[A/N: Yeah, I'm just doing everything from the anime. I got lazy, because yas. Also also, if you find my P5 reference in this chapter, I will be proud of you. X3 (it's obvious af tho)

Also, I'm SO SORRY I took forever on this. I was suffering from a curse called 'writer's block' and therefore had no idea how to continue this story. I hope it's satisfying enough for you guys. If there are any suggestions you people would like to make, please comment and vote so I can make it happen!]

"Persona!" Chie-chan jumped into the air and shattered her card with a vicious kick. Her fingers were curled loosely around her glasses, but they never fell off her nose as Tomoe, the yellow-clad Chariot Persona, appeared behind its master. Four daunting Shadows were ahead, but Chie-chan didn't appear fazed as she cried "Gun it!" with a thunderous voice.

Listening obediently, Tomoe shot forward and easily kicked in the face of a Shadow, while slashing a set of three apart at the exact same time. I was gaping in awe as Chie-chan kept moving forward after. Especially when she treated it like no big deal, saying "Sweet! Moving on!" in a bored tone.

The red velvet of the walls seemed endless, I noticed, ignoring the complaints of Hanamura and Yu towards Chie-chan's seemingly boundless energy.

"Chie-chan's on fire, isn't she?" Teddie asked as his squeaky feet tip-tapped across the scarlet rug of the castle. He was panting but didn't seem as bothered as Hanamura.

"Hey! Satonaka!" Hanamura gasped for air, annoyed with the green-wearing friend of his. "You're just starting to feel better, so don't push yourself!"

"The same goes for you, Kai," Yu added, slowing his pace to match mine. He looked worried, which pissed me off.

I mentally agreed with him, as much as I didn't want to admit it. My lungs were stinging uncomfortably, and my voice was still raspy as all hell. But I kept pressing forward. I've walked off tons of illnesses and injuries, so what made this one any different? It happened in another universe, that's what.

Chie-chan stopped ahead for a brief second, but the energy never left her as she began to spastically spin her head to look down the hallways on either side of her. "Yukiko! Where are you, Yukiko!?" she said, ignoring Hanamura completely as she chose the one on her right.

"She blew me off!" complained the russet-haired teen, but I shoved him aside as I kept up with Chie-chan.

"Satonaka, don't overdo it!" Yu tried to no avail. It was like before; Chie-chan was deaf and blind to us in her panic to find her friend and secret crush.

"I'm fine! This is nothing!" she called over her shoulder, and I swear I saw a glimpse of a smile dancing on her lips. Is she...enjoying this?

"But getting blown off hurt my poor heart," Hanamura grumbled while Teddie laughed at his misery.

I smirked and looked back at him, saying "Didn't know you had one of those, eh, Hanamura?" which then caused Teddie's hysterical laughter to increase. But, I forced myself to take a break and lose my momentum as a foreboding feeling washed over my shoulders.

I collapsed to my knees, and shakily undid the bladed heels that made my boots resemble stilettos. [A/N: They look like Arsene's from Persona 5, for the record. And this isn't the reference, just saying.] I was breathing unevenly, and my chest felt tight and contracted. I pulled out my bo staff as I pinned my eyes on the overly large and decorated door. Gold embroidered the sides, making it very fancy and much less bland in comparison to the other entries we'd seen thus far.

Chie-chan, still not slowing down, violently kicked down the door with her heel. It revealed a gaudy carpeted staircase with an uncountable amount of stairs on it. I groaned at the sight of it, but forced myself back onto my feet and kept running after the group that had forgotten about me.

They were dashing up the stairs, but as Chie-chan neared the top of it, the lights all around turned dark. "Wh...what happened!?" the girl looked around to see me at her side, panting unnaturally heavily. I was supporting myself with my bo, leaning on it to the point of where any normal stick would break.

"It's beary dark black! Oh my my my my!!" Teddie wailed, running up to me and wrapping his arms around one of my cramped legs.

"You mean 'pitch black'," Hanamura tiredly corrected the bear on his poor grammar again for the umpteenth time that day.

But I flinched and covered my eyes when spotlights came out of nowhere and decorated the floor. I looked up when my eyes adjusted to the light and gasped when the lights stopped.

There, at the tops of the stairs, stood a beautiful woman dressed in a gaudy and rather revealing princess's dress. It was Amagi, wearing a malevolent smirk that sat wrongly on her face. But it turned to a face of surprise when she saw us running up the steps. Her eyes burned yellow in color, and my own blue ones shifted to look over at Chie-chan.

She was trembling, half out of rage and half out of relief. "Yukiko!"

"No, that's—" Yu stretched out a hand in Chie-chan's direction, trying to calm her down. However, he was cut off by a silky smooth voice.

"What's this? Surprise guests?" the Shadow appeared mildly pleased by our appearances, a first time since gaining powers. "Now this is a party! It's time to leap into our next segment!"

She stretched out one hand in front of her, and suddenly, a fake title appeared before us. It read 'Princess Yukiko's Hunt for Her Prince on a White Horse' covered with golden sparkles and edged with hearts.

"What's with that?" griped Hanamura, who I wanted to slap so incredibly badly.

Yu's voice, however, soothed me. "Wasn't that a title screen?"

"Y...yeah..." I managed to say, still stunned by the appearance of Amagi's Shadow.

Chie-chan was probably the only one who kept a relatively level head in the random situation. "Who are you?" she asked, her voice quivering only slightly.

The Fake Amagi drew her arms close to herself and giggled. "Whatever do you mean?" she seductively smiled, drawing a small blush from Chie-chan's cheeks. "I am Yukiko, and Yukiko is me."

"Not true! You're..." the green-clad girl on my side was struggling to reign in her anger. "Where's the real Yukiko!?"

The yellow-eyed woman waved her hand dismissively as if she never heard Chie-chan's furious question. "Well, I'm going to resume my hunt!" she said with a dishonest smile, before posing flirtatiously. "Princy, ready or not, here I come!" She turned around and began to run for the doors. The spotlights remained on her disappearing form, and Chie-chan's top blew over.

"Wait!" she screeched, before taking off after the fleeting figure. But in the Shadow's wake, more spawned to the surface. A terrifying multitude of them, and they stopped Chie-chan's path. "Dammit!" she swore. "Outta my way!"

Tomoe was summoned instantly, already beginning to kick the living garbage out of the enemies. Yu and Yosuke called on their respective Personas, Izanagi and Jiraiya. I made to summon my own two but felt the same pain as when I had been stuck in Hatō's and Memori's trap curling around my neck and wrists. I didn't need to look to know that black patterns were spider webbing over my wrists and throat.

Then, I heard the same words as when I'd tried calling on my Personas before. 'What is a storm in this realm?' And I kept replying in the same manner; I don't know.

----Flashback----Third Person's POV----

Everyone landed easily and smoothly into the false studio set, as they had all grown used to it by this point. Yosuke and Yu were dusting themselves off as Chie dashed forward, pressing her glasses to cover her eyes as she ran. Kaida sighed at her friend's antics, before running after the short-haired student. Teddie made bear puns the entirety of the time he was there, but Kaida drew his voice to the back of her mind.

When everyone was finally in the group together, the trio of Persona-users summoned their other selves, each of the gigantic humanoid spirits standing behind their masters. Kaida stared on jealously, realizing too late that she didn't know how to call upon her own Persona—or rather, Personas. After a full minute of blushing red under the expectant stares of her friends, she finally voiced her concerns.

Yosuke laughed at her. "Aw, it came naturally to me!" he bragged. "Sorry, I wouldn't know how to tell you to summon your Persona—Ow!" Kaida easily punched him in the gut out of annoyance.

"When I asked for advice, I asked for useful advice," she grumbled, brushing a lock of silvery blue hair from her magnetic glasses. Chie snickered at Yosuke's painful misery alongside Teddie, ending in everyone earning a vicious glare from Kaida.

Yu smiled a fleeting smile before looking his adoptive sister. "Clear your mind, and find a place of calm for you. When that happens, you'll know what to do."

Taking a deep breath, Kaida closed her sapphire eyes and traveled into what she found calm. What she called peace; Her first home.

When she went there, she saw an image of her previous mother, though her face was a blurry picture that wouldn't clear up no matter what. She was in a well-groomed garden, though nothing too fancy or overly gaudy. It was simple, with rose bushes and daisies decorating the healthy grass below. The sky was a clear blue and seemed so massively large that it was endless, unlike the contained city skies. Pine trees all around rustled and bent with the wind, smelling nice and fresh and clean. Kaida's dream self gathered in as much of the smell as she possibly could, relishing in the fullness of her lungs.

But the woman in front of her said one thing, regardless of the mouthless features. 'What is a storm in this realm?'

'I dunno.' The words didn't seem to come from Kaida's mouth but instead seemed to echo around the wall-less world of her mind.

'I see. Come to me once the answer is found. You will know when the time is right. Until then, we will wait right here.'

Kaida had woken up with tears in her eyes.

----Third Person's POV----

Yukiko found herself lying on the floor, still dressed in her ridiculous kimono. She awoke to the sound of another's voice, who was praising Chie constantly. It was saying things like 'Chie is strong' 'Chie is always on my side'. Inside, Yukiko couldn't help but agree. 'Chie will always protect me'.

Then it hit Yukiko that the voice was oddly familiar yet terrifyingly haunting. She groggily pushed herself to her hands and knees and looked around. "Who's there?" she asked, searching for the owner of the voice.

But she stiffened at the sound of metal clanging loudly and turned to see a golden-rose bird cage tumbling down the steps of a stairway not too far from her current position. It rolled and rolled until it paused right beside her. "That's..."

She recognized the cage. It had once been the home of a bird she owned before the beautiful creature had flown away from her when she accidentally left the doors of the cage open. The animal had been a source of relief for Yukiko during heavy working hours at the inn her parents owned, and so Yukiko had been devastated when she found the sight of fiery orange feathers missing from her window.

"This is from back then..." Yukiko murmured, reaching out to stroke the cage with her fingertips. She missed the bird, and yet it was gone from her forever.

She remembered rushing from guest to guest, always keeping the party happy. Even dealing with drunk men, who would flirt disgustingly with her. Yet Yukiko always kept a fake smile on her face. Her only place of release was with her bird or Chie.

But then, even her pet and her best friend betrayed her.

'Yukiko, with the way you loved it, you must be heartbroken.'

'You're in line to inherit the inn, and that's just the way it is.'

Suddenly, Yukiko felt very bitter, removing her fingertips from the wiring of the cage. "It's the way it is, huh...?" she spat quietly, feeling angry with Chie, and her innocent bird. They left her alone, by herself, to helplessly flap her wings to nowhere.

"That's when you realized that 'Chie won't free me from this wretched place'. You gave up all hope."

Yukiko, startled by the voice, shot up and began looking around fearfully. Guilt was stabbing at her heart at those words being spoken. "Who...Who's there?" she swallowed the lump in her throat. Her voice was shaky and uncertain. So she tightened her resolve. "Show yourself!"

The voice gave a small giggle, sounding very feminine and very naughty. "Wanna see me? See who I am? Curious who I am?" she taunted. "I am..."

Feeling a terrifying feeling crawl up her spine, Yukiko slowly turned to face the stairs from which her cage rolled down from. At the top stood the silhouette of a woman dressed in an exaggerated and revealing princess' dress. The black-haired girl's eyes flew wide open in shock.

"...you!"

It certainly looked like her, though Yukiko would never dress in something as awful as what the fake was wearing. The only change, as far as Yukiko could tell, was the fear-inducing yellow eyes. They burned with a feeling that terrified her; Pure, unbridled rage.

As the clone made the announcement, the doors behind her were shoved open and five figures ran in.

She recognized them all, except for one. There was Yu-kun, the new transfer student, alongside Kaida-chan, his twin sister. Then there was Yosuke-kun, the one who broke Chie's DVD earlier that week. Then, Chie herself, dressed in green like always. Yukiko was overjoyed to see her, though the anger from earlier still lingered in her heart. Chie...

----Kaida's POV----

"Yukiko!" Chie-chan cried in relief, seeing the raven-haired girl ahead, though collapsed on the ground and looking tired.

"Chie!" Amagi replied, looking just as happy to her friend. I smiled at their closeness but froze as I heard a creepy voice from the top of the stairs.

It was her Shadow. "Oh, my my my!" the beast smiled, showing off perfect teeth I was genuinely jealous of. "Four princes came! Whatever shall I do?"

I frowned as Yu said, "There's two Amagis."

"What's with the tense mood in here?" Hanamura asked, shoving his glasses up his nose as they kept slipping from the sweat his face shone with.

Shadow Amagi didn't care. "So like, I want to go somewhere," she said, the microphone went yet her voice was still projected loudly across the open and large space contained within the room. "Somewhere far away where no one knows me. Won't my Prince Charming take me away? Let's go already!"

"Four p-princes..." Chie-chan appeared to blush at that statement. "Does that mean you're including me and Kaida-kun?"

"I'm the third and fourth bear prince!" squealed Teddie, waving his arms around.

"Keep dreaming," both Hanamura and I said to him, as he was irritating both of us to quite a degree. I liked the bear and all, but he was almost as good as Hanamura when it came to getting on my nerves. 

Almost.

"Chie..." the Shadow whispered seductively, snapping my attention back to her. "That's right! You're my prince!"

Chie-chan's cheeks were visibly scarlet now, and her mouth dropped open. Her lips moved, but no noise came out.

"You always lead the way," The fake Amagi continued. "Chie, you're a strong and magnificent prince!" But then her face fell and turned into one of hatred and fury. Such an expression looked odd on Amagi's face, which was normally so calm and collected. "Or you were."

"I was...?" Chie-chan blinked, and the star-struck emotion that had been wafting off of her left, turning into an inquiry. She began walking forward, and I joined her side.

"But I'm through with you," Shadow Amagi hissed, making me gasp in realization. But I kept my conclusions to myself as I watched on.

But, regardless, I heard a rattling sound and looked up with a start. A huge, golden chandelier was starting to fly downwards. On instinct, I immediately shoved Chie-chan away from me, sending her to the ground but out of the trap's reach.

"Ara Mitama!" I heard Yu suddenly yell from behind me, followed by the familiar noise of shattering glass. Keeping my eyes upwards, I saw a red Persona that looked like a teardrop, as well as an angry face. When the chandelier hit the Persona, a magnificent blue shield erupted from it, freezing it in place. Static flowed across the Persona's body, and it vanished as it threw the chandelier away from itself, earning a surprised cry from the real Amagi.

"Yu!" I gasped, instantly running back as my adoptive brother fell to one knee. I kneeled next to him and immediately began soothing him a little. Being injured the most and so many times out of the group, I knew how to help the injured ones.

"Chie fell through on me," the Shadow above continued, and it seemed darker without the light of the chandelier. "Chie won't take me away." As she spoke, a chain began to lift the now-unlit chandelier from the ground, letting it swing viciously. "She won't save me!"

"Stop it! That's enough!" Amagi cried, looking desperate as the chandelier was lifted ever higher. Then, it began to swing.

"Move, everybody!" I ordered loudly, dragging Yu and Teddie away by the arm, while Chie-chan was hauling Hanamura. But, stupid as he was, Hanamura summoned Jiraiya and made the Persona try and slow the swinging monstrosity down. However, the candle-holding weapon never did, and Jiraiya was forcefully crushed into the wall. The common static flared up over his body.

"Nngh...gah..." Hanamura fell to his knees, holding his gut as if he were in pain.

"Have him withdraw," commanded Yu, whose blank face and confident pose had returned.

"He's too far away!" replied Hanamura, cringing all the while.

Yu frowned just a hint, but stretched out his hand to the fallen Ara Mitama, and closed his fist. "Izanagi!" he called, and the Persona appeared in front of us. The fatherly beast flew towards Jiraiya hurriedly under Yu's mental orders and began to try prying the chandelier from Jiraiya's crushed body. I tried the same plan, though a small puny bo and a massive sword had some serious differences in strength. But I began easing out my part, little by little.

"Kaida-kun! Narukami!" Chie-chan began to run towards us.

"How horrible..." whispered Amagi, looking depressed. And for once, I felt annoyed with the girl. She was just standing around, doing nothing.

The Shadow wanted her to do more, evidently. "Traditional inn? Innkeeper training?" she spat, looking utterly disgusted. "I'm sick of those stupid chains!" She was no longer composed, instead becoming enraged at the very sight of us. 'Chains...'

"Damn it!" Chie-chan finally snapped, viciously kicking the card of her Persona to release Tomoe. But, the carpet began to wriggle underneath our feet, and it spiraled upwards to capture Tomoe and Chie-chan in its grip. It also caught Teddie, and it dragged me away from Jiraiya to leave my bo snagged in the chandelier. I tried to thrash around my bladed heels, but they didn't do squat.

"Narukami!" Hanamura shouted as he watched me and Teddie get swept away by the carpet. I hissed in pain as it began to squeeze me firmly. My breath was becoming labored, and my ribs felt so incredibly contracted. Eventually, I couldn't breathe at all.

"Chie!" yelped Amagi, starting to