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Chapter 11: Once More Unto The Breach, Dear Friends (Part 2)

When Naoto came to she had no sense of presence. She felt like she weighed nothing, even though something rough, hard and flat was pressing against her one side. She opened her eyes, but it didn't do much to alleviate her disorientation. Everything was in shades of gray and it made her feel for a moment like she was caught in one of the old detective movies her grandfather had always taken her to see; "Educational videos" he'd called them. Her head was swimming, though as she lay on what she assumed was the ground there was surprisingly little pain.

Once she moved, though, the pain made itself known. She winced as she tried to push herself up, and her head started throbbing. It wasn't like a migraine, as the pain was mostly centered around her forehead. She touched it with her finger and winced when she felt a bump. It was slick and wet, and had a depression in the middle. She looked down at her finger and saw it was smeared with a little blood.

She remembered that she'd hit her head when she was pulled into the TV. But pulled in by what? She took a moment to orient herself. She was on a street lined with houses, though there was no color to anything. Black shards were on the ground at her feet. She looked around, but there was nothing there except her. No, wait...what are those? She saw what looked like swarms of tiny insects flying around. Such a sight wouldn't be out of the ordinary for this time of year, but that was in the world she came from. This place, while quite surreal, still looked familiar. But how?

"Naoto-senpai! Naoto Shirogane! Can you hear me?"

Naoto looked up. The voice calling her seemed distant, as if kilometers away, but she couldn't pinpoint its direction. "Hello?" she shouted. Her voice did not echo off the houses. In fact, there was no other sound except for what seemed like a faint whistling of wind.

"Detective Shirogane! If you can hear me, shout out!"

"Hello? I can hear you!" She realized only afterward that it was another voice that had called out the second time, this one sounding very much like Seta's. "Seta," Naoto said. They'd gone to his house to confront him about Teddie, but then Togashi-san had some kind of fit. Afterward she'd started talking some of the crazy nonsense that Seta had been talking about. But was it really crazy, or even nonsense? Satonaka-san had her own fit and then jumped into the television set, apparently proving it was some kind of portal to another place, but then something else had happened to her.

And then they'd seen that face. The same one that had appeared to her before she passed out at Junes. It taunted them, like it had her. But why? What was it? Was that what had pulled her into the TV after she'd touched it?

Why did I touch it?

She saw movement out the corner of her eye. She whipped her gun out, and noticed that a door to one of the houses had opened. One of the houses...that almost looks like...Seta's house. But it's... backward? There was another swarm of insects exiting, and something...she could only describe it as an empty spot, like a space where nothing could exist. Light seemed to bend around it like a lens, but the center was a dull, solid gray.

And there was one more object. A pillar of dancing lights followed the other two. Naoto stepped up cautiously and noticed that the pillar was about the same height as she. The three objects started moving down the street to the left, though the pillar hesitated for a moment as Naoto neared. She stepped away, and the pillar continued.

"Where am I?" Naoto asked the silence. There was no reply. Nothing to indicate she'd even spoken in the first place. She crossed to the other side of the street and followed the objects' path of travel to the intersection. They continued in the same direction as they crossed the street, but when Naoto went to follow she found her legs wouldn't let her go that way. She looked down, and as if they were doing their own thinking her feet started taking her left. "What?" she said.

Shrine...

She scanned all around her. "Hello?"

Go to the Shrine...

She hadn't heard the words with her ears. It was almost as if she had thought them herself. As if the words had total power over her, she found she could not resist their command, and her legs continued carrying her down the street.

She kept her gun at the ready as she continued on, the landmarks hinting that she was heading for the Central Shopping District. That's where the Shrine is, she thought.

Such a brilliant deduction...

Was she taunting herself? Or was she dreaming? She couldn't tell which, but her unease grew exponentially the further she let her own feet take her. Eventually she turned left again and started uphill, past shops that she recognized well, even though they, like Seta's house, were inverted. She passed dozens of other insect swarms as she continued up the street, though there were no more of the "empty" spots or pillars of light. As she rounded a curve she could see a green light reflecting off the buildings. She knew right away, without even having to think about it, that the light was coming from the Shrine.

Yes, the Shrine. All the time you've been in Inaba, you've been seeking answers. They're right there, in the Shrine. Just a little closer, just a little closer...

"I wouldn't go in there if I were you."

Naoto stopped, the compulsion in her legs suddenly gone. She turned to see the last thing she'd ever expected so see. Herself.

Not exactly herself, of course. It was a boyish, younger version of herself, from years ago when she'd still been trying, and succeeding, to pass herself off as a boy. This other her was in a blue shirt and loose yellow tie, and covered with a lab coat whose sleeves were far too long for its arms. It was leaning against a storefront, its arms crossed over a flat chest. That reminded her of the restrictive corsets she'd worn as a teenager to hide her feminine figure, the discomfort of how tightly it squashed her bosom against her ribcage still a distasteful memory. The other's head was down, its eyes closed.

"You...you look like..." Naoto started.

The other her looked up, and Naoto gasped as she stepped back. It had glowing yellow eyes. "That's a dangerous place," the other said. "One of the few times green means 'stop'." It chuckled.

The voice was higher than that with which Naoto usually spoke, though it did still sound like her own. "Who – who are you?" she said.

"I am thou," the other said. "And thou art I." The other Naoto laughed out loud as if what she'd said were some kind of eternal joke. When it saw Naoto wasn't laughing, it sighed. "I'm the part of you that you tried to keep hidden from everyone. Your fears of being alone, of being dismissed as a simple child, as a simple girl. To shed your womanhood so you would be taken seriously as a detective, and as a person. By becoming a man in spirit, if not necessarily in body. Put simply, you and your friends referred to me as your 'Shadow'."

Naoto stared at the other her, this "Shadow Naoto". It was if the thing had reached into the depths of her very soul and pulled out her old pains, only to throw them into her face. "But...how? How do you know these things about me?"

"Not going to deny them?" her Shadow said, raising its eyebrows. "Not even a little?"

Naoto shook her head. "What you've said - that was how I felt a long time ago. I came to terms with it, and moved on."

Shadow Naoto shrugged and smiled. "Pity. We had a lot of fun with it the last time we met." She looked the older Naoto up and down, eyes lingering a bit too long at the chest and the waist. "And look at you," the Shadow said. "No longer trying to make yourself look like a little boy. With breasts like those, nobody would ever make that mistake again." Naoto, suddenly very self-conscious even under her "own" gaze, crossed her arms over her chest and turned away. "Oh, enough with the false modesty. It doesn't become you. Us. You've given up on hiding your feminine form, and what a form it's become. How much of a relief it was to start wearing clothes that actually fit my body type." Shadow Naoto placed a hand to her chest and sighed. "Now then, since I haven't frightened you into running away or drawing your weapon, it's patently obvious that you know me even if you don't remember me."

Naoto dropped her arms and faced her other self fully again. "Excuse me? Know you? Are you really a part of me, and not some kind of hallucination?"

Shadow Naoto raised her eyebrows and tipped up the brim of her cap. "What's a hallucination? A trick of the senses, making you see or hear or smell something that isn't there. If everyone hallucinates the same thing, does that mean it's real?"

Naoto shook her head. "I don't understand. You're speaking nonsense."

"We met before, and I exasperated you so much." The Shadow grinned gently as if it were a fond memory. "You denied me, but in the end accepted me and everything I stood for. Now you've got the benefit of having faced me, without the memory of me. Or much of anything related to it. Including the people who helped you face me." The Shadow sighed. "It makes me feel somewhat neglected, Detective."

Naoto stepped closer to her Shadow. She could detect no deception in the face that was her own, despite its melodramatic range of projected emotion. However, she also knew she had the skill necessary to deceive others. Could she deceive herself? "Are you a function of this world?" She looked around. "This...reverse world?"

"I'm part of you, weren't you listening?" Shadow Naoto growled. "I thought you were supposed to be a good cogitator, but you're really starting to embarrass me. I suppose you could say...this world brings out an echo of yourself when there's a part of you that you must face. I'm that echo. In this case, I'd say I'm your lost memories."

"My memories?" Naoto asked. "I haven't lost...any memories."

"Don't start denying me now," Shadow Naoto said. "It's not fun anymore. I'm your lost memories. You remember Kanji, don't you?"

Naoto looked down. "Yes, but he doesn't remember me."

"And you thought that was from his injuries?"

"Injuries have been known to..."

"Amnesia doesn't work that way, and you know it," Shadow Naoto interrupted, displaying her apparent ability to read Naoto's mind. "Something is happening in the world. Not this one, the real one, where you come from. Something extra-natural. You know it, but are afraid to admit it because it flies in the face of everything else you think you know." The Shadow approached her until they were within arm's reach of each other. "Stop lying to yourself and face the truth."

"What truth?" Naoto asked.

"That you're a pawn in somebody's game. You, and everyone else in Inaba, possibly even the entire world. Until you manage to do something about that, you'll never find your answers."

"Pawns," Naoto said. "We're all pawns in Seta's game, right? He teams up with a kidnapper, then sets forth a chain of events that, so far, have led to a police officer losing her mind and myself being trapped in this place."

Shadow Naoto shook her head. "No, no, no. Please stop, you're embarrassing me again. You're smarter than this. This isn't Souji's game. He's not some strategic genius. He wasn't seven years ago when we first met him, and he hasn't become one in the time hence."

"What?" Naoto said.

"That's right, we knew him. He was involved in the Adachi murders, which you helped solve. You remember that, I see. Well, I'm going to tell you a secret, something you knew back then but were afraid to believe, because you admired him so." She leaned toward Naoto's ear. The Shadow's breath felt cold and dry against her cheek. "Seta was just as responsible for the murders as Adachi. He was given his power by the same demons that gave Adachi the powers he used to murder his victims, the powers that brought you here, that nearly killed Officer Shirogane just a short time ago. But you looked the other way, because Seta helped you to come to terms with yourself, the sly-tongued monster that he is. Think about it – who's the better tool for a goddess bent on humanity's destruction: a homicidal maniac who kills for his own pleasure, or a likeable man who leads the world into their own willing apocalypse?"

"That...that's....not possible," Naoto said. "A goddess...demons...this is beyond unbelievable."

"Experience is what helps us to recognize a mistake the second time we make it," Shadow Naoto said, pressing herself more tightly to Naoto. "Only you've been robbed of that experience, and so you were about to make the same mistake you made last time: underestimating him. You've been watching him since you arrived in Inaba. But why did you come to Inaba in the first place? Because you knew he was going to be here, and you knew he was going to finish the work he started seven years ago." The Shadow gripped Naoto's shoulders and pulled her so their faces were almost touching. "If not for your memory loss, which has resulted in your inaction, you might have stopped him already. As it is, he's led others back into this world, like lambs to the slaughter. The Kujikawa girl, his ex-girlfriend Yukiko Amagi, hell, even his own teenaged cousin. All for his true master, the dark-faced, blond-haired one."

Naoto gasped at the mention of it. She felt cold in the hot embrace of her Shadow self. She tried to shake her head, but it became a shiver. "Th-the one in the television screen. The one I saw at Junes yesterday."

"Exactly," Shadow Naoto said. "Frailty, thy name is man!" The Shadow jerked Naoto forward and kissed her hard on the lips.

The kiss felt both electrifying and completely wrong at the same time. It was as if she were kissing her own sibling. The Shadow seemed to cling to her forever, long enough that she felt like she was beginning to choke under its intense kiss. Then suddenly the kiss was over, and she felt something tear through her entire body. She took a deep breath and collapsed to her knees, her eyes snapping open. Shadow Naoto was gone. No, not gone...it was inside her, crawling under her skin, through her ribcage, her spine, and into her skull. Thousands of images flashed through her mind, and as they did she realized these were memories she had been missing, that had been taken from her.

The Shadow World as it once was. Battling a Shadow form of Taro Namatame to rescue Nanako Dojima. Chasing Tohru Adachi across the wasteland and defeating him and the godlike being they thought was controlling him. Later, chasing through another world and fighting the true cause, the goddess Izanami.

But something felt wrong about it all. Something didn't fit. And it jabbed at her like a splinter in the tip of her finger. It had been for years, and she only now remembered it. She searched through the cacophony, trying to sort it all, when suddenly she felt a burning in her chest. She gasped, and quickly realized that the breath had done nothing for her. She took another breath, but it did nothing for her. She was choking on the very air she was breathing.

She felt her fingers and toes begin to curl uncontrollably, and every joint in her body began to flare up in pain. Shortly it was as if her entire body had been set aflame. She cried out and collapsed to her knees.

She couldn't even think anymore. The pain, the burning...all she could think of was it ending. All she could think of was dying, if just to escape the burning. And then, as if an answer to her wish, she slipped into blissful unconsciousness.

Over the rush of blood in her ears, in the instant before all went dark, she could have sworn she heard raucous laughter.

*****

As Yosuke's head emerged from the screen the first thing he noticed was that the other side was completely devoid of color. He stepped forward, but his foot caught on the bottom frame of the TV screen and he stumbled to the floor, smacking his face on it. "Gah, dammit!" he barked.

Someone took his arm and helped him to his feet. "Guess we're all here, then. You all right, kid?"

It took Yosuke a moment to get to his feet. He opened his eyes to see that the one who had helped him up was none other than Namatame. The room seemed to be tilting, though, one way and then the other. He had a hard time standing straight. This place felt strange, as if it could swallow him whole. It tried to swallow Chie, he thought. Did it to Naoto-san, and maybe Teddie too. "Where's everyone else?"

"Outside," Taro said. "Rise-san's power doesn't work indoors. I saw you stick your hand through, so I hung back."

"What 'power'? What the hell you...and get your hand off me, you perv!" Yosuke jerked away so hard he stumbled onto an old threadbare chair, knocking it over.

Taro rolled his eyes. "Just come on, please. We don't have time to screw around."

Yosuke pushed himself up off the floor. "So what the hell is all this? What's your part in this?"

"You all saved my life seven years ago," Taro said. "You saved me from making worse mistakes than the ones I already had."

"Mistakes?" Yosuke said. "Your kidnapping my friend and those other people was a mistake?"

Taro shook his head. "You'll understand soon enough, I hope. If they can save you like they saved me. Come on."

"I'm not going anywhere with you," Yosuke said.

"Then stay alone," Taro said, "but don't be surprised if the Memflies do the same thing to you they did to your girlfriend." He started down the hall. Maybe it'll finally shut you up, he thought.

Yosuke uttered another curse and followed down the stairs. When he saw the others outside, and Chie leaning on Yukiko, he rushed past Taro and out the door. He took Chie's free arm and pulled it over his shoulder. "I'm not letting you out of my sight again," he said.

"Okay," Chie said, turning in his direction but looking past him. "Dokay. S'cool."

He stared into her eyes, and he noticed that they seemed to be even paler than before. Is she getting worse?

His thought was interrupted by a flash of light and a rising sound, almost like a chorus of chimes. He turned to the source and saw the blond girl standing in front of a giant woman robed in white. At least it looked like a woman. Instead of a face it had a series of dinner plates attached to its head.

"Gah!" he exclaimed. "Son of a bitch! What the hell is that thing?"

"Her Persona," Yukiko said. "Shh, let her concentrate."

"But...but...what the hell?" Yosuke said.

"Yosuke-senpai, will you shut it, please?" Nanako said. "We'll explain everything when you're ready to hear it."

Yosuke looked down at the teenaged girl, noticing for the first time the intelligence in her eyes, the maturity in her voice. Before now he had been too busy paying attention to the can of mace in her hand. Was this girl for real? And why did she seem familiar to him all of a sudden?

"I don't...I can't..." Rise said, her voice quiet but easily audible over the near silence of the grayscale world. "It's like...she's here, but all over. Every direction, every distance I can see."

"Is her being right here disrupting your ability to sense the rest of her?" Taro said.

"No, I don't think so. What's standing there is dimmer than she should be, but I can tell between Chie's body and the part that's missing. It's like that part's everywhere. Like it's the air itself." She shuddered, and Kanzeon vanished. "You don't think...we're breathing her?"

"She's all around us," Nanako said. "I think...afraid, but she's not sure why." She looked at Chie, who was lazily, almost childishly, examining the world around them, a slight smile tugging at her slack lips. "Not the Chie we see here," Nanako continued. "The rest of her. Lost, afraid."

"Nanako-chan, how do you know this?" Yukiko said.

"Maybe it's part of her Persona's power," Souji said.

"Her...Persona?" Yukiko said. "What have I missed?"

"A lot," Taro said, "but we'll have to summarize it later." He turned to Rise. "Is there a way you two can combine your abilities, maybe get a better idea of the nature of...whatever part of her is all around us?"

"I'm willing to try," Rise said. "Nanako-chan?"

Nanako nodded. "I'm ready, Senpai. I hope."

Rise pulled her card, the card of the Lovers, from her pocket and held it over her head. The card exploded and Kanzeon appeared over her in a flash of light. "Wow," Nanako said. She felt a rush of panic as she realized she hadn't taken her own Persona card, the one it had first given her, out of her other pants. She reached into the pocket of her shorts and was pleasantly surprised to find it there, firm but flexible, with a crisp edge and warm to the touch. She pulled it out and looked at it. The inscription on the front, the scales balancing from a sword, seemed like a part of her. Something begging to be let out.

She pressed the card to her forehead and called out, "Persona!" Immediately the card burst and the winged, robed female figure of Seraph burst forth from her body. She flew up and over Kanzeon, placing her hands on Kanzeon's head.

"Whoa!" Rise said.

"Wow!" Nanako said.

"What?" Souji asked.

"It's like I've never been able to see before!" Rise said. "Like when we used to put on our glasses to see through the fog."

"She's not just all around us, like in the air," Nanako said, her eyes closed. "Tiny little pieces of her are...there's one now." She pointed her finger making a lazy arc around herself. When Souji focused on that point, he could see a miniscule, almost completely invisible spot of black.

"A Memfly?" he asked.

"Yeah," Rise said. "They were always in swarms before, but the ones with Chie-senpai's memories...they're spread all over the place."

"So how do we collect them?" Souji said.

"Hopefully like this," Taro said. He summoned Ame-No-Uzume, who shot in a rapid arc through the air, passing through people, trees, and houses as she collected tiny spots of white with her fans.

Yosuke cried out when the Persona swiped one of its fans through him. He was hit by a sudden wave of nausea, swallowing hard to keep everything down. "What the...?" He swallowed. "What the hell did you just do to me?"

"Calm down, you're fine," Taro said. The Persona vanished, and a tiny sphere of light appeared in Taro's outstretched palm. It was no larger than a small pearl from an earring.

"What's...that?" Yukiko said.

"Hopefully it's your friend," Taro said, stepping toward Chie and holding his hand out. Yosuke grabbed his wrist, but Yukiko placed a hand on Yosuke's arm. She shook her head, and after a moment Yosuke let go. Taro held his open palm before Chie's face. The tiny ball of light began to swirl, and then rivulets of white smoke streamed off it and into Chie's eyes, her nostrils and her mouth. When the sphere was gone and the vapors all absorbed, Chie took a deep breath and blinked several times.

"Chie?" Yukiko said as everyone gathered around.

Chie blinked and looked around. The color of her eyes darkened slightly. "Wha...what's happening? Where am I?" She withdrew her arms from Yosuke and Yukiko and took a shuffling step forward on her own. "What's going on here?"

Yosuke stepped in front of her. "Do you know your name?"

"My...my name?" Chie said. "Uh, it's...Sato...Sato...naka. Satonaka. Chie." She looked down and nodded. "Yeah, Chie Satonaka. I'm...pretty sure that's it."

Yosuke was on her in an instant, hugging her for all he was worth. "Thank God," he said. "You're okay now!"

Chie shook her head and tried to pull out of the embrace. After a moment he let her, and she examined his face. "Um...I guess? Sorry, but...who are you?"

Yosuke's heart sunk. "You still don't remember me?"

Chie shook her head. She looked around. "Don't know any of....wait," she said, stopping at Yukiko. "I remember...a girl with a dog. That was...you, wasn't it?"

Yukiko smiled a little. "Yes, it was. I'm Yukiko Amagi. Do you remember that?"

"It – rings a bell," Chie said. "I think...yeah, her name was Yukiko. Amagi. Famous in town for something. I think."

Souji stood by silently and watched, noting that Yukiko had introduced herself as 'Amagi', not 'Togashi'. Did that have some meaning, or was he reading too much into it?

"She's not better," Yosuke said, turning to Taro. "What did you do, then?"

"I collected the parts of her that were in the immediate area," Taro said. "All the Memflies here and there, holding all the tiny pieces of her. I was only able to pull enough together for this, though."

"Kinda convenient that it was the part with her name, and that remembered Yukiko-senpai," Nanako said.

"I've heard theories," Souji said, "that the human mind stores information holographically. If someone loses a piece, like in a lobotomy, the rest of the brain still contains the same amount of information. It's harder to retrieve because the wiring's disrupted, but it's still there."

"Wow, you're so smart," Rise said. Coming from anyone else, Souji would have taken it as sarcasm. He could see a few eyes rolling, though he tried to ignore them.

"So the part I recovered was some of the wiring?" Taro said.

"Maybe," Souji said. "It's just a wild guess, really."

"Well, a lot of what we've done over the years has been based on wild guesses," Yukiko said. She gave Souji a wry smile. "Why stop now?"

"So if you could save that little part of her, can't you just sweep across the whole town and get the rest of her?" Yosuke said.

"Maybe," Taro said, "assuming she's only spread across the town. Even if it was, it could take a very long time and I don't know if I've got the strength to do it."

"Huh, sounds like you're starting to believe, Senpai," Nanako said.

"I'm not blind," Yosuke said. "And I don't like this any better than I did before." Nanako rolled her eyes.

"What about Naoto and Teddie?" Souji said. "Can you see them?"

Rise summoned Kanzeon again, and Nanako brought forth Seraph to assist. They scanned for several moments, but then both Personas disappeared.

"Nothing," Rise said. "It's like they're not even here."

"Did they escape?" Souji said.

"Maybe," Nanako said. "But there's no trace of them anywhere."

"We can't help them if we can't find them," Yukiko said. "What about that thing on the TV? What'd you call it, Souji?"

"Loki," Souji said. "One of my Personas."

"So you think your Persona took Chie's memories?" Yukiko said. "But aren't our Personas just extensions of ourselves? You don't think you..."

"No, he didn't," Rise said. "I'd never believe Senpai'd do anything to hurt her. Any of us." Souji turned to her and she gave him a warm smile. He turned away, slightly embarrassed, though he couldn't help but smile back.

"She's right," Nanako said. "Big Bro wouldn't hurt another person, especially not one of his friends."

"Thanks," Souji said in a low voice. He looked up. "When I summoned my Persona Izanagi against Izanami, it wasn't just a Persona anymore. For that moment, at least, it had the power of a god," Souji said. "It's the only way we survived. We weren't powerful enough to fight a goddess."

"So maybe the real Izanagi merged with your Persona," Taro said. "I mean, a god could do that kind of thing if it wanted, right?"

Souji shrugged. "I guess so."

"Listen, guys," Yukiko said, "I believe Souji didn't do this. I know there's a lot going on here, but we need to concentrate on how to help Chie. Once she's better we can concentrate on finding Naoto-kun and Teddie, and then figure out the rest of this."

"Help me what?" Chie said.

"You're right, you're right," Souji said. He glanced to the northeast. Come to the Shrine. "There was something about the Shrine the last time we were here. Maybe we should go back there."

"After what happened last time?" Rise said. "I'm not so sure."

"What happened?" Nanako asked.

"Rise was attacked by Memflies there," Souji said. "For a minute, she was lost, like Chie-chan is now."

"So what are we doing?" Yukiko said.

Souji thought for a second. Shrine. No, that's not... "Hill Park. We can see the whole town from there. Maybe it'll give Rise and Nanako a better vantage point, and we can figure out how to collect the rest of Chie-chan."

"Collect me?" Chie tugged on Yukiko's sleeve. "What's he talking about? And why's he calling me 'Chie-chan'?"

Yukiko sighed. "I'll try to explain on the way," she said. "We should get going."

*****

"This all sounds too weird," Chie said as the stepped onto the foot path leading through the Samegawa Flood Plain.

"Tell me about it," Yosuke said.

"So we all fought a goddess together. And these Persona-things come out of cards?" Chie asked.

"They come out of your mind," Souji said. "The cards are symbolic."

Chie shook her head, then turned to Yosuke. "So why're you here, if you don't believe it?"

"I'm here to help you," Yosuke said. "Get your memories back."

"Not really sure I want to remember," Chie said. "This is all too weird."

As they continued down the foot path Nanako grabbed Souji's arm. "Hold up," she said.

"What's wrong?"

"Memflies," Rise said, calling Kanzeon. "They're really agitated here. I think...I think they might attack if we go much further."

"Do we turn around, find another way?" Taro asked.

"I say we fight our way through," Nanako said.

"Even if it means hurting people in the real world?" Taro said.

Nanako opened her mouth, but then closed it. It couldn't be that bad, could it? Didn't someone tell her that nobody in the real world was really hurt when the others fought the Memflies before? And what if they didn't have a choice?

"There's no guarantee any other path won't be the same," Souji said. "Everyone be on guard. We'll fight if we have to, but no more than that. Yukiko, Taro-kun, you're with me. Yosuke, Chie and Nanako, stay back with Rise-chan."

"I'm coming with you," Nanako said.

Souji sighed. "Nanako..."

"You need all the fighters you can have. I can fight. My Persona can fight."

Souji crossed his arms, and noticed that everyone else was watching him expectantly. He shook his head. "Fine, but you stay by me, understand?"

"Yes!" Nanako said, clenching her fist, her self-doubt gone. She ran to Souji's side. "Let's do this!"

Souji tried to ignore the chuckles from his teammates, or the disapproving grunt from Yosuke, and they pressed on. The further along they got, they could see the swarms running around each other both on the road above and in the riverbed below.

"Kids," Nanako said. "They're kids playing." As if the implications of their fighting the Memflies finally struck home, her confident demeanor evaporated. "Big Bro, they're not really gonna be hurt when..."

She had no time to finish that query. The Memfly swarms started toward them, joining into one solid mass. Nanako stepped out in front of the group and spread her arms, and before Souji could say anything the mass split along the middle and surrounded them, as it had done before. They began to form a dome around the group.

"Everyone be careful!" Rise said to them through Kanzeon. "I don't know what's..."

The dome solidified and Rise's voice was cut off. Taro raised his hand, shedding some light so they could see.

Yukiko pulled her fan out of her blouse and opened it. She swung at the mass, and while she managed to cut a small opening, it was closed almost as soon as she finished her strike. She glanced at the others and noticed they were all empty-handed. "Where are your weapons?"

"Weapons are no good against these things," Taro said. "You have to use elementals."

"Great, thanks for letting me know," she said, but kept her fan at the ready. "What part do we..."

"Wait for them to condense into single units," Souji said.

"I'm impatient," Nanako said. She waved her hand and a wall of light surrounded the group. Immediately waves of light ran through the Memflies, forcing them to congeal into smaller individuals, the outside light flooding in upon them again.

"...ear me? Senpai!"

"Rise-chan, we're fine," Souji said. He turned to Nanako.

"I didn't know I could do that," Nanako said. "I just kinda...did."

"Good work, Nanako-chan!" Yukiko said.

"Enough chit-chat," Taro said. "They're attacking!" He dodged a tentacle of black as it swiped across his chest. He cast Ziodyne and the mass that had attacked him dispersed.

Another lunged at Yukiko. She held up her arms to guard against the attack and yelped out when it struck her.

"Yukiko!" Souji cried. "Persona!" Izanagi-no-Okami cast Bufudyne at that swarm, but another crossed in front of him and absorbed the attack, freezing into a solid block of ice and then dispersing as the block exploded.

"I'm okay," Yukiko said. "Persona!" There was a pregnant pause where nothing seemed to happen. As she was about to say it again Amaterasu finally appeared, immediately casting Agidyne and dispersing the swarm that had attacked her.

Two more swarms stood before Nanako. She summoned Seraph, who hit them with Mahamaon. Giant cards swarmed around them and then froze in place. There was a flash of white, but after the light faded both swarms remained in place unaffected. A spear of black shot out of one of them and Nanako dropped to the ground, the spear passing through where her chest had been the instant before. "Dammit! Why didn't it work?"

"There's always a chance it can miss," Souji said, jumping in front of her and shielding her from another attack. He cast Megidolaon, and the remaining two swarms vanished into an explosion of blue light. He took a moment to catch his breath; he was so out of practice that using his Personas like this really winded him. Particularly Izanagi, whose powered-up form seemed to draw its strength directly from his soul. "I think...I think that's all of..."

"Senpai, more coming your way!"

They spun around to see a half dozen more Memfly masses flowing toward them at high speed. These looked larger than the ones they'd just fought, and if Memflies were anything like Shadows, larger usually meant more powerful. "Everyone get behind..." he started.

"Come, Yamato-Takeru!"

A bright blue light flashed though the oncoming Memflies, immediately dispersing them all. When the light faded they could see a creature floating in the air. It was clad in gray and black with a long pointed silver helmet over its head, and wielding a samurai sword in one hand. As it vanished they saw a figure in blue standing there, its arms spread, a small pistol in one of the hands. The figure dropped its arms to its waist, and then tucked the pistol away under its jacket.

"Hello everyone," Naoto said. "Did you miss me?"

Description
Chapter 11: Once More Unto The Breach, Dear Friends (Part 2)

When Naoto came to she had no sense of presence. She felt like she weighed nothing, even though something rough, hard and flat was pressing against her one side. She opened her eyes, but it didn't do much to alleviate her disorientation. Everything was in shades of gray and it made her feel for a moment like she was caught in one of the old detective movies her grandfather had always taken her to see; "Educational videos" he'd called them. Her head was swimming, though as she lay on what she assumed was the ground there was surprisingly little pain.

Once she moved, though, the pain made itself known. She winced as she tried to push herself up, and her head started throbbing. It wasn't like a migraine, as the pain was mostly centered around her forehead. She touched it with her finger and winced when she felt a bump. It was slick and wet, and had a depression in the middle. She looked down at her finger and saw it was smeared with a little blood.

She remembered that she'd hit her head when she was pulled into the TV. But pulled in by what? She took a moment to orient herself. She was on a street lined with houses, though there was no color to anything. Black shards were on the ground at her feet. She looked around, but there was nothing there except her. No, wait...what are those? She saw what looked like swarms of tiny insects flying around. Such a sight wouldn't be out of the ordinary for this time of year, but that was in the world she came from. This place, while quite surreal, still looked familiar. But how?

"Naoto-senpai! Naoto Shirogane! Can you hear me?"

Naoto looked up. The voice calling her seemed distant, as if kilometers away, but she couldn't pinpoint its direction. "Hello?" she shouted. Her voice did not echo off the houses. In fact, there was no other sound except for what seemed like a faint whistling of wind.

"Detective Shirogane! If you can hear me, shout out!"

"Hello? I can hear you!" She realized only afterward that it was another voice that had called out the second time, this one sounding very much like Seta's. "Seta," Naoto said. They'd gone to his house to confront him about Teddie, but then Togashi-san had some kind of fit. Afterward she'd started talking some of the crazy nonsense that Seta had been talking about. But was it really crazy, or even nonsense? Satonaka-san had her own fit and then jumped into the television set, apparently proving it was some kind of portal to another place, but then something else had happened to her.

And then they'd seen that face. The same one that had appeared to her before she passed out at Junes. It taunted them, like it had her. But why? What was it? Was that what had pulled her into the TV after she'd touched it?

Why did I touch it?

She saw movement out the corner of her eye. She whipped her gun out, and noticed that a door to one of the houses had opened. One of the houses...that almost looks like...Seta's house. But it's... backward? There was another swarm of insects exiting, and something...she could only describe it as an empty spot, like a space where nothing could exist. Light seemed to bend around it like a lens, but the center was a dull, solid gray.

And there was one more object. A pillar of dancing lights followed the other two. Naoto stepped up cautiously and noticed that the pillar was about the same height as she. The three objects started moving down the street to the left, though the pillar hesitated for a moment as Naoto neared. She stepped away, and the pillar continued.

"Where am I?" Naoto asked the silence. There was no reply. Nothing to indicate she'd even spoken in the first place. She crossed to the other side of the street and followed the objects' path of travel to the intersection. They continued in the same direction as they crossed the street, but when Naoto went to follow she found her legs wouldn't let her go that way. She looked down, and as if they were doing their own thinking her feet started taking her left. "What?" she said.

Shrine...

She scanned all around her. "Hello?"

Go to the Shrine...

She hadn't heard the words with her ears. It was almost as if she had thought them herself. As if the words had total power over her, she found she could not resist their command, and her legs continued carrying her down the street.

She kept her gun at the ready as she continued on, the landmarks hinting that she was heading for the Central Shopping District. That's where the Shrine is, she thought.

Such a brilliant deduction...

Was she taunting herself? Or was she dreaming? She couldn't tell which, but her unease grew exponentially the further she let her own feet take her. Eventually she turned left again and started uphill, past shops that she recognized well, even though they, like Seta's house, were inverted. She passed dozens of other insect swarms as she continued up the street, though there were no more of the "empty" spots or pillars of light. As she rounded a curve she could see a green light reflecting off the buildings. She knew right away, without even having to think about it, that the light was coming from the Shrine.

Yes, the Shrine. All the time you've been in Inaba, you've been seeking answers. They're right there, in the Shrine. Just a little closer, just a little closer...

"I wouldn't go in there if I were you."

Naoto stopped, the compulsion in her legs suddenly gone. She turned to see the last thing she'd ever expected so see. Herself.

Not exactly herself, of course. It was a boyish, younger version of herself, from years ago when she'd still been trying, and succeeding, to pass herself off as a boy. This other her was in a blue shirt and loose yellow tie, and covered with a lab coat whose sleeves were far too long for its arms. It was leaning against a storefront, its arms crossed over a flat chest. That reminded her of the restrictive corsets she'd worn as a teenager to hide her feminine figure, the discomfort of how tightly it squashed her bosom against her ribcage still a distasteful memory. The other's head was down, its eyes closed.

"You...you look like..." Naoto started.

The other her looked up, and Naoto gasped as she stepped back. It had glowing yellow eyes. "That's a dangerous place," the other said. "One of the few times green means 'stop'." It chuckled.

The voice was higher than that with which Naoto usually spoke, though it did still sound like her own. "Who – who are you?" she said.

"I am thou," the other said. "And thou art I." The other Naoto laughed out loud as if what she'd said were some kind of eternal joke. When it saw Naoto wasn't laughing, it sighed. "I'm the part of you that you tried to keep hidden from everyone. Your fears of being alone, of being dismissed as a simple child, as a simple girl. To shed your womanhood so you would be taken seriously as a detective, and as a person. By becoming a man in spirit, if not necessarily in body. Put simply, you and your friends referred to me as your 'Shadow'."

Naoto stared at the other her, this "Shadow Naoto". It was if the thing had reached into the depths of her very soul and pulled out her old pains, only to throw them into her face. "But...how? How do you know these things about me?"

"Not going to deny them?" her Shadow said, raising its eyebrows. "Not even a little?"

Naoto shook her head. "What you've said - that was how I felt a long time ago. I came to terms with it, and moved on."

Shadow Naoto shrugged and smiled. "Pity. We had a lot of fun with it the last time we met." She looked the older Naoto up and down, eyes lingering a bit too long at the chest and the waist. "And look at you," the Shadow said. "No longer trying to make yourself look like a little boy. With breasts like those, nobody would ever make that mistake again." Naoto, suddenly very self-conscious even under her "own" gaze, crossed her arms over her chest and turned away. "Oh, enough with the false modesty. It doesn't become you. Us. You've given up on hiding your feminine form, and what a form it's become. How much of a relief it was to start wearing clothes that actually fit my body type." Shadow Naoto placed a hand to her chest and sighed. "Now then, since I haven't frightened you into running away or drawing your weapon, it's patently obvious that you know me even if you don't remember me."

Naoto dropped her arms and faced her other self fully again. "Excuse me? Know you? Are you really a part of me, and not some kind of hallucination?"

Shadow Naoto raised her eyebrows and tipped up the brim of her cap. "What's a hallucination? A trick of the senses, making you see or hear or smell something that isn't there. If everyone hallucinates the same thing, does that mean it's real?"

Naoto shook her head. "I don't understand. You're speaking nonsense."

"We met before, and I exasperated you so much." The Shadow grinned gently as if it were a fond memory. "You denied me, but in the end accepted me and everything I stood for. Now you've got the benefit of having faced me, without the memory of me. Or much of anything related to it. Including the people who helped you face me." The Shadow sighed. "It makes me feel somewhat neglected, Detective."

Naoto stepped closer to her Shadow. She could detect no deception in the face that was her own, despite its melodramatic range of projected emotion. However, she also knew she had the skill necessary to deceive others. Could she deceive herself? "Are you a function of this world?" She looked around. "This...reverse world?"

"I'm part of you, weren't you listening?" Shadow Naoto growled. "I thought you were supposed to be a good cogitator, but you're really starting to embarrass me. I suppose you could say...this world brings out an echo of yourself when there's a part of you that you must face. I'm that echo. In this case, I'd say I'm your lost memories."

"My memories?" Naoto asked. "I haven't lost...any memories."

"Don't start denying me now," Shadow Naoto said. "It's not fun anymore. I'm your lost memories. You remember Kanji, don't you?"

Naoto looked down. "Yes, but he doesn't remember me."

"And you thought that was from his injuries?"

"Injuries have been known to..."

"Amnesia doesn't work that way, and you know it," Shadow Naoto interrupted, displaying her apparent ability to read Naoto's mind. "Something is happening in the world. Not this one, the real one, where you come from. Something extra-natural. You know it, but are afraid to admit it because it flies in the face of everything else you think you know." The Shadow approached her until they were within arm's reach of each other. "Stop lying to yourself and face the truth."

"What truth?" Naoto asked.

"That you're a pawn in somebody's game. You, and everyone else in Inaba, possibly even the entire world. Until you manage to do something about that, you'll never find your answers."

"Pawns," Naoto said. "We're all pawns in Seta's game, right? He teams up with a kidnapper, then sets forth a chain of events that, so far, have led to a police officer losing her mind and myself being trapped in this place."

Shadow Naoto shook her head. "No, no, no. Please stop, you're embarrassing me again. You're smarter than this. This isn't Souji's game. He's not some strategic genius. He wasn't seven years ago when we first met him, and he hasn't become one in the time hence."

"What?" Naoto said.

"That's right, we knew him. He was involved in the Adachi murders, which you helped solve. You remember that, I see. Well, I'm going to tell you a secret, something you knew back then but were afraid to believe, because you admired him so." She leaned toward Naoto's ear. The Shadow's breath felt cold and dry against her cheek. "Seta was just as responsible for the murders as Adachi. He was given his power by the same demons that gave Adachi the powers he used to murder his victims, the powers that brought you here, that nearly killed Officer Shirogane just a short time ago. But you looked the other way, because Seta helped you to come to terms with yourself, the sly-tongued monster that he is. Think about it – who's the better tool for a goddess bent on humanity's destruction: a homicidal maniac who kills for his own pleasure, or a likeable man who leads the world into their own willing apocalypse?"

"That...that's....not possible," Naoto said. "A goddess...demons...this is beyond unbelievable."

"Experience is what helps us to recognize a mistake the second time we make it," Shadow Naoto said, pressing herself more tightly to Naoto. "Only you've been robbed of that experience, and so you were about to make the same mistake you made last time: underestimating him. You've been watching him since you arrived in Inaba. But why did you come to Inaba in the first place? Because you knew he was going to be here, and you knew he was going to finish the work he started seven years ago." The Shadow gripped Naoto's shoulders and pulled her so their faces were almost touching. "If not for your memory loss, which has resulted in your inaction, you might have stopped him already. As it is, he's led others back into this world, like lambs to the slaughter. The Kujikawa girl, his ex-girlfriend Yukiko Amagi, hell, even his own teenaged cousin. All for his true master, the dark-faced, blond-haired one."

Naoto gasped at the mention of it. She felt cold in the hot embrace of her Shadow self. She tried to shake her head, but it became a shiver. "Th-the one in the television screen. The one I saw at Junes yesterday."

"Exactly," Shadow Naoto said. "Frailty, thy name is man!" The Shadow jerked Naoto forward and kissed her hard on the lips.

The kiss felt both electrifying and completely wrong at the same time. It was as if she were kissing her own sibling. The Shadow seemed to cling to her forever, long enough that she felt like she was beginning to choke under its intense kiss. Then suddenly the kiss was over, and she felt something tear through her entire body. She took a deep breath and collapsed to her knees, her eyes snapping open. Shadow Naoto was gone. No, not gone...it was inside her, crawling under her skin, through her ribcage, her spine, and into her skull. Thousands of images flashed through her mind, and as they did she realized these were memories she had been missing, that had been taken from her.

The Shadow World as it once was. Battling a Shadow form of Taro Namatame to rescue Nanako Dojima. Chasing Tohru Adachi across the wasteland and defeating him and the godlike being they thought was controlling him. Later, chasing through another world and fighting the true cause, the goddess Izanami.

But something felt wrong about it all. Something didn't fit. And it jabbed at her like a splinter in the tip of her finger. It had been for years, and she only now remembered it. She searched through the cacophony, trying to sort it all, when suddenly she felt a burning in her chest. She gasped, and quickly realized that the breath had done nothing for her. She took another breath, but it did nothing for her. She was choking on the very air she was breathing.

She felt her fingers and toes begin to curl uncontrollably, and every joint in her body began to flare up in pain. Shortly it was as if her entire body had been set aflame. She cried out and collapsed to her knees.

She couldn't even think anymore. The pain, the burning...all she could think of was it ending. All she could think of was dying, if just to escape the burning. And then, as if an answer to her wish, she slipped into blissful unconsciousness.

Over the rush of blood in her ears, in the instant before all went dark, she could have sworn she heard raucous laughter.

*****

As Yosuke's head emerged from the screen the first thing he noticed was that the other side was completely devoid of color. He stepped forward, but his foot caught on the bottom frame of the TV screen and he stumbled to the floor, smacking his face on it. "Gah, dammit!" he barked.

Someone took his arm and helped him to his feet. "Guess we're all here, then. You all right, kid?"

It took Yosuke a moment to get to his feet. He opened his eyes to see that the one who had helped him up was none other than Namatame. The room seemed to be tilting, though, one way and then the other. He had a hard time standing straight. This place felt strange, as if it could swallow him whole. It tried to swallow Chie, he thought. Did it to Naoto-san, and maybe Teddie too. "Where's everyone else?"

"Outside," Taro said. "Rise-san's power doesn't work indoors. I saw you stick your hand through, so I hung back."

"What 'power'? What the hell you...and get your hand off me, you perv!" Yosuke jerked away so hard he stumbled onto an old threadbare chair, knocking it over.

Taro rolled his eyes. "Just come on, please. We don't have time to screw around."

Yosuke pushed himself up off the floor. "So what the hell is all this? What's your part in this?"

"You all saved my life seven years ago," Taro said. "You saved me from making worse mistakes than the ones I already had."

"Mistakes?" Yosuke said. "Your kidnapping my friend and those other people was a mistake?"

Taro shook his head. "You'll understand soon enough, I hope. If they can save you like they saved me. Come on."

"I'm not going anywhere with you," Yosuke said.

"Then stay alone," Taro said, "but don't be surprised if the Memflies do the same thing to you they did to your girlfriend." He started down the hall. Maybe it'll finally shut you up, he thought.

Yosuke uttered another curse and followed down the stairs. When he saw the others outside, and Chie leaning on Yukiko, he rushed past Taro and out the door. He took Chie's free arm and pulled it over his shoulder. "I'm not letting you out of my sight again," he said.

"Okay," Chie said, turning in his direction but looking past him. "Dokay. S'cool."

He stared into her eyes, and he noticed that they seemed to be even paler than before. Is she getting worse?

His thought was interrupted by a flash of light and a rising sound, almost like a chorus of chimes. He turned to the source and saw the blond girl standing in front of a giant woman robed in white. At least it looked like a woman. Instead of a face it had a series of dinner plates attached to its head.

"Gah!" he exclaimed. "Son of a bitch! What the hell is that thing?"

"Her Persona," Yukiko said. "Shh, let her concentrate."

"But...but...what the hell?" Yosuke said.

"Yosuke-senpai, will you shut it, please?" Nanako said. "We'll explain everything when you're ready to hear it."

Yosuke looked down at the teenaged girl, noticing for the first time the intelligence in her eyes, the maturity in her voice. Before now he had been too busy paying attention to the can of mace in her hand. Was this girl for real? And why did she seem familiar to him all of a sudden?

"I don't...I can't..." Rise said, her voice quiet but easily audible over the near silence of the grayscale world. "It's like...she's here, but all over. Every direction, every distance I can see."

"Is her being right here disrupting your ability to sense the rest of her?" Taro said.

"No, I don't think so. What's standing there is dimmer than she should be, but I can tell between Chie's body and the part that's missing. It's like that part's everywhere. Like it's the air itself." She shuddered, and Kanzeon vanished. "You don't think...we're breathing her?"

"She's all around us," Nanako said. "I think...afraid, but she's not sure why." She looked at Chie, who was lazily, almost childishly, examining the world around them, a slight smile tugging at her slack lips. "Not the Chie we see here," Nanako continued. "The rest of her. Lost, afraid."

"Nanako-chan, how do you know this?" Yukiko said.

"Maybe it's part of her Persona's power," Souji said.

"Her...Persona?" Yukiko said. "What have I missed?"

"A lot," Taro said, "but we'll have to summarize it later." He turned to Rise. "Is there a way you two can combine your abilities, maybe get a better idea of the nature of...whatever part of her is all around us?"

"I'm willing to try," Rise said. "Nanako-chan?"

Nanako nodded. "I'm ready, Senpai. I hope."

Rise pulled her card, the card of the Lovers, from her pocket and held it over her head. The card exploded and Kanzeon appeared over her in a flash of light. "Wow," Nanako said. She felt a rush of panic as she realized she hadn't taken her own Persona card, the one it had first given her, out of her other pants. She reached into the pocket of her shorts and was pleasantly surprised to find it there, firm but flexible, with a crisp edge and warm to the touch. She pulled it out and looked at it. The inscription on the front, the scales balancing from a sword, seemed like a part of her. Something begging to be let out.

She pressed the card to her forehead and called out, "Persona!" Immediately the card burst and the winged, robed female figure of Seraph burst forth from her body. She flew up and over Kanzeon, placing her hands on Kanzeon's head.

"Whoa!" Rise said.

"Wow!" Nanako said.

"What?" Souji asked.

"It's like I've never been able to see before!" Rise said. "Like when we used to put on our glasses to see through the fog."

"She's not just all around us, like in the air," Nanako said, her eyes closed. "Tiny little pieces of her are...there's one now." She pointed her finger making a lazy arc around herself. When Souji focused on that point, he could see a miniscule, almost completely invisible spot of black.

"A Memfly?" he asked.

"Yeah," Rise said. "They were always in swarms before, but the ones with Chie-senpai's memories...they're spread all over the place."

"So how do we collect them?" Souji said.

"Hopefully like this," Taro said. He summoned Ame-No-Uzume, who shot in a rapid arc through the air, passing through people, trees, and houses as she collected tiny spots of white with her fans.

Yosuke cried out when the Persona swiped one of its fans through him. He was hit by a sudden wave of nausea, swallowing hard to keep everything down. "What the...?" He swallowed. "What the hell did you just do to me?"

"Calm down, you're fine," Taro said. The Persona vanished, and a tiny sphere of light appeared in Taro's outstretched palm. It was no larger than a small pearl from an earring.

"What's...that?" Yukiko said.

"Hopefully it's your friend," Taro said, stepping toward Chie and holding his hand out. Yosuke grabbed his wrist, but Yukiko placed a hand on Yosuke's arm. She shook her head, and after a moment Yosuke let go. Taro held his open palm before Chie's face. The tiny ball of light began to swirl, and then rivulets of white smoke streamed off it and into Chie's eyes, her nostrils and her mouth. When the sphere was gone and the vapors all absorbed, Chie took a deep breath and blinked several times.

"Chie?" Yukiko said as everyone gathered around.

Chie blinked and looked around. The color of her eyes darkened slightly. "Wha...what's happening? Where am I?" She withdrew her arms from Yosuke and Yukiko and took a shuffling step forward on her own. "What's going on here?"

Yosuke stepped in front of her. "Do you know your name?"

"My...my name?" Chie said. "Uh, it's...Sato...Sato...naka. Satonaka. Chie." She looked down and nodded. "Yeah, Chie Satonaka. I'm...pretty sure that's it."

Yosuke was on her in an instant, hugging her for all he was worth. "Thank God," he said. "You're okay now!"

Chie shook her head and tried to pull out of the embrace. After a moment he let her, and she examined his face. "Um...I guess? Sorry, but...who are you?"

Yosuke's heart sunk. "You still don't remember me?"

Chie shook her head. She looked around. "Don't know any of....wait," she said, stopping at Yukiko. "I remember...a girl with a dog. That was...you, wasn't it?"

Yukiko smiled a little. "Yes, it was. I'm Yukiko Amagi. Do you remember that?"

"It – rings a bell," Chie said. "I think...yeah, her name was Yukiko. Amagi. Famous in town for something. I think."

Souji stood by silently and watched, noting that Yukiko had introduced herself as 'Amagi', not 'Togashi'. Did that have some meaning, or was he reading too much into it?

"She's not better," Yosuke said, turning to Taro. "What did you do, then?"

"I collected the parts of her that were in the immediate area," Taro said. "All the Memflies here and there, holding all the tiny pieces of her. I was only able to pull enough together for this, though."

"Kinda convenient that it was the part with her name, and that remembered Yukiko-senpai," Nanako said.

"I've heard theories," Souji said, "that the human mind stores information holographically. If someone loses a piece, like in a lobotomy, the rest of the brain still contains the same amount of information. It's harder to retrieve because the wiring's disrupted, but it's still there."

"Wow, you're so smart," Rise said. Coming from anyone else, Souji would have taken it as sarcasm. He could see a few eyes rolling, though he tried to ignore them.

"So the part I recovered was some of the wiring?" Taro said.

"Maybe," Souji said. "It's just a wild guess, really."

"Well, a lot of what we've done over the years has been based on wild guesses," Yukiko said. She gave Souji a wry smile. "Why stop now?"

"So if you could save that little part of her, can't you just sweep across the whole town and get the rest of her?" Yosuke said.

"Maybe," Taro said, "assuming she's only spread across the town. Even if it was, it could take a very long time and I don't know if I've got the strength to do it."

"Huh, sounds like you're starting to believe, Senpai," Nanako said.

"I'm not blind," Yosuke said. "And I don't like this any better than I did before." Nanako rolled her eyes.

"What about Naoto and Teddie?" Souji said. "Can you see them?"

Rise summoned Kanzeon again, and Nanako brought forth Seraph to assist. They scanned for several moments, but then both Personas disappeared.

"Nothing," Rise said. "It's like they're not even here."

"Did they escape?" Souji said.

"Maybe," Nanako said. "But there's no trace of them anywhere."

"We can't help them if we can't find them," Yukiko said. "What about that thing on the TV? What'd you call it, Souji?"

"Loki," Souji said. "One of my Personas."

"So you think your Persona took Chie's memories?" Yukiko said. "But aren't our Personas just extensions of ourselves? You don't think you..."

"No, he didn't," Rise said. "I'd never believe Senpai'd do anything to hurt her. Any of us." Souji turned to her and she gave him a warm smile. He turned away, slightly embarrassed, though he couldn't help but smile back.

"She's right," Nanako said. "Big Bro wouldn't hurt another person, especially not one of his friends."

"Thanks," Souji said in a low voice. He looked up. "When I summoned my Persona Izanagi against Izanami, it wasn't just a Persona anymore. For that moment, at least, it had the power of a god," Souji said. "It's the only way we survived. We weren't powerful enough to fight a goddess."

"So maybe the real Izanagi merged with your Persona," Taro said. "I mean, a god could do that kind of thing if it wanted, right?"

Souji shrugged. "I guess so."

"Listen, guys," Yukiko said, "I believe Souji didn't do this. I know there's a lot going on here, but we need to concentrate on how to help Chie. Once she's better we can concentrate on finding Naoto-kun and Teddie, and then figure out the rest of this."

"Help me what?" Chie said.

"You're right, you're right," Souji said. He glanced to the northeast. Come to the Shrine. "There was something about the Shrine the last time we were here. Maybe we should go back there."

"After what happened last time?" Rise said. "I'm not so sure."

"What happened?" Nanako asked.

"Rise was attacked by Memflies there," Souji said. "For a minute, she was lost, like Chie-chan is now."

"So what are we doing?" Yukiko said.

Souji thought for a second. Shrine. No, that's not... "Hill Park. We can see the whole town from there. Maybe it'll give Rise and Nanako a better vantage point, and we can figure out how to collect the rest of Chie-chan."

"Collect me?" Chie tugged on Yukiko's sleeve. "What's he talking about? And why's he calling me 'Chie-chan'?"

Yukiko sighed. "I'll try to explain on the way," she said. "We should get going."

*****

"This all sounds too weird," Chie said as the stepped onto the foot path leading through the Samegawa Flood Plain.

"Tell me about it," Yosuke said.

"So we all fought a goddess together. And these Persona-things come out of cards?" Chie asked.

"They come out of your mind," Souji said. "The cards are symbolic."

Chie shook her head, then turned to Yosuke. "So why're you here, if you don't believe it?"

"I'm here to help you," Yosuke said. "Get your memories back."

"Not really sure I want to remember," Chie said. "This is all too weird."

As they continued down the foot path Nanako grabbed Souji's arm. "Hold up," she said.

"What's wrong?"

"Memflies," Rise said, calling Kanzeon. "They're really agitated here. I think...I think they might attack if we go much further."

"Do we turn around, find another way?" Taro asked.

"I say we fight our way through," Nanako said.

"Even if it means hurting people in the real world?" Taro said.

Nanako opened her mouth, but then closed it. It couldn't be that bad, could it? Didn't someone tell her that nobody in the real world was really hurt when the others fought the Memflies before? And what if they didn't have a choice?

"There's no guarantee any other path won't be the same," Souji said. "Everyone be on guard. We'll fight if we have to, but no more than that. Yukiko, Taro-kun, you're with me. Yosuke, Chie and Nanako, stay back with Rise-chan."

"I'm coming with you," Nanako said.

Souji sighed. "Nanako..."

"You need all the fighters you can have. I can fight. My Persona can fight."

Souji crossed his arms, and noticed that everyone else was watching him expectantly. He shook his head. "Fine, but you stay by me, understand?"

"Yes!" Nanako said, clenching her fist, her self-doubt gone. She ran to Souji's side. "Let's do this!"

Souji tried to ignore the chuckles from his teammates, or the disapproving grunt from Yosuke, and they pressed on. The further along they got, they could see the swarms running around each other both on the road above and in the riverbed below.

"Kids," Nanako said. "They're kids playing." As if the implications of their fighting the Memflies finally struck home, her confident demeanor evaporated. "Big Bro, they're not really gonna be hurt when..."

She had no time to finish that query. The Memfly swarms started toward them, joining into one solid mass. Nanako stepped out in front of the group and spread her arms, and before Souji could say anything the mass split along the middle and surrounded them, as it had done before. They began to form a dome around the group.

"Everyone be careful!" Rise said to them through Kanzeon. "I don't know what's..."

The dome solidified and Rise's voice was cut off. Taro raised his hand, shedding some light so they could see.

Yukiko pulled her fan out of her blouse and opened it. She swung at the mass, and while she managed to cut a small opening, it was closed almost as soon as she finished her strike. She glanced at the others and noticed they were all empty-handed. "Where are your weapons?"

"Weapons are no good against these things," Taro said. "You have to use elementals."

"Great, thanks for letting me know," she said, but kept her fan at the ready. "What part do we..."

"Wait for them to condense into single units," Souji said.

"I'm impatient," Nanako said. She waved her hand and a wall of light surrounded the group. Immediately waves of light ran through the Memflies, forcing them to congeal into smaller individuals, the outside light flooding in upon them again.

"...ear me? Senpai!"

"Rise-chan, we're fine," Souji said. He turned to Nanako.

"I didn't know I could do that," Nanako said. "I just kinda...did."

"Good work, Nanako-chan!" Yukiko said.

"Enough chit-chat," Taro said. "They're attacking!" He dodged a tentacle of black as it swiped across his chest. He cast Ziodyne and the mass that had attacked him dispersed.

Another lunged at Yukiko. She held up her arms to guard against the attack and yelped out when it struck her.

"Yukiko!" Souji cried. "Persona!" Izanagi-no-Okami cast Bufudyne at that swarm, but another crossed in front of him and absorbed the attack, freezing into a solid block of ice and then dispersing as the block exploded.

"I'm okay," Yukiko said. "Persona!" There was a pregnant pause where nothing seemed to happen. As she was about to say it again Amaterasu finally appeared, immediately casting Agidyne and dispersing the swarm that had attacked her.

Two more swarms stood before Nanako. She summoned Seraph, who hit them with Mahamaon. Giant cards swarmed around them and then froze in place. There was a flash of white, but after the light faded both swarms remained in place unaffected. A spear of black shot out of one of them and Nanako dropped to the ground, the spear passing through where her chest had been the instant before. "Dammit! Why didn't it work?"

"There's always a chance it can miss," Souji said, jumping in front of her and shielding her from another attack. He cast Megidolaon, and the remaining two swarms vanished into an explosion of blue light. He took a moment to catch his breath; he was so out of practice that using his Personas like this really winded him. Particularly Izanagi, whose powered-up form seemed to draw its strength directly from his soul. "I think...I think that's all of..."

"Senpai, more coming your way!"

They spun around to see a half dozen more Memfly masses flowing toward them at high speed. These looked larger than the ones they'd just fought, and if Memflies were anything like Shadows, larger usually meant more powerful. "Everyone get behind..." he started.

"Come, Yamato-Takeru!"

A bright blue light flashed though the oncoming Memflies, immediately dispersing them all. When the light faded they could see a creature floating in the air. It was clad in gray and black with a long pointed silver helmet over its head, and wielding a samurai sword in one hand. As it vanished they saw a figure in blue standing there, its arms spread, a small pistol in one of the hands. The figure dropped its arms to its waist, and then tucked the pistol away under its jacket.

"Hello everyone," Naoto said. "Did you miss me?"