video/action;

[eatsyourscience]

[Souji is, surprise surprise, in the di-- Actually, this time he's in the kitchen. For a change of pace. He's got the device propped up on something so that he can talk at it hands free. Sitting in front of him is a piece of the rainbowiest rainbow cake a person could possibly make.]

Today is my sixth anniversary.

[He nudges the cake a little toward the camera.]

So I made cake. There's plenty of it, so I'll leave it here in the kitchen in case any one wants to have some.

[With a smile that seems quite tired, he shifts the cake to one side, and glances after it. With his gaze still cast away from the camera, he asks:]

How long have you been here? Do you want to go home? [He looks back at the camera again, his expression more thoughtful than tired now.] I'm kind of...doubting myself in that regard.

Comments

[nomorules]

Wow, time really is bent out of joint. It's crazy to think it should be 2018 for you.

_{[And if Souji were to leave right now, he'd be returning to 2012. Trippy, to imagine remembering everything and having that extra time jangling around in your head, only to pick up where you left off like no time had passed at all...]}

No matter what time or place, you got friends waitin' for you. That must be a load off.

_{[Souji has his own place to fit in--wherever he happens to end up. That has to be some comfort in an otherwise messy situation, or so Ryuji would like to think.]}

[eatsyourscience]

It's comforting, yeah.

[Souji does have doubts sometimes, though. Is he really alive even? Maybe the train crashed and he died and he just doesn't remember it. Maybe everyone who ends up in Wonderland is dead and none of them have anywhere to go back to. Or maybe he's simply trapped here with no hope of ever going back.

Those doubts usually dissipate pretty quickly, at least, and he doesn't feel like exploring them with Ryuji. He has the feeling that Ryuji doesn't need him complicating the whole thing further.]

I'm not sure if it's comforting or not that I won't remember anything that happened here. But it probably should be.

[nomorules]

<sub>[Ryuji is certainly not here for getting existentially down in the dumps about what it means to be in Wonderland; he's too new to feel like he's setting down roots, and as far as he's concerned this is a temporary detour. He can feel a strong and steady pulse in his neck, and he has a life waiting for him. That's all he needs to know.

He tilts his head to the side, wondering how long it took being stuck here before Souji started entertaining these sorts of thoughts.]</sub>

Forgettin's the easy way out. Nothin' comfortin' about that.

[eatsyourscience]

I don't know. I imagine remembering when I get home and it would make things difficult.

[For one thing, he'd have an extra six years under his belt. Not to mention how hard it would be pretend he didn't know some of the things he knows now.]

[nomorules]

What happened to setting a high bar?

_{[One eyebrow arches. Wasn't Souji already set on walking out of here with both sets of memories intact? As far as Ryuji's concerned, once someone signs that dotted line to themselves, second guessing the fine print just causes more problems than it's worth.]}

I get messin' around with timelines could have bigger repercussions than we're seein', and you... you've prolly got a lot of thinkin' to do. But if you're set on keepin that promise what good's it do worryin' about it?

_{[Clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose, etc. etc.]}

[eatsyourscience]

[He takes a breath and nods. Ryuji is right--he can't have the determination to remember and worry about it causing problems at the same time. He's just wavering because he's letting things get to him.]

You're right.

[He smiles a little.]

You're good at keeping people on track, you know?

[This is the second time Ryuji's managed to drag him back from complacency.]

[nomorules]

_{[What the hell, man, don't get all goopey on him. A surefire way to get Ryuji laughing, edges of it tinged with embarrassment, is commend him for being something other than the loudest in the room at any given moment. The splash of pink in his cheeks says that he's heard Souji loud and clear, no matter that he shrugs the comment off.]}

I ain't the brightest guy around. _{[As if that's an answer.]} I just don't have the brains to worry about the little stuff.

_{[Also A+ at accepting compliments, as you can tell.]}

It's like with runnin'--when you run, you just gotta put all that stuff outta your head and go for it. Same deal.

[eatsyourscience]

[Well this response doesn't remind him of someone at home at all.]

You run at school?

[Little does he know clubs aren't a thing for these young uns. Clubs are just part of life.]

[nomorules]

Used to. Not anymore.

_{[#long story]}

But being a phantom thief was even better. There's plenty of free time here, though, so I still run when I get a chance. Makes you feel like this place isn't as small, like you're gettin' somewhere.

[eatsyourscience]

Yeah, I can understand that. With so much time, you have to feel like you're making progress somehow.

[So he doesn't run at school anymore. There's definitely a story there, but Ryuji didn't volunteer it. Souji can pursue it later--or pursue it indirectly.]

I like running pretty well. I played soccer at school and we ran way more laps than necessary.

[nomorules]

<sub>[Ryuji and track had a rocky relationship--had, because in recent months he'd taken great strides (no pun intended) to assigning some closure to it. He didn't mind talking about home life if someone was really interested in what a workout junkie gets up to in his spare time, but it didn't seem fair to go about blathering on about himself on today of all days, Souji's anniversary.

That said, he can't help but light up at mention of one of his favorite sports.]</sub>

Oh yeah, you play?

_{[Present tense. He doesn't feel as divorced from those hobbies and interests.]}

[eatsyourscience]

Not much here. I'm not sure I will when I get home, either.

[He'd normally leave it at that, but after a second decides to elaborate a bit.]

I was living with my uncle in a little town for a year, and I'll be going back to the city when I get home. I'm not sure what I'll do at my new school.

[nomorules]

Are you into it? I mean, the sport--like, in general. We should get a game goin' sometime when we're not off on random ski trips.

_{[Ryuji should know better than anyone that it's possible to love something and not be stoked to carry on with it at school, or in a team setting. At some point it's just time to move on.]}

Ha, you sound a bit like Akira, except the other way around. He's a country boy who moved to the big city.

Where are you from? Must've been strange, leaving all the trains and the shops behind for small town life.

[eatsyourscience]

Organizing a game might be fun. It'd give us all something to do.

[But he's not that enthusiastic. Soccer was more about the people he played with than the sport itself.]

I don't really know Akira. I've never actually met him in person.

[They'd had one conversation over the network, but after that, Souji only knows what the other Phantom Thieves and Minato have told him.]

I'm not really from anywhere. We moved around because of my parents work. But we lived in Tokyo a lot of the time. [He smiles to himself.] It was a big adjustment, but I think I liked Inaba better than the city.

[nomorules]

Yeah! And it's the season for beach volleyball. Something good's gotta come out of havin' an ocean view all to ourselves.

_{[It's okay, Ryuji can be enthusiastic enough for the both of them. He's always in the market for new people to get physical with. IN THE PG SENSE, YA PERVS. Though maybe in the other sense one day.]}

We gotta change that. Sounds like you guys would have a lot to talk about.

_{[But another Tokyo transplant, huh? He smiles. Somehow it's heartening to have so many of his countrymen around, even if technically they could be from different universes.]}

Inaba? Why does that sound familiar?

[eatsyourscience]

Familiar? Most people have never heard of it.

[Souji looks at him in interest.]

But it had weird weather for a long time. Maybe it's from that. Or the murders. I'm not sure if any of that would have made the news in Tokyo, though.

[nomorules]

_{[It definitely sounds familiar in that nagging way like he's heard it before but can't place it...]}

Murders?

_{[Why is it always murder.]}

[eatsyourscience]

[Souji nods, one hand on his hip.]

There were a series of murders in Inaba in 2011. Me and my friends were involved in finding the culprit.

[nomorules]

_{[Ryuji can barely remember what he was doing last month, let alone what happened back in 2011, but that nagging sensation gets more insistent.]}

Whoa, seriously? I thought you said it was a small town. How many small towns have murder sprees?

_{[It's a rhetorical question. The answer is not many that Ryuji can recall hearing about.]}

[eatsyourscience]

At least one. [Souji shrugs. He's not making light of what happened, though--he's serious.] Those happened before the kidnappings. Well, two of them did.

That doesn't seem like why you've heard of it, though. [Or Ryuji would probably have remembered something like serial murders.]

[nomorules]

No, it definitely sounds familiar.

_{[He's positive of that--his gut certainly is, and it's rarely led him astray.]}

Like I remember hearin' somethin' about it before...? But I can't remember where. _{[Ugh. He rubs a knuckle against his temple as if that'll somehow jar loose the stray thought.]} What's this about kidnappings?

[eatsyourscience]

The guy who was responsible for the killings convinced another guy to kidnap people and toss them into the TV world. Namatame thought he was saving them from something, but they all could have died.

[Just like the murdered women had. Souji's still pretty unhappy about the whole thing, but knows that Namatame really isn't to blame. Still the fact that he kidnapped Nanako is enough for Souji to keep Souji from warming up to him.]

[nomorules]

_{[Souji's TV world... Television... It strikes a vague chord until the association his brain is struggling to make hits Ryuji all in a flash. Telephone poles. His hand slams the table hard enough to jostle his camera.]}

That's it!

_{[He snaps his fingers in an aha moment.]}

Inaba! That's the town where they found people strung up on poles, isn't it? Those freaky murders that detective copped to. I remember seein' that dude on TV!

[eatsyourscience]

[Souji winces inwardly. So Adachi ended up on TV...]

Yeah...that's Inaba. And that's Adachi.

[He wonders if he ought to say more than that. Talking about Adachi is...complicated for him. It's a couple of seconds before he does speak up again.]

Adachi was my uncle's partner. We got along pretty well. [Up to a point.]

[nomorules]

_{[If there's a life lesson here, it's don't trust the fuzz. Especially detectives whose names start with 'A'.]}

So all that stuff on the news--you mean to say it connected to the Metaverse? No wonder the details sounded like somethin' out of a paranormal flick.

_{[Sorry for your ears, but his voice is definitely rising a few decibels. It's enough of a revelation that he forgets to substitute a broader term in place of "Metaverse."]}

And you knew that douchebag detective!? They still post articles from time to time. Everybody just thought it was some fetish killing. It had to do with Personas all along... I can't believe it.

_{[That's a lie, though. After what he'd seen and done in Tokyo? He can believe it better than most.]}