Naoto makes the mistake of sympathizing with Teddie

A sleepy Saturday for the Investigation Team had left the odd couple of the demure "Detective Prince," Naoto Shirogane, and the self-dubbed "Everyone's Favorite Mascot of Junes," Teddie, together at the Junes food-court without the rest of their small group. Evidently, Yu had other social links to tend to today, because his unifying presence was nowhere to be seen. Chie and Yukiko were such close friends now, one could imagine they were spending time together. Kanji was always a bit of a loner and today proved no different; he was an awkward sort, but Naoto thought he'd be good company at the moment. Even Yosuke, who was practically a fixture at Junes, was nowhere to be found. This left Teddie with only Naoto for company and vis versa.

Even on Saturday, Naoto could be found wearing her faux-detective gear, including a blue blazer, ribbon tie, soft-soled brown shoes, and checkered pants. Her signature was the blue cap, reminiscent of Mr. Holmes himself, that topped her pretty, sea-blue hair. Teddie, on the other hand... was Teddie. They knew he had a blond-haired boy inside of that bear suit, but for now, he was in his mascot-like appearance: a fuzzy blue cartoon bear in something like a red space suit.

The girl's silence, as she reviewed her investigation notes with a new intensity, failing to respond with anything more than a polite smile to any of Teddie's beloved bear jokes... was simply unbearable!

"Naoto-chan?" Teddie asked, beginning to spin in his seat with an unhappy frown pasted over his cartoony face. When she simply smiled politely again, he growled his most fearsome bear growl and started clobbering the table with his hands, unsuited to do anything but slapping. "Naoto-chaaan!"

Finally, Naoto sensed his unhappiness. Placing her pen down inside her book, the detective turned to him with sympathetic eyes. "My apologies, Teddie. I was so absorbed in trying to figure out this mystery. It's amazing how many pieces have yet to fall into place..." she explained with gravity in her voice... then betrayed herself with a small yawn, struggling to keep it covered behind one of her delicate hands.

"I knew it! You weren't really listening to me! Here I am, 'bearing' my heart and soul, and you didn't even give me a 'paws!'"

"... I apologize, but I deduced you may just be using me as a test bed for more of your bear-related wordplay. I'm seeing now that may have been an accurate assumption."

Pouting, Teddie began to rock back and forth with a sad frown. "You're right, though! This mystery is a big one. You know what the biggest, most mysterious part of it is?"

"The identity of the culprit?" Naoto questioned, feeling a bit ridiculous for answering so quickly.

"No! It's everyone's favorite part of the mystery: me!" Standing up in his seat with seeming weightlessness, the bear placed his hands at the rough approximation of where his hips ought to be. "Things have been even weirder for me lately, ever since I discovered the handsome boy inside me... or... that is me! Nobody's ever stumbled upon such a mysterious mystery as that one, have they, Naoto-chan? Have you ever read anything stranger in any of your detective novels?!"

Naoto didn't understand where this was going, nor did she like the implication that her detective novels had stranger occurrences than the real life cases she'd investigated in Inaba and even before the investigation team. Still, she had to agree. "I understand. Well, no... I wish I could fully understand what you're going through. But still, I think that's a common theme for all of us in the investigation team: finding our place in the world and coming to terms with ourselves and our mysterious purposes, even our futures, can be difficult-"

"So you do get me! I knew you would!" Teddy interrupted her and began to wiggle with new energy and a happy smile. "So you'll wear a bear suit, then?"

"Of course, I'm your friend Teddie. I'd be happy to- wait, come again?" Naoto questioned, lowering her eyebrows skeptically. It wasn't like her to miss the context of somebody's words, let alone their outright spoken words. "Why would I wear a bear suit?"

"Why wouldn't you wear a bear suit? It's beary snuggly and comfortable; 100% real fur!" Teddie asked, pursing his non-existent lips in an innocent whistling face. Before she could answer, he shook his odd, dome-like head and resumed his request. "But I'm serious! I feel like you all can relate to each-other so well! A big part of that is that you're all boys and girls who share trendy, fashionable clothes. Me... I'm just a lonely bear, with nobody to share my impeccable fashion sense."

"Th-That is true... I don't think our fashion senses are all that similar, but it's true that most of us have never tried dressing the same way as you do," Naoto admitted, stumbling over her own words. She'd dismiss this as a joke from any of her other teammates, but coming from Teddie, he might really expect her to go through with it. "You really want me to try wearing a bear suit?"

"Of course! We've got a fake one that Yosuke had made, just in case anybody else needs to try taking over my shift here at Junes, where I'm top bear! If you wear it, you can even order Yosuke to give you any food you want for free!" Teddie seemed to have a very mistaken impression of the degree of power he held over his friend. "Pleeease?"

Naoto lowered her eyelids and stared through long eyelashes at her investigation notes, as though silently begging some new epiphany to come out of the writing that would distract the two of them from this weird request...