The first time had been expected. The second had been slightly annoying. The third had begun to tick her off. But the fourth was her limit.

"I already told you everything, so leave me alone!" Kujikawa Rise snapped, snagging a piece of tofu and spiking it at Detective Shirogane Naoto's head. He ducked quickly and froze, eyes wide, when he saw another block in her hands. "I have an almost unlimited supply of these, ya know. Get out."

Shirogane paused for about two seconds, eying the tofu block in her hand warily, before turning and bolting for the exit.

With a satisfied huff, Rise dropped the tofu where she had grabbed it from. When she looked back up, Shirogane was speaking to Narukami and the others, as well as a short, blonde boy she hadn't seen before.

After a long minute, Shirogane turned and left, Tatsumi watching him go with an odd expression. Satisfied her seemingly stalker was gone, Rise yanked off her apron and bounded toward the door.

Kanji sat beside Shirogane on the train, half-wishing he was anywhere else in the world. At the sight of the detective, Rise had practically vanished into thin air, giving little reason except she was going to see how much longer it would be until they arrived at Port Island.

Which left Kanji alone with a fellow first-year who he may or may not have a crush on, although the not was pretty much ridiculous to even think about now. It would obvious he did; who was he kidding with the not?

"You're quiet, Tatsumi-san. Is something bothering you?"

Shirogane's sudden quiet voice almost caused Kanji to smash his head against the window, but he managed to catch himself before he looked like a total moron.

"J-jus' thinkin,'" he spluttered, briefly glancing Shirogane's way to see him looking at him curiously. He looked away again.

Somehow, he didn't think Shirogane believed him, but after a long second, he simply nodded and returned to staring at the back of the seat in front of them.

Stupid field trip. Stupid Rise. Stupid freakin' crush.

In retrospect, perhaps staying in the club with Narukami's group of imbeciles wasn't the brightest idea he had ever had. Naoto scowled and snatched his hat off his head, resisting the temptation to throw it against the wall in frustration. That would do nothing except damage the hat.

He had learned absolutely nothing useful from the group, and had ended up with a drunk (maybe, perhaps) Kujikawa practically on top of him for half the night. His track record with her was far from stunning.

Not to mention the fact that Tatsumi had ended up flat on his back on the floor (He was lucky Teddie hadn't cracked his skull.), and Narukami had completely destroyed the preconceptions he had of him. So far, only Tatsumi had really proven himself to not be an idiot, and that was questionable at times.

So he was all but back at square one, with his only leads having ended up exploding in his face. Time for a new approach.

Kujikawa Rise had proven herself to be exceptionally good at running her mouth. He would start there.

When she told Yu at lunch that she'd already made plans with Shirogane, he raised an eyebrow and tilted his head slightly. "Shirogane-kun?" he asked, blinking at her in surprise. "Really?"

She shrugged awkwardly, looking away at a pack of girls passed them, giggling among themselves. "Yeah, I was surprised too. He asked me before class this morning, and I said yes." She paused, biting her lip. "I wonder what he wants..."

Yu smiled and lifted a hand to rub his nose in a very Yosuke-ish way. "Maybe he just wants a friend." He paused and seemed to consider what he had just said. "Ya know, or not. He'd prob'ly go to Tatsumi-kun for something like that anyway; he's the only one Shirogane-kun really gets along with." He shrugged and began to walk off down the hall. "Talk to you later, Rise-chan," he said over his shoulder, flashing her one of his charming grins.

Rise watched him go for a few seconds before rolling her eyes at his usual flamboyant manner and setting off to the rooftop to eat her lunch.

Kanji scowled at Rise from across his bento. "Senpai said you blew him off yesterday, but he didn't say who for," he growled, resisting the urge to flick a chopstick at her. "What'd you guys talk about?"

She shrugged nonchalantly, and the simple action made him bristle with annoyance. "Not much, really. I was usually the one talking; he just listened."

Which means he'd asked to hang out for no discernible reason. Freakin' wonderful. Little ass probably liked 'Risette' like ninety-five percent of the male population. Although, that didn't really fit Shirogane, something that was really confusing Kanji. If he wasn't interested in relationships, why had he randomly asked to hang out with Rise?

Too confusing. All this thinking was just causing Kanji to want to smash his head through a wall.

"You know," Rise said suddenly, rudely jarring Kanji from his thoughts, "I can see why you like him now. He's mysterious, polite, and not to mention cute." She flashed Kanji an evil-looking smirk. "Might wanna make a move before I do, Kanji-kun," she snickered, brown eyes gleaming.

Kanji clenched his jaw and glared down at his bento. "Shuddup. And stop calling me by my first name!"

He had been right on one point: Kujikawa was good at running her mouth. Just not in the ways he wanted. Over the past two weeks, he had learned nothing new about the case, and he was starting to become frustrated. He had briefly considered switching to Tatsumi, but that would just inhibit him in the long run. Suddenly ignoring Kujikawa in favor of Tatsumi would just seem suspicious.

Time for a new approach. If his current theory was correct (which was largely hit-or-miss so far with this case), all he needed to do to make some headway was to appear on television. Not a problem considering news channels had been clamoring for an interview for several years now. All he had to do was indulge them for his own gain.

Appear on television, be kidnapped, and hopefully figure something out or perhaps even identify the killer if he was lucky. It was as good a plan as he was going to get.

The only problem was that his track record when it came to luck was shit, putting it bluntly. If something had the opportunity to go wrong, it usually did. This would likely be no exception.

Rise had never felt so angry before in her life. Stupid Naoto and his stupid obsession had gotten his scrawny ass kidnapped and thrown into a TV, and now it was their problem to go in and save him.

When they rescued him (and likely stomped his Shadow, which was always fun), she was going to give him a good slap to the face for being such an idiot. And judging by the look on Kanji's face, he was thinking the same thing.

Yu had attempted to placate them by saying he probably had a very good explanation for what he had done, but that hadn't soothed either of their tempers in the slightest. They were still pissed, and Naoto was still an idiot.

He and Rise had actually became friends, sort of. He had dropped the honorific off her last name at her insistence, the most she had been able to persuade him to do, and she had taken to calling him Naoto-kun. At first, he had twitched awkwardly every time she said it, unused to anyone aside from his grandfather and his assistance using his first name, but he was gradually warming up to it.

"He's so dead when we get down there," Rise hissed.

Kanji grunted from his place at her shoulder. "Little ass is gonna get the shit beat out of him, courtesy of my fists."

Well, it was good to know they were both on the same page at least.

It was amazing how quickly the anger had drained from him after the fight with the Shadow, Kanji mused as he trekked down the halls of the Secret Base, one Shirogane Naoto perched reluctantly on his back. As expected, she had been hesitant about it but also too weak to really fight back, so she had ended up with her chin resting on Kanji's shoulder and a deep scowl etched on her face.

Rise was at their side, quiet and presumably mulling over the same things Kanji was. Shirogane was actually a girl, he wasn't gay, and Rise probably was.

Great day, huh? Revelations all around.

At the front of the group, Yu glanced over his shoulder at them every minute or so, the concerned expression on his face more for the girls that him. Not that he really minded. All he had needed was a Diarama from Yukiko and he was fine; the girls were facing psychological issues. Also, Hanamura had ended up having to lug his plate back, a fact that made him feel even better and want to laugh maniacally in evil satisfaction. Served him right for all the gay jokes he'd made the past several months.

Of course, Rise was likely in a similar mental dilemma that Kanji himself had been in for those said months, except hers had been caused by the secret being revealed as to his being cured.

They were all going to need therapy after this, for a whole shitload of different reasons.

Why had she ever thought that being kidnapped was a good idea? Now the entire team knew her secret, as well as the rest of the freaking town. Not to mention that Narukami had insisted someone from the group check up on her almost every day. Today was Kujikawa and Tatsumi, although the latter had somehow gotten out of it by saying he had to help his mom at their shop.

"I'm getting the sense that you don't want me here, Naoto-kun." Speak of the devil.

She groaned, but didn't open her eyes. The last thing she wanted to see was Kujikawa's cheerful face; it would probably make her nauseous again. "What makes you think that?" she mumbled dryly.

"The fact that your expression falls under the category of 'murderous', I think," she replied.

Naoto snorted quietly and opened one eye to see Kujikawa smiling mischievously back at her. "Not so much directed toward you or Tatsumi-san, more so Narukami-senpai for imposing this stupid thing."

"Ah, he's just an over-protective parent. He did the same thing with Kanji-kun and I when we were recovering." Kujikawa tossed a hand nonchalantly. "My grandma and I got to the point where we were just about ready to throw them out toward the end."

After a few seconds of silence, Naoto smirked. "Then I'm kicking out Narukami-senpai and Yosuke-senpai the next time they come by."

Rise had to admit, the reveal of Naoto's secret had come as a huge surprise, but as she sat across from her at the Junes table, she realized Naoto looked more feminine than she had previously noted. The lack of cap made it even more apparent, which was why she had wanted to smack herself in the Secret Lab for not realizing it earlier.

So she'd actually been crushing on a girl for the past few months. Well, now she knew how Kanji had felt since May. It wasn't all that bad of a feeling, though, but of course Kanji was severely concerned with people thinking he was gay. Rise thought they could all just go–

Uh, yeah.

Kanji shifted uncomfortably in his chair. The others had already left, leaving just the two of them sitting around the table. "So, uh, you still like her?" he asked awkwardly, staring at one of Junes' flags flapping in the wind.

She leaned back in her seat, arms crossed. "I guess so. I mean, she's still Shirogane Naoto. Not much has really changed."

"You make things sound so simple," Kanji muttered wistfully, dragging himself to his feet. "I'm still really confused about the whole thing."

"Don't worry, Kanji-kun. I voted for you, and I'm pretty sure Naoto-kun did too."

Kanji scowled up at Rise, who for some reason hadn't changed back into her regular clothes yet. "Like I care. It's over, and that's all that matters." He paused. "Also, is there a particular reason you insist on bothering me?"

She thought about it for a minute. "Eh, not really. I guess I just enjoy seeing your reactions to the stuff I say."

With a shake of his head, Kanji ran a hand over his face. "Rise-chan, you are some kind of demon, I swear."

"Ah, don't be mad, Kanji-kun." She smiled, not an evil smile or smirk, but a genuinely warm smile. "You're my best friend, you know that."

He paused and looked up at her with wide eyes. "Really? I thought it's be Narukami-senpai." Or hell, even Shirogane.

Rise shrugged and turned to walk off. "Nah. He's nice, but he's not you." She tossed a hand. "See you later, Kanji-kun."

For a minute, he just sat there in shock, before smiling and realizing Rise wasn't as bad as he figured.

The moon was barely a sliver in the sky. Naoto could barely make out the shapes of the other girls in their futons. Satonaka was snoring softly, one arm flung over onto Amagi's futon; Amagi herself was burrowed down into the bottom of hers; and Nanako was sleeping peacefully between Amagi and Kujikawa.

"Hey." Naoto looked down to her right to see Kujikawa looking up at her. "Can't sleep?"

She shrugged one arm awkwardly, looking back out at the moon. "I guess. I'm tired, but I keep waking up."

Kujikawa laid back and folded her arms behind her head. "Something bothering you?"

"Not really."

A quiet snicker made her scowl and look back down at Kujikawa. "I'm sure they didn't see anything, Naoto-kun. Kanji-kun didn't fall out in the floor, so I think we're safe."

Naoto rolled her eyes. "I wasn't worried, actually, but thanks for your concern."

"Right," Kujikawa said in a disbelieving tone that made Naoto bristle. "Besides, we could just beat them up, so we still win." When Naoto didn't respond, she reached out and set a hand on her arm. "C'mon, just try and go back to sleep. It'll be fine."

For a moment, Naoto was about to snap a reply, but when she looked down and saw Kujikawa's solemn face, she deflated quickly. "Yeah." She settled back down in her futon, and it was quiet for a minute. "Um, Kujikawa-san?"

She looked over at her. "What is it?"

"Thanks."

Kujikawa smiled and reached out a hand to ruffle her hair. "No problem, Naoto-kun. And... call me Rise. We're friends, right?"

After a pause, Naoto smiled back. "Right. Rise-san, then."

The whiteness of the hospital hallways brought on the harsh reality of where they were and why they were here. Rise knew Kanji couldn't stand hospitals because of his dad, and Naoto didn't seem to like them any better. The only reason they had both come was because it was Nanako, and none of them could stand to not be here for her.

"You okay, Naoto-kun? You look a little pale."

The detective didn't look up. Her hands were clenched into fists, and she was pressing her knuckles into her thighs. "I don't like hospitals," she said tersely. "They remind me of my parents."

Kanji paused in his pacing to look at them. "Yeah, I don't either. My dad..." He trailed off and swallowed hard, his hands clenching into fists at his sides.

Trapped between two people who hated hospitals, Rise felt a little awkward. She didn't remember her parents at all; these two did. She didn't really know which one would be better.

"We're all here for each other, right? And Nanako-chan is going to be fine."

Of course, she didn't know that for sure, but it seemed to cheer both of them up a little. Kanji cracked a small smile and relaxed, and Naoto nodded and leaned back against the wall.

As Kanji stared at his grade on the exams, he realized how good of a tutor Naoto actually was. He hadn't scored higher than Rise, but he wasn't scraping rock-bottom like usual.

"Nice job, Kanji-san," Naoto's voice said from close by, causing Kanji to start in surprise.

He turned around to see Naoto standing there looking up at him with her usual half-smile. "Uh, thanks, Naoto-kun. F-for the help, I mean. I woulda failed without it."

"It's no problem," she replied, giving a small shrug. "I was happy to help you and Rise-san."

With that, she turned to walk off, and Kanji, spurred on by a sudden bout of courage, called after her, "H-hey, wait!" She stopped and looked back over her shoulder at him. "Rise-chan and I were planning to go to Aiya after school. You wanna come with us?"

She blinked at her for a few seconds, considering, then nodded and disappeared off down the hall.

Kanji waited until he couldn't see her anymore before allowing himself a "Yes!" of triumph.

The three first-years walked slowly down the sidewalk of the shopping district. Kanji, who she had reluctantly also began calling by his first name, took off into the textile shop first, leaving Naoto and Rise alone to walk the rest of the way to the tofu shop.

"Are you okay now?" Rise asked quietly as they stood in front of the door to Marukyu.

Naoto smiled wryly. "I should be the one asking that, but yes, I'm fine. Thanks for asking."

There was a small pause before Rise embraced her suddenly. Naoto froze in shock, but soon relaxed enough to hug her back and rest her chin on Rise's shoulder.

"Why don't you just stay here tonight?" Rise whispered. "It's past midnight, and we're meeting early in the morning. It would be stupid for you to trek all the way across town just to come back in a few hours."

For a moment, Naoto was about to refuse simply to be stubborn, but then realized how stupid it would be to do so. "If you don't mind," she mumbled.

Rise laughed and squeezed her tighter. "Of course I don't mind, Naoto-kun. I asked, didn't I? C'mon, it's really late.

And with that, she pulled back, grabbed Naoto's hand, and pulled her inside.

When Rise woke up the next morning, it was to find Naoto curled up in a ball facing her, sound asleep. She looked so cute like that, Rise gushed inwardly, as Naoto shifted in her sleep. So what if they were both girls; she still liked Naoto.

She would have done something, brush her hair out of her eyes or something, if she wasn't worried Naoto would attach herself to the ceiling. So she contented herself with just watching her, not sure if she wanted her to wake up or not. It was a lot easier to deal with a sleeping Naoto than an awake one.

The next thing she knew, someone was shaking her, and she opened her eyes to see Naoto crouched in front of her, still hatless. Rise felt her face heat up at their close proximity, and Naoto blinked at her before backing up and looking away.

"S-sorry," she sputtered. "It looked like you woke up then fall back asleep, so I thought..." She trailed off, waving a hand to indicate her gentlemanly intentions.

Rise rubbed her eyes and stretched; Naoto kept her eyes firmly locked on the wall. "It's okay. I'm glad you woke me up."

For a minute, they just sat there. Then, Naoto spoke again quieter this time. "You were talking in your sleep."

The room suddenly went cold. She had been thinking about Naoto when she had fallen asleep, and – oh, this couldn't be good. "Wh-what did I say?" she asked hesitantly.

"My name."

Probably without any honorifics, too. Great. "Um," she said intelligently. She had a perfectly reasonable explanation for this, she just... couldn't think of it.

Kanji raised an eyebrow at Naoto and Rise seated on opposite ends of the table, refusing to even look at each other. "The hell's up with you two?" he asked. "You seemed fine last night."

"We're fine," Rise said at the same time as Naoto snapped, "Nothing."

Well, now he was really confused. They were both acting like skittish deer.

The two of them glanced at each other before yanking their heads away again. Kanji shook his head.

It was almost an hour later, when they were heading to the hospital to enact Naoto's plan, that Kanji managed to corner Rise and ask her what was going on.

"You kissed her?" he hissed, eyes wide. Rise clapped a hand over his mouth, motioning for him to shut up. He pulled her hand down and glared at her. "Why the hell would you do that?" he growled.

Rise wrung her hands, looking like a child caught with a hand in the cookie jar. "I don't know," she squeaked. "She was just sitting there looking at me, and I-I kissed her. She didn't really freak out or anything; she just froze."

He snorted. "Yeah, you prob'ly scared the shit out of her."

If Rise heard him, she didn't respond. "Do you think she hates me now?"

"I highly doubt she's capable of hating you. Hell, she doesn't hate Hanamura-senpai, and he's an asshole."

She seemed to take comfort in that, small as it was. "Y-yeah, you're right. I'm just overreacting."

At the front of the group, Naoto warily glanced over her shoulder at them, and Kanji could see she was biting her lip.

It was the day before they were all planning to jump into the television and confront Adachi, and Naoto still hadn't made up with Rise. She felt terrible for it, but Rise suddenly jumping her like she had had shocked her stupid.

Around noon, she found herself in the shopping district for no discernible reason. She initially planned to talk to Rise but soon chickened out and made for Tatsumi Textiles instead.

On the way, she passed the shrine and heard Kanji's voice saying something. She paused beside the gates and listened.

"She'll come around eventually. I think you really shocked her."

What was he talking about, and to who? Then Rise spoke, and she froze.

"I feel bad about it, and she doesn't seem to want to talk about it."

They were talking about her and what had happened a few weeks back. Now would be the opportune time to mend fences, so she took a deep breath and walked through the gate into the shrine.

Both of them looked up at her in surprise, Rise with a bit of terror as well.

"Speak of the devil," Kanji muttered, standing and walking down the steps of the shrine. The snow crunched underneath his feet, and he stomped his feet to get the blood circulating again. "We were just talking about you, Naoto-kun. You two really need to talk, so I'm gonna leave you two to it. See ya."

And with that, he stalked out of the shrine grounds, leaving the two of them alone.

Wishing the ground would open up and swallow her, Naoto slowly turned to see Rise staring down at the ground. "Um, Rise-chan?"

Rise didn't look up. "I'm sorry, Naoto-kun. I'm really sorry!"

For a moment, Naoto just blinked at her. She mentally shook herself before stepping over and sitting down beside Rise, who looked the other way. Cautiously, she reached out a hand and rested it on her shoulder, and she stiffened but didn't pull away. "I think I should be the one apologizing. For my behavior the past few weeks. You just... surprised me, and I didn't know how to react." She paused, considering. "Or what to say."

It was silent for a minute. Then Rise finally turned to face her.

And smacked her on the arm.

"Hey!" Naoto yelped, rubbing her arm with a frown. "What was that for?"

"For making me feel like an asshole, you jerk! You had me so goddamn worried! I thought you hated me!"

Naoto looked blankly at her for several seconds before shrinking back in shame. "S-sorry."

With a sigh, Rise gave her a half-hearted glare before grabbing her in a tight hug and burying her face in her shoulder. "Jerk," she mumbled into the jacket as Naoto wrapped her arms around her. "Don't do that ever again."

"You have no worries about that," Naoto muttered, linking her hands together behind Rise's back and setting her chin on her shoulder.

Kanji sat at the desk in his room, methodically stabbing a half-finished polar bear with a needle and wondering if Naoto and Rise had finally straightened things out. At the sound of a new text message on his cell phone, he reached out with the hand he had been resting his head on and flipped it open. It was from Rise.

Naoto-kun and I made up! We're heading over to Aiya. Wanna join us?

About frickin' time. He may have a crush on the girl the size of a small country, but Naoto could still majorly piss him off.

I'll meet you there in five minutes.

With that, he snapped his phone shut, winced at the sight of his needle poking through the bear's arm, and slunk out of his room and down the stairs.

When he walked through the door to Aiya, he saw Naoto and Rise already seated in the back corner and quickly walked over and sat down across from them.

"Finally got all this shit straightened out?" he grumbled in favor of a customary greeting. They both nodded, and Rise showed him their intertwined hands, Naoto looking away in embarrassment.

He smiled. "Good. I thought I was gonna hafta lock the two of you in a room until you made up." Or out, he wasn't really picky. Either would imply they were cool again.

"So," Rise said a few minutes later after their food had arrived, "you still like Naoto-kun, right Kanji-kun?"

Kanji flushed and sat up straight. Naoto was looking straight at him, her face unreadable. "Is now really the time?" he hissed, leaning across the table so his face was two inches from Rise's.

In response, Rise beamed at him, teeth and all. "Yes, actually."

Then she kissed him.

"Wh-what the hell was that?" he sputtered loudly when they broke apart, attracting the attention of most of the other customers. He glared at them until they went back to their meals, then turned back to a smirking Rise. "You asked if I liked Naoto-kun, not you."

"I know."

That one little statement, those two words, caused Kanji to go silent from shock. Naoto turned toward Rise, looking confused. At least he wasn't the only person in the dark here.

"What are you getting at, Rise-chan?" she asked, glancing briefly at Kanji's blank expression.

Smirk widening, Rise sat back in her seat and crossed her arms over her chest. "Well, I like you and Kanji-kun, you like both of us, and Kanji-kun likes me and you."

Kanji regained his use of speech and movement within a half-second of her words. He scowled and snapped, "What makes you think I like you?"

She looked over at him and stuck out her tongue. "If you were resisting, I couldn't tell."

His response was to blush crimson and sink down five inches in his seat.

"So? What's your point?" Naoto asked evenly, choosing to ignore Kanji's plight. Something he was extremely grateful for; his face felt like it was about to burst into flame.

Rise looked back at her. "Well, we all like each other, right?" After exchanging mirrored awkward look, both Naoto and Kanji nodded reluctantly. "Then, there we go!"

The two others looked at each other in shock while Rise just beamed.

Naoto didn't know what to call it or even know if she wanted to know what to call it. All she knew is that she wasn't as adverse to it as she had first expected.

If anything, she and Kanji were the two similar ones. The only reason any of them actually kissed was because of Rise, and that was mostly for her part.

Although, when it was just Naoto and Kanji, time was usually spent working or doing absolutely nothing. Kanji was usually content to just sit in silence with her leaning against him. With Rise, it was always something. Naoto had seen more movies in the past month than she had ever expected to in her life. Not that it was necessarily a bad thing, but she was usually bored with movies after a half-hour or so.

That wasn't to say Rise wasn't either, but whereas Naoto would have preferred to simply relax or accomplish something worthwhile instead, Rise was more inclined toward making out, something Naoto was grudgingly becoming accustomed to.

The afternoon Narukami left for Tokyo, the three of them sat huddled together in silence at the top of the hill. Rise was curled up between Naoto and Kanji with her head against the latter's shoulder, and Kanji had an arm resting across their shoulders.

Naoto watched the clouds drift overhead for a minute before taking Rise's hand and leaning against her.

Because the Persona section is lacking in such, and I just love these three to bits.

I wrote this a while ago, so there are probably some errors I overlooked while proofreading. Oh well.