Persona 4: The Foolish Priestess

Memory 3: The Start of Something Beautiful

Several students pass through the open gates of Yasogami High, relived once again that the end of another school day has passed and headed out under the cloudy sky to spend the rest of their day. Some talked with others about heading to the local shopping district to hang out with friends and others silently thought to themselves to head straight home and rest up from their excruciating day of studying.

Four individuals, however, had no such ordinary thoughts in mind. Instead, they waited patiently at the school gates in hopes of finding a certain individual to soon pass though. Their goal; to prevent another murder.

"Has the target arrived at school?!"

"Yes ma'am! Visual I-D confirmed! Target arrived in-zone near the end of his mess break, with mother issued ratios in hand. Current status: In the bathroom, fixing his hair. The target was acting nervous. I left my position before he had the chance to pick on me!"

Yu Narukami, Yosuke Hanamura, Chie Satonaka, and Yukiko Amagi; four seemingly normal high school students who were in actuality special humans called Persona-Users. The four individuals, who were cramped against each other enough to immediately be deemed suspicious, waited in anticipation for the next possible victim of the serial murder case; Kanji Tatsumi, a local delinquent that was recently shown on the infamous Midnight Channel. In an attempt to prevent Tatsumi from being involved in the recent kidnappings, they are attempting to find suspicious clues about strange happenings around him, starting with a supposed meeting between him and a young boy detective.

"I wonder what kind of plans they made…" Yukiko asked her teammates. "It didn't seem like he knew that boy very well."

The question made the bowl-headed Chie scratch her head in regards to her best friend's thoughts. "Well, I think there's something more subtle-"She lifted her head to finish her statement, but soon became off guard. "Oh, they're here!"

The whole team turned to the directions of which two unique people were approaching each other slowly. One; the bleached-blonde haired Tatsumi, and the other boy, who sported a dark blue double-breasted cardigan coat, plaid blue pants, and a blue cap. The two approached each other face to face with Tatsumi acting surprisingly frigidly.

"I'm sorry." The blue-clothed boy spoke first. "I trust I didn't keep you waiting?"

"U-Uh…no. I just got here myself…"

The strange boy nodded to Tatsumi, and the two soon turned to the opposite direction of the school and headed to the streets. As soon as they seem to be out of site, the four behind the gates stood out to view the others leaving with mystified expressions.

"Wh-What in the world was that…?" A baffled Yosuke remarked. The others gave a moment to process the odd pair's short converse before Chie spoke up again.

"Oh, a-anyways! We gotta hurry after them, or we'll lose them!"

"I agree." Yu, the group's leader, replied. "Yosuke. You and Chie go after Kanji and stake him out while Amagi-san and I watch over the Textiles shop."

"H-Huh?!" Chie blurted out surprised, while Yosuke seemed to be rather pleased with the selection.

"So, I'm pairing up with Chie…? Eh, okay. Alright! We'll need to pretend we're on a date to make it look natural!"

"Not in a million years! There'll be no need for that we stay out of sight! Sheesh... Let's hurry up and go!"

Giving off a sense of defeat, Yosuke nodded and followed Chie to chase after Tatsumi and the detective, leaving Yu and Yukiko by the school gates as they see their best friends dash towards their trail.

"I wonder if those two will be alright…" Yukiko asked questionably.

"I'm sure they'll be fine."

"Yeah…" Yukiko could only speak one word, as she was too nervous to speak any further than that. It's true that the "ladies-man" of the team was now investigating alone with Chie, but Yukiko soon realized that a similar situation had now presented itself to her as well; she was now left with the calm and seemingly-emotionless leader of the group, who had apparently opted to investigate the Textiles shop alone with her, leaving her panicky to what he had in mind. However, Yu's expression remained tranquil even after Yosuke and Chie disappeared from sight, and continued to keep calm even though Yukiko couldn't cease to move her gaze nervously.

Still, they had a mission to accomplish, and acting nervous wasn't going to help. This she knew.

"Oh… u-um, that leaves us in charge of staking out the textile shop." Yukiko spoke more timidly. "So… shall we?"

"Oh, you're right. Let's go."

The both of them stood their ground, but nothing seemed suspicious around the Shopping Distract in front of Tatsumi Textiles, and even though they were satisfied by this, they knew that they couldn't let their own guards down even for the slightest second. After they had finished their beverages, they spent their time scrutinizing around the shopping district in search of suspicious activity.

Though almost expected, nothing strange has transpired yet, but although Yu's gaze had remained straight and narrow, Yukiko found herself unable to stop twiddling her eyes for the most part.

"Everything seems fine at the Textile Shop. I hope it stays that way…" Yukiko said in a most tense manner. "D-Do you think…the killer will show up?"

"Are you scared?" Yu replied collectively as always.

"Yeah, a little. It would be scary is the killer did show up, but whatever fear I have is outweighed by my desire to do something. You all saved my life… I don't want to be the only one doing nothing." Yukiko may have spoken more confident than before, but she soon lowered her gaze back to the ground, unable to hold the mild shaking in her voice. "I'm not sure how I can help, but at least I'll try. I mean… I'm sure there's something I can do…"

Yu never had thought about this before, but he could see now exactly how nerve-wracking the whole situation seemed to Yukiko. After all, their primary objective as a team was dealing with a serial murderer who had super-natural abilities similar to theirs, and Yukiko had hadn't joined the team for more than couple weeks. Though she had trained her Persona well, she still was the newest member to the team, and had jumped into the team only immediately after her rescue.

Her beliefs was in the right place, but it would only be natural to be scared under the circumstances.

"Don't stress out, okay?"

Yukiko panted at his response. "So… is it really that obvious? Sorry, I guess I am kinda nervous…"

"Just try to loosen up a bit. There's a pretty good chance the killer won't even show up here."

"Ah…!" Yukiko paused her breath. "W-Well, no. That isn't what's making me so nervous…"

"Hmm?" Yu suddenly became interested in what she meant. If it wasn't a serial murderer showing up that scared her, then what?

"You see… I've never been alone with a guy my own age before."

Yu held his own breath at that point.

"Chie different, of course." Yukiko continued. "Being who she is and all, she has a whole lot of guy friends, and lately, she really seems to enjoy hanging out with you and Yosuke."

"Really?"

The Priestess beside the Fool fidgeted her hands nervously, and spoke again with flushed cheeks. "The same goes… for me too."

It became one of those rare occasions for Yu's expression to slightly change into a surprise one due to being taking by surprise, causing Yukiko to blush even more. "I-I'm so sorry. I seem to make things even more awkward…" She continued to look at her hands fretfully, think if what she just said had caused an uncomfortable rift in the air. Yu remained tranquil, however, and through his reasoning from Yukiko's sudden shyness, his mouth formed a small grin.

"Don't worry about it."

"H-Huh?"

"I know you're trying your hardest, but don't push yourself okay? If anything comes up, I'll be sure to protect you. I know you'd do the same for us as well."

"O-Oh, Thank you! I will be doing my best for everyone's sake, but should it come to that… I'll be counting on you…"

She knew now that controlling her heartbeat was out of the question now, especially since she didn't know why she couldn't even control her own breathing. Every time she even spoke to Yu, a little elation always seemed to rise, even more so now that they were alone, and bit by bit, she was beginning to realize what was causing it.

It was only a hunch, but she knew what she had to do to find the answer. She needed, and mostly wanted, to spend more time with this boy.

"I-I wonder how Chie's getting along with their side?!" Yukiko begin speaking uneasily as she pulled out her cell. "Maybe I should give her a call."

Yu watched as Yukiko quickly went through the contents of her phone and tried to contact Chie. Remembering Yosuke asking for Yukiko's number yesterday reminded Yu that he didn't have her number either, and it was convenient enough that he had his cell with him at the moment. Wondering how to ask for it, however, he paused. He could simply say that it was for the investigation without creating anymore awkward tension, but… something inside him told Yu that that wouldn't be enough. He knew well that Yukiko was singularly unique to him as a new friend, but if he was to forge a bond with her, he wanted it to be special, like with Yosuke. Perhaps even more than that.

Yu could feel his courage building up, and he knew that could go through with this.

"No good. Her line's busy." Yukiko said disappointingly. "And I don't even have a phone number for Yosuke."

"I need it too."

"Huh?" Yukiko looked back at Yu, confused. "You need Yosuke's phone number?"

"No. Yours."

"What do you-?"

"Amagi-san, do you mind if I have your phone number?"

"E…Ehh?!"

The straight-forwardness in his voice made him sound like he wasn't joking, making it compatible with the confidence radiating from his facial expression, leaving Yukiko unable to speak for a few seconds. A boy. Asking for her phone number. While she had never seen enough home movie-flicks enough to fully grasp what a girl would do in this situation, she knew fully well what this meant however.

Her cheeks ceased to turn back to normal at the thought.

"O-Okay, if you want…" Yukiko replied back with a soft voice as they both put their phone close to link their signals to transmit their numbers. "I can't always answer since I help out at the Inn… But feel free to call anytime, okay…?"

"Sure. I'll be happy to do that."

*FLASH*

Thou art I… And I am Thou…

Thou has established a new bond…

It brings thee closer to the truth…

Thou shalt be blessed when creating Personas of the Priestess Arcana…

"Well, we still have time left before we hear back from Youske and Chie, and nothing seems amiss yet." Yu said as they finished receiving each other's number. "Why don't we talk for a bit? I'd like to know more about you, Amagi-san."

It was still a mystery to Yukiko why it was the case, a case which she would enjoy solving, but she smiled back to the Team's Leader as she replied back.

"Yes… me too. I'd like that, and please…. Call me Yukiko."