"Hey, Rise! There you are!" yelled the blonde, burly teen that just barged into the shop.
"K-Kanji!" Rise gasped, thrown completely off-guard. She was hoping to try out her experiment on a completely random stranger, not one of her friends! "What are you doing here?"
"What am I doing here?" Kanji asked. "What are you doing here? Didn't you get the message?"
"Message?" Rise asked, realizing that she hadn't checked her phone recently and was away from it while changing her clothes. Sure enough, there was an unread text message from Yu, their leader of sorts.
Everyone,
Emergency meeting at Junes. Please get here ASAP.
"Oh my gosh!" said Rise.
"Yeah, glad I decided to check if you were still at work. Everyone's probably there by now, so let's go."
"Kanji, I can't just leave," Rise said, surreptitiously backing up towards the door. "Grandma's out, so I have to at least lock up first," That, and I'm wearing next to nothing under this apron!
"Oh, that won't be a problem, dear."
Rise's eyes went wide. It was her grandmother, back from her errands. "Grandma? You're back already?"
"I should be able to the rest from here. You go have fun with your friends," she said, as she moved back into the backroom.
"All right!" Kanji cheered.
"Kanji, I need to-"
"Come on, we're already late," he yelled, running towards Rise and grabbing her hand.
"Kanji, wha- HEY!" Rise cried out as Kanji started pulling her out the shop.
"Sorry, but it's time to haul ass!"
Rise struggled to stay in place, but the momentum was too much, and she was soon outside the shop and down the street. There weren't any people around at the moment, but Rise felt exposed all the same. "Kanji!" Rise yelled, forcing her hand out of his grasp.
"What?" he asked.
Rise was fuming. If only Kanji had just given her a minute to get decent, but now it was too late. She kept her shoes on so she could move around fine, but as for everything else... They had already made it to the end of the shopping district and were just a stones throw away from Junes. Since this apparently was an emergency, there wouldn't be enough time to go back and change.
On the other hand, she had wanted to test this out for real, and she was still just as covered in the back as she would be on the beach. Still, running around town like this was a bit much.
Ah well, whatever happened from now on, she decided to hold Kanji directly responsible.
"You don't just grab a girl's hand and force her along like that!" she scolded.
"I-I know that, dammit!" Kanji said sheepishly, turning out of shame. "But-"
"I still needed to return my work apron you dummy!" she said. "You don't see Yosuke running around the TV in his, or Yukiko in her kimono, do you?"
"Oh... sorry. Should we go back?"
"Nope, too late now. We're already late aren't we, now let's go!" Rise said, signaling Kanji forward.
"Y-yeah," Kanji replied, confused, but running ahead once again.
They soon found themselves at Junes, where there actually were people milling about in the lobby, doing their own thing. Rise stayed calm, keeping her back away from them as Kanji called the elevator. The doors opened, and the pair entered, with Rise taking a deep breath first.
"All right, up to the roof. Huh, what's their rush?" Kanji spoke, as several people sprinted into the elevator after them.
Rise knew though, confirmed when the people continued to look at her and not turn towards the front as one always would in the elevator. They saw her scantily-clad backside as she entered, and were wanting to see more. She began to grow nervous. Surrounded by these kind of guys in an elevator with no way out was not a good situation to be in.
"Hey, what's your deal, huh?" Kanji spoke, eyeing one of the strangers threateningly.
"H-huh?" the man sputtered.
"Got a problem with us?" he growled.
"No, no problem at all!" the man stuttered, him and the other strangers immediately turning toward the front.
Rise silently exhaled in relief.
The elevator soon reached the rooftop, and the strangers, still intimidated by Kanji, quickly left the elevator first. Kanji and Rise then headed out, heading to their usual table where the rest of the Investigation Team was already waiting. "Sorry to keep you guys waiting," Rise said, taking her usual seat on the bench while keeping her back away from the team members.
"Yeah, sorry for the holdup," said Kanji.
"No worries, we just got here too," said Chie.
"Rise, did we get you during a bad time? You're still wearing your apron," Yukiko asked.
"You can thank Kanji for that," Rise snarked.
"Hey, I said I was sorry," said Kanji.
"Everyone," Yu spoke up, stopping their talk. "Thank you for making it here on such short notice."
"No problem, so what's the big emergency?" Yosuke asked.
"It is very important," said Yu. "I've been checking our equipment, and it's out of date. It's been forever since we did this last, so it's time to get lots of materials from the TV World so that Daidara can make some new gear for us. The shadows are growing tougher, so we need to be ready."
Mutters of assent went around the table. Rise was annoyed, though. How was a farming run a big emergency? Such a big deal out of nothing, though perhaps she just felt that way because she was merely support and as such never got any new equipment to wear, so runs like these were not nearly as exciting as diving in to save someone, explore new territory, or to specifically hunt a tough shadow.
But, the silver lining at least was that she would be away from prying eyes in the TV world. Prying eyes that she noticed were all around her. None of the watchers were close to the table, thanks to the team being in a large group, but she could feel them nonetheless. She wondered what they were thinking right now. Considering how those elevator goons acted, she was starting to get second thoughts.
"Okay, let's go," Yu said, and everyone got up from their seats. Rise did likewise, following up the rear.
Fortunately, none of the people upstairs followed them into the electronics department, and no regular customers were around, so entering the TV unseen was no problem. Rise landed last within the middle of the circle, quickly picking herself up and backing herself up near the exit. It probably wouldn't matter much if her friends saw like this, really. After all, her shadow was wearing a bikini when they rescued her, so it's not like they would be seeing anything people hadn't already seen. But then there would be questions of why, and she wasn't comfortable with or sure enough explaining to them yet. Well, Yu-senpai maybe, he seemed to understand her the best, but there was still a ways to go before that! Anyways, it was fine. She'd deal with it if it happened, but hardly anyone was ever behind her, so it's likely they won't ever know. Right?
She kept these thoughts in mind as Yu brought up their plan for the gathering run, and they began today's mission. Their first destination was-
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