Here it is, the chapter you've been waiting for! I'm not going to bore you with any more words for the time being, so here's the next chapter in Persona Q:P3 Side: "Wait our leader's a WHAT now!?".

Labyrinth 2: "Looking for the destined partner"

After a quick rest and some preparations we returned to the second floor of the labyrinth. We continued to walk till we came to what looked like pink conveyerbelts.

Chie:"...That floor's moving."

Shinjiro:"Yeah, it is. I guess it'll carry you if you stand on it."

Chie:"Oh, like the ones at the really big train stations!? I've seen them on TV before!"

Mitsuru:"Do you not have any in your city...? They're properly known as moving walkways."

Chie:"I always wanted to get on one of these. Hey, can we ride it? Please? Please?"

Chie begged us.

Mitsuru:"Wait! There's no knowing what could be awaiting us ahead. If we're to ride it, we should wait to do so until we're fully prepared. Is that clear?"

Sakura:"I think we're fine."

We all stepped on to the walkway carefully and it moved us along it's path until we came to a normal square of floor.

Chie:"That was fast! A lot faster than I thought it would be! And it's useful, too!"

Yosuke:"Uhh, please let me apologize on behalf of our rowdy country mouse."

Mitsuru:"N-No worries. It can be useful, depending on how we use it... But it's quite fast, and getting off midway is dangerous. We'll need to think about where it will take us and change over to the next one. Remember that, Satonaka."

Chie:"R-Roger that!"

Chie replied with a sheepish look. We went along to the next room and found that there were many more moving walkways. We managed to make it through them to a door that led forwards.

Yosuke:"Whew... Going back and forth like this is wearing me out..."

Ken:"It would be nice if we could take a break..."

Mechanical Voice:"There is some good news for you stray lambs. The next Selection Room of Destiny...is five steps away. You consider whether it is best to come or not come: proceed or remain in place..."

Shinjiro:"That's pretty vague."

Akihiko:"Well, we can't stop now. C'mon, let's keep going."

We walked about five steps exactly over to the overly gaudy pink door.

Mechanical Voice:"The stray lambs have arrived. Hello on this new floor as well."

Naoto:"Hold on. Could you tell us what exactly you are?"

Mechanical Voice:"You have passed through the second question of death, and emerged as heroes who still venture forth."

Sakura:"Wait, question of death? What does that mean?"

Mechanical Voice:"In honor of this a special third question has been prepared. Steel yourself before you answer."

Naoto:"...It's no use. It doesn't seem interested in conversation. It looks like the only thing we can do is to answer its questions and move forward."

I reluctantly nodded.

Mechanical Voice:"Now then, here is question number three."

Question 3:"How do you want the person you like to act towards you?"

1. Make a bold move on me

2. Make a modest move on me

Sakura:"Hm... A bold move I guess."

Yukari:"Really?"

Sakura:"Well... I guess so...

I looked away with a sigh.

Souji:"Let's just keep going."

We all agreed and continued onwards. We ended up running into a new kind of FOE again, there are just so many different shadows it's almost hard to keep track of them all. We eventually made our way to the next Selection Room to answer the next question.

Question 4:"What's in your refrigerator?"(Weirdest question ever! But this is the question that gives you Souji in the game so...)

1. Dinner leftovers

2. Cold barley tea

3. Some kind of grass

Sakura:"I don't know? Some kind of grass?"

Souji:"...!?"

Souji seemed to gasp in recognition to the answer.

Yukari:"Why grass...? I mean, what would that be doing in a fridge!?"

Sakura:"I've found weirder things in a fridge...trust me."

After that was over the door near the stairs was ready to open. Behind it were more shadows or should I say shadow... There was a large king like shadow we came to call a Gorgeous King.

Sakura:"Right! Souji try an Electric attack, Yosuke Wind, Yukari you're our healer, Zen try Ice!"

I called out my orders then guarded against the shadows first blow directed at me. Yosuke being the fastest attacked first using Garu. Souji used Zio, Zen used Frozen Spear. Then I used Agi causing it to fall over we continued to attack with Fire skills when we could finally beat it and could continue on.

Kanji:"Alright! We won!"

Mitsuru:"Excellent leadership, Hitomi. Entrusting authority to you was the right decision. Let's keep this up and move onward."

Sakura:"Right!"

We walked through the next door where we found the stairs. There weren't any shadows so we took a short break...

Chie:"C'mere, Koro-Chan!"

Koromaru:"Arf."

Chie:"He's so smart! All my Muku does is drool everywhere!"

Koromaru:"Arf!"

Aigis:"It seems he likes you very much, Chie-San. He's asking for you to pet his head some more."

Souji:"...Do you understand dog language?"

Aigis:"I do not understand their language, but I can communicate with them."

Yukiko:"That's amazing!"

Chie:"Really? People with dogs can usually tell what they mean. I completely understand my Muku! He's always saying things like, "Let me eat meat," and "Gimme some meat with the bone in.""

Yosuke:"I think something's getting lost in translation there."

Chie:"He understands my questions too, though. When I ask him, "Beef or chicken?" he answers with a bark."

Yosuke:"That question makes no sense! Why do you and Muku only talk about meat!?"

Souji:"They do say that dogs grow to be like their owner."

Junpei:"We've got someone with Bowl-Lingual too, Y'know. Look over there."

Over to the side Akihiko-Senpai and Shinjiro-Senpai were talking.

Akihiko:"Dammit... Is there no Umiushi here!?"

Shinjiro:"Wait, you mean the beef bowl shop? Like hell we'll find one here."

Akihiko:"Ngh... Today's their special beef bowl day...!"

Junpei:"See?"

Yosuke:"Uhh... We're in the same boat, huh...?"

Sakura:"*Sigh* Pretty much..."

I looked down with a tired expression.

Chie"Did he say...special beef bowl?"

Chie was practically drooling at those words.

Yosuke:"Enough with the drooling! Sheesh, can you please say something here, Yukiko-San?"

But Yukiko was thinking about something else.

Yukiko:"Your dog wasn't named Muku, was it, Chie? It was Chosokabe. Unless...did you get another dog? I think you should name him Yukimura."

Yosuke:"You weren't listening at all, were you!?"

Souji:"Why does she keep naming them after Sengoku-era generals...?"

Koromaru:"Woof!"

Koro-Chan barked happily.

Aigis:"It seems Koromaru-San has begun to admire these generals."

Aigis translated.

Yukiko:"Then from today on forwards, Koro-Chan we're calling you Yukimura!"

Yukari:"Not happening."

Sakura:"Koromaru is Koromaru. He doesn't need another name. The one he has is his name and no other."

I told her, Koro-Chan was happy about my words.

Aigis:"Koromaru-San is very happy."

Akihiko:"He got his name from his owner, after all. It must be important to him."

Koro-Chan barked in confirmation. Then Teddie started to throw a tantrum of some kind, we eventually made our way to the third floor of the labyrinth.

Group Date Cafe, Stop 3...

The next floor was different from the two before, the colors were darker and the decorations were more menacing in appearance. After listening to the voice again and finding out about the vast number of FOE's we continued on. The new FOE's only seemed to move when we were facing them so we had to walk backwards at several points. We made it to Selection Room 5...

Mechanical Voice:"The time may be nigh for stray lambs to grow up to stray sheep. But you cannot relax. Your foes and the questions of destiny become fierce with each encounter. Keep that in mind."

Yukiko:"Yes, sir!"

Chie:"I don't think it cares if you talk back to it."

Mechanical Voice:"Presenting: question number five."

Question 5:"Clothing, food, or housing: which would you spend money on first?"

1.Definitely clothing

2.Positively food

3.Absolutely housing

Sakura:"Housing I think..."

Yukari:"Housing, huh...? I wonder where we're gonna go after we leave the dorm..."

Koromaru:"Arf!"

Aigis:"Koromaru-San is saying, "There is no need for housing. I am a citizen of the earth.""

Came Aigis's translation.

Kanji:"Th-That's deep..."

Kanji looked impressed.

As we were walking along we found a doll with a box that wouldn't open. In the next space after that there weren't any shadows present so we took a short rest.

Naoto:"There was something intriguing about that question earlier. I thought it was keenly asked. It truly highlighted the difference between men's and women's view points."

Aigis:"From which point did you answer the question, Naoto-San?"

Aigis asked her.

Naoto:"Which...?Oh."

Aigis:"I believe that is the boys uniform, but I do not know why you are wearing it."

Aigis stated innocently.

Naoto:"That's..."

Shinjiro:"People can wear what they want. Just leave it."

Shinjiro-Senpai told Aigis in a matter of fact tone.

Aigis:"I see. I should avoid the topic of clothing. It is a "minefield.""

Naoto:"No, um... The reason isn't really so significant..."

Naoto replied with a blush.

Junpei:"Wait, a woman? You're a girl!? Seriously!? Is Naoto an alias!?"

Junpei stupidly questioned.

Naoto:"It's my real name! It's not only a boy's name, I'll have you know."

Junpei:"Ooh, I see... But man, a girl, huh...? Whoa, I'm getting all self-conscious about her now!"

Akihiko:"Here comes the usual Junpeiosis."

Sakura:"Please forgive our resident perverted idiot..."

I said with a sigh.

Mitsuru:"Male or female is irrelevant in battle. The same goes for clothing. Such distinctions are antiquated."

Naoto:"...That's right. I think the same thing."

Junpei:"Oh, no, that wasn't what I was veering at, but I-I mean... Did you figure it out?"

Junpei stuttered out, looking over to me.

Sakura:"I've known since the beginning..."

I answered him truthfully, it wasn't hard to tell.

Junpei:"Seriously!? Am I the only one who didn't notice!?"

He yelled out.

Chie:"Ohh, well, we thought Naoto-Kun was a boy for a while too."

Chie told him.

Junpei:"Right? Right!? Whew, I'm safe! I mean, leaving aside Aigis, I'm suprised you knew Nao-cakes was a girl too, Shinjiro-San."

Naoto:"N-Nao-cakes...?"

Naoto questioned with a blush. I sighed and patted her on the shoulder.

Shinjiro:"Huh? You can tell just by looking at her."

Kanji:"I couldn't... For the longest time... I had no damn idea..."

Souji:"...Don't worry about it."

Naoto:"...P-Please stop staring at me."

Naoto looked distressed.

Sakura:"Alright, time for us to get moving lets go, come on!"

I started to herd the others forward. Eventually we found a similar doll to the one we had seen earlier in another area...

Ken:"We came across a similar doll earlier, didn't we?"

Chie:"Huh? Really?"

Ken:"I remember it, because that one looked lonely too. But that one had a necklace with a blue stone on...so maybe these two were originally a set. They might've gotten separated for some reason..."

Ken looked at the doll with sad eyes, I wonder if he was thinking of his mother while he looked at these dolls...

Chie:"...If that's true, then I can't ignore it. Let's help reunite them!"

Chie called out excitedly.

Ken:"Huh? Really!?"

Ken looked suprised.

Sakura:"Sure, why not?"

I smiled.

Ken:"Th-Thank you so much!"

Ken looked happy.

Yukiko:"You've got a kind heart, Ken-Kun."

Ken:"O-Oh, no..."

Ken looked away embarrassed while I picked up the doll.

Sakura:"We'll just take you with us then."

I told the doll with a smile, no one diserved to be alone after all, I know I've had enough of being alone. We continued on for a short time, we even ended up going in a circle at one point and made our way back to where the first doll was.

Yukiko:"Let's try putting that doll right next to it."

Ken:"Yeah!"

Ken looked really happy as I placed the doll next to the seated one. When I did the necklaces on the dolls began to glow.

Chie:"Wh-What's going on!? If this is a ghost or something spooky, I'm out of here!"

Yukiko:"Don't worry, Chie. It's just a paranormal phenomenon."

Yukiko told her innocently.

Chie:"That counts as "something spooky"!"

Ken:"Oh! Look, everyone!"

Ken pointed out, the lid to the unopenable box was now open.

Yukiko:"I wonder if it's okay to take this..."

Yukiko wondered out loud.

Ken:"Oh, Look at the dolls' faces...!"

The dolls looked strangely happy...

Sakura:"I think this is their way of thanking us..."

I told the others with a smile, I reached in the box and pulled out a Soma Droplet.

Ken:"...I hope you two get along. Make sure you don't get separated again!"

Ken told the dolls as they sat happily next to each other.

Sakura:"Let's get going now..."

I turned away to continue our investigation of the labyrinth, eventually we finally got to the next question.

(Made up question)

Question 6:"How do you spend your free time?"

1.Playing videogames

2.Reading books

3.Working on your social links

Sakura:"Well...working on my social links is how I spend most of my free time. That and studying for school..."

I admitted.

Junpei:"What's a social link?"

He pondered aloud.

Souji:"It's a wild card thing."

Souji explained simply.

Junpei:"Seriously what is it?"

He asked again as we all walked towards the now unchained door.

Yukari:"Just drop it."

Yukari scolded. We continued to question 7.

Question 7:"Your specialty dish is..."

1.Curry

2.Meat and potatoes

3.Pickled mackerel

Sakura:"Out of those choices...probably curry..."

Yukiko:"That's a suprise! But even we can cook something as simple as curry."

Why that was a suprise I couldn't figure out.

Yosuke:"...They say that now, but..."

Yosuke muttered.

Souji:"We should leave them be..."

Souji told him, they both looked like they were in pain.

Sakura:"Okay then... Let's get moving."

We ended up unlocking the next ordeal door and finding an FOE that we had to fight to get past.

Sakura:"Find it's weakness first!"

I yelled out and hit it with an Agi attack that didn't really do anything, Souji tried a Zio attack, Naoto tried a Maha attack that had no effect what so ever, Zen used Cyclone, Mitsuru was the only one who did substantial damage with a Bufu attack.

Sakura:"Focus on Ice attacks!"

I ordered the others nodded and used what attacks they could if they didn't have an ice attack. Souji, Mitsuru, and Zen used their ice attacks and Naoto and I used normal attacks. I slashed at the FOE and Souji followed up with a Bufu from his Sub Persona. The FOE, God of Romance, tries to fight us off by raising its defense but we continued to bat it around with ice and normal attacks until it couldn't take anymore.

Chie:"Okay! We're done here!"

Akihiko:"That was some great training. Well, no time to rest. Let's keep moving."

We finally made our way to the next floor...

Group Date Cafe, Stop 4...

Yukiko:"We've come pretty far in... I wonder how far this goes."

Rei:"..."

Rei looked scared.

Zen:"...Rei, are you all right?"

Rei:"M-Mm-hm."

She assured.

Rise:"Huh? Wait a second! The presence of Shadows just got stronger!"

Fuuka:"I'm sensing something g powerful further down... We might be approaching the deepest part of the labyrinth. Please be careful, everyone."

The two navigators warned.

Sakura:"We should go back for now, we'll just exhausted ourselves if we keep this up."

I told the others, they agreed and we went back to the school with a Goho-M. Once we were back I went about gathering supplies and Persona for our future battles, starting with the work shop. I sold all the materials I had collected along the way down and Theo made some new armor and such but with all the armor and weaponry I collected in the labyrinth I don't need much in that regard instead I checked my medicine supplies and bought another Goho-M for if I needed it not really needing medicine with how I've been sure to switch my healers out instead of using my items unless I really needed them. Next stop was the nurse's office to heal everyone fully, then to the Velvet Room to do a few fusions.

Sakura:"I think that's everything..."

I muttered to myself as I checked my to-do list once more.

Souji:"Sakura!"

I heard Souji call out.

Sakura:"Souji, did you need something?"

I questioned.

Souji:"Just checking up to see how your holding up. Leading twice the amount of people must take it's toll..."

He replied.

Sakura:"I'm fine. Honestly this place doesn't bother me as much as Tartarus does. That place is seriously exhausting."

I laughed out softly.

Souji:"Just making sure, and don't forget if you need me I'll be here to help."

He told me sticking his hands in his pockets.

Sakura:"Yeah...thanks."

I smiled calmly.

Souji:"No problem."

Sakura:"Anyways you should take advantage of this break while you can."

I insisted.

Souji:"Are you done with all your preparations for the labyrinth?"

Souji questioned.

Sakura:"Yeah, why?"

I looked at him with a raised brow.

Souji:"Want to join me?"

He asked me.

Sakura:"Won't Rise-Chan get mad at you for hanging with another girl?"

I pondered.

Souji:"I kinda wish she'd stop..."

Came his sighed reply.

Sakura:"Don't like having a teen idol throw herself at you?"

I asked with some sympathy.

Souji:"It's not that I don't like her, she's a great friend. I just don't like her the way she seems to like me."

He explained.

Sakura:"I kinda know how you feel, it not exactly the same but similar."

Souji:"Really?"

Sakura:"Back at Gekkoukan there are a lot of girls that really like Akihiko-Senpai, so there are a lot of them who don't like how close we seem to be. Even if I only see him as a friend they think there's something mote when there isn't. Hence why I say fangirls are the scariest beings on the planet, even Shadows don't scare me as much as they do..."

I explained to him, with a shiver at the end.

Souji:"Yeah, I could see why... For now why don't we go have some fun?"

He asked me with a simple smile.

Sakura:"Sure."

I replied with one of my biggest smiles. And so we went around the festivities and played a few gamed for a while. After I was sure we were all properly rested and relaxed we headed back into the labyrinth for the last portion of the labyrinth's investigation.

And there you have it!

Yosuke:"Finally you took forever writing this one!"

Yeah well, I'm really sorry it took me that long to finish this but... with no creative motivation, a series of events that weren't under my control, and difficulty with chosing questions for this labyrinth... it was just hard to finish it.

Yosuke:"Right, but what about you're other stories?"

I'm hoping I don't have as much of a problem writing the next chapter and I hope I'll get around to continuing my Fairy Tail Fanfic. I finally finished rewriting my Persona 5 one and I've been working on small stories and one-shots when ever I feel the motivation to.

Yosuke:"Gottcha, by the way you keep forgeting about that list you promised a few chapters back..."

Yeah I know but there isn't really a need for one when the only pairings I have are SoujixSakura and ZenxRei.

Yosuke:"Right..."

I just don't know who to pair up and noone's given me any sigestions so I've just been forgeting about it.

Yosuke:"And you're romance is kinda slow..."

I never claimed it would be fast, I just said there would be one. I'm not really one for head-over-heels at first sight or any of that bullshit. I don't really think you can love someone like that, you need to know a person before you can really claim you love them.

Yosuke:"But what about Rise?"

Honestly I don't really think she loves Souji, sorry to burst her bubble, she likes him sure but I think its more of an attraction to who she thinks he is instead of who he really is. I've always been kinda iffy when it came to Rise and her infatuation with Souji.

Yosuke:"You know she's gonna hate you for that right?"

Why do you think she isn't in any of my author's notes? Do I look like I have a virtual death wish?

Yosuke:"I just thought you didn't want to use any of the girls here or something..."

It's not that, I don't want to use Teddie or Junpei either... I probably will use Naoto but the others...we'll see.

Yosuke:"What's wrong with the girls?"

Well we already said Rise would virtually kill my ass, Chie's kinda over excitable as shown at the start of this chapter and I can't deal with that right now, Yukiko is just plain weird(no offense), Mitsuru is scary to talk to most of the time and she has her weird sheltered heiress moments, Fuuka's a stuttering mess a lot of the time and it'd be cruel to make her help me with this stuff, and Yukari's as bad as the guys when it comes to being quiet when I don't want them to be or she's yelling at Junpei for something he did. The only one I would use is Naoto because at least she could give me a conversation in a calm manner.

Yosuke:"You really think this stuff out don't you?"

Are you trying to imply something Yosuke Hanamura?

Yosuke:"*gulp* No, not at all!"

Oh, whatever... We're done for now.

Yosuke:"Right, see you later!"

Coward ran away... I'm really not that scary damnit. Anyways see you all next chapter.

Shika Kizuka(And Yosuke)