After sliding a newsletter under the door of every apartment on the top floor of a small condominium, Yosuke jogs down the stairs, marking off the final few addresses on his to-do list.

Yosuke: There we go. The news is out there. (he stretches his arms, walking up to Koharu who is waiting next to a handcart filled with newsletters) Pretty sure I’ve walked more today than I did when you were actually allowed to go out.

Koharu: There is no more curfew. Free to go wherever you want.

Yosuke: I meant more, like, when you could go out without the risk of getting mugged or, y’know, hit by a motorbike. Well, less of a risk, at least.

Koharu: If that’s what you meant, use the right word.

Yosuke: And here I thought I wouldn’t have to go to school anymore—H-Hey, wait… (he darts ahead of Koharu as he notices her heading down the stairs into a subway station) Where are you going?

Koharu: Nishisaka.

Yosuke: Nishisaka? The trains aren’t even running!

Koharu: We can walk along the tracks.

Yosuke: Whoa, whoa, whoa, we are not heading into Nishisaka. Not even the militia goes there.

Koharu: People there deserve to know what’s going on too.

Yosuke: Pretty sure they don’t need to know about all the ways the city is falling apart, seeing as they’re the ones responsible. Senpai, there’s a reason why your family’s living in a friggin’ hotel right now.

Koharu: I’ll go alone then. No need to come with me.

Yosuke: Why is it that whenever we go out to deliver these newspapers, you always seem so eager to get yourself into trouble? What if I hadn’t been there at the park yesterday?

Koharu: (bluntly) I just don’t like you.

Yosuke: But you think someone you do like would just let you walk into the mother of all wrong sides of town? Do you think Hanako would?

Koharu: Hanako doesn’t have anything to do with this.

Yosuke: I think you need her as much as she needs you.

Koharu: (she turns to face Yosuke) What is your deal? Why do you always bring up Hanako? Why do you keep telling me how I feel about this or that?

Yosuke: S-Sorry, I don’t mean to be a bother—

Koharu: … It doesn’t bother me. I’m just… I’m just curious.

Before Yosuke can react, a loud honk startles the two, and seconds later, an old car pulls up to the sidewalk they are walking on. 

Hikari: (she rolls down the window so Koharu can hear her) Koharu, what the hell are you doing? I told you you could go around the block, not tour the entire city, do… Do you have any idea how long you’ve been gone?

Yosuke: She was with me, ma’am, we just went out to deliver our newsletter to as many people as possible—

Hikari: I’m not your mother, Nishioka, so don’t talk back to me like I am. (she turns back to Koharu) Get in the car, Koharu. I want you home before sunset.

Koharu: I have a flashlight.

Hikari: Koharu!

After some more mack and forth, and a lot of dawdling, Koharu does eventually get in the car and the Shirahara family drives off, Koharu staring out of the window in the backseat, while Midori, in the passenger’s seat continues the bickering in her sister’s stead.

Hikari: I swear to God, do you girls even realize the state this city is in? The streets are crawling with muggers. Roving street gangs. People who’ll beat you up for no reason. Rapists.

Midori: You should be glad, mom. A city without — how did you put it again? — “unmistakably one of the most corrupt police forces in the country”? You got what you’ve wanted for years? A real opportunity for change, and now you’re complaining about “roving street gangs”?

Hikari: There’s a difference between wanting systemic reform and social justice, and wanting total anarchy, Midori. Didn’t they teach you that in college, or did you and your friends spend too much time looking up how to make Molotov cocktails instead of actually going to class and learning something about how the goddamn world works!

Midori: Could you stop yelling? You know Koharu’s bad with—

Koharu: I’m fine.

Hikari: Leave your sister out of this. She needs to focus on the homework the teachers have assigned her for as long as schools are closed. After that stunt she pulled with the Sixth Bureau—

As she tries to block out the discussion in the front of the car, Koharu feels her phone buzzing in her pocket and picks it up.

Koharu: What.

Hikari: Mind your language.

Koharu: (she frowns, turning to Hikari) Not you.

Yosuke: (on the other end of the line) Who else did you expect?

Koharu: (to the phone) Not talking to you!

Hikari: Look, I get that you’re angry, Koharu, but refusing to talk to me is not just childish, it’s not the way to get what you—

Midori: (she groans) Mom! She’s on the phone! She’s not talking to you!

Yosuke: … Err, is everything okay out there?

Koharu: (she hides her mouth behind her hand, whispering in the phone to avoid further confusion) Why are you calling me?

Yosuke: I wanted to make sure you were okay.

Koharu: We saw each other ten minutes ago.

Yosuke: You hadn’t been kidnapped yet, ten minutes ago.

Koharu: I have not been kidnapped.

Yosuke: Sure looked like a kidnapping to me.

Koharu: That was my mother. You have met her.

Yosuke: Really? She wasn’t acting like much of a mom.

Koharu: It’s fine, she just—(she gasps)

Suddenly, the car takes a sudden turn to the left at high speed, causing the tired to screech. Midori screams and desperately reaches for the steering wheel, but it’s too late. With the ear-splitting sound of sheet metal bending and glass scattering, the car drives itself into a railing along the motorway, and everything fades to black.

Yosuke: (the phone still in the unconscious Koharu’s hand) Senpai? Senpai? Hello? What’s going on, senpai?

Koharu jolts awake, but instead of the drab, mousy gray of the car ceiling, her gaze is met with swirling purples and lavenders and an oppressive, otherworldly haze. She blinks a couple of times, looks left and right, and is about to get up when Midori’s face pops up right in front of her, upside down.

Midori: Hey… you okay? Everything still working up there?

Koharu: (she looks left and right again, looking past Midori, off into the distance) Where are we? Is… Is this the—

Koharu’s musings are interrupted by a sudden yelp as Midori disappears from view. She gets up and turns around, only to see an outreached hand trying to grasp onto hers. It’s Midori, a swirling pale fog, wrapping itself around her arm and body like a vicious hunter ensnaring its prey.

Midori: Koharu! Help!

Koharu stretches out her arm, trying to grab her sister, but it’s too late, her fingers only graze Midori’s before the latter is pulled into the fog, her cries fading out as soon as she vanishes from sight. Her eyes wide, Koharu turns, only to see another cloud of pale mist encroaching on her still unconscious mother. Without hesitation, she hurries to Hikari’s aid, but no matter how hard she pushes herself, the distance between her and the motionless body doesn’t seem to shrink at all.

Koharu: N-No… Mom!

As Koharu reaches out another arm, however, a force grabs her by the collar and pulls her back.

Niko: Don’t get too close! It’ll consume you as well!

Koharu: M-Midori… Midori, she’s gone.

Niko: I know, man! We-We’ll figure something out, but… I gotta deal with your mom first, okay?

Niko steps forward, decked out in full Conductor regalia — the creamy white eyeless half-mask, the pink cropped top and the flowing long skirt, all cut from the finest, thick, but shimmering fabric — holding out her hand.

Niko: I’ve fuckin’ had it with you! Leave my friends a—err, my friends’ parents, I guess, alone!

Shinju: (she stands at Niko’s side, transformed into her Puella’s kimono, summoning thin waves of water to try to push the fog back) Can you still get them? Are they still here? 

Niko: I… I’m not sensing, uh, Midori anymore, it’s like… (she groans, trying to telepathically hold back the encroaching fog) … she was here and then, all of a sudden wasn’t anymore.

Koharu: Maybe she just woke up!

Niko: No… I can sense anyone who’s ever been in the Dreamscape before, even when they’re currently awake… Your sister… is just… gone.

Koharu: What are you talking about?! How can she just be gone?! Get her back! Get her back!

Niko: Calm down! I will… eventually… This is… I’ll get her back. People can’t just be deleted from the Dreamscape, not even I can do that!

Shinju: Did they take her out of it, then? Or are they just hiding her from you?

Niko: I… I don’t know. There are… still people I can’t find in the Dreamscape, even though they should be here. That fog might… like wrest people away from my control? But I don’t think it’s a coincidence that it’s targeting people close to us… 

Shinju: (she looks all around suspiciously, umbrella at the ready) I don’t like it. ‘S like they know already who we are. I sure hope nobody’s after us. 

Niko: (she gasps) Here it comes!

The fog briefly retreats, swirling, before suddenly swooping in like the tide, blowing straight past Shinju and Niko to completely envelop Hikari, slowly lifting her off the ground.

Koharu: No! (she leaps forward and this time does manage to grab Hikari’s hand, pulling but to little avail)

Niko: Oh, for the love of— (she moves to wrap her arms around Koharu’s waist from behind and help her pull, but suddenly changes her mind) … S-Shinju, you grab her. I’ll grab you.

Shinju: (Without complaint, Shinju rushes in and grabs onto Koharu) Okay, pull! Plant your feet in! 

Niko: (she gets behind Shinju and wraps her arms around Shinju’s weight, pulling with all her might) Pull!

Koharu: What are you all doing? You don’t think pulling is actually gonna work? This is magic—Ah! (surprisingly, the rather brusque approach does pay off, as the three manage to pull Hikari loose from the mist’s grasps before falling back, Hikari, still unconscious, falling into her daughter’s lap as the mist seemingly withdraws)

Niko: (she utters an incomprehensible sound as Shinju falls on top of her)

Shinju: (Shinju recovers quickly from the fall, seemingly unfazed) I-is she okay? Can she wake up?

Koharu: I don’t—(she shrinks back as a loud gasp echoes through the now gently rose pink atmosphere of the Dreamscape and Hikari jolts awake, coming face to exasperated face with her panting daughter)

Hikari: K-Koharu…? Is… is it really you?

Koharu: … M-Mom?