Persona 4 FYL

The group sat in a circle facing each other as a somber mood descended upon them, the chill wind from the gaping, black pit contrasting heavily with the colorful landscape that remained. Teddie spoke in his high, squeaky voice, his eyes sad and distant.

"It... wasn't always like this. For the first three years or so, everything was just fine. I enjoyed being here, protecting this world, beating up bad Shadows and calling my Bearsona. But then..." Teddie thought hard, trying his best to remember. "...Then... a piece of the sky just... dropped, and left a tiny hole in the blue."

"Wait, the sky was falling?" said Yosuke, snickering softly. "What are you, Chicken Little?"

"Be serious, Yosuke," Chie reprimanded, looking concernedly at the wide, black rift behind her in the distance. "This world was supposed to be SAFE from things like that."

Yosuke shrugged, his face sour as Teddie continued.

"It was really weird, so I thought I'd go investigate. But the hole got wider as I journeyed to it... and then IT came out..."

"That big, cloaked ugly?" said Rise, shivering. "I dunno what it is about that thing, but it gives me the creeps!"

"You said it's not a Shadow, right Teddie?" asked Yukiko, and she appeared thoughtful as Teddie nodded. "Considering it was there when we tried to leave, and because of the power it showed just now, we'd be safe to assume it can command the Shadows on its own."

"You're right, Yuki-chan," sighed Teddie. "As soon as it came through the Rift, the Shadows became more and more angry. I had to run away just to make sure I wasn't attacked!"

"When did you try calling your Persona again?" asked Kanji.

"Not until a few weeks later. But.. it didn't answer..." Teddie groaned, holding his abnormally large head in his much smaller paws. "Something's gotta be wrong with me... Sensei can summon his Persona just fine!"

"...Then we all possess a similar problem," said Naoto softly. "I cannot summon Yamato Takeru, nor can anyone else in our party summon their Personas. We attempted bringing them forth upon our arrival, and yet..." She shook her head, her eyes closed in contemplation. "Why are we unable to bring forth our Personas? And why has Souji-kun remained capable of summoning his?"

"I hadn't," interjected Souji, and everyone blinked at him in astonishment. "It.. reawakened about half an hour before I entered the TV."

"Reawakened?" said Yosuke, scratching his head. "But what could make them fall asleep in the first place?"

"Another thing that's bothering me," said Chie as she nodded at Yosuke, "is the fact that we can still fight Shadows even though our Personas are asleep. I thought we couldn't fight Shadows unless we had access to them."

"Maybe they're just.. half-asleep?" piped up Rise. "Not that it matters much in my case," she added gloomily, "considering it's only useful for scanning-"

"Wait. 'Half-asleep'?" interrupted Naoto. Her eyes were shining, and Souji knew that the detective's intuition may have hooked something.

"...What? I wasn't being serious about it, honestly." Rise rubbed the back of her head, looking sheepish.

"...Perhaps," said Naoto thoughtfully, "our Personas remain active, but only in a partial state." She smiled as everyone around her seemed lost. "Personas reflect ourselves, a facet of our own hearts. However, hearts change and evolve over the course of time, do they not?"

"Ahhh, I think I get it," said Kanji with a grin. It was only temporary, though, and his face fell into gloom. "Nope. Lost it."

"I think she means that we can't use our Personas now because our hearts have changed over five years," said Yukiko, running a hand through her hair absentmindedly. "But that means we don't fully understand what kind of changes have occurred over that span of time. Maybe that's why we can still fight Shadows but not openly summon our Personas."

"Okay, so we can't use our Personas, but we can fight with our weapons," said Chie, clapping her hands together and smiling at Souji. "But we do have one active Persona-user here!"

Souji sighed deeply. "I can't hold off every Shadow here, even with Izanagi-no-Okami. It's just not possible."

"But you lasted for fifteen minutes before we got here!" replied Chie. "I mean, come on! Even without our Personas, we can still kick the crap out the Shadows and send that... THING back to hell!"

"It's not like we have a choice," muttered Yosuke. "We can't go back to Junes because of it."

"Even if we could," said Souji sternly, "I wouldn't go back. Time is a factor, and I made a promise to see this through."

"That settles it, then," said Naoto with finality. "We'll proceed to the Rift and do what we can to seal it up."

Everyone nodded and rose to their feet, Teddie bounding around in happiness. "Yay! It'll be just like old times!"

"Exactly!" agreed Yosuke excitedly. "Just another case, right? Maybe we can actually have some fun with this?"

"I dunno," said Chie, bending down to adjust the straps of her Moses Sandals. "Things seem a lot darker here than before, even WITHOUT the fog... It's more..."

"Creepy," Rise suggested, and no one disagreed.

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Everyone was thankful to move away from the howling pit of darkness and on into the vibrant lands of the TV world, such as they were. The chill faded the further away they travelled from the black, gaping maw of nothing, and the group soon reverted to what seemed to be a semblance of normalcy. They began chatting animatedly amongst each other as they strode purposefully toward the distant Rift, and Souji caught snippets of discussion all around him as he listened in silence.

"Why do you really think Souji-kun can use his Persona, though?" asked Yukiko concernedly.

"Well, he's always been special, when you think about it," replied Yosuke, pulling his headphones over his ears. "I mean, he was the first to get his Persona five years ago, too."

"Special..." murmured Naoto, and Souji felt her slip her soft, delicate hand into his own. He smiled down at her, and she returned it happily, her cheeks a healthy shade of pink.

"What worries me, though," said Teddie with a whimper, "is how this world is starting to fall apart. It's not like it used to be at all... Things are being destroyed instead of created. It's the opposite of what was going on before.."

"I know I'm not the smartest guy here," said Kanji, his fingers tapping thoughtfully on his plate, "but I get the feeling that it has something to do with the real world again."

The group stopped for a moment, everyone staring blankly at Kanji for a moment. He coughed uncomfortably as he continued. "Well, you know... This IS a place that reflects people's hearts, right? What if.. something's happening in the real world that's making hearts start to... not feel, or somethin'?"

"That's a plausible theory," admitted Naoto as the group returned to its walk, "but let us try not to assume the worst before we find our first piece of evidence."

"Yeah! Let's all try to stay positive and happy!" exclaimed Rise with a grin. "Gotta keep our morale up!"

"Speak for yourself," said Yosuke with a wince. "I have to WORK tomorrow."

"You're not the only one," remarked Chie, rolling her eyes. "Geez, you talk like you're the only one who's got stuff to worry about."

"Whatever." Yosuke sighed as he turned the volume up on his music player. He didn't notice Chie staring at him, sadness reflected in her brown eyes.

"He always does that..." said Chie, moving up to walk at Souji's left and speaking softly enough so that only he could hear. "I try to talk to him, I try to get him to open up... But it's like he doesn't want to... He wasn't like that before, though."

"When did this start?" asked Souji, concerned.

"About two years ago, give or take a month." Chie rubbed her forehead with her hand. "I thought the stress of his work was getting to him, but... every time I tried to talk to him about it, he just put on those stupid headphones and tuned me out.. And it hasn't changed..."

Yosuke bobbed his head to a beat that only he could hear, not noticing Souji's and Chie's conversation.

"It's like... five years ago... before you came..." said Chie, her voice cracking slightly. "He's.."

But before Chie could finish her thought, there was a flash of red light and a loud, deafening crack.

All had turned gray. Everyone had stopped in mid-stride, suspended in silent timelessness.

Everyone had stopped... except for Souji and Yosuke.

But Yosuke hadn't noticed. He was still walking, listening to his music, deep within his own thoughts.

Souji looked around. Even the sky had become gray, the vibrant blue dulled as though taken with a crude camera. The leaves of a nearby tree had halted in mid-rustle, and a cluster of dark leaves were suspended in mid-air on a frozen gust of wind. And yet the wind had not entirely ceased, and it was becoming colder as the seconds passed.. as cold as the black, pitiless chasm that had opened mere minutes ago.

Souji turned and started to move toward the still-ignorant Yosuke.. but his friend had finally stopped. He appeared to be looking up at something that was of deeper darkness than the shadows of the surrounding monochrome landscape, almost humanoid in appearance, with a torn and ragged cloak flowing about itself like a traditional image of the grim reaper.

Souji cursed under his breath, his hands tightening over the hilt of his sword.

"Wha... What the hell?!" cried Yosuke, stepping back in alarm.

"...I can see..."

Souji blinked in shock. The voice was barely a whisper, almost imperceptible, but the silence seemed to enhance it. There was no tone to it, no inflection, no emotion. It was the voice of the faceless creature floating ominously in front of them.

"See?!" Yosuke couldn't keep hold of his composure, and he had started shivering violently, his daggers shaking in his trembling hands. Something about the creature was affecting his body and mind, and his struggle to stay in control was beginning to fail.

"...I can see your fear..."

The creature floated to the ground and began to shrink slightly, the smooth, featureless face bubbling from within. Slowly, hair began to form from its black scalp, but it wasn't like normal hair... It was part of the face, like a mask where everything is part of the whole. Then a nose began to form, elongating from the center of the face. The head became more defined, more detailed. A mouth parted into a malevolent leer, showing off sharp, pointed teeth, and eyes widened as two narrow pupils glowed red within the depths of the hollow sockets, the only portion of the creature that seemed to have any color at all. The cheeks became gaunt, the newly-formed head seeming malnourished and skull-like.

And Yosuke screamed. He screamed because he saw himself looking right back at him.

The black, red-eyed, cloaked Yosuke laughed, and it's voice was now a mixture of Yosuke's own voice and the grating whisper of the unchanged creature from before. "What's the matter? Can't stand to see yourself for what you really are?!"

"...Y...You're..." stammered Yosuke, dropping his daggers without realizing it, his sweaty hands unable to keep hold of them.

"I'm what?" sneered the red-eyed Yosuke. ""You're me, and I'm you," right?" It laughed, seeming unable to contain itself. "Sorry, but that's not gonna work this time around. I'm NOT your Shadow, got it?!"

Yosuke was taken aback, stunned beyond words as he sank to his knees in the frozen, pale grass.

"Thought it'd be easy, huh? Thought it'd be a laugh. Everyone back together again, solving a mystery and doing stuff like you were doing five years ago?" The grim doppleganger spat on the ground. "Don't make me laugh! You don't know jack about what you've involved yourself in! Or were you that desperate to relive the glory days?"

"Ngh..." Yosuke tried to look away, to deny the words of the menacing form in front of him. But he couldn't. He could only watch as the black cloak seemed to morph into his own clothes, as two hands rose out of the folds, carrying maliciously deformed versions of his own daggers.

"Don't try so hard to escape your fate, Yosuke," said the leering, mocking version of himself, flipping one of the daggers in its hand. "A dead-end job, every day exactly the same. Just like school, but much worse. Face it, man. You're stuck, and you can't get out."

"No..." Yosuke tried to say, but he couldn't do more than mutter the word.

"YES!!" screamed the creature, revealing its sharp-toothed grin. "Nothing's changed at all, has it?! Always lost, always alone, and always the guy who finishes last, in life AND in love! Still Yosuke, the Fool! Still Yosuke, the Undesirable! Still Yosuke, the "Pain in the Ass"!!"

Yosuke's eyes widened in horror. The dark, evil version of himself had used Saki's voice to speak the last four words. "But I... I DID change!!" His voice was high-pitched, almost pleading.

"DID?! How could you have changed, when you're still the same as you were before?!" The dark Yosuke sneered again. "Or would you rather just drown me out in MUSIC?!"

Yosuke was silent. He didn't know what to say.

"How about this, then?" The black, leering mimic leaned down and smiled sickeningly at Yosuke. "You just stay here... and I'll kill you quickly. That ought to put everyone out of their misery!"

Both Yosukes blinked as the blade of a sword was thrust into the space between them.

The doppleganger moved backwards, glaring at Souji, who had stepped forward to come to Yosuke's defense.

"You..." The dark creature seemed unprepared for Souji's appearance, and it lifted an arm defensively, its grip tightening around the evil-looking dagger. "Why are you able to move?"

"S..Souji...?" Yosuke couldn't believe his eyes, couldn't believe that someone was actually here to help.

"...Do you think you can save your friend from himself, boy?" The dark Yosuke laughed again, licking its lips with a long, monstrous tongue. "I'm not a Shadow.. No... I am fear itself... The fear that belongs to your 'partner'."

"You're right.." said Yosuke, picking up his daggers and getting unsteadily to his feet. He moved next to Souji, who gave him a firm nod of commitment, and Yosuke smiled reassuredly as he glared at the black copy of himself. "You ARE my fear... But I've faced them before, right partner? ...It looks like I'll just have to face them again."

"Can you truly defeat that which shackles you?" The evil Yosuke took up a defensive stance, raising its daggers in front of it and leaning back. "Do you have the courage to overcome your fear?"

"Nothing to do but try, right?" smiled Yosuke.

And he charged, Souji at his side, both men yelling a battle cry into the stillness as they rushed their enemy. The creature parried both of their strikes with its daggers, leaping into the air and attempting to kick Yosuke from behind as it fell. Souji summoned Izanagi-no-Okami, directing it to block the kick with its sword. The doppleganger struck the flat portion of the metallic weapon, and the impact rung through the land like a gong.

"A... Persona... So that is why..." The black Yosuke fell backwards off of the blade as Izanagi attempted to slice at it, but Yosuke had leaped into the air beneath the Persona, twisting his body as he lunged a dagger at his shadowy double. The blade sank into the deep, black coat of the creature, but the force of the attack knocked it off-balance, sending it into the ground.

Yosuke landed on his feet and began to charge, but he was forced to fall to the ground as his copy threw one of the wicked-looking daggers at him, missing his head by inches. Souji approached the malicious mimic from the side, raising his sword to strike, but the attack was parried once again. The two weapons were locked as Souji and the evil Yosuke contested their strengths against each other.

"Why do you defend him?!" snarled the shadowy creature, its red eyes glowing hotter in its apparent rage. "He did not attempt to remain your friend, did he?! He was too focused on his music, too focused on what once was! What value is there in such a friend?!"

Souji smiled serenely, causing his enemy to blink in shock. "Sorry, but I won't abandon him."

The doppleganger snarled. "Then you'll perish with hi- AGH!!"

The rage vanished instantly from the dark Yosuke's face, its hollow sockets widening, its glowing red eyes narrowing to pinpricks.

Yosuke glowered angrily at his dark copy, his teeth clenched in fury, his eyes shrouded in darkness. His hand remained on the hilt of the dagger that had plunged into the mimic's stomach.

"...Keep your hands off my partner, you bastard."

The vile copy stumbled backward as Yosuke tore out the dagger. It roared in anguish and rage, but Yosuke slammed his fist into the deformed face, causing it to raise its hands to cover it, dropping the second dagger. Falling to its knees, the cloak returned around the creature's shoulders, its entire body starting to evaporate in the same black mist-like substance that had poured forth from the ground before. The creature emitted a rasping gurgle as Yosuke's voice faded from its throat, replaced with the grating, chilling whisper from before.

"...f..fe....feearrrr...." the black shadow breathed, and it crumpled into a heap into the ground, melting away into the cold, unmoving grass beneath it.

All was still, and all was silent. Frozen in time, the others had not noticed the battle.

Yosuke fell to his knees, tears streaming down his cheeks, his daggers falling from his limp fingers.

"..That... really sucked..." he said, rubbing his eyes with his shirt sleeve.

Souji sat down next to his friend, and smiled kindly. "Care to talk about it?"

Yosuke blinked stupidly for a second, but then returned the smile. "I think I'd better... We might not get another chance, if this keeps up..." He took a deep breath. "Well.. it's like I said at the Inn. Everything was going great just after you left... School was still going on, everyone was hanging out and having a good time.. Well, as good a time as we could have without YOU there." He winked and grinned. "We all graduated, and we all moved on with our lives. I wanted to make a difference in the town, and even help out the shopping district... Y'know, make Inaba a better place for all of us? I talked to dad about maybe offering some of our stock to the small businesses up as wholesale goods, so they wouldn't have to import so much..."

Yosuke ran a hand through his orange hair, laughing to himself. "You know, he actually LIKED that idea? He spoke to the district manager about it, and he got on the phone with the upper administration.. and it went through! I couldn't believe it.. I actually had a good idea, for a change. I didn't mess up, I didn't blow it out of proportion. It just... worked. And I was promoted because of it. Everyone was excited, everyone was happy for me.." Yosuke's face became thoughtful. "So.. what happened...?"

"An interesting question, dear boy."

Yosuke let out a yelp of shock as he turned and saw an old man at his other side, nearly leaping up from the ground. "Whoa, what the heck?!"

Souji grinned as he recognized Hotei's pure white beard and kind, grey eyes. The blue of the suit contrasted heavily with the monotone of the landscape.

"Forgive me, Hanamura-san. I was just passing by, and I thought you might need another friendly ear." The old man extended his hand. "My name is Hotei, and it's a pleasure to finally meet you."

"Uh.. yeah!" replied Yosuke, still looking flabbergasted, but obviously pleased that it wasn't the cloaked horror again. "Nice to meet you too!" He turned to Souji and, noticing his friend's smile, shook his head. "You know this guy? Why didn't you tell me?"

"I tried," said Souji with a chuckle, "But I never got that far."

"Anyway, my boy," said Hotei, patting Yosuke on the shoulder, who felt an odd, yet soothing, warmth from the old man, "you were about to look inside yourself, I believe."

"Yeah... I was wondering what had happened to make me so.. withdrawn, I guess?" Yosuke seemed pained. "I dunno... It was two years ago when I started thinking like that... About the way we all got together, the way we all had a good time and laughed and joked and hung out and..." He lowered his head, sighing deeply as his eyes became moist. "Everyone just... stopped calling. No one wanted to hang out anymore. Everyone was too busy, or too concerned with other things... Even you, Souji." Yosuke winced as he spoke his friend's name. "You weren't able to come by, really, but... soon it got to the point where I never answered the phone anymore... I just woke up, worked, went home, and... listened to music.

"The music kept me going..." He said, lowering his head and looking at the ground, wrapping his arms around his bent legs. "I didn't have anything to worry about once the music started playing... I could just sit back and enjoy the beat, the words, the melody... and remember the way things were when... I was happy..." He hid his eyes in his knees, unable to look at either of them.

Hotei's expression of kindness remained unfaltering. "I see you have your headphones around your neck, my boy. May I see them?"

Yosuke removed the headphones without looking up, and the gentleman examined them in curiosity.

"Ahhh, I see..." said Hotei, his eyes twinkling. "You could hear, true.. but could you listen?"

"Hear... and... listen?" said Yosuke, blinking as he looked at Hotei in slight confusion. His eyes were red and puffy.

"There is a difference between the two, my boy," said Hotei, returning the headphones. "To hear means you register a sound and recognize the surface associations. To listen means... you register an association... and understand the deepermeaning behind it."

"So.. I was only hearing what was on the surface, but..." Yosuke spoke softly, his body tensing as he pondered Hotei's words. "...but I couldn't listen to what was being said..?"

"Or what was left unsaid." Hotei smiled, his eyes shining with wisdom and compassion.

"...No one said they felt the same as I did..." said Yosuke, and his face contorted in anguish. "...and come to think of it, I never even said anything myself... How could they have known...?" Then he laughed, smiling as it escaped his lips. "Maybe I was too busy trying to hear myself that I forgot to listen to others.. I LET myself return to my old ways..." He looked between Souji and Hotei, and his smile widened into a grin that was more genuine than any other he had expressed so far. "I was so busy looking back, hearing the whispered memories.. that I forgot to listen to what was in front of me.."

"So what will you do now, Hana-san?" asked Hotei with gentleness.

"Well, we have stuff to do here, right? Now that that thing is destroyed-" began Yosuke, but Hotei shook his head.

"I hate to burst your bubble, son, but that was a small part of that being's potential that you fought.. and, thankfully, you overcame it quite admirably."

"Damn," muttered Yosuke. "What IS that thing, anyway?"

"It is a representation," explained Hotei, "of the deepest supression of negative emotions of the collective human consciousness, given shape by human hearts and minds. Oh, it is not like a Shadow, which is but the supression of mixed emotions within a single soul. Nor is it like Izanami once was, since she was the representation of the desires of mankind five years ago. Those desires have changed... but that has forced the darkness of mankind into greater prominence. I speak, of course, of the triune aspects of Anger, Ruin, and Fear."

"Then it's different than what Izanami did five years ago," said Souji calmly. "She chose people who represented other ideals..." He silently wondered what Izanami currently was now, but didn't speak his thoughts.

"So... this thing really is true evil." said Yosuke in disgust. "Then we have to stop it, or else everyone in Inaba will end up like I did.. Or worse, everyone in the world..."

"You are committed, then, to this decision?" smiled Hotei.

"You bet I am!" replied Yosuke firmly, getting to his feet and standing tall. "No more looking back! It's time to stop feeling sorry for myself and DO something."

Yosuke suddenly gasped as a blue tarot card began to fade into sight before his eyes, spinning slowly and glowing with power. For a moment he stood there, transfixed by the sight before him. He slowly reached for the card, which solidified progressively... He touched it... and it shattered, blue flame rising into the air and coalescing into an abstract humanoid figure with long, red hair, shining blue glasses, and surrounded by spinning blades that seemed almost like turbines.

"..Susano-O..." gasped Yosuke, his eyes widening in excitement.

"The chains have been severed," said the Persona in a gentle whisper. "Your heart has once more been opened to the truth." And it faded in a shimmer of blue fire.

Yosuke smiled as he turned back to Souji and Hotei, who had both risen with him. "So.. how do we get back to the others?"

"Ah, there's a nice little trick to that," said Hotei, smiling broadly as he stroked his white beard. "You must discard the thing that represents the limits which you seek to overcome."

"Discard my... limits..." Yosuke pondered this for a moment, his hands moving up to rest on his headphones. He chuckled softly. "It's funny... I've had these for so long, I'm gonna feel naked without them..."

"So it goes for those who wish to grow," said Hotei kindly. "Sometimes we must leave something behind in order to move forward. But what is gained in the future is often far more valuable than that which is discarded."

Yosuke reflected on the old man's words for a moment as he removed the headphones from around his neck. He examined them, taking note of every detail. He saw a dent where Chie had thrown them into a wall many years ago, which caused him to laugh.

"You know," remarked Yosuke, "a lot of memories are tied to these things... But maybe that's all they are. Memories." He looked at Souji and smiled. "Maybe it's time I made some new ones for a change."

"Oh, one last thing," said Hotei, looking from Souji to Yosuke with a stern expression. "Please do not mention seeing me just yet. Everyone will know me eventually, and I cannot join you unless I am called."

"Called?" said Yosuke in curiosity. "How do we call you?"

"You don't," smiled Hotei, his eyes twinkling. "Your hearts do."

Yosuke looked down once again at his headphones and stood still for a moment.

And then, without looking at them, he threw them as hard as he could into the gray stillness.

Immediately the color returned, and the group was moving again. Hotei was gone.

Yosuke let out a heavy sigh, running his hand through his hair as he smiled up at Souji. "Man.. thanks, partner. You always seem to be there when I'm at my worst.. Not that I'm complaining or anything."

And the two friends embraced tightly, smiling as they truly, and finally, reunited.

"Awww, that's so sweet!" cried Rise with a giggle. "Why don't YOU ever give guy-hugs, Kanji-kun?"

"Ghwah?!" yelled Kanji in alarm. "T-that's not- I mean, that isn't-"

"What brought this on?" asked Yukiko in concern. "You were so gloomy a moment ago, Yosuke-kun."

"Yeah, well..." said Yosuke with a slight flush to his cheeks, "...something just hit me a moment ago, and.. I realized how much of a jerk I've been for a while now." And to everyone's astonishment except Souji's, he walked straight over to a dumbstruck Chie and bowed low, his hands pressed together in front of him. "Forgive me.."

"W-whaa?!" blinked Chie, blushing heavily. "Hey, d-don't worry about it!" She leaned down and looked him in the eyes as she pressed the back of her hand to Yosuke's forehead. "Are you feeling okay? That music isn't giving you head trauma, is it? Because if it is, I'll just have to..." She blinked in astonishment, peering at Yosuke's neck. "..Hey, where are they? You just had them a second ago..."

"Meh, I got rid of 'em." Yosuke shrugged, smiling warmly as he straightened up. "I decided I needed to listen more closely to things from now on."

"Listen?" asked Chie, looking confused. "What do you mean?"

"I mean like.. listening to my friends, like I should have been doing in the first place." And to everyone's astonishment, Yosuke kissed Chie on the cheek.

Backing away with a yelp, Chie's blush deepened to a fierce crimson. "Y-y-yosuke?! What.. Why did.."

"Sorry. You can kick my ass later, but... I really wanted to give that to you, before anything else happened." Yosuke smiled, his eyes shining with a newfound optimism. "C'mon, we've got to keep moving."

"Indeed," said Naoto, returning to Souji's side. "Odd, though.." she remarked, looking up at him. "I could have sworn we were holding hands..." Souji had the grace to appear confused.

"Okay! Onward!" cried Teddie with a grin as the group began their trek once again.

Everyone seemed thrilled to have Yosuke returned to a positive and upbeat mood. Laughter echoed through the group as Yosuke fooled around jovially with everyone, and the somberness from before seemed to lift slightly.

Except in the case of Chie Satonaka.

She walked at the rear, her arms in her coat as she held herself. Her head was bent forward slightly, her hair falling over her eyes so no one else would see her cry. And she repeated a single thought within her head, over and over, to herself.

Do I have the strength...?