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Chapter 6: The Watchers and the Doers (Part 1)

Now I face out, I hold out,
I reach out to the truth of my life
Seeking to seize on the whole moment, yeah...

Driving guitar music and chanting vocals filled Souji's head. He examined the enemies that had surrounded him, providing the only color in the drab gray environment.

"Careful, Souji-senpai," Astrid said, her voice directly in his ear thanks to her Persona's abilities. "There are four enemies! They look tough."

He wasn't sure he agreed with her assessment; while he knew these were skilled fighters, he'd seen worse. Still, he had been through far too much, had won far too many battles, to let these punks stop him here. He was eager to move on, and was ready to plow through them. The music made his adrenaline pump hard in his arteries.

Yeah, naked truth lies only if you realize,
Appearing in nobody's eyes till they sterilize.
Stop the guerrilla warfare to keep fair.
Bro change your rage to a smarter, greater cause...

"Here I go!" shouted the one on the far left. It was Naoto. She pointed her gun at Souji and fired. Izanagi absorbed the actual blow from the bullet, but he still felt some of the pain. It was more like a sting than actual pain, though. Naoto cried out in frustration. "Someone finish this one off!"

"I've got it!" shouted Chie, second from the right. She ran up to him. "Take this!" She swung her leg at him in a crescent kick. Souji deftly dodged the blow and smacked the back of her leg hard with the butt of his sword, spinning her off-balance and onto the ground.

Astrid squealed in his ear. "Ooh, Senpai, that was soooo cool!"

He smirked. It wasn't the first time Astrid had overestimated his opponents. Chie's failed attack had given him the opening he needed. He turned to Yosuke, who stood second from the left. He pulled the Tarot card from his pocket and crushed it, shouting, "Izanagi!" Izanagi came forth from the card's remains and cast Ziodyne, striking Yosuke with its full force. Yosuke cried out in pain and collapsed to his knees, and when Izanagi cast a second Ziodyne, without Souji commanding it, Yosuke crumpled to the floor. Souji saw him twitch a few times as the remnants of the electrical spell danced across his body, but then he finally went still.

"Yosuke-senpai, noooo!" Screamed the voice in his ear. This time it sounded a bit more like Rise than Astrid, but whoever it was, her cry stopped the music in his head.

"I am thou," Souji heard behind him. He turned just in time to see Yukiko pointing her fan at him, and her Persona Amaterasu firing off some kind of spell. He guarded with his sword but felt something heavy wash over him. When it had passed he tried to move but every one of his limbs was sluggish. He felt tired all of a sudden, and had trouble keeping his eyes open.

"Now, get it while it's weakened!" cried out the voice that, now, was definitely Rise's.

"You're not helping!" Souji said, struggling to force his lips and tongue to form the words.

Yukiko threw her fan at him. He managed to will his limbs into motion, though, enough to block with his sword and deflect the fan toward Chie, who had just managed to get back to her feet. It struck her directly in the chest, and she screamed briefly before falling limply to the floor. The music returned and he felt his strength come back a little with each word chanted over the electric guitar.

You know the stake is high, stardom is near.
Those who sympathized you die killers pass by
Do not waste your time in hating flirting guys.
Use your might to AIs do justice to them all...

"Chie-senpai, noooo!" Rise screamed.

"Will you stop that?" Souji shouted. He pointed his sword at Naoto and pulled the trigger he'd forgotten was on the hilt. The end exploded in flower petals and Naoto flew backward, struck a wall, and slid to the ground.

"I'm...sorry, everyone," Naoto said, and then she stopped moving.

"Nooo, you son of a bitch!" Souji spun around to see Kanji charging after him, dragging a dining room table behind him. As Kanji brought it up to strike, Souji, his prior sluggishness completely forgotten, ducked and slid past his attacker, bringing his sword up and across Kanji's chest.

Kanji stopped dead in his tracks. He dropped the table, which clanged loudly against the stone floor. He then fell forward himself, and when he struck the ground he shattered into chunks of ice.

Souji glanced at his sword, which was dripping with water. He then turned to Yukiko, who was now flanked on either side by Ai Ebihara and Teddie.

"Persona!" Ai shouted as she summoned her Persona, Izanami. He looked up at Izanami for a second, and then back to Ai, except she now looked more like Saki Konishi.

"Bear-sona!" Teddie shouted, but with Ryotaro Dojima's voice. A woman rose from his body, and Souji recognized her from her photographs as Nanako's mother.

"Come, Susano-O!" Yukiko shouted, somehow bringing forth Yosuke's Persona from herself.

All three Personas charged him. His lethargy completely gone, he started swinging his sword in wide arcs before him, faster and faster, creating a shield out of his razor sharp swipes. He leaped toward the Personas, and as they met his blade they were shredded like so much rice paper.

Saki, who had turned back into Ai, and Teddie both turned gray and crumbled into piles of dust. Yukiko collapsed to a sitting position. Souji noticed for the first time that she was in a police uniform, except wearing a bright pink bonnet. "I can't go on..." she said.

Souji waved a hand at her and she vanished. He then surveyed the battlefield, examined the bodies, including that of Yumi Ozawa, which had appeared out of nowhere, and Teddie, who was now clenching a revolver in his mitten. Yosuke was flat on his face, and Chie on her back. Naoto sat against the wall with her head resting on her chest.

He could hear nothing above the music, and saw no motion. He realized at that moment that they were all dead. Not unconscious, but dead. And he'd killed them. He dropped his sword and looked down at his hands. They were pockmarked, the skin missing in places, and were soaked with blood. No, the blood was pouring from them, gushing onto the floor and creating a growing puddle at his feet.

The singing in his head had become almost desperate now...

Oh God let met out! Can you let me out?
Can you set me free from this dark inner world?
Save me now, last beat in the soul...

"S-senpai..." came Rise's voice, drowning out the music once again. "You - you killed dead-dead them." She was sobbing. "You killed them dead!"

"They were trying to kill me," Souji said. His voice felt tiny and choked. "They were...trying to kill me..." For the first time, what he had done truly struck home. He had killed his friends. But they were trying to kill him.

"Of course they were!" Rise screamed. "You're evil!"

*****

June 12, 2018

Souji's eyes snapped open and he took a deep breath. Oh God what did I do? It took a few seconds for the room to come into focus. Once he could see he started to realize that this was not the Shadow World. Then – maybe I didn't kill them, he thought. He sat up, and the movement immediately chilled him to the bone. He realized he was completely soaked.

I'm sweating, he thought, shivering. Was I really fighting? It took a moment for his senses to return, and for him to realize it had just been a dream. A terrible, horrible dream, but just a dream. It left him with a feeling of detachment and pervasive unease. His heart was still thumping against his ribs, and while he was still tired he was in no condition to sleep.

It took him a few more seconds to realize that he wasn't in his dorm room either. This was his room at his uncle's house in Inaba. The events of the past few days flashed back into his consciousness.

The light in his windows was dim. It was early morning again. What time had he gone to bed? He picked up his watch from the floor. 05:32. He didn't feel very well-rested, so must have been pretty late. Then again, it could have just been the nightmare.

He heard a rustling in the hallway. Before he knew what he was doing he stood and headed for the door. He placed his hand on the knob and started to turn, but then stopped. If it was Nanako on the other side, did he really want to deal with her? While his first couple times meeting her had been shocking, he wasn't really frightened of her anymore. He didn't much want to cross paths with her in her current condition, but while he was a guest in this house he didn't see why he had to walk on eggshells. He opened the door.

On the other side was Ryotaro, closing his bedroom door with one hand as he tried to fix his tie with the other. He turned to Souji. "Sorry," he whispered. "Didn't mean to wake you up."

Souji shook his head. "Already awake."

"You okay?" Ryotaro asked. "You're soaked."

"Yeah, bad dream," Souji said.

Ryotaro nodded. "Had my fair share of those. Since you're up, c'mon downstairs for a sec." They headed down the stairs together. Souji felt a little self-conscious to be traipsing around in his uncle's house in just his pajama pants and T-shirt, both soaked with his own sweat, but he did as he was told. Once they were in the kitchen Ryotaro said, "Look, I know you were going to make breakfast for us, but I just got called in to work. Maybe we'll do it another day."

"Okay," Souji said. He wasn't sure why this couldn't have been said upstairs.

Ryotaro spent a minute gathering up his badge, holster, and his gun while Souji watched, waiting for something more to be said. As Ryotaro was undoing the gun lock he finally said, "About what I said last night, about Nanako. I know I said to avoid her, but you don't really have to. I mean, don't go out of your way to not be around when she is. She'll come around, she's just really kind of closed off. You know what I mean?"

"I think so," Souji said. Actually, it sounded to him like a complete retraction of what had been said the night before, but he chose not to point that out.

"Good," Ryotaro said, tucking his weapon into his underarm holster. "Anyway, I'm off. And don't worry about dinner tonight, because I'm bringing home something special. Don't ask; it's a secret." He gave a half-smile. "Good luck with your research."

"Thanks," Souji said, but Ryotaro was already out the door. He sighed and tiptoed back up the stairs. Nanako's door was shut, but he had no idea if she was already out of the house, or if she was in the room and just being quiet. Given how early it was, she was most likely still asleep. As long as he didn't have to deal with her, anything else was fine with him.

He swiped a hand across his forehead, slick with the oil left by the drying sweat. He needed a shower, desperately. He grabbed his last clean pair of underwear from his room and the clothes he'd worn on the train. Why didn't I bring more? Souji thought. He'd had the bright idea to ship the rest of his clothes with the gifts he'd planned to give everyone. Thinking about it now, he realized the package should have been delivered already. Then again, if it had been delivered to the Dojima house and Nanako was there, she might have refused it. With his luck someone from the local post office had probably scrounged what they wanted from it and thrown the rest in the trash.

He needed to pick up a few outfits so he wouldn't have to do laundry every other day. For now, he'd have to stick with his own semi-dirty laundry. He went back downstairs into the bathroom and ran himself a quick, cool shower.

He felt a little better afterward, but putting on his dirty clothes helped to cure that. The strange feeling and the guilt from his nightmare still hung over him. He needed a friendly face, and with Taro at work and unavailable most of the day, he really had only one other person he could see. He'd go to the library and see Astrid, maybe do a little more research, and then make a run to Junes. He could be back at the house before lunch, well after Nanako had left for school, and take care of his laundry.

Or he could drop it off at the Inn to be done, since he was technically still paying for the service. He thought about it for a moment, but decided against it. There was little reason for him to be at the Inn, and while the Dojima house didn't hold many warm and fuzzy feelings at the moment, the Inn had practically none.

He exited the bathroom, fully dressed, his wet hair combed back. He crept back up the stairs to his room, his bedclothes and toiletries balled up in one hand. Nanako's door was still shut, and there was still no sound from within. He tucked away his clothes into a corner and stuffed his toiletries into his bag, and exited the house as quickly as he could. Once outside in the fresh air he felt some relief, and took his time walking down the street in the direction of the flood plain.

Back in the house, Nanako was sitting at the window, watching him stroll away. The moment she'd heard the voices outside her room she'd snapped awake and had crept out of her room to listen to everything her dad told Souji. He was taking the bastard's side over hers. She should have known Souji would poison her own father against her. She'd kept quiet as he got ready for his early start, daring to get out of bed only after she heard the shower running downstairs. She dressed quickly, only slightly off balance as the sleeping pill she'd taken the night before was still doing its work.

She willed herself into alertness as she watched Souji leave the house. Follow him, she told herself. As soon as he was a couple houses down she bounded out of her room and down the stairs. Just as she was about to step into her sneakers she stopped and looked back into the kitchen. She needed something as protection, just in case. Her eyes fell onto the drawer by the front door where she kept her pepper spray. While a good tool to threaten someone, it could easily backfire on her especially is she were forced to use it in close quarters. She needed something easy to conceal that would do damage to someone else, not her.

Hurry up! she thought. After a few moments she'd made her choice and was out the front door. She looked down the street in time to see him take a right turn and head down the cross street. She walked briskly in the misty morning air, ducking behind a bush or car when she thought he was looking back, trying to keep him in sight without being too visible. She needed to shadow him, to get to the bottom of whatever he was doing, and stop him before he could accomplish it.

She fingered the hilt of the kitchen knife she'd tucked under her shirt. Stop him. Whatever it takes, I've got to stop him.

*****

Souji had arrived well before the library opened and ended up sitting on the bench by the front door. The next thing he knew he was being nudged awake by a middle-aged woman in a gray sleeveless jacket. "Sir, are you okay?"

"Huh?" He blinked in the bright sunlight. "What...time is it?"

"About eight," the woman said. "We just opened."

He noticed the name tag on her shirt, but his vision was too blurry to read it. "Oh, uh, thanks." He stood, and after the dizziness wore off, he headed into the library. As he passed through the front door he noticed that taped to them were the signs warning about the continuing Internet outage. He wasn't very concerned about that, though. He headed toward the Internet stations, keeping an eye open for Astrid. He didn't see her.

He went upstairs, past the table where the two rude men had been the day before but were, thankfully, not there today. He continued on to the media room, but stopped when a sick feeling started churning his stomach. Memories of the voice, telling him that Astrid was of the Lovers Arcana, began to creep through his head. Along with them were images of Rise, screaming at him for having killed his friends, calling him evil.

Stop it, dammit! That was a dream, he thought. Dream or not, though, the feeling refused to let him be. He forced himself to continue on. The media room was empty, so he chose a carrel and sat. He stayed there for several moments, staring at the blank computer screen and rubbing his eyes.

He didn't know why the dream was still bothering him. He'd had weird dreams before, even frightening ones. But he'd read up on them for one of his psychology courses, and in dreams one's sense of right and wrong isn't always present. You can do very bad things in your dreams, things you would never do in real life, but that did not mean you would do them in real life.

That was little comfort to him, though. He reached into his jacket and pulled out the mementos from his friends, laying them out on the table and staring at them. Guys, I promise I didn't mean it. I don't care what's happened to you, I don't care what you say or do right now. I'm going to do whatever I can to bring you back.

He lingered at Rise's picture. He touched a finger to the smiling, made-up face of her alter-ego, Risette. Sotto voce, he spoke her note aloud:

Love Always
Your Dear Friend Forever
Rise

Did I really lose you? Are you gone from me, forever, replaced by someone else? He sighed, and then stood. He needed to stop this. He needed to do something constructive, or at least less destructive to himself than staring at Rise's picture, mourning a loss he wasn't even sure had happened. Just as he took a step toward the disc cases, though, he heard the door open. He glanced over and saw Astrid entering, pushing a cart stacked with disc cases.

She stopped as soon as she saw him and smiled. "Well, good morning, Seta-san. Early start?"

Souji found himself smiling without even knowing he was doing it, the pain of moments before masked from his own heart. "Yeah," he said. "Still, uh, looking for answers."

"Aren't we all?" she said, setting the cart over to the side. She glanced over at the carrel at which he'd been sitting, noticing the items spread on it. "Are these yours?" she asked.

"Yeah," he said. "Things...to help me remember."

Her eyes fell on the photo of Rise, and her smile faded a little. "Are you a fan of Risette?"

Souji looked down at the photo, then back at Astrid. He chuckled and walked over to the carrel. "All the time I was in America I didn't meet one person who knew about her."

Astrid bit her lower lip, and then shrugged. "Well, I've heard a lot about her since I've been here. I hear she's...pretty good."

"Actually, she's great," Souji said. As he said that he could see some color come to Astrid's cheeks and he looked away, not sure why he suddenly felt embarrassed. "She was a good friend, too."

Astrid tilted her head. "Friend?"

"Yeah," Souji said. "When I lived here several years ago, she'd just moved back. She's from Inaba, you know. We went to the same school that year."

"Really?" Astrid said. It sounded more like surprise than interest to him.

"Well, yeah," Souji said. "I know, it probably sounds like name-dropping, but it's the truth." He laughed. "Listening to me say it, even I don't think it sounds like the truth. Heh, she wasn't what you'd think a star'd be like. She was – really sweet. Not a mean bone in her body."

"And she gave you this?" Astrid asked, staring at the picture. The smile was gone from her face now, replaced with a look of utter confusion.

Souji noticed this. "Uh...yeah. In fact, it was the day she decided to go back into show business. Are you okay?"

"Yeah," Astrid said absently, still staring at the photo. "'Love Always, Your Dear Friend Forever, Rise'. She must have been...close to you if she signed it like that."

"What do you mean?" Souji asked. He leaned forward a little, trying to put himself into Astrid's field of vision.

She swallowed. "She – she signed it 'Rise', not 'Risette'. She never...never signs autographs 'Rise'. She must have thought you – you were special."

Souji gave a nervous laugh. "Well, don't sound too surprised someone thought that. Might bruise the old ego a little."

Astrid didn't laugh. In fact, she looked as if she were about to be sick. He put his hand on her arm, but pulled it back as if it were on a trigger. Her skin was hot, as if she were running a fever.

She backed away, bumping into a set of shelves and knocking over some disc cases. "I...I have to..." she started but then stopped, her lips continuing to move soundlessly. Souji stepped forward to help her but she kept backing away from him until she bumped up against the door, and then slid down into a fetal position on the floor.

"Astrid?" He pulled out his cell phone and was about to call for help when he saw her draw in a deep breath. Her chest expanded so widely he thought it would burst, but then she exhaled. Black smoke poured out of her mouth, her nose, her eyes, her ears. Her head flopped forward and she started panting.

Souji knelt down. This was the same thing Taro had done the night before when his amnesia had broken. Had he somehow managed to help Astrid break hers? But she didn't know him before yesterday. What could she have forgotten? "You okay?" He placed a hand on her face, touching gently, as if afraid that he would tear her skin by touching too hard. Her cheeks had gone cold. "Astrid? Say something."

She snapped her head up and stared straight into his eyes. It started out as a look of horror, but quickly became one of recognition, of relief. She looked to be on the verge of tears.

"S-Senpai..." she said.

He leaned away from her. Senpai? She'd called him that in his dream, too. Brief images from it flashed into his mind "Astrid? A-are you okay?"

"I – think I am now..."

"What happened?" he said.

She stared into his eyes. "I remember...everything. Everything. How did...why did it all...?"

Her accent was gone. She sounded very Japanese, and very familiar. Just like the dream, where Astrid's voice became... "You're...you're not...?"

Astrid opened her mouth, fully exposing her buckteeth. She then pinched the front two teeth and pulled away. Souji started, expecting to see a blank space where the teeth had been, but in their place was a row of perfect, pearly teeth. She reached up with her other hand and removed the thick-rimmed glasses.

"Senpai, it's me."

Souji stared at her for a full ten seconds, before he finally said the name that had been pushing its way toward his lips. "Rise?"

She threw her arms around him. "Souji-senpai," she said, her voice choked and squeaking. "What happened to me? Why couldn't I remember?"

"I - I don't know," Souji said. He was still trying to put this all together in his head. Astrid was Rise. Rise was Astrid. But why? Why the disguise?

"I tried, when I saw you. I tried so hard, but I couldn't remember. You were so familiar, made me feel so good just to see you, but I couldn't figure out why. What happened to me?"

"I don't know," Souji said, "but you're not the only one. It's happening to everyone." He tried to help her to her feet, but it was as if her legs were made of rubber. Instead he had to literally carry her into the nearest seat. He pulled up another chair and sat in front of her. She was staring at him, tears leaking from her eyes, but she had started to smile a little. "Are you okay?" he asked

"I don't know," she said, placing a hand on his cheek. Souji felt a chill at her touch. "I think so, I guess. Maybe seeing this picture, the one I gave you...it was like I knew you were there, in my mind, but I was forcing myself not to know you. But the picture, it was like proof, and I couldn't deny it anymore." She set the elements of her disguise on the table and took his hands. "I can't believe I was trying to forget you!"

"Is that why you were in disguise?" Souji asked. "But why even come to Inaba, then? Why did you cancel the concert?"

Rise shook her head. "I don't know, I don't know. I just did. Right after I got to Inaba the other day I started feeling weird. I kept thinking, 'I can't do this'. Before I knew it, I'd had my manager send out a press release and then sent my crew home."

Souji nodded. "I've got to say, I've felt that a lot since I've been here. But why'd you stay? And why the disguise?"

"I couldn't leave," Rise said. "I had to stay, but I just couldn't do the concert. I don't know why. It made sense the other day, but now..." she sighed and brought one of his hands up to her cheek. It felt warmer to his touch now. "Now I just don't know." She shrugged. "I've got a new movie I'm gonna be in soon. It's about a lonely librarian who meets the man of her dreams when he comes looking for a rare book, and I thought I'd try play acting it." She laughed. "Ironic, huh?"

Souji wasn't sure what she meant by that. "I...guess?"

"The library let me pretend to be a librarian in exchange for a – generous donation." she continued, smiling. "I was just trying to not be Risette. Guess it worked if it fooled you, huh?"

"I'd say so," Souji said. "I really thought you were American. The only clue I had was..." He stopped. Did he have any clues? The voice that had told him about her being of the Lovers Arcana made him think she'd been replaced. He hadn't even suspected Astrid and Rise were one and the same.

"Was what?" she asked.

"Your eyes," was the first thing he could think of.

She looked up at him. "But with the contacts in they're blue. How could you tell?" Still she was smiling, her cheeks bright red.

"It was just a feeling. They looked familiar, that's all. You're a really good actress."

She looked down at her lap. "Thanks, Senpai. It – really means a lot coming from you."

He smiled shyly and shrugged. "So, anyway, you canceled your concert when you got here, and something made you try to forget about me, but it still made you stay?"

Before Rise could answer the door behind her opened. She immediately pushed herself away from him and cleared her throat. "A-anyway, sir," she said, quickly adopting her false accent and snatching up her glasses and fake buckteeth, "if I can be of more help please don't hesitate to call." She slipped on the glasses and put the teeth back in her mouth. "Oh, here's the info on the article I told you about." She snatched a slip of paper from the corner of the desk, pulled a pen out of her shirt pocket and scribbled something down on it. She passed it to him and stood, reaching for her cart. She almost tripped as one of her sandals slid partway off, just barely catching herself on the chair. She steadied herself, adjusted her sandal strap, and finally left the room. Just before the door closed she slid her glasses down her nose and gave Souji a wink.

Souji could only stare blankly at the door. Why did she leave all of a sudden? So many emotions were swirling around inside that he couldn't even begin to sort them out. Joy, surprise, relief, confusion, and about a dozen other things he wasn't even sure had words. One thing rose to the forefront of his mind, though, and it made his heart beat rapidly. He hadn't lost Rise at all; she was right here the whole time. Maybe Igor was right after all, that the bonds he shared with others were always there even if he didn't think they were.

He gave a quick glance to the person who'd interrupted them. She was at least pretending to not have not noticed him as she stared at the computer screen in her own carrel. She glanced briefly at him and then returned to whatever she was doing.

Souji looked down at the note Rise had slipped him:

meet me main entrance
lunch 1230
so happy your back in my memories

He was happy too. Maybe for the first time in a long time, he was happy. Last night's nightmare all but forgotten, he turned back to the mementos spread across the desk behind him.

It was the photo that had broken through Rise's memory. When she'd seen it, once it stirred up her memories, it had done the same for her as when Taro's memories returned. In fact, from what Rise had described, her own mind was trying to forcibly block them. And that smoke that had come out of them both - could that have been some form of the fog?

His elation started to fade. If that was fog, could it be Izanami all over again? He didn't know, but maybe these mementos would be the key to freeing his friends. Would it work with the others? He felt in his pocket for the key chain Yukiko had given him.

There was one way to find out.

Description
Chapter 6: The Watchers and the Doers (Part 1)

Now I face out, I hold out,
I reach out to the truth of my life
Seeking to seize on the whole moment, yeah...

Driving guitar music and chanting vocals filled Souji's head. He examined the enemies that had surrounded him, providing the only color in the drab gray environment.

"Careful, Souji-senpai," Astrid said, her voice directly in his ear thanks to her Persona's abilities. "There are four enemies! They look tough."

He wasn't sure he agreed with her assessment; while he knew these were skilled fighters, he'd seen worse. Still, he had been through far too much, had won far too many battles, to let these punks stop him here. He was eager to move on, and was ready to plow through them. The music made his adrenaline pump hard in his arteries.

Yeah, naked truth lies only if you realize,
Appearing in nobody's eyes till they sterilize.
Stop the guerrilla warfare to keep fair.
Bro change your rage to a smarter, greater cause...

"Here I go!" shouted the one on the far left. It was Naoto. She pointed her gun at Souji and fired. Izanagi absorbed the actual blow from the bullet, but he still felt some of the pain. It was more like a sting than actual pain, though. Naoto cried out in frustration. "Someone finish this one off!"

"I've got it!" shouted Chie, second from the right. She ran up to him. "Take this!" She swung her leg at him in a crescent kick. Souji deftly dodged the blow and smacked the back of her leg hard with the butt of his sword, spinning her off-balance and onto the ground.

Astrid squealed in his ear. "Ooh, Senpai, that was soooo cool!"

He smirked. It wasn't the first time Astrid had overestimated his opponents. Chie's failed attack had given him the opening he needed. He turned to Yosuke, who stood second from the left. He pulled the Tarot card from his pocket and crushed it, shouting, "Izanagi!" Izanagi came forth from the card's remains and cast Ziodyne, striking Yosuke with its full force. Yosuke cried out in pain and collapsed to his knees, and when Izanagi cast a second Ziodyne, without Souji commanding it, Yosuke crumpled to the floor. Souji saw him twitch a few times as the remnants of the electrical spell danced across his body, but then he finally went still.

"Yosuke-senpai, noooo!" Screamed the voice in his ear. This time it sounded a bit more like Rise than Astrid, but whoever it was, her cry stopped the music in his head.

"I am thou," Souji heard behind him. He turned just in time to see Yukiko pointing her fan at him, and her Persona Amaterasu firing off some kind of spell. He guarded with his sword but felt something heavy wash over him. When it had passed he tried to move but every one of his limbs was sluggish. He felt tired all of a sudden, and had trouble keeping his eyes open.

"Now, get it while it's weakened!" cried out the voice that, now, was definitely Rise's.

"You're not helping!" Souji said, struggling to force his lips and tongue to form the words.

Yukiko threw her fan at him. He managed to will his limbs into motion, though, enough to block with his sword and deflect the fan toward Chie, who had just managed to get back to her feet. It struck her directly in the chest, and she screamed briefly before falling limply to the floor. The music returned and he felt his strength come back a little with each word chanted over the electric guitar.

You know the stake is high, stardom is near.
Those who sympathized you die killers pass by
Do not waste your time in hating flirting guys.
Use your might to AIs do justice to them all...

"Chie-senpai, noooo!" Rise screamed.

"Will you stop that?" Souji shouted. He pointed his sword at Naoto and pulled the trigger he'd forgotten was on the hilt. The end exploded in flower petals and Naoto flew backward, struck a wall, and slid to the ground.

"I'm...sorry, everyone," Naoto said, and then she stopped moving.

"Nooo, you son of a bitch!" Souji spun around to see Kanji charging after him, dragging a dining room table behind him. As Kanji brought it up to strike, Souji, his prior sluggishness completely forgotten, ducked and slid past his attacker, bringing his sword up and across Kanji's chest.

Kanji stopped dead in his tracks. He dropped the table, which clanged loudly against the stone floor. He then fell forward himself, and when he struck the ground he shattered into chunks of ice.

Souji glanced at his sword, which was dripping with water. He then turned to Yukiko, who was now flanked on either side by Ai Ebihara and Teddie.

"Persona!" Ai shouted as she summoned her Persona, Izanami. He looked up at Izanami for a second, and then back to Ai, except she now looked more like Saki Konishi.

"Bear-sona!" Teddie shouted, but with Ryotaro Dojima's voice. A woman rose from his body, and Souji recognized her from her photographs as Nanako's mother.

"Come, Susano-O!" Yukiko shouted, somehow bringing forth Yosuke's Persona from herself.

All three Personas charged him. His lethargy completely gone, he started swinging his sword in wide arcs before him, faster and faster, creating a shield out of his razor sharp swipes. He leaped toward the Personas, and as they met his blade they were shredded like so much rice paper.

Saki, who had turned back into Ai, and Teddie both turned gray and crumbled into piles of dust. Yukiko collapsed to a sitting position. Souji noticed for the first time that she was in a police uniform, except wearing a bright pink bonnet. "I can't go on..." she said.

Souji waved a hand at her and she vanished. He then surveyed the battlefield, examined the bodies, including that of Yumi Ozawa, which had appeared out of nowhere, and Teddie, who was now clenching a revolver in his mitten. Yosuke was flat on his face, and Chie on her back. Naoto sat against the wall with her head resting on her chest.

He could hear nothing above the music, and saw no motion. He realized at that moment that they were all dead. Not unconscious, but dead. And he'd killed them. He dropped his sword and looked down at his hands. They were pockmarked, the skin missing in places, and were soaked with blood. No, the blood was pouring from them, gushing onto the floor and creating a growing puddle at his feet.

The singing in his head had become almost desperate now...

Oh God let met out! Can you let me out?
Can you set me free from this dark inner world?
Save me now, last beat in the soul...

"S-senpai..." came Rise's voice, drowning out the music once again. "You - you killed dead-dead them." She was sobbing. "You killed them dead!"

"They were trying to kill me," Souji said. His voice felt tiny and choked. "They were...trying to kill me..." For the first time, what he had done truly struck home. He had killed his friends. But they were trying to kill him.

"Of course they were!" Rise screamed. "You're evil!"

*****

June 12, 2018

Souji's eyes snapped open and he took a deep breath. Oh God what did I do? It took a few seconds for the room to come into focus. Once he could see he started to realize that this was not the Shadow World. Then – maybe I didn't kill them, he thought. He sat up, and the movement immediately chilled him to the bone. He realized he was completely soaked.

I'm sweating, he thought, shivering. Was I really fighting? It took a moment for his senses to return, and for him to realize it had just been a dream. A terrible, horrible dream, but just a dream. It left him with a feeling of detachment and pervasive unease. His heart was still thumping against his ribs, and while he was still tired he was in no condition to sleep.

It took him a few more seconds to realize that he wasn't in his dorm room either. This was his room at his uncle's house in Inaba. The events of the past few days flashed back into his consciousness.

The light in his windows was dim. It was early morning again. What time had he gone to bed? He picked up his watch from the floor. 05:32. He didn't feel very well-rested, so must have been pretty late. Then again, it could have just been the nightmare.

He heard a rustling in the hallway. Before he knew what he was doing he stood and headed for the door. He placed his hand on the knob and started to turn, but then stopped. If it was Nanako on the other side, did he really want to deal with her? While his first couple times meeting her had been shocking, he wasn't really frightened of her anymore. He didn't much want to cross paths with her in her current condition, but while he was a guest in this house he didn't see why he had to walk on eggshells. He opened the door.

On the other side was Ryotaro, closing his bedroom door with one hand as he tried to fix his tie with the other. He turned to Souji. "Sorry," he whispered. "Didn't mean to wake you up."

Souji shook his head. "Already awake."

"You okay?" Ryotaro asked. "You're soaked."

"Yeah, bad dream," Souji said.

Ryotaro nodded. "Had my fair share of those. Since you're up, c'mon downstairs for a sec." They headed down the stairs together. Souji felt a little self-conscious to be traipsing around in his uncle's house in just his pajama pants and T-shirt, both soaked with his own sweat, but he did as he was told. Once they were in the kitchen Ryotaro said, "Look, I know you were going to make breakfast for us, but I just got called in to work. Maybe we'll do it another day."

"Okay," Souji said. He wasn't sure why this couldn't have been said upstairs.

Ryotaro spent a minute gathering up his badge, holster, and his gun while Souji watched, waiting for something more to be said. As Ryotaro was undoing the gun lock he finally said, "About what I said last night, about Nanako. I know I said to avoid her, but you don't really have to. I mean, don't go out of your way to not be around when she is. She'll come around, she's just really kind of closed off. You know what I mean?"

"I think so," Souji said. Actually, it sounded to him like a complete retraction of what had been said the night before, but he chose not to point that out.

"Good," Ryotaro said, tucking his weapon into his underarm holster. "Anyway, I'm off. And don't worry about dinner tonight, because I'm bringing home something special. Don't ask; it's a secret." He gave a half-smile. "Good luck with your research."

"Thanks," Souji said, but Ryotaro was already out the door. He sighed and tiptoed back up the stairs. Nanako's door was shut, but he had no idea if she was already out of the house, or if she was in the room and just being quiet. Given how early it was, she was most likely still asleep. As long as he didn't have to deal with her, anything else was fine with him.

He swiped a hand across his forehead, slick with the oil left by the drying sweat. He needed a shower, desperately. He grabbed his last clean pair of underwear from his room and the clothes he'd worn on the train. Why didn't I bring more? Souji thought. He'd had the bright idea to ship the rest of his clothes with the gifts he'd planned to give everyone. Thinking about it now, he realized the package should have been delivered already. Then again, if it had been delivered to the Dojima house and Nanako was there, she might have refused it. With his luck someone from the local post office had probably scrounged what they wanted from it and thrown the rest in the trash.

He needed to pick up a few outfits so he wouldn't have to do laundry every other day. For now, he'd have to stick with his own semi-dirty laundry. He went back downstairs into the bathroom and ran himself a quick, cool shower.

He felt a little better afterward, but putting on his dirty clothes helped to cure that. The strange feeling and the guilt from his nightmare still hung over him. He needed a friendly face, and with Taro at work and unavailable most of the day, he really had only one other person he could see. He'd go to the library and see Astrid, maybe do a little more research, and then make a run to Junes. He could be back at the house before lunch, well after Nanako had left for school, and take care of his laundry.

Or he could drop it off at the Inn to be done, since he was technically still paying for the service. He thought about it for a moment, but decided against it. There was little reason for him to be at the Inn, and while the Dojima house didn't hold many warm and fuzzy feelings at the moment, the Inn had practically none.

He exited the bathroom, fully dressed, his wet hair combed back. He crept back up the stairs to his room, his bedclothes and toiletries balled up in one hand. Nanako's door was still shut, and there was still no sound from within. He tucked away his clothes into a corner and stuffed his toiletries into his bag, and exited the house as quickly as he could. Once outside in the fresh air he felt some relief, and took his time walking down the street in the direction of the flood plain.

Back in the house, Nanako was sitting at the window, watching him stroll away. The moment she'd heard the voices outside her room she'd snapped awake and had crept out of her room to listen to everything her dad told Souji. He was taking the bastard's side over hers. She should have known Souji would poison her own father against her. She'd kept quiet as he got ready for his early start, daring to get out of bed only after she heard the shower running downstairs. She dressed quickly, only slightly off balance as the sleeping pill she'd taken the night before was still doing its work.

She willed herself into alertness as she watched Souji leave the house. Follow him, she told herself. As soon as he was a couple houses down she bounded out of her room and down the stairs. Just as she was about to step into her sneakers she stopped and looked back into the kitchen. She needed something as protection, just in case. Her eyes fell onto the drawer by the front door where she kept her pepper spray. While a good tool to threaten someone, it could easily backfire on her especially is she were forced to use it in close quarters. She needed something easy to conceal that would do damage to someone else, not her.

Hurry up! she thought. After a few moments she'd made her choice and was out the front door. She looked down the street in time to see him take a right turn and head down the cross street. She walked briskly in the misty morning air, ducking behind a bush or car when she thought he was looking back, trying to keep him in sight without being too visible. She needed to shadow him, to get to the bottom of whatever he was doing, and stop him before he could accomplish it.

She fingered the hilt of the kitchen knife she'd tucked under her shirt. Stop him. Whatever it takes, I've got to stop him.

*****

Souji had arrived well before the library opened and ended up sitting on the bench by the front door. The next thing he knew he was being nudged awake by a middle-aged woman in a gray sleeveless jacket. "Sir, are you okay?"

"Huh?" He blinked in the bright sunlight. "What...time is it?"

"About eight," the woman said. "We just opened."

He noticed the name tag on her shirt, but his vision was too blurry to read it. "Oh, uh, thanks." He stood, and after the dizziness wore off, he headed into the library. As he passed through the front door he noticed that taped to them were the signs warning about the continuing Internet outage. He wasn't very concerned about that, though. He headed toward the Internet stations, keeping an eye open for Astrid. He didn't see her.

He went upstairs, past the table where the two rude men had been the day before but were, thankfully, not there today. He continued on to the media room, but stopped when a sick feeling started churning his stomach. Memories of the voice, telling him that Astrid was of the Lovers Arcana, began to creep through his head. Along with them were images of Rise, screaming at him for having killed his friends, calling him evil.

Stop it, dammit! That was a dream, he thought. Dream or not, though, the feeling refused to let him be. He forced himself to continue on. The media room was empty, so he chose a carrel and sat. He stayed there for several moments, staring at the blank computer screen and rubbing his eyes.

He didn't know why the dream was still bothering him. He'd had weird dreams before, even frightening ones. But he'd read up on them for one of his psychology courses, and in dreams one's sense of right and wrong isn't always present. You can do very bad things in your dreams, things you would never do in real life, but that did not mean you would do them in real life.

That was little comfort to him, though. He reached into his jacket and pulled out the mementos from his friends, laying them out on the table and staring at them. Guys, I promise I didn't mean it. I don't care what's happened to you, I don't care what you say or do right now. I'm going to do whatever I can to bring you back.

He lingered at Rise's picture. He touched a finger to the smiling, made-up face of her alter-ego, Risette. Sotto voce, he spoke her note aloud:

Love Always
Your Dear Friend Forever
Rise

Did I really lose you? Are you gone from me, forever, replaced by someone else? He sighed, and then stood. He needed to stop this. He needed to do something constructive, or at least less destructive to himself than staring at Rise's picture, mourning a loss he wasn't even sure had happened. Just as he took a step toward the disc cases, though, he heard the door open. He glanced over and saw Astrid entering, pushing a cart stacked with disc cases.

She stopped as soon as she saw him and smiled. "Well, good morning, Seta-san. Early start?"

Souji found himself smiling without even knowing he was doing it, the pain of moments before masked from his own heart. "Yeah," he said. "Still, uh, looking for answers."

"Aren't we all?" she said, setting the cart over to the side. She glanced over at the carrel at which he'd been sitting, noticing the items spread on it. "Are these yours?" she asked.

"Yeah," he said. "Things...to help me remember."

Her eyes fell on the photo of Rise, and her smile faded a little. "Are you a fan of Risette?"

Souji looked down at the photo, then back at Astrid. He chuckled and walked over to the carrel. "All the time I was in America I didn't meet one person who knew about her."

Astrid bit her lower lip, and then shrugged. "Well, I've heard a lot about her since I've been here. I hear she's...pretty good."

"Actually, she's great," Souji said. As he said that he could see some color come to Astrid's cheeks and he looked away, not sure why he suddenly felt embarrassed. "She was a good friend, too."

Astrid tilted her head. "Friend?"

"Yeah," Souji said. "When I lived here several years ago, she'd just moved back. She's from Inaba, you know. We went to the same school that year."

"Really?" Astrid said. It sounded more like surprise than interest to him.

"Well, yeah," Souji said. "I know, it probably sounds like name-dropping, but it's the truth." He laughed. "Listening to me say it, even I don't think it sounds like the truth. Heh, she wasn't what you'd think a star'd be like. She was – really sweet. Not a mean bone in her body."

"And she gave you this?" Astrid asked, staring at the picture. The smile was gone from her face now, replaced with a look of utter confusion.

Souji noticed this. "Uh...yeah. In fact, it was the day she decided to go back into show business. Are you okay?"

"Yeah," Astrid said absently, still staring at the photo. "'Love Always, Your Dear Friend Forever, Rise'. She must have been...close to you if she signed it like that."

"What do you mean?" Souji asked. He leaned forward a little, trying to put himself into Astrid's field of vision.

She swallowed. "She – she signed it 'Rise', not 'Risette'. She never...never signs autographs 'Rise'. She must have thought you – you were special."

Souji gave a nervous laugh. "Well, don't sound too surprised someone thought that. Might bruise the old ego a little."

Astrid didn't laugh. In fact, she looked as if she were about to be sick. He put his hand on her arm, but pulled it back as if it were on a trigger. Her skin was hot, as if she were running a fever.

She backed away, bumping into a set of shelves and knocking over some disc cases. "I...I have to..." she started but then stopped, her lips continuing to move soundlessly. Souji stepped forward to help her but she kept backing away from him until she bumped up against the door, and then slid down into a fetal position on the floor.

"Astrid?" He pulled out his cell phone and was about to call for help when he saw her draw in a deep breath. Her chest expanded so widely he thought it would burst, but then she exhaled. Black smoke poured out of her mouth, her nose, her eyes, her ears. Her head flopped forward and she started panting.

Souji knelt down. This was the same thing Taro had done the night before when his amnesia had broken. Had he somehow managed to help Astrid break hers? But she didn't know him before yesterday. What could she have forgotten? "You okay?" He placed a hand on her face, touching gently, as if afraid that he would tear her skin by touching too hard. Her cheeks had gone cold. "Astrid? Say something."

She snapped her head up and stared straight into his eyes. It started out as a look of horror, but quickly became one of recognition, of relief. She looked to be on the verge of tears.

"S-Senpai..." she said.

He leaned away from her. Senpai? She'd called him that in his dream, too. Brief images from it flashed into his mind "Astrid? A-are you okay?"

"I – think I am now..."

"What happened?" he said.

She stared into his eyes. "I remember...everything. Everything. How did...why did it all...?"

Her accent was gone. She sounded very Japanese, and very familiar. Just like the dream, where Astrid's voice became... "You're...you're not...?"

Astrid opened her mouth, fully exposing her buckteeth. She then pinched the front two teeth and pulled away. Souji started, expecting to see a blank space where the teeth had been, but in their place was a row of perfect, pearly teeth. She reached up with her other hand and removed the thick-rimmed glasses.

"Senpai, it's me."

Souji stared at her for a full ten seconds, before he finally said the name that had been pushing its way toward his lips. "Rise?"

She threw her arms around him. "Souji-senpai," she said, her voice choked and squeaking. "What happened to me? Why couldn't I remember?"

"I - I don't know," Souji said. He was still trying to put this all together in his head. Astrid was Rise. Rise was Astrid. But why? Why the disguise?

"I tried, when I saw you. I tried so hard, but I couldn't remember. You were so familiar, made me feel so good just to see you, but I couldn't figure out why. What happened to me?"

"I don't know," Souji said, "but you're not the only one. It's happening to everyone." He tried to help her to her feet, but it was as if her legs were made of rubber. Instead he had to literally carry her into the nearest seat. He pulled up another chair and sat in front of her. She was staring at him, tears leaking from her eyes, but she had started to smile a little. "Are you okay?" he asked

"I don't know," she said, placing a hand on his cheek. Souji felt a chill at her touch. "I think so, I guess. Maybe seeing this picture, the one I gave you...it was like I knew you were there, in my mind, but I was forcing myself not to know you. But the picture, it was like proof, and I couldn't deny it anymore." She set the elements of her disguise on the table and took his hands. "I can't believe I was trying to forget you!"

"Is that why you were in disguise?" Souji asked. "But why even come to Inaba, then? Why did you cancel the concert?"

Rise shook her head. "I don't know, I don't know. I just did. Right after I got to Inaba the other day I started feeling weird. I kept thinking, 'I can't do this'. Before I knew it, I'd had my manager send out a press release and then sent my crew home."

Souji nodded. "I've got to say, I've felt that a lot since I've been here. But why'd you stay? And why the disguise?"

"I couldn't leave," Rise said. "I had to stay, but I just couldn't do the concert. I don't know why. It made sense the other day, but now..." she sighed and brought one of his hands up to her cheek. It felt warmer to his touch now. "Now I just don't know." She shrugged. "I've got a new movie I'm gonna be in soon. It's about a lonely librarian who meets the man of her dreams when he comes looking for a rare book, and I thought I'd try play acting it." She laughed. "Ironic, huh?"

Souji wasn't sure what she meant by that. "I...guess?"

"The library let me pretend to be a librarian in exchange for a – generous donation." she continued, smiling. "I was just trying to not be Risette. Guess it worked if it fooled you, huh?"

"I'd say so," Souji said. "I really thought you were American. The only clue I had was..." He stopped. Did he have any clues? The voice that had told him about her being of the Lovers Arcana made him think she'd been replaced. He hadn't even suspected Astrid and Rise were one and the same.

"Was what?" she asked.

"Your eyes," was the first thing he could think of.

She looked up at him. "But with the contacts in they're blue. How could you tell?" Still she was smiling, her cheeks bright red.

"It was just a feeling. They looked familiar, that's all. You're a really good actress."

She looked down at her lap. "Thanks, Senpai. It – really means a lot coming from you."

He smiled shyly and shrugged. "So, anyway, you canceled your concert when you got here, and something made you try to forget about me, but it still made you stay?"

Before Rise could answer the door behind her opened. She immediately pushed herself away from him and cleared her throat. "A-anyway, sir," she said, quickly adopting her false accent and snatching up her glasses and fake buckteeth, "if I can be of more help please don't hesitate to call." She slipped on the glasses and put the teeth back in her mouth. "Oh, here's the info on the article I told you about." She snatched a slip of paper from the corner of the desk, pulled a pen out of her shirt pocket and scribbled something down on it. She passed it to him and stood, reaching for her cart. She almost tripped as one of her sandals slid partway off, just barely catching herself on the chair. She steadied herself, adjusted her sandal strap, and finally left the room. Just before the door closed she slid her glasses down her nose and gave Souji a wink.

Souji could only stare blankly at the door. Why did she leave all of a sudden? So many emotions were swirling around inside that he couldn't even begin to sort them out. Joy, surprise, relief, confusion, and about a dozen other things he wasn't even sure had words. One thing rose to the forefront of his mind, though, and it made his heart beat rapidly. He hadn't lost Rise at all; she was right here the whole time. Maybe Igor was right after all, that the bonds he shared with others were always there even if he didn't think they were.

He gave a quick glance to the person who'd interrupted them. She was at least pretending to not have not noticed him as she stared at the computer screen in her own carrel. She glanced briefly at him and then returned to whatever she was doing.

Souji looked down at the note Rise had slipped him:

meet me main entrance
lunch 1230
so happy your back in my memories

He was happy too. Maybe for the first time in a long time, he was happy. Last night's nightmare all but forgotten, he turned back to the mementos spread across the desk behind him.

It was the photo that had broken through Rise's memory. When she'd seen it, once it stirred up her memories, it had done the same for her as when Taro's memories returned. In fact, from what Rise had described, her own mind was trying to forcibly block them. And that smoke that had come out of them both - could that have been some form of the fog?

His elation started to fade. If that was fog, could it be Izanami all over again? He didn't know, but maybe these mementos would be the key to freeing his friends. Would it work with the others? He felt in his pocket for the key chain Yukiko had given him.

There was one way to find out.