She falls for Yukari's story.

(chapter originally by dragom333 at writing.com)

"Takeba," Mitsuru began, freezing the shivering, naked brunette with her gaze. "What you have just told me was the most bizarre, outlandish, and frankly disturbing tale I have ever heard. Never in all my years of dealing with these creatures has anyone ever gotten away with only losing their dignity. It is so outrageous, that I am very sure that everything you said right now was a complete fabrication. The fact that you did not keep your Evoker with you at such a late hour also supports this, or at best indicates a sudden bout of blatant stupidity or wanton recklessness I would never have expected from you."

Yukari cringed, her last ounce of hope fading fast. She wanted to turn her head away, at the very least escape that cold glare of Mitsuru's... but found that she couldn't.

"And yet..." Mitsuru paused, closing her eyes for a few scant seconds before opening them again. "I find that I truly believe you."

"Wha-?" Yukari gasped, nearly letting go of herself in surprise.

"I have never known you to lie, Takeba. You have always been a serious young woman, sometimes prone to getting caught up in your emotions, I'll admit, but if someone were to go on an exhibition parade during the Dark Hour, my first guess would be Iori, if he was **** or under the influence of some ****. You are not that type of person."

Yukari couldn't believe this. Mitsuru was... reassuring her? "I'm surprised you believe me," Yukari sighed, then immediately wished she hadn't said that, in case Mitsuru would now doubt her.

"Not so hasty," Mitsuru said, shaking her head. "On its own, your story is worthless, but provided what happened earlier this year, at the hotel..."

"The hotel...?" Yukari asked, searching her mind. "Ah! You mean-"

"Indeed I do," Mitsuru nodded. "The Arcana Shadow of 'The Lovers,' where you, me, Arisato, and Sanada were all hypnotized without our realizing it. What I hadn't told anyone, however, was that during the hypnosis," she turned to the side, a little rosy red tinge pooling in her cheeks at recalling the memory. "I had been made to shower and wear naught but a towel."

"That's just what happened to me!"

"You as well!?" Mitsuru gasped, a rare emotion indeed from the stoic heiress. "Then perhaps there is a new behavior occurring here. Even now I have no clue why that shadow did that, save for it's oddly apropos name. And furthermore, when you ran into me just now, you appeared to be exhausted, panting and covering in sweat. It is without a doubt that that was a result from your harrowing escape. From what you have told me, it may be possible that you ran into some shadows related to that monstrosity. Perhaps..."

Yukari swallowed, a new chill running along her body. Everything she had told Mitsuru was complete hogwash designed only to excuse her mistake from her own personal issues. But after being reminded of that strange night, where she, clad only in a towel that left nothing to the imagination, nearly threw herself into Minako's arms, she began to worry whether there really were shadows like the completely fake, totally-not-real-so-stop-worrying-about-it Shadows that behaved like that. "A-Anyways," Yukari stuttered, shaking the nasty thoughts out of her head. "Can't we get back to the dorms now?"

"Ah, of course!" Mitsuru blinked, snapped back from her thoughts. "Forgive me. Let us be on our way."

With Mitsuru's help, Yukari was able to make it back to the dorms safe and sound without any other late-nighters catching a glimpse of her. With everyone else tucked away in their bedrooms, Yukari was able to return to her own in peace. Pausing only to put on some pajamas, she threw herself onto her bed and under the covers, where she fell asleep in a matter of moments. Of course, there was still Kaya and her **** ploy to worry about on Monday, but she would just have to cross that bridge when she came to it. Sunday was still ahead of her, and right now she was just glad she could put this little ordeal behind her and be done with it.

At least, that was her plan...

Yukari awoke to a beautiful sunny day just a little before noon, grateful for the extra sleep. That warm feeling lasted through her breakfast, until she awoke enough to remember that tomorrow was going to be absolutely horrible thanks to Kaya. If making her walk home naked from school was just a warm-up, then she was sure to be put through the wringer the next time they met. Her despair was quickly interrupted with a slam of the front door.

"Hey, Yukari-chan!" Minako's voice rang out.

"Ah, Minako-chan," Yukari replied. <i>Maybe I should tell her... I don't see any other way out of this other than becoming Kaya's ****...</i> she thought to herself. "Hey, Minako-"

"Ah! Me first!" the energetic girl interrupted, rushing over to Yukari's side. "You slept through it, but Mitsuru-senpai's scheduled an emergency meeting at 6:00 tonight. She wouldn't tell us anything specific, but knowing her, it's gotta be important. Any thoughts on what it's going to be about?"

"N-No..." Yukari said, taking a sudden interest in her cereal bowl. Did it have anything to do with last night!? She thought she had escaped Mitsuru's wrath, but what if she had only pretended to believe her, to make her think she was safe and striking when she was weak, as well as making her punishment public throughout the group? Next to Mitsuru, Kaya was just an insignificant gnat, even if that gnat could ruin her whole life with the push of a button.

"Well, knowing her," Minako continued. It's probably going to be about scaling Tartarus again. Skip off one day, pay for it the next, am I right?"

"Y-Yeah," Yukari muttered.

"Well, that's that, I guess," Minako shrugged. "So, what were you going to tell me?"

"Oh? Right! Well..." Yukari struggled. If she told Minako about Kaya now, she would surely bring it up at the meeting, and then not only would everyone know about the **** video, but then Mitsuru would put two and two together and learn that she was lying for sure! If she chose to tell Minako, she would have to do so later tonight, after Mitsuru's meeting. "Just wanted to know if you were free to hang out today," she continued smoothly. "Have some fun before we get down to business, you know?"

"Of course!" Minako beamed. "Let's get going!"

And so Sunday passed all too quickly. Yukari truly had a fun day with Minako, despite taking one hour for Minako to, of all things, talk with a sickly man at the Naganaki Shrine playground. Whatever, there were still plenty of things they did regardless. After finishing up with a nice, piping hot bowl of ramen, the two made their way back to the dorm, and the briefing room within.

Upon arriving, Yukari and Minako found that the room was occupied only by Mitsuru and Aigis, their android ally, and no one else. "Welcome, Takeba, Arisato," Mitsuru nodded. "Now we are ready to begin."

"With just us? What about the others?" Yukari asked.

"Oh, right!" Minako said, smacking her forehead. The meeting's only for us four. I thought I told you, Yukari-chan."

"I sent Yamagishi and the others to Tartarus," Mitsuru stated. "I wanted to keep this as discreet as possible, considering this concerns what we discussed last night, Takeba."

Yukari stiffened all over. She was right, after all!

"Huh? What's this about?" Minako asked.

"I am also curious, Mitsuru-san," Aigis spoke, as formally as ever.

"I will tell you... that is, if I have Takeba's consent to do so," she motioned to Yukari. "If it is too personal, you can always refuse, though for what I have planned, it would be wise to go with a full party."

"It's alright, go ahead..." Yukari sighed. To be honest, she didn't want the lie to spread, but she didn't want to make Mitsuru suspicious. If Mitsuru knew, then there was no reason Yukari had to keep the story from their battle leader, Minako, as well. And Aigis, being a robot, didn't care one bit about nudity, male or female.

Mitsuru explained to the group everything Yukari had told her, and of her own suspicions regarding the Shadow of the hotel possibly being related to this new behavior.

"So you mean, there's shadows that want to strip people naked?" Minako gasped. "I'd never heard of this before."

"Unlikely, yes," Mitsuru lowered her head in thought. "But if the Shadows were attempting to kill Yukari, I believe that they would not have been satisfied with just her clothes. No, the disrobing had to have been deliberate. I'm not sure what we can do with this, but I believe this warrants further investigation."

Yukari's heart pounded in her chest. This was getting out of hand. She needed to stop this, but she couldn't just admit to all of them that the reason she was naked was because she had her clothes off to begin with! And so Yukari remained silent as Mitsuru continued.

"This brings us to the purpose of our mission," Mitsuru explained. "Tonight, we will-"