"This is probably the first kind of good one I've had in a while. I was flying over these squares… tiles… black and white, like a chessboard. I zoomed past this woman with white hair, but long and glossy white hair, and her face was young-ish. She was floating, and there was this book and all these cards floating around her… all sorts of different Persona. She shouted things like, 'Withstand this!' and I turned to look at what she was attacking… and it was Teddie! He'd turned back into a Shadow!"

Yukiko gasped. "That's an awful dream!"

"It was a long one. I didn't know who to help, or even if I could, but I shouted for Teddie to hold on. I saw myself flying over this wrecked limousine that was lying nearby, and then everything went black.

"The next thing I knew, I was watching Kanji run through this dungeon with walls covered in black wormy things. I did what we always used to do: showed him where useful things were left lying around, or if a turn would lead shortly to a dead end. Oh, and if an enemy was passing by.

"It didn't have different floors, it just seemed to be this one huge maze. Kanji seemed to be running forever, and slowly too because he had to be cautious when an enemy passed by. One time we slipped into a room— there was this room, like a dome, still covered with black worms or something, and, I saw, I swear… another Persona-user.

"It was like he was imprisoned, or something. He kept warning Kanji to run away, because they were always being monitored. Of course it was too late, and these men in black suits barged in, and… they were Shadows.

"He got away, but unlike the Shadows here, it was like they all had some kind of alert system. They were all coming after Kanji. It was close, but I lead him to the door he was looking for. I felt such a strong presence coming from it, along with Naoto's presence. I kept asking Kanji if he was ready, and if he was sure he was ready… I kept thinking he wasn't, holding him back because he was all alone, but he kept saying 'I'm ready', and then he pointed out that if he didn't jump right in, then he would die by a bunch of little Shadows instead of by a Boss, and he didn't want that, so…

"I was expecting another dome with black worms at the walls. But, he entered a desert, with these wide open skies, and a green moon. The way behind us just disappeared. Kanji started calling out to Naoto, shouting for her… The shadows, of the sand dunes, I mean, it was like they'd try and move towards us when we weren't looking. Of course, I could kind of see everything around us, so they never caught up.

"Well, eventually, we found her. She found us, and was running towards us, but… Oh, Yukiko, she was crying!"

"Naoto never cries," said Yukiko. "Not the real Naoto in the real world anyway. This must really have been a dream, or a, a Shadow of her?"

Rise shook her head, positive that it wasn't, but when she'd thought about it a bit… "I don't know. Naoto's hands looked like they'd been whipped with barbed wire, and she was rambling something about a monster being on her tail, and a seal breaking, and it was all her fault. She totally had my attention, and Kanji's too, and we were trying to make sense of it. I remembered the dune shadows too late, but… you remember those white cards she summons? Something like that was happening around her, but without the cards, and more out of control like tiny fireworks. The light kept the dunes back.

"Even without his Persona, Kanji was ready to fight the monster that was chasing Naoto, until he saw it." Rise paused to shudder. "We saw the monster's eyes first, like pools of lava. It was running towards us on all fours, like a dog, if a dog had melted ears and a warped snout and skin rotting off of its ribs. Also, it was… kind of… big."

"I'm still waiting for the good part of this dream," said Hisano.

"It ate us. I woke up, happy that I was still alive, even in this miserable wreck of a world. That's the good part," said Rise.

Hisano and Yukiko were left speechless and staring.

"Just kidding." Rise forced a laugh and continued, "The desert background started to flicker, like, a faulty signal, and then we really were back in a dome-shaped room… surrounded by Shadows that were shaped like people. Naoto was all like, 'Where are the others?! What do you do to them?!' meaning the Persona-users, and Kanji kept trying to pull her in close to him because he had this, this bomb made out of crystals or something…

"Actually, where did he get that? Ooh, I missed something important! I can't remember anymore, but I think it had something to do with the wrecked limo…

"No, wait, it wasn't a bomb. It was like a teleportal than needed all three of us to concentrate to make it work. But Naoto took her gun—"

"Oh, no." Yukiko covered her face as if that would block what she was seeing in her mind, and understanding why Rise was telling them this in the first place.

"—pointed it at the men in black suits, and her face went blank like she was hypnotized or enervated or something. She didn't shoot them. She turned her own gun on herself. Right in her mouth, so what she said came out like 'Puh… hffo… nga...'

"And then, I don't know, so many things happened at the same time— Yamato Takeru flew around, and the cards made out of light came back and burned the men in black suits away, and then all three of us had made a bridge with our mind and the crystal so that the light from the crystal burned the dome-shaped room away, and then we were all falling into a city.

"Actually, not all of us. I sometimes felt like I wasn't all there, like I was a camera in a movie. When they fell, I couldn't reach for them because I had no hands. I can't even say I'd become the wind, it was more like I'd become a bit of space. So they still had bodies, and they were falling, and I was floating away…"

"Falling from what?" asked Hisano.

"The dome-shaped room… on the space ship… above New York City." Rise sighed. "I hope I really saw Yamato Takeru catch them both before they hit the ground… It all felt so much more real than this foggy everyday… I had my powers back, and I was helping my friends, and we were together!"

Distant and muffled, they heard metal cans clank against each other, the rolling and clattering of a grocery cart, and Chie's voice shouting out instructions and greetings.

"So I guess that is a good dream," said Yukiko to Rise, kindly. She slid off the chair and said, "But we can't spend much longer wondering if it was anything more than that. We all have a lot to do today."

"Yeah, I guess you're right," said Rise. At Hisano's urging, Rise finished her ramen, and then went to join the others at the entrance hall.