Fool Upright 1

When Yu awoke that morning, he could immediately feel a difference in the air. The light from outside was muted from what it would normally be in the morning and the air felt thick and heavy. It was a familiar feeling, but one that came with a sense of dread. Yu opened a window and tensed up on seeing the heavy fog.

“Hey! Everyone get up!” Yu shouted. Everyone but Yukiko was in a nearby room, so they could easily hear his shouting.

After a year of watching the weather during the incident, the investigative team had become somewhat familiar with the conditions for fog and what conditions would bring fog. To them, this sudden change was clearly unnatural.

They dressed and met up in the large room they had been using the previous day. Everyone wore casual clothes, except for Naoto, who had nothing else to wear other than the blue kimono lent to her by Yukiko. Yukiko was the last to arrive, looking visibly distraught.

“I didn’t see anyone else on my way here.” She explained, referring to the inn staff and her family. “It’s like it’s completely empty besides us. And on my way here I saw some doors that shouldn’t be there. Something is very wrong here.”

“Naoto, those labyrinths you went through, could one have formed around the inn?” Yu asked.

“I don’t believe so.” Naoto said, placing a hand on a wall. “Touching the walls or floor of a distorted labyrinth would cause ripples, like you had just touched the surface of a body of water. This structure appears solid and unchanging. But I only saw those labyrinths after they had been formed. I don’t know if a recently formed labyrinth would behave differently.”

“Well, we’re definitely not in Inaba anymore.” Rise said, pointing above her head.

Everyone stopped to look above Rise. There floated the transparent form of Kouzeon, Rise’s persona; A slender feminine body, draped in a white dress, multiple arms and a large telescope where its head would be. Their power of Persona, a manifestation of their Self, could only be invoked when they were in an area rife with supernatural power and not at all in the real world. That Rise could manifest it was all the proof they needed that they weren’t in Inaba.

“Teddie, can you make an exit?” Yu asked.

“Hrmmm… Nope. Sorry, sensei, it’s no good.” Teddie replied dejectedly.

“Naoto, the incidents in Kofu, were you only able to leave the labyrinths after you beat the Shadow in charge?”

“No, one could leave any time by the front door, as long as you were aware of where it was.”

“Naoto, Yukiko, Chie and Rise stay here. Rise scan the area as much as you can; see if you can find anyone else or get the layout. We’ll check out the front and see if we have an exit.”

The team split up on their separate tasks given by Yu.

*****

“Ok, that’s a Torii gate.” Yosuke said, looking at the aforementioned gate outside the front entrance.

The gate which stood at where the property line of the inn would be, was not part of the Amagi inn. The impenetrable fog stopped right at the area of the torii gate. The group had poked their heads out the front door of the inn to see what was there.

“Seems a little too obvious for an entrance.” Kanji glared at the gate.

“Hey, Marie, do you sense anything? What about you, Ted?” Yosuke asked.

“Why would you think I know anything?” Marie grumbled. “All I know is the longer we’re here, the less I like it. Something about this place makes my skin crawl.”

“I can’t smell a thing out here. I can tell that the ‘supernatural’ side of the gate is facing us.” Teddie sniffed at the air.

“Real useful, Ted…” Yosuke sighed.

“I guess there’s only one way to find out. I’ll head out and…” Yu started.

“What? No, no no no no!” Yosuke interrupted in a panic. “You’re our leader. If you go out there and something happens we’ll be really stuck. One of us should go.”

“Ok, but which one of us should go?” Kanji asked.

“Oooh, let’s decide by rock-paper-scissors!” Teddie chimed in.

The group quickly decided upon a match of rock-paper-scissors to decide who would brave the fog. Marie declined to participate and Yu insisted on participating, despite Yosuke’s protests. Through the game of chance, Yosuke was selected as the ‘winner’.

“Of course it had to be me.” Yosuke sighed.

“Maybe if you didn’t pick scissors all the time.” Teddie giggled.

“Shut it, Ted.” Yosuke stomped towards the gate.

The fog looked thick, even up close, as though Yosuke could just grab a piece off. Yosuke inhaled sharply and plunged and arm into the fog. He waited a few seconds, waved his arm around and then stepped back, exhaling. He looked over his arm, flexing his fingers and making sure nothing was obviously wrong. Yosuke looked at the wall of fog, inhaled and then dashed in. Only to immediately emerge from the fog. He looked around in confusion, turned around and dashed back through the fog only to reemerge almost immediately.

“I don’t think we’re getting out that way.” Yosuke said as he walked back to the inn.

“We’ll have to check around the walls. I think the fog stops at the walls all around, but we’ll have to check.” Yu glanced around the complex.

The group returned inside, rejoining the others in the large hall. Rise stood off to the side, her persona floating above her head, her eyes closed in focus. Chie and Yukiko had set up a table with some basic food dishes.

“We checked the kitchen. The fridge is fully stocked. We made some breakfast and nothing has gone bad.” Yukiko motioned towards the food on spotting Yu’s group.

“I gave it a taste test and it’s all good.” Chie piped in.

“Can we really trust your taste buds? I don’t want to **** on mystery food xxx.” Yosuke complained.

“I think it should be ok.” Naoto came along with an armful of juice cans. “If we ration things, we should have food and water for a while. Did you find anything?”

“We found a torii gate at the front, but going through there just makes you come right back in.” Yosuke shrugged.

“A torii gate?” Naoto mused.

“It looks like the fog stops at the gate and the walls, but we couldn’t see around the whole of the inn, so we couldn’t say for sure.” Yu looked over at Rise.

“I’ve got something of a layout of the place.” Rise said, opening her eyes as her persona disappeared. “I can see the front of the inn, the front lobby, the rooms we stayed in, Yukiko’s room, this room, the kitchen, a storage room, the outdoor baths and some bathrooms. And the halls that connect them.”

“All places we’ve been just recently…”

“Yeah, I can see the doors that Yukiko talked about, the ones that shouldn’t be there. I can also see the doors that should be there, but I can’t see what’s on the other side in either case. I haven’t seen any people or shadows either.”

Yu watched as his friends started taking food from the table. Rise sidled up close to him, her eyes were on Naoto in particular.

“I… took a look at Naoto.” Rise said in a hushed voice, just loud enough for Yu to hear. “I didn’t see anything weird, no sign of a curse. Her stats and condition all looked normal.”

Yu and Rise watched Naoto discreetly as she handed out juice cans.

“But?” Yu urged Rise to continue.

“But… I look at her out of the corner of my eyes and I see… I dunno. I think I see something but I look at her directly and she looks fine.” Rise shifted uncertainty. She looked away from Naoto, her worry plain on her face. “I hate this. Either something is wrong and I can’t see it or nothing is wrong and I’m driving myself nuts over nothing.”

“It’s ok, Rise.” Yu placed a hand on her shoulder, pulling her slightly closer to him. “We’re all here and we’ll all work together and we’ll get through this, just like always.”

The tension melted out of Rise’s body as she smiled gently, looking at Yu. She reached up to touch his fingers at her shoulder.

“Yeah… We definitely will.”