us." I does make since that one of us stays behind. Someone needs to hold the rope.
"Oh no, I'm not going anywhere near the place again. You two are crazy to even consider going back."
"True, but Yosuke's right. If we are correct that this world is how people are dying, than we need to investigate. The police would never be able to solve the crime."
"But still, that world is dangerous. We can just-" Yosuke cuts her off.
"Look, Chie, we aren't asking you to come with us. We are only asking you to hold a rope."
"But-"
"We'll be fine, Chie-senpai," I comfort her. It doesn't have much of an effect, but she does grab the other end of the rope the boy offered to her.
"Right." Yosuke turns to me as he speaks. "Let's go." Placing my hand on the screen, ripples form again. Yosuke and I both enter the portal prepared for the void on the other side. This time, the ride is much smoother and feels shorter. Fog swallowing us once more, we swiftly land on our feet.
"Hey, look, this is the same place we landed before," Yosuke points out.
"We most likely appear in different places depending on where we enter." I respond
"W-Wait, you guys again," a voice from behind says surprising me. Turning in its direction, I see the bear looking at us with wide eyes. "What are you doing here? I though you wanted out?" He has a good point, we did want to leave last time. "Oh, oh, I know! You two must be the ones throwing people in here!"
"Wait, wait, hold on a sec." Yosuke cuts him off.
"I believe you've got it wrong. We aren't doing-" My defense is interrupted.
"No, I'm not falling for it. It has to be you. Why else would you come back?" He is making a fair assumption, even if it's a wrong one.
"Listen, please, just give us a moment to explain." I try to take control of the situation.
"No, YOU listen. I can tell someone's been throwing people in here. It's making the world here messed up and I want it to stop."
"I can understand that, but we aren't responsible."
"Oh, yeah, then explain why you would come back. It doesn't look like anyone forced you in."
"You wish for me to explain? Gladly." Before I can begin, Yosuke cuts in.
"What are you even talking about!? We didn't even know this world existed until yesterday!" I understand his anger, but we need to calm down. Our anger only made the thing scared last time.
"Yosuke-senpai, please lower your voice. We don't want to scare him again."
"But he's accusing us of murder."
"I'm well aware of that." I turn back to the bear. "Listen, please. My name is Naoto Shirogane. I'm here to investigate a murder case. We think this world might have something to do with it." The bear just looks confused.
"Murder case? What do you mean by that?" Does this thing legitimately not know what murder is? He gets angrier. "You guys are just trying to trick me." That was Yosuke's final straw.
"Okay, listen up dude! I'm tired of you accusing us of everything! We are not the culprit here, we're the ones trying to catch him!" Oh well, I guess him exploding was inevitable.
"Fine then. Prove to me you aren't the one throwing people in here!"
"We don't need to prove anything! We didn't do anything wrong here!"
"Just try to understand what we are telling you, please," I say in a somewhat pleading voice. "People on our side have died every single time the fog arrives." Somehow, my words change the bear's expression from one of fury to one of curiosity.
"When the fog appears?" The bear is thinking. "Well, if it's foggy on your side, that's when it isn't foggy here. It's really scary when that happens. The shadows get violent." I can almost see a lightbulb above his head. "Oh, I get it now."
"Huh, get what? You better tell us!" My friend doesn't seem to have calmed down at all.
"No, I'm done with questions! You two did it and I know it, so stop. If you don't than I'm not letting you out again," it threatens.
"Ha, well guess what," Yosuke teases, "we don't need you this time. We've gotta lifeli-" Somehow not seeing it before, we both simultaneously realize that the rope is cut off. "WHAT!?" Great, now Yosuke might have ruined our chances of getting out.
"Listen, please. I promise we will try to help you fix this world if you just try to believe us." I try to calm the bear back down.
"You- You'll help me fix this world?" Oh, good, he seems less tense now.
"Yes, of course we will. That should help our world as well."
"O-okay, fine."
"Finally." Yosuke takes over again. "Now let's ask some questions. First of all, where are we, some sorta TV studio?" The bear looks confuses again.
"TV? Studio? What does that mean?"
"Oh god, you really don't know anything do you." He is incredibly done with this bear.
"I have no idea what you're talking about. It's always been like this."
"Wait," I say, "what do you mean always like this?"
"Like I said before, only me and shadows are here."
"I apologize, but neither of us have any idea what shadows are, nor you."
"Me? I'm just Teddie. There isn't anything else." Finally, a name.
"Okay then, Teddie, please, we need your help. You keep on saying that people are thrown in here. Do you have any idea where they ended up?"
"Oh, I know were the last person came in!" Yosuke's head suddenly perks up.
"Last person? You mean Saki-senpai?" He sounds excited now.
"I mean the last person who came in. I dunno the name."
"Okay then, can you take us there?" I ask.
"Sure, but first." He reaches into a pocket I didn't know he had and pulls out two pairs of glasses. "Put these on." Without much questioning, we both proceed to place them over our eyes. Instantly, our vision clears.
"WOAH!" My headphoned friend exclaims. "It's like the fog just disappeared!"
"How do these work?" I ask in admiration.
"I dunno," Teddie says blandly, "they just do." Of course he gave us a vague answer. "Anyway, we should get going." He walks off south without checking to insure that the two of us are following. The trail in front of us is just simply a bunch of catwalks. How exactly does this bear know where it's going? It isn't until we have been walking for a good five that anything new pops up.
The area shortly in front of us is a long row of shops with a red vortex as a sky. The problem is that we aren't faced with any old shopping area. Before us is the central shopping district found in Inaba. "Whoa! What is this!?" Yosuke sounds amazed. "Is this supposed to be the shopping district?"
"It would seem so." I respond, keeping my clam, level-headed persona. I turn to face Teddie. "How long has this place been here?" I ask.
"Not long. A lot of weird places have shown up here." Weird places? An idea pops into my head.
"Teddie, is one of the places you're describing an inn?"
"An inn? I don't know." He most likely doesn't even know what an inn is.
"Okay then. Could you please try to be more specific as to when this place appeared?" If my hypothesis is correct…
"About the time the last girl was thrown in here." Bingo.
"So in other words, it is a likely conclusion that this place was made for Konishi after she fell in. Interesting."
"Wait," It seems Yosuke is trying to keep up with my mental track. "so if that's the case, than…"
"The room we saw before is most likely for Yamano, yes. The real question, however, is why these places are formed." Turning back to the bear, I ask "Do you know anything else about these places?"
"Not much. All I know is that these places are the reality for who's in here."
"Reality for…" My voice trails off. "Ae you implying that these places are, in a way, formed by the people that come in?"
"I dunno who makes these places. I just don't like it."
"Of course you don't." Yosuke sighs. "Anyway, if this is the shopping district, Saki-senpai's parent's store should be around here." Her parents own a store? Not bothering to ask any questions, I follow my friend down the replica road to a liquor store. Reaching the doorway, I'm not surprised to see another red spiral in front of me. "I knew it. This is the place." Without any hesitation, he walks over to the spiral and is about to enter until…
"Th-They're here!" Teddie screams. I immediately pull out my gun and prepare myself, even without knowing who 'they' are.
"Who's here?" I ask.
"Shadow, I can smell them." Neither Yosuke nor I bother to ask him what he means by that.
"Yosuke, back away from the entrance!" With the two of them standing behind me, I take my battle stance. As prepared as I am, nothing could have prepared me for what comes next.
Two black, slime creatures appear from the other side of the vortex. They are both wearing some kind of mask. These must be shadows. Out of both fear and shock, I hear Yosuke on his back behind me. More and more shadows come to make prey out of us. All in a row, they suddenly begin to change their form into sphere shaped enemies with big lips and a long tongue floating a good five feet above the ground. Before I can attempt to attack, the voice from before comes back into my head.
"I am thou, thou art I." The pain has returned, if anything even worse that previously. "The time has come. Open thy eyes and call forth what is within." The pain subsiding, I look in front of myself to see a card floating in front of me. With a strange force controlling me, I raise my gun in its direction.
"Per-" I focus on the card in front of me, steadying my aim. "-son-" I move my finger to the trigger. "-a." As the bullet makes contact with the card, as bright light shines from in as a wave of power rushes through me. Before me is a strange creature. It has a blue light eliminating from its body and caries a weapon that looks suspiciously like a lightsaber. It now by my side, a wave of confidence washes over me and I feel ready to fight.
"Stay calm and listen," Teddie says from an unknown location.I try to look at where he was standing previously, but find him no longer present. "These shadows have a weakness. Try to find it and use it to your advantage." Weaknesses? I'll have to try. Somehow knowing what to do, I command the creature next to me to attack with my mind. "Zio" I think, sending a message to the creature. It flies over to one of the creatures and points its weapon at it. The next thing I know, a bolt of lightning comes from its tip. In an instant, the shadow falls over on its side. Lightning, is that this enemy's weakness? I command it do to the same to the other. Now they are both down but not dead. I continue to attack until I have successfully gotten rid of them.
After the battle I find myself face to face with the creature that fought alongside me. "Hello," its voice echoes in my mind, "I am the persona Sukuna-Hikona." The creature, or as it called itself persona, fades from my vision. Still in shock from the events previously, a sudden hand on my shoulder makes me jump slightly.
"Whoa! What was that!?" Turning around, I see that Yosuke is the body connected to said hand. "What did you say before? Persona? What's that?" All the questions being thrown at me are overwhelming, especially because I have no answer to any of them.
"Wow, Sensei, why didn't you tell me you had such amazing power?" I hear Teddie call from behind.
"I-I didn't know I could…" My voice trails off. "Did… Did you just call me 'Sensei'?"
"Yeah, why?"
"Please do not do so again."
"Oh, Okay! Then what should I call you?"
"My name, preferably. I do recall informing you of it before."
"Okay, Nao-chan. Whatever you like." Nao-chan? Well, it is most certainly better than Sensei.
"Carrying on, we should be heading into the shop now." The others nod in agreement. With me leading the way, we walk to the portal that would take us into the 'shop'. Before we can do that, however, voices rain down on us.
"I with Junes would go under…," one of them says.
"It's all because of that stupid store," says another. More similar comments continue to pour in.
"Wh-What?" Yosuke sounds confused. "Why? What do they-"
"Oh, have you heard," a voice says, "Konishi-san's daughter is working there." The last word is spit out as if it were poison.
"Oh, how could she do such a thing?" another responds. "How could she side with the enemy like that?"
"It's not right. I don't know how she could look here parents in the eye."
"Stop." Yosuke speaks as if knifes are impaling him with every word.
"Um, Teddie," I say in a barely audible voice, "You described these places as 'reality of the ones here,' right?"
"Yeah, why?" Glancing at Yosuke, I can tell he is thinking the same thing as me. Those comments make up her reality.
"Come on, we need to go." Yosuke's eyes meet mine. "Are you okay to carry on?" He seems incredibly distresses.
"Me, I'm fine." His eyes glow with determination. "Let's go." Without a warning, he jumps through the portal. Teddie and I quickly follow. On the other side, I see what appears to be a normal liquor store. Some after, though, move voices ring in our ears. This time it is a single man.
"Saki, c'mon. You know what the neighbors all say! Don't you feel any guilt!? We have owned this store for generations! Why are you leaving us now! Is it money, or a guy!? Just tell me why you have to go and work THERE of all places!" Anyone with more than one brain cell could tell that he must be the girl's father. Poor girl.
"What?" My friend still sounds confused. "I don't understand. She… She never told me about any of this."
"She more than likely was trying to keep you from feeling guilty." I try to give him clarification. In a blink, Yosuke ran over to a table on the other side of the room covered in photos.
"Hey, these photos. They're the ones we took with the other part-times." A new voice is heard.
"I…" Is that Konishi? "I could never say. I never had the chance to tell Hana-chan," Yosuke's eyes light up at the sound of his name. "…That he was a real pain in the ass." Wh-What? The sudden change in tone even surprised me. I can only imagine how he must feel after hearing that. I turn my head to the floor, not able to bear looking at the hurt there must be on his face. "I was only ever nice to him because he's the manager's son. But of course he takes it the wrong way and gets all excited. Seriously, what the hell is wrong with him?" How could she talk like that? If it hurts for me to hear, there's no way Yosuke is taking it well.
"Wh-" he can't even finish the word. The pain in his voice is excruciating. "Th-that's a lie. She's lying. This must me some kind of joke. It has to be."
"It's so sad, isn't it? I feel so sorry for myself." A new yet familiar voice comes from behind. "Pain in the ass, huh? Ha! That's my line, right?" Turning around, I see a silhouette in the shadows. All I can make out are two yellow eyes. The voice, on the other hand, immediately finds a match in my head.
Yosuke Hanamura.