Everything's upside down.

-pppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppp-

A funeral, though no one had died.

Kanji barely remembered his old man's funeral. He spent most of it in shock, relatives talking over his head about things he didn't understand or didn't really care about. Dad was dead, Ma was grieving, and Inaba got really, really weird. Not that anyone really talked to him much before, but after he started going back to school, people just...avoided it. They talked about homework, about the holidays, even about the weather, but no one wanted to even mention that someone in their community had died. It almost felt like they didn't give a shit – which pissed him off. Why are we pretending nothing happened? My dad's dead! Don't act like nothing's wrong! But they did. They tiptoed around Kanji like they were too afraid to speak to him...and it just made it easier to stop talking to them at all.

Some weird shit had gone down and they were now the only Persona-users left, but no one was talking about it. Yu went home, and they went to school, and Kanji took a big order for the shop which took up most of his time, but left his brain free to think. A Persona could just run off and leave you like a pet escaping through an open door? Would it come back, then, when it got hungry? Were theirs going to be next?

At least he knew he wasn't the only one. Naoto had been blowing up Mitsuru's phone trying to get some kind of answers. She didn't like being left out of the loop, either. Her brain must've been going in circles trying to figure shit out without any details. That Marie chick didn't really tell them anything, except that this Doom Cloud wiped out Personas. Akihiko didn't answer at first, either, and then he finally said something like "We need some time to deal with this", and that was it. At least he acted sorry for ignoring Naoto.

Damn, it was almost time to bring Naoto some food! The others probably made fun of him, but someone had to look out for her. When she was working, she got so into it that she probably didn't even stop to use the bathroom. She'd forget to blink if it wasn't automatic.

Plus, it was worth it to see her flustered when he remembered to make something she really liked.

Yeah, Kanji knew he had it bad for the detective. No use pretending he didn't. But Naoto didn't need any of that shit in her life right now, and he wasn't sure if she ever would. She was going places, and she didn't need a punk like him dragging her down. They were so different from one another; she was calm, while he flew off the handle every five seconds. She was smart, and he was dumb not as smart as she was (the only time she did get pissed off was when people called him "dumb"). He was into "girly" things, and she had the world thinking she was a man. How did they even fit together?

He reached Naoto's apartment expecting to find her too engrossed in her work to hear him knocking, but the door swung open and her eyes lit up. Then she grabbed him by the jacket and yanked him into the apartment.

"Wonderful! You're exactly who I need right now!"

"Wh-whaaat!?" Shit, there goes his nose! He looked down at Naoto, who was red-faced and sweaty, breathing hard. He'd seen a movie like this once…

Naoto must not have seen that same movie, but she did realize she hadn't explained herself. "You are wearing rather heavy shoes, are you not?"

"Uh, yeah. I could take 'em off, if you want-"

Before he could finish, Naoto tugged on his arm and pointed to the floor. "STOP THAT COCKROACH!"

"Whoa! Oh, okay!" He made short work of the bug.

When Naoto's breathing slowed down, she composed herself. "If that had laid eggs in this apartment, I'd never be rid of them." She collapsed onto the couch. "I suppose having multiple legs is advantageous when one is an invasive pest."

"You got 'em, too, huh?"

"I was forced to replenish my supply of notepads at Junes."

"Dammit, Yosuke-senpai, that's the closest I ever got," Kanji muttered under his breath.

"I'm sorry?"

"Nothing!" This had turned into a different movie. "I, uh...I guess you're not gonna want this." Luckily, he hadn't spilled any of the fried rice he'd brought over.

"Perhaps later." Naoto gave him a lopsided smile, and it made his nose itch again. "My apologies. I am sure this wasn't what you expected when you arrived here tonight."

"Hey, we're all in this bug war together. I swear, beating down Shadows is much easier."

"You might be right," admitted Naoto, "I haven't had much of an opportunity to ponder this new situation, I'm afraid. For a Persona to suddenly abandon its wielder…"

"I thought we figured that a Persona was you, only better?"

"Which is what makes the situation so perplexing. There are too many things the Shadow Operatives aren't telling us." That little face was so serious. "As you can imagine, the amount of information on Personas and Shadows is limited – and the bulk of it is controlled by the Kirijo Group. I have some clearance, but everything I've found is something we've already known from experience." She drew her legs up underneath her, a ball of frustration. "The dissolution of Ergo Research has unfortunately taken with it the drive to discover and question."

"And experiment," Kanji had to add.

"Unfortunately, the only knowledge we have originated from those experiments. Everything I've found so far indicates that this phenomenon is unprecedented. If we cannot find an answer," at this, Naoto sat up straight, "I'm afraid the Shadow Operatives will no longer be able to use Personas."

This was some heavy shit, for sure. On the one hand, Personas had caused Inaba quite a bit of trouble. Things were a lot simple when a guy didn't have to think about the end of the world and murders every day. On the other hand...they'd all grown so much thanks to having a Persona. Kanji was no longer afraid to express himself and had stopped resorting to violence to solve his problems. He had real friends now, people who encouraged and cared about him. Without Personas, he never would have met Yu – or Naoto. Could he really go back to the way things were before, now that he'd seen something so much better? If it all ended tomorrow, what would become of them?

Naoto must have been thinking the same things, because she quickly changed the subject. "I don't mean to keep you from the store. Your mother will worry."

"Nah, she knows I'm with you." Naoto went so red that it looked like she was on fire, so Kanji quickly added, "I mean, you can't get in trouble when you're around a cop, right?" This had the effect of petering out yet another conversation, and both of them began awkwardly searching for something more to say.

Hooray for cellphones. "It's Akihiko-san at last!" exclaimed Naoto as she punched out one of her ALL CAPS messages. "He wants to meet with me about the incident. I'm not sure Marie-san's cryptic assessment is going to be of any comfort, though."

"Better than nothin'."

"Indeed." Naoto finally looked like herself as her business mind took over. "He'll be waiting on the hillside. Will you come along?"

"Uh, Naoto, I'm, uh...not a cop, y'know."

"You know just as much about this as I do at this point," Naoto insisted. "Also...I would feel more at ease having you accompany me." Okay, if she didn't stop blushing, Kanji was going to bleed to death all over her floor. Thank you, Doom Cloud!

If they thought Akihiko looked old before, they'd think him absolutely ancient today. He hadn't shaved for some time, and his eyes had lost that animated gleam Naoto saw when they battled.

"Sorry," was the first thing he said when he saw them, "Things are... not good." He did not react much to Kanji's presence.

"Please extend my sympathies to the rest of the Shadow Operatives," Naoto began. Would 'Sorry for your loss' be appropriate here? Did it sound too patronizing? "I understand this must be a difficult time for you."

Kanji didn't worry about such things. "You look like shit, man. What've you been doing?"

Akihiko shrugged. "Working. What else is there?" He kept his hands in his pockets in lieu of a habit or crutch. "Keeps me from thinking too hard."

Naoto had been expecting an entirely different Akihiko, and seeing him this morose was hard to work with. "Has anyone on your end found anything conclusive?"

He scoffed. "You're forgetting it's just me, Mitsuru, and robots. Everyone else is off living. Labrys is obsessed with Minazuki, Aigis doesn't know anything more than we do. Mitsuru...I can't do anything for Mitsuru." He looked unbelievably pained. "Nothing that she really wants, anyway."

"I'm afraid I can't really offer much. Marie-san – who you may have realized is not entirely human – has determined that all of your negative feelings have morphed into some sort of 'Doom Cloud'-" here, Kanji sniffled and blushed, "-which is physically oppressing all of Inaba."

Akihiko snorted. "Whose idea was it to call it that?"

"Essentially," Naoto continued before Kanji could object, "You have lost your Personas because you've lost yourselves."

"Great. Psychobabble from a literal weather girl. How do we get them back?"

"I don't know."

Now Akihiko sighed. He really was remarkably close to Mitsuru.

"Hey, you think we're happy?" Kanji had been ruffled by Akihiko's jab at his nomenclature. "Inaba's had enough clouds of shit already. You can't do anything about it now, so we've gotta – and we gotta enough to deal with already, what with Adachi bein' back and that crackpot doc in the TV…"

"What?" Akihiko nearly pounced on Kanji. "You found Tsukuda?" A spark returned to his eyes.

"Yes and no." Naoto had subdued people bigger than her before, but she didn't know if she had the heart to in this case. So he did indeed know that Tsukuda was missing. "The odds of surviving an injury of that caliber are extremely low, yet no body was found. Tsukuda couldn't have gotten far in his state, unless-"

"-someone picked him up and threw him into a TV," finished Akihiko. He was catching on. "But why?"

"We know that Minazuki was kidnapping children for Tsukuda's experiments, in exchange for medications that implied he was ill from being unable to Summon. Tsukuda, according to Ikutsuki-san's videos, knows how to forcibly engender an Awakening."

She must have been taking too long to get to the point, because Kanji jumped in. "So we think Minazuki got pissed because the doc wouldn't help him, and he chucked him into the TV until he agreed."

Akihiko was coming back to life. "Except he can't. So he springs Adachi."

"Minazuki, familiar with Adachi's modus operandi, would know that it was possible for a Persona-user to put someone else into the TV World," ended Naoto.

"Labrys isn't going to like this," grumbled Akihiko, "That damn kid's more trouble than he's worth." After a moment, he realized something and declared, "You've got to take me with you."

"I really don't think that's a good idea," Naoto said just as Kanji also protested, "Not doin' that man, sorry."

"Naoto, I mean it! I don't give a shit if I don't have a Persona – I can still punch a guy out! You really think this is that much of a setback?"

She didn't. In addition to being an experienced Persona-user, Akihiko had years of real-world fighting experience that would make him an excellent officer. The trouble was, he also had a temper and a sore spot where Mitsuru was concerned. "You're too close to the case-"

"And you aren't? Don't tell me you don't want Adachi's ass mounted to your wall after everything he said. That's why he said it in the first place. He does piss you off – you're just too stubborn to admit it."

He was also fairly skilled at reading people.

"This ain't about Naoto!" Kanji was quick to step in with his own personal button firmly pushed. "This is about you tryin' to play hero for Mitsuru-san, like the last time you ran off and went Minazuki-huntin'."

Akihiko flinched. His solo mission wasn't the direct cause of Mitsuru's "death", but he more than likely blamed himself for it. He was indeed putting himself on the front line to make amends. If he got hurt, Mitsuru would surely blame herself for that. Was this what being a couple was all about? Joint guilt?

Naoto had one more option, and she was loathe to use it, but… "The decision isn't up to Kanji-kun or myself. We'll have to discuss it with Yu-senpai."

"Fine." Akihiko crushed several flowers under his shoe as if they were Tsukuda. "Fine. Sit on your hands. You've been a great help with all of your nothing. So we did this by ourselves, huh? Then we'll fix it ourselves." As he stormed off, he called back over his shoulder, "Let me know if Cosmic Cuckoo decides we need to do a rain dance or some shit."

They watched him leave and Naoto found herself wishing Yosuke would have met with him instead. "That went well," she quipped.

It was indeed raining in Iwatodai when Akihiko got back. Serves him right for opening his big mouth. Mitsuru was going to kill him.

No, she wasn't. That's what was so horrible. If Mitsuru found out he'd lost his temper and yelled at the kids, trying to sneak into a Shadow nest unarmed, she'd...bury her face in her pillow and cry because she probably blamed herself for all this. It always came down to that.

I'm sorry. If it wasn't for Kirijo...

But if it wasn't for Kirijo, he wouldn't be here now, on his way to the biggest house he'd ever set foot in. If it wasn't for Kirijo, he'd be working two jobs to pay off his high school tuition – forget college! The good far outweighed the bad. He had to make Mitsuru see that somehow.

At least Kikuno seemed pleased to see him as she personally let him in. "Akihiko-san, good afternoon. Will you be staying? Would your like your protein shake?"

"You know what, Kikuno? Hold off on that for a bit." An idea had been rapidly forming in his head, and he needed to act before he realized how crazy it was. "Is she up?"

"Well...she's awake...I believe."

"Have a car standing by, okay?" This was an absolutely horrible idea, but it could work. With a great deal of suicidal overconfidence, Akihiko marched into Mitsuru's bedroom.

Mitsuru was slumped over in a window seat, watching the rain fall in a dressing gown that she must have fought the servants to let her keep because it was rattier than anything Akihiko had ever seen her wear. She didn't look up when Akihiko entered, not even caring if someone invaded her room without her permission. Years ago, he'd been threatened with execution even after knocking and announcing himself. Was it weird that he preferred the latter?

Well, if he was going to fix things, he'd better not waste any time. "Oh, good, you're up."

"Hmm?" Mitsuru suddenly noticed Akihiko wasn't a maid, but a man pulling her to her feet. "W-What!?"

"You know what I realized? We never once took you bowling. Can you believe that? I blame Shinji." It had just popped into his head. Get Mitsuru into an environment she'd never been in before, and her brain would start analyzing that – leaving no room for depression. Awaken her competitive side and she'd forget all about being "normal".

"...bowling?" Now she was looking at him like he had three heads.

"What, he never told you about the time I demolished three lanes because I overcompensated for the weight of the ball? The off-color jokes never stopped after that."

"Have you been drinking?"

They'd stopped in front of her three-bedroom closet. "No more moping. Get dressed." She balked, so Akihiko stepped out into the hall. "Hey, Kikuno?"

Kikuno looked like a kid on Christmas morning. "There's a car waiting for you outside. You're not wearing that, are you, Milady? Here."

The murderous look Mitsuru gave her had to be a good sign. "I pay you, Kikuno," she grumbled as Akihiko had to duck back out into the hall to avoid laughing in her face.

If you had asked Mitsuru how she'd planned to spend a rainy afternoon, "bowling with Akihiko" would not be her answer. Yet here she was, in a car with her aggravatingly animated friend, going who-knows-where when all she really wanted to do was sleep. But Akihiko insisted, and Akihiko had given up his afternoon as well just to coddle her once again. Guilt was the only emotion she would let herself feel.

Also, Akihiko smiling at her was churning her stomach strangely. He was so attentive that it called to mind all those nights they'd spent in the same bed, with Akihiko desperately trying to make her smile, too. At least he wasn't tickling her. Mitsuru would go along with whatever little distraction activity he had planned, but she was not in the mood for extraneous touching.

This bowling...building? Center? Club...certainly looked dubious from the outside; loud neon flashing signs promising fun entertainment. It reminded Mitsuru too much of the Harabah block of Tartarus – loud and disorienting, with enemies around every corner, waiting for her to turn her back so they could strike. She stuck to Akihiko like glue.

Akihiko read her mind somehow as he chuckled. "No Shadows here, hon. Just college students."

"It's raining," she whined instead.

"Oh, no, you'll melt!" mocked Akihiko. He dragged her into the building, unperturbed by all of the patrons staring at them. "Just try to be open-minded," he pleaded.

And Mitsuru did indeed try...until she realized that a machine was shooting shoes at her. "So...it's the same as high school?"

"Well, no student council or samurai, but yeah, there you go! See? You're fine! You can do school! C'mon, put the shoes on."

"...If you insist."

It certainly did feel like high school, where Mitsuru excelled in lessons, but failed to learn anything about the student body. Why was everything so alien to her? This was apparently something her peers engaged in often. She had one flashback after another to Yuki dragging her around town and being so patient while she stumbled over simple concepts such as eating ramen.

Everyone was so patient with her, and she simpered and sniffed like a cosseted little lap dog.

It was no wonder she had very few friends.

Mitsuru did not want a souvenir of her shame, but Akihiko continued to embarrass her as they sat down in front of a monitor displaying their faces. "What are you doing?"

"Hold still."

"No-don't take my picture, Akihiko!"

"C'mon, you look fine. Keep it up, and I'll put a stupid hat on you."

"What?" He wouldn't dare…would he?

She paused just long enough for Akihiko to hit a button, immortalizing her embarrassment for all to see. He then proceeded to festoon the photo with all manner of ridiculous graphics – including stupid hats.

"I fail to see how this relates to bowling," she said.

"It's supposed to be fun. You remember fun, right? That thing you killed every time you came back to the dorm."

"Well!" She huffed as Akihiko laughed, "I will have you know, Sanada, that I am just as capable of having...fun...as any person!" Oh, her dander was up now! He thought her incapable of fun? She would have the most fun ever attained in a bowling...place."Let's play."

She really should have seen the trap he set before she walked right into it. Akihiko was deliriously happy to see Mitsuru actively engaging him. That happiness faded, however, when she turned the tables and began to beat him soundly at a game she'd just learned how to play. It seemed he was telling the truth earlier when he said he'd had trouble reigning in his strength, because his accuracy was very poor and his aim was all over the aisle-err, lane, he said.

"Are you letting me win?" she asked after the fourth gutter ball. The people around them began laughing.

"No!" Akihiko insisted, pouting. It was rather adorable, really. "I said I'd bowled before – I never said I was any good at it!" He sat down by the screen and did a double take. "Did you change the picture?"

Akihiko's grinning face was now wearing a ghastly purple beard and the most ridiculous sunglasses she could find.

He also had a tail.

Mitsuru gave him her most innocent look. "No." The crowd laughed even harder.

Akihiko had that glint in his eye again, the one that said I've been waiting for this! "Oh, I see what this is," he said. "Game on, sweetheart." He honestly thought he'd win. "It's your turn." Little did he know, Mitsuru had been idly chatting with someone in another bowling alley about technique while he was busy missing. She was a very diligent student, after all.

Mitsuru got up, determined to shut Akihiko's mouth permanently when he suddenly called out, "You've gotten really good at handling those balls." The ball slipped out of her grasp and wobbled feebly into the gutter.

The look Mitsuru gave him could have shattered a diamond. Then a new idea hit her. "Oh, I'm sure you've had much more experience in that department," she retorted, which greatly pleased the audience. Akihiko's face was a thing of beauty. "Turn this way just a moment? There! Parfait!" A laugh escaped her. She couldn't help it. Was she legitimately having fun?

Two things happened that she was completely unprepared for. Akihiko's face was now shining like the sun, looking down at her as if she was the reason he was in orbit. He had tried very hard to make Mitsuru happy, and acknowledging he had done so was the best gift she could have given him. It made her feel...warm. Soft. Things she wasn't quite ready to feel just yet. She had to turn her head before her eyes gave too much away.

Adding the new picture to their gaming profile caused her pen pal to type, "Your boyfriend is cute! 3 How long have you been dating?" Oh, no. What if Akihiko saw that? What if he was insulted that she allowed people to jump to conclusions?

Before Akihiko could take his turn, Mitsuru leapt up and tried to keep him as far away from the computer as possible. "I cannot allow you to lose spectacularly. At least let me help you gain a few points."

"Oh, ha ha. Very funny." Akihiko consented...but he also assumed Mitsuru was taking the ball and let go a bit too soon. "AH! SHIT!" The ball slammed into his hand as he tried to catch it at the last second before it hit the ground and rolled off.

"Are you all right? Here, I-" She reached for his hand and…

What was she doing? She couldn't heal him! She could only stare at her useless hand, inches from his, the divide between them threatening to swallow them whole. How foolish of her to think she could ever reach him.

Akihiko knew his plan had failed. "It's getting late, and the crowd's starting to thin out. We should go." He was so disappointed in her! She had ruined everything once again.

Neither of them spoke on the way home, letting the rain fill in the silence. Not since Shinjiro's death had Mitsuru felt this useless to Akihiko. For months now she'd been dragging him down and monopolizing all of his time, a millstone he was too afraid to remove. She could never be what he wanted.

They were met at the door not by Kikuno, but a frantic Yukari. "Senpaiiii! You didn't answer any of my messages and I was getting worried, so I came by and Kikuno said you were…out…" She noticed Akihiko, and her eyes narrowed.

But it wasn't just Yukari. "Aw, see? She's fine." Iori was in her house as well? "She just went out with Akihiko-san!" He and the rest of their friends came out of the lounge as if they'd all been waiting for her. "Yuka-tan here's freaking out like you got kidnapped again or something!"

"I'm sorry. You've all dropped what you were doing to check on me, and I wasn't even in danger." Why did they remain? She had no authority over them anymore, no way of reprimanding them now that she was as weak as a kitten. They had no use for her anymore. No reason to obey anything she said now that she wasn't their leader. Even Amada could have overpowered her in this state.

"Well, you could have been," Yukari insisted, still angry at Mitsuru for Yuki, no doubt.

"Look, it was my fault, all right?" Akihiko, who had lost more time to Mitsuru's moping than anyone else, whose life she had now irrevocably ruined by injuring his hand, was willing to shoulder the blame for her. Again. "I couldn't just leave her here like this. That's not gonna get our Personas back."

"I'm not seeing how going on a date is helping," said Yukari.

But Mitsuru had just detected something in Akihiko's tone. "What do you know that you aren't telling me?"

"Have you looked at your phone lately? Other than Yukari freaking out, there should be a million messages from Naoto." Shirogane? Mitsuru had meant to apologize for leaving the girl to face the police on her behalf, but she feared a lecture – and probably deserved one. Finally retrieving her phone revealed that yes, she had been overrun with messages from both Yukari and Shirogane.

"Naoto-san has information about our missing Personas?" Koromaru-through-Aigis asked.

"If by 'information', you mean 'supernatural mumbo-jumbo', but yeah. Remember that mismatched girl with the mood swings? The one who's like a...Metis-part of some goddess?"

"Oh, Marie, the one that does all the yellin'," said Labrys. "She ain't human? Huh…"

"According to her, we brought this on ourselves with all the infighting." Akihiko did not look entirely convinced. "Of course, this information comes second-hand from the Blue Brigade of weirdos who are equally unhelpful."

"Those people from the Velvet Room who work for Igor-san," said Aigis. That's right; she had become a Wild Card during the time loop while SEES had been trapped in their dorm. Metis had been Aigis' emotions personified.

Yamagishi had been so quiet, one couldn't fault Mitsuru for forgetting she was there – but she now spoke up. "They did try to warn us about something," she remembered, "Our…our bonds were in danger."

"That they did." Mitsuru decided not to remind them that she'd blown off their concerns as unnecessary. "Funny you should mention Metis – we've completely forgotten everything she'd reminded us of." She was just as ashamed of her actions now as she was then. How embarrassing that she was unable to keep the group from splintering off, the way an actual leader would. She'd compromised her own ideals to back Yukari because that what she felt a friend should do. Had they won the keys, Yuki would have returned to them...but the world would be a very different place because of it. How foolish she'd been.

"Are you suggesting that if we work out our differences, our Personas might return to us?" asked Amada.

Akihiko seemed less confident now. "Well, if anyone else has a better idea, now's the time to share it." Such a simple thing couldn't possibly work, could it? Awakening to her Persona the first time was so traumatizing, the end result of long, grueling, painful trials. Would talking through their problems really help?

But Akihiko had tried. He'd taken the initiative, the way she'd wanted him to. He was always proactive where she was reactive, and though she gave him grief for it, it was leagues better than what she'd been doing. Clearly, Artemisia was not moved enough by her tears to appear again.

"Yeah, let's all date! Oh, wait, we're all busy, remember?" Yukari, do you have to do this? Her best friend's knee-jerk reaction had been the very thing that started this entire catastrophe. They all had feelings that were unaddressed, and leaving them for so long had caused them to explode at the worst possible time. Why not talk them out for once?

It was Mitsuru's turn to act. "Perhaps we could all get together later? It's been quite a while since we've had a proper party, and Amada's birthday is approaching, if I recall correctly."

"Oh, that's not necessary, Mitsuru-san," Amada began protesting.

"No, I insist. You've never been to Yakushima, have you?" Even Yukari should have been swayed at the mention of the Kirijo vacation home. They'd been so innocent then, a group of teenagers playing on the beach together and truly getting to know one another. Perhaps that was when they'd truly begun to bond as companions.

"Another free Senpai vacation?" Iori could always be counted on to get to the point. "Hell yeah! I'm in!"

Yamagishi seconded it. "I've missed spending time with you all."

"Then it's settled. I'll make the arrangements." Mitsuru was beginning to feel better than she had in weeks. Things were never so hopeless when one had friends. "Thank you, everyone, for coming over so quickly. I do appreciate it, truly." Hopefully, her smile was enough to convince everyone. It didn't feel very convincing on her end. While a great weight had been lifted off Mitsuru's shoulders, it had since been dropped right on her foot. How was she going to explain everything to Yukari and the others? She still didn't understand things herself!

As the Operatives began leaving until only robots remained, Labrys approached her. "Didja have fun, though?"

"Labrys?"

"On ya date, I mean."

Had she? Akihiko had been right; she'd forgotten about her troubles while learning to bowl. Spending time with him outside of work was different, but in a good way. Even the teasing had been enjoyable. They always egged each other on in battle, encouraging each other to perform to their true potential while carrying on their unspoken competition. It reminded her why she had begun to admire Akihiko in the first place. He was smart, he was funny, he was kind. He did all of this to help her. "I suppose that I did, yes." A thought occurred to her as a real smile made its way onto her face. "Please excuse me."

Akihiko left the mansion feeling a bit better, but still kind of uneasy. Mitsuru had taken to his idea, but the others saw it for how weak it really was. Would "sharing their feelings" like a sappy chick flick really do anything?

When his phone went off, he assumed Mitsuru was calling the whole thing off because she knew it was stupid. The message he got instead nearly caused him to drop his phone.

I realize I never thanked you for this afternoon.

Perhaps I could choose the venue next time?

He sent back What did you have in mind?

You'll see.

Well, that wasn't ominous or anything. He was in the middle of sending another reply when he realized something and dropped his phone for real.

Mitsuru had just asked for a second date.

- ppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppp -

...I think I just invented cockroachblocking.

I hope the bowling info is still right; I watched a video that was kind of old. The few times I've been bowling in America were much different.

No love for Disco Block with its irritating spiral staircases. I want to go UP, not talk to Junpei bout Kirijo building a convenience store in here again! If you clowns would just follow me in a straight line, we wouldn't have this problem! Seriously, we get into Tartarus and even the senpai are going, "Serpentine!"