You Can't Plug Your Ears and Cover Your Eyes...

[mugenginga]

"I guess..." Ryoji said as Minato's reassurance. He wasn't sure how his friend was okay. His head still hurt, actually. He rubbed his temple, "I don't... like this place..." He glanced at the figure in the sky again. The place was familiar, and to be truthful not in an only negative manner, but that thing in the sky worried him greatly.

K2 looked rather annoyed as well, and Naoya still seemed irritated. He glared at Minato with a look he usually reserved for Souji as he turned around. His cloak windswept a bit as he did so, it was actually fairly impressive. K2 was practically on K1's heels and Naoya left right after them.

Ameterasu bowed in apology to Minato. She often didn't understand humans. It wasn't that Minato intended to be insulting with his Persona. Messiah was not as religious of a term as many humans thought. She hurried after K2 after bowing. Ananta slithered after Naoya, but Nyarlathotep stayed a few seconds longer. It seemed to stare at Ryoji with a level of mild amusement for a few moments before turning and flying after the three humans involved in the War of Bel. Ryoji felt creeped out by the stare.

Yuugi looked up as Minato spoke, forcing Atem to adjust a bit. He'd never realized how much difference a few inches could make, "...I think he's annoyed at your Persona, Minato-kun. Not anything from before."

"...he doesn't need to be defended," Atem said, making no attempt to hide how irritated he was.

Teddie lit up, "Woohoo! We should follow them so we don't get seperated, though."

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Souji had glared at Nyarlathotep before it left. Once it had followed after the Kimuras, he turned to Minato. "There's something creepily familiar about that demon. I can't put my finger on it, though," Souji stated. He shook his head. "Let's go. I don't want to stay down here any longer than we have to.

Minato rubbed a sore spot on his neck "Y-yeah, he said. Souji gave a questioning look, but decided not to press the issue. He'd ask Yuugi and Atem about it later.

--------------------

The whole group was gathered down in the lobby. Souji looked around as the fog appeared to be thinning. "...That's not good. It must have started raining."

"It has been cloudy the past few days," Minato said. He looked back toward Ryoji nervously once again. What was he going to do about Ryoji? He couldn't leave him alone, but he didn't remember anything about being the Appriser. Right now, he was just a normal kid... but once his memories awakened, the Fall was sure to come.

"Teddie, go ahead and make the exit, would you?" Souji asked Teddie.

[mugenginga]

Yuugi had finally recovered a bit to be able to stand without Atem's help. Atem was watching Minato more than the others. For one, he wasn't irritated at him. Two, Minato seemed nervous around Ryoji. Almost as if he expected something to jump out of the other teen. Ryoji seemed to know him and be a good friend. Yuugi was looking at them as well, actually. He'd seen that first bout of instability Ryoji had... Minato had freaked somewhat over it. Was was there about Ryoji that he couldn't sense?

Naoya had drawn back his demons, as had K2. K2 was sticking a bit closer to K1 than usual. K1 was favoring the Naoya-like stance since he'd seen Messiah, and the younger twin wanted to stay close.

Teddie glanced at the fog and seemed somewhat saddened. After defeating Izanami, his world had become so beautiful. Than out of nowhere the fog had come back, and people were getting hurt again because of it. He looked up at Souji and nodded, waddling backwards a few steps so he had a clear area in front of him.

Suddenly a row of television sets popped into existance. Ryoji jumped and took a step back before recovering. Yuugi stumbled back several more feet, almost falling. Atem raised an eyebrow at the display. Souji would realize the screens were a bit bigger than the ones from before... no one would have to be forced through them.

"I'm coming with you, Sensei!" Teddie said, "But you should hurry, tHe shadows are getting really restless!"

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Souji nodded, and moved over to the TVs. He was going to wait for the others to get through the TVs first. "Let's go. We don't have all day."

K1 looked back at the others before climbing into the TV. This one had opened up without Souji's help. Obviously Teddie's exit was different than the TV's back home. Once K1 had gone through, Minato followed after.

--------------

Instead of coming out in Tartarus, though, K1 stepped out of a TV in the hotel lobby. Okay, it was nice to not be forcibly tossed out of a TV for once. He still had bruises from the last time... okay, that was a lie. The last time had been a while ago.

And then K1 looked up and saw the look the hotel receptionist was giving him.

"Oh, uh, hi! You must be new here. Uh... forget everything you just saw and are about to see," K1 stated.

The young lady receptionist kept staring at him.

"Forget. Everything."

She nodded nervously.

[mugenginga]

K2 followed right after K1. This was still extremely weird... really, it made things like running around summoning demons seem normal. But his expression was rather flat. Not dark, just... not there. The most it had was a hint of focus. K2 actually seemed a bit distant. Naoya's expression wasn't that different, and it occurred to Atem that K2 had begun to share some of the darker tendencies of the group. He glanced over at Yuugi. The concern in his partner's face showed he saw it too.

Atem and Yuugi glanced at each other, and a few seconds passed before he headed in first. Yuugi followed right after. Teddie hesitated and glanced at the thinning fog. He paused and looked at Ryoji. Fact was the bear mascot looked a little confused. He shook his head as well as his body allowed.

"You should go!"

Ryoji was actually still getting over walking through a tv, but a glance from Souji had him walking forward. He carefully touched the screen first, and once he was sure his hand would pass through went through the opening.
-----

The receptionist decided she had things to do after the fourth person came out of the lobby television, a harsh looking man with silver hair. She ran off rather quickly. Yuugi came out of the television after she had left, followed by Atem.

Ryoji came out and looked back at the television. Where were the others?
-----

"Sensei..." Teddie paused, "Never mind, there isn't time. Hurry!"

He'd wanted to bring up something he'd noticed about the approaching shadows in relation to Ryoji. But he was right. There wasn't time. In fact, the shadows had inched close enough to the only human left in the TV World that he'd have been able to see them even if the fog had been at full force.

[Firebreath Fishslap]

This had been the longest time Souji had ever spent in the TV World, and the inching shadows now were enough to convince him that staying in the TV World past midnight on a day it was supposed to get foggy on was a bad idea. He climbed through the TV and stepped out next to Ryoji and was slightly astonished to find that they were in the Hotel, not Tartarus.

"So if we enter the TV World through Tartarus, when the Dark Hour ends, we exit through the Hotel. Interesting," Souji said. He looked at Ryoji, and Minato, who had finally stopped rubbing that sore spot on his neck. He was going to have to ask about that.

"How about you spend the night at my apartment tonight? It's late, we can fill you in on details in the morning," Souji said. With how Minato had reacted to Ryoji earlier, it would better for Ryoji to stay with someone else for the moment. "Oh, I didn't properly introduce myself. I'm Seta Souji."

K1 turned to Naoya and Kaini. "...Let's go." He really didn't want to stick around for this conversation.

[mugenginga]

Naoya nodded towards Keiichi. They had accomplished what his brother had wanted to do today. And Kaini, while still not up to full snuff, was obviously well enough to travel. They could leave tomorrow. Kaini said nothing, but he glanced towards Yuugi. He felt a bit sorry for the short teen. Under other circumstances... he shook his head as he followed after K1. It wasn't that way, and thinking about what could be was an exercise in futility. He knew that lesson well from his past.

"Are you sure? Thanks! My name's Mochizuki Ryoji," Ryoji gave a standard Japanese bow. It was the equivalent of an American handshake, it meant nothing beyond being polite.

Yuugi watched K1 leave. He looked up when he realized introductions were being made, "I'm Mutou Yuugi," he returned the bow.

"Atem," said the former Pharaoh.

Ryoji blinked, "No surname?"

Atem shook his head. Ryoji shrugged, figuring the teenager just didn't want to share it. It was completely over his head that the teenager didn't have a surname, "Hey, are you two related?"

Yuugi chuckled and shook his head, while Atem felt like facepalming. Naoto had made the same mistake, actually. He supposed it wasn't a bad one, aside from skin complextion they did look rather similar.

Ryoji had seemed to relax almost instantly now that they were out of the TV World. He jerked his head when he heard a sqeaking noise, but settled back down when he saw it was the bear mascot from before. Then the thought that said mascot might attract attention, "Do you always run around in that suit?"

Teddie had been about to ask Souji a question, but he looked up at Ryoji's inquiry, "This is the real me!"

Ryoji blinked several times... he was just... gonna let that one lay. Yuugi, however, couldn't let that sit, "That's really you? I thought it was a costume! I mean... I don't mean to be rude, but if that... what are you?"

(OOC: Pausing for reaction tiems.)

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Souji had known this was going to come up eventually. It always did. After all, a giant walking talking teddy bear suit wasn't what most people considered normal. Actually, with their group, he had to wonder if anything could be considered normal.

"He's a Shadow. Of the good kind though. He helped us a lot with the murders, and I owe him big time for a lot of things," Souji said. He turned to Teddie. "Why don't you take that suit off for now?"

"I'm Arisato Minato. Thanks for leading everyone to where I was. I probably would be dead right now if it weren't for your help... so thanks," Minato said.

"There's no probably about it. Even if your shadow hadn't killed you, the shadows gathering thanks to the fog would have," Souji stated. And suddenly, he let out a yawn. He needed sleep... two Dark Hours and the previous day with Belphegor and Kaini? Not fun.

[mugenginga]

Ryoji paled ever so slightly at the words "He's a Shadow". Ryoji was still having trouble following everything that was going on, but apparently those things that had been in that World were shadows. That "angel" that had almost killed Minato had been a shadow. As Souji expressed his gratitude towards Teddie, Ryoji tried to put the idea that the bear was a Shadow out of his mind. He didn't seem dangerous. The dramatic irony of Ryoji's reaction probably caused Minato pain, though.

Teddie seemed extremely pleased as Souji expressed his gratitude. He completely missed Ryoji's reaction because of it. Yuugi didn't seem to have a problem with Teddie being a Shadow, and Atem chose to judge the idea on Souji's words and Teddie's recent actions. Although both of them paused and looked at Souji oddly when he said "take that suit off" - Hadn't Teddie just said that was the real him?

Teddie nodded quickly and placed his mits on either side of his head. With a quick "pop" the head came clean off. It moved to the side and one of the prettiest pretty boys the world has ever seen could be seen. He had on the white silk shirt Chie had bought for him and it appeared he'd had the decency to be fully clothed. He was still taller than Atem and Yuugi, though.

"Shadows can have human forms...?" Yuugi said.

Teddie grinned, "I grew it! Ah, it's kind of a long story..." he chuckled. He shimmied the suit down, it appeared to be a standard mascot outfit now, and stepped out of it before carefully picking it up.

Ryoji was back to massaging his temple, "I don't know about you, but I'm exhausted. Could we go back to that apartment you mentioned now?"

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Souji's smile fell. "It's a common side effect of the fog. Yeah, let's head back," he stated. He grabbed his katana, and realized that he'd left his sword case in Tartarus' lobby. He'd go back and grab it later, when he was more rested.

He shot Minato a look that said, "We'll talk later", and headed out the door to the lobby. Now, normally, Souji was good at remembering what Minato had told him about what had happened before Minato had died, but he couldn't remember anything about Ryoji. He suddenly realized that Minato had never referred to Ryoji... by name. He always talked about "the Appriser" and "Nyx's Avatar." If Souji's crack theory was right (and he hoped it wasn't), Ryoji was the Appriser. Now that would be an unsettling thought... but it would explain Ryoji's presence and how Minato had reacted to it.

Minato was staring at the image of Messiah on the tarot card that had appeared for him. It made him nervous, if only because he'd only very recently been horridly afraid his Persona was going to kill him. It had tried to strangle him earlier and this thing was an unholy fusion of the two things that had tried to kill him before. Well, considering what Messiah was, it probably wasn't a good idea to call it an "unholy" fusion. But still.

[mugenginga]

Ryoji nodded weakly and headed after Souji. He felt like he could sleep a week. Yuugi looked at Minato for a moment, but decided that the questions about the Seal and what he was gonna do about Tartarus could wait until later. He was staring at his Persona's card rather hard. Atem gave a smile to Minato to try and reassure the teen and headed out after his partner. Teddie ran out after the group. At some point when no one had been looking his suit seemed to have vanished.

He stopped at the base of the steps outside, his eyes wandering to the moon. That winged thing in the TV had been in front of what looked like some horror movie version of the moon. He was relieved to see the waning moon here was normal enough. Atem and Yuugi came out behind him, and Teddie practically shot past them to catch up with Souji.

Ryoji looked ahead again and followed after the group. He was worried about Minato, he didn't like seeing those he considered friends in any kind of duress. Teddie glanced back at Ryoji for a moment. He hadn't caught the names of Souji's new friends.

"Sensei, do any of your new friends have anything about them that might scare most shadows? Like the one with the scarf?"

He wasn't whispering, but he wasn't talking loudly either. Atem, Yuugi, and Ryoji were hanging back too far to overhear. But Teddie's question probably worried Souji, at least with how the silver-haired teen's thoughts were falling.

[Firebreath Fishslap]

That little question had been disconcerting. However, Souji didn't want the three behind him, especially Ryoji, to catch up as he talked to Teddie, so he continued walking.

"The only place I've ever had shadows actually run from me in was Tartarus, and that had been when I was fighting a group of extremely low leveled Shadows with Izanagi-no-Okami. I've never had shadows outside of Tartarus run from me. And as for Yuugi and Atem, they don't hold enough power for any Shadows to be afraid of them." He hadn't meant it in a bad way, it was just that their Personas hadn't grown enough for a Shadow to be afraid of them. "Minato was a possibility, but Thanatos, the Persona they would have been running from, disappeared from his consciousness when he got Messiah; he told me that himself." He didn't want to say it, but it sounded like Ryoji was the only remaining possibility.

There was something hidden behind that scarf and friendly personality. And considering the timing of Ryoji's arrival... Not a good sign.

Minato was hanging behind the group, so he could keep an eye on Ryoji as he walked. This was just like before...