Chie liked to think she had seen a lot of strange things in her life. She was best friends with Yukiko, after all, and had a dog that was super fat yet small so he walked on stub legs. She was used to it, she thought.

She was not prepared to see Yu marching into the Junes food area with a slinky orange fox at his heels, a proud head held high.

"Who's this little guy?'' Yukiko asked happily, clasping her hands together. "An actual kitsune, could it be?"

"I found it at the shrine, so I'd assume that maybe," Yu said. "I tried to shake it off but I can't get rid of it. I think it just wants to follow me." He offered an apologetic smile.

"Well, it is awfully cute." Chie had to admit. It had seen better days for sure, with scratches on its body, faded clumps of fur, and a ripped pink apron around its neck. Still, why would it choose to follow Yu of all people? He was far from the only person who used that shrine.

"Sometimes I go there to just tidy up and I think the fox appreciates it. It showed me once an old man who recovered because he took some special herbs. Maybe if we get some too, it'll help us heal in the Other Realm." Yu continued.

"Herbs? I don't know about that." Yosuke shook his head. "You can't even understand it!"

"But I trust my eyes!"

"Can a fox even fit into a camera?" Chie suddenly asked, having the mental image of trying to shove a fox through the small lens.

"Why not, we fit, don't we?" Yu said. "It's just an idea. If we can't take it, at the very least it can show us where to get these herbs from. I don't know about the taste so we might have to dissolve them in something better if we can."

It did sound like a decent idea, but they had actual medicine to use. Stores in town sold various mixes in bottles, such as morphine they could use, and the cold medicine Junes sold in brown bottles that everyone knew was laudanum. What use would they have for herbs?

"Let's do it! We should always be nice to kitsune, they'll pay us back," Yukiko gently ran her hands along the back of the fox.

"I mean, it's still weird, but I guess it's an idea. Better to have it with us then let it run around the store causing havoc. Or getting kicked out by the workers." Yosuke said. "So long as it won't prank us."

"She won't! She's good!"

"And how do you know it's a girl?"

"Because most kitsune are!"

"Are we going today or not?" Chie asked impatiently, rubbing her temples. That morning her mom threw a bowl of rice at the wall and it shattered loudly above her head, raining uncooked pieces onto her. She didn't want to go back to the house again, and her head was swimming from the added stress of schoolwork.

"Yes, we're going." Yu nodded, and the four got what they needed and headed inside, meeting up with Raccoon.

"Did you bring me a clue?! What, only that he has a complex?! How is that meant to help me?!" He whined a bit. "Fine, I'll do what I can. I'll just have to sniff really extra hard!" He sniffed around, his nose wiggling, before he gasped. "I got something! Follow me!" He took off running and the other followed him, coming across a steamy sauna.

"Is this the place?" Yukiko asked shyly. "It's hard to see with all the steam,"

The sweat was rolling down Chie's back too, as well as pooling under her armpits.

"You can't make me go in there!" Yosuke shouted. "Didn't you guys see how he looked in the papers?! It was weird! He's going to touch me or something, I'm sitting this one out!"

"But I looked weird too." Yukiko reminded him.

"T-That was different! He's basically naked!"

"Hanamura-kun!" Chie stomped her foot. "You agreed that you would do this, no matter what! You can't go back on your word now! He needs us!" She knew nothing about him, but neither did anyone else. Who knew what was going through Kanji's head at that moment, knowing he didn't have anyone to rely on. Much like Yukiko was, he must've been terrified and felt alone.

Yosuke sighed and swallowed, giving her a nod. "Fine. But I'm keeping my eyes closed as we go through!"

Due to their previous experiences, she and the boys were a bit better at fighting, but the battles were ones she still did not wish to recount. Yukiko did her best to match their skills, but often found her attacks blocked or missed completely. They were random grunt battles but she knew they still shouldn't slack on them.

The only memorable fight was one with a group of frog-blobs with long tongues, reeking of poison and death. One reached out with a sharp claw and swiped at Yukiko's side, ripping her obi slightly and forcing her to double-over.

"Yukiko!" Chie was by her side in a minute, holding her close. "Are you okay?!"

"I ..I think so…" Her face was deathly pale but she still picked her fan up with grace. "I have enough fight left in me!" She aimed at a random Shadow, twirling around but stopping when her cheeks bulged. She covered her mouth and turned away from the others.

"I think she might be poisoned!" Yu worried.

Chie tried to pull her close, knowing how much Yukiko hated any form of bodily fluid. Yukiko took a few sharp breaths as the Shadow slithered over, about to take another swipe with the claw.

"N-No-!" Yukiko shouted, a torrent of puke spilling forth from her lips and drenching the Shadow in it. The monster dissipated from weak health and Yukiko finally dropped to the ground, panting.

"Uh…" Yosuke blinked. "A weird way to fight, but it works!"

Chie glared at him. "Are you okay?" She wanted to ask if Yukiko wanted to head back and continue tomorrow, but just barely managed to bite it back. Yukiko wasn't just someone to protect anymore, rather she was trying to come into her own.

Yukiko coughed before she looked up with a smile on her face. "That was fun! I didn't think that was a useful tactic. If I get poisoned again, I'll keep it in mind!" She chuckled. Chie hung her head.

"You're definitely feeling better," She sighed and helped Yukiko to her feet.

They kept running through the steamy sauna, getting their glasses fogged up and sweat dripping from their clothes. Yu threw open one door and came across Shadow Kanji lounging around on a bench, leaving nothing to the imagination.

"You came, you came!~ And so have I! I knew you could do it! At last, I've come to the heart of this building! I've yet to have an exhilarating meeting, but I'm hoping to change that! Wish me luck!~" He leapt off the bench and blew a kiss to them, making Yosuke shudder.

"This is exactly why I didn't want to come in here! This is just wrong and creepy! So so wrong!" He shook his head.

Chie sighed. Though she wouldn't admit it, there was something weirding her out about his unabashed sexuality image too. This might've been his Shadow, but what did that say about Kanji? She looked over at Yukiko, red-faced. She couldn't tell if it was from the display or the heat or the earlier poisoning. "You were kinda like this too,"

She blushed even harder. "No! I was different! This is different!"

"Yeah, this is way worse! Yuki-chan was just a princess, but this guy might actually get completely naked! Just bare like a babe!" Raccoon chimed in.

Yukiko tilted her head. "Bare-naked babe?" She tilted her head further, a quizzing look on her face. Chie braced herself for a laugh attack, but instead she blinked. "Is that a joke? It's not funny." She ran off instead.

"Wha-" Chie blinked before running after her.

After a few more fights, they finally reached the end of the sauna, their clothes drenched. Chie stretched her fingers and flicked her wrists, trying to get some feeling back to them after using them for so long. They really needed to invest in some better armor or weapons. Yukiko just had a simple fan! They worked fine but still. She needed something to protect her feet.

"Kanji!" Yosuke ran inside, finding Kanji standing aimlessly in front of his Shadow. They stood in front of a folding screen faded from the moisture in the air, the only thing still clear were the depictions of various birds. Kanji looked nondescript, just the same as he had the day he chased them away from the store. A long grey kimono and blue haori were his clothes of choice, along with some zori. She never took him for a traditional sort, ironically. "Kanji, we're here!"

"Isn't this what you've always wanted? You want to be like this. You desire this. I know you do! You want others to take you seriously, but they never will! Like those girls you're so afraid of, the ones that always laugh at you! You hate them!"

"I do not!" Kanji denied, but the Shadow kept talking like he wasn't even there.

"They laugh too loud, they talk too much, they scream and cry and make noise and can't be consoled! They look at you like a freak. 'You can't sew, that's what women do!' 'Painting is for girls.' 'You're a man, why can't you act like it?' 'Be a man, man up, make our country proud.' 'Do manly things, look manly, stop being such a pansy!'" He frowned. "But what does any of that mean? What does being a man entail? What does being masculine mean? Do they even mean anything?"

"Just shut up already! You're not me, I'd never think those things!" Kanji yelled, and the lips of the Shadow curled up.

"But I am you, don't you see?!" He twirled around and his chest bulged greatly, blooming red and bursting forth with roses until he was surrounded by them, sitting in a rose pile on top of a large muscular man. "Don't be like that, I just want to be my true self!"

Kanji collapsed from the shock and Yukiko cried out and pulled him away from the action the best she could. "Should we use our Personas?"

"No, we only use those in dire circumstances! They drain us too much otherwise!" Yosuke shook his head, then suddenly seemed to remember where he was at, because he quickly spun around. "But I think wanting this fight to be over quickly is a dire circumstance, so…!"

"You're hopeless." Chie sighed, using her usual martial arts moves on the monster. Most of the time, her kicks hit low and didn't do as much damage as she wanted, but she was still wearing it down. Yukiko transformed into her Persona and elegantly danced around, releasing a wave of fire onto the Shadow.

"What's wrong…with…what's wrong with just wanting to be accepted for who I am?!" He cried.

"Because you're weird as hell!" Yosuke said, firing a wave of wind at him. Yukiko unleashed another fire wave, knocking the Shadow back some. The two kept using their magic until eventually he collapsed over in exhaustion, signaling they won.

"What happened…?" Kanji groaned, holding his head. Yukiko hurried over to him, her flowery skirt badly blending with her kimono. Chie felt if she tried to separate the two her eyes would melt.

"Why don't you want me?" Shadow Kanji stood up easily, crooning. "Why can't you accept me?!"

"It's going to attack us! Kanji-kun is still rejecting it!" Raccoon warned.

"Can you really blame him with everyone here?" Yosuke snapped back.

"I want to be loved and cherished and just be myself! And I think you would make some fine boyfriends for him!" The Shadow laughed.

"What?! No! I don't swing that way! I'm not into this at all! Make it stop, Kanji!"

"Don't you think you're overreacting?" Chie scolded him. "You certainly didn't act that way when Yukiko's Shadow called us all princes,"

"That was different! She wasn't being weird!"

"I just want someone to accept me for who I am!" Shadow Kanji gasped one final time before Kanji stood up and punched him right in the face.

"Shut up! I can't believe I have something like you inside me!"

"Kanji-kun?" Yu blinked in surprise. Kanji straightened himself out and sighed.

"No, that's a lie. I've always known about that. I've always felt that way, as long as I could remember. It's not a matter of liking guys or girls, I just want to be accepted for who I am," He grumbled. "I'm just a weakling that makes everyone afraid of me so they don't bother me."

"That's also a part of you," Yu offered with a smile. Kanji huffed.

"It ain't that simple. And you, stand up! If you're really me, I know you can handle a punch like that. You're me, I know that already!"

Shadow Kanji nodded and took his hand, melting into him and transforming him into a giant muscular body with black details and his bones visible, wielding a lighting bolt.

"Take-Mikazuchi!" He pounded his fists together, his voice being deep but speaking with a more flowery infliction. "This is who I am…" Without warning, he collapsed to the ground again, falling right on his face.

"Kanji-kun!" Chie rushed forward without thinking, checking his pulse.

"We have to get him out of here, he's exhausted," Yosuke said.

"Can you walk?" She didn't think any of them had the strength necessary to carry him out, even combined. "Even if you're balanced on us?" Thankfully, he nodded, so she and Yosuke carefully helped him up and let him lean on them, using his own footwork as they kept him steady. They carefully pushed him through the exit and they all came tumbling after him, landing on the dirt.

"Please tell me you're alright, Sir Kanji!" Yukiko asked first, noticing he hadn't stood up yet.

"I'm fine…" Kanji winced as he slowly stood up. "Mentally, at least. Feels like a whole weight just got taken off of me. But about that…"

"We'll explain later," Yukiko promised.

"Yeah, it's a lot. Uh, how about after school? We'll all be there, so," Chie trailed off at Kanji's expression.

"I don't go to school." He said matter-of-factly. "School isn't for guys like me,"

"Uh…we'll meet somewhere else then!" She laughed awkwardly.

"I'll take him home. If anyone asks, I'll say I found him like this!" Yosuke led Kanji out of the store while the rest went home, Chie sighing to herself.

Time to go home to her dull house and bad parents. Her headache only got worse being in the Other Realm and she hoped they wouldn't make it even harsher. The only joy she had there was Yakiniku, who was asleep when she arrived. He was curled up into a ball, his legs tucked underneath him and his fluff tangled. She'd have to give him a bath sometime.

Chie went into her bedroom after taking her shoes off and practiced more spins with her bo before putting it away and instead tried to do the moves she learned in physical education. According to Yu, the physical education teacher for the boys spoke poor English and mainly made them run laps all day. Her physical education teacher spoke some language Chie couldn't even recognize and mainly made them dance and pose all day. She wasn't sure which sounded more annoying to deal with. She put her hand on the wall for balance and stood on her toes, gently lifting one leg up above in the air.

A little more…a little more.. a little more…

She gasped as her leg refused to move any more and was only halfway in the air behind her. She repeated the action with her other leg and then tried to dance around her room, twirling in the long hall connecting the rooms. She stuck her leg out too far and kicked a hole through the straw, wincing at it coming out the other side.

"Chie?! What did you do?!" Her parents yelled within a second. She just wiggled her toes at them.

"Do you even know how much this will cost us?"

"Do you even care how much this hurts us? Everyone around town complains about how you're a disgrace of a girl! We can't marry you off fast enough!"

That was later that night, after they did their best to patch up the hole before a fixer could come in the morning and look at it, sitting across from her at the dinner table.

"We heard you've been hanging around the Tatsumi place. Why? Are you looking to be wed to Sir Kanji? He's promised to another, you know!"

"I know, I'm not interested in him." She had her hands folded up in her lap and kept her head down, her hair falling into her face. She hadn't braided it back that day so it was just tied back with a ribbon, otherwise freely flowing.

"Why did we have to be cursed with a girl?"

"What did we do that was so bad? Not just a girl but one who won't listen!"

She picked at her food, ignoring their cries. Her parents were a unit to her, the same entity barking at her and ignoring her desires. She barely remembered their names and didn't bother to think of them as their own people. Why should she? She was just a burden to them, a curse, someone who never should've been born, and if she did have to be born, she should've been just like Yukiko, demure and silent and happy to be married off on a whim. They were the sole reason she wanted to get married or shipped off to the city to work. Both were terrible options, but at least she'd be free of them, and them her.

Chie was sure they wouldn't even be so harsh had her older brother survived. She remembered him quite well, even his name, Hideyoshi. Both were named after famous warriors, hers was even someone who fought in the Boshin War. He was a good five years older than her, rare in those times, but they were thick as thieves. She'd trail after him and happily play with his friends, especially loving the days they spent by the river, jumping on stones. Her parents loved him too, more than her, but she never minded. He was their heir, the perfect son they craved. The two even looked alike when they were younger, both had distinct bowl cuts with vibrant orange hair and summery kimono. Everything she is, she learned from him, who loved having a secret friend he could confide whatever in.

And then, they both got scarlet fever. She was twelve and thus her parents assumed, likely even hoped, that she would die because she was a weak girl and Hideyoshi would survive because he was a strong boy, their heir. Plus, he was seventeen, an incredibly rare age to develop scarlet fever anyway. Yet, fate was unkind. She survived after a week of the disease and her brother recovered slightly before developing a huge spiked fever that was his end. She was sure her parents never stopped blaming her for the death, hating her for being the strong one when the son they longed for was taken from them like a weakling.

Chie finished her dinner and headed to bed, letting Yakiniku sleep with her that time. He whined and nuzzled her, making her giggle.

"Just be quiet. And don't track mud onto my futon! I'll have to air it out in the morning!" She warned, giggling. He yipped and curled up right next to her, falling asleep within seconds. Chie stayed up a bit longer, stroking him and sitting up in her bed, gazing out the window.

--Physical education for girls was starting to be taken more seriously during this period, even in Japan. The girls and boys were still kept separated for their classes and while the boys did exercise more associated with modern gym classes, the girls almost exclusively did ballet, other forms of dancing, and gymnastics to hone the flexibility and gracefulness of their bodies. Some teachers allowed their female students to do a mix of dancing and martial arts that again strengthened balance and flexibility. This is why I've imagined Chie's move set here to be closer to fluid dance moves with amateur martial arts.

Way back when I posted Yukiko's rescue I said I'd start asking questions every so often to get more engagement out of my readers, and the time's come once again! The question this time is; what's a movie or TV show OST you love to death? Doesn't even have to be from something you've seen, just one you enjoy putting on. Mine are Treasure Planet, Titanic, Memoirs of a Geisha, and The Day After Tomorrow. I've only seen three of those movies, never watched Memoirs of a Geisha, but all four of those have masterworks of a soundtrack. Take a listen here!

playlist?list=PLURQ_xwn_OwmAIJnypCp1kCDr0je8uoBD -Memoirs of a Geisha

watch?v=X2RIf9QrQ6k -Titanic

playlist?list=PLsR1TWq-eGPyh4H1TTkA3t8wSfN_JnzFU -Treasure Planet

playlist?list=PLohYzz4btpaQT9lDVVAnTvFVxiBXSpmO6 -The Day After Tomorrow; warning that the deluxe edition I linked contains sounds from the movie that are loud so keep your volume down if needed