Eyes widened, I find my gaze alternating between Yosuke and his impostor. Could this be one of those shadow creatures disguising itself as Yosuke? I look at Teddie with hope for answers only to find him just as confused as I am.

"H-huh? Two of you?" It seems this is not a common occurrence, even for him. Without much more hesitation, my headphoned friend runs over to face is doppelgänger.

"W-What!? Who are you!?" He yells.

"Hahaha, you, obviously." The creature's voice sound just like Yosuke's with a demonic echo. "I know everything about you. I know how you really feel. Cause I mean, screw all of this, you know? Who cares about Junes, or the shopping district, or Inaba for that matter? In the end, this is just a stupid town out in the sticks." The words leave Yosuke frozen. Despite the cruelty of the words, they must have some sort of truth to them for Yosuke to react like that.

"What are you talking about!? I don't think that!" He's fighting the words with all his might. Even show, the double doesn't show any sign of backing down.

"C'mon, you know that's not true. You aren't really are happy-go-lucky, are you? It's all a show you put on to make others like you." If denying the words does nothing, we need a different approach.

"Even so, you could say the same about anyone." I say quite loudly to insure the yellow-eyed thing would hear. This time he does show more as a reaction, but it is a step in the wrong direction. He smiles at my words.

"Oh, would you look at that, you've got your little detective friend brainwashed as well." It didn't take my words into consideration at all. "It seems you decided to bring your friends on a quest for you, but for what? You say it's for Saki-senpai, but we both know that's not true."

"Stop it!" the real Yosuke cuts in.

"Haha, why show nervous? Aren't I just some strange thing with your face? Or, maybe not. Just face it. You and I both know the truth. I am you and you know it." As the thing talks, Yosuke's face gets more and more distressed. "And, I mean, come on. We both know the real reason you came here. You didn't come here to find out how Senpai died. You only came because you were bored. I mean, what else is there to do out here?"

"JUST SHUT UP!" My friend can no longer hind his anger. He can't do that. That's exactly what this ting wants.

"Yosuke-senpai, please, try to control yourself. Don't let his words anger you." I try to talk reason into him, but I doubt it has much effect.

"But look at this place, a world inside the TV. That sounds like fun." The creature pays no attention to my words.

"That's not…. Stop. You're wrong." Yosuke's voice is full of defeat.

"Let's face it. All you're doing right now is trying to place hero. Nothing more, nothing less."

"THAT'S NOT TRUE! Who are you!?"

"Heaven't I already answered that enough times. I AM YOU!" Its voice breaks out into a chuckle. "I am a shadow, your shadow. I know everything about you." Ah, so this is a shadow. Why would it be targeting Yosuke?

"Screw that! There's no why that's true! You can't be me!"

He shadow gives a victorious laugh. "Hahaha! That's right! I'm me now!" So I was right, it was trying to get Yosuke to break down like that. In the blink of an eye, the shadow erupts into a red smoke. As the smoke clears out, we find the creature gone. In its place, however, we see a stranger looking creature. It appears to be some kind of black, humanoid thing sitting atop a black-striped frog. "I am a shadow… The true self!" Its words are not directed at Yosuke, but at me. Why is it talking directly to be now? Is this the shadows way of saying it wants to fight?

The answer to my questions comes sooner than expected when the creature slams its feet directly in front of me, causing a gust of wind. I fall over, taking some but little damage. "This one's much stronger than last time! Be careful!" I hear a voice say. Teddie. "Whenever you feel threatened, just defend yourself.

Because it worked last time, I summon my persona and have it use Zio. It seems the enemy is weak to it. He falls over onto his back. Taking this as my chance, I shoot a few bullets at it. To my despair, the monster is defeated. After getting back up, he strikes me with his webbed foot. I use Zio again. It has the same effect. Instead of attacking again, it guards itself using its feet. Because, I wouldn't be able to hit, I leave it be. "That's it? Boring!" It repeats the same attack it did in the beginning. I repeat the strategy once o=more and the same exact thing happens.

After the shadow guards for a second time, I hear Teddie's voice once more. "Oh no, he's about to attack! Defend yourself!" How did he... That's when it hit me. This shadow must attack right after defending. Huh, I wonder how Teddie picked up on that and I did not? In any case, I do as told. Teddie's hypothesis was correct. He attacks using wind again.

Our battle doesn't last that much longer. Soon enough, the shadow falls flat on the ground in front of me. Certain that the attacks are over, I make my way over to Yosuke. He still seems to be in distress, but not nearly as much as before.

"Are you alright, Yosuke-senpai?" I ask with concern.

"Yeah, I think so." From the sound of his voice, I can tell he's quite exhausted. He turns around to face the shadow that has regained its original form. "You, I still have no idea what you are."

"That thing came from you, Yosuke." Teddie says. "You need to stop denying it. If you don't, it'll go berserk again."

"Teddie's right, your denial is fueling it." I add.

"So what," Yosuke's voice has anger in it. "You want me to say that I don't care about anything, and that I don't give a damn about Saki-senpai's death? Cause that's not true!"

"I know that. I know that you truly care about Konishi and I know that not all of you feels the way this shadow is claiming you do. All I'm saying is that a least one part of you does feel this way. That's okay, I'm not judging you. We all have a side like this." Yosuke's gaze falls to the floor.

"Dammit," he mumbles under his breath before turning back to his shadow. "I admit it, okay. I know that you aren't lying. I knew that the whole time, I just couldn't admit it. But in the end, you're me… And I am you." As the words leave his mouth, a smile forms on my lips. The shadow erupts into a glaring blue light. It disappears as a new creature forms in the air. It has a similar look to the shadow in the fact that the head is the same and certain limbs are frog-like. This creature is more humanoid looking, with what looks like a white full body suit and a red cape. Is this a persona? The creature fades with a card taking its place.

"This is my persona…" Yosuke says quietly before collapsing on his knees. "What Senpai was saying about me, she must have been keeping that deep inside."

"I'm sorry, Yosuke." I really don't know what else to say. "But, just try to remember that this doesn't mean all of her felt that way. The way she talked to you, I don't think she was entirely faking it." My comforting makes my friend smile, if ever so slightly. Still, he looks exhausted.

"We should go," Teddie suddenly speaks. "This world isn't made for humans; you can't be in here for too long."

"Yeah, we need to go." And with that, we're on our way back to the location we started at. Yosuke remains silent the entire way. I take this to mean that I am to remain silent as well. I only speak again to thank Teddie after he stomps his feet on the ground once more, causing the three televisions appear.

"You two will come back again, right?" He asked in a child-like tone.

"Yes, of course. I intend to keep the promise I made to help you fix this world."

"Yay! It gets lonely on this side with on one but shadows around. And scary." That is true. How had this bear managed to not go crazy he completely alone. I know a large majority of people would have. "Anyway, next time you come through you need to use the same TV you used the first time."

"Right, of course. We will remember that." I turn my gazed back to the televisions.

"Before we go through," Yosuke say, startling me, "we need to make sure no people are around." Before I can express my agreement, Teddie comes from behind us and pushes us through. Though catching me off guard, I find myself unaffected by the strange feelings of the vortex as we fall through. It seems I am beginning to adjust to it. Crashing roughly onto the other side, we are greeted by a feminine gasp.

"Y-You guys, you're alive!" the shaky voice says. Looking up at the speaker, I see that it is Chie. Guilt overflows me. Oh no, how long had she been waiting.

"Huh, Chie," Yosuke responds, "why are you acting like that?" She must have thought we were trapped on the other side. Chie gives the boy what I believe to be a well-deserved slap.

"What is with you guys?! Do you have any idea how worried I've been!?"

"My greatest apologies, Chie-senpai." I say "This is entirely our fault. We should have considered your worries before investigating."

"Heck yeah you should of! I was worried sick!" Tears start to flood Chie's face. "I- I didn't know what to do. Why didn't you both come back, dammit!?" Before giving me a chance to respond, she runs away.

"Yeah, that would be our bad. She's right; we should have told her we were okay." Yosuke says.

"We should go apologize." As I turn to chase after he. Yosuke grabs my arm.

"No, let's wait til she cools down. Trust me; you do not want to be around her when she's mad." He's most likely right. Still, I feel incredibly bad for this. "For now, we should go home."

"Yes, that would be the most appropriate course of action. I am exhausted after that fight. I presume you are as well."

"Yeah, I'll just go home, take a long shower, then go to bed. But you know what?" A warm smile forms on his lips. "I think I'm gonna sleep well tonight."

"Well then," I walk a few steps ahead of him, "good day, Yosuke-senpai."

"'Night, Naoto-kun." Without another word, I turn around and begin my journey back to the Dojima residence. Exiting the building, I am grimly greeted by rainfall. Oh no, I forgot my umbrella. Oh well, it is only drizzling at the moment, so I should be fine if I hurry. Quickening my pace, I continue on my way.

Once I'm about five minutes away from my target destination, I hear a voice from behind me. "Naoto!" the voice screams. I turn around to see Yukiko running towards me with her umbrella. Once at my side, she forces me under with her.

"Yukiko-senpai!" I scream in surprise.

"What are you doing? You could get sick!" She lectures. This is a side of her I have yet to see. Then again, I have only spoken to her once.

"Please, Yukiko-senpai, you don't need to do this." This umbrella is not made for two people. Upon my entry, Yukiko has gotten a lot wetter.

"No, I don't want you getting sick. Now how far away is your home?"

"About five minutes from here, but I couldn't possibly request you walk me there."

"No, I'm going with you." With that, she grabs my arm and pulls me off in the direction I was walking previously. Once I am walking again, I look over at my comrade. I am surprised to notice that she is wearing a Kimono. My shock must have shown.

"Oh, right, I forgot I was wearing this." She says.

"Is that for the inn your parents run?"

"Yes, they asked me to do an errand for them."

"Oh, I'm not getting in your way, am I?" I don't want to get her in trouble.

'No, it's fine. I to be honest, I've been looking for a chance to get away. With everything that's been happening, the inn has gotten quite busy. "

"Ah, yes. I heard some news anchors talk about you. They said you were going to become manager soon."

"Oh, well, I don't know about that. I'm just filling in for the moment."

"Oh, right, sorry." I guess that's what I get for believing what I hear on the news.

"That's fine. It's not your fault the news is spreading lies. Well, um…. Oh, I've seen you hanging around with Chie and Yosuke-Kun recently. Are you all getting along?"

"Oh, yes, they are quite nice. I'm not used to having friends, so this is a nice change." A connection forms in my brain. "Wait, we haven't been making you feel left out, have we? If so then I sincerely apologize. I never meant to-" The girl cuts me off.

"Oh, it's fine. I've had to work at the inn a lot lately anyway. But anyway, how has everything been with Chie? I know that she can be a bit too much at times."

I can see where she's coming from, but… "She has been a good friend. She certainly has a lot of energy, though."

"Yeah, that's Chie alright." A smile forms on her lips. "She's very supportive. Whenever I'm down, she's always there to tell me to keep on going."

"That's nice." I wish I had a friend like that. Then again, I can barely make any sort of friend. The only reason I can talk to these people is because they approached me first. Turning the corner, the Dojima residence comes into view. I stop walking. "Oh, my house is right up ahead. I can carry on from here. I'm sure you're needed elsewhere."

"Oh, yes, if you're sure. I'll see you at school." With that, she turns and half jogs in the other direction. Upon, entering the house, I see Nanako sitting at the table watching the television. It seems she has yet to notice me. It would be rude for me not to say anything. I quickly make my way to the seat across from her.

"Oh, you're home." Nanako notes unenthusiastically.

"Hello, Nanako-chan. Is your father not home yet?" I ask. She shakes her head. Before I have the opportunity to speak, the news captures my interest. It displays a follow-up report for the murder case. To my dismay, it doesn't give me any useful information. Observing Nanako's facial expression, it is easy to spot her dismay.

"Are you okay, Nanako-chan?"

"Oh!" My question appears to have surprised her. "I'm fine." For most people, her response would have been given no second though. For me, on the other hand, it is an entirely different story. I would know. I have given that response many times in my life and it has almost always been a complete lie.

"It's okay, you can talk to me. Believe me; I've been in your position many times."

"I'm okay, really. Let's just watch more TV." And that we do. Turning my attention bake to the news, I see it discussing a completely new topic.

"The town is famous for the amazing Amagi Inn." Oh no, they're talking about this again. "Visitors travel from all over just for their fantastic hot springs. Earlier today, we got a chance to interview the soon to be manager, Yukiko Amagi." They interviewed her? I'm surprised she would agree to such a thing.

A new voice is broadcast through the speakers. "So what's it like to be the manager of such a famous inn AND still be in high school?"

"Oh, well…" She seems flustered. "I'm not exactly manager. I'm only temporarily filling in for my mother."

"Oh, come on! You are too modest. But that's beside the point. What we should be talking about is how amazing you look in that kimono! It must get you a lot of attention from male visitors." This man is going on borderline sexual harassment.

"What!? No, I wouldn't say that exactly." How has that man not been fried yet? Before I can continue on watching this train wreck, my phone rings.

"Oh, excuse me for a moment." I excuse myself from the table and race to my room. Who could be calling me at this hour?

I answer without checking to see who it is. "Hello, Naoto Shirogane speaking."

"Good evening, Naoto," my grandfather's voice says on the other side of the call. Oh, right, of course. I haven't spoken to him since out departure. Of course he'd call me at some point.

"Hello, Grandpa. How is the case proceeding?" I ask.

"Not very well. We don't have many leads. Nevertheless it is still incredibly busy. I'm sorry I could call you sooner." And I'm sorry I never tried to call you at all. I feel terrible.

"That's not a problem. I couldn't possibly hold you accountable for things you simply cannot control."

A soft chuckle comes from the other end. "Thank you. Getting to the point, how have you been doing in Inaba? I've heard that that some things have happened there since you arrival."

"Oh, right, the murder case. Dojima-san refuses to give me any information about the case."

"As he should," He says, surprising me.

"What? Why? I've worked on cases bigger than this one before. I can assure you that I can-"

"Naoto, I'm not saying this because I don't think you could handle it. On the contrary, I actually would like to believe that you would handle it better that a majority of the detectives there. However, I did not send you to Inaba for you to slave over a case. I sent you there so you could try to be a normal student for once. Have you even talked to anyone besides Dojima-san? And no, teachers do not count either."

"As a matter of fact, I have. I actually was with two second years. They're quite nice." Why is he bringing up such a topic now? I am aware of how socially inadequate I am.

"Good, that means that you're improving already." Improving? "Even so, you still need to get better at talking to others in normal conversation. It may not seem important now, but that ability will be essential in the future."

"I know that, Grandpa. What I fail to see is how that stops me in work as a detective."

"You aren't just a detective, Naoto. You are a person as well. You need to make friends, join school clubs, have a childhood."

"I'm not a child anymore!"

"Yes, I'm aware. But the way I see it, it's almost as if you never were one. Name for me one friend you've ever had."

"You know I can't."

"Exactly. That is not normal. YOU are not normal. No other child I've ever met has not been able to name a single person. Even when you do make conversation with people it's all business. Even with me it's almost all business. You can't do that. You can't-" I hang up the phone. He will probably be angry later, but I don't need to hear that. Every word he said was the truth, but that doesn't mean he has the right to lecture me on it.

Ever since I was young, I've been terrible at small talk. I've never understood how one could just simply walk up to another and talk. Just talk. According to my grandpa, I've always seemed slightly odd in that area. Apparently, I got a lot worse after my parent's passing. Once I returned to school after the accident, other kids would always try to talk to be. I would always turn them away. After a while, they stop being friendly and began to pick on me. I never would try to defend myself. The teacher would always have to chase them away.

One time, one bully took it too far. He shoved me to the ground and delivered a hard kick to my stomach. Nowadays, I would have been able to defend myself against that relatively easily. Back then, the combination of my small body and puny limbs left me at his mercy. After a few more kicks, a teacher came up and pulled the boy away. Surprisingly for most, I wasn't bothered by the event to badly and forgave the boy soon after. My grandpa had a completely different reaction. Soon after the incident, he pulled me out of school and homeschooled me. Originally, I was supposed to return once I improved socially, but that event never occurred. My guess is that he saw this as an opportunity to get me some friends and have me go back to school.

Ten minutes after hanging up, I find that he has no intention of calling me back tonight. Realizing this, I change my clothing and climb into my bed. As my brain wonders through countless thoughts, darkness consumes me as I fall into a restless sleep.