[Nearby Cafe, Warakuma Shopping District](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgPu_xk-fY8) "Has anything strange happened" "Well a junior disappeared, but, didn't you know him Chiaki" Scrunching her face, Chiaki sipped some more of her drink before answering. Looking away with a sudden distaste in her mouth, she hesitantly spoke about him. "Y-yeah, me and Noboru-kun are pretty good friends, most of the time, after school, we go for a run through town. He hasn't been around recently, so I decided to do some extra running today. Which is how I ended up here in the first place... Haha..." Chiaki looked at her drink. She started to become a little depressed. She looked to her left, then to her right, just to see if anybody else was listening in. "Here's what I know..." Chiaki began to explain the events that had happened before Noboru disappeared. This included the harassment from his siblings, and the incident at the Idol club. Whilst she was talking, there was an obvious sad tone to her voice and expression. She still hadn't dealt with what happened properly, he disappeared before they could talk again, before they could reconcile. "Yes, so after the shirt malfunction in the Idol club, I ran home, I was too embarressed, I got this text a little later. -Chiaki Showed them her phone, with the message from Noboru, pointing at the time and date- But its the last time I had any contact with Noboru since then. His brother bumped into me about a day ago, talking about how Noboru had run away. If that were true, I'm sure they would have found him by now... Something else must have happened... Its a little scary." Chiaki looked at her drink, stirring it listlessly. "I hope he's okay. I don't think Noboru is the type of guy to run away. He's the "Tough Guy" type"

####Riku | Warakuma Shopping District - Noon --- Noboru Yamamoto... And missing last week... Well, he already knows exactly what happened to him. After listening to them, he made his comment. "Yeah, he'll be fine...", he said simply. It didn't look like he was concerned at all. He was hoping to hear of something that the cultists did or something instead... It looks like they're laying low for now. He saw some trying to recruit people earlier, but they're gone. They probably don't have much of a reason to get new members at the moment. There's nothing hurting their membership after all. "Don't ask me how I know. I just do", he added. After not long he finished his orange juice... That was a pretty big orange juice too, finished rather quickly.

####**Sato Hashimoto** // [Warakuma Shopping District, Nearby Café](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgPu_xk-fY8) Before any noticeable emotion showed itself on Riku’s expression, Chiaki spoke up about her relation with Noboru. She spoke with some kind of unhappiness clearly on her face. Sato didn’t really get why she seemed this way as all of his memories of her and him being together in the same place had been nothing but positive in some way or another. She averted her eyes to her drink after detailing her running shtick with Noboru, which betrayed the expression she carried. Sato picked up his Dr. Salt and attempted to consume the remaining drops of it, though he still couldn’t get any of it despite tilting it at an absurd angle. Chiaki continued on to explain what she knew and what had recently happened to her and him together in her apparently new “Idol Club.” It seemed like a comical event from a outsider such as himself’s perspective, but no doubt would it be awkward and embarrassing for both Chiaki and Noboru. She even showed him and Riku the text that Noboru had sent her, which simply said “I’m sorry.” It seemed to be referring to the incident that Chiaki had just talked about but it could possibly mean more. Sato shook his head. The correlation was obvious enough that it’d be impossible to deny. She finished off her spiel on her relations to Noboru with the fact that his brother said that he had run away. Sato wasn’t sure what to think of it all and instead just leaned back into his chair, hand still resting on the empty can of Dr. Salt. Instead of what he thought he’d say, Riku assured them that Noboru’d be fine wherever he was, finishing off his can of juice after he finished. He didn’t seem all that concerned about any of this information from where Sato sat, but then again, it’s not like someone like Riku would care much about some random student that he’d never heard about before. Sato decided he probably wouldn’t care either if he was in his position. “I wasn’t aware of the circumstances behind it,” Sato started, “I had just overheard it when I was walking through the hall. Somehow I feel like it wasn’t just him running away, but that could just be me being stupid. I’ve never actually heard of anyone actually doing that anywhere close to where I live.” He picked up the can again but immediately plinked it back down to the table. Nothing else to say came to mind and Sato wondered how long he’d be obligated to stay at the café with the people that had basically forced him to buy everyone non-alcoholic drinks. After a bit more of sitting through the silence, Sato slid back on his chair and stood up, moving the chair itself backwards with a tiny creak. “I apologize for not staying longer, but I still have a few things I need to get done today.” He backed away from the table a bit, lifting his own empty soda can from the table and readjusting his clothes so they were straight on his body. The boy lingered a bit awkwardly before making stepping away any further, in case either Chiaki or Riku had anything important to say besides good-byes.

**Kotori Shirohane - Warakuma Shopping District: Shirohane Residence | Sunday, April 12 2015 - Noon** With a quiet but content sigh, Kotori closed the book that lay on the desk before her. After breakfast, she'd headed straight to her room to get the week's homework - a rather small amount, given that it was the first week - abd studying out of the way. With that out of the way, Kotori raised her arms up to stretch them after having spent a good while thumbing through various school books before adjusting her glasses due to their tendency to slowly slip whenever she was looking down for prolonged periods of time. Looking back up, the weather outside her window caught her eye for a moment - it looked like it was a nice and sunny April day; something the flowers would certainly appreciate she mused with a small smile. That, meanwhile, reminded her of the day before - and of the fact that someone had gone missing. Though she'd only just met Noboru two days ago, Kotori still couldn't help but feel a little worried about this - after all, it was hardly an everyday occurence and it obviously had gotten his brother quite worried, judging by the way he'd behaved. Unfortunately, there was little she could do - whilst she apparently was one of the last to have seen him, that hadn't been of much help and she knew far too little about him to be able to somehow aid the search. Still she hoped that he was alright and would return soon. Her brow furrowed briefly as she thought on the name - Noboru Yamamoto. Hadn't she heard that one somewhere before...? That train of thought, however, was interrupted by a soft knock on her door and a questioning "Kotori?" from her mother. "Yes?" she called in return before Tsubame opened the door, popping her head in to find her daughter still seated at her desk. "Am I interrupting?" she asked, receiving a shake of Kotori's head as an answer. "Oh, that's good. Say, could you go down to the mall and get some things? Looks like we're running a bit low on them," her mother asked with an apologetic smile to which Kotori quickly nodded. "Of course. What do we need?" she asked in return, to which Tsubame produced a small list and a thankful smile. **Kotori Shirohane - Warakuma Shopping District | Noon** "I'm off," Kotori announced, getting a cheerful "Take care" from her mother who was still busy tending to the flowers in the shop, before heading out; a small shopping bag in one hand and the shopping list in the other. Glancing over the latter, there wasn't much to carry; mostly an assortment of everyday goods that wouldn't take long to gather from the nearby shops. Unbeknownst to her, she wasn't the only student from Warakuma High out shopping at the time - though given that she wasn't expecting to run into anyone else, she'd hardly notice anyone else out and about as she set off to complete her errand.

Glam-Pitheatre The group ran through the endless halls of the dungeon, it's twisting corridors a maze of despair. The angry voice spoke to them throughout the halls, mocking them at every twist and turn. It antangonized them, throwing shadow after shadow onto them, increasingly angry when they wouldn't die. They reached the top floor of the dungeon. It was dark, almost impossible to see. Within seconds, glaring lights flared, first blinding them, then centering in on the main set. In the middle was a boxing ring, with all lights showing it. In the side of the ring was Noboru, on the ground. The resounding voice snapped their attention away from them. "Hey you fuckheads. I said go away! I don't want you here, and neither," The voice pointed to Noboru, "does he! So why don't you go along back to your homes and leave me alone!" The shadow stepped forward, revealing itself to be a clone of Noboru, though he was radically different. His eyes glowed a deep yellow, and his lips colored a soft green, while he smelled like oil and gasoline. The only clothes he wore were a doctor's coat around his waist, and sequined pants, glittering in the light. "Go on! Go Home!" He yelled.

-_Sunday 12 April, 2015- Morning_ **Leiko Hamada: Hamada Residence** "You're up bright and early." The sound of juice splashing against the side of a glass jug followed the housekeeper's words as she gauged the young teenager before her calmly, a pencilled eyebrow cocking up ever so slightly. "Considering there's no school, I would have expected you to still be in bed." Leiko looked up from the table at the woman's words, her expression portraying an air of dignity despite the fact that she was only wearing pink flannel pyjamas, her unkempt curls left unattended and splayed across her shoulders. "I have things to do today," was her vague and unhelpful reply, a hand reaching up to brush some hair from her face whilst the other took the fresh glass of juice before her. "I don't have time to waste sleeping in." In truth, Leiko was in somewhat of an irksome mood. After finally coming home yesterday, she failed to get a single spark of inspiration regarding the school play at all. She would have liked to have blamed it on having to stay behind and clean up after Hashimoto's reckless behaviour, but she had stayed up for the majority of the night afterwards to make up for it, sipping chamomile tea and staring at her books until her eyes started to go square. And still _nothing._ "Well, you barely look like you've slept at all," the housekeeper replied smoothly, to Leiko's irritation as she cleaned up some plates from the table and headed for the kitchen. "I would suggest you rest up. You don't want to get sick, not when you've only just returned to school." "I couldn't think of anything worse..." Leiko answered darkly, her eyes flickering to the ceiling for a moment before looking down at her phone. There was at least ten messages unread, and she had no doubt that they were several invitations to go out. The only one that really bore any interest to her was a cutesy looking text from Saya asking if she wanted to stay over after she finished work. The way that she had written it looked so stupid that Leiko couldn't help but fight a smile as she replied back. As much as she liked to complain about the girl, she was the most reliable of her group of friends, and it was a good excuse to get her out of her house for a while. Leiko read through the other messages systematically, a bored expression flickering across her face as she replied with routine answers, declining their offers. She probably appeared cold, but she didn't really care; it was part of her image, after all. Once she was done, she snapped her phone shut and rose up to her feet. "I'm going out for a while," she announced to no one in particular, rolling her slightly stiffened shoulders as she did so before she headed upstairs to change. --- _Sunday 12 April, 2015- Noon_ **Leiko Hamada: Warakuma Shopping Complex** The heels of Leiko's boots clacked against the stone pavement as she approached the Warakuma Shopping Complex with no real goal in mind. She wanted an excuse to get out of the house to clear her head, and more importantly, to focus her mind back to organizing the school play. Some people would probably see her as a little obsessed with her duties, but that was just who Leiko Hamada was. She took her passions seriously. The day was a little warmer than usual, but Leiko still chose to wear her usual winter attire; pastel pink, woolly tights and a plain black skirt, complimented by a cream coloured sweater jacket and a black hat that was positioned to tilt to the side ever so slightly. A few years ago, Leiko would never have imagined wearing such a thing, but her fashion guru had other things to say. And she couldn't deny that the outfit made her feel comfortable and oddly at home in her own skin. As she turned a sharp bend, her thoughts listlessly trying to think of a good place to go to relax, her eyes happened on a familiar girl heading in her direction, her expression appearing to be completely lost in thought as she seemed oblivious to her surroundings. Leiko frowned a little at first at the nagging thought in the back of her head as she quickly stepped aside before any unseemly collisions happened. As she did so however, realization finally struck and she reached out to halt the girl suddenly by a firm grip on her arm. "Wait, I know you. You're that Shirohane girl, right? Your parents own the flower store." She hummed approvingly as the pieces seemed to slot together in her head. "I've seen you around school as well, I recall. We're both from the same year, correct?"

**Toma Tanaka - Warakuma Shopping District | April 12th, Noon** Eyes heavy, Toma fumbled with his wallet for a few seconds, getting money out and handing it to the cashier. Mumbling a tired 'thank you,' he grabbed the energy drink he had just paid for and stepped back outside. Cracking it open, he took a sip, already sick of the taste. It was the the fifth one he had bought since Aiko had stormed off the night before. He had considered going after him, but decided it'd probably be better if they split up, as they'd cover more ground and all. Besides, Aiko seemed like he needed time to himself. So, after finding out that Alexei knew no more than Kotori, he texted his mom, telling her he'd be sleeping at a friend's house, having decided he wouldn't stop searching for Noboru until the kid turned up. He hadn't been sure why he felt so strongly about the whole situation -- after all, Noboru was most likely okay -- but after a night of wandering and having nothing but his thoughts to keep him company, he was pretty sure he had his own motivations figured out. Or maybe he knew all along, and it just took him a while to admit it to himself. Toma guessed he could see a little of himself in Aiko -- that he could understand the boy's relationship with his brother. Toma would have loved to say he was going as far as he was for Aiko, to help out a person who needed it, simply because he was a good person and that's what good people do. But he was doing it more for himself. For whatever reason, he saw Noboru's disappearance as a second chance -- a way to make up for past mistakes. It was stupid, and it was selfish, but Toma didn't particularly care. As far as he was concerned, either Noboru would be found, or he'd drop dead. He had ran around, asking anyone who seemed to be a student if they had seen the boy, but no one knew anything. Of course they didn't. Why would any one fucking know anything remotely helpful? That'd just be much too easy. Frustrated beyond belief, but far too tired to vent it, he decided to get something to eat, as he had only been subsisting on energy drinks since lunch the day before. He went to the closest pastry store, and got a couple chocolate donuts. They *did* have actual food, but he ignored it and got his sugary junk. Holding his drink and food awkwardly in one hand and taking a bite, he texted Aiko with his other. *Any sign of him?* was the simple message he sent. Slipping the phone into his pocket, he stared at his terrible lunch, finding himself disgusted. His eating habits couldn't be healthy. Even the smell of the donut was making him nauseous at the moment. With a frown, he took another bite.

####Rui Shinichi | Mirror World [Glam Pitheatre] ####12/4/2015 Sun. --- A... A second Noboru? The state of things for Noboru didn't seem to be favourable. The shadowy Noboru demanded that the party leave, but Rui merely responded with, "No... I don't feel like it", but what the hell was happening here...? Rui wasn't sure what to do next, he wasn't too surprised to see Noboru was the one they were rescuing, he was far more surprised when he realized the voice throughout the dungeon was Noboru. *"Watch out! I'm getting a strong reading from that shadow"*, the notification from Megumi was only responded with keeping their weapons at the ready... It looks like whatever Noboru was meant to face, he is still somewhat far from overcoming it. Rui wasn't sure what would result from that, that hadn't happened to him, but it looks like Megumi has some idea of what was going to happen next. As he said this... Noboru, laid on the ground began to get up and speak.

**Kotori Shirohane - Warakuma Shopping District | Noon** Kotori had been planning the route she'd be taking when, completely out of the blue, she felt someone suddenly grab her arm. Startled and alarmed, she gave a surprised "Eh?!" - until she followed the arm holding hers to a figure standing beside her. Tracing up further, she saw that it belonged to a girl - and one that she recognised a moment later to be a schoolmate of hers. It would be hard not to recognise her - after all, who in their school didn't know Leiko Hamada? The brief fright she'd been given slowly subsiding, a surprised expression still came over Kotori's face as the girl then spoke, stating that she knew her; leaving her to wonder why she of all people would be known by her. That is, at least, until she mentioned the Flower Shop. Giving a meek nod at the question that she was the Shirohane girl, Kotori gave another when the other girl then went on to say that she'd seen her around the school and confirmed that they were in the same year. "Yes?" Kotori agreed, though her quiet voice made it sound more like a question. Glancing quickly about, Kotori also noticed that the girl was alone - which was a rare thing given that from what she'd heard, Leiko Hamada was the kind of person that always attracted the attention of those around her; much the opposite of Kotori in fact. "Uhm... can I help you, Hamada-san?" Kotori spoke up a little, the surprise from before having fully subsided and instead replaced with a quizzical look as she turned to face her fellow Second Year Student; shifting the empty shopping bag from her hand up to the shoulder of her jacket as she did so.

**Leiko Hamada: Warakuma Shopping District** Shirohane regarded her with the usual deer-trapped-in-headlights look at first, before she rewarded Leiko's enquiry with a timid nod. The girl was infamous around school for her shy and withdrawn nature, seemingly more comfortable in her own company as she averted the large crowds. In contrast, Leiko herself was more often than not carrying some kind of posse around with her. So Shirohane's question was quite understandable. Leiko cleared her throat purposefully, meeting the other girl's bespectacled gaze before continuing. "I wonder if you can," she started, the corners of her mouth quirking slightly. "Your test scores are quite high, aren't they Shirohane-san? Not surprising, since you lock up and study all the time." She let out a thoughtful hum as her brow creased slightly. "Do you read then? _Actual_ stories, not science texts or anything to that effect. It's normally the quiet ones with the most vivid imagination, after all..." She cocked her head slightly, a hand on her hip. "Well?"

-Kaminari Sutoraiki (Present): Mirror World [Glam Pitheatre]- "(I really need to start getting here earlier, but then again who would ever be eager to traverse to a forlorn place beside me and the others. Either way, from what I know we should be getting near Noboru, the kid who went missing earlier. Who would of thought that he would of been whisked away to such a dangerous and inhospitable place... Looks like I was right on the money about the cults involvement with this whole thing as I did overhear two people mentioning that they could see another world. Either way, it's important that no one else falls into this hell hole, otherwise they may suffer at the hands of these shadows!)" As the group began tearing through the shadows, myriads of them appeared before the group, ready to destroy them. Rui impatiently rushed forward, summoning his persona to task care of them before Kami sighed at how the boy was rushing to get this over with. He must of been worried to his friends safety so it was sort of understandable in the way he was acting. However, he felt he was sort of getting reckless, and quickly summoned his persona to assist in the fight. As he did so, he brandished his sword at the enemy, and rushed on forward as the blue aura around him began to glow and form Zeus who made quick work out of one of the shadows with a simple slash from the duos weapons. However, he partially let his guard down, and was almost hit by the shadow, if not for Sachikos interference. Kami gave a quick smile to Sachiko as the duo quickly finished the last shadow without the use of their personas. As the two pieces of them began to return to whence they came, he heard Megumi speak over the navigation. She began notifying that the trio were almost at the center of the place, which was rather relieving to hear. "Thanks for the update Megumi! Come on, let us make haste while making waste to these grim creatures... I may not know your buddy too well Rui, but we are going to rescue him and take him back to our realm. I honestly wonder what this place is going to be like at the heart of all of it..." As he pondered this, he continued to make the effort of pushing on, even with the shadows he faced. Kami felt invincible while taking down these bizarre monsters due to the fact that he was traversing down these halls with his allies. He cut down shadow after shadow along with his formiddable allies with ease due to them working as a team. This whole adventure didn't seem at all to be impossible since they were all helping each other out. However, he heard the constant voice of Noboru taunting them as they made it closer and closer to where he was. The voice sounded a bit warped from what he could hear, and felt a bad feeling within him well up. Kami wondered since Noboru was here would they encounter his shadow soon? This was a question he continuously asked himself as he ascended to the top of this dungeon with his allies. After a little while longer, they finally made it to the top, and the group was shrouded in darkness. Suddenly, lights began turning on which partially blinded Kami as he swiftly shielded his eyes. As he did so, he heard the same familiar voice that resonated throughout the dungeon. He quickly returned his attention to the ring, discovering that there was... two Noboru? No, that wasn't the real one, and it was blatantly obvious due to the glowing eyes and the warped way he spoke to the group. He easily identified this as Noborus Shadow, which meant he like the others had to deal with the shadow himself and accept it. The shadow smelled a bit like oil and gasoline, and he pondered upon the shadows choice of smell. Each of these beings had some sort of meaning from what he could tell, and were a part of their hidden psyche. Either way, Kami wondered what troubled the boy, and began to dual wield his stun baton. He would need to be prepared for what will happen since that Noboru was hostile and possibly summoned those shadows to defeat them and send them to their doom. As he did this, he quickly dashed forward to check on Noborus state, but he wasn't allows into the ring. Kami quickly noticed that the boy was coming out of his unconscious state. "(Come on Noboru, I feel you can make it through this guy! Don't let him get the best of you, and let him toy with your emotions!... Now that I think about it, what happens if a shadow is denied?... Oh god, I do not want to think of that possibility happening, as who knows what might happen?)"

**Kotori Shirohane - Warakuma Shopping District | Noon** Following Kotori's question, Hamada cleared her throat in an attention-grabbing manner before returning the question rhetorically. As she then inquired about her test scores, Kotori wasn't blinked in surprise before slowly nodding - even as she wondered what she was trying to get at; putting aside the little side remark about her tendencies for the moment. Kotori doubted that it was about help with studying or the like, seeing that Hamada, despite what the stereotype about the flashy popular people would tell, didn't rank all that low either. Indeed, Hamada's next question made clear that it was no such thing - whilst simultaneously causing Kotori to lean her head to a side with a once more quizzical expression. Whether she read stories? Whilst she couldn't say she didn't, Kotori wasn't quite as sure about whether or not that helped her have a vivid imagination. Either way though, she slowly nodded as she gave a hesitant "Yes?", the uncertainty in her voice clearly audible as she spoke. Was she perhaps bored and didn't know what to do with herself, thus wanting some recommendations for what to read?