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But that was all in the past now.

“Listen, Kid…” The ex-cop killer made sure to make his footsteps heard as he walked over to her, standing behind the girl. It was rather evident that no one from Inaba wanted anything to do with himself, that was clear. Convincing someone like her that he was trying to change for the better was already nigh impossible.

“I meant what I said, and honestly, if I wanted to kill you, I would’ve done so already,” Adachi looked down at the girl with a pathetic look of pity. Should he even bother trying to interact with the likes of her? That was the question… Though she seemed to be lost and confused - and the look on her face when she thought he was a cop at first made it seem like she was looking for help in the first place.

“I might be willing to help you, but you’re starting to seem like you’d just get in my way, you know?” He retorted spitefully, if she was gonna be like this the whole time then he’d be better off letting her get herself killed.

Adachi crouched down and squinted at the girl’s ankle. Oh man, did she really sprain it trying to get away from him? What a joke… Though the funnier joke here was that he’d have to carry her to the hospital now.

“Don’t...don’t come any closer.” 

Ai suppressed a shudder that had nothing to do with the freezing cold ground beneath her. As much as she wanted to be home with a hot warm drink and a change of clothes, forget what had happened here, she didn’t trust Adachi’s intentions and refused to go along with him. But she didn’t want to lay here and die, either! 

That was her dramatic side coming into play. There was little chance of her dying from such a sprain.

This girl was a piece of work all right. Minato was used to people who were prepared to fight Shadows, even if it was a little uncomfortable. And Kenji, but well, there had been a reason they didn’t talk as much at the end of the year.

“A Persona is a manifestation of your soul. Once you’ve summoned it for the first time, you can use it to fight Shadows; they can be hit with regular weapons, but Personas are their greatest weakness, and the only thing that’s truly effective on anything but the little ones. You don’t need to be a physical fighter to use a Persona; we all made the contract that allows us to summon one when we came here.”

There was the money question: how he knew everything. And she didn’t look like she liked the fact that he knew it all either, despite how ready she was to hear the information in the first place.

“Is that so...” For a second there, she looked as if she was contemplating his explanation. But Ai wouldn’t be Ai if she didn’t make a scene. 

“Uh-huh. Yeah. I find that hard to believe. You, a high school student, fighting magical monsters by summoning more magical monsters. Did you play one too many video games?” 

Little did she know, her classmates at Inaba had been doing just that. Talk of weapons and weak points and summoning, he sounded like some sort of otaku. Yeah, this was the kind of call-to-adventure that only a geek would enjoy. It would explain why she felt out of her element in this place. Ai had never cared much for video games.

“But...it’s not like I completely disbelieve you.” Was that surprising to hear? Sure, she was skeptical, but she’d also witnessed the magical forces that surrounded them herself. Her first reaction was to scoff, but Ai was willing to let him prove himself. 

Adachi was completely caught off guard when the girl he’d approached had suddenly accused him of his past misdeeds. What an idiot - how could he forget that he was possibly the highlight of the news back at Inaba. Literally anyone from there would recognize him as a murderer.

“H-Hey, Hey! Would you pipe down?!” The ex-detective exasperatedly tried to explain himself, “Look, I did my time! I’m a changed man, honest!” There he went, spouting on even more lies - even if there was a small hint of truth about them. He was still a felon - so clearing his own name was going to be extremely difficult.

“There’s no sense screaming about that here, anyways, this is an entirely different world -” What sense was there in trying to explain this to a teenage girl, there’s no way she’d buy any of this crap. He’d just gotten out of jail, he didn’t want to go back this quickly.

“Liar.” He’d killed a reporter and a classmate of hers. One day Konishi was in school and the next day she was dangling from the telephone poles. How creepy was that?!

“That’s what you want me to think so I’ll let my guard down! I’m not falling for it!” Her voice was still shrill as she backed away.  She’d seen how it happened in movies and she wasn’t going to hang around.

Problem was...the only other law enforcement here were the zombie cops. Ai shuddered. She didn’t want to talk to them any more than she did with Adachi. So what did she do? She turned and ran. Ai wasn’t thinking clearly at the moment, only reacting. That must be why she skid on the icy sidewalk (those two-inch heels certainly didn’t help), lost her balance, and tumbled ungracefully onto the road.

Still, in retrospect, he feels pretty lame for it.

“–Yeah, what of it?!”

Her tone isn’t one he’s unfamiliar with, and he at least handles it better than before. It’s the “shrill girl noise”, the one that meant someone was disgusted or fearful. It still cut into him, made him go a little tense, but he knew better than to lash out. Kanji takes a measured, purposeful breath. He wasn’t scared, he reminds himself. This was gonna turn out alright.

“What, are you saying I’m not qualified to be here? Go on and say it, you wouldn’t be the first person to think that. Most don’t have the guts to tell it to my face, but I know what they’re thinking.”

1: Which is worse, failing or never trying?

2: Are you doing what you believe in, or are you settling for what you are doing?

3: If happiness was the national currency, what kind of work would make you rich?

4: Are you more worried about doing things right, or doing the right things?

5: If you could offer a newborn child only one piece of advice, what would it be?

6: Would you break the law to save a loved one?

7: Are you holding onto something you need to let go of?

8: Do you push the elevator button more than once?  Do you really believe it makes the elevator faster?

9: Have you been the kind of friend you want as a friend?

10: If you just won a million dollars, would you quit your job?

11: If we learn from our mistakes, why are we always so afraid to make a mistake?

12: What would you do differently if you knew nobody would judge you?

13: What do you love?  Have any of your recent actions openly expressed this love?

14: If you were stranded on a desert island, what three items would you want to have with you?

@heelturned

Oh man, what another boring day in town. Nothing much for Adachi to really do other than walk around in the streets, observing all the demons and other persona-users in their daily lives here.

Wait, was that…

In the midst of a few scattered people, the detective recognized the familiar uniform of a yasogami highschooler. It was a teenage girl, huh. Maybe she was a friend of Narukami’s.

“Hey, you wouldn’t happen to be from Inaba would you?” Adachi approached the student and tapped her shoulder rather gently.

“You’re a detective? It’s not like me to say this, but thank goodness there are policemen here.” Ai thought of herself as someone who could look out for herself, but in the middle of a blizzard with monsters lurking on all sides? She felt safer in his presence. If the police saved the world like they were supposed to, she could go home.

“Wait...I’ve seen you somewhere.” He’d said he was from Inaba. Both his name and his face rang a bell in her mind, and that bell soon turned to alarm. “You were on television and-- oh my god you’re that serial killer! Who let you out?! You should be behind bars!” 

News circulated fast in their small town and the infamous detective that had deceived the police for nearly a year had been the talk of the town. Now that she knew his friendly smile was fake, she started to panic. Who could blame her? He was a killer! Ai stepped back and raised an accusing finger. She was about to make a scene. 

Ai might have been around while Inaba went to hell in a hand-basket but she’d never had to fight a shadow directly. Perhaps if information like this was privy to the Commander he could obtain a better sense of their enigmatic hosts.

Even with it being a rhetorical question he was still tempted to answer her anyway. There must at least be somewhere out there. Honestly the mage would sit in frustration without any source of constant work to do. Like it or not, it had become his routine by now and breaking it would prove difficult.

Following her lead was easy enough. The two had proceeded down the hall until coming across a Jack Frost in the hallway. Compared to some of the waiters it didn’t seem too threatening but one could never be too sure.

“Very well then. We seem to be able to understand them so this didn’t take too long.”

Politeness never hurt anyone. For now, rather than asking about stores outside he only wanted the fireplace information. The conversation between the two was short but introduced a few facts about the Jack Frost. Number one: they liked to say hee-ho a lot at the end of sentences. Daylen had to assume it was some kind of weird verbal tick.  Number two: they liked to play games. He needed to phrase the same question in a few different ways before actually getting an answer. The demon seemed rather amused by it all.

Even with that frustration he would turn back to Ai, the demon now passing them to go from where they started.

"Finally! Who put them in charge of this place? They’re no help at all." 

She’d gone back to the sniping, but at least that meant she wasn’t scared of them anymore... With the directions, they soon reached a room with a flickering fireplace and Ai took off towards the flame to soak in its warmth. Then she sunk onto one of the lounge chairs with a content sigh. "Much better." 

Now that her needs were taken care of, Ai began to take notice of the man who'd asked for directions. For one, he wasn't Japanese.

Minato fiddled with the cord of his headphones, but decided it probably didn’t matter if he shared the fact that a good portion of all of this wasn’t exactly new to him. The attendants of the Velvet Room would have warned him if it would… probably. It was hard to tell with them.

“I’ve already met one creep that I want nothing to do with. You’d have to be stupid to trust everyone you meet.” Ai scoffed. He was telling her she should work together with a bunch of strangers she knew nothing about? No thanks.

“Personas...I keep hearing the word but it means nothing to me. Besides, how do you expect me to fight? I manage a sports team, I’m not an athlete.”  

And half the time, she wasn’t even doing that. Ai didn’t know martial arts and couldn’t see herself learning anytime soon. She’d get nowhere and ruin her perfect nails. Defending the peace should be a job left to the police. She paused suddenly, eyeing him with a suspicious look. 

“How do you know all this, anyway?” 

The hand that had been gently resting on the lodge’s doorknob to open it - to gauge the snowstorm outside for themselves - halted in any efforts to turn it at someone who did not look too pleased stomping out into the lobby. The stranger seemed fairly irritable, something about ‘how calm everyone was taking this’? She’d signed the same contract they all had, surely she could figure out the specifics, right?

They had been brought to this hotel to help save the world as they promised in the signed contract, simple as that. It was evident the girl saw something suspicious about the matter, with the amount of incessant noise that came out of her mouth. Here they thought Souda was noisy enough, sigh.

“Complaining about this situation in such a childish tone isn’t going to accomplish anything: other than making the other hotel-stayers annoyed, you know. If you absolutely must gain a handle on this situation - I can do you a favour and explain it in a way even the most confused mind can understand.”

Adjusting their glasses with a silent move of confidence, there. Not an ounce of hesitation, either. 

Who was he to take such a high and mighty tone with her? Ai didn’t care for lectures, especially from someone with an inflated ego the size of his weight. Sure she had much to complain about, but that was only because they hadn't bothered to explain anything properly!  

Ai was without a doubt acting childishly. She hadn't accepted the reality of what the contract entailed. She could have used her free time to learn more about the details of their mission, but she spent it groaning. Now that someone was offering to explain things, because of the attitude he’d taken with her Ai refused. 

"I know what's going on. It doesn't mean I have to like it." 

Her tone was snappish, but her hands fidgeted with her hair, hinting at the discomfort she felt inside. The whole situation was a little overwhelming to her, and if she wasn't distracting herself with her complaints, she might start to fear what was lurking beyond the veil.