[center][img]https://fontmeme.com/permalink/210324/c514e8101f58f889421092edb63edaa1.png[/img][/center][right][sub]April 13th - Afternoon[/sub][/right][hr]
Daigo's head was swimming as Ueno recapped her story; none of this felt real. Which, if the past week was anything to go off of, meant it was absolutely, without a doubt, real. Worse, it made the stakes that much higher. Not only did he have to worry about some shadow monster eating him while he gallivanted around the mirror world on the whims of some butterfly, there was also a chance it could decide to burn down the restaurant and kill him in his sleep. And it [i]would[/i] kill him - Ueno was crazy if she thought her friends were anything but Shadow food right now. It was a small comfort they had a veteran of supernatural combat to consult in place of a demon cat with questionable motives, at least.

At her mention of Mineri's address, the redhead shot to his feet in alarm, [color=ff9933]"Akai- that's the house! The one that William was in!"[/color] Not that he had any idea what that meant, but it had to be important somehow. Probably. Maybe the appearance of her dead friend was a clue for her to find the - what was it? Linen Room? Or... that blue door had been a portal to the afterlife and William was some jailor of the damned waiting to collect on their souls in the fine print. 

Suddenly very conscious of the gravity of the situation, Daigo nervously fidgeted with the hem of his shirt as he thought. If she couldn't remember what started those fires, they could easily find themselves repeating it. The price for a breach of contract was apparently memories, but Ueno clearly remembered plenty about the Other Side, so that couldn't have been it. Maybe the demon lady sealed her out because she'd survived the fire thing somehow. 

Ugh, speculation hurt his head and nothing made sense anyway. Better to just keep with the plan until William gave them another cryptic piece of nothing to ponder over. [color=ff9933]"Don't worry about it, we'll probably figure it all out when we're inside. The Shadow pulled everyone touching me in too last week, so if one of us drags you in... it should work the same, right?"[/color] 

Conjuring a veneer of false courage, the diminutive boy approached the mirror. It crumpled almost immediately. Even with his posturing, the reflection that stared back at him didn't look very confident or heroic; just a scrawny little kid made even smaller by timid posture and glasses that were too big for his face. A bout of lightheadedness pulsed dully across the back of his skull. These people were so composed and here he was, the same coward he was when that damn hand had grabbed him, ready to collapse and cry at the first hint of adversity but too afraid of becoming a burden to follow through.

So what did his contract with Khepri mean?

[color=ff9933]"Ueno-senpai,"[/color] He mumbled soberly as he searched for the words he could assign to his worries, [color=ff9933]"What- What's the point of all this? Persona. What is it?"[/color] 

[hr][@Asura][@Lord Orgasmo][@Obscene Symphony]