"Man, I'm sick of Inaba!"
It had been quite a while since Yosuke could admit that he felt that way. The Crown Prince of Disappointment still occasionally carried the sins of Junes on his back...but he now carried Susano-o in his heart as well. He no longer wished for excitement because the past year had given him more than he could handle. Now that it was all over, however...
An angry customer marched over to him, the fourth one today. "Yes, ma'am. Aisle five," he replied before she could even finish snarling at him. He knew what she was after by the look on her face: roach killer. It seemed like a bunch of them had started taking over Inaba. Yosuke had killed at least 10 just today as soon as he came into work.
Several other customers, noticing that this woman had gotten the attention of a clerk, came over to harass Yosuke while he was pinned down.
"Where do you keep your pest control products?"
"Aisle fi-" Yosuke attempted to repeat.
A balding man cut him off. "THERE'S NOTHING THERE!"
"My house is filled with roaches!"
"The damn things breed faster than I can kill 'em!"
"I know, I know! We have them here, too!"
"Aha! So you admit the roaches came from Junes!" This got the crowd foaming at the mouth.
"I bought some of your shoddy products, and a roach came out of the Junes bag!"
"How dare you?! You attract a bunch of insects into our town, and then you don't even have the decency to supply the poison to kill them?"
"We never had bugs in Inaba until Junes came along and disturbed the ground around here!"
And now they were back to singing Yosuke's least favorite song, "Junes is the Devil". No matter what happened in this town, it was always a department store chain's fault. Junes...you know who shopped at Junes? Adachi! The murderer! Yeah! And that Kubo kid! I'll bet the stupid Junes jingle drove him insane! Junes made it rain! Junes made it STOP raining! Junes caused a tsunami, killed my grandmother, and made my face break out! It never ended.
"Well," Yosuke snapped, "if they're Junes-brand roaches, then maybe they'll just up and die for no reason and then explode!" He was going to pay for that later, but right now, it stunned the angry mob long enough for him to escape to the break room. Why was everything Junes' fault? Why was everything his fault? They had roaches at home, too! Yosuke was the only worker constantly reminding everyone to clean up their snacks and pick up trash they found in the aisles. He always cleaned up after himself. He wasn't Patient Zero! When he caught the bastard that started this infestation...
"WAAAAHH! Yosukeeee!" Teddie waddled into the break room, the top half of his costume on backwards. A trail of used napkins followed him. "It's panda-monium out there! Everyone is beary angry!"
"Well, this might surprise you, Teddie, but most people don't like roaches crawling all over them. Hold still!" Yosuke had to pry Teddie's head off and found that a wad of chewing gum was stuck to it. "What the hell have you been doing?"
"All the boys and girls in the food court threw trash at me!" Teddie's sparkles fizzled out. "They said they saw a bug on my bear-utiful fur!" He pouted. "I'm going back into the TV World, where there are no roachies!"
"No roaches, huh?" It sounded like a dream to Yosuke, but he didn't have the luxury of escaping reality as easily as Teddie did.
No one had gone into the TV World since Yu left. With no Midnight Channel, P-1 Tournament, or sleepwalking Shadows, they didn't see the need to. More importantly, they were once again without a leader, and no one wanted to step on Yu's toes. They were fairly disorganized without him, and any talk of the Investigation Team usually led to arguing over who had the most right to step in. It wasn't like the Shadow Operatives with their ranks and structure. Yosuke sort of considered himself "second-in-command", but he wasn't good at strategizing. That was more Naoto's area of expertise...but Naoto wasn't any good at rallying people because she was used to going it alone. It made them look really pathetic because every time something came up, they had to call their leader/senpai like kids who were left home alone. Yu says it's my turn to use the golf club!
Today, Naoto wasn't even in school. She'd been doing something for Mitsuru that was so top-secret, she couldn't even tell Kanji. Whenever she was in Inaba, she was tight-lipped. Kanji or Rise had to practically bribe her to come to Junes, and when she did show, it was never for very long. Apologies – I must return to my office. It reminded them of the standoffish way she acted when they first met her more than a year ago – which wasn't good. Naoto was definitely the one Yosuke figured would regress first when the team dissolved. She didn't know how to keep relationships going.
Poor unlucky Kanji.
It was obvious as hell, even to Yosuke, that the boy had it bad for Naoto. He stuck to her like Velcro and would fall all over himself agreeing with her no matter what she said. She kept his temper in check. He even withstood the teasing without threatening to punch somebody...until she left, and he started pining like a puppy when their kid goes to school. When Rise was in town – God, could they keep the team all in one place for more than a week? – she mentioned that Kanji would just stare out the window in class until he fell asleep. He snapped at you if you bothered him. Without Naoto, Kanji had also backslid into his last year's self.
Not that Yosuke could talk. Jeez, Naoto's a ghost, Kanji's a dick, Teddie's going back into the TV...and I'm Captain Ressentiment. We're pretty pathetic without you, Partner.
"Hey Ted?" Teddie's unnaturally blue eyes were as wide as saucers as Yosuke sighed. "Stay over here, man."
"Really?"
"It's not all that bad, is it? I mean, sure, we got roaches, but you've got friends, too. Nanako-chan's crazy about you."
"Nana-chan...I hope she's okay without Sensei at home."
"There you go – you promised Yu that you'd keep a wiggly cartoon eye on her every now and then."
"I know, but..."
Yosuke was going to regret lighting this fuse as well. "No girls over there, either."
The sparkles returned in full force. Yeah, this was going to be bad. "Yosuke! You're right for once!" Oh, thanks, asshole! I give you a pep talk, and you step on me. "Back off, buggies! I'm going to score!" He marched proudly out of the break room as if he wasn't going to crash and burn horribly.
"Teddie, your head-HEY, Casanova, you forgot your-!" But Teddie was nowhere to be found. "It actually happened...he forgot his head because it wasn't attached to his body," Yosuke muttered to himself.
Inaba's weather patterns were so capricious that many people liked to joke that the town had mood swings. Today was a beautiful day, however, and most of the people waiting on the bus were happily chatting about going to the beach, spending the day shopping in the city, or just having a picnic by the river. Only one pensive passenger remained silent.
Naoto had stood some distance away from the crowd as she waited to board. She could not afford to fill her head with memories of spending time with friends on a day like today. Duty called. Her friends were sure to understand.
Mitsuru had fully recovered from her physical traumas and was determined to beat Public Safety at their own game, with Naoto as her trump card. Both women had been calling in favors to get access to confidential files that could give them the upper hand. Public Safety was suspiciously slow to act with regards to Naoto's defection, meaning she still had some security clearance and could be seen at investigations without calling too much attention to herself. Luckily, she was far enough ahead in her schoolwork that she could afford to miss a few days in order to work.
As Naoto arrived at the wreckage of what used to be a Kirijo warehouse, she spotted a familiar face. "Dojima-san!"
"Shirogane?" Dojima did not look pleased at all to see her. Naoto steeled herself for a lecture on missing school or a rant about her showing off, but neither came. Instead, a look of concern flashed over his face. "You sure it's safe for you to be here?"
"I beg your pardon?"
"Everyone knows you work for Kirijo now," he replied, slapping his coat pocket for cigarettes he had just realized weren't there.
"I am working with Mitsuru-san of my own accord," Naoto corrected, "Public Safety has been playing both sides against the middle in an attempt to either control or eliminate forces they can't understand. I can't, in all good conscience, agree to be complicit in what is unmistakably a set-up."
Dojima merely shook his head. "I don't understand it, either, but it landed right in my backyard, so I can't ignore it anymore." He motioned for her to duck into an alley with him, away from any other officers or eavesdroppers. "Something tore through this building like a tornado and set it on fire. Am I correct in assuming it was Kirijo and her friends with their...'powers' ?" When Naoto nodded, the color drained out of his face. "How the hell am I going to spin this to the higher-ups?!"
"The buildings in this area are rather old," Naoto began, "they aren't up to code, and were previously scheduled to be condemned. In addition, they were housing some unstable chemicals in an unsafe, unapproved manner."
"Slam a few doors, drop a cigarette, and the place lights up like a Christmas tree," Dojima finished. "Might be able to pull it off, but it's gonna be tricky. Witnesses saw the 'Shadow Operatives' and all you kids pouring out of the place before it came down. What went on in there?"
"An argument got out of hand. Dr. Tsukuda had been using the building as a makeshift laboratory. We confronted him and he confessed to his crimes while implicating Minazuki as the kidnapper."
"You're going to have a helluva time getting that to stick. Where's that kid?"
"We don't know. Senpai says he hasn't returned to Tokyo, and Labrys-san is patrolling Iwatodai with Kurosawa-san's blessing." It really did look bad for their side. Their only credible witnesses were a handful of grade-schoolers. "His residence has remained abandoned for several weeks."
"'Residence'. Like that wasn't just some storage shed with lights in it." Left without a vice, Dojima had begun taking his badge out of his pocket and fumbling with it. "How could he live like that? Couldn't this mad doctor put him up or something?"
"Minazuki was never interested in human interaction," Naoto explained. "People were just tools to be used and disposed of after they'd served their purpose. He refused to form bonds. This is the reason we initially believed him to be the murderer. The disgraced Ergo scientists failed to reactivate his Persona, so they had to be eliminated."
"But in reality, Tsukuda was bumping them off to frame Kirijo once he realized she was onto him."
"More or less."
"This would have been a good thing to get a recording of." Dojima said pointedly, looking down at Naoto.
It hadn't even occurred to any of them to get audio or video evidence. Perhaps if Mitsuru hadn't shown up at the last minute..."My apologies. Our priorities were finding the missing children and eliminating the Shadows." Dojima looked as if he wanted to say something to that, so Naoto quickly added, " 'Hostiles', if you will. Mitsuru-san was supposed to be convalescing in her hotel room. She wasn't part of the plan."
Neither was Tsukuda's murder. Once again, Naoto found herself wondering just how Mitsuru was going to cope with causing the death of a fellow human being. She seemed to be completely back to her normal self, as far as Naoto could tell. Was she really so well-trained, so controlled that she could tamp down any emotions she was having in public? Naoto may have bound her breasts, but Mitsuru had bound every aspect of her personality outside of cold, efficient heiress. Who exactly was Mitsuru Kirijo?
As they emerged from the alley, an officer spotted them and waved them over – or rather, waved Dojima over, giving him a sheet of paper and Naoto a dismissive glare. She was never going to validate herself in their eyes, was she?
Dojima read the paper and gave Naoto a strange look. "How many people did you say you found inside the building?"
"There were two men – Tsukuda and another man I believe he called...Yamamoto," recalled Naoto, "Akihiko-san may have temporarily stunned him. I don't recall seeing him as we fled. Has he been apprehended?"
"No...he's been identified." Dojima handed her the paper. "By his dental records. He was the one they found in the basement."
One? "There must have been a mistake. We ran into Yamamoto on the way down. It was Tsukuda we found in the basement. Perhaps he has no dental records available because he was effectively removed from existence-"
"Shirogane," Dojima was looking at her as if she was still a child trying to infiltrate the station, "there was only one body."
Wait, WHAT? Naoto was so stunned she couldn't restrain herself from blurting out, "That's not possible!" They all watched in horror as Tsukuda was condemned to a very painful and, more importantly, guaranteed death. The murder weapon would have melted away in the heat, but the gaping chest wound would remain!
Dojima appeared to not want to pursue this line of questioning further, but forced himself to continue. "Did you actually see him die?"
"With all due respect, Dojima-san, the man was pierced through the chest with an icicle at least 6 inches in diameter." It was like something out of a movie or video game. If Naoto herself hadn't witnessed it, she'd never believe it actually happened in reality. "His body temperature dropped to well below freezing. It would have been impossible for him to recover enough to escape a burning building, never mind moving an unconscious man into his position beforehand!" Surely Dojima would realize that Naoto was not prone to flights of fancy, that her eyes did not deceive her. But there was the coronary report. The body found was of a man significantly younger, one who died of asphyxiation, not hypothermia and blood loss. Somehow, Tsukuda had escaped the lab.
Wait.
Why was he giving her this after acknowledging that she was an informant? The subject of your investigation isn't supposed to be privy to the results of your investigation!
"You do realize that I am going to inform Mitsuru-san about this."
"I'd be surprised if you didn't." What was this tone Dojima was affecting? "You're a good cop, Shirogane...but you're a good kid, too. So is my nephew. If you've thrown in with Kirijo – at the risk of pissing off two different police departments - there's got to be a damn good reason."
Naoto fought to keep the blush painting her face from spreading.
"If this guy is somehow alive, then he's got to be pretty pissed at Kirijo for trying to kill him, " Dojima continued. "She'd better be aware of this."
The blush was replaced by a sly grin. "If I didn't know any better, Dojima-san, I'd say you were concerned for her."
"I'm concerned for my sister's kid, and his friends who have been better parents to my daughter than I was this past year." Dojima may have pushed being a father aside, but it was still within him. "Also...those kids had some horror stories. If what you said was true, and Kirijo went through that herself...what kind of monster gets off on stabbing a child?"
"Someone who has apparently skirted death," Naoto was missing something. Naoto HATED missing something. She prided herself on noticing what the outdated, patriarchal law enforcement failed to pick up on. How did a man with hypothermia and a sucking chest wound escape a burning building? "I should call Mitsuru-san at once. She's not going to be pleased. This was a chapter of her life she assumed had finally ended."
"So much for rich people not having any problems, huh? God, I need a cigarette." Dojima found himself with nothing to focus on except the idea that he should initiate small talk. "Uh...how you doing? School going all right?"
"As well as can be expected."
"Keeping Tatsumi out of trouble?"
There was that blush again! "I-I am certain that Kanji-kun is capable of behaving himself without my influence." Her fingers found their way to the small necklace she kept hidden under her collar, its inexplicably pierced bullet a cool reminder that she had forged an unbreakable bond. The tailor had patched up the holes in her life she hadn't even realized she had. He was so much calmer now, less liable to jump to conclusions. He credited Naoto for giving him that, but she knew that he'd always had the capability to be a strong, rational man. For the first time in years, the both of them actually looked forward to going to school each morning.
She wondered what he was doing right now.
"Gah! Dammit!"
Well, this day sucked.
Kanji sat alone in his classroom – thank freakin' God! – while everyone else made themselves scarce during lunch. In spite of his improved attendance record and cleaned-up appearance, he still managed to give off that "don't start shit with me" look. When the bell rang for lunch, everyone waited until he'd made up his mind about what he was doing before they moved. If he put his feet up on the desk in front of him, they took their lunch somewhere else. He tried not to care, but this meant he only had Naoto and Rise to talk to.
Neither of whom were here.
He threw down his rice that he'd made in the vain hope that he'd have someone to share it with and picked up his knitting that he wasn't supposed to have. He had to admit that it was a bit easier with his glasses. But his mind was too prone to wandering, and it kept taking his fingers with it. What was Naoto up to now? Why did she keep missing school even though she kept insisting he go? (Okay, his grades were shit and hers weren't, but still!) Did she really think she couldn't tell him at least something about what she was doing? He wasn't no snitch!
As lunch ended and kids started filing (hesitantly) back into the classroom, Kanji finally saw somebody he knew; Naoki Konishi. Funny how he didn't notice the little string bean earlier. He must've been sitting in the back of the class.
"Um...good afternoon, Kanji-san." Kid had been through hell last year, but he was the only one brave enough to talk to Kanji. Yu must've been responsible for that.
"Hey, man. You skip lunch or somethin'?"
Naoki shook his head. "I'm part of the Health Association again this year." He still seemed a little hesitant, especially when he caught a glimpse of Kanji's knitting needles, but continued. "I notice Naoto-san isn't in school again." Unlike some of the bastards at school who deliberately used the wrong honorific just to piss them both off, Naoki opted for gender-neutral formality. He was also one of the few people who never accused either of them of being gay.
"Yeah," Kanji sighed. Then he realized Naoki was still staring at him. "Oh, she ain't sick or nothin'!" he quickly added. Was he worried? "She's workin'. I'm not...uh, 'privately'-no that's not it...'privileged'...ah, dammit! I don't know what it's about 'cause she can't tell anybody, but yeah." He wasn't sure which one of them was less comfortable participating in this conversation
"Well, um...if you need any help taking notes for her, just let me know."
"Thanks, man!" It was unusual for anyone to be friendly towards Kanji, but Naoki was all right. As kids, they only really talked to each other when Yukiko wanted to play house and realized someone had to play the baby. Poor Naoki was the tiniest, so he always got stuck with that role. After middle school, however, all three children got more involved with their family businesses, and grew apart. Weird to think that a murder would bring people back together.
Naoki looked like he wanted to say more, but Ms. Sofue came in with her ridiculous headdress and started bitching at the class about cleaning up after themselves since the school had roaches. Psh, yeah, who didn't? Kanji just tuned her out and wondered what Naoto was doing. She probably skipped lunch to work on her case again. Talk about string beans – if he didn't shove something in her face, she'd probably go without eating for days! You'd think with all that money Mitsuru had, she could afford to buy her lunch.
Kanji didn't like lying to Naoki, but what he knew about Naoto's case probably sounded batshit crazy. Mitsuru had her looking for dead people so the cops wouldn't tell everyone that they all had Personas. (At least, that's what Kanji got out of it) None of them would be able to live in Inaba if that happened. People around here didn't like anyone who was "different". He wondered if Naoki'd even bother talking with him if he thought Kanji was some kind of freak.
Still, Kanji wasn't worried about himself. He was a punk, he could take it. Naoto on the other hand already had half the town looking down at her for one reason or another. She didn't need to be gossiped about any more than she already was. He had to threaten at least six kids today. Naoto had always appreciated his help (even though she didn't like his methods), but lately she'd been miles away. He understood that she was busy with her job, but...this was Kanji. Yosuke teased them both for a reason: they were close, so close that their Personas evolved together! What was this silent treatment for?
Feeling ignored, Kanji jammed his hands into the pockets of his jacket, completely forgetting that he had knitting needles in there. "OW!"
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In the Persona 4 Golden epilogue, which takes place after Ultimax, it really looks as if the necklace Naoto is wearing is the one that Kanji wore before he changed his image.
Teddie has a bad habit of attracting roaches. In Persona Q, he leaves Topsicle sticks in his costume long enough to cause them to swarm. Also, in the main game, the boys' Christmas celebration has to be moved to Yu's room because there are roaches all over the Hanamura's house (this might not be his fault, but he doesn't seem that down about it).
The first time you see Naoki, he's bailing on the health club because you're in it.