When the ripples fade away, nobody moves. Then, slowly, unsure if you're allowed, you lean over and throw up everything in your stomach.

You don't look up for a long time, just watching your own stomach acid slowly dissolve into the red, but when you do, Yukiko has her face buried in Chie's stomach, arms still wrapped around her like a girl holding her teddy bear, and Chie's eyes are frozen wide open and staring at-at it. The back of her hair slowly drips red; the echoed sound of blood hitting blood is the only noise. Yukiko's chest expands with breath.

When you try to stand, your ankle protests-you think it's broken, but maybe just sprained. So you sit down. And the sound of blood sloshing around your ankles makes your stomach queasy again, so you wrap your arms around your knees and pull them close. But the light from the watch, still perched on its ruined pedestal, glares in your eyes, so you bury your head in your knees.

For god's sake, you think, and squeeze your knees tighter to your chest. Your school uniform is ruined now.

You could have, probably, stayed just like that. Fermenting in this lake of blood. Soaking in the smell of iron, until it all smells the same. Shutting your eyes, covering your ears. And when enough time had passed, you could shut this away deep in your foundations and never think of it again. Pack it all in, squeeze it down, compress, compress, wind it tight, until it's small and ugly and forgotten. Never mind the smell of rot and decay coming from the cellars; it's nothing, nothing happened, nothing is here, nothing is there. Dead water in the basement fermenting in itself, glass on the outside and bacteria on the inside.

But after a while, you hear somebody moving; the blood around your ankles begins to ripple. You look up with caution. Yukiko squirms under the broken angel like an animal caught in a trap; Chie blinks, as if waking from a daze, and realizes who's latched herself to her stomach. "Y-Yukiko," says Chie. Her voice trembles, and she swallows hard. "Are you… o-okay?"

"...My leg is stuck," says Yukiko, without removing her face from Chie's middle.

"O-Oh," says Chie. "I can t-try to move it…"

Yukiko, without raising her head, lets go of Chie, who in turn gets to her feet with disbelief, as if surprised to find that she's still alive. Her clothes drip thickly; her entire back of her body, from her head to her legs, is dyed a dark gelatinous crimson. She takes a few steps, footsteps splashing in the dark, sizes up the angel, then tentatively puts her hands on a wing and pushes. It doesn't move. She pushes harder. It doesn't move.

"U-Um, Adachi-kun?" she asks. "Do you mind giving me a hand…?"

"Sorry, Senpai," you reply. Your voice sounds strange and loud in your ears, and you duck your head. "Um, I think my ankle is… I don't really wanna move it."

"Oh, I'm sorry… I should have asked if you were okay…"

"I can, um…" Yukiko raises her head, but her eyes dart to-to it, and away, ashamed of what she's about to say. Her voice is small: "I can heal you."

So you stand up as best as you can on your own leg. It's your immediate instinct to play up the pain as much as possible, but… oh, it just-never mind, you think irritably. You limp to her without complaint. Nobody looks at Konohana Sakuya when she appears; it's too much in this dark, dank hole where the blood of this church gathers. Your ankle straightens itself out with a painful crack, and all three of you wince at the noise. Good to know they appreciate your pain.

"Thanks," you mumble, and grimace.

You take the other side of the angel, but your hands are almost entirely red, and much too slippery. You give an experimental tug. It doesn't move. Both you and Chie look at each other awkwardly.

"Let's put our elbows into it," she mumbles.

She hunches her back, digs her heels into the ground, and strains. The angel rocks, just a bit, but as Chie takes another huge breath, you feel the sudden urge to apologize. It's not right, you think, to be trying so hard, to be straining and striving and working and breathing. Just let it rest, you think; it's not all that bad. You pull halfheartedly. It's enough, anyway; Yukiko yanks her leg free, and the blood sloshes wildly under your feet.

Her leg seems no worse for wear. When she stands, her entire front is stained red, the tips of her hair are glued together, and she looks down at her ruined uniform with bemusement. She and Chie are a matching set, one bloody down the front, one down the back. It's clean coloration; you don't appreciate the splashes that creep upwards towards your own neck. The three of you stand in a circle, looking at each other's stains.

"I guess there's nothing left to do here," you say.

"I can't believe…" Chie begins, but her voice breaks.

Yukiko looks down at her feet, her hands clasped tightly in front of her. Chie clutches the sleeve of her own red-and-green jacket. Nobody, not even you, dares to look at it.

"I suppose so," says Yukiko quietly.

By standing on one of angel's wings, you're just able to grab the rim of the broken hole in the ceiling. Only Chie is actually capable of doing a pull-up, though, so she ends up having to give you and Yukiko a boost, and follows last to the floor above. The ash sticks all your soggy clothes, the hallway is still wrecked from Tomoe, and Chie's glasses are covered in blood, but the higher floor actually has dim lighting instead of the darkness of the floor below you, and you've honestly never been more grateful of something so small as light.

Nobody takes a moment to get the liquid out of your clothes: you all move as quickly as possible as far away as possible from the large, black hole in the ground. You wring your shirt out as you go; Chie and Yukiko just let their shirts and skirts drip, their shoes sloshing on the pavement.

It's only when the last cracks from Tomoe's attack on the hallway have disappeared that Chie clears her throat, warning that she's about to break the silence before she does (which you appreciate), and carefully asks, "Does anyone know where Yosuke-kun is?"

Yukiko looks around, as if just realizing he's missing. "He wasn't… We didn't leave him back down there, did we?" She says it likes you've left Yosuke to die.

"We couldn't have missed him," you object. You're not going back there.

"No, I suppose not," mumbles Yukiko. "Then… he should still be on this floor… right?"

You all look uncertainly at each other. You all seem to be doing that a lot.

"I didn't exactly see what happened, when…" You gesture to Chie, awkwardly. "When, uh…"

"Do you know what happened with Tomoe?" asks Yukiko.

Chie shrugs helplessly. Nobody questions it.

"Well," says Yukiko, and looks around at the two of you. It seems to have only just occurred to her that, without Yosuke, it's entirely up to her to lead the group. "Shall we… go?"

"Yeah," you say, possibly a little too fast, but nobody questions that, either. Chie wipes her glasses off as well as she can on the front of her jacket, you shove your now-empty hands in your pockets, and Yukiko hesitantly steps forward to lead the way across the shattered and cracked floor. Nobody looks back at the black, looming maw in the floor. It hits you, belatedly, that at the bottom of most old churches, usually lies a crypt.

You wander the floor for-you don't know how long. You don't have a watch on you. You don't foresee yourself wearing a watch for the rest of your life.

"Did he walk off someplace?" asks Chie. Yukiko looks doubtfully at the floor. When you pass by the stairs to the next floor, you all pause. "Maybe he went up a few floors?" Chie says, and Yukiko holds her hands out helplessly. The stone angels that frame the stairway is a twin set: a man and a woman, each reaching out for each other across the archway. To pass through, you'd have to avoid their arms.

You would have noticed a statue like that, you think, the first time you'd come down the stairs.

Chie leads you down a different hallway, and you don't think you've been down this corridor before, because you would have remembered the empty cathedral windows that hang on the walls-stained glass art, windows that show show you nothing on the other side, the glass glittering like TV static.

The fog feels thicker than ever, and it's not nice anymore. You feel claustrophobic, like it could swallow you and make you its own. You want to leave. You hope that damn ghost is happy now.

You pass through another hallway, of which the walls are entirely black. Yukiko lights a small Agi spell by which to see; as you follow Yukiko and Chie, you watch your trio of shadow suspiciously; blink, see four; blink, see three. The hallway ends in another dead end, for which Chie apologizes, explaining that the blood has made the glasses blurry, and she can't see as far as she did before. Yukiko tells her it's okay, and they promptly turn around and walk back. But you stay standing under the large arch, looking up at the stone gargoyle carved into the keystone. You saw one just like this earlier, you remember, right after the dice used-oh, what did Yosuke call it?

"That was just embarrassing," you tell it, low and resentful. "The amount of second-hand embarrassment I felt for you-geez."

You give your best sigh. You think even the gargoyle was impressed by that one.

"It's no good to be that transparent," you say, holding a bloody finger up in a parody of wisdom. "If you really wanna kick the bucket that badly, at least hide. Oh, I suppose that was what you were doing before we found you… Still, you could have at least pretended it was for something else. Pretend it was an accident, pretend you were drunk, pretend some invisible person was attacking you, pretend… it doesn't really matter. Zero out of ten, Namatame-san. What a mess."

"Written in my life," a voice sighs.

"Adachi-kun?" Yukiko calls back.

You put down your finger. Swallow hard. Scurry away, back into the fog, back to the protection of your senpais.

"Mayumi," it breathes. "I've lost your watch…"

You end up finding, entirely on accident, the actual stairway to the ninth floor. There's another set of stone angels here: the first angel, a man, his eyes blindfolded and expression skewed with pain, rips the woman's wings off with one hand and shoves her, between the shoulder blades, down the stairs with the other. The woman's mouth is open in surprise, but her vocal cords are entirely gouged out.

With the woman's arms clutching the stairwells, there's no way around, under, or over them. Yukiko and Chie hurry past. You do not stay with verify what liquid the man's blindfold is stained with.

When you finally find Yosuke in a large, empty room, he is slumped against the wall, headphones tangled beside him, and utterly still. A long streak of blood shines down one half of his face.

"Is Senpai…?" you say, before you shut up, but it's too late: the idea's infected everyone else.

"Yosuke-kun?" Yukiko says, horrified.

"H-Hey!" says Chie loudly, and creeps forward. Yosuke's dyed head doesn't move. "Hey!" she says, almost angrily, but refuses to go near him. "Y-Yosuke! Wake up!"

He doesn't move. Yukiko covers her mouth.

"Wake up," she begs. "Wake up!"

Yosuke groans.

"Oh my god," says Chie, and Yukiko gives a short, bubbly laugh before she covers her entire face in her hands.

"Ow, my head," Yosuke mumbles, and blinks blearily up at you. "What…" It takes him about two seconds longer to comprehend what he's looking at, and then he sits bolt upright. "Holy cow, what happened to you guys?! Are you guys okay?!" Nobody responds, and he looks to you. "Adachi-kun, what…?"

"You're a jerk!" Chie snaps, and punches him hard in the shoulder. Yosuke yelps and clutches his arm, protesting angrily, but Chie stomps away to the opposite wall, and crouches into a small ball and buries her head in her arms, showing only the red back of her school uniform.

"Chie-Yukiko-san...?" asks Yosuke, looking vaguely shellshocked. Yukiko shakes her head and doesn't remove her hands from her face, standing perfectly still. He turns to you. "Adachi-kun…?"

You open your mouth. Nothing comes out.

"C'mon," he pleads. "What's going on?"

You look helplessly at Yukiko, but she stands as still as the stone angels. Chie makes herself even smaller. You swallow hard around the lump in your throat. Make no waves. Let the water lie still.

The bottom floor of the church- you mean to say.

Nothing left to do here-- you mean to say.

Let's just leave- you mean to say.

You say, voice cracking: "I'm really glad you're alive, Senpai."

Yukiko laughs, fractured, into her hands.

You take him outside the room. The girls stay inside to-do whatever. Then it's just you and Yosuke and the headphones he's replacing around his neck, and the story isn't going to tell itself. You make yourself comfortable on the ash-covered pavement; a little more soot can't do any more damage.

"Well," you begin. "We… found Namatame."

Yosuke waits. "...So where is he?" he says, when you don't continue.

You have the crazy thought, for half a second, that you should just offer to show him. No, that means you'll have to go back yourself, and you're not going back there. But the word-who made that goddamn word, you think irritably. With it's soft consonants, the S and C, like brushing the edge of a knife; the nasal I, and the hard D as it hits the ground… It's too much. But here you are with Yosuke, and he wants to know...

"Adachi-kun?" he says, looking more and more worried by the second.

You swallow hard. "He used Last Resort."

Yosuke's nose wrinkles. "He what?"

You look away. You have no idea what kind of expression you're making, but it feels much too open for your tastes. "Come on, Senpai. Just cut me some slack. I'm… I can't spell this one out for you."

"But I don't know what happened to start with!"

"He used Last Resort," you say again, whining.

"Like his Shadow came out and attacked you guys?"

"No, he," you begin again, but stop.

"Then I don't…"

"He had a gun," you snap. "And there's only one thing guns are good for, alright?"

Yosuke recoils, which is satisfying for about three seconds, and then you just feel nauseous again. You have to get out of this place. When Yosuke doesn't say anything, you scratch the back of your head (only getting blood in your hair) and say, "Sorry for snapping at you. I just… I don't really wanna talk about it."

Yosuke's eyes are still wide, like he's trying to put together the puzzle pieces in any way other than the right answer. "Okay," he says weakly. "Um… Jesus. Did you… see… when he...?"

"I guess I should also report," you say, wrapping your arms around your knees again, "that from what he was saying before he-before, it sounds like he killed both the enka singer and the news reporter."

"Oh," says Yosuke.

"I guess he pushed them in by accident or something. Or maybe he pushed them in intentionally. I dunno, he started monologuing to his wristwatch, apologizing to both of them. He probably didn't know what the TV world was like, or what happens when somebody ends up inside. A series of terrible mistakes. And then he regretted it tremendously."

Yosuke shrinks where he sits.

"And, uh, all that on your clothes…?"

"It was just there where we found him. Lots of it," you say shortly. "Probably came with the setting, like the ash."

"Okay," he says again, his voice even smaller.

"Hey, so," you say, desperate to turn the subject elsewhere. "Why were you so far away?"

Yosuke startles, then looks away quickly. "I, uh, think I walked there. The hallway was kind of a wreck. Do you know what happened with Chie's Persona?"

"We don't really know yet, Senpai. Why on earth did you walk there?"

"I couldn't find you guys," he says, sounding affronted, but if you're gonna talk it's not going to be about Namatame.

"So you walked there, and…" You gesture for him to complete the sentence. "Collapsed?"

Yosuke doesn't respond.

"...Yosuke-senpai?" you say, suddenly worried.

"I…" He swallows hard and winces, like it's painful, and turns away. "...I don't remember. I hit my head pretty hard; I think I... yeah, probably collapsed or something," he mumbles. He pats his jacket pocket, finds his notebook still there. "Shouldn't we ask Chie what happened to Tomoe?" he asks halfheartedly.

"If you wanna talk to her right now, be my guest," you say, mockingly. You dare him; you wanna see that crash and burn.

"No thanks," he mumbles. "Adachi-kun," he starts, but stops.

You look at him tiredly. "What?"

He looks you in the eye.

"...I want to go see the body."

You stand. "Absolutely not."

"This is important!" he protests.

"For what?" you say, feeling your face on the verge of sneering. "The mystery's over. We're going home, where we'll hopefully take a hot bath and forget all about this. Your pal Narukami-san will figure it out with the police when the body ends up in the telephone wires."

He looks a bit like you've punched him in the gut, but he gets to his feet no slower than you. "I need to, and if you won't take me, I'll go myself."

"Don't be stupid. You'll die from Shadows," you snap.

"I don't see any on this floor anymore. Maybe they're all gone now that he is."

You physically flinch. "And maybe they're not," you say instead.

"Then I'm a fast runner."

"You're crazy," you say flatly.

"I need to know if there's any evidence he left behind," Yosuke says firmly. "Did you examine the body?"

"No!" you cry. Examine the body after-after what you saw him do? Fuck no!

"Then I have to know," says Yosuke.

You have the absurd notion that he's two seconds from getting down on his hands and knees and begging you, and that's ridiculous, he can't possibly-but the desperation in his voice can't be a lie. He looks like he's been rubbed raw. "We've started this, so we have to finish this. I have to know the truth," he pleads.

You hesitate.

"You're crazy!" exclaims Chie, which is what you said.

"Absolutely not," says Yukiko, which is also what you said.

"I only need one person to come with me," says Yosuke. "I don't wanna drag all of you guys back there, but we should do a buddy system. Here," he says, handing them the notebook. "The maps aren't all complete, but the stairs are definitely accurate. All eight floors are there and labelled; I just don't have the ninth one because, well, obvious reasons. Just meet us back on the first floor or something."

"We shouldn't split up," protests Yukiko.

"Yukiko, I'm not going back there," Chie murmurs.

"Like I told Adachi-kun," says Yosuke, "I'm going whether someone comes with me or not. I'll figure out where it is."

Chie and Yukiko look at each other.

"I really don't think we should split up," says Yukiko again.

"Adachi-kun will protect me," says Yosuke.

"Ha ha," you say weakly. You hope he was joking.

"So we'll be o-"

"Please don't go," Chie blurts out.

She looks like she regrets it as soon as she says it. Even Yosuke looks disturbed.

"I... don't know if you think is a joke or what," says Chie, "but-there's no need. He's-gone. We can't rescue him or ask him questions or anything at all. We even know what happened to the news reporter and enka singer. You don't need to see it. Just stay here."

"If we're gonna wrap this case up-"

"You do not," Chie pleads, "need to see the body. It's over. Please, Yosuke, let's just go home."

"All of you already saw it-"

Yukiko eyes flash with murderous intent, but Chie beats her to it: "That's precisely why you shouldn't. We've seen it, and-please, Yosuke. It's not a matter of squeamishness, or evidence, or getting your clothes dirty-you can't unsee something like that. Please," she says, "just stay with us."

"I-"

"I will fight you and drag your unconscious body with us," she snaps. "Is that what you want me to say, Yosuke? Would that be normal? That would be great. Just like we're back at school, right? Everything's fine?"

When you look back at Yosuke, shocked speechless, you realize with your own surprise: you want him to go there. Wouldn't that be great, you think savagely; knock the pain right into him, make him realize how badly he's screwed up. Do it, you think. You dare him. And maybe then, you can all feel like it is just another day at school-Chie fighting with Yosuke, Yukiko looking on with bemusement, Yosuke as stupid and clueless and immature as ever.

Stay stupid, you think angrily. Stay naive and clueless.

Take the apple, you think, ever more angrily. And we'll see how you like the hard fall.

"You're right," says Yosuke. "...Sorry."

Chie breathes out hard. "I can't believe you," she mutters.

"Then let's get out of here quickly," says Yosuke. He looks over his shoulder. "If there's nothing else we gotta do, then we shouldn't stay here."

You're, honestly speaking, exhausted. "That's a great idea," you say earnestly.

"That's the first smart thing you've said," sighs Chie. Her fists are trembling.

Yukiko nods, even eagerly. "Let's hurry," she says, also glancing over Yosuke's shoulder. You wonder, again, about if ghosts can exist in the TV world.

"Here," says Yosuke, fumbling with the notebook and handing it to Chie, "you can take the map. It'll be faster if you do it, since you have the glasses and everything."

"Good idea," you say, and everyone nods. "Now can we get out of here?"

Chie leads you past the stone angels leading to the upper floor. The male angel still reaches for the woman, but now her arms are missing, her face corroded, her body chipped and cracked; crumbling like sand and salt.

And, of course, Yosuke goes missing on the seventh floor.

"Did we lose him?" asks Yukiko.

"I'm going to kick his ass," Chie says, furious.

You blanch. "You don't think he went back?"

"He must have," Yukiko murmurs.

"I swear-"

"No, you guys go ahead," you say quickly. "I can get him."

"We shouldn't split up," says Yukiko immediately.

"We haven't seen any Shadows, so they must be all gone," you say; "I'll be fine. We'll meet you at the first floor. I'm a fast runner."

"Adachi-kun-"

"I'll be back in a sec," you say, almost cheerily, and turn back for the stairs to the eighth floor.

"Adachi-kun!" you hear someone call, but you run fast and hard. If you're fast enough, you think, you might be a faster runner than Yosuke. You hope Yosuke didn't run. What's the hurry? Namatame's not going anywhere.

The cracked, ruptured hallway is the same as when you left it-the jagged lines in the cobblestones, the barely-stable ceiling, the gouges in the walls, the black hole punctured through the floor. A long trail of bloody footprints that mark the group's hasty retreat and eventually fading out, all the foot trails intertwining as if a six-legged person passed through. You are very sincerely sorry to see this hallway again, and you stop walking involuntarily.

Yosuke is crouching at the edge of the hole.

"Senpai!" you yell, and break into a run again. "Senpai, wait! Stop!"

Yosuke grimaces, looks down at the hole, and slips inside.

"No!"

You skid to a halt at the rim where Yosuke's left his shoes; you have half a mind to jump in there with him, but you are absolutely not doing that. "Senpai! Please, come back!" You even hold out your hand, as if he'd take it voluntarily.

He looks up at you apologetically; the blood ripples around his bare ankles, his pants rolled up to his knees. "Adachi-kun, I'm have to put this case to rest," he says, looking up at you through the hole. "If I don't do this, this is gonna haunt me for the rest of my life."

You have a few choice words for him about who's haunting who; you'd very much like to get out of this damn church now. "It's not worth it," you plead. "C'mon, please, Senpai."

"You're not my mother, Adachi-kun."

"I'm pretty sure your real mother must have told you not to look directly at the sun," you snap. "And I'm telling you, you don't look at the sun for a very good reason."

Yosuke visibly grits his teeth, looks out into the darkness, and marches out of your sight.

"SENPAI!"

No response. You slam your fist on the ground. You hope, earnestly and honestly, that whatever he sees down there fucks him up; you hope he goes goddamn blind. You hope he finds not a shred of evidence towards convicting Namatame. You hope he finds his truth entirely, absolutely worthless.

Yosuke splashes back into sight not four seconds later. "Are you okay?!" is the first thing you say.

"I haven't done anything yet," he says, looking thoroughly harassed, in the same way that a prisoner is cajoled by his inmates before going off to his execution. "What did this place look like when you left it?"

"I'm not telling you. Come back up."

"I'm already here, geezus, just tell me."

You stare down at him with pure spite.

"Okay, from what you guys told me before-he was wearing a regular business suit, with a jacket," says Yosuke, ticking it off on his fingers. "He had leather shoes. He had his gun in his right hand. He put his watch down on a piece of rubble somewhere. You mentioned it was a gift from Mayumi Yamano, so he didn't want to get it dirty. That's right so far, right?"

You think of the angels fighting on the stairwell, the man rendering his wife wingless and shoving her into hell.

"That's right," you say, and watch as something small gives up in Yosuke's eyes.

"Right. I'll go check now," he mutters, and walks away off into the darkness again.

"Senpai?" you call. There's no answer. "Yosuke-senpai!" you call again, more frantically.

"It's okay," he calls back, sounding… something. "Are you sure that was exactly how it went?"

"Yes," you say, feeling impatient and foolish for worrying. "Can we go?"

"Yeah," comes the muffled reply, although the voice sounds much closer. "Just… give me a second."

You peer through the hole, and Yosuke drags himself back into sight, shoulders slumped, and sits in the curve of the angel's waist. He stares out into the black. Crosses his arms, shoulders hunched. Stares some more. Puts his head in his hands.

You stay far away from the hole and give him his second.

Yosuke's footprints join the trail. He looks, dully, back at the path he's walked. "Four sets of footprints, huh?" he says, listless, and without waiting much for an answer, hands you your kama (you must have forgotten them in the lake) and starts walking, shoes and socks in hand. His feet, up to his ankles, are the same deep red as Chie's back and Yukiko's front and your all over.

"Did you find what you were looking for?"

He considers this. It's not that hard of a question, for god's sake.

"I didn't find any evidence that could be used for the investigation," he says, and hangs his head.

"Oh," you say. "Too bad."

"This way?" asks Yosuke, pointing off to the right. You peer down through the fog. You see the faint outline of an arch, the silhouette of a gargoyle; you hear a whisper in your head.

"Nope! Left," you say. Yosuke goes left, and together you make your way up through the floors in silence.

The ash clears up. The rust stains recede and disappear. The stonework becomes a lighter shade of grey, then returns to marble white. The air clears; light glows stronger, purer; the fog becomes its usual clean white. Your clothes dry. The thick coat of blood cracks, and the blood sheds from you like second skin, but the color remains. You can't see the black from your uniform anymore-it's all dyed a solid, implausibly bright scarlet.

The first floor is so white and clean you feel a bit like you've been punched. How do places like this still exist? God, you realize, only this afternoon you were at school. What the hell was the homework for today? You never forget what the homework is. This is surreal.

You and Yosuke wander the first floor until you spot Yukiko and Chie sitting at a fountain full of crystal clear water, under the shade of some strange-looking statue. They both look a bit like drowned rats, with their hair dripping water in their faces and clothes soaked through. You're busy figuring out that they've washed the blood out of their and off their skin when Chie spots you and leaps to her feet.

"You guys took so long!" she says, stomping her way over to you, but once she's in your face she just looks you up and down, looking for injuries. Her expression is taut with strain. "You're okay? You didn't have to fight any Shadows?"

You sigh heavily. "We were right about them. There aren't any left."

Yukiko smiles, a tiny bit, and breathes out in relief. "We were worrying," she admits. "You can wash your skin in the water, but the color doesn't come out of the clothes. Sorry about that. You can get the ash out, though."

You sit down on the floor with a groan and lean against the fountain. The statue is, thankfully, not an angel statue, instead featuring a mask and long coat that dips into the water; the placard reads Izanagi, although it's like no depiction of Izanagi you've ever seen before. "My feet are killing me," you mutter, before you blink and sit upright. "Wait a minute. What're we gonna do about getting out through Junes? We can't just walk through the department store with our clothes like this." And what're you gonna do about your missing uniform?

Everyone looks at Yosuke. "I'll do it," he says tonelessly, and begins washing the blood from his feet.

Chie looks at Yukiko, then pulls away. Yukiko looks down.

"I said you shouldn't have gone," says Chie, with a passable attempt at casualty.

Yosuke pauses in scrubbing the red off his feet. "I guess so," is all he says.

"Did you find anything?" says Yukiko, in a very small voice.

"No," says Yosuke. "I guess the investigation is closed until further notice."

"Weren't you the one who threw up when we were dissecting a frog in science?"

"Yeah," says Yosuke, and steps out of the fountain onto the white marble. He pulls his socks on over his still-wet feet. "I need to know what size you guys wear," he continues. "You don't have to be exact; I'll just get t-shirts or something. Also pants sizes."

"Geez," mumbles Chie, "be a bit more tactful when asking a girl that…"

Yukiko laughs weakly. You know that the smile your mouth attempts looks nothing like a smile.

"I don't have any money on me," says Yukiko hesitantly.

Yosuke pulls on his shoes and stands. "I think the leader should be Yukiko-san."

The look Chie gives him is incredulous.

"Wha-" you sputter. "What're you bringing that up for? Now? Where did that segue come from?!"

"I've thought about it, and I think the leader should be Yukiko-san," he says, and nothing more. He crosses his arms, more defensively than anything, and looks at his own feet.

Chie visibly grinds her teeth. "Okay, what the hell-"

"It doesn't really matter," says Yukiko, before Chie can get started. "The investigation is over, anyway."

The reminder deflates Chie like a popped balloon.

"...Well, for what it's worth," says Yukiko, ever the diplomat, even as she visibly sways where she stands, "thank you, Yosuke-kun. I'm… honored you think I am capable of the responsibility, despite my-our… young age."

"Adults are just older kids, anyway," he mumbles.

"I still don't have any money," says Yukiko, looking vaguely shellshocked.

"I've got it," says Yosuke.

The walk back to the entrance is entirely silent.

Yosuke goes out through the TVs. Yukiko, Chie, and you sit in the middle of the target, looking away from the corpse outlines, but also each other. It doesn't leave a lot to look at. Eventually, you remember you left your schoolbag here, and you pull that over and start ruffling through the pages.

It looks like a foreign language to you. You keep looking through them if only to avoid looking at anything else.

Yosuke comes back in through the TVs, holding a Junes grocery bag with one pair of long pants, one t-shirt, two capris, and two blouses. They are surprisingly color-coordinated and, dare you say, fashionable. They look normal and entirely foreign. "I forgot shoes because I forgot to ask what size shoes you guys are," he sighs, rubbing his neck.

So there's another round of people reeling off what size they wear, and Yosuke disappears back into the TV. Yukiko and Chie go off in one direction to change; you in another. You all return to the same spots and the same silence, but now you all look-normal. Yukiko's hair is dry, and she slides her headband back into place. Chie's bare arms are entirely spotless. Your own clothes are clean and dry and even comfortable on your skin, like you've just taken a bath. Just a group of high school students in casual clothes, barefoot, all sitting in a circle.

Yosuke returns with two pairs of sneakers and one pair of flats. These, also, are surprisingly well-matched. You put them on. You feel like you're putting a costume, preparing to play Tohru Adachi, and you, the carbon copy, are utterly indistinguishable from the original you've replaced.

Once Chie has laced her own sneakers up, the four of you look at each other, all standing in a circle. "...Shall we go?" asks Yukiko.

You all leave your bloody clothes folded neatly in rows by the railing, shoes pointing toes out. It is, you suppose, the closest you will get to Namatame's funeral. Chie looks down at the neat line; a small graveyard of tombstones made of shirts and skirts instead of stone.

"I shouldn't be this angry," she says softly. "But I sort of am. I'm angry I didn't wake up early enough. I'm angry you broke your ankle and Yukiko got stuck. But I think I'm mostly angry at-at him, y'know? I don't have any right to be angry. I shouldn't be blaming him for anything. It sounds like it was mostly an accident, how he-how the news reporter died. I… I don't know about the enka singer, but…"

She takes a shaky breath. Yukiko's hands clench tightly around her fans. Yosuke rests his head on his hand like he has a headache, lets his hand slip over one eye.

"That was just cowardly. It's hypocritical of me to say, but even if you don't have the strength to resolve it, or even the power to fix it, at least have the courage to face what you've done."

You look down at the row of uniforms, and feel the desperate urge to hide. But you can't think of a single place left that's safe.

Chie sniffs loudly, hiding her red eyes, and goes headfirst through the TV; then Yukiko, then Yosuke.

"Mayumi," the fog moans.

You don't look back.

You open the door to your house. Step through. Shut the door.

"I'm home," you say.

"Welcome back," comes your mother's dull response, along with an increase in the TV's volume.

You look down at your own new shoes. She'll probably ask about them, and your new shirt, and new pants, you know. You toe off the shoes. You don't have any socks; Yosuke forgot to buy any. Your schoolbag is unfamiliar in your hand. You look down at the threshold, and step into the living room.

Your mother is currently attempting to fuse with the sofa; she's slumped deep into its pillows, two empty beer cans on the table and one in her hand. She flips the channel. You stare at the TV; just on the other side of that screen... "How was school," she asks, absently.

"Good," you say.

"Working hard on that project?"

"Yes," you say.

"Good," she says.

"What are we having for dinner?" you ask.

Her zoned-out expression curdles. "This isn't a restaurant," she snaps.

"Sorry," you say.

"No, I know sarcasm when I-" and she turns out and stops. She looks you up and down. Oh, boy, you think. Here it comes-

"What's wrong with your face?"

You stiffen. "My-? There's nothing wrong with my face."

She's looking at you like you're a stranger who's stepped into her house. "Alright," she says, looking-wary. "What happened? Spit it out."

"Nothing happened."

"Then don't walk around with that-that face. I hope nobody saw you with that face."

You pause.

"I saw a cat get hit by a car today."

She looks at you with confusion, like she has no idea why you're telling her this; but the puzzle pieces click, and her expression clears into-disgust. "Oh," she says. "...Sorry to hear."

She scoots away from you on the couch.

"What're we having for dinner?" you ask again.

"Cabbages," she says brusquely, but pauses. "...I can make a side of rice, if you'd like."

You don't say anything.

"For god's sake, Tohru," she says, "it was only a cat."

When she walks to the kitchen, she gives you a large berth, like you're contagious. She puts dishes in front of you and you eat her boiled cabbage, and even the dry rice; then you take a shower, change into your pajamas, and slide into bed. You pull your covers up above your nose to protect as much of your skin as you can, leaving only your eyes to stand guard.

You watch the moon through your bedroom window, and when it sets, you watch the sun rise.

At lunch the next day, wearing your spare uniform, you find Yosuke burning his notebook on the school roof.

"Oh, Adachi-kun!" he says, and waves, flashing what looks like his usual salesman smile. He snaps the lighter closed. The fire crackles, small but wild under the afternoon sun, burning its place into the concrete. "Wasn't expecting anyone up here. I think Chie is spending the day at the Amagi Inn with Yukiko, if you were wondering. I didn't know you ate lunch up here."

"I usually… don't, I eat at my desk, what are you…?"

His smile grows almost fond, almost… melancholic. "Well, I was thinking-we don't need it now that we've caught the killer. I'm certainly not keeping it for find memories. So, if somebody found it, it's just be dangerous, wouldn't it?"

"O-Oh… I guess that makes sense," you say, shrugging sheepishly and watching him from under your bangs. "But, Yosuke-senpai-there's nobody who'd be able to understand that notebook except ourselves and the murderer, right?"

"Just in case," he says. "You can never be too sure."

Among the ways to destroy written documents, most can be recovered: submerged in water, smeared with ink, shredded and ripped-all can be pieced back together, restored, treated with chemicals. But fire isn't a physical change; it's a chemical reaction, fundamentally changing the paper and everything on it into a substance entirely different. It is surefire, absolute, foolproof. Permanent.

"I guess I wouldn't want anyone asking strange questions either," you agree. Yosuke's teeth show. "But it seems… unnecessary, doesn't it? All that information you recorded, all those weaknesses and maps…"

Yosuke looks at the little pile of ashes, looking so much like the ash you washed off your clothes yesterday. The last pages curl, glowing at the edges, and finally die. He crushes them under his foot.

"Well," he says, quietly, "there can be no turning back now."