Chapter Two: We Meet Again for the First Time

The Investigation Team had decided their next step. Meet up at Junes the following day, inform both the remaining members of the existance of the Phantom Field and all that had happened, and figure out what to do about their situation. Now all that left to do was go home for the day and rest up after their eventful day of fights they had been through.

'Home,' Yu's mind lingered on the word as he made his way through the school, 'If I permanently transferred as Rise said, does that mean I'm still staying with Dojima and Nanako?'

"Hey, uh, Narukami was it?" he heard a freshly familiar voice call to him.

Upon turning toward the voice, Yu saw the unmistakable spiked white hair and heterochromatic eyes of the man he had recently come to know as Ragna the Bloodedge, former fighter of another world now regular teenage highschool student.

"Ragna-san?" Yu exclaimed in surprise that he was calling for him.

"Eh, you can drop the honorifics, just Ragna will do," Ragna was quick to drop formalities, then pulled out a piece of paper, "So, I don't really know if this is your style or anything, but you seem like a pretty okay guy, so I thought I might as well see if you're interested."

Being handed the paper, Yu opened it up to see that it was a flyer advertizing... the debut performance of a new local band?

"Black Beast?" Narukami questioned upon reading the name.

"Yeah, my band is gonna be performing tomorrow at Samegawa Flood Plain," Ragna explained, "I'm on guitar and my brother's on drums. Actually, it's just the two of us right now. We're trying to find a good female singer. So, what you say? Wanna watch us rock?"

"I have a few things planned tomorrow," Yu explained, "But if I got time, I'll be sure to check it out."

"A'ight, it's cool," Ragna assured, "I'm just trying to get the word around. Want a big crowd for our first show. Eh, speaking of which, I gotta get going. Jin will kill me if I miss practice. See ya."

"Yeah, take care," Yu waved him off as they went in different directions.

'Huh, wierd,' Yu thought to himself, 'In the other world, he came off as kinda rough, agitated, and well, done with a lot of things. But this Ragna, in our world, seems pretty relaxed. I guess he does look younger here. Perhaps he hasn't had the experiences that make him to how he normally is yet?... Well, more on that tomorrow with the others.'

With that out of the way, Narukami calmly made his way out of Yasogami and began his walk toward the only place that made sense for him to stay at in the altered reality.

-x-

"Man, this frickin' bites!" Yosuke whined as he walked along with Chie, dragging his bike beside him, "We get dragged into some crazy-ass other world, get constantly attacked by people we just try to talk to, nearly die from some giant floating crystal, and now OUR world is all messed up? Can't the universe just give us a break?!"

"I get what you mean," Chie had to agree with him, "Sure, fighting Makoto was fun and all, but it just got exhausting after the fight with the talking cat. And to add, it's spring again and our school year is longer."

"Oh, don't remind me!" Yosuke continued his complaining, "Let's just count ourselves lucky we didn't go back enough to redo midterms. I didn't even feel confident in my first go, I'm sure a second time around would give me an anxiety attack."

"No kidding," Chie again agreed, "Although, I do wonder how well the new transfers did on it, or even if they took it at all."

"Yeah, that's still a mystery," Yosuke tried wrapping his head around the whole mess, "Hey, it's gonna get late soon if we drag our feet. Wanna hop on my bike and get a quick ride?"

"Ehh, I don't know," Chie hesitated, "You and bikes don't have an amazing track record. Plus, it's a single seated bike."

"Come on, we can totally fit," Yosuke pleaded as he jumped onto the bike and peddled, "I can take the seat while you sit on my lap."

"Oohh no, there's no way I'm sitting on your lap," Chie quickly backed out of that idea, "Freakin' pervert!"

"W-wha-No! Nonono, I didn't mean anything like that!" Yosuke tried to cover his bad wording, "I was just trying to be nice and save you some trouble is all!"

"Well, you and bikes still aren't a great combo," Chie calmed down, but still declined.

"Oh please, we've taken on much worse than a mere bike crash bef-oohh no!" Yosuke tried to make his case, before losing control of the bike enough to crash and fall off.

"You were saying?" Chie asked, unsurprised.

"Shove it," Yosuke declared in annoyance.

"Mmmph."

"Hmm? You say something?" Chie asked.

"Yeah, shove it," Yosuke repeated as he got his bearrings, "As in, be quiet."

"No, not that, clumsy dork," Chie retorted, "I thought I heard something."

"Mmmmmph!"

"Yeah, I hear something to-Agh!" Yosuke shouted as he jumped up from the ground, "Holy shit! I'm so, SO sorry!"

While distracted from their discussion, neither Persona User had notice that Yosuke had collided into someone upon crashing to the street, or that he had just been on top of them. After Yosuke got off the persona in question, both of them got a good look at who it was and it was clear they were one of the new transfers. Not only had they recognized her from the other world, but also from their class. After all, that red cloak certainly didn't make her hard to notice.