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It started with a question.
"Do you remember me?"
The answer was that she didn't, but she didn't say it. She was too tired, too spent to say anything, really. But she wouldn't have said it if she could.
The boy had saved her life, after all. They all had, but he was the one carrying her on his back, taking her down the street of the shopping district. If he remembered her, then she could take the time to figure out who he was and why she should know him.
He has carried her out of the TV World, a world she didn't understand but where she faced her inner self. Or selves, as the quartet of hers told her. She rejected them, of course, just as anyone else would when faced with the worst of themselves. But she had come out stronger for it, with a new power.
Persona.
After that the team, an Investigation Team as they called themselves, had split up. She would have preferred to have been taken by the nice boy she'd met before, the one with the silver hair, but he was not going to the [shopping district] where she lived and the loud boy was. So here she was, carried to her home on some stranger-but-not-a-stranger's back.
He knocked on the door frame of the Marukyu Tofu Shop where she lived. He didn't set her down. He was strong. After a brief moment he knocked again and called out to her grandmother. His voice was loud and crude and suddenly very familiar.
The door opened and her grandmother, the type to not normally worry about her young granddaughter, said some surprised words. The boy responded formally, awkwardly but as though the two knew each other well.
She was let down now, set into the care of her grandmother. He said something about the paparazzi that she hated and her grandmother said something about hating them, too. Then the boy bid goodbye but promised to come check up on her in the morning. She smiled at him and nodded, still too tired to say anything from her ordeal in the TV World.
Her grandmother helped her into their home, saying "That Tatsumi boy is so nice to bring you home after all of that."
Tatsumi. Tatsumi Textiles. He was Kanji Tatsumi. The boy from her childhood. The boy who lived with his mother at Tatsumi Textiles practically next door to Marukyu Tofu. She remembered him from when they were kids. Before she left Inaba. Before she became Risette.
He was a nice boy.
"I remember him," she finally said to no one as she entered her room. She fell onto her futon and went to sleep, too tired to even take a bath.
"I left her with her granny last night. Told her Rise was hiding out from all them paparazzi, and now that all the heat died down she finally decided to come home." Kanji told the rest of the Investigation Team.
"Good work, Kanji," said Narukami senpai.
"Yeah, nice thinking on your feet!" Hanamura senpai stretched and rested his hands behind his head.
Including Satonaka senpai and Amagi senpai, the five of them were alone on the roof of their school. It was good the weather was so cloudy, otherwise there'd definitely be more people eating lunch up here.
"We should go see her after school. You know, to check up on her and see if she's ok," Amagi senpai added.
"Oh! We should bring her something big to eat, like a beef bowl from Aiya!" Satonaka chimed in after swallowing a bite of her lunch. "She'll need to build up her strength, and she won't do that if she's surrounded by only tofu."
Beside her Amagi senpai began to snicker. "Oh, Chie, Marukyu isn't made of tofu!" Soon the senpai in red was wheezing and snorting in laughter. She was such a delicate and proper lady most of the time, but her… fits made her feel more relatable.
"I already said to her granny I'd check on her today after school. It'd be great if you senpai came with." Kanji looked to their leader for confirmation.
“Yeah, that sounds like a great idea,” Narukami senpai said in that way that made him so easy to talk to. And with that the decision was made.
It was almost a week later that she felt better. She met up with the group, the 'Investigation Team', at the roof food court of the local Junes. They called it their 'secret base' but that didn't really fit considering how un-secret it was. But it had a nice ring to it nonetheless.
"Hi everyone, I'm Rise Kujikawa, I'll be a first year at Yasogami High. That means you're all my senpai!" She gave her best Risette smile at them, specifically the silver haired boy.
Proper introductions were made. She already knew Yu Narukami from how he'd helped her, and made fun of her origami skills, from before. Then there was Yosuke Hanamura, Chie Satonaka, and Yukiko Amagi; all second years.
Finally there was Kanji Tatsumi, a first year like her. She smiled at him, but not the Risette smile. Her real smile. He just kinda nodded and paid more attention to his animal crackers.
Whatever he wanted to talk to her about the other week, he didn’t seem interested in talking about anymore.
The conversation had moved on, and Rise was drawn to the silver haired senpai. There was just something about him!
The others were explaining about the TV World, the power of Persona, and their future as their Investigation Team but she was only half listening. All of her focus was on Narukami senpai.
In the end he never got an answer.
Did she still remember him?
She probably didn’t. And even if she didn’t, she’d probably still say she did cause of all that idol crap. Gotta please the fans, ya’know? Either way, it didn’t matter, after a week and all the time to get a real answer out of her had passed. It’d be awkward to bring it up now.
They could start fresh as new friends. Remembered or not, it’ll be nice having someone else his own age on the Investigation Team.
Still, it woulda been nice if she remembered.