It would've been nice if Raccoon actually slept in his own provided room for once instead of Yosuke waking up every morning to a new item in his room, loudly snoring and pointing right at him. He was glad Raccoon had new resolve, but did he really need to be so overzealous with the shapeshifting power? That morning, he transformed into a quill on the desk, a fluffy white feather with a sharp point, shaking from sleep, the only indication it wasn't inanimate.

"You gotta be kidding me," He groaned and threw his blanket off. Last night it was the chopsticks at dinner, then prior to that, the oil lamp on his desk. How his parents somehow never noticed, he'd never know. What if next time he's the tea kettle?!

They had important stuff to do that day though. They all saw a strange person in the photos last night and pegged him as being the murderer. Who else could he be? He dressed in a hurry and grabbed whatever random food his mom made for breakfast and headed to the Junes food area, recounting everything that happened. Everyone then decided it would be best to wander around town and ask for information on the boy they saw, which made Yosuke's face fall.

They had to do that nonsense again?! Weren't all their other attempts essentially failures in one way or another? They only found one piece of information each.

The group split up to ask, and Yosuke remained mainly around Junes with Kanji, asking everyone they saw. Kanji suggested they primarily stick to old people, as they tended to be the most knowledgeable.

"No way! Everytime I try to ask them, they dodge the question or bring up unrelated things!" Yosuke complained.

"But don't others do that too?" Kanji crossed his arms in front of his chest. "I just think nobody likes us,"

Those were strong words, but Yosuke couldn't find it in himself to dispute them. Instead, he kept trying to talk.

"The murderer?! Why would I know that? Are you accusing me of something?!"

"I didn't see that, I don't read anything,"

"I don't know who he is."

As usual, nothing came of their search. Yosuke groaned. Maybe the girls were doing better, or maybe Yu was. The girls were girls, nobody could say no to them, and Yu just had a natural way of charming people. He bet even Raccoon could do better, couldn't he just shapeshift into a girl or something?!

"Maybe they just don't like ya," Kanji suggested.

"They won't tell you anything either!" Yosuke pulled on his hair. "Let's just stop for today and say that we did our part, because we did." He was glad for the brimmed hat he wore, the shade of it.

"If ya say so."

"I gotta drain the stovepipe anyway." Yosuke wandered off, ignoring Kanji's expression of…appalment, he assumed. What mattered more to him was the fact that unlike his old city, Inaba had no public urinals on the streets, so he always had to stop what he was doing and run home just to urinate. It was annoying.

Still, it wasn't like anything was even getting done that day. Maybe this was somehow a blessing in disguise.

Later that afternoon, they all met up at the food area, curious when Yukiko announced she found something. Yosuke knew one of the girls could do it, he just knew it! Everyone was willing to help girls out.

"I found a boy who attends school with him and he knew about his…infatuation with me." Yukiko sighed. "Anyway, I got this," She tossed a picture onto the table and everyone leaned in to look.

It was a simple black and white photograph of a class on their first day of school, all boys dressed in militaristic uniforms with stiff expressions and poses with an iron gate behind them. She pointed to a random boy with overly-brushed hair. "That's who gave me this photograph." She pointed to another boy with dark inky eyes who stood away from everyone else, staring off in the distance. "And this is the boy we're looking for, right?"

"Sure is!" Yosuke nodded, positive he'd recognize those eyes anywhere. They were super distinct.

"I remember him. Everytime I did something outside, he'd often be there, just staring," Yukiko said. "He said I was a princess."

"Well, is he wrong?" Yosuke teased, earning Chie's stare.

"His name is Kubo Mitsuo,"

Rise huffed. "I know him! He came into the tofu shop and just kept talking. I think he's one of those types who just talks and talks, you know? He was going on and on about how he hates loud people and weak gangs. Usually I smile but I just ignored him because I was tired. Do you think I was kidnapped because of that?"

"And I got dragged into it because I was associated with gangs!" Kanji snapped.

"Wait, he's that guy who tried to propose to you back in April!" Chie pointed out.

"Oh right, didn't he offer her a photo and call her a nickname?" Yu wondered.

"Yeah, and I rejected him in her stead because she's not into getting married. Maybe that's why he went after her!" She winced. "Maybe it was inadvertently my fault…"

"She rejects everyone though, he shouldn't take it so personally," Yosuke said. "I've seen him stand outside the entrance of Junes too. Dad eventually made it so he couldn't anymore and said he was worried he'd scare off customers. He'd mutter weird stuff like how women who have affairs should be killed and women only exist to be subservient,"

"Sounds like our guy!" Yu nodded.

The others agreed and headed into the camera, finding themselves in the Other Realm once more. Rise transformed into her Persona and put the opera glasses up to her eyes, looking around.

"I found him!" She gasped. "Follow me!"

They ran for a while until they found themselves on a simple blue square that read in bright green Start.

Looking ahead showed nothing but similar squares, and giant bronze pieces shaped like animals. Various modes of transportation were drawn onto the middle, and most of the squares said phrases too far away to properly make out.

"We're in a board game?!" Chie said.

"He probably sees all this as a game." Kanji grumbled.

"Well, let's start playing! First to finish wins!" Yu teased.

"All guys love games, right?" Yosuke tried to tease as well, but he frankly didn't. He didn't even recognize what game they were on, if it was even real to begin with. Some kind of travel thing?

"All girls love Raccoon!" Raccoon chimed in, bouncing about.

"Okay, enough talking. Let's get in there and beat him!" Rise said, and everyone nodded.

"Wait, how are you going to help?" Chie asked.

"I can see everything! I'll hang out around here and when you guys find him, let me know and I'll run as fast as I can there!" She smiled.

Everyone tried to run forward, but found themselves barred by an invisible wall.

"Huh?!" Yukiko stuck her hand forward and struggled, her hand pushed against something she couldn't see.

Please pick your starting piece! A disembodied voice commanded from above them in the void.

"So we're really going to have to play this like a game?!" Yosuke demanded. "Fine, just pick a random piece then I guess."

"The giraffe!" Rise called. "It's cute and will fit all of you!"

Yu nodded and climbed up the legs to sit on the giant piece, helping Chie and Yukiko to climb up because they were restricted by their kimono, then Kanji and Raccoon climbed up by themselves, with Yosuke being last. The piece was bronze and shimmered in the distant light, with small yellow spots carefully painted on. There was less detail than Yosuke expected there to be, but did it really matter? They'd play along…for now.

The giraffe suddenly shook its head, coming to life and walking merrily along the squares, forcing everyone to quickly hold onto each other as the piece shook them.

"Whoa, we're so high up!" Chie gasped as the piece kept walking at a steady pace.

"Is it going to bring us straight to him?" Kanji wondered.

"It's kinda bumpy…." Yukiko worried, burying her face into Chie's back.

After a few minutes, the giraffe stopped suddenly.

Your ship got sunk by a rock! You lose a turn! The disembodied voice called out, and everyone screamed as a torrent of cold water rained down on them, drenching them.

"What the heck?!" Chie cried.

"What kind of game is this, he just gets to do whatever he wants with us?!" Yosuke demanded, rubbing his nose to get the water out.

"I hope we're not going to get sick." Yu worried.

You found diamonds in a mine in Calcutta! You are very wealthy!

Yosuke held up his hands to shield himself from the shower of diamonds that poured down on them, scraping against their skin.

"Does Calcutta even have diamonds?" Kanji grumbled.

"Beats me. I don't even know where Calcutta is!" Raccoon said breezily.

"Somewhere in India, I think?" Chie blinked.

"I don't really pay attention in that class either," Yosuke said as their giraffe started to move across the board again. His clothes stuck to his skin and forced him to shiver, and his hat meant droplets of water would sometimes fall into his lap or on his legs, adding even more weight. They were supposed to fight after this! This was stupid and unfair.

They kept riding the giraffe until they reached a straight line that wasn't connected to the other squares, deciding to go down that path. They came across a wooden door and pushed it open, finding themselves in a white marble coliseum.

"I can sense him!" Rise said as she finally caught up to them.

In the middle of the arena was a boy standing in a simple shirt and pants with no shoes on, instead a bright yellow smoking jacket and cap. "Yes, I admit it! I killed them! Nobody paid attention to me after the first two, so of course I had to go for a third! I'm doing it all just because!"

"Don't you feel…nothing? Don't you feel..empty?" An identical boy standing in front of him lamented.

"Damn, which one is the Shadow?!" Yosuke was too far to properly make either out, and he wasn't sure who had yellow eyes. And both were stuff a Shadow would say, right?

"That's all you say! Shut up! I'm not empty!" The boy shouted before turning around to face them. "And how did you guys get in here? I-I'll kill you too!"

"We're going to deal with you and solve this case! You basically admitted to everything!" Kanji showed his fist.

"Why won't you accept me?!" The Shadow punched the boy in the back and caused him to collapse, jumping into the air and transforming into a floating baby. When he blinked his golden eyes, he was suddenly encased in a giant tin soldier that was marching in place.

"We have to destroy the shell. You can do it! Once we defeat him, this case is as good as solved!" Rise encouraged them.

Yosuke knew they shouldn't keep relying on their Personas first thing, so instead the group tried to use physical attacks first. Kanji jumped and kicked and punched at the soldier, actually getting a few decent dents in. Chie spun around and kicked as well, dancing away from her hits. Raccoon transformed into whatever weapons he could think of and slashed and stabbed and shot at the tin, eventually breaking it apart.

"Take this!" Yukiko transformed into her Persona and twirled around, unleashing a wave of fire onto the baby that knocked it out of the sky.

"Did we do it?" Chie asked.

Mitsuo very slowly woke up and held his head, while everyone stared at him.

"You've been a huge pain in our ass, you know? What was with dunking water on us? That was unnecessary!" Yosuke yelled.

"Who are you guys?" He continued to hold his head.

"We came here to rescue you, and turn you in. The police are looking for you!" Yu stepped forward. "But did you actually do all of these murders?"

"Y-Yes!" Mitsuo laughed hard. "I did! I killed all of them! Not just that Mooroka bastard, but that stupid editor and that Konishi bitch! I killed them all!" He continued laughing. His Shadow vanished behind him. "Finally! That monster is gone!" He collapsed.

"He's exhausted! We have to get him out of here!" Rise gasped. She ran over to him, her bustle bouncing around. "I can help lift him if someone else takes the other side,"

"I will," Kanji heaved up Mitsuo's left side. "Bastard…I hope he's in for a long while,"

"If he's in for murder, I'm sure he will be," Chie reminded them. Yosuke walked ahead, jumping out of the camera and hearing the others follow a few seconds later. Mitsuo fell out of Rise's and Kanji's hands, collapsing on the floor.

"The camera…I-I don't get it…"

"We know you're tired, but we have questions for you!" Rise held her hands in front of her.

"Why did you do this? Answer in ten words or less!" Raccoon said.

"What are you…a costume? Or some kind of freak?" Mitsuo scoffed.

"F-Freak?! You listen here! I'm not a freak-!" Raccoon huffed, and Yosuke put his hand on his shoulder.

"That's not helping."

"Did you really kill everyone?" Yu asked softly, and Mitsuo laughed loudly.

"Of course I did! I did it all by myself, just to see if I could! I wanted the attention!"

"Three people are dead because of you!" Chie stomped her foot.

"What about the kidnappings? Why did you go after us?" Yukiko asked. Her face was pale and her breathing was shallow, yet she stood tall and asked with a commanding voice.

"Ohhh, it's Yuki-chan, the lovely princess…" Mitsuo grinned at her. "After all this time, you finally decide to talk to me…? Bullshit."

"I don't care what you think about me, but why'd you drag the others into it?!" She yelled.

"You're so desperate for me it hurts…why'd you deny me in the first place? We could've been married-"

"Knock it off!" Yosuke interrupted. "Why'd you go after those people?"

"Because…they annoyed me. Everyone gets in my way and I hate them all!"

Just listening to him talk sent worms up his spine. Not even chills, worms, the feeling of being slimy and cold and annoyed. His clothes were still dripping onto the dirt.

"Shut up! I can't believe you killed Konishi-senpai over nothing!" Her ashes, wherever they may lay, would still never know peace.

"And I hope when you're locked up, you think for a long and hard time about what you've done. Killin' people isn't a joke!" Kanji shook him roughly.

"What, are you going to kill me too?" Mitsuo laughed before Kanji shoved him on the ground.

"If I did, you wouldn't learn your lesson." He looked at Yosuke. "Well? Go get the police! Tell them we found the guy!"

"Right!" Yosuke dashed out of the store, running through the town as quickly as he possibly could. The case was truly over, right?

Right?

Adachi and a few other officers dragged Mitsuo away unceremoniously, Adachi thanking them for their help in catching the real culprit. Afterwards, everyone sat at the food area again, looking gloomy. Yukiko kept shifting in her seat in her kimono, while Chie rested her hands on her cheeks. Dad came by earlier and offered sashimi on the house, but nobody was in the mood to eat even a delicacy. They instead just asked for drinks, with Yu getting milk, Chie and Yosuke getting orange juice, Rise getting a drink called Ramune, and the others getting green tea.

"At least the police will deal with it…and we can move on!" Rise tried to cheer everyone up.

"Yeah…" Yukiko sighed. "And Raccoon-san's world will be peaceful again, that's something good!"

"Yes! We've been through a lot! Like giving my gold to you!" Raccoon smiled.

"Stop that! When will you let that go?!" Yukiko huffed.

"Give you the gold?" Kanji questioned.

"You don't want to know. I'm sure you'd like to forget the sauna incident, right?"

"Uh…" Kanji sweat.

Rise pouted. "Awww, no fair! I wanted to see everyone else's too!"

"Oh right, we're the only ones who saw them all," Yosuke recalled. It was really bizarre to think about. The others fell into the team dynamic so naturally he couldn't believe nobody else saw his, or that Rise never saw Yukiko's.

"What was yours like, hm? I bet it was super embarrassing!" Chie teased. "Tell us!"

"It wasn't, really. More like the others," Yu handwaved her away and drank his bottle of milk.

"And we can just leave it at that!" Yosuke winked at her. She pouted but thankfully didn't press. "And of course, nothing happened to Narukami-kun. He just kinda got the power of his Persona!"

"Because Sensei is a cool person!" Raccoon cheered.

"It's sad that this case is over though. We can't call you our leader and will go our separate ways…" Kanji trailed off.

"Oh! I have an idea!" Rise announced. "A party! We always have cast parties at the end of a successful season. We could do the same here!"

"Yay! Let's go to Yuki-chan's place! Geisha and hot springs and kimono and Mt. Fuji and koto!" Raccoon threw his hands up.

"Oh right, Mistress Yukiko owns a hot springs…that she bathes in?!" Kanji blushed.

"Stop sounding like a creep!" Yosuke scolded.

"Sadly, not this time. Maybe next time. Every room is filled for the summer," Yukiko said.

"Well…we could just go to Yu-kun's place! I'm sure his uncle wouldn't mind!" Yosuke teased.

"If he's a detective, he likely won't be home tonight either," Chie said.

"You guys mind if Nanako-chan is there?" Yu drank more of his milk.

"Of course not! The more the merrier!" Yosuke said.

Yukiko sipped her tea. "Let's make dinner for her too! But not just any dinner…breakfast for dinner!"

"Are you a good cook?" Rise asked in admiration.

"Kinda?" Chie blushed. Yosuke glared at her.

"Don't lie like that! Have you already forgotten about the campout and what happened there?!" He was surprised his intestines even recovered from such abuse that night.

"Hey, I got sick too you know!"

"Besides, that was just a mistake! The chicken went bad!" Yukiko added.

"I'm begging you, don't for the sake of my stomach!" He sighed.

"Oooh, let's have a cooking contest then! Boys VS Girls! See who's the best!" Raccoon giggled. Yosuke glared at him.

"You're going to get us killed!"

"That'll be fun! I'm a great cook! Are you sure you want to go up against me?" Rise giggled. "I know all kinds of fancy gourmet stuff from my world tours!"

Yu just smiled nervously. "If we're all cooking, who's our judge?"

"Nanako-chan can judge the girls. I guess…you can judge for the boys?" Chie shrugged. "I can't imagine you'd be unfair." She finished her orange juice. "Well, let's go get our ingredients!"

Yu left to tell Nanako about the challenge, while everyone else tried to decide on a dish as they walked to the grocery section.

"Oh! Scrambled eggs!" Rise smiled. "They're extremely versatile and can be made in a lot of ways! I'm sure you guys have had tamago kake gohan before, right? Then it's perfect!"

They all split up, and Yosuke went off on his own too, trying to think about how he wanted to make his. Obviously you started with eggs, but then what? Oh, you could put vegetables and rice in them, right? He'd make that then, especially since Kanji and Yukiko would be eating and he wanted to be fair. He grabbed some leeks and potatoes and onions, then a bag of rice, nodding at his selection.

Once everyone else was done, they placed their ingredients out on the counter where the register was, and Yosuke looked them over.

"Ham slices?"

"Yes! I wanted to mix it with melted cheese to make the perfect hearty batch of eggs!" Rise smiled. "Good eye!" She stepped closer to Yosuke. "I could feed it to you if you wanted, right off the fork! I heard last time you choked down something too awful for words! That won't happen with me, I promise I'll serve you a perfect meal!"

"You promise?" Yosuke held her waist and she giggled more.

"Of course! I'm a master, like I said! I can't imagine the person who would do such a terrible thing! Cooking is a sign of being a good wife!"

Yukiko and Chie glared at her.

"Yeah yeah, get all your gloating out now, we'll crush you!" Chie promised.

"I'll kill you with mine," Yukiko stared. "There's no bad meat this time,"

Once everyone got their food, they headed to the Dojima household and tried their best on the small stove in the living room, all of their heads dangerously close to being smacked together.

"Hey, what were you drinking earlier?" Yosuke asked Rise as she was cutting up cheese for her eggs.

"Ramune! It's from the foreign settlement in Kobe. It's supposed to treat cholera, but it tastes good anyway! It's lemonade basically but with more bubbles. Like cola!"

"Wonder why Junes hasn't sold any,"

"Maybe it's just not popular. Even when I visit other cities in Japan, I never hear about it outside of Kobe."

Yosuke turned his attention to the recipe, trying to read it. They were all supposed to read the basic instructions for scrambling eggs, then mix it up with their own ingredients. He cracked his eggs, now what? Did he add the vegetables? Unsure, he did so, and misread the measurements so he added half a stick of butter and two tablespoons of what he thought was salt. Well, it all still looked fine, right? And the look didn't matter anyway, what mattered was being edible! And he could definitely make edible food!

Once everyone finished, they eagerly set their plates out in front of Nanako and Raccoon, beaming.

"Wait, we shouldn't spring this on her. Let's all try our food to see if we can keep it down!" Yosuke said.

"You're so mean!" Rise gasped. Yu tried to stifle his giggles.

"Anyway, I've actually been looking forward to yours. Being a good cook means you'll be a great wife and I bet many men will be jealous that I got to actually eat your cooking!" He took a big helping from the plate with his fork, wincing suddenly. The eggs crumbled in his mouth and the cheese was a brick, with the ham tasting rough. Yu tried a bite too and frowned.

"The eggs look black,"

"I left them on the stove too long." Rise huffed. "I'm still trying to work on that! I didn't mean to burn them. I ruined my buttery ham and cheese eggs!"

"Well, you still tried your best," Yu offered her a smile.

"Try mine then!" Yukiko held out her plate. Her eggs were a distinct yellow and covered in green flecks of vegetables. "I mainly made them vegetarian with leeks and onions."

Everyone tried hers, frowning.

"Weird, yours doesn't taste like anything!" Yosuke said.

"Yeah, too watery,"

Yukiko glared. "That's not a compliment!"

Nanako took a bite of hers and smiled. "Well I think it's good!"

"Now try mine!" Chie held out hers and hers were very runny with pieces of noodles clumped in. Yosuke winced and took a small bite.

"Ewwww!" He put his fork down. "This has to be the worst! It's barely cooked! And why are there noodles here?"

"It's a Chinese food egg dish, stupid!" Chie put her hands on her hips.

Yukiko scooped up a spoonful and laughed once she swallowed, hitting her knee.

"Wow! This is bad!"

"Shut up! We haven't tried the boys'!"

The girls nodded and first dug into Kanji's scrambled eggs, chewing them.

"They taste watery too," Chie decided.

Yosuke held out his plate, watching the girls and Yu eat some. The instant Yukiko put it in her mouth, she collapsed on the ground.

"Don't be so overdramatic!" He said.

"What's in this?! It tastes like sugar!" Chie spat hers out.

"The onions weren't chopped properly," Yu pulled out a piece of onion skin from his mouth.

"At least I tried with mine!" Rise threw her fork down. "It's not my fault they were burned!"

"What am I supposed to eat….?" Nanako asked shyly, and everyone hung their heads.

"Well, Rise-chan probably had the best, even if she burned them…" Yosuke trailed off.

"So far, this has been a very weird summer," Chie said.

-The most well-known power of a tanuki is their shapeshifting, which they use to make mischief. Tanuki are very versatile with their shapeshifting abilities and can turn into animals, people, inanimate objects, and even other yokai in some myths. They use their powers to be troublemakers, such as chasing women and swindling people out of money. One story was about a tanuki who kept scaring a family by disguising itself as various objects and pouncing on them. One of the members figured out what was going on and when it was time for dinner they heated the kettle super hot. The tanuki jumped up, turned back into its yokai form, and bolted out the door.

-Urinals in Edo society were quite common, placed in most major cities and free to be used by anyone. This was one of the reasons Japan overall had clean streets free of the mud and sewage that plagued(hehe) the European and American cities at the same time. Supposedly, what shocked Europeans the most was seeing women use the urinals too, as many women back then knew how to pee standing up.

-In canon, Mitsuo's Dungeon is modeled after a video game, which I obviously can't do here, so instead I modeled his after a popular board game from Victorian England where players raced their pieces across the board, pretending to travel the world and collect treasures. First to reach the end won.

-Smoking jackets and hats were worn by men during this period, to keep the smell of smoke out of their clothes when they smoked. Modeled after Persian and Indian robes and turbans, they were in bright colors and vibrant patterns and were also often used as loungewear.

-Tamago kake gohan is a breakfast dish of eggs on or mixed into rice.

-Ramune was originally invented in 1884 by a British pharmacist as a cure for cholera. The drink was initially ever drunk in the foreign settlement of Kobe where he lived before slowly getting more popular in following decades in other parts of Japan. The name means lemonade, which he first based the original drink on.

Would you believe I only very recently learned how to scramble eggs? What's something actually pretty simple you've only recently learned to cook?

Also, I start my job Monday. For four weeks I'll be training morning to afternoon. As I said before, this work likely won't go on hiatus, but the upload schedule may be weird as I try to juggle everything. Until then, thank you so much for joining me through the first half of this AU! Never in my wildest dreams did I think this would get so popular, and as you all know the story only picks up from here, so I hope you'll keep sticking around!