Started playing Persona 5 Royal during the lockdown, wondered how on Earth I'd been sleeping on the series for so long, and then promptly started on P4 on an emulator. Decided to try writing up something as a break before picking up P3, which resulted in this story. Hope you enjoy!

"And summer's lease hath all too short a date."

- Shakespeare, Sonnet 18

"Oi, kid…"

"Five more minutes…" Yu Narukami groaned, clumsily swatting away the hand firmly pressing against his shoulder.

Ugh… my head hurts…

"Oi, kid! This isn't a place to take a nap!"

He felt himself being shoved more forcefully from where he lay in the ground, and resigning himself, began to slowly open his eyes. He immediately regretted his decision, wincing from a combination of both the throbbing pain in his head and the glaring sunlight in the sky above.

He turned toward the one that had woke him up, expecting it to be some kind of prank from Yosuke, but –

"Hey, wait a second," the voice was now laced with suspicion, as an unfamiliar face occupied the entirely of his field of view. "You look like a high school kid. Playing truant?"

Now that he had a few more seconds to adjust to the sudden change in sunlight and catch his bearings, he could finally make sense of just why he was being unceremoniously woken up by the police officer in front of him. It didn't make sense. School term hadn't even started yet.

More importantly, though, why was he being rudely prodded by some police officer out in the middle of nowhere? He shut his eyes tightly again, ignoring the ache that still persisted in his mind, trying to recall just how he ended up in… well, wherever he currently was.

There was a farewell party for him, he could remember that much. Had Yosuke or Rise, or any one of his other friends brought alcohol along?

No, that didn't make sense, Uncle wouldn't have allowed it, and they knew better than to do anything like that with Nanako around. But then, what else could it have been?

It was then, of course, that he remembered.

Adachi's letter. Confronting the one who had silently watched things unfold. Entering through the television at Junes once more. Fighting their way through hordes of Shadows.

Confronting an actual, literal Goddess who had created the Midnight Channel, and who had observing them all this while as the murders unfolded.

Izanami.

That's right, he thought, although now panic was beginning to set in. We fought her. Everyone was dragged by those black tendrils back into the fog. I faced my Shadow, and unlocked a new Persona, but then…

Everything else was a blank. He remembered piercing through the fog of illusions with the orb that Margaret had given him, returning to face Izanami once more to bring his friends back and put and end to everything.

Frustratingly, he couldn't remember anything else beyond that.

"Oi, kid, are you even listening to me?" The irate officer scolded. "Do I have to take you down to the station?"

"No, that won't be necessary," Yu finally said as he pushed himself up to his feet, and was surprised at how his voice was hoarse and cracked. "Sorry for the trouble, officer."

He blinked in mild surprise as he now recognised just exactly where he was. The Samegawa river was somewhere he'd been many times before, especially since Nanako's recovery form her kidnapping over the last few months. She'd been adamant about him spending time playing with her, since she had only a few more months left with him before he left.

More importantly, as his headache could attest to, the sun shone brightly through clear skies.

There was no fog. They'd stopped Izanami from merging the Midnight Channel with Inaba and the rest of their world.

Still, though… something didn't sit right with him. He couldn't remember just how he'd ended up sleeping in the dirt of the Samegawa riverbank, and that mildly irked him.

"Get going, kid," the officer said gruffly, eyeing him for a few seconds before walking back to the main road. He paused at the steps, giving a final few parting words. "And stay in school! If I see you napping here again, I'm taking you down to the station!"

Yu didn't know why the officer was making such a fuss, since the school term hadn't even started yet. It was why he had to say farewell to his friends and new family and return to the city, after all.

He shook his head. There were more important matters to deal with. He didn't quite know just what had happened, but simply standing around there wasn't going to give him any new information. He needed to get home, to find Nanako and uncle Doujima, and then call his friends to organise a final meetup at Junes.

Plan in mind, he jogged quickly back toward the house he'd called home for close to a year. He apologised rapidly each time he almost bumped into someone in his haste, but he couldn't spare any more time beyond that. He needed to make sure that Nanako was safe, that everyone had been brought back from –

"Senpai!" Rise screamed, as spectral hands reached up from below, her body already dragged midway past her torso into the black void below. "Help –"

Her cries fell short, as with a final tug, the entirety of her body vanished into the ground.

"Yu!" Yosuke shouted, and Yu felt himself being forcefully dragged out from where he'd been sinking down below. "Don't space out, now! We need to keep –"

More limbs coiled and pulled at Yosuke. Despite his desperate struggles, he, too, vanished into the same blackness that had already claimed Chie, Yukiko, Kanji, Teddie, and Naoto.

"…'re counting on you!" Yu could just barely make out Yosuke's final words, before even he was forced down into the inky fog.

– No. They had to be alive. His pace quickened, heart thumping rapidly not just from exertion alone, and he soon found himself standing in front of the Doujima residence. He turned the handle, but it remained locked. He fumbled around quickly in the bag at his side, searching for the key, but couldn't find it at all. After a few seconds, still panting madly, he gave up, and went for a more direct approach.

"Nanako!" he shouted, banging loudly at the door. "Are you in there? It's me!"

No answer.

"Nanako!" he shouted once more, desperation entering his voice. "Answer me!"

There was still no answer.

A chilly dread was now setting in, but he refused to put his deepest fears into words. It couldn't be. It simply couldn't.

He quickly dug out the phone in his pocket, hastily entering in the string of digits he'd memorised by heart.

Please…

He could hear the faint ringing of the phone inside the house. One ring. Two rings.

"Hello?" A familiar voice came over the line.

Immediately, Yu felt all the tension in his body that had built up in his mad rush home leaving him, replaced with a sense of relief rivalled only by the time he'd seen Nanako return to life in the hospital.

"Nanako! It's me!" he replied, making no effort to hide any of the emotion he currently felt. "I'm outside! I've been knocking on the door for a while now, couldn't you hear?"

"Ummm…"

There were a few more seconds of silence over the line.

"Nanako?"

She must have set the phone down, since all he now heard was a series of flat chimes. He placed the phone back in his pocket, as he could just faintly pick out footsteps approaching the other side of the door.

"Nanako!" he greeted, already about to step forward and hug her tightly when he saw the door begin to open.

He only managed a single step, before he stared, wide-eyed, at the person fidgeting nervously on the other side.

"Nana…ko?"

"Ummm…" She didn't look him in the eye, shying away slightly behind the door. "I'm sorry, I don't think I remember you…"

-o-o-o-

The girl before him was not Nanako, and yet he knew without a doubt that she was. She was far taller than Nanako had been, and her speech much more refined than the adorable childish tone she spoke with, but every single other feature of her practically screamed of the little sister he'd gradually grown close to over the past year; one he'd do anything to protect.

It didn't make any bit of sense, and with the sheer shock he now felt seeing this familiar stranger, all he could do was stand there staring at her wordlessly.

It was Nanako. He knew that for a fact.

But why had she grown taller – and now that he thought about it, seemed older? Why didn't she recognise him? Why hadn't she opened the door?

Just as quickly, it hit him.

Nanako doesn't open the door to strangers.

"Mister?" He blinked, his head jerking slightly, as Nanako finally stepped closer. "Are you alright? You look a little pale…"

Nothing was making any sense.

"Mister?" she repeated, slightly more concerned now. "Are you okay?"

"Nanako…" his voice trailed off, his mind racing all the while, thinking furiously to try and put some sense into all of this. "It's Yu! You don't recognise me?"

"Umm… sorry…" she said sheepishly, sounding almost guilty, every bit the Nanako that he knew. "But I don't think I've ever met you…"

It was impossible, and yet he knew that it was the truth. Nanako didn't lie.

Just what the hell had happened back with Izanami?

"Mister?"

He peeked inside the room. Everything was just as he remembered it being: the coffee table, the place they'd sit in front of the television to eat, even the position of the sofa. There was an ashtray on the table by the sofa, and a folded-up newspaper lying abandoned on the cushion. No doubt his uncle had been reading it just after dinner the night before.

A newspaper.

"Hey, Nanako," he said, ignoring how his voice sounded strained. "Could I see that newspaper for a second, please?"

"Okay," she said only after a moment of hesitation. "Wait over here, okay?"

He watched her as she made her way over, his mind rapidly conjuring up scenario after scenario of what could have happened. Was this some illusion of the fog, some kind of false life Izanami was forcing him to see? Or was this reality?

No. He had to stay focused. Nanako tidied up the loose pages together, before returning over to the door. He took the newspaper from her with a quick word of thanks, and desperately looked over the front page.

Several details struck him at once.

The date. June 1st, 2016.

The bolded headlines. Concerns mount over unexplained mental breakdowns, pressure escalating on public officials.

The advertisement in the corner. Rise Kujikawa's newest album, Sapphire, has just been released! Listen to the twenty-year old rising star's latest songs on the following streaming platforms, or buy a physical copy today!

He was starting to get a bit of a clearer picture, now, but none of it made the slightest bit of damned sense.

"Mister!"

He blinked, forcing himself out of his thoughts and found himself level with Nanako's concerned face. When had his knees given way?

"Sorry," he mumbled.

"Are you sure you're alright?"

Slightly more than five years had passed by in an instant, and he didn't have the slightest clue as to why, Nanako didn't seem to remember him at all, and most frustratingly of all, he couldn't remember a thing about how the battle with Izanami had ended. If this was reality, then…

"I'm fine," he lied. "Nanako – this is going to sound weird, but I need to ask some questions, okay?"

"What questions? How do you know my name?"

He ignored her question. There was no good answer he could come up with. "Five years ago, were there any strange occurrences in Inaba?"

"I don't think so," she said, scrunching her face. "I was only seven then, but I don't remember anything out of the usual in particular."

"And you've never heard of the Midnight Channel?"

"No, what's that?" she asked curiously in return. "I'm not allowed to watch TV that late."

"And Chie, Yosuke , Yukiko, Teddie, Kanji, Rise, Naoto – do any of these names sound familiar to you?"

"Oh!" Recognition finally entered her voice, but his own relief at that was a fleeting one. "Chie's dad's new subordinate, right? And Mister Yosuke's the nice guy over at Junes! I see Miss Yukiko around in the shopping district when she buys things, and I know Mister Kanji from when he helps out at the textile store! And the idol Rise came back to Inaba a few years ago when she took a break from her career!" Her spark in her eyes dulled slightly after that. "I don't think I know of a Teddie or Naoto in Inaba now, though…"

He was starting to get a picture, now. For whatever reason, this world seemed to behave as if the events of the Midnight Channel had never happened. Rise would still have returned, since her decision to stop her idol career had happened before she even knew anything about the Midnight Channel, but without Adachi's murders, Teddie and Naoto wouldn't have had any reason to come to Inaba.

Was all of this happening because they defeated Izanami? Had that erased the Midnight Channel completely, alongside everything that had happened because of it?

No, that doesn't make sense, he thought furiously. I would still have stayed at Uncle's place. Nanako would still recognise me.

But what else could have happened? Even something as far-fetched as time travel into the future was plainly out, since past events had changed as well. He needed to ask someone – anyone –

Igor. Margaret. They would have the answers.

Hurriedly, he dug around in his pocket once more, but to his dismay and rapidly escalating dread, the Velvet Key was missing. All he had was his wallet.

Still, he took that out, as a new idea entered his mind. Ignoring the look of growing concern and curiosity on the face of the little sister who didn't know he even existed, he took a look at his identity card.

Yu Narukami. His name was unchanged, as was his date of birth.

What was different, was the year.

For whatever reason, his identity now stated that he was born in 1999, a full five years later than he knew it should be.

"Nanako," he said slowly. "Do you have any cousins on your dad's side?"

She nodded. "Yeah! There's cousin Souji! I think he's twenty-one this year?" She paused for a moment. "Oh, yeah! I remember now! He came to stay with us for a bit five years ago!" Then, she gasped. "Oh! You look a little like him, actually!"

"He's your dad's sister's son, right?"

"Yeah!" she confirmed. "Do you know him?"

"And his full name… is he Souji Narukami?"

She shook her head. "His family name is Seta," she corrected.

Souji Seta. For whatever reason, things were beginning to seem as though he had completely replaced Yu's own existence in what was looking like a completely different reality than what he knew it to be. He'd spent an uneventful year in Inaba, and then returned back to the city once it was over. Life went on.

Just what the hell was going on here?

"Hey Mister, you don't look so good," Nanako spoke up. "Do you want to come in and sit down for a moment? I can get the first aid kit and some medicine if you need –"

"I'm fine," he brushed her aside. "I'm sorry, Nanako. I need to get going."

"Wait! How do you know my name? Do I know you?"

"I'm sorry, Nanako," he mumbled, refusing to look her in the eye, now. "I don't know the answers myself."

With that, he ran away from the home he'd known for a year, completely directionless, ignoring the cries of the girl both stranger and sister to him.

-o-o-o-

It took a long while before he got his emotions under control. It was already well into the evening before he could finally think rationally, and get his priorities straight for the immediate future.

First off, he really needed a roof over his head. Very thankfully, with all the part-time work he'd managed to accomplish in the time between defeating Ameno-Sagiri in December and the end of March, he should have enough to tide him over for some time.

That 'some' was relative, of course. He doubted it could last for longer than a few weeks. High school students really didn't earn much.

It was with that thought in mind, that he now found himself standing in front of the Amagi inn, hoping that he had enough to cover himself for a few days while he figured out what to do about the predicament he found himself in.

The moment he stepped inside, he found himself once more rooted to the spot.

Yukiko manned the counter at the front, somehow looking even more elegant and refined than he remembered her being. Numbly, he forced his feet to move forward, ignoring the pang in his chest as she greeted him with a courteous smile devoid of any familiarity at him at all.

"Welcome to the Amagi inn," she said, bowing slightly. "How may I help you?"

A few seconds passed, the moment stretching uncomfortably long, before he finally managed to speak from a strangely dried throat.

"Could I rent a room for a few days, please?"

"May I ask if you have a reservation with us?"

"No," he said, shaking his head. "Would that be alright?"

"No problem. Just a moment, please," she said, smiling, retrieving a small information leaflet. "These are the types of rooms we have currently available."

He just barely refrained himself from wincing at the price of the cheapest room. He knew that five thousand yen a night was relatively cheap, all things considered, but that was still a fortune to his current high school budget.

Still, he didn't have much of a choice. He needed information, find out just what had happened, and then return back to his own reality.

He ignored the part of his mind that traitorously whispered that this was reality.

"This one, please," he said, pointing. "Could I stay for three nights?"

"Certainly," she said, bowing once more. "I'll just need proof of your identity, if you don't mind."

Her brow rose as she accepted the offered cash and identity card, before a small frown creased her face.

"You're a high schooler?"

Damn. Did they have laws against that?

"Yeah…"

"I'm sorry, but you need to be at least eighteen to rent a room, unless you have a parent or guardian with you," she said apologetically, bowing once more. "I'm afraid I can't let you stay here."

"I understand," he muttered, placing the cash back in his wallet. "I'm sorry to have bothered you."

What options did he have left? By all accounts, he shouldn't even exist in whatever this reality was. Even his own Narukami family was replaced by the Setas.

Worse of all, Yukiko didn't even recognise him, and he doubted any of his other friends would be able to.

He was well and truly alone, without any form of support from them, and he felt completely helpless without them.

"Are you alright?" Yukiko asked, concerned, gently laying a hand on his shoulder. "Where are your parents?"

"Gone," he said simply and truthfully.

"What about your guardian?" she asked with sympathy.

"I don't have any."

"You don't? But how – where have you been staying?"

He shut his eyes tightly. He didn't want Yukiko to see the tears that were threatening to form there, now that the reality of his present situation was starting to set in. Stranger though this older Yukiko may be, she was still Yukiko.

"I'm sorry," he mumbled. "I won't trouble you any longer."

He was about to turn away and head back out into the dark streets and figure out where to try next, when he felt Yukiko tugging at his shoulder with surprising firmness.

"You don't have anywhere to go, do you?" she spoke gently.

"…none."

"You're not… running away from home, are you?"

"No," he said firmly. "I just… I woke up in the middle of the day in the Samegawa Floodplain, and I have no idea how I got there." He let the words hang in the air more a moment, then slouched over, defeated. "I know it sounds ridiculous."

She stared at him searchingly for a few more moments, before nodding. "You can stay here for a night," she finally said. "I'll have a room ready for you shortly."

Wordlessly, he took out five thousand yen, offering it to her, but she shook her head flatly.

"Stay here for the night." She pushed his hand back toward himself, closing his fingers around the paper notes. "You don't have anywhere else to go, right?"

"I…" Yu found himself speechless. This may not be his Yukiko, but she was every bit as kind and empathetic to others as the one that he knew. "Thank you."

"Sit here for a while. I'll get the room ready, okay?"

He nodded mutely. She watched him for only a second longer, before walking deeper into the corridor, calling out a few names of the inn's staff as she did so.

He sighed tiredly, slouching over. Just what had happened between his returning to face Izanami and waking up lying in the middle of nowhere?

The television was actively playing some clip from the evening news, now. In another life that so far seemed to be known only to him, he knew that the very same television was where Adachi had murdered Mayumi Yamano by throwing her into it.

The television.

He felt a slight surge of hope and anticipation. Hurriedly, he stood up, stepping over to it, and slowly moved to place his hand against it.

All he felt was the cool glass.

"Persona," he whispered, willing even a single tarot card of any Arcana to come forth. None materialised.

His hopes plummeted, and he returned to his seat once more. He knew that it wouldn't have worked, since nothing suggested that the Midnight Channel was present in this bastardised version of a future Inaba, but still…

"…faces mounting pressure from the public, amid growing frustration over the lack of explanations for the mental breakdowns that have led to accidents claiming many lives in Tokyo. Whether he will resign from his position as his predecessor had done just a few months ago still remains to be seen."

That again. These 'mental breakdowns' he'd seen in the newspaper over at Doujima's place earlier.

"In other news, the disgraced former Olympic gold medallist Suguru Kamoshida has officially been sentenced to imprisonment over charges of sexual harassment and systematic abuse of his students. As before, the principal of Shujin Academy in Tokyo has refused to comment on the matter."

A teacher, abusing his students? In that regard, this 'Kamoshida' was far worse than even King Moron.

Come to think of it, wouldn't Morooka still be alive here? Was he still tormenting students even now?

"…discussion in school around the existence of the elusive Phantom Thieves. For viewers tuning into the story for the first time, a calling card had been left in the school notice board of Shujin Academy by a group calling themselves the Phantom Thieves, declaring that they will enforce a 'change of heart' in Suguru Kamoshida. While the vast majority of students claim it to be a prank, some students we interviewed believe that these Phantom Thieves are responsible for Kamoshida's sudden decision to come clean and admit his crimes on stage during the school's morning assembly."

…a 'change of heart'?

"Kamoshida definitely wouldn't have owned up to it," a distorted voice came from the television, the student's face completely censored. "People knew that shady stuff was going on with the volleyball team, but no one would dare go against Kamoshida, right? I mean, almost everyone in the team ended up with bruises every day! There's no way that Kamoshida would go from the bleep that he did to prostrating on stage and admitting everything he'd done!"

That did sound unusual. Yu could honestly say he'd never heard of anything like that before. The closest he could think of would be back when Teddie had mustered up the courage to defend them against Rise's Shadow, and then fought his own Shadow, gaining an ego of his own and practically becoming a human.

Hell, a few weeks after that, he'd somehow grown a human body inside that suit of his. Those were some good memories.

Teddie… was he back in his original reality? What had even happened back there? Those days seemed like so long ago… he could barely even remember a time when Teddie didn't have a Persona of his own…

Wait.

A Persona?

He jolted himself upright, staring at the screen with renewed focus, but the programme was now reporting on another story. Still…

A Persona was unlocked by facing and accepting one's own Shadow, the darkest desires and emotions that one kept hidden away from the greater ego. If this student was right, and that this Kamoshida's sudden change in behaviour was indeed caused by something other than himself…

Could he have faced his own Shadow, and the resultant guilt over what he had done forced him to bare his crimes for all to see?

It was a very rough and untested theory, but he didn't have much else to go on, for now. He needed to look up this case a little more closely.

Tokyo had those unexplained psychotic breakdowns, and now this change of heart. Was he simply seeing things where there was no connection to be found, simply out of desperation for some answers of his own?

Still… Tokyo. Come to think of it, he'd been due to return to the capital on the very same day that he had faced Izanami.

Was this another coincidence? Was he –

"Yo!" Another familiar voice came over from the door, and he froze in his seat. "Hey, Yukiko! You there? And – what the – dude, is that you, Souji?!"

He looked over at the person who called out the name of the one replacing him in this bizarre version of the world. He'd recognise the voice anywhere.

Yosuke looked slightly different, a little more rugged in his features, but everything else remained virtually identical. Even that pair of headphones around his neck was still present.

"Oh, sorry," he apologised to Yu. "From the side, you looked a little like Souji. My bad, dude."

"Apologise properly, damn it!" Another person stepped into the inn, and like before, Yu knew who it was before she even fully entered.

"Honestly, how do you deal with your customers at Junes with that kind of attitude?" Yu blinked, as a Chie dressed in a police officer's uniform entered, smiling apologetically at him. "Sorry about Yosuke. And – wow, you really do look a lot like Souji. He's an old friend of ours."

"Oh…"

"Haven't seen him for a few years, though. Last time we saw him was when he moved back into Tokyo five years ago."

He tried to maintain his composure, but it was starting to prove difficult. Listening to Nanako and Yukiko treat him as complete strangers was one thing, but now it was becoming painfully clear that no one knew Yu Narukami.

Would his life have been like Souji Seta's, even if he somehow managed to return to his own reality? Would he be forgotten and discarded by his closest friends?

"Dude, Yosuke, you should seriously apologise," Chie said, punching him on the shoulder.

"Ow! Sorry about that, man." Yosuke grinned sheepishly. "Still, though, you seriously look kind of like Souji from the side. Are you related?"

"No," he forced himself to reply.

"Really, Yosuke? You call that an apology?" Chie sighed, then looked over at Yu. "Sorry. This idiot didn't mean it."

"Oh, come on, Chie, you know you still love me," Yosuke joked. Chie blushed, but didn't deny it.

Wait.

WHAT?

Yosuke and Chie were in a relationship?!

Hell, he couldn't wait to go back to his own reality and tease them about it.

…if he could even make it back.

"Soooo…" Yosuke spoke, looking around, oblivious to Yu's thoughts. "Did you see Yukiko around? She's the owner of the Amagi inn, here."

"She's getting a room ready."

"Ah." Yosuke looked around idly, briefly watching the television, but then perked up quickly enough. "Speak of the devil! Yo, Yukiko!"

"Chie? Yosuke? What are you two doing here?"

"Yosuke ended work late at Junes, and I just finished my patrols with Doujima. We figured we should stop by for a bit before heading off to grab dinner. You free to come along?"

That sounded great. They could have dinner at Aiya's, just the four of them, like how it had been when they barely knew a thing about the Midnight Channel or the murders.

"Hmm…" Yukiko hummed. "Just a moment. I need to sort out some things first, okay? Narukami, I'll show you to your room now. If you'll follow me?"

Reality came crashing down on him. Right. These weren't his friends. They had no reason for him to tag along.

Mutely, he stood up, his sole possessions what he had in his pockets and the small backpack of supplies he had for chasing after Izanami, and trailed behind Yukiko to his room.

Tomorrow. In the morning, he would head to Tokyo, investigate these occurrences for himself, and make it back to his own reality and his friends and family… or die trying.

A life without them wasn't worth living.