Fate/Reach Out (Fate/Stay Night x SMT Persona 4)

[Kishou the Badger]

Chapter 45: Shadow of the Mysterious Self



For better or worse, the team was in a familiar area. Days of running around the open ground floor of the castle for training came to them quickly, and there was plenty of room to coordinate with each other.

However, they never had to fight a giant bear-themed Frankenstein Monster swinging column-sized claws to sever and/or crush them to death. It took most of their energy just to avoid getting swatted by the claws.

"What the hell, bear?!" Yosuke yelled. "Didn't you say you had some sentiment about not fighting us?!"

"I never said I wouldn't do what I had to," the Shadow coolly stated. "Just as you are determined to find the truth of this crime, I am determined to stop that from happening."

"But why?" Shirou demanded. "Why stop us? Why stand by and let innocent people keep dying?!"

"If you have to ask, then you wouldn't understand even if I told you."

Shadow Teddie reared his head back for a deep breath, and then exhaled as he leaned forward. A frigid breath of ice flooded the room, spreading frozen crags in a ripple-like effect. Yukiko held back, immediately crossing her arms into a guard and crouched down to avoid being knocked away. The others stood their ground, shrugging off the attack and avoiding the crags. Chie all but vaulted forward with her armored boots, crushing the icicles underfoot with nary an effort.

"Boots of Abigor, don't fail me now," she muttered under her breath. She ducked into a slide, with the speed and grace of a figure skater. As she skidded right up to the front of Shadow Teddie, Chie lifted her right leg and smashed a roundhouse kick directly into his face.

With momentum and a Persona on her side, the kick actually did some knockback and damage enough to cause the Shadow to rear back. Chie didn't let up. She offhand summoned her Persona card and crushed it in her free hand without fanfare. Tomoe brandished her naginata in a quick flurry fast enough to land several hits at once.

The monstrous bear Shadow had girth and weight in his new form, and although the impact forced his already fractured head back, he ignored the barrage of Persona strikes with a heavy swing of his tree trunk-sized paw. He struck Tomoe true, sending her, and subsequently Chie, flying across the room.

"Chie!" Yukiko cried out. She was too far out of range for Konohana Sakuya's healing. Chie's reflexes shined through though with her righting herself just before skidding on the floor, panting for breath. Relief soon turned to anger as Yukiko slashed down her Tarot to summon her Persona and subsequently conjure a pillar of flames under the Shadow's feet.

Shadow Teddie stumbled backwards, staggered by the singing embers on his fur. Shirou sheathed his sword and drew out his bow. "Pelt him at a distance! His reach is long but he can't hurt what he can't hit!"

"Sounds good to me!" Kanji yelled and swung his wet-floor sign at his Persona card. Take-Mikazuchi set his sword down in front of him before crushing it with his fists from both sides, letting out a surge of electricity.

"Let's blow him away!" said Yosuke, summoning his own Persona with a stylish jump cut. Jiraiya made a ninja hand-sign that unleashed a gale, barely inconveniencing him from the way his scarf fluttered back.

Arrows and spells struck the bear in rapid succession, slowly pushing him further back. The assault gave the others, especially Chie, much needed breathing room to consider another plan of attack. They all knew it would take a lot more than this to even come close to defeating the Shadow.

"It's futile to resist," Shadow Teddie droned, slowly righting himself through the barrage. "Even if you win against me, you will fall to the might of my mistress, and only know despair. There is nothing worth fighting for in this path."

"Stuff it, bear!" Kanji cried, throwing his fist forward in a jab. The action followed suit to his thunder-sword God Persona as he changed gears, stomped forward and threw his own punch.

It cracked against the eroding "face" of Shadow Teddie, chipping a few pieces off and slugging him a good distance away from the Persona. Shadow Teddie showed no clear sign of fatigue, and stared Take-Mikazuchi down with his eerie ghost eyes.

"You're a poor listener, even towards Sensei's orders."

He crouched for a moment, and then pounced on the Persona with the full weight of his forward tackle. Kanji gasped and fell, a phantom pain crushing his chest down. A one-two punch later, Take-Mikazuchi dispersed into light from the pain of a giant bear's might bearing down… no pun intended.

"Kanji-kun!"

"I-I'm alright, Yukiko-san," he winced. He wanted to get back up to assuage her worries but this pain wasn't something he could ignore right away. At least his senpai was quickly healing his wounds with Diarama.

Shirou and Yosuke were the only ones left standing for the vanguard, to which Shadow Teddie was advancing towards in lumbering steps. They abandoned ranged combat in favor of melee, rushing forward with their Personas in tow.

"Izanagi!"

"Jiraiya!"

"Begone."

Shadow Teddie did not give them a chance to intercept. He swung his claw arm down like a sledgehammer at the ground in front of them, and the resulting shockwave distorted the Personas' forms and blew them away into shattered light. Their users were just as easily thrown back, sliding across the floor before colliding against Kanji.

"Ow!" he yelped. "Hey, I just got that bruise mended!"

"Uh, guys?" Yukiko started, and they looked up to see the feral bear towering over them. Chie was still out of bounds, Rise was between them when trying to reach her, and the fox Tama had disappeared sometime when the fight started.

Yosuke winced even as he pushed himself upright. "Yeah, this isn't going well at all."

Shadow Teddie leered down at them as he stomped closer. "Such a misfit team to search for the truth if there ever was one. Some children in education, a former idol, a pet, and a private eye who isn't here. Not even the loud one could hope to close the gap."

"'Loud one'?" Shirou echoed. "Who's that supposed to be?"

"I want to say he means me, but I don't want to be insulted for having a loud mouth," Yosuke said.

"He obviously means me!" Kanji yelled. "I got a good hit on him, didn't I?"

"So you admit to being a Moronji?" Rise deadpanned, nearly out of earshot. Nearly being the operative word.

"I told you to stop calling me that!"

"It's neither of you idiots," The Shadow said with a no-nonsense droll. "It's the one that escaped the mistress on her own and then trained. You know, the one in the-" Shadow Teddie gestured with his pointing claw towards the group, but stopped. The finger and eyes searched for something that wasn't there. "Wait. Where is the loud one?"

"Ooooooahahahahahaaaaa-ahahahaaaaa!"

A loud, primal jungle cry echoed in the room. High above, swinging from a chandelier chain, was the "loud one". Taiga, while everyone was distracted, climbed the stairs to the upper foyer and latched onto a chandelier. After swaying her body on it a few times, she now had a swinging vine.

"Fuji-nee!" Shirou exclaimed. He was more surprised than worried that she took such initiative, and she was at the perfect height to counter the Shadow.

She leaped off as she came close to the giant bear, and landed on his head before grabbing a fistful of hair to stay secure. Then with her other hand, armed with her shinai, she started to smack the Shadow.

The attacks forced a bear-like roar from Shadow Teddie, either from pain or fury or both. With his attention preoccupied, everyone quickly scrambled away to regroup and steer clear of his building rage.

Shadow Teddie immediately tried to reach her from his back, but struggled doing so. His arms might be long, but his body was wider than before, and he had trouble moving his arms and legs in a restrictive body-shape to begin with. "Get off of me."

"Not so high and mighty now, are ya?" Taiga gloated between strikes.

"Cease this futile assault and I will rend your body to ribbons," he said neutrally, as if he didn't just emit an angry roar moments ago.

"I think you got the order messed up there," she said smugly. That earned her a more immediate claw attack grazing the Shadow's back, and forced her swing slightly away. "Whoa! Okay, fuzzy, why don't you pick on me while I'm your size?" She held her shinai up, and her Tarot card appeared just below it. She swung down to crush it, and smack the bear's back in the process. "Persona!"

Kaihime vaulted out from the blue flames conjured around Taiga, and landed in front of the Shadow. Body bent low, she drew her sword and quickly slashed at his arms hard enough to smack them back. Shadow Teddie swiped back at her as fast as he could, but she was faster still as she parried the claws higher while she ducked. Following that motion, she moved her katana in a semi-circle before quickly striking the exposed abdomen. And just to remind the bear of his other problem, Taiga continued to smack his back with her shinai while clinging to his fur.

The two-pronged attack continued to divert the giant Shadow's attention away from his other attackers. The rest of the Investigation Team were now recuperating at the opposite end of the foyer, as Shirou, Yosuke and Yukiko took turns mending wounds with their Dia and Diarama skills.

"Hell yeah, look at her go!" Kanji cheered. "Kick his ass, Sensei!"

"Don't celebrate just yet," Shirou said. "Fuji-nee is strong, but not strong enough to handle that Shadow on her own."

"So what's the plan, leader?" Chie asked. "Do we support her or what?"

Shirou furrowed his brow in thought. Every large Shadow fight thus far was a trial by fire, and Teddie's was no exception. They couldn't afford to be reckless with what attacks he could muster. But they couldn't be too cautious either, else he would come up with his own counter strategy. And they still had Satsuki to find, too.

"Shi-rou-sen-sei."

Yukiko stiffened and stopped healing, looking over her shoulder. "Wait, did you hear that?"

"I did," Shirou said, also looking around. "And it sounded like-" He stopped and stared when the fox slowly walked over to them accompanied by a barely familiar face.

Compared to his usual round, cheery self, Teddie looked like a balloon that had sprung a leak and deflated. Due to a lack of support from his lower body, the poor bear was draped over Tama like a towel as she carried him. It was a morbid look for sure, one that made most of the Investigation Team retch with horror and sympathy.

"Teddie?"

"My god, what the hell happened to you?!"

"I'm-<cough> I'm sorry, Sensei, everyone…" the bear wheezed weakly. "I didn't mean for this to happen. I… don't even know what to say, except sorry."

"It's okay, Teddie, we've been there," Shirou assured. He personally hadn't, but he knew that personal demons were never an easy thing to handle. "Once we take care of your Shadow, we'll beat the vampire too."

"No, not that. Well, not just that. I mean I'm sorry for lying," Teddie clarified, coughing again. "The thing is, I haven't been completely honest about myself."

<><><>

Flashback, yesterday

"Oh, where are they?" Teddie said, pacing around by the stack of TVs. He was feeling more antsy than usual, hoping the others would come back soon. But they had been gone for a long time doing "studying" for a "test". Teddie had lost track of how many days it'd been.

Before, he had no trouble waiting or wandering around for days as they flew by. Now he was impatient, curious, and wanting. Having friends who were willing to help fix his world made him eagerly enjoy the visits where they fought through the Shadows. But he wished they came here for more than just business.

"Hehehehe…"

"Whaaaa!" Teddie jumped and whirled around. Where did that feminine laugh come from? It didn't sound like Rise-chan or the other girls. "Who's there?"

He didn't need to look very long before seeing a silhouette at the edge of the studio area. He couldn't make out the body shape, or even if they had long hair or not. It was almost entirely black. It laughed again. "Hehehehe…"

"Huh? A girl?" That's what it was supposed to be, right? How did she get in here? Another victim pushed inside? She was just far enough out of reach that he couldn't quite smell her.

Then she turned and walked away, deeper into the world of Shadows.

"Hey! Wait up!" Teddie rushed after her. It was dangerous here, and she didn't seem to understand the rules of this world. A Shadow could easily get to her if she lapsed from a strong emotional outburst!

He didn't know how, but in following her he ended up right back at the Voidania castle. His concern for the girl grew as it was the most dangerous place in the world thus far. He hoped she didn't go any further than the front door because he didn't have enough courage to go further himself. Not when it looked foggier than ever, and that was supposed to keep the Shadows docile.

Just as Teddie was contemplating about waiting for Shirou-sensei and the others, he heard her voice again. "Do you want to play with me?"

Teddie looked around, spooked, "P-play?"

"Play. Maybe have a date? A play date?"

Teddie flushed and tapped his paw digits together. "Uh, I'm uh… not sure how to answer that."

"You can just say yes. Or no, if you don't want to go."

"Well, we can't date now anyway!" Teddie said. "You shouldn't even be here! You know how dangerous this place is?"

"You're a pretty funny bear, you know?" The girl sounded disappointed. "Why are you wearing that silly costume? You're fit for something more scary or powerful, like maybe a wendigo!"

"I don't want to be scary, though! I'd scare the girls like Chie-chan and Rise-chan!" Teddie argued. Then he scratched his chin and pondered. "Although Yuki-chan might be the exception."

"So there's someone that might understand," she said. "As long as you're true to your real self, you'll be fine!"

This girl didn't seem to listen to him. And what was that about a costume? Or real self? He wasn't wearing or hiding anything. Right?

"But… this is the real me, isn't it?" Teddie asked. His uncertainty was in whether he asked that question to the girl or himself.

"You don't even know? That's silly. Everyone at least knows something about themselves. Don't you know what you are? What you want?"

Teddie felt very put on, almost forgetting that he was supposed to help this girl get back home. Instead she was grilling him with uncomfortable questions. "What's with the twenty questions!?" he snapped. "You sure like to hear yourself talk! Do YOU know who you are? Huh?!"

"I know I want to drink blood. Which reminds me–"

Suddenly, Teddie felt a pair of hands hold his head and shoulder in place as a pair of incisors punctured holes into his body. Between the zipperline, actually. "GAAH!"

It lasted only a moment before he was alone on the ground floor again, and still had the bite wound on his person. "Y-You bit me!" It dawned on him that this person wasn't actually a victim, but the victimizer. "You're the vampire!!"

"Yep, though don't worry about me turning you," she said carelessly. "Trust me, I tried. Your eyeholes don't seem to register my hypnosis and you have no blood to drain out. You're weird."

Teddie was relieved to learn that he was immune, but didn't like the idea of having no blood. Much less being called 'weird'. "I'm weird?! I don't go around eating people for fun, you DA-wannabe!"

"What's a DA?"

Teddie almost answered that, but realized that he knew despite feeling like he shouldn't. So he huffed and folded his arms. "None of your business!"

The vampire girl laughed. "You're interesting, if only because you don't know who you are."

"Of course I know who I am! I'm me! Just a bear named Teddie! That's the real me!"

"Real? Me? What a trife."

"Whoa, did your voice get deeper or something?" the vampire asked eagerly.

Teddie's blood (or lack thereof) froze. He didn't say those words just now, and he wasn't hearing things either. Slowly, he turned around, and his eyes shrunk at what he saw. A near copy of him, leering down at him with golden eyes.

But how?! This shouldn't-!

"This shouldn't be possible. Is that what you are thinking?" The other Teddie said coldly, despite his mouth-line not moving. Teddie gulped and stepped away, tripping over his feet and fell down on his backside. "The truth of the matter is pointless, as it's unobtainable regardless. It will always be obscured by the fog you see before you. Some areas might look brighter than others, and you may fumble to grasp something in the mist, but that's it.

"And because you can only scratch the surface of the mysteries around you… why bother? What sense is there to yearn for a truth? Another one will just pop up in its place, in a near infinite loop. It is too stressful to think, so it is better to close your eyes and lie to yourself."

Teddie knew he shouldn't argue. He had seen enough times to know where this was going, and he wasn't sure what he was going on about anyway. But he felt personally attacked for being told to lie. He was a member of the Investigation Team. A team determined to save his home and find out why everything bad was happening in their worlds.

"Now wait just a minute!" he shouted. "Where do you go off saying stuff like that? You must think you're so smart using big words like that. Maybe I'm not smart, but I think hard every day! And right now, I think you're full of it!"

The other Teddie's eyes narrowed. "It is the defiant actions you speak of that are the very fumbling of truth, and thus useless. You already know this, and yet you refuse to accept it."

"But you are not the only one. You are but one in a million, among others who also deny what is inevitable. You were just… disappointed, that you fell in line like the rest. Like those 'fuddy-duddies' who fight a losing battle with progress."

"Okay, now I know you're making stuff up!" Teddie pointed angrily. "Never mind your cryptic bad guy allusions, but I only remember being alone here! And I never thought of Shirou-sensei and the others like that! They're my friends!"

"Friends that you coerced into a personal problem you had no courage to resolve on your own," the other Teddie cooly retorted. "And would they truly still think of you if they knew you? The real you?"

Teddie shrunk under his lookalike's gaze. The intensity alone made him uncomfortable, like they were freakier looking than usual. But the questions made him feel especially squeamish. "I-I don't know-"

"Exactly. And it is that uncertainty that provides comfort. You are better off not knowing the truth than finding it out at all. At least in this middle ground you understand that your friends accept you as you are, for now."

At that moment, there was no castle. No girl that he tried to look for. Just him and his mirror self, overwhelming him with a sense of vertigo.

"But if they knew the truth? That your current form is just a shape to deny your nature? That you are literally a shell of a past life, formed from regret and bitterness? That you had no lost memories at all?"

"Shu-shut up…"

"Shall I spell it out for you, 'Teddie Kuma'?" The lookalike sneered with mocking. "You are but a mere-"

"SHADDUP!"

He rushed to attack, make him stop before he said anymore, but then he was casually swatted aside. Or rather, the action was swatting, but it felt like a boulder-sized fist crushed through the part of his body that was bitten and something was gushing out of him. Blood? Air? Or was it… some black ooze that filled his body up?

Regardless, Teddie collapsed on the floor with no strength left inside him. A familiar sensation crept over him as a cloud of darkness surrounded the figure, and Teddie's own eyes became heavy as he lost consciousness. The last thing he heard was the vampire girl's voice commenting on the whole development.

"I think I can work with this…"

<><><>

"After that, she drank me dry and tossed me aside while ordering the other me around like a butler."

Chie broke the silence with the only words anyone could think to say. "Oh, Teddie…"

No one said a word until the end of Teddie's story. It wasn't groundbreaking or revealing at first glance, but it revealed that even the bear was insecure about himself. The evidence was all there in hindsight, but he'd had his Shadow moment.

Part of the problem was because of them. Even now he was still afraid to admit to them what he was or might be. Shirou had a faint idea what that might be… but he decided it wasn't important. If Teddie didn't want them to know, then that was his business, not theirs.

There was some truth to his Shadow's words, ironically enough. One can't grasp at every bit of truth they want and hope for the best. It comes out when it's ready, and that usually comes in confronting it. But if Teddie ever needed to confront that part of him, the hurdle of the Shadow needed to be dealt with first.

Speaking of which… holy hell, was Fuji-nee still holding the giant Shadow back?!

"Just what the devil are you, woman?" Shadow Teddie droned. He had been throwing swipes and spells left and right but she parried them with finesse. Her dress suffered minor scratches and frost chippings that were starting to melt from room temperature, but she looked smug and confident. Her heightened breathing was due to adrenaline from her fighting rather than exhaustion.

She posed with her left side facing the Shadow, an action her Persona Kaihime mimicked beside her. "I'm the woman who is feared in Inaba and Fuyuki alike! Wielding the cursed sword Torashinai, I am the Tiger of Fuyuki! Taiga Fujimura! And with the power of my Stand Kaihime, I'm gonna kick your stuffing!"

"My god, she knows JoJo," Yosuke whispered in awe. The girls were more impressed by her boasting the name reference, and Kanji was chuckling to himself.

Shirou, on the other hand, was embarrassed and worried. If she had enough sass to do an act like that, then she might actually be running on fumes after all. Or attempt something crazy soon. "Oooookay, I think now's a good time to jump in before she really hurts herself," Shirou said.

"You'd… still fight?" Teddie asked slowly. "I guess that makes sense, if only to save Tiger-chan."

"We're helping you too, Teddie," Shirou insisted.

"Yeah, to help you get through whatever… this is," Rise added. The others nodded. Even the fox.

"B-But… I don't even know who I am," he said dejectedly. "What use does a liar bear like me have?"

Shirou smiled and gently rubbed Teddie's now flat head. "You're our friend, Teddie. That's enough for now."

Teddie was so moved that his eyes glistened with tears. "Shirou-sensei!"

With a grunt of slightly aching muscles, Shirou turned to his team. "Come on, guys! Let's help Fuji-nee!"

With the team motivated, Kanji answered for all of them as he flexed his arm with an elbow curl. "Hell yeah, let's kick some stuffing!" And they rushed over to join the fight.

Teddie watched them from the flank, still supported on Tama's back, softly crying. "Good luck, guys."

 

[Kishou the Badger]

Chapter 46: Bleeding Hearts

This is it; she had realized. This is the moment I've been waiting for.

Taiga had never felt more alive until this moment. She had pushed herself to be stronger, as a dedicated kendoka, and did have her share of thrills from her grandfather's "business". But she had plateaued. Peaked. There was no struggle in her life anymore aside from the boredom of grading papers and house sitting. Didn't even have willing students that looked up to her.

But now she was facing a giant mutant bear to a standstill, being the only thing between him and a gaggle of kids. Kids she had personally trained. Kids she felt responsible for. Kids that she'd damn well keep safe until this whole murder mystery case was closed.

Her Shadow had been right. She wanted to accomplish something in her life. She just didn't know what she wanted to accomplish outside of teaching. But Taiga knew then and there that this was what she needed to be. Their teacher. Their shifu. Their sensei. Their big, violent protective tiger that was ready to maul down anything in their way.

"Fuji-nee! We're coming!"

But trust that thick-headed Shirou to rush in and ruin it for her. It was okay when he stood in front of danger, but not anyone else. Especially not her.

Taiga smirked and rolled her shoulder, loosening her joints and ignoring the numbing pain from some close calls earlier. "Nah, you kids just hang back. I got this guy on the ropes."

"You are as bold as you are foolish," Shadow Teddie said. "Whether it's one Persona or a hundred, you can't hope to defeat me. And yet you make this harder for yourselves by dueling me?"

"I got this far on my own, didn't I?" she quipped back. With a smirk, she dashed to the Shadow, ignoring the surprised gasps from her peanut gallery.

To his credit, Shadow Teddie swung his arm to try and swat her, but she ducked and slid down on the floor just under the limb. Stopping just short of his body, she leaped and swung her shinai quickly in a three-hit combo. Kaihime leaped high enough to slam down in a finishing slash, pushing the bear further away.

That last attack definitely did some damage. He couldn't keep up with her hardened battle senses. So seeing a chance to finish this quickly, she swung her shinai more and more. Kaihime joined in the assault, creating a whirlwind of blades to hack down the Shadow.

It actually forced the Shadow to jump back. The resounding stomp of his landing caused all but Taiga to wobble in their footing. Naturally, she saw him backing away as a win. "Had enough?"

"Indeed," the Shadow answered. "No more games. Ultra Charge."

A surge of electric-blue energy flared around the Shadow, focused mostly on his claws. The eerie blue glow darkened to a shade of vermillion as it condensed into a ball like a miniature sun before darkening to a black hole. Shadow Teddie raised his claw high, further winding up the power of this new move with an intent to end the fight.

It blew Shadow Rise's Megidola out of the water from the sheer pressure it was expelling.

Rise was done scanning with Himiko. She raised the visor slowly over her head, her complexion as pale as a sheet. "If that hits us," she said slowly. "We'll be paste on the wall."

Shirou balked and cried out, "Fuji-nee!"

"Just stay back!" she yelled back. "I got this!" Taiga rushed Shadow Teddie once again without looking back, unleashing the same intense combo that pushed him back before.

Except the Shadow shouldered through the barrage. The seconds dwindled in agonizing length as it came down to a test of endurance. Could Taiga push through? Or would the Shadow finish his attack?

"Nihil Claw."

Finally, he swung his arm in a haymaker towards the side of her body. Both swords bounced off it, allowing the palm blast to hit her hard enough to send her flying and screaming. Kaihime vanished from Taiga's lapse of focus. The shockwave alone was daunting and would have knocked the rest of the team out too if not for them staying out of harm's way.

"Fuji-nee!" Shirou cried, immediately rushing over to catch her. Seeing she was too far away and moving too quickly for him to do that normally, he summoned Izanagi to cross the distance and intercept her. He and the others arrived over to her moments later. "Are you okay?"

"Uuh," she groaned weakly in the God Persona's arms. A stark contrast to her earlier bravado. "Come on, Nekochan, don't cut me off yet. Just one more glass?"

Well, she was blurting out non-sequiturs now. She was alive at least.

"Do you see now?" The Shadow taunted. "All ventures to truth lead to pain and defeat. So just surrender and accept death as your only escape."

That threat might have gotten to them… if not for his staggered stance. Taiga was no slouch in the power department, and she made sure he got his just desserts.

"All that and she couldn't stop him in time," Chie lamented. "We might really be out of our element here guys."

"She had the right idea, though," Shirou said as he laid her down. "That attack he used took up all his concentration to do. Even though it affected the whole area, we were fine as we were guarding through it."

"Yeah, and he was a sitting duck that whole time," Yosuke thought aloud. "So the next time he does that move, we either stay back and guard again—"

"Or go all out," Kanji finished. "My kind of fight."

"Let's not rush this though," Shirou warned. "He's weakened and cornered, but likely to pull off some desperation move. Wouldn't be the first time a Shadow his size tried that."

"That's what we've been training for, isn't it?" Yukiko asked rhetorically. She leveled her Persona card on her fan, concentrating before making her summon cut. "Let's end this."

Konohana Sakuya burst into the scene with petals and glass. Right away she pelted the bear with her strongest Agilao and singed his fur.

"Scatter!" Shirou ordered, and the team dispersed in different directions. They each summoned their Persona in tandem. Yosuke conjured winds to whip up whatever embers lingered, while Kanji and Chie rushed in from the same angle to strike with their weapons. Rise stayed behind with Yukiko, committed to her sensory role.

Shirou decided now was the time to switch Personas. It'd become almost second nature when he drew new Personas to use, and found two new ones from the Shadows that they had slain on the way here. "It's your turn, Oukuninushi!"

The ruler Persona arrived kneeling in front of his summoner. He was a pale, fair-skinned man with hair as black as night, with long bangs and the back end tied in loops. He wore silver chainmail over his white hakama, and a large sword strapped to his back. His yellow eyes snapped open, he rose upright, and with both hands, he unsheathed and swung his sword overhead, crying out, "Blade of Fury!"

Between the magic and the sudden kill rushes, Shadow Teddie was truly taken aback when a flurry of slashes nicked him three times in succession. He was truly starting to get winded. "But… how?" he asked softly, for the first time aghast. "How do you still have the strength to move towards a futile goal?"

"Saving another person's life is never futile," Shirou answered, willing his Persona for another attack. This time Shadow Teddie was on the defensive, parrying the sword with his claws.

"Even if you win today, how can you be sure your actions will mean anything later?" The Shadow argued. He was starting to be pushed back from the blade duel, and could feel projectiles of elemental energy hit him. "Nothing is certain but pain and suffering. Anything you do—Everything you do is futile!"

Oukuninushi chuckled between blows. "Oh, I'm no stranger to pain and suffering. But every action has a reaction, and a seed can just as well bloom and grow as it can wither and die. The only futile action is to do nothing because of the fear of death."

He suddenly swung hard enough to ricochet Shadow Teddie's claw back, leaving him wide open. "And if my partner wants to brave the dangers for what he believes in, I'm more than willing to guide him to his goal."

"Kanji, follow my lead!"

"On it, senpai!"

Shadow Teddie could do nothing as Oukuninushi vaulted over him and pierced his head with a sword plunge. Take-Mikazuchi appeared a moment later to thrust down his thunderbolt in the same vicinity of the Shadow's head. As the ruler Persona leaped back to safety and held his hand out towards the blade, the thunder god Persona twisted his clenched fists with jolts and bashed his sword between them. They cast their spells at the same time.

""Zionga!""

Thick blue bolts surged from above and down on the Shadow, barely a foot apart from one another. The electric spells surged through the conduit of the makeshift lightning rods. Shadow Teddie roared in pain as it felt its inner darkness get fried and light up from pure energy. When the attack ended, he collapsed on the floor with a deafening thud, face down and arms limp.

This had to be it, Shirou thought. With all the damage Fuji-nee and the others threw at him, the Shadow had to be beaten into compliance now. He could see black-red particles evaporating from his body. Just a little more…

The Shadow grunted in pain, turning his head before he lifted his paw. Directed at Shirou. "N-Nullity…"

Uh oh. Those were prana sparks!

"Guidance!"

In a split second, Shirou saw the space in front of him crack and ripple as blood-red energy threatened to engulf him. It was similar to the Shadow's previous attack in nature but focused on a single point.

But just before it could detonate, his body was shoved forcefully to the side, hurling him far and away from the danger.

And then it exploded upon the person who'd taken his place with the shock and sound of a cannon. Clothes were shredded, blood splattered, gravel cracked underfoot… It was a surefire kill shot at point blank range.

"Fuji-nee!"

And yet despite that, Taiga Fujimura stood firm. Her body seemed to move on its own as she summoned Kaihime back. The princess Persona flickered past the bear, sword drawn. Then, she slowly sheathed the blade in a tense, stretched moment.

The behemoth Shadow seemed aware of what had happened, and was in shock and awe. He barely had time to utter his thoughts aloud. "Impossible."

As the sword clicked in place, a thick cross-shaped gash tore into the Shadow's already exposed head, and the force of the attack ruptured it. His face exploded for a lack of a better term, but the resounding death cry still filled the room even as his body disintegrated. It was over. Shadow Teddie had been slain.

Shirou recovered, caring not for the spectacle of the fading red dust. Instead, he rushed over to his guardian. Kaihime vanished as her consciousness faded, and he barely caught Taiga as she slumped forward. "Fuji-nee! Hey, Fuji-nee!"

There were a few open wounds and blood was seeping out, but they looked shallow. She coughed loudly, a few drops of blood spilling out her mouth. She looked like hell and was slumping in his arms. Her breath was light, and she rasped out one sentence:

"Okay… I've had enough, Nekochan."

Shirou sighed in exasperated relief, too tired to laugh. Another Taiga Fujimura sequitur.

<><><>

When the smoke cleared and everyone caught their collected breaths, all that was left was to handle the now docile Shadow of Teddie. There was no rush as he wasn't moving or talking, and stared blankly at them. With the lack of blinking eyes, he might as well be a statue. Yukiko and Rise tried to ignore that as they patched up their unconscious trainer with one of Tama's leaves. The others stood firm and watched it like a hawk, just in case.

The original Teddie stared back too, but with a frown etched on his features. It was like he was waiting for something, to break this fragile moment. Shirou walked up to his side, thinking he needed some emotional support. He didn't know what to say, but he would help his friend regardless.

Teddie gulped. "Is… Is Taiga-chan okay?" he asked, still staring at his Shadow.

"She's been through worse," Shirou assured him. Granted, he was worried for her too, but she was safe now and the immediate danger was over.

"That's good," Teddie nodded. "So, what happens now?"

"What do you mean?"

"Do I… accept myself? Move on from my hiccups and hope I get a Persona like you guys?"

Could Teddie get a Persona? That was a question the others on the team had never thought to ask. They just accepted at face value that he knew parts of the world and was their guide/client. He didn't have problems like theirs because they were actively helping to fix his world. But his issues of self-identity ran deeper than they could have imagined.

"Do you want a Persona?" Shirou asked.

Teddie stiffened, turning to his role model. "W-well… it should be more of a matter that I deserve one than wanting one!"

"I told you before, didn't I? You're our friend, Teddie. And friends help each other. You've wanted to prove yourself and I think you're more than deserving of one at this point."

"So… even if I don't really want to find out who I am, that's okay?"

Shirou raised an eyebrow. "But I thought you wanted to find out who you are."

"I did, but… I'm scared of what I might find out. Or rather, remember," Teddie's flattened head creased as he stared down to the floor, and he poked his crippled fingers together. "Maybe there is no big answer to my mystery. Maybe I lived here all my life. Maybe I'm better off alone."

Man, this was worse than Shirou had first realized. Maybe it was no surprise after all that Teddie had a Shadow outbreak. Anyone would have a mental breakdown in real life with stress piling up and no answers.

The magus scratched the back of his head, racking his brain for a suitable reply. "Uh… If you want to stop looking for answers, then I suppose you are free to do so. Some moments of our past might be better off hidden, after all." He spoke from experience as the night of the Fuyuki fire never seemed to stop haunting him. "But you're wrong about one thing, Teddie. You're not alone."

"Huh?"

"You have us," he said, jerking his thumb over his shoulder to the rest of the team. They were sitting back, resting, and not so subtly listening to the conversation going on just a few feet in front of them. "Whenever you need help or to figure something out, we'll chip in."

Teddie looked back, surprised by the smiling faces of the Investigation Team. It started out small with just three kids stumbling into his world like the victims before them. But with each rescue, the group grew and things were less bleak. They weren't just helpers that agreed to save his world. They were his friends.

He couldn't help but sniffle, feeling his eyes water. "Y-You guys…" he fought the urge to sob… badly. "I-I'm such a lucky bear to meet you all! WHAAAAAHAHAHAHA!!"

A light stirred behind Teddie, causing the gang to flinch. Teddie hiccupped, worried what his Shadow would do for his crybaby act.

But to everyone's surprise, Shadow Teddie transmogrified. In simple terms, the new form was a stout, round orb with arms and a cape, resembling a robotic Teddie. In fact, the figure shared a lot of Teddie's colors. A blue cape fluttered, tied around the Persona's small, hood-like head. The body was mostly red chrome metal with yellow painted markings. The chest area doubled as a hatch with the twist handle where the navel would be. Four small white limbs popped out of socket-like holes with layered leather, and the hands held aloft a white tomahawk missile.

And then as quickly as it appeared, the robotic Persona morphed again into the familiar shape of a card that slipped into the subconscious. Teddie's subconscious.

"It's… a Persona," Teddie gasped. "My Persona!"

"Congrats, man!" Yosuke grinned with a thumbs-up. "You're part of the headliners now!"

"Hell yeah! One more to stick it to the vampire!" Kanji added, jumping up and slapping the bear hard on his back.

"WHAA!" Teddie cried and fell down face-first with a thud. He was still flat as paper, after all.

"Kanji-kun!" "Moronji!" The girls chided him almost immediately. The young punk-looking teen winced and sweated from their ire.

"You see?" Shirou smiled and pulled the bear upright. "You've been on the team the whole time. It's just more official now."

"Officially on the team," Teddie repeated to himself. He turned to the girls with hope in his eyes. "Does… does that mean I get to score with you girls then?" he asked eagerly.

For a moment no one said anything. Rise recovered first and flushed, looking anywhere but at him. "Wh-what? You can't ask a girl like that so suddenly, Teddie!"

Chie boomed with laughter, more amazed by his question than anything else. She was just so relieved that he was gonna be okay. "Sure, why not?!" she giggled.

Yukiko's face, however, dropped to an expression between anger, pity and exhaustion. "Don't encourage him," she pleaded.

Teddie only heard Chie's response and that was enough to embolden him. He leaped up and landed on Yosuke's shoulders, pointing his flimsy arm to the sky. He knew he looked cool in his pose, nevermind his sensei grunting or holding his legs steady. "It's settled then! I'll help you beat the vampire out of my home and yours, or my name isn't Kintoki-Douji!"

Kanji blinked. "But… your name's not Kintoki-Douji."

"It's the name of my Persona, Kanji," Teddie deadpanned. "You know, 'he is me', 'I am he'? Thou thy thou, Persona? It's common sense!"

"I bet you just made that up anyway!" Kanji snapped and pointed angrily. "I've read the story about Kintoki. He was a warrior guardian for children and had a tomahawk for a weapon!"

"So does my Kintoki!"

"Nuh uh! Yours has a missile!"

Teddie's smushed-up face still managed to make a smug expression as he uttered, "A tomahawk missile."

Everyone stared gobsmacked at the bear as they realized the truth of his words. And how it truly represented a part of his soul. Even his weapons were weaponized puns.

Yukiko's cheeks puffed. A chuckle escaped. Finally, she doubled over laughing like a hyena. "Hahahahahahaaaaahahahaaaa!"

"Oh god, even Teddie is making her laugh now," Chie said.

"You got to admit," Shirou smiled. "It is pretty funny."

"I knew you would get my genius, Shirou-sensei!" Teddie beamed.

"You didn't actually create the way your Persona looked though, did you?" Rise asked.

"W-Well… subconscious thinking is more profound! Only men would understand!"

"Hey, yeah! That's true!" Kanji nodded vigorously. Rise gave him and Teddie dubious looks and sighed.

While everyone else was talking animatedly, Yosuke was stuck still holding Teddie on his shoulders for some reason. Annoyed, he looked down to the floor. "I wonder if a drop from this height would be enough to shut him up."

<><><>

"Aww, they're leaving already?! Just when it was getting good!"

She didn't mind that her glorified teddy bear butler had been defeated. She wanted to fight the kids herself after all, and it would have been boring if they lost at the first boss. Not that she wouldn't have minded that he actually came out on top, but she knew Yosuke and the guys weren't going to be easy to beat.

Whether it was cowardice or strategy, they opted to leave after the fight. Probably helped that the fight took them to the front door and one of their fighters was nearly KOed (Killed Off). The bear was also converted to their side now.

"Ah well. At least it wasn't a total wash. Got to see how they turn Shadows into Personas."

One way was to defeat the untamed Shadow and convert the soul within. That was how Emiya managed to get that Oukuninushi shade from a skirmish earlier. The other way was to beat their own Shadow back to compliance and… talk to it? Acceptance? The bear was more talking to his friends than his Shadow so it was hard to tell if that counted or not. And it didn't feel as natural as the other Shadows here.

It was different from the other Shadows, anyway. But weren't all Shadows different? Like how humans were different?

The doors boomed open as someone stomped into the throne room. "Sis!"

She looked up to her guest/brother. "Oh, Mitsy. How are you?"

"Terrible," he grounded out. "It's bad enough that we're hiding here in this dump, eating scraps we find in chests… god, it feels like we're in a rogue-like game."

"You'll get used to it," she told him. And if he didn't naturally, she'd force it one way or another. "We're on the lam, remember? So just hold out until it's time to make another heroic act."

"I'm trying, but…" Mitsuo sighed. "Sis, when are you going to get rid of… that?"

"That what?"

"You know, that… that thing!"

"What thing?"

"The ugly freak pretending to be me!"

She adopted a sad look but inwardly she was excited. His refusal to work with said "thing" was just going to make it stronger. Perfect as a stage two boss for her intruders. And when all was said and done, they'd have their own Persona user.

"Mitsy, you know that's not nice to call other people names," she chided. "You don't like it when people do that to you, do you?"

Mitsuo shook in anger, dismayed that his sister would say such a thing. "Th-That's different! He's mocking me by saying all this nihilist crap like how much I suck!"

"The chicken or the egg, Mitsy? Which came first?"

"Huh?!"

"Never mind." Sometimes it was easy to forget that Mitsuo Kubo was so simple-minded he didn't understand hints, let alone cause and effect. Being mad at himself was fine, if he could bounce back from it later. "Just, try to keep an open mind when around him. For me."

The last part she threw in as a precaution, but it always worked before with Mitsy. The simple-mindedness helped in keeping her reins on him, if only for short bursts so he wasn't a mindless thrall.

He was lost staring into her eyes for what felt like an eternity. After trying and failing to think what else to say, Mitsuo clicked his teeth and stomped out of the throne room. Just because she implanted the suggestion on him didn't mean he was going to accept it without being mad.

As he left, she smiled and whispered, "I'm counting on you Mitsy. Both of you."

<><><>

July 17th, Junes Shopping Mall

After the fighting, it was pretty much unanimous for everyone to take a break. Even Teddie agreed that he wanted some alone time for once, trying to recoup his lost body mass and fur. By doing pull-ups.

Shirou didn't question it, as he had to make sure the sleeping tiger on his back was delivered home and without incident. The rest of the night passed without incident, and the group was forced back into their daily lives to rest before tackling the castle again.

Luckily there was a two-day weekend break, and the rain was going to let up on the morning of the first day. Everyone had plans for their days off: Chie studying with her fellow athletes, Yukiko working at her inn, Rise hanging out with her bandmate, and Kanji filling in for some daycare job. Yosuke normally would have been on a date with his girlfriend, but… the less said about that the better. Even Yosuke knew what was the likely outcome. But for his friend's sake, Shirou decided to avoid addressing the elephant in the room as long as possible.

Which led them to having a nice slow day exploring Junes. Or rather, doing the rounds of the store for what needs an assistant's help, and being called as a last-second temp for some coworkers that ditched. It was interesting to see how varied the job was, and Shirou took mental notes of Yosuke's actions for when he might tackle a similar job.

Even in the crowded store full of people bustling and shopping, they could hear distinct squeaking boots pass them by. "Hi Shirou-sensei! Hi Yosuke!"

""Hi Teddie,"" they chorused as they walked by. Their next stop was the electronics store to check up on Teddie who just walked up and played with the customers' kids—

They doubled back to the fit and round bear walking around in the real world as if yesterday never happened. ""TEDDIE?!""

 

[Kishou the Badger]

Inaba Chorus: A Fortunate Encounter



You are Naoto Shirogane, the aspiring young detective with a legacy to follow.

You have solved many cases on your own already, earning a rather dubious epitaph, "The Detective Prince". You care not for rumors or titles, so you barely paid attention to such things. Rather, they helped give you notoriety and establish your foothold as a rising star in detective work, and that is enough.

That said, you are now faced with the reality that magic exists in some form, and that the recent murder case in Inaba has taken a supernatural slant.

In order to get to the bottom of that mystery, you decide to venture to the victim's last known address before moving. All you had to go by was the city name of Misaki Town, so you asked around. Mostly about recent events that might have encouraged the suspect to leave. You were quite surprised to find that Misaki Town, on top of its history of a small mountain town that bloomed in size over the years, had quite its own murder mystery a while ago.

Reports of missing people were one thing, but such records never reached the hundreds in a single night without explanation. A missing person in Inaba showed up later as a cadaver on some power lines. Yet in Misaki, there were no records of such missing people ever reappearing, and the only morbid clue to their disappearance were bloodstains. It was especially worse where a single hotel was cleared out of all guests and staff in a night.

Were vampires truly involved? It might fit the modus operandi, but something didn't feel right. Not quite a copycat, but certainly a different party involved altogether.

Fortunately, they seemed to have stopped after a while. There was no killer caught, but it was probably for the best. Had you not seen Emiya-senpai's "magecraft", Personas, and the wonders of the TV world, you'd be less open-minded to such circumstances. You'll just have to accept that someone with similar powers had resolved the mystery.

Your deduction on Satsuki Kubo –or rather Satsuki Yumizuka— led you to one of the many high schools in the precinct. Misaki Municipal High School. You decided to be tactful for your purposes, as Rise's criticisms held heavy on your mind since.

This is not a game to you, so you shouldn't treat it as such. You shouldn't make others believe you think as little of others either. Arriving at the school after classes were over, you introduced yourself as a detective looking into the missing cases and how they paralleled another back in Inaba.

Police dramas liked to romanticize the process of solving crime murders, but it wasn't as fast or glamorous. Cases like these were hardly resolved within the runtime of an episode or two. One had to be careful how they approached topics like these.

So, you played softball questions. "Do you know Satsuki Yumizuka?" "No? Then do you know someone who might?"

Two names kept coming up: Arihiko Inui and Shiki Tohno.

Tohno-san had already left for his home after school, but Inui-san was hanging back on the roof. It was a convenient spot for a private talk. You found him quickly after getting directions and approached him. "Arihiko Inui, I presume?"

"Hmm?" the red-haired young man in an unbuttoned-uniform turns to you. "You talking to me?"

"I hope to have a moment of your time," you tell him, flashing your badge. "I'm detective Naoto Shirogane."

He seemed to bristle at the sight of your badge. "A cop? Hey, I know I look like a delinquent, but I haven't missed a school day yet!"

You shake your head to diffuse the misunderstanding. "I'm not authorized to delegate how you spend your time at school, Inui-san."

"Well, what else would you want if you knew my name?"

"I want to ask you some questions regarding a friend of yours, Satsuki Yumizuka."

Inui-san blinked. "Sacchin? Haven't seen her in months. I don't think anyone has."

Well, at least it correlates to the idea that the vampire Satsuki might be the same one that lived here. But not enough evidence to go by. "Do you know anyone who has last seen her?" You asked.

"Eh, Shiki is the only one who comes to mind, but he kinda dodged the question when I asked."

That could mean a lot of things. Was Tohno guilty of something pertaining to Satsuki's change? Was he the last one to see her alive? Then why avoid the topic?

"Can you describe to me more about Yumizuka-san then? Her quirks, traits, usual hangouts?"

"Geez, didn't expect a pop quiz like this," Inui grumbled, but thought deeply all the same. "Let's see… for starters, she's got a big crush on Shiki. Only one who seemed to never catch that was Shiki himself, but with him dealing with family drama and his anemia, eh, kinda hard to blame him."

You took mental notes to ask about Shiki Tohno later. "Would you say you were her friend as well?"

"Eh, more so Shiki's friend than hers, but whenever he's around she's bound to show up too." He paused and looked especially thoughtful. "Come to think of it, Shiki has been hanging out with a number of girls the last few months. Ciel-senpai, Aruceid-san… and I think I saw a pair of red-haired twin maids at his new house one time, along with his sister."

As interesting as this was, it was getting off track. You just hope Shiki Tohno had some semblance of decency towards the fairer sex as Emiya-san, else one hypothesis could be his unfaithfulness that caused Satsuki to descend and take out her unrequited feelings on Hanamura-senpai.

"Now where was I?" Inui said to himself, bringing himself back to your question. "Oh yeah. Sacchin was really popular at school. She was part of this non-competitive sports team that I can't remember what it was about, and was a pretty frequent member of their practice sessions. You know, whenever she wasn't trying to talk to Shiki for a moment. Had her share of admirers too. Girls thought she was nice, and guys thought she was cute. She was outgoing and bright and kind of a klutz, but we all laughed with her since she bounces back pretty quickly."

"That definitely sounds like the makings of an upbeat person," you comment.

"For sure," Inui agreed. "I think she felt like she needed to bring that positivity to Shiki's life since… Well, it's not really any of my business to bring it up, but the short version is that Shiki has been through the wringer the last few years."

"I see." You have your suspicions, but you were here to ask him about Satsuki anyway. You have a candidate in mind on who to interview more about Shiki: his sister Akiha Tohno.

Still, this presented a question you had to bring up. "Were you and Yumizuka similarly downtrodden?"

"Eh?" Inui blinked, surprised by the question. "What do you mean?"

"Were any of you severely traumatized that you sought each other for comfort?" If they shared some connection of suffering, that could explain their ties, and maybe the underlying issues within Satsuki's psyche. You may not have the grasp of Freudian psychology for Teddie's world, but you have enough to gauge criminal profiling.

"I mean… I guess? I don't know about him or her, but I lost my parents when our apartment building collapsed, and my grandma died getting me out of there." He shrugged, as if the memory wasn't at all horrifying. "Sure, it's sad, but at least I'm still here thanks to her, so I gotta make the most of this life, yeah?"

"That's a strong way to look at it," you console, unsure what else to say.

"Nah, no it's not. I'm just not that scared of dying after nearly being crushed to death, that's all."

Most kids his age wouldn't be so stoic about nearly dying. You had lost your parents young as well, but at least you still had your grandpa. Having him die to save you was a horrifying thought.

If he's friends with Satsuki, then maybe there's some common ground other than just him. "Then what is Yumizuka's close death encounter?"

"Before I answer that, I want to ask you something in return."

You fought the urge to frown. Inui-san has been helpful thus far. You're not sure how appropriate it would be for him to ask you questions about the case, but you doubt you'd get better answers from anyone else. You nod and allow him to ask his question.

"So, is Sacchin dead?"

You had feared that would be the conclusion he would come to. And yet you are also floored hearing Inui-san's question so impudent, as if discussing the weather. "Pardon?"

"That's the only reason you're here, right? A bit of profiling on who might have killed her leading you to her hometown? I kinda hoped it wasn't the case, but with it being so long and all of the sudden a detective like you shows up asking around? Kinda obvious."

It might be accurate to state so because vampires are undead. She would have to be killed to be turned. Normally you'd avoid addressing the cold truth with civilians, but he didn't seem all that concerned. Sad, yes, but anyone would feel lonely if a friend was away from town. Not dead.

"I'm not at liberty to say," you admit, partly to shy away from addressing the elephant in the room.

He accepts it at face value though, and reads between the lines, as he grunts and scratches his hair. "Yeah, kinda figured you'd say that too." He frowns sadly, likely knowing what a bygone conclusion for most missing person cases was.

Satsuki Yumizuka is gone, and a vampire by the name of Satsuki Kubo is wearing her skin to wreak havoc on Inaba.

Exhaling the displeasure away, Inui looks you eye-to-eye as he speaks. "I'm not sure how important knowing this is to you, but you look serious and came here for a reason. I remember a story she told me once, when she was unsure of herself and pretty miserable. It was how she first met Shiki and wanted to be more than just friends.

"The gist is, her and her fellow sports club girls were locked in a storage shed. Not so bad in itself, but it was a late winter night, and with just their shirts and bloomers on, they'd freeze to death before help came. Shiki happened to be at the right place at the right time to open the door. How he did it, she didn't know and I don't think he ever explained either, but she was mighty grateful that he did.

"Shiki's a nice guy, but also an idiot. Doesn't think too much about helping others when he can. Satsuki wasn't very direct about her feelings, whether it was nerves or something else. But I think it eventually got to her that he probably didn't see her the same way, and that a guy like me would notice she liked a guy before the guy did. She did seem happy when she told me that she got him to promise to rescue her again though."

Inui-san frowned and looked away. "Problem is… that was the last day we ever saw her at school."

That was a lot to unpack. A sign of weakness, yearning, and regrets. A promise made but unfulfilled. You feel you know enough, at least on paper, about who Satsuki Yumizuka was as a person.

"If you want to know more, I say ask Shiki himself," Inui added. "He's been pretty beat up about it so maybe he'll tell you something he won't tell me."

You had considered that, or perhaps asking his sister for her side of things. Especially with the disappearances in this town. That mystery might have impacted Satsuki in some way that convinced her to hide all the down to Yasoinaba.

But would knowing more about Shiki Tohno actually help in knowing about Satsuki Yumizuka? Even if her life revolved around him as a swooned admirer, it is likely that Shiki himself didn't notice her affections, let alone cared. You might get more about what Satsuki saw in him to be infatuated with, but that would just as well distance yourself from her. You had intended to look into a small detail but it seemed like there were deeper secrets lurking within this very town.

Maybe if you had powers of your own, be in Persona, Magecraft, or something else suited for paranormal investigation, you'd investigate. Find all the secrets and bring them to light, to justice. But no knowledge of the paranormal would protect you if you ventured too deep. You also promised that you'd come back to Inaba soon, and your return trip is coming up. You'll make due with just this interview.

"I believe I have everything I need, actually. Thank you for your time, Inui-san," you say to him, bowing.

"Uh, you can cut it out with the 'Inui-san' bit," he tells me. "I'm just Arihiko. Besides, I should be thanking you for coming today."

It would seem the closure of his friend's passing lifted his spirits slightly. So long as he doesn't know the truth of the matter, then all is well.

"Of course… Arihiko-san," you greeted him one last time. Though wincing, he grins brightly and waves as you turn and leave. Back to being a detective for the sleepy town of Inaba.

You do hope one day you'd come to your own awakening. It was cool to pretend until then. "Spirit Detective Naoto Shirogane"… heh, you did enjoy that show, as well as using your own Spirit Gun. (Even if it was just hand-painting runes around your extended index finger for "enhancing". No one needed to know that.)

 

[Heliel43]

Did we reach the latest?

 

[Kishou the Badger]

Chapter 47: Shadow of the Hollowed Self



July 17th, Afternoon, Junes Food Court

Shortly after Yosuke and Shirou bumped into Teddie, they reacted as best as they could. For Yosuke, that meant panicking as he interrogated Teddie on his presence, as well as deal with customers and staff asking exactly who the loveable bear was. Shirou also panicked, trying to rationalize that him being here wasn't a big deal (yet) as he called the others one by one to let them know about an emergency meeting.

They all arrived by mid-afternoon and shared the boys' dubious belief that Teddie was indeed in their world, blissfully drinking his first smoothie with childlike glee. They were so flabbergasted, only Yukiko had enough state of mind to ask the question circling everyone's heads.

"How?"

Slumping in his seat, Shirou pondered on the events from yesterday. "We saw Teddie awaken to a Persona, so I guess that means he can now enter our world too. Not that it matters if he could have done so or not before, only that it reinforces the rules that Personas more or less act as a means of passing to and from the other world."

"Well, the good news is that everyone's convinced he's just some guy in a suit," Yosuke added. "Sure, it piled more work on me since I had to explain this to the customers, the staff, and my parents, but my dad did mention that the bigwigs at the Junes chain were looking for a way to improve merchandising, like a cute mascot character or something."

"So, what, he'd be hiding in plain sight then?" Kanji asked. He mulled that thought over in his head, nodding. "That's no different from what we do now, actually."

"Yeah, but where are we gonna hide away a talking bear?" Rise reminded them. "It's not like he can crash at any of our places."

Everyone turned to Teddie, alerted to his sudden grumbling. The bear's face had a comical, weary expression as his body fidgeted in place. "It's so hot," he panted, having finished all of his drink.

Exasperated sweat from heat and annoyance rolled down everyone's heads. "Maybe we can ask Fujimura-san if he can bunk with him later," Yosuke suggested. "Say, that reminds me. How's she holding up, Shirou?"

Shirou relaxed on the lighter topic. "Better, at least. I barely got a text to her explaining about Teddie, but I doubt she fully understands the situation. Right now, she's getting questioned by Doji-nii and the police. Given how close she was cutting it from yesterday's fight, she'll be resting at the hospital while they investigate her apartment."

"So, I take it she won't be ready to train us again?" Chie asked.

"Not any time soon, no," Shirou answered.

The news was met with mixed reception. Yosuke and Yukiko, thoroughly worn out and exhausted from all the training, exhaled sighs of relief with small utterings of "Oh, thank god." Kanji and Rise, however, whether it was out of a genuine thrill of fighting the Tiger of Fuyuki, or special one-on-one time with Shirou, grunted out in displeasure, "Aw, man."

Teddie fidgeted again. Loud enough that the white fold-up chairs he was sitting on started to scrape on the floor. "Guys, seriously! I'm burning up here!"

"You get used to it," Yosuke brushed him off.

Yukiko looked him over in concern, while tugging the collar of her shirt. She felt a bit humid herself but she couldn't even begin to imagine how Teddie was fairing right now. "It must be all the fur you have on. I can't imagine any animal with fur that thick enjoying the summer heat."

"Then again, he's a bear, right?" Kanji asked aloud. He sat in his chair backwards, leaning over the rest with both arms, and gestured his hand towards his chin in a cutting motion. "It's not hibernating season, so maybe he needs a shave."

"SHAVE?!" Teddie bristled at the thought, his eyeholes as small as pencil dots. "I can't get rid of my luscious Teddie fur! I don't know if I can grow it back!"

"You grew back your bulky shape, didn't you?" Chie asked. "It's like hair to you, and that grows back pretty easy."

"It's not the same thing!"

Before the argument could escalate, Shirou felt his phone ring. He quickly answered after ushering the others to be quiet. "Hello, hello?"

"Good afternoon, Emiya-san."

"Good afternoon, Naoto. What's up?" He noticed the others, especially Kanji, perk up after hearing the detective's name.

"I'm trainbound for Yasoinaba today. My search didn't quite turn out as I had hoped, but I've learned quite a bit about the late Sacchin."

"Hey, any news is good news with how this case is going," Shirou said.

"Did you apprehend her in her castle yet?" Naoto asked.

"We're getting there, but we had to regroup. Teddie awakened to a Persona and is sitting with us in Junes now."

"I… see."

"You okay, Naoto?"

"Yes, I'm fine," the detective boy assured quickly. "Just sounds like we both have a lot to share when we regroup."

"I agree. We're still licking our wounds from yesterday, so how about we meet up tomorrow at Tama's?"

"Good idea. See you then, Emiya-san." The line disconnected.

"Finally, Naoto's coming back," Kanji grinned. "Was getting kinda lonely around here without him."

"Aww, did you miss your little chaperone?" Yosuke teased.

Kanji's smile fell as he glared at his senpai. "Keep talking like that and I'll kick your ass."

As Yosuke winced and looked away, Rise giggled and patted Kanji on the shoulder. "Aww, it's so sweet how much you like Naoto-kun, Kanji!"

Kanji would have normally snapped more, but knowing it was a girl teasing him meant he couldn't resort to his usual scare tactic. Not that it made him feel any less bitter and upset. "You too, Rise?"

"You wouldn't hurt me though, would you Kanji?" she asked sweetly.

The bleached-haired teen looked like he swallowed a lemon with the awkwardness of the question. He turned to the girl sitting on his right, opposite of Rise on his left. "Can you kick her ass for me, Chie-senpai?" He pleaded.

Chie bristled, and Rise was downright horrified at his suggestion. ""What?!"" they both cried. Yosuke, meanwhile, laughed so hard that his chair tripped and fell over.

"Kanji-kun!" Yukiko admonished hotly. "You can't ask Chie to do that!"

"Why not?" he asked innocently. "She could probably take Rise down easy."

Shirou grimaced after recovering from the shock. Even he knew that question was a social flop. "It's less about 'being able to do it' and more about 'should you do it', Kanji."

The chair rattling grew distinctly louder as the conversation grew. Up until then it was as much white noise as the rest of the chattering customers of Junes were enjoying their meals. Finally Teddie reached his literal boiling point. "Gaaaah, I can't take it anymore! I gotta strip my zip!"

The gang was now forcibly aware of Teddie's situation, noticing his stubby hands already reaching for his neck zipper. Frantically, Shirou, Yosuke and Chie grabbed his head and arms to prevent it from coming off around his head. Everyone else was tense and alarmed at what just happened.

"Dude! First, watch what you say around here!" Yosuke hissed, using his whole-body weight for good measure on the bear's head. "Second, you can't just remove your damn head around here! There are children here! And if they get traumatized by either your words or your ghost body, I'm going to get written up!"

"That last part is objectively low on the importance scale, but he's right! Word is gonna spread of a headless mascot walking around and we don't need that kind of attention right now!" Chie added.

"But it's so hoooooot!" Teddie insisted, even as he struggled under them. "I'm seriously melting in here!"

"Wow, he does not like the summer weather at all, does he?" Rise said aloud.

Shirou could see that the bear was clearly in discomfort, as he wouldn't make a big deal otherwise. "Look, if you really need to cool off, we'll take you out back without anyone able to see you to… relieve yourself. Can you hold off for a few more minutes?"

The bear sniffled and calmed down, if only slightly. "A-alright, Shirou-sensei."

"Cool. Lead the way, Yosuke."

"What! Why me?!"

"You work here, and we need a secure private area employees have."

"If you think I'm just gonna do as you say—"

Teddie's arms flailed like running faucets and his half-opened face was even more contorted in pain. "Ugh, hurry up! I need to strip! I NEED TO STRIP!"

Yosuke quickly dropped his protests in favor of cursing under his breath and directing the four of them to the Junes back offices.

"Are… they gonna be okay?" Yukiko asked.

"Ah, I'm sure they'll be fine with Shirou-senpai around," Kanji shrugged. "Let's get some topsicles while we wait."

Rise brightened at the suggestion with a smile. "Oooh, lets!"

Yukiko still had her concerns, looking between the first-year students leaving the table to order, and the direction where Chie and the others corralled Teddie. After a moment of deliberation, she followed Kanji-kun and Rise-chan. She was in the mood of a cherry-flavored pop, actually.

<><><>

Although the maneuvering was hectic, they reached the men's changing room. With Chie out on guard duty and Shirou with them corralling the bear in, Yosuke was finally satisfied that he held his end of the bargain. "Okay, we're here. Now get this over with, Teddie."

"Uh… could you turn around first?" Teddie asked, somewhat coyly as he looked away. "I'm bashful."

Yosuke groaned, but complied as he looked away, facing the door. Shirou followed suit, and then they heard the unwinding of a zipper.

Some part of Yosuke was curious to see, but not enough to get nightmares of some dark dust hivemind Teddie after fighting off his Shadow. A flopping sound hit the ground, and then a relieved sigh. "Aaaaah, I feel so alive!"

"Glad you're having fun, Teddie."

"Always, sensei!" Teddie giggled. "Oh, but maybe I need to clean up first. Can I use the shower in here, Yosuke?"

"Wha-No!" he snapped, half-tempted to fully turn around. "You said you wanted to get out of your suit and you did that."

"But I'm furless! And sweaty, besides! I just need a good scrub!"

"This bathroom's a leftover from some old truckstop and is just for changing and using the toilet," he explained. "The water pressure's too weak for the sink, and the shower head hasn't worked in years."

Just then they heard a Clap clap. Then the turning of a faucet and the sound of running water. "Now it does."

"Oh for god's sake."

"No, I don't think my Persona can help you here," Shirou quipped.

Yosuke snickered. It was quite amazing how far this little group came to be. It was just the four of them, including Chie, when this whole murder mess started. Shirou went from a clueless, aloof transfer student to a smartass leader who was still a few screws loose to be honest. Then again, he had issues too. They all did. And he somehow knew what to say to move on, be it for a moment of levity or comfort.

"So… we're this close, huh?" he said aloud. "At the end, I mean."

"Yeah," Shirou nodded. "It feels like a lifetime ago, but it was only months, really."

"Wasn't sure how things would turn out. I at least hoped it would have ended a while ago so we could just enjoy the rest of the school year in peace. Maybe even our summer break."

Shirou nodded again. "I know what you mean. One thing led to another, and here we are. Waiting for our client to take off his bear suit."

"Haha, that's a rare sentence if I ever heard one," Yosuke chuckled. He felt better. Just a little.

He knew he would have to confront Sacchin sooner or later, but he felt he could do it as long as his friends were here. He'd do better, for Saki-senpai's sake as well. Even if she died hating his guts, he owed it to her to at least give her and her family closure.

But for now… life was about to make things worse for him right about now.

"Yosuke-kun! We need to talk!"

Despite the casual tone betraying the choice of words, they filled Yosuke with dread. "Shit, it's my dad!" he quickly told Shirou before calling outside. "Uh, don't come in! I'm not de-"

He didn't finish as an older man with auburn hair and wearing a Junes uniform stepped in. He stopped in front of his son, towering over him by a good head or so, but felt imposing as a giant. "So, what's this about you finding a new mascot?"

From the corner of his shoulder, they could see Chie looking back at them, frowning and apologetic. Thinking of giving her a piece of his mind later for her lack of keeping guard, Yosuke looked back to his father with a laugh. "Oh, come on, Da-I mean, Hanamura-san. You of all people should know you can't trust a rumor going around in this town! Haha-ha…"

"Normally not, but I did see you and your friends carry off what looked like some Doraemon cosplay in the back," Hanamura pointed out. "And a lot of kids seemed happier than usual playing with a so-called talking bear. And… is the shower running?"

"I, uh… got a handyman to check it real quick?" Yosuke lied. "Because a guy I knew really really needed a shower… despite me insisting he shouldn't." He muttered the last part softly but also bitterly.

"Hey, I know you get mixed signals from the other workers, Yosuke-kun, but being assistant manager is about stepping up in business. I'm happy you're taking initiative, but you still need to inform me, your boss, when you make such drastic changes."

"But I didn't—"

"Excuse me, do you guys happen to have something yet and spongy I can borrow for detergent?"

Shirou and Yosuke tensed. That voice was distinctively Teddie's, coming from behind them. Nothing could have prepared them for what they saw.

Naturally, they assumed Teddie was wet. But standing before them was a wet, blond-haired young man with effeminate features. He blinked owlishly with bright blue eyes, long dainty eyelashes, and wet hair swept to his left side. Such features wouldn't be lost on a young woman, but it was evident from how he was peeking behind the wall corner that his chest muscles were lean and flat.

He was also very naked, with hardly a towel to cover his lower body.

"Ah, so this is the new intern," Mr. Hanamura said, oblivious to the other teen's reactions. "Would you like a hand sponge or one with a long handle, Mister…?"

"Oh, handle sounds pretty good for those hard-to-reach places!" The pretty boy said, mimicking a scratch to his back. The voice was so familiar it answered their question before he did on who he was. "Oh, and I'm Teddie Kuma! A big friend of Yosuke and Shirou-sensei!"

"Sensei?"

"Well, he's taught me so much ever since I came to know about your Inaba! Yosuke too, but not as much. Been too busy fraternizing with the ladies, amirite?"

Yosuke could only twitch his eye from the slight, not helping that his father laughed. "Haha, sounds like you're close to my son already."

Teddie gasped. "You're Yosuke's father!? But you look so much more mature than him!"

Yosuke was now suffering from a popped blood vessel as his father guffawed. "Oh, I like you already, Ted! I'm not usually for nepotism, but you did a good job entertaining the kids with that bear suit of yours."

"Oh, thank you sir! It's like a second skin to me!"

"I'll fetch you something from the front then, for your showering dilemma. After that, you, me, and Yosuke will meet together to talk about your employment here." He waved goodbye and headed out. Chie, also caught staring at the bear's human face, broke out of her trance in a flush upon realizing he was indecent and fled the room first.

"Oh dear, I forgot to ask the nice man for a change of clothes. My bear suit is all sweaty and ragged at the moment," Teddie pondered aloud. "Can you two do me a favor and get me something nice to wear while I clean up?"

He looked innocently between them. There were so many questions piling up, but Shirou could only dumbly nod in affirmation. Smiling, Teddie turned back to continue his shower. Singing too as well.

For a long moment, the two teenagers stared at the spot where Teddie once stood, and then exchanged baffled glances. "So," Yosuke started slowly. "That was Teddie. In human form."

"It would appear so," Shirou agreed.

"He was certainly annoying as the genuine article, but all of the sudden he throws a curveball like this? What in the world is he?"

Shirou thought it over, as it was a loaded question. The mere existence of the bear was crazy, as was everything else about the world he came from. But there was no doubt about his genuine concern about others, and how he knew how to keep a secret. He didn't say anything particularly revealing to Yosuke's father, for instance.

"He's our friend, Yosuke. For now, that's all that matters."

Yosuke let out a strangled sound that was a sigh and chuckle at once. "Friend. Well, heaven knows we need more of those where we're going up against."

"Yeah…"

<><><>

Samegawa Floodplain

The rest of the day was spent trying to introduce Teddie to the real world as naturally as possible. Which was actually easy, after the shock of seeing a humane Teddie Kuma wore off from everyone. The clothes Teddie got for his casual "other world" hangout were expensive to say the least, even by Junes standards, so while Chie felt it was easier to bill it to Yosuke's account, Shirou stepped in and had everyone on the team pitch in.

Yosuke gave him the whole tour of the store, since it was just a TV screen away from his home world, and mostly acted as chaperone when he wanted to play on things like the electric massage chair or gouging all the free food samples. Kanji introduced him to the joy of topsicles and knitting (insisting it would be a helpful skill in case his shirt got ripped). The girls took him out on the town to the shopping district and Samegawa plan, which he mistook as a chance to score with the girls.

Yukiko… did not take that well.

Shove! "WHAAAA!" Splash!

The poor bear was pushed down the walkway and into the floodplain, to the surprise of everyone there.

"Amagi, how could you?!" Yosuke roared suddenly. "Those expensive clothes he has on are dry-clean only!"

"Not to mention he might get sick," Kanji added. It did nothing to move her as the inn heiress huffed and stomped away from the bear, with Chie and Rise right behind her. Shirou frowned before heading down the slope to give Teddie a hand.

"Wow," Teddie mumbled from the water. His white dress-shirt was soaked through to show his torso underneath, his cardigan rose slipped off in the tumble, and he had a mud stain on his pant leg. "Yuki-chan's scute when she's mad."

"Uh… scute?" Shirou asked bafflingly.

"You know, scary and cute at the same time! Scute!"

"I'm pretty sure that word doesn't mean what you think it means," he insisted, while making a mental note to see if that word even existed in a dictionary later.

"Gosh, I'm learning so much already!" Teddie beamed as he was pulled up. "It's like everything I knew before coming here is wrong! What's next? Black is white? Up is down? Short is long?"

"Come on, you know plenty of things. I'm sure if you didn't have proper motor functions, Yosuke wouldn't let you hear the end of it." Teddie blinked, so Shirou felt compelled to add further, "That is, knowing how to walk around."

"Oh, right," said Teddie. He leaned down to pick up his cardigan before brushing off the water and stems. "I've been alone for as long as I can remember, Shirou-sensei. I like to think I could handle myself in your world on my own."

"By hiding like you did in your world?"

Shirou meant it as a teasing joke, but it cut a little too close to the bear as he frowned. "Okay, maybe I am a little lost without you guys," he admitted.

"Teddie."

The bear-in-human-skin, however, perked up right away as if fired up. "But that's why I want to keep working with you guys so I can handle it on my own! I know I'm not strong enough to take care of all the Shadows back home. Not even now with my 'Bearsona'. But that just means I can help you guys now kick the vampire out of my home for good!"

"Naturally," Shirou said with a smile. The surge of their budding bond was hardly needed to let him know they were closer, but a welcome boon regardless.

<><><>

July 18th, Tatsuhime Shrine, Ocean Day

Naoto was dreading the rendezvous. He had intended to come back with something that could blow the whole case out of the water, but realized nearly too late that he treaded on thin ice. He wanted to come back successful, at least to the other officers, that the culprit was within reach. The young detective even hoped deep down that it wasn't a vampire at all and just some very clever ruse to make it seem supernatural.

But there was no conclusive proof for either it being true or false. That alone should be a case for the latter, but he never did shake off the pressure of Misaki Town until leaving.

Well, he was walking up the stone steps to the shrine now, a sort of plan B "hideout" due to being the home of the surprisingly intelligent fox. It still had kids play around at odd times of the day, especially since the Investigation Team (as they called themselves) helped clean the shrine a bit. It was overlooked because it was close to where both Kanji and Rise-chan lived in the shopping district.

Naoto took a sip from the soda in his hand to help quench his thirst and hopefully calm his nerves. He could see Shirou-san and the others talking to a blond-haired young man as he eagerly petted the fox. He noticed Naoto first, and smiled as he waved to him enthusiastically.

"Hi, Naoto!" the blond man said who sounded exactly like Teddie—

"BWWWWWWWT!"

After loudly expelling his drink, Naoto doubled over and coughed the last bits of soda out of his windpipe. The others noticed too, and huddled around him in surprise and concern. "Are you alright, Naoto?" he heard Kanji say.

"T-Teddie," he cracked, before calming himself. "Teddie's human."

"Oh yeah, that," Yosuke nodded. "For the record, this was news to us too."

"We've been kind of making this up as we go, so surprises are kind of expected," Chie added.

Naoto fought the urge to sigh. These kids, barely older than him, were such a disorganized mess that it was a miracle they managed to thwart the culprit for months. Nevermind the fact that they fought monsters in a world through a TV screen, but they don't seem to question or contemplate the nature of their ursine friend more than necessary, given how Teddie was still playing with the fox and Emiya-san.

Why couldn't things just be simple in this town, Grandpa?

<><><>

July 21, Yasogami High, Classroom 2-A

The meeting talk was quick and to the point. After sharing notes on Teddie's awakening and Satsuki Yumizuka of Misaki Town, the need to stop the vampire was further paramount. Unfortunately, the Yasogami High finals week was here so the case had to wait. The team briefly humored the idea of going into the castle anyway, but high school test exams were no joke. They were so mentally exhausting and emotionally stressful that no one wanted to regroup until finals were completely over. So, clad in their summer uniforms, they took on the long finals week else there'd be hell to pay from an angry irate tiger later.

It was raining on Thursday, the fourth day into finals, but it was going to clear up by the end of the day. Rather, the rain helped soothe most of the students' aching nerves as they wrote as if their lives depended on it. So there was no worry or concern about things going to a head regarding the culprits in the TV world.

Shirou, however, was stuck at an essay question on philosophy. It asked to recount a theory that makes the most sense to him. Such freeform essay writing was as much a blessing as a curse while having to write whatever length the student felt was satisfactory. Between time constraints and pressure, most would just write a simple paragraph at the bare minimum.

In a way, Shirou knew what he wanted to write about, but not how. The words weren't coming to him as he thought back only to see his teacher dead and suspended in telephone poles. King Moron might have been an ass, but Shirou still felt a sort of minor kinship to the teacher, who didn't laugh or mock his dream. Just asked him why, and explained how such things were important.

In fact, ever since coming to Inaba he felt more in tune with himself. He may not have a Shadow like the others but that didn't mean he was virtually flawless. Before he thought he was sure of how to become an ally of justice, or that it would be revealed in time so long as he kept at it. He didn't know what he would face or challenge as a magus, but Shadows were definitely not it.

Just knowing the words didn't mean you fully understood them, just as one didn't fully understand themselves until suffering a mental breakdown. That day in the classroom still mystified Shirou and opened his mind to philosophy for the first time. If only he had met with Morooka-sensei more about the topic.

"Though if I did do that, he'd probably lambast me or something. 'Stop clinging to me like I'm your daddy and figure it out yourself!'" Shirou chuckled at the thought. Finally, he started to write an answer that he only regretted his teacher couldn't see.

I believe in the philosophy of Socratic Idealism. The world as we know it is connected by ideas that we may or may not know, and we are more than free to choose how to use them. The philosopher Socrates was said to be the wisest man in Greece and people sought his counsel, but he only agitated them by asking them questions. He didn't think himself as wise, and tried to prove that others knew their vocations better than he could.

While the idea of "reality" is apparently subjective to others, and how we think, breathe, and live, there is no doubt that we all have different opinions on what is perfect, what is ideal. We all have perceptions of other people, and ourselves, that is inaccurate to one another. Only by communicating with others can we understand the gap between reality and our ideal perfection.

That ought to do it. It might not be a perfect summary, but the question was answered and with a few minutes to spare at that.

Just two more days and they could finish this…

<><><>

July 24th, Moon Voidania, Seventh Stratum

The following Sunday after finals was when everyone decided to take action. Naoto stayed behind to see if he could smooth out Taiga's interrogation, while the Investigation Team delved deeper into the castle stronghold.

The Shadows were just as fierce as ever. Though the team blazed through the smallfry quickly in the trek back to the top, they were currently blocked by what could only be described as a 10-foot-tall Sentai robot replica. Colorful shoulder plates and bulky legs showed that it was built to take and deliver punishment in equal measure. The pattern of red, blue and gold so intricately painted gave it a heroic look. And the long sword in its hand could be tempered steel or a toy prop for all anyone knew; it had the force and power to make swings as deadly as they come, such as striking the floor hard enough for a Heat Wave.

"Dammit dammit dammit dammit!" Yosuke yelled as he scurried away from the attack, taking cover behind a pillar. Chie joined him via a desperate dive, and the two poked their heads to the side to gauge if the Shadow would strike again.

Though in Yosuke's case, it was also marveling at the cool detail of the Shadow's design. "Man, that would be so cool if it wasn't trying to kill us!"

"I don't see why you're complaining," Chie said. "You and Kanji-kun have Personas that look pretty robotic too."

"It's like riding a motorcycle, okay? Every boy wants to pilot a giant robot. Right Shirou? Shirou, come on, I know you heard me!"

Indeed, Shirou was standing within hearing distance of Yosuke and Chie from another column. But rather than humoring his friend's question, he focused on firing arrows at the robot Shadow. For all the good his arrowheads did by bouncing off its metal armguards.

"Bearsona!" A unique battle cry rang out with the shattering of the glass Tarot. Kintoki-Douji materialized, lifting its stout arms as high as possible before spinning forward and "throwing" its tomahawk missile. The Shadow saw the projectile coming and retaliated with its sword.

However, upon impact, the missile exploded in a sleet of blue, frigid frost that covered the right half of the machine shadow, limiting its arm and leg's movement. Even the sword was frozen stiff, stuck fast to the ground.

It was then that Teddie rushed in, a single clawed gauntlet covering his right paw, and swung with all the momentum and spinning his body could muster. The claw struck the frozen part of the shadow cleanly like an icepick, finally dealing damage to its shell. Teddie followed up with another strike from the opposite direction, further flaying the ice, before finishing with a jump spike that demolished the ice and the leg that held the shadow up.

The Steel Machine, voted most likely Shadow to guest-star in a Saturday morning Tokusatsu show, exploded and faded into the nether, likely to return next week.

With the battle over, Teddie bounced on his feet smiling. "OH YEAH! I'm bad! I'm the big bad bear ready to maul you Shadows out of here! Rwoar!" He loudly proclaimed further down the hall where the other Shadows lurked. The few formless blobs that saw him flinched and slinked away, proof that his words did get to them and dared not to instigate a fight.

Shirou walked up to him first, patting the bear on the head. "Good job, Teddie," he told him. Teddie beamed at his sensei like a ray of sunshine was shining down on him.

"He really is a natural at this," Yukiko noted. She summoned her priestess Persona for a Mediarama check on the group, bathing everyone in shining blue light to mend wounds and bruises. "I was worried he would have been behind us in strength due to always watching on the sidelines, but he has taken to this so quickly."

"He's been watching you guys fight since April, yeah?" Kanji asked. "He must have picked up your moves that whole time but hasn't gotten a chance to flaunt them."

"I'm more surprised he knows how to use that thing," Chie remarked, staring at Teddie's claw.

It was another custom order by Daidara, that the bear insisted on when visiting the metalworks the other day. Something about not being natural to use anything but a bear's claw. Not that the smith didn't mind, as he liked experimenting on commissions, and was excited whenever they came over to drop off some Shadow remains. The weapons were even being propped up on his shelves like trophies so everyone recognized when they saw Yukiko's new fan or the steel plate Kanji used to intimidate bikers.

Yosuke winced upon looking at the sharp edges of the weapon. Particularly how Teddie waved it around like a kid in front of Shirou. "Just so long as he doesn't swing that thing around me."

"Okay guys, look sharp!" Rise called out. "I got a ping from Himiko earlier, and there's a big signal on the floor above us."

"Sacchin and Mitsuo?" Yosuke asked.

"Or at least one of them," she said. "I don't know how much further it goes from there, but we might be close to the top."

"Let's keep going," Shirou said. "Chances are that we're going to have to fight them, but I rather it be one at a time than both at once."

"Yeah, but without Fuji-sensei?" Kanji asked. "Are we really going to do this without her?"

"Of course not," said Shirou. Personal feelings aside, he probably couldn't stop Taiga from following them now that she had a Persona. She was a strong kendoka for a reason, and instrumental in stopping Shadow Teddie. Her strength was truly a boon. "I don't see us getting to the top today though, so we are going to regroup after confronting whatever's up there first."

"Sounds like a plan," Chie agreed.

"I should have enough energy to keep us strong for this much," Yukiko said.

"Let me at 'em!" said Teddie. "I may not be as agile as Tiger-chan, but I can certainly fight with the best of them!"

"Right, let's do this then." With their goal set, the Investigation Team marched on to the next flight of stairs and one of their hardest battles yet. Yosuke edged behind, finishing nursing his own wounds, when a whisper echoed out to him.

"Yosuke-kun…"

"Ah-!" Yosuke turned to the sound, but saw nothing down the corridor. Just blocky tiles, blocky fire, and an encroaching darkness. Was that voice just now…?

Rise, another member straggling behind, stopped and turned back to him. "Hmm? What's wrong, Yosuke-senpai?"

"Uh, nothing! Coming!" Whatever, he had no time to get second thoughts. He'd confront Sacchin before this was over.

<><><>

Moon Voidania, Eighth Stratum

The floor was different from all the others; a straight hallway that connected to a set of doors, which according to Rise was leading to a large open room with another hallway beyond it.

Suddenly a voice rang out. "-me? You think I'd buy that crap?! You're just another one of sis's tricks, that's all!"

"Wait, I heard something!" Teddie said.

"I think we all heard that, Ted," Kanji told him. "Definitely sounds like that fish-eyed bastard, though."

"And… it sounds like he's arguing with someone?" Chie asked aloud. They all heard mumbling, but it only managed to make Mitsuo angry as they got closer to the door.

"I AM a big deal! I… I killed that man! And I killed those dumb broads too! No one can prove that I didn't do it!"

Only when they finally got to the door and edged it open (harder than it sounds when the doors were 8-bit and clunky) did they hear the second voice. "…neither can you."

"Ghk! You… you shut up!"

Looking in through the opening, they saw some sort of roman-themed colosseum filled with piles of bones and skulls. They were littered in such a way that seemed to fill the edges of the arena with death and gloom. Standing in the center of the field were two Mitsuos, one of whom acting more agitated than the other.

"It really is him. Mitsuo Kubo, Sacchin's brother. Erm… stepbrother, I guess," Yosuke muttered.

"But, which one is the Shadow?" Yukiko asked. Both Mitsuos were wearing casual-day clothes (albeit stained with blood) and it was too far to see which one had gold eyes. This was unusual from prior cases.

It only took a moment for Shirou to deduce. "That one," he pointed.

Chie looked between Shirou and the supposed Shadow dubiously. "Him? But he's just standing there letting the other one yell at him."

"He's the one with the aura and hint of prana," Shirou assured. "And if I had to guess, the real Mitsuo is acting up because he doesn't accept the fact that he's normally so passive."

"I agree with Shirou-sensei," Teddie commented. "My nose is picking up the same vibe from Mitsy."

Mitsuo Kubo was unaware of his new audience. His sole focus was staring at the annoying look-alike with anger and panted breaths. He screamed his lungs out, kicked him, did anything to get the faker to react, but he just kept looking depressed and miserable.

And it infuriated him. Only reason he kept humoring this was because his sister told him to. She never steered him wrong. But even so…

"Why my sister tells me to be nice to you is beyond me!" he yelled. "You never even showed up until recently! What makes you think you know so much about her, huh?"

The other Mitsuo frowned, barely keeping eye contact as he muttered an answer. "I know nothing."

"HA!" Mitsuo cheered, a manic smile growing on his lips. "You admit it! You know nothing about my sister!"

"Neither do you."

"Of course I friggin' do! I'm her brother and she loves me!"

"Think about it. What is her birthday? How old is she? What is her favorite snack? What color are her eyes?"

Mitsuo's bravado evaporated with each question uttered. He felt he should know these, they were simple observations, but his mind came to a blank.

"Deep down, I know she's not real. But I accept her wholeheartedly because she makes me feel special. Without her, I'm simply… nothing."

"Don't talk like you know her! I'M her brother! Not you! And… and I'm not so helpless to rely on her all the time!"

"Then where the hell is she, you scumbag?"

Mitsuo blanched and turned. He nearly stammered upon seeing Kanji Tatsumi stomp over to him, followed by a group of other students and the bear-man. "Wh-what the hell are you guys doing here?!"

"You killed our teacher, our senpai, and even Ms. Yamano," Yosuke sneered. "Did you really think you could hide forever from the consequences?"

"I… I did that," he said, almost questioningly. Then he giggled, and eventually erupted into laughter. "Ahahahahahaha! Yes, yes it was me! I did it! I'm behind everything, hehe! I'm the one who killed those wastes of society!"

The Investigation Team bristled in anger. They were staring at a young man who had no qualms about the lives of others, and claimed to have killed three people.

Shirou wasn't convinced though. He turned to the other Mitsuo, a clearly subdued Shadow, and asked him directly. "Did you really?"

"Of course I did!" Mitsuo yelled. "Weren't you listening?!"

"Just one…" the Shadow said.

"The teacher, right?" Shirou asked. "King Moron?" The Shadow nodded.

"And those two broads too!" Mitsuo insisted. He glared at the red-haired man but the bastard wasn't even looking at him. "Stop ignoring me, dammit!"

Shirou figured it was the case. Mitsuo may not have helped his sister kill Saki and the announcer, but he played a role in Morooka's death, just as Taiga said. He didn't look like he had been turned into a ghoul, much less awakened. He turned to the real Mitsuo briefly, and saw he was still human.

One that was also agitated and likely to refuse giving a straight answer. He glanced back to the Shadow. "Why did you do it?"

"Because I could! I have the power to do anything I want now, like getting rid of bastards like him!" Mitsuo yelled indignantly. He made a show to stomp over and grab Shirou's shirt, forcing him to glance his way. He did so, unwillingly and with a glare. Looking down on him like everyone else. "Why the hell do you care anyway? He was just a stupid shitty teacher!"

"He was my teacher!" Shirou snapped back. "And no one deserves to be murdered!"

The intensity alone caused Mitsuo to let go and fall to the ground. Perhaps it was the tension and pressure of hiding in this weird castle for so long, but he never felt so weak before. And he was weak all his life.

"I didn't mean to."

The Shadow's somber confession shook everyone in the room. They turned to see him frowning deeper than before, and eyes glistening with regret. "I just wanted attention. To be noticed. I only meant to scare him a bit, get some justice. I never meant to kill him."

"...the hell's going on?" Kanji asked aloud. He never expected the same boy trying to instigate a fight out of him to be this pathetic. Even his own Shadow had some semblance of confidence under the pain.

But this Shadow Mitsuo was just a wallflower. Hunched over, trembling, fearful. He didn't even look different or exaggerated like the others. Shadow Teddie's words from the other day came to mind; although a Shadow takes the repressed desires to reality, they were also from its true form and reflect that. Shadow Mitsuo wearing the same orange shirt and jeans was evident that he had either basic desires, or none at all.

"I didn't mean to do it," the Shadow said again, tears now falling from his eyes. "All I ever wanted was to be a hero." Shirou gasped. "I'd even settle for an anti-hero like she suggested, but she convinced me to kill. Whispered sweet nothings about how to do it, and she'd keep me safe."

She told him? Suddenly Mitsuo felt a spike of anger towards this poser, some stupid pathetic crybaby. How dare he. How dare he mention his sister! "S-Shut up!"

"No one notices me. No one sees me. I'm just an obstacle, a tool. Even to her, my 'sister'. I am nothing…" He glanced up to the irate Mitsuo. "And I am him."

"The hell you are!" Mitsuo roared, shooting up to his feet. With their minds still reeling from the unexpected confession, no one had the presence of mind to stop what was about to happen. "You're nothing but some imposter pretending to take my sister away from me! You're so worthless she wouldn't waste a minute of her time coddling you when she has me! The only thing you're right about is that you're nothing! And I want nothing to do with you!" He then spat at the Shadow's face before throwing one final remark. "Now get out of my sight!"

The whole team stared at them in muted horror. As far as rejection rants went, this was probably the most verbally one-sided against the Shadow. What was even worse was that Shadow Mitsuo didn't seem to react. Not at first, anyway.

He simply glanced up, his sadness and melancholy now holding a semblance of tranquil fury. "So you don't accept me, either?"

Mitsuo wanted to spout yes, and that he'd kill him too if he didn't scurry away like the whipped dog he was. But he couldn't find his voice. Or his balance, for that matter. He crumbled back down to the ground, suddenly watching his other self transform in a torrential plume of smoke, revealing the equivalent of a floating, genitalia-less baby with a ring of symbols orbiting its large forehead.

At this point Shirou grimaced and resigned himself to the inevitable. "Well, here we go again."

 

[Kishou the Badger]

Chapter 48: Hero

<><><>

Before the team could gather their bearings, Shadow Mitsuo surrounded itself in a casing of hard light. As it solidified and became defined, the image of a giant 3D retro-themed warrior with a helmet, cape and sash, and sword appeared. The warrior was moving in place in two fixed frames. It rivaled the size of the Steel Machine Shadow and was no less a geek's dream realized.

"GAAAAH! He's all cubed up!" Teddie cried out comically.

"But didn't he just transform already?" Chie wondered. "What's that even supposed to be anyway?"

"Is that supposed to be a game character?" Yosuke asked. "Looks like something straight from 3D Dot Game Heroes."

"I am a shadow," a voice droned evenly, coming from the warrior. "I will bring everything into nothingness."

"Tch, and here I was hoping for an easy fight with the mutant space baby," Kanji growled. "Guess I'll make do with blocky here."

"Wait, Kanji!"

He didn't heed Shirou's warning, as he swung his wet floor sign at his Persona card. "Kill Rush 'em, T-M!"

The thunder god Persona flashed to life and swung his bolt-blade down in rapid succession. Blocks were pushed and struck, revealing the true Shadow from inside the shell. But only for a second before it reformed, whole again.

"That hurt," said Shadow Mitsuo, before adding mockingly, "My feelings."

"Your whole face will be hurting when I'm-!" Kanji froze mid-rant as a red light encased his body.

"Kanji-kun!" Yukiko cried and rushed to his side. "He doesn't look hurt, so maybe… Amrita!"

Konohana-Sakuya was summoned, dancing her floral wreath overhead as a sparkling shower of lights poured over Kanji. Amrita was a restorative spell learned after grueling days of training with Fujimura-sensei, capable of cleansing ailments like she hoped Kanji was under.

Except the Amrita did nothing to restore movement. "This cannot be!"

"Your waste of a turn is over, Yuki-chan."

And sure enough, she was trapped in a red glow as well.

"Dammit!" Chie snarled, half ready to charge at the shadow before Shirou stopped her.

"Hold on, we can't rush this. Let's wait until he makes a move first."

Reluctantly, they waited. They waited tensely, expecting something to happen as it stared them down with those black blocky "eyes". But as the seconds ticked by, nobody moved. Only the Shadow's 8-bit frame cycle as if it were a stoplight.

Between the fear of being frozen or waiting for some attack to happen, the Investigation Team fighters were growing worried. Yosuke turned and whispered to Rise. "So, uh… are those two, you know, okay?"

"I don't know," she whispered back. "They seem to be more in suspended animation than anything else. That's why Yukiko-senpai's spell didn't help Kanji. He was perfectly fine already. I don't even think the Shadow here had anything to do with them."

"Then why isn't he doing anything now?"

"Because it's not my turn yet."

The team was taken aback by the Shadow's casual answer, as well as the implications of it. "Uh… what?"

"Kanji used his turn to attack me. Yukiko-chan used hers to heal him. Their turns are done, so they are waiting until everyone else moves. Once all you fighters are done moving, I'll go, and then you can move too."

"Turns?!" Chie spat. "What do you think this is, some kind of game?!"

"Life is always a game."

"So if I understand this right," Shirou started slowly. "You won't do anything until we all make turn actions?"

"Correct," said Shadow Mitsuo.

"And you will just stand there while we talk and strategize?" he asked again.

"Talking is free action."

Teddie hummed. "In that case… HUDDLE!"

The remaining five members of the Investigation Team circled together in a group hug, leaning their heads in as close as possible.

"We're in a very unique situation right now," Shirou started. "The enforced rules might be a power by the Shadow's hero form and this world we're in."

"Not that other Shadows had their own gimmicks, but this one still feels scummy as hell," Chie complained.

"If our positions just freeze in place where we are, we might be better off spreading out so he can't hit us all in one shot," Rise reminded.

"But not being together is just as dangerous with Kanji and Yuki-chan stuck like that," Teddie reminded.

"It would be too much to assume that if we all attacked now, he'd go down," Yosuke told them. "He's confident enough to wait, after all."

"So that gives us time to prepare," Shirou said. "We all have buffing spells, so let's use them."

"Which ones?" Chie asked.

"All of them. Tarukaja for offense, Rakukaja for defense, Sukukaja for speed. After that, I'll switch to my other Personas and use whatever debuffs I have."

"A super-charged Persona battering ram? That's brilliant, Shirou-sensei!"

"Yeah, it gets my vote too, but which one gets the 'Heat Riser' treatment? We can only boost one of us at a time, and even without 'Mitsy' here playing rules lawyer, it would be a waste of time just doing the same for all of us."

"I volunteer," Chie grinned viciously. "I really want to break my boots over that bastard's face."

Shirou considered it, as she was their strongest fighter, and for a time the only one. But they had options now. "Maybe later, but I'd rather we boost Kanji first."

The others looked baffled but waited to hear his reason. "Right now we have to assume we're the only ones that know the rules of this fight. Knowing Kanji and his fighting style, he'd likely keep attacking whenever he can, so making sure he's as powered up as possible would be the best idea. He can cover for Amagi as well, who is a sitting duck out there next to him."

"So, we focus on Kanji first? Sounds good to me," Yosuke said.

"But I get the next round of buffs after him!" Chie insisted.

"Fair enough. Ready?"

"We're always ready, senpai. And—"

"BREAK!"

At Teddie's cue, the team took battle positions; Rise retreated a little further away by a bone pile while Shirou and his teammates formed a line in front of Shadow Mitsuo. As one, they summoned their Personas and invoked their attacks.

"Tarukaja!"

"Sukukaja!"

"Rakukaja!"

"Rakunda!"

Three flashes of kaleidoscopic light enveloped Kanji, while a dull purple dimmed over the Shadow. Like before, the Persona users were stuck in suspended animation, with only Rise and Tama aware of what was about to happen next.

"My turn."

Before their eyes, after the usual growling glow of Shadow artes, a menu screen popped up with three action commands. ATTACK. SPELL. ITEM. ATTACK was selected, and a cursor floated over Kanji. The Shadow swung his sword… very rigidly giving the 8-bit nature, but it still caused a hefty blow on the delinquent that his frozen body was knocked over.

"Critical hit. One more."

"Hey, that's cheating!" Rise cried out.

The Shadow ignored her, picking through its menu again. This time he selected ITEM, and pulled out a blocky bomb item over Yukiko. Seconds later, it detonated and singed through her hair and clothes.

"Turn over."

The red lights surrounding the team faded, but the damage on both Kanji and Yukiko cascaded over them in grunts of pain. Chie called out first, "Yukiko! Are you okay?!"

"I-I think so," she groaned, nursing her arm.

"Hold on, Yuki-chan! Rakukaja!"

Kintoki-Douji's defense buff now shrouded Yukiko as a spirit shield. The act of support left the bear's turn over, and was refrozen as quickly as he had gotten out. She hardly noticed as she moved away to keep the distance between herself and the Shadow.

Meanwhile, Kanji pushed himself up and stared the Shadow down with anger. "Oh, you're gonna pay for that, dammit!"

"Kanji, be careful! He's—"

"Yeah Rise, I know. Suspension animation. I was able to hear and see all that. And thanks for the boost, senpais!"

One could see Rise's popped blood vessel in orbit from how she screeched. "That's suspended animation, you Moronji!"

"Hey, you can correct me after we're done kicking this guy's ass!"

Despite herself, Chie laughed at their antics. She turned to express her gratitude for the bear's assistance, knowing he could see and hear what she was about to say. "Thanks, Teddie."

Kanji made another haymaker of an attack, boosted from the support of his teammates, as the others helped prep Chie. Before long, their turns were over, and Shadow Mitsuo began to move (as limited as an 8-bit character model could anyway).

He attacked with his sword, able to hit Yosuke despite the distance between them. "Critical Hit. One more." He followed up with a similar sword strike at Shirou.

"Again?" Rise frowned. One critical hit at the opening move was uncanny, but two in a row was ridiculous.

The battle was going through a sort of pattern now. Yukiko was on full healing duty as Chie and Kanji threw their hardest attacks at the shell. Shirou and Yosuke alternated on support and healing, and then Shadow Mitsuo would strike twice. Every time.

Every first hit was a sure strike on knocking someone off balance before following up with another swing. Perhaps it was because of his subdued personality, but the Shadow stood in place while retaliating. Sometimes he'd even wait and painstakingly choose which option to do.

After all, the urgency to hit it hard and true pushed them to make every action count. The Investigation Team consistently grouped up to choose a plan and then followed it through. For the most part, things were going well as the team prepared for their next round.

But was this really working? Shadow Mitsuo was still standing in his "Hero" shell and kept exploiting critical hits, so the turn count was in his favor. Rise had been in the idol business long enough to know what was a con (or at least have her peers in the industry tell her about them) and this whole turn setup felt like one.

Right now, Himiko was summoned and surveying the whole fight. The shell continued to rack up damage, but also steadily recovered as the team was forced to wait between attacks. And of course, the Shadow inside was protected and—

Wait, did a blip of prana go off? But it wasn't Mitsuo's turn yet!

Rise debated telling the others this. She almost called them out, but then thought of the implications of this battle. It was like a gimmicky trap, not unlike that room loop Shadow Teddie set up. The others couldn't do more than attack the shell in front of them because of the idea that doing so would eventually work. They were bound by the turn rules.

Except her, as she was just the clairvoyant support.

She slipped away from her Persona's range and sneaked around back. Right now, everyone was focused on the battle, and Himiko's presence gave them the idea that she was watching them. She could see through Himiko's shared vision, but she wasn't as hardy as the others. One sword strike or bomb could do her in.

Finally, as she neared the back of the giant Shadow, she saw it. A round opening of flickering pixels near the base of the feet, with Shadow Mitsuo's true form. It was constantly expelling a red smog that was a telltale sign of Shadows using prana, but it didn't seem to require concentration.

Then she saw the shell ripple in conjunction with Tomoe's glaive strike. It was only for an instant, but the shell rotated so the damage would overlap to where the opening was, while seemingly coming out unscathed. It was constantly healing and parrying while the team attacked it, seemingly waiting before retaliating.

He had a perfect defense ruse while free to attack in safety, and it was only because the bastard was cheating!

She picked up a long blocky femur from the floor (hesitating only slightly from how gross this was gonna be), hefted it over her shoulder, and leaped forward.

Crack! The pixelated thigh bone struck through the opening of the Hero, and had struck a sickening strike at the Shadow's head. Its cry of pain caused the whole shell to stutter and glitch, not unlike their Personas from a grueling critical hit. And she definitely impacted a sweet spot.

The Shadow noticed her and glowered at her, trying to pry the bone away from him. "You… cheater!"

"You would know, Mr. 'Talking is free action'!" she quipped, pushing harder on her weapon. She wasn't strong, but neither was the Shadow's true form, so she just needed to hold him steady until the others noticed.

…or in a grimmer alternative, until the Hero shell, partially erased, started to pick a battle action to use against her.

This time the option hovered on SPELL, and selected GIGADYNE. Suddenly the arena's monochromic sky was covered by blocky clouds and thick white lightning moved jaggedly down towards her.

If this is anything like Dragon Quest, she thought, this is probably gonna hurt.

Rise closed her eyes and waited for the inevitable, either too scared or stubborn to let go and run. A crash of thunder echoed like in old retro games, a sound effect to a loud raspberry up close to a microphone and blaring out a loud speaker. But there was no pain or numbness.

Did it miss?

Slowly, she opened her eyes and was surprised to see Izanagi hovering over her. He held his weapon aloft like a wizard's staff and channeled the Gigadyne through the blade like a lightning rod. The lightning still frayed his body in rippling sparks, but he successfully buffered the worst of the attack and kept her out of harm's way.

"Senpai!" Rise cried, equal parts amazed, glad, and dismayed by his aid. Shirou's Persona looked over his shoulder to gaze down on her, and she could feel his scrutinizing gaze through those eyes. A moment later, Shirou's hand clasped over her shoulder as he forcibly pried her away to safety.

"We'll talk about your little stunt later," he admonished simply. It was meant to be a lecture, but she swore she heard a ghost of a smile from his lips. Not unlike their little one-on-one sparring sessions leading up to this.

"Right," she nodded and smiled. She figured it was worth getting an earful from the team leader.

Meanwhile, Shadow Mitsuo was getting meticulously ganged up on and beaten down by the rest of the team, now having no restrictions from turn cooldowns. The Shadow cried helplessly, cradling his head in a feeble position with as much psychic force it could muster to protect himself. But the righteous fury of the team knew no bounds, and they dared not to let him get a second wind. The cries were drowned out by either the whipping gales, the blazing fire, or the screams of the users with each blow.

They were pragmatic, ruthless, and prepared. After many close calls with their own Shadows, they refused to give Mitsuo's another chance, especially when it altered the stakes against them to begin with.

And so… the fight was over. Mitsuo's Shadow, unable to handle the stress and pain, simply caved and regressed to human form.

The Team was on guard, staring at the Shadow with trepidation. Adrenaline left their bodies as the reality of their victory sunk in, even though they couldn't believe the fight would be so quickly one-sided.

"Serves ya right!" Kanji yelled as he flexed his free arm.

Exhaling a sigh of relief, Shirou (with a supporting shoulder by Rise) limped over to where the real Mitsuo laid. The danger was over, but there was the matter of what to do with him now as the others gathered around him.

"Let's get him out of here," he said.

"Whoa, hold on," Yosuke said. "Why should we help this guy? He admitted to killing Saki-senpai and the others!"

"He's only guilty for killing Morooka-sensei. Anything else was just bluster."

"Just because you asked his Shadow? For all we know, he was just lying to get a rise out of him."

"Yeah, but his Shadow seemed kind of regretful, didn't it?" Yukiko offered. "That at least felt genuine."

"So, we should just let him accept his other self?" Kanji asked, glancing between the two Mitsuo's with a skeptical frown. "Cuz somehow I don't think it'll go like the rest of us."

"His Shadow is docile now and won't agitate the others," Teddie explained. "But it's still up to the person to actually make peace with it to create the Persona."

"Then we can just leave it," Shirou reasoned, to which the bear nodded. "We came here to stop one of the siblings, and we did just that."

"Not that we want this sicko in our ranks anyway," Rise vehemently added. It was a unanimous decision no one needed to say, given how his delusion from what they saw in the castle told them how demeaning of a person he was.

"Can't we just… I don't know. Leave him?"

Yukiko gasped. "Chie!"

"Just a thought!" Honestly, Chie felt dirty even suggesting the idea, but she detested the boy ever since he tried to make a move on Yukiko. He looked slimy, he acted weird, and all his Shadow did was feel sorry for himself. She felt tempted to just let the very world that killed others do the same to him as others, if only for some sense of justice.

Shirou shook his head, resolute. "It's not our place to play judge, jury or executioner. That's for the police to decide."

"Oh," Chie said, relieved. "You were planning on turning him over, huh?"

"That was the intention, yes."

Yosuke and Kanji exchanged glances before nodding. As one, they knelt down and draped Mitsuo over each of their shoulders to carry. "If that's your plan, senpai, then I'm behind it all the way," Kanji assured.

"Yeah, same," Yosuke said. "I mean, bad blood aside, I wouldn't want to mess with anyone close to—"

"Oh, this won't do Mitsy. Won't do at all."

The gang flinched and turned around. Standing before them, further ahead from the downed Shadow, was a pale-skinned, auburn-haired girl in what appeared to be clergy robes. A red outer chasuble, a black inner alb cut by her knees, and an amice with an inverted cross symbol. Aside from her twisted choice of clothing, what struck the attention of everyone was her blood-red eyes.

"GAAAAH!" Teddie screamed. "It's her again!"

"Satsuki Kubo," Shirou whispered. "No… Satsuki Yumizuka."

The prana signature was overwhelming, causing Shirou's senses to scream as if hearing a deafening wail. It was different from the other powerful Shadows up to this point in that they didn't trigger such a flight or fight response until after they transformed, and nowhere close to this level.

This thing wasn't Satsuki's Shadow. It was something far worse.

"Sacchin?" Yosuke asked. He couldn't help but plead for some hope. "Is that really you?"

She ignored him at first, walking towards them with each deliberate step accompanied by the clicking of heels. Shirou and Chie moved in position towards her, guarding Kanji and Yosuke from her advance. The others also huddled close, anticipating the worst. She stopped just in front of them, her expression still blank.

They were floored when she just smiled at them.

"Good to see you guys again. Yosuke-kun, Teddie Bear, Shirou-san, Tatsumi-chan, and all your friends." She greeted them cordially with a nod to each named person, and then ended with a curtsy. She held no hostility towards them, but still they remained wary. Sensing this, her next words were less polite.

"I would like my brother back. Hand him over."

The effect was immediate; Yosuke and Kanji stiffened, eased their grip on Mitsuo, and even moved his arms out from over their shoulders. Everyone else either froze or moved aside so Satsuki could march through. Shirou barely was aware of his surroundings, but couldn't move, much less breathe, as the smug vampire carried Mitsuo away in her arms.

Like a switch, the pressure was suddenly gone and then everyone collapsed to the ground in exhaustion. "Wh-what the hell was that?!" Kanji yelled.

"Mystic Eyes of Enchantment," Shirou said dimly. "That's a vampire's hypnotism at work."

Yukiko strained to look up at the retreating Sacchin. "That was a vampire's hypnosis?"

She stopped short of the Shadow on the ground before letting Mitsuo down next to it. He finally stirred and saw her smiling face. "S-Sis?"

"I'm here, Mitsy, and everything is gonna be fine."

Mitsuo smiled, feeling the ease of his burden lighten and his mind clearing. His sister was here for him. His sister. No one else.

"All you have to do is talk to your Shadow here one last time. Then everything will be clear." She pointed to the lookalike, who was now staring between him and her, frowning.

"What is she doing now?" Teddie wondered.

"His words might have hurt you before, but you can overcome them, and be stronger for that. As long as you have me, things will work out, right?" Why was she saying things like that?

"Wait, does she know about how Personas work?!" Chie asked worriedly. But she couldn't have, unless she saw the fight with Shadow Teddie.

"Shit, we have to stop them!" Shirou said. He and the others hurried to stand and run-

Until Sacchin snapped her glaring gaze at them. "You stay out of this."

Again, the power of her command stopped them in place. Shadow Mitsuo's turn enforcement from the fight before simply couldn't compare. Was her hypnotism really so strong before? Or was the world around them empowering her somehow?

Satisfied, she then turned and smiled encouragingly to her "brother". "Go on, Mitsy."

Mitsuo, after staring at her mystified for a moment, chuckled; it was a raspy, painful sound, but it felt like sweet victory. He pushed himself up to stand over the fake, and grinned. "It's just like I told you, isn't it?"

The Shadow shook his head. "Don't do this," he pleaded. To Shirou's ears, it sounded more concerned for the real Mitsuo than himself right now. "You know this isn't right."

"Shut up!" Mitsuo yelled. "I… I hate you! You're just a waste of space, and you tried to take my sister away from me! I don't need a worthless nobody like you when I have her to prop me up! I'm the killer! I'm the one the police are after! I did all that without you!"

Again, the room was filled with a tense silence following his bluster. Even Sacchin was taken aback, as she never expected this side of him before.

Shadow Mitsuo, who was already weak and close to fading, suddenly flared up in darkness and popped, leaving not a trace left. Sacchin gasped and stared at where he once stood, disbelieving.

"Where did it go?" Rise asked, alarmed.

Yukiko gulped. "Did it just… die?"

Mitsuo giggled, a sudden euphoric feeling of adrenaline filling him. "He's gone! He's gone, he's finally gone! Take that you son of a… bitch…" Midway in his gloating, he collapsed down to one knee.

"H-Hey!" Kanji called out. He would have rushed over and helped the guy up, bastard or not, if it weren't for Sacchin's command still rooting him in place.

Speaking of Sacchin, Shirou was worried what her reaction might be. Her body language was rigid, and for a moment he swore he could see her fist clench. He couldn't tell what she was thinking right now, but that might be the norm for vampires. They lack the senses that helped define humanity.

Then she spoke. "You blew it, Mitsy."

There was no warmth in her words. She didn't even look at him, staring still at the spot his Shadow once occupied. Mitsuo, delirious enough to think he misheard her speak so coldly, turned to her in confusion. "Huh?"

"You could have done it. You could have gained the power to make yourself a hero like you always wanted. But instead, you were a coward. You failed to accept your Shadow, doubling down on repressing it until it was gone."

"W-What are… you saying, sis?"

"I told you, didn't I? I told you to accept it and try to work things though, but you messed things up. You messed up in a way I didn't think was possible, actually. You've effectively committed suicide through ego death. I'm both amazed and dumbfounded that you could do that." Sacchin frowned and scratched the side of her head. "But I guess I laid it on too thick with the suggestions. Didn't think you'd get so attached to me that you'd be jealous of your own psyche."

"Ego… suggestions? Sis, I-I don't understand."

"And you wouldn't understand even if I told you. You never were a bright kid to begin with." She shrugged casually, even though Mitsuo stared at her in shocked betrayal for being insulted. It went away as she reached over and hugged him. "Ah well, I guess I'll make do with your blood. Goodbye, Mitsy."

Before Mitsuo could even think, he felt his neck punctured from sharp incisors digging in, and felt his blood run dry.

He was already struggling to think since the Shadow went away, but now it was becoming harder with each passing second until… he ceased to be.

<><><>

From the sidelines, the Investigation Team stared at horror upon seeing firsthand a vampire's daily meal. Mitsuo Kubo was hardly a pleasant person wanting to hurt others, but he was ultimately a lonely boy who was roped into a crime. Shirou felt in some way that he could have ended up like him had he not met his friends in Inaba, or even had the support of Kiritsugu, Taiga, and the others in Fuyuki.

So, it was so frustrating and nauseating to see his body drained of color and into her mouth as if he were a kid's juice pouch. Even though the pressure from her command geis had faded, they were still rooted down from another pressure altogether: fear.

After a long agonizing minute that felt like an eternity, she dropped the corpse. She licked her lips and wiped her mouth off with the back of her hand, and even let out a small belch from her feeding. She turned to the team staring at her with equal looks of contempt and dismay.

Sacchin blinked. "What? Is there still blood on my face?"

"How could you…?" Yukiko choked with a sob.

"How dare you!" Kanji yelled. "He was your brother and accomplice! And all you have to say for yourself is 'is there blood on my face'?!"

"I just decided to cut my losses," she explained. "He was no use to me without a Persona, and he would just rot in a jail cell to die with a mental shutdown. No one will miss him."

"'No one would-?!' Yosuke echoed in audacity. "He was your brother, Sacchin! And he still has parents!"

Sacchin tilted her head to the side. "I thought you guys would have figured this out by now, given how Shirou-san here called me by my real surname. I ate and disposed of his parents weeks ago. Mitsy just bought the excuse that they were out on a honeymoon and that I was his sister visiting from college."

Again looks of indignant rage filled the team, leaving the vampire somewhat miffed. "What? A girl's gotta drink to survive, you know. If anything, you guys should be relieved that he's with his family in the afterlife."

"How many, Yumizuka?" Shirou growled with a hardened glare. "How many people have you killed?"

"How many slices of bread have you eaten in your lifetime?" she asked. The team flinched, aghast and furious at such an analogy, but Yosuke was especially livid. Sacchin grinned. "Come on, I know you got the reference!"

"That hardly applies here!" he snapped. Yosuke then sobbed, fighting back tears. She was so jovial and friendly like before, but without an ounce of empathy due to being a monster. Was this really his girlfriend he had dated for the last month?

She turned around and walked off. Chie called out, "Wait a minute! Where the hell are you going?"

"To the end of the Palace, of course," she said. "It'd be no fun to beat you up here and now, so I'm giving you a chance to lick your wounds. And grieve, apparently, since you're hung up on that."

"What do you think this is, a game?" Rise yelled.

"Uh, yeah? This whole Palace is themed around a JRPG and a Metroidvania. Did you guys not climb the last eight stratums?"

She waited a moment longer, waiting for anyone else to question her or dare fight her now. When no one spoke or moved, she marched away again. Her clicking heels were the only thing remaining as she left the stage, before those faded too.

The tension was gone, and everyone collapsed into near mental hysterics. Rise and Yukiko puked. Yosuke hid his face in his hands as he cried. Chie fell down to her hands and knees, pounding the floor while yelling "dammit" over and over again. Kanji let all his rage out in a punch towards a part of the wall. Teddie hugged and petted Tama for some need of comfort that the fox allowed.

Only Shirou kept a vigilant sound of mind from that encounter, but he didn't blame his teammates for their reactions. Mitsuo wasn't a good person. Probably not a pleasant person at all. But they rescued him. Had rescued him.

Only for his life to be literally plucked out of their hands.

Some hero he turned out to be.

"Amagi," he said softly. "I know it's hard, but if you could help me…"

She followed his gaze to Mitsuo's corpse, recognition dawning. "O-Okay…"

After a cremation ceremony from Konohana Sakuya, the team left for home without a word.

 

[Kishou the Badger]

Chapter 49: Wayward

July 25th, Yasogami High School, Classroom 2-A, Final period

There was a scare on the morning news when a fourth body was found on the telephone poles, aligning with the strange causes of the first two. And happening so soon after the third made people panic and gossip that the Inaba Murderer was active again.

It didn't surprise Shirou. Not when he thought about it, or when Teddie told the others over Yosuke's cellphone that morning. They may have burned his body, but Yamano and Saki were supposedly brutally killed by their Shadows as well, only to return without signs of damage. He claimed the world of unconsciousness blended mental realities so well that any damage done to them was more to their psyche than their bodies or clothes.

That would explain, in hindsight, why their uniforms were never damaged on return trips even if they were bleeding internally.

Not that it mattered. The Investigation Team (sans the animals) attended school as normal. Shirou's mind was barely aware of class, and he didn't care that the teachers reprimanded him. Recovering from exams was the excuse Chie provided for him, as well as the others when asked.

They still couldn't get that battle off their minds. Ready to bring Mitsuo back home, and whatever awaited him back in the real world. An arrest, charged for at least one murder and supposed claim on the other two, no friends or family to watch over him after his sentence…

Shirou didn't want to admit it, but perhaps Satsuki killing him as she did might have been a mercy for all involved. He didn't have the maturity to realize deep down he was living a lie with his "sister" and denied the cold reality that he needed to change. He refused to change and was murdered for that. Shirou didn't know what to think about all that.

In fact… he didn't know what to think at all.

He knew he should feel something, but there was a numbness that couldn't be ignored, and a pit in his stomach that felt heavy. Was he sad that Mitsuo was dead? Or angry? Was it even related to Mitsuo dying? Did he hate or pity Satsuki as a vampire? Did it matter that she had been Yosuke's girlfriend?

Maybe he knew the real answer. Maybe he didn't. All he knew for sure was he didn't like this feeling. This crushing defeat over what should have been a simple scouting battle. To apprehend one of the two siblings, and it was on his head that the team had failed.

What kind of hero fails to save people?

When the final bell rang, Shirou barely acknowledged it until hearing some of the students gossiping as soon as Kashiwagi left.

"So, did you find out who the fourth victim this morning was?"

"I think it was that cram school guy. You know, the one who stalked the front gate back in Spring?"

"Oh yeah. I heard he complained a lot about everything. Work, studies, even the murders. Surprised a guy as weird as him had a hot sister."

"He had a sister?"

"Yeah, college age. And an accomplice at that."

"Guess that makes her luckier than the late Konishi, huh?"

SLAM!!

The gossip stopped as a resounding echo of two pairs of hands slamming on their desks snapped everyone to the center of the room. Yosuke and Shirou, by coincidence or sheer happenstance, acted in unison that garnered more attention than had just one of them acted out. They gazed at the group of three gossiping students.

Their reactions couldn't be any more different. Yosuke's scowl was barely biting down a roaring retort through his teeth, and Shirou just had a blank, if disappointed, stare pointed at them.

Almost right away, the gossipers sweated nervously as they sheepishly packed their things and left the room. Other students in the classroom also took the opportunity to quickly leave until only the four second-year members of the Investigation Team were left.

"Guys," Chie started, but failed to voice a question. It wasn't like she could ask "Are you okay?" None of them were okay, especially not after their defeat.

"Maybe we should head to our secret headquarters?" Yukiko said. Not that there was anyone here to listen in on them now, but any part of Junes would be a welcome change of scenery.

"Not today," Shirou said. "I'm – we're not ready."

As the others were mulling over his words, Shirou grabbed his bag and started to leave the room. Yosuke seemed to agree, swinging his bag over his shoulder as he walked out as well.

Chie managed to bolt up from her desk and grab both their gakuen jacket hems before they left in different directions. "Don't either of you pull that lone warrior crap! We're all hurting too, and need to stick together!"

"What's the point?" Yosuke groaned. His gaze was down to the floor, tired and dismayed. "We found out who the culprit is, but she's way out of our league. We can't fight someone who can stop us with a look and a command."

"Listen to yourself! You're the one who wanted to find out about what happened to Saki-senpai and the others. Now you're giving up because your girlfriend is the killer?"

"Better than rushing to my death by giving her a Type A Blood buffet."

"You-!"

"Enough." Shirou cut their argument short, though his tone was still as subdued as before. "Satonaka, I'm sorry. You're right that we can't let this mystery end like this. But as I've said before, we're not ready. None of us are, and we won't be until this…" he stopped, failing to find the right words.

"Soul-crushing taste of defeat?" Yosuke offered.

"-gets resolved, yes."

Chie looked between the two, aghast. Neither of them bothered to look back at her when she grabbed their jackets. She understood Yosuke being all broken-up about his girlfriend, but she thought Shirou would be more stoic and resilient. They were the two leaders that formed the Investigation Team after all.

She felt miserable too, and thought that as long as they were together, she could bounce back. Instead, she found her resolve slip, allowing the two boys to pull away from her trembling hands.

"Chie," Yukiko called to her, long after both boys were gone. "It's okay. Let's just give them time to adjust."

"B-But we don't have that kind of time!" Chie argued.

"Maybe we do," Yukiko said. "Right now Satsuki is waiting at the end of her… 'palace', and the weather forecast said it wasn't going to rain until later this week. If there was a time for her to do something, it would be when the fog lifts over there."

"'When the fog lifts.' Jeez, you're starting to sound like Teddie."

"'Why, all the better to sniff the topsicles out, Chie-chan!'"

Chie turned to her friend in bewilderment. If the horrible accent didn't give her pause, her friend's goofy smile and hand-knocking-head gesture did.

"Hahahaha!" she laughed at how ridiculous she looked. And Yukiko giggled as well, as opposed to her usual guffaws of laughter.

They calmed down and started to climb down the floor stairs, otherwise other after-school students would give them odd looks. "Feeling better?"

"A little," Chie admitted. "But don't do that creepy voice again."

Yukiko pouted. "Aww, but I was hoping my range was getting better."

"Range?" Chie asked, before realizing what her friend was referring to. "Oh, right, you're in the drama club. By the way, how's that going for you?"

"Pretty well. Ozawa-san has given me some helpful pointers in expressing through action. It's fun being able to pretend someone I'm not for once."

"At least you're having fun with after-school stuff. I'm stuck with a bunch of uninspired athletes, a dummy who keeps half-assing practice, and another dummy thinking about quitting basketball."

"Basketball? I thought you were the manager for the soccer team."

"I am, but Kou-kun was feeling super down about his family name and… gah, I don't know why he told me about it."

"It sounds like Ichijou-kun trusts you."

"Yeah, but isn't that the kind of otome stuff you tell a girl you like? He's clearly more into you than me."

Yukiko blinked. "I… never got a weird vibe from Ichijou-kun, though."

"So he's better at being polite than your other suitors. Just makes the fact he keeps putting off telling you how he feels even more infuriating!"

The two girls continued to gossip as they headed home. The good thing about today was that summer vacation was on the horizon, and they had all the time in the world to get over the drama of their team before the drama of school life.

<><><>

After School, Tatsuhime Shrine

"I'm starting to think you needed this field trip more than me, Four."

"Sorry. I thought you'd appreciate getting out of the Velvet Room, but I couldn't fool you with my mood, huh?"

"Your surliness is so bad it could be seen from space."

Ouch. But that's what he got for dragging Marie out here.

Shirou knew he needed to get his mind off of yesterday, but he found himself reluctant to do so. He had already blown off three of his friends and was not motivated to see the other team members. Going home early meant dealing with Nanako and Doji-nii with his lackluster lying skills. And he doubted he could keep his emotions in check working either, so MOEL was out.

He knew he needed to check up on Fuji-nee too. Perhaps even needed to. But not right now.

Which, by process of elimination, led him to take Marie on another tour of the town, and possibly find out about her origins.

She took an instant liking to the Tatsuhime Shrine, sitting by the offering step as she "sketched" the scenery. Well, she was half doing that, and half writing up another poem as she mumbled the words to herself. To spare himself from her wrath, Shirou pretended not to hear her.

It just felt nice to sit and watch the beautiful view around him. The shrine was small but homely, fitting for Tama's retreat. And it was hard to ignore Tama herself when she sat and nestled against Shirou's leg, and even allowed him to pet her from head to lower back.

Perhaps Tama's sense of altruism for ema wishes was genuine after all, if she was so empathetic.

Well, after half an hour of sitting and relaxing, Shirou felt ready to proceed with what he intended to do. "Hey Marie."

"Hmm?"

"Can I see your comb again?"

Frowning but without hesitating, Marie dug into her knapsack and handed him the accessory. Or almost did, pulling back as he reached for it. "Don't do something mean like throwing it. This is my only link to myself."

"I'm hurt you would even think I'd do that," Shirou said.

"Unlike you, I actually pay attention to some of the snark that comes out of that mouth of yours."

Shirou's eyes fell to a deadpan glare. "I'm half-tempted to throw it now just to spite you."

Marie leaned away from him, pointing accusingly at him with her other hand. "See, that's the kind of stuff I'm talking about!"

"Do you want me to help you or not?"

Glowering, Marie relented and handed him the comb, albeit with more reluctance as she thought he would go through with his threat. Shirou didn't mind throwing smack talk every now and then, but he always kept his word when helping others.

Grasping it firmly in his hand, he decided to try to find its origins through magecraft. "Trace, on."

Structural analysis was a good first step, understanding how it was made. If there was a manufacturer, even a common one, they could trace the link to there (no pun intended).

The comb was simply otherworldly. It was ancient, made of something akin to high-quality bamboo, and yet had no sign of wear or tear. Even the design was abnormal as it wouldn't be used to fix hair or accessorize in a festival.

Most telling of all was the hint of prana from the teeth. It had been used once before. But who would use a comb as a mystic code, though?

Either way, he gleaned all that he could from the comb, and told Marie his findings.

"That's it?" she asked, hoping for more.

"That's all I could figure out, sadly," he told her. "If you want a more expert opinion, you could try Igor or Margaret back at the Velvet Room."

Marie angrily swiped her comb back from his hand. "You think I haven't asked them already?! They clearly know, but for some reason talk in riddles. The Nose was all 'you must find yourself on your own terms'. And I only know that because Maggie told me the same thing in fewer words."

Shirou winced. "Yeah, that sounds like them, all right."

"Honestly, they keep me cramped in that limo for my own good, and then expect me to figure out my own problems. Lousybignosedknowitallfreak."

Shirou chuckled but had to stop himself when Marie glared at him. She did look cute when mad, though it was better for both their sakes to calm her down. "I'll be sure to take you out of the room more often. Promise."

"You're already invested in solving my memory problem, but I won't say no to more trips," she said passively. She tried (but failed) to hide her satisfaction as she wrote more poem lines.

Then she stopped. "That… reminds me."

"Hmm?" Shirou turned to Marie. It was unlike her to be suddenly so pensive.

"Maggie told me that you had memory problems from your past, too. How it was tied to your black card." Oh. He'd almost forgotten about Kagutsuchi.

Marie turned to him with a sad frown. "How does not having an idea of your past not bother you? Don't you want to know more about yourself before all this?"

Shirou blinked, mind reeling as he turned his gaze down to the stone floor. He gazed at both his hands.

Know more about myself? Know about what? About his birth parents he could never see again? About the kids his age he played with and may or may not have made friends with?

"Four?"

The thousands of people that died in the mass hysteria trying to escape, some even begging for help as their bodies burned to ash? How he had been found and saved was a true miracle, wanting to understand why such a smile on that dark day moved him?

How those nightmares still haunted him, demanding his own blood as penance, especially in failing to save one more person-!

"Shirou! Calm down!"

Shirou was jolted by Marie standing in front of him with both hands on his shoulders. Fear was evident on her face, which seemed to fade as they both exhaled heavy breaths suddenly. Even Tama was bothered and leaped away from him at some point, perplexed.

What just-…oh.

"I… said all that out loud, didn't I?'

"Y-Yeah," Marie admitted. "It sounds like you do remember some stuff though."

"I remember enough," he said. "And frankly I wish some days I didn't."

She didn't know how to respond to that, so she nodded. She also slowly removed her hands when it was clear he was not hyperventilating anymore.

"Sorry," Shirou said remorsefully. "That probably isn't something you wanted to hear when dealing with your own problems."

"I'm the one who should say sorry, Four," Marie told him. "I thought that you had everything figured out because hardly anything before phased you. But after yesterday and just now, I realized that you were hurting, just like me."

An epiphany seemed to dawn on her, as she suddenly scribbled into her paper again. After a look over, she started reading aloud.

"Embers.

A brilliant vermillion sun,
as dazzling as it is deadly.

It feels like autumn,
but isn't it summer?

It illuminates everything,
but not what has happened before.

I stare at the sun. I demand its answers.

You turn from the sun, afraid, broken.

We are two of a kind, you and I."

She recited the poem loudly, that left no illusion that he didn't hear it. Her voice cracked somewhat, clearly shy from the act, but her confidence and bravado in sharing this art pulled through to the end. She had stared at him as she recited the last line, the intent clear.

Shirou was floored. Why did she suddenly share something that she kept a secret at such lengths before? "Marie?"

Marie's cheeks flushed as bright as the setting sun, and she refused to make eye contact. "N-Now we're even. I know your secret, and you know mine! But don't share this with anyone, got that?!"

Shirou could only dumbly nod, suddenly touched by her words. She went out of her way just to make him feel better? Did she really think that poem up on the spot or during the time they were sitting together?

A comical snickering came from the resident shrine fox, clearly amused. Marie scowled and pointed at her. "And that goes double for you, Mamo!"

The fox stopped laughing, staring at her incredulously. "'Mamo'?" Shirou asked aloud.

"She looks like a Mamo, okay?"

"…are you going to call everyone by a moniker instead of their given name?"

Marie shrugged indifferently. "Only the ones I like."

Honestly, this girl… she would drive many other people up the wall with her brash, snarky attitude. But underneath that insecure façade of hers was a gentle, sensitive girl that cared about others. There was something truly sincere about her that drew him in.

Smiling, Shirou couldn't be more grateful to be friends with Marie, and feel the bond of the Aeon arcana grow in response.

<><><>

Evening, Taiga's Apartment

Taiga stretched and reclined on her now clean and fixed couch. "Aaaaah, feels good to finally get back to my home away from home! Whenever I wasn't in the hospital, I was in some police room for questions. It was nuts!"

Her questioning was over, if only because a new development came up with the late Mitsuo Kubo's cadaver on the power lines. As she was under surveillance at the time of the murder, she had an alibi and thus was free of suspicion. It was a silver-lining on an otherwise dismal day.

"I know, Fuji-nee, you've said so over the last hour," Shirou droned. He'd followed up on his mental note to check on his guardian, even offering to help clean up her apartment now that it wasn't being treated as a crime scene. Just now he was finishing up sweeping up the last bits of glass from the altercation.

"Because it deserves repeating! I kept telling the cops the same story, but they kept heckling me!"

"So, you're repeating a story about how annoyed you were about cops repeating the same questions?"

"Grk!" His guardian flinched, before doubling down in a tantrum. "St-stupid Shirou! You shouldn't question your elders!"

"I was merely making an observation," the young magus replied nonchalantly.

Taiga puffed her cheeks but dropped the matter. She reclined on her couch and contributed the only way she knew how to help with cleaning. "You missed a spot by your right foot." Dictation. "No, your other right."

The next few minutes passed on with light commentary and methodical work ethic. Not unlike the days back at Fuyuki where he'd clean up after dinner before Fuji-nee and Sakura would walk to their homes, and he'd turn in after some magecraft exercises. He almost missed those days.

Then again, he'd found his own new routine in Inaba. Breakfast with the Dojimas. Walking to school, usually talking with Yosuke or Chie or the others as they met during the commune. Seven hours of schoolwork, then… so many different activities. Usually, he'd go straight to work at the Copenhagen or check around the school for maintenance. Instead in Inaba, he'd either fight Shadows in another world, or go along with one of his friend's requests to hang out.

Come to think of it, he never thought to do the same with Fuji-nee or Sakura, did he? Well, his position as a student living alone made it difficult to have fun. Sakura respectively kept her personal matters private, and Fuji-nee wanted to avoid too much association of a teacher favoring a student.

"Oi, Shirou, you've been sweeping that same spot for a while now. You okay?"

Shirou bristled as he moved to dust another spot. It seemed that she was just as aware of his hangups when she felt motivated to pay attention. "Yes, I'm fine, Fuji-nee."

"Really?" Taiga asked, adopting an exaggerated thoughtful look. "Because I heard from Naoto-kun, who heard from Kanji-kun, who heard from Chie-chan and Yukiko-chan, that you totally were not fine this afternoon."

Ah yes, the rumor mill of Inaba. Even the Investigation Team would let word travel fast between them if convenient. Groaning, Shirou stared down to the floor as he kept working.

"Are you really blaming yourself about what happened with Mitsuo?"

Shirou stopped sweeping. His hands tightened on the broomstick, almost cracking the wood from pressure alone.

"Don't shut me out again, Shirou," she said sternly. "Not like with Kiritsugu."

"It's not the same," he argued. "The old man died without me even realizing it, but he was content. But with Mitsuo? He was right there, and I let him die."

Taiga frowned, feeling her thoughts and mood dampen like a black scribble. "And this is why I worry about your darn bleeding heart."

"Is this the part where you tell me to drop my dream of being a hero?" Shirou quipped, still looking away.

"Don't be like that. We both know you never intend to listen to me, and that was before you got your Persona powers."

Shirou's eyes glanced at his right arm. The one that had been severed from the fight with Kanji's Shadow. The one that was briefly on fire and helped summon Kagutsuchi.

"I wonder," he said aloud. "I have so many powers, and yet I can't seem to do anything with them."

If he had the power of Kagutsuchi like before, maybe he could have stopped Satsuki's hypnosis. Or would it? He could have just as easily lost his presence of mind and burned everything. Including his friends.

Taiga's hand clasped over his shoulder. He finally turned, seeing her smiling at him. "That's because you keep rushing in before you're ready, you idiot."

Only she could make an insult sound so endearing and soft. Shirou flushed in equal parts annoyance and warmth.

"Look, I'm sorry for giving you flak all those years about your ally of justice thing," she continued. "But I didn't know you had powers to follow through with it. You never talked about how or why you wanted to do it anyway."

"To be a magus means to—"

She pressed a finger to his lips, stopping him. "It's not just the fact that you hid a secret about being a magus, Shirou. It's that you have kept a wall around yourself for years."

A wall? Shirou couldn't believe it. That was absurd. He could barely make a sword to protect himself, much less a shield.

Taiga looked conflicted about saying something, before shaking her head and dropping it. "Point is, I'm not going to stop you if you're dead set on helping others. But I am going to hammer into you that you need to consider how you express yourself."

"Huh?"

"For starters," she moved her hands to the sides of her head, grinned, and pointed to her dimples. Her disposition was as bright and welcoming as a blooming flower. "Try smiling! It'll make others feel relaxed and happy!"

Shirou blinked, trying to comprehend her words. He failed to form his own, let alone make a smile. All he managed to do was stare, mouth agape.

"But I guess now isn't a good time for that," Taiga admitted. "What you really need is some comfort food! My treat!"

If it was possible, Shirou was even more alarmed, and his jaw went slack. "Ehh?!"

"What? I ordered some takeout. Been dying to have a good fried rice bowl from Aiya's."

…he should have expected this from her, given her personality. And yet she completely derailed the mood and probably lost the thread of her talk once food was involved. Was this planned or some spur of the moment decision for her?

At least he didn't feel haunted again. Just tired. And famished.

"…a bowl of fried rice sounds good, thank you."

"Ah, sorry, I only ordered one for me. You can have some of the other meals I ordered in advance though. All from Aiya's, of course."

He couldn't help but to stare at her with a deadpan look as they walked to her dining table. "Buying this much take-out food and storing it as leftovers is not a healthy lifestyle."

"I'm learning to live without your cooking, Shirou!" Taiga snapped, acting like a toddler again. Right down to the shifty eyes. "Sakura hasn't cooked anywhere near as much since you left, so I had to adapt to buying takeout. You've spoiled me for choice all these years, so it's your fault!"

Shirou laughed, which only made her more upset. Even for a moment, he could forget his worries, his secrets, his trauma, and feel like having something akin to a bratty older sister doting on him.

It was fitting that her Tarot Arcana was The Sun.

<><><>

July 26th, Dojima Household, Near Midnight

The next day passed on without much fanfare. There was an end-of-term assembly on the last day, the principal trying to assuage people's worries with the recent passing of Mr. Morooka and Mitsuo Kubo, whom most gossiping students knew as "the poor boy from another school". The team still didn't meet up, whether it was from somber moods or planning for summer vacation.

As for Shirou, he spent time with his extended family after bringing in a surplus of vegetables from the garden. He had helped Nanako set it up a few months ago but had forgotten about them until the weather update on rain and his cousin/sister worried they would get too wet. The Dojimas now had a good share of crops, and Doji-nii even allowed him to take a few tomatoes and cabbages to cook for his own meals.

That little family activity aside, he found himself standing by his TV as he waited for the Midnight Channel to begin. He didn't know what to expect, as he already knew who was on the other side. Would Satsuki take a moment to brag and taunt them to come after her? He almost considered she wouldn't even appear because she was such an enigma, but everyone only knew her as Mitsuo's "sister". There were probably several students watching right now just to catch a glimpse of her.

Still, Shirou was resolute in his decision to stop her by whatever means necessary. If she was truly the one responsible for everything that had happened since spring, she would pay with her borrowed life.

When the clock struck 12, the Midnight Channel booted up. And yet nothing could prepare Shirou for what he was seeing now.

A familiar part of Moon Voidvania was shown, a dark dungeon room with dimly pixelated candles. It was being treated as another live broadcast like the others, right down to the extra limelights. However, it was being presented more as a news special this time with scrolling text. They repeated the same general lines: "Missing Kubo-Yumizuka still alive – Wanted for Murder – Extremely Dangerous".

The room resembled a dungeon prison, with pixelated iron bars and small spaces inside. The camera focused on the outside of the door, and then inside where Satsuki sat in a feeble position. Only she was wearing what looked more like a tattered school uniform than the dark clergy clothes she showed off before. The camera angles kept jumping around, trying to get a good look at her face and clothes. It was telling because, unlike other Midnight Channel hosts, Satsuki was pointedly ignoring the screen.

"Please…" she said slowly. Her voice was cracked, and her body shook in sobs. "Someone… anyone!"

Now the scrolling text was replaced by a series of ineligible symbols and numbers.

"Kill me… before I kill someone else…"

And like the other shows before it, the broadcast ended in a static fade-out, all too brief and leaving so many questions. They'd always had a startling effect of awe and shock, but this one was just… grim. Heavy. Horrifying.

Shirou was so put off that he nearly jumped and screamed when he heard a ringing noise. He calmed down upon realizing it was his cellphone. Yosuke's Caller ID was listed on the screen. "H-Hel—"

"DUDE!" Yosuke yelled, again nearly fraying Shirou's nerves. "That was Sacchin! Or, her Shadow maybe? But why would a vampire have a Shadow? They don't even have reflections. But what the hell does this even mean!?"

"Oh, I know, I know!" Another voice from Yosuke's end cried out, distinctively Teddie's. He had been staying over at Yosuke's house as a guest and work-study for his Junes job, winning over his parents much to Yosuke's annoyance.

"Well then, tell u-HEY!" Yosuke yelled, as some grunts and shoving could be heard. When he talked again, his voice was distant and softer. "Just ask if you want it, dammit!"

"Shirou-sensei! It's me, Teddie!" The excited bear told him. "Ever since you told me about 'filming', I've been wondering what you meant. But now I know having seen this firsthand! Sacchin's suppressed feelings in my world were being broadcast like a signal, which were picked up by your world's TVs!"

"Wait, so, it was all her?"

"As it was for everyone else's Shadow! There was no one involved filming any of these! Mystery solved!"

Wow. There were still many questions left about the Midnight Channel, but it felt good to shelve that question once and for all. Though it also felt kind of underwhelming after everything else. Especially when there were forms of magecraft that could make such long-distance scrying trivial like using a familiar. But that was neither here nor there, and Teddie sounded so proud of his discovery.

So, he settled for praising him. "Good job, Teddie."

"Hehehe!" he giggled with satisfaction.

"Gimme that," Yosuke said faintly, likely swiping it from the bear. When he spoke again, it was clearer to hear. "Still, what she said was so left field. The other day she was nigh-untouchable with that hypnosis thing, and here she is begging someone to kill her? What the hell?"

"I'm not sure about this either," Shirou admitted. "But perhaps there's more to Sacchin than we've been led to believe. We need to regroup tomorrow."

"Yeah, can't really put this off after a bombshell like that," Yosuke agreed. "Well, I'll… see you tomorrow. Goodnight, Shirou."

"Goodnight, Yosuke." He turned off his phone, only for it to ring again.

Chie was calling him, having gotten in touch with Yukiko. Then Kanji, having talked with Naoto and Rise. Then Taiga, of all people, angry that when Naoto contacted her about the Midnight Channel he didn't bother to remind her about it. By the time Shirou was done talking to everyone, it was half an hour past midnight, and he barely had time to collect his own thoughts.

Save for one, he realized in hindsight. It was funny as it was rather sad.

"W-well," Shirou chuckled wryly. "At least this Shadow didn't have a libido issue this time."

"Booooo."

"Yeah, you're right. Sorry Lilim."

"Um, I'm Pixie. You left Lilim back with Margaret, remember?"

"…I really need to stop staying up late."

 

[Kishou the Badger]

Aaaaaand this thread is all caught up now! And it'll get the simul-post treatment with my other ports (Fanfiction, Beast's Lair, Sufficient Velocity, Spacebattles) when the next chapter is finished. Also I hope to have it wrap up the Vampire Satsuki arc within the next chapter or two.

 

[Tobi]

Thank you for moving all the chapters here. It was fun to read them all over again.

 

[OrionGold]

Hopefully, we can gather some discussion around here.

 

[Tobi]

So I wonder when they all try using their personas in the real world and find out while it's difficult it's not impossible.

Cannot wait for Archer to be so confused when his past self has the power of multiple gods and mythological figures. Wait…. How would it go if Shirou tries to summon a servant? Would it just be Artoria at this point or all his personas being summoned as a book like Nursery Rhyme? Kinda like the persona compendium.

 

[Barghest Blue]

Unless his Persona's become much more powerful, I can see Avalon still taking priority and summoning Artoria

Whether she's still Saber, or changed at all due to Shirou's Persona's....

 

[SixthRanger]

Imagine this Shirou summoned as a Izanagi Pseudo-servant in FGO... wait, if he was, would he get a Beloved by the Goddess trait, from Marie?
And would that also be a blessing that Eresh, another underworld Goddess would certainly notice?

Awesome.

Would Kagutsuchi evolve into Angra Manyiu if allowed to? Would the real Angra that got kicked out of the grail become Shirou's ultimate Persona? Or could he still get Messiah if fused with Izanagi-no-Ookami?

 

[Tobi]

Unless his Persona's become much more powerful, I can see Avalon still taking priority and summoning Artoria

Whether she's still Saber, or changed at all due to Shirou's Persona's....

Click to shrink...

About that… how much of it was Avalon's work and how much of it was due to Astoria's contract with the world for a chance to save Camelot.

Imagine this Shirou summoned as a Izanagi Pseudo-servant in FGO... wait, if he was, would he get a Beloved by the Goddess trait, from Marie?
And would that also be a blessing that Eresh, another underworld Goddess would certainly notice?

Awesome.

Would Kagutsuchi evolve into Angra Manyiu if allowed to? Would the real Angra that got kicked out of the grail become Shirou's ultimate Persona? Or could he still get Messiah if fused with Izanagi-no-Ookami?

Click to shrink...

I think Kagutsuchi due to its lore and what happened in Persona 4 arena. Would try to be an evolved form or a version of it where it was properly born. As for Messiah and Izanagi Okamai. I'm not sure either will appear if Kagutsuchi is Shirou's true persona.

Messiah is too different from Shirou's mindset to be summoned while Izanagi Okami could still appear due to Shirou having Izanagi and confronts Izanami. It might not be a guaranteed since Shirou can still end differently.

Also yeah he would have a beloved by a goddess trait and… a certain servant less girl from a possible future will be very confused by his existence. . . Wait does this make Shirou, Tamamo's dad?

 

[Barghest Blue]

About that… how much of it was Avalon's work and how much of it was due to Astoria's contract with the world for a chance to save Camelot.

Click to shrink...

Yes

The only reason Artoria could be summoned was the contract, and Avalon served as the catalyst to summon her then and there

 

[Tobi]

Yes

The only reason Artoria could be summoned was the contract, and Avalon served as the catalyst to summon her then and there

Click to shrink...

Then no matter what happens she will be summoned and be confused if Shirou is a god or something. Then wonder who the hell did Kiritsugu cheat on Iri with since the timeline don't match up.

 

[Kishou the Badger]

Saber isn't gonna show up in Inaba. I had considered it but between her game-breaking stats and noble phantasm, there's not much to bring her over aside from character moments. We still need drama and action for the cast after all.

 

[Tobi]

Saber isn't gonna show up in Inaba. I had considered it but between her game-breaking stats and noble phantasm, there's not much to bring her over aside from character moments. We still need drama and action for the cast after all.

Click to shrink...

I get that, the summon circle is in Shirou's shed. Also the way she talks about the master servant contract will get Yosuke to cry tears of blood at the unfairness of the world. While for the girls…. New competition.

 

[MonoBear]

Not yet, but I hate having to sit on this for so long so it'll be done by the end of today. Or tomorrow. And then I'll also get to work on the latest chapter
(god I dread having to share this on Ao3...)

Click to shrink...

I would love to see it on AO3 to see the NSFW comments and how much kudos you would get. I wonder what kind of tags you would have to use for the story. The Rating is an easy M for Mature since both Persona series and Nasu's works( as shown with Witch on the Holy Night) are Mature rating with their content.

 

[Kishou the Badger]

Chapter 50: Shadow of the Tragic Self



July 27th​, Junes, Late Morning

The first day of summer was often a much more exciting part of life for young kids. To enjoy themselves by doing everything they wanted to do without sitting in a classroom. Even in a country town like Inaba, there were plenty of ways to pass the time and have fun.

More than a few teens would have liked to enjoy those simpler times, but they didn't have the luxury of that. Not after what they saw on the Midnight Channel last night. And what they must do.

"You can't be serious," Naoto said, dismayed. "You plan to actually fight a vampire?"

"We were always gonna have to fight her, Naoto," Kanji said to his ward. "I mean, she killed like four people now."

"And do you have any sort of countermeasure to fight her off?" Naoto pressed. "At least to fend off the hypnosis?"

"I have a plan for that, sort of," Shirou assured, already planning a visit to the Velvet Room before heading to the castle. Or what did Satsuki call it? A Palace? "But I suppose we should get more medicine from Shiroku's."

"And some stakes!" Chie added.

Rise tilted her head, gazing at the empty plate in front of the other girl. "I thought you ate already, Chie-chan," she asked.

"Wha-no! Wooden stakes, the kind you stick the sharp end down to pitch a tent. Or in this case, a vampire's heart!" As she eagerly explained her intended plan, Yosuke winced at what that action would entail.

"Oh, and we need garlic bulbs too!" Yukiko added. "Vampires hate the smell of it!"

"Got one right here!" Kanji smiled, fishing out a white bulbous vegetable from his jacket pocket. As everyone looked at his hand, their faces looked dubious and concerned, which he noticed right away. "What?"

"Kanji-kun, that's an onion," Taiga told him.

"Oh," the bleached-haired teen muttered, as if noticing the food for the first time. "I always get those two mixed up."

"So that's why you asked me to take you to the grocer," Yosuke deadpanned. "Did you at least pay for that?"

"Uh, one of your clerks told me to just take it, actually," he explained. "I think part of it was that he looked scared to see me, but it was damaged goods anyway. I thought it would be more potent to use. Or at least to throw and see what happens."

"Why would you think throwing an onion would help?" Naoto asked incredulously.

"Hey, it might work. The other day fighting Shadows, we threw some pinwheels at 'em and they went off like one of Yosuke's wind spells."

Naoto's eyes widened, and one could see his brain briefly turn off for a moment. "'Went off'? Are you… are you suggesting that if you throw an onion in that world, it will explode?!"

Kanji shrugged. "TV world's weird, man."

Yosuke angrily swiped the vegetable from his hand. "You are not tossing a rotten onion bomb at my girlfriend!"

Chie glared at him, instantly livid. "Seriously? She killed someone right in front of you and you still call her your 'girlfriend'?!"

"W-well, we never officially broke up," he argued weakly. Seeing that it had done little to assuage concerns, he added, "We also saw the Midnight Channel, right? Sacchin's Shadow was there, alone and locked up."

"What difference does that make? We will probably still have to fight it. Wouldn't surprise me if Vampire Satsuki used her Shadow as an attack dog."

"Maybe that won't happen. Just hear me out: we all faced our Shadows-" He glanced towards Shirou and Naoto. "Well, most of us, but you know. They weren't bad guys. Just our bad traits and baggage, and able to become our Personas. I know Sacchin is bad now as a vampire, but what if her Shadow is what's left of her good side?"

It was a sound theory, all things considered. Persona and Shadows were concepts connected to Jungian psychology, so it wasn't like the terms here were thought up from no basis. They were two sides of the same coin, and if one could hide their bad traits in the mask of a good façade, the opposite should hold just as much merit.

"It's mostly likely what's left of her humanity, suppressed as it is," Shirou considered.

"Right?" Yosuke said excitedly.

"But it doesn't change the fact that Satsuki Yumizuka died," Naoto informed. "Nor the fact that she has harmed and killed others. And if her words are to be believed, she feels enough guilt to ask for death."

Yosuke's hopes fell, but he kept a stern face as he exhaled his sorrow away. "I get it, okay? We need to stop Sacchin, maybe even… put her down," he whimpered somewhat. "But I would rather exhaust all options and find out the truth about her before doing something I regret. Like find out if any of it was real or not."

The others all felt sympathy for him. It was not often someone you thought you liked turned out to be a monster. It was one thing to feel that the first girl you had crushed on actually hated you, but a second girl who was indirectly responsible for her death? It wasn't unlucky, just plain cruel.

Still, Yosuke showed a strong enough resolve to see this through, even through a glimmer of hope. He had a personal stake in the case, after all.

Smiling, Shirou walked up and patted Yosuke on the shoulder. "We'll be there to back you up, Yosuke."

Others shared their sentiment with nods and smiles. Yosuke was moved, quickly wiping his sleeve over his nose and eyes. "Thanks, guys."

"Right! Let's get to work! Go team, go!"

The blond-haired young man at the far end of their table shouted and cheered. He was just as committed to the case as it was personal. Most of the team knew this. Except for Taiga who stared at him blankly. "Who are you again?"

"Gaack!" So shocked at her words, he immediately curled into a feeble ball on his seat and turned away from the group. "You're so cruel, Taiga-sama."

Immediately the group was confused about his choice of words. Taiga in particular was just as confused, as well as flattered. "Wait, Taiga-sama? I mean, that sounds nice, but why call me that?"

Like a switch, he turned towards her with a smile and his knees crossed. "You're the sensei to Shirou-sensei. It would be redundant to call you sensei twice, as you are the master to my teacher. So, Taiga-sama!" He blinked owlishly and then turned to his hero. "Ah, no offense, Shirou-sensei."

"It's fine, Teddie."

Taiga's eyes widened. "'Teddie'?" She forcibly grabbed his face, turned it around as if looking for some veil or hidden trick, and then stared at his impossibly blue eyes. "TEDDIE'S HUMAN?!"

The screech caused the others to flinch. And they cringed inwardly as they realized she had never seen or had been told of his recent transformation, either. "I knew I was forgetting something," Shirou lamented under his breath.

"I thought you said there was nothing in his suit!" she demanded, pointing at the humane bear she now held firmly in her grasp. She turned his face around for good measure, ignoring his aching puffs of pain through his scrunched lips. "This doesn't look like nothing!"

"Hey, we were just as shocked about this, okay?" Chie defended. "It happened right after you beat up his Shadow!"

"And you didn't think to tell me?!"

"We're sorry, Fujimura-san," Yukiko apologized. "But you were resting when it happened, and we were trying to get him settled in first. Naoto-kun only found out by chance himself."

"You told Naoto-kun before me?! He's not even a member of the team! Next I suppose you're gonna tell me the fox knew, too!" Taiga expected the accusation to be an exaggeration. But she was dismayed as the girls looked away sheepishly, and that Tama was staring at her, smug. "I can't believe this!"

As the arguing ensued, Yosuke laughed. It was odd to feel this relieved, but weird moments of levity were comforting. Especially when he wasn't the only one on the receiving end.

Even if the worst came to pass, he'd get by somehow. He knew it in his heart.

<><><>

Moon Voidania, 1st​ Statum

Even before the Investigation Team arrived, the 8-bit castle felt like a fitting end to what they hoped would be a final showdown. A dreary, pixelated castle placed at the end of a long bridge over a deep chasm, all straight out of Transylvania.

All that was missing was a dramatic thunder effect to hit home that it was a haunted castle, but the cascading black and red colors of the sky were spooky enough.

Yosuke was the first to enter the castle, running ahead from the group and cupping his hands as he yelled. "Sacchin! Sacchin!"

"You idiot!" Chie chided, her voice barely a whisper. "We're trying to sneak up on her!"

"A little too late for that, Chie-chan," Teddie told her, a worried frown over his expressive bear-suit. "I think the vampire knows whatever goes on in this castle, like when we enter or leave it."

"Good, I want her to know I'm coming for her," Kanji boasted. "I owe her a Take-Mikazuchi-sized beat-down for that hypno-shit the other day!"

"I'm looking forward to giving her a good hit, myself," Taiga said. She held her shinai over her shoulder, glancing up to the gaping ceiling hole. "Now that I'm here, she's not gonna be so lucky anymore."

As the others voiced their thoughts and converged into the hall, Shirou walked to Yosuke's side and clasped his hand over his friend's shoulder. The action jolted him, even though he didn't glance back right away. "You okay?"

"Yeah, just… a little anxious I guess," Yosuke admitted. "We should find Sacchin's Shadow first."

"Good plan," said Shirou. "Rise, can you find her?"

"I think so. Just give me a second."

It was more than a few seconds really, but it felt quick enough that Rise dismissed Himiko as quickly as she summoned her. "So, I picked up two readings in this place. One is down the path where we last saw Satsuki, and the other is further down from here."

"Wait, down where?" Chie asked, looking around the room. Most of it had been ruined since the fight with Teddie's Shadow. "This is as low as we can go in this building."

"No, I mean down down," Rise explained, pointing to the floor. Or rather beneath it. "Like basement-down."

"Of course, the basement," Yosuke said excitedly. "Sacchin's Midnight Channel showed her inside a cage so she must be in a basement cell!"

"Yeah but, where would the basement be?" Kanji asked. "We didn't see any other stairways before."

"I think… over there!" Rise pointed to the center stairway that led to the upper floors. "There's a ladder going down the lower floors just behind the stairs."

"Ooooh, a literal dungeon crawl!" Yukiko smiled. "How exciting, isn't it Chie?"

"Y-Yeah, sure," her friend answered, decidedly unenthused. She still put on a brave face and puffed her chest with a fist to her breast. "I-I'll protect you, don't worry!"

"Sure!"

With Chie (or rather Yukiko) leading the vanguard, the Investigation Team started their descent. The pixelated décor was dimmer and opaque, with flickering candle lights less luminous and more like the abyss or a demon's maw. By the time they climbed down to the bottom, everyone was more than a little frazzled and tense. Yukiko was beside herself, but in a more eager manner than her classmates.

Suddenly, the room echoed with a retro chiptune chime, and words appeared, like the first time they started exploring the castle. A familiar text screen appeared.

Bonus Level! New Life Plus!

Gained Vampire Blood! Gained Mana Sight!

Where do you want to go?

_ Stay in Misaki Town
> Find new home

Found Mitsuo Home! Greeted by Mr. and Mrs. Mitsuo!

> Accept Hospitality.

Suddenly the screen shook violently, changed to red, and the selected option was changed.

> MURDER AND FEAST

No one said anything, all but numb and suspicious at the implications. "Huh," Yosuke joked mirthlessly. "Been a while since we saw one of those things,"

No one knew what to say to that, despite aching to do so. Except Kanji, who remembered the last time 'those things' appeared. "Hey, that reminds me. Ted, do you know what that was about?"

"Huh?" The bear blinked. Kanji looked at him expectantly, while tilting his head towards Yosuke. "OH! Well, they sort out filtered noises – or in this case, words – that the people that run these Palaces have. The Shadows react based on those words, and take forms based on those words and feelings."

"So the Shadows get stronger because more baggage gets thrown in?" Chie asked.

Teddie shrugged. "I can't say for sure. This never happened until recently."

"I'm more concerned about the implications than the origin right now," Shirou said. "Let's find her Shadow first. We can worry about this later." The rest of the team nodded, motivated to tackle the hurdle before them.

Rise did a quick search through Himiko before she turned to Shirou. "So which do you want to hear first, Shirou-senpai? Good news or bad news?"

Shirou frowned. It was never a good thing to hear good or bad news. Well, if they were going to hear both, might as well rip the bandage off first. "Let's start with the bad news."

"Okay. So, the bad news is that there are some powerful Shadows down here. Like three… no, four of them. Not Shadow Kanji-kun strong, but Tough and Nice Guy strong."

"Midbosses, of course," Yosuke grimaced.

"Nah, if they were middle, they'd be between us and Satsuki, right?" Kanji argued. "They're in the basement so they'd be... ah, Bottom Bosses!"

Yukiko chortled, a puff of air escaping her puffed cheeks. The other all flushed, which seemed to alert Kanji that they knew something he didn't. "What?"

"Just be glad your chaperone wasn't here to hear that, Kanji-kun," Taiga said cryptically, which confused him even more.

Their amused responses did remind Shirou that Naoto had to stay behind, as he lacked a Persona. He was upset and adamant that he should go with them, but if the worst-case scenario did happen, he'd be the only one who'd know the truth. It wouldn't come to that, but at the very least they wouldn't have to worry about keeping him safe in a fight.

"And the good news?" he asked Rise, to get their minds back on track.

"Oh. Well, it's faint but I think Sacchin's Shadow is here-"

Yosuke bolted down the corridor before she could finish. "SACCHIN!!!"

<><><>

It was dark in here. The entire room was thick and blocky, from the cell bars to the bed bunk. There were sludge sounds oozing and moving like excreting bowels, but by now they were just white noise. Or was it brown noise?

Either way, she didn't care to look. Just taking comfort in the small corner of her cell, black and furthest away from any sort of light.

It almost reminded her of that one time, stuck in a room. Only this time she was truly alone, with hideous monsters just lumbering around. If they found her, they'd kill her, she knew.

The gurgling noises were enough to make her cower and hide away… but wait, why did they sound agitated now? Had they found her?!

More sounds echoed out. The singing of steel across flesh, the whipping gales of a spring day, and dozens of clattering shoes. There was talking. Yelling. But she couldn't make out the exact words. Most of them were deafened by the fighting.

She huddled closer to her corner, scared. Something big was happening. Were those monsters hunting each other now? Found someone else like her to loom over as guards? The fighting only intensified for a scant few minutes, even though so much of the action made her think it went on longer than that.

Honestly, with all the sounds going on, it felt like something out of a western cartoon. Toon… something.

Things changed when the sound of a water balloon bursting happened, with a lot of excited fervor. Then another happened, as the fighting clearly became more one-sided and the growling sounds lessened in volume and intensity.

And then… it was over.

Curiosity finally winning over, she pushed against the cell door. It barely made a beep as the pixelated door flashed in two quick frames to swing open. After all, it wasn't meant to keep her in, but those creatures out.

She peeked around the corner to see the fading dark-red mist of what used to be the wardens. All that remained were people (plus a fox and some round thing). They were… familiar. Like visions she saw in a dream. The one she recognized immediately was the young man in the center of the battle, his back in front of her, as he stood tall and caught his breath. In each hand was a small blade (knives?) with knicks on the edges. He wore a pair of headphones and a scarf around his neck, and there seemed to be a pair of glasses over his eyes. He looked so familiar.

Shiki? No, that's not Shiki, that's-

"Yosuke-kun?"

The entire ensemble flinched and looked her way. Yosuke in particular turned so fast that his scarf and hair whiffed somewhat. A myriad of emotions danced across his face, but they were forgotten as he ran to her and hugged her.

"Sacchin! Thank goodness you're all right!"

Sacchin. Yes, that was her name, wasn't it? But not quite right. She hesitantly returned the embrace, feeling a desperate need for his warmth.

"Uh, Yosuke?" one of the other girls – a brunette with metal boots – called out to him while looking at her funny. Like she was scary. Or a monster. "Are you sure you should be that close to her?"

Yosuke pulled away, but still kept his arms on her as he turned to the other girl. "Have you seen her? She looks like a wreck!"

"Yeah, but the other Sacchin was dangerous and nuts," the bleach-haired boy remarked. "And this one's that vampire bitch's Shad-OW!"

A pigtailed girl elbowed him hard enough to stop him, and hissed something through her teeth. Sacchin felt out of place here if that's what they really thought. She must have been dangerous to be located in a prison cell.

But… vampire? Why did that word shake her to her core?

"Actually, I think this one's fine," the cuddly creature said. "It's like Shirou-sensei said. This one's humanity has been suppressed so much, it's like her normal self before the vampire transformation."

"So, because she's a vampire now, her normal human self is the Shadow? But wait, what about her own suppressed self? Wouldn't the Human-Shadow have a Shadow-Shadow too? Is there a Shadow-ception?!"

The cuddly creature frowned at her. "It doesn't work that way, Chie-chan."

"Yosuke-kun," Sacchin gulped, trying not to tremble or crack as she asked. "What are they talking about?"

Yosuke frowned, opening and closing his mouth several times but no words came out. Until finally, he asked back, "Well it's a bit hard to explain. What do you remember, Sacchin?"

What did she remember? That shouldn't be too difficult, right? "Well, we've been dating for about a week now. You showed me around the Junes store you worked at, and-"

She gasped, as a wave of memories flooded her all at once. Being killed. Trying to kill Shiki. Leaving home. And all the things she had done. All the people she killed.

And how deep down she loved feeling this merciless.

"Sacchin!" Yosuke cried out, leaning closer. "What's wrong?"

"GET AWAY!" she snapped, shoving him. It only made her fall backward and shuffle away in case he tried to help her again. A courtesy she didn't deserve. "Don't come near me! I-I'm a monster! I hurt Shiki! I killed people! I DRANK THEIR BLOOD!"

"Sacchin-!" Yosuke was too nice, to look at her with pity instead of fear. The others looked tense and ready to fight with brandished weapons.

"We know," another boy told her, stepping up next to Yosuke. His red hair, white glasses and amber eyes were all easy to make him stick out. "We know you've been turned into a vampire."

That admission did little to assure her. If anything, it really hammered home how out of her depth she was. But she nodded and waited for him to continue.

He knelt down to her level. "And we're here to save you, Sacchin."

"…you mean kill me."

"I prefer not to go down that route if possible."

She refused to make eye contact, but she was calmer now than a moment ago. "That's why you're talking to me then. The Shadow, or what's left of it."

"Ah, so you know," the brunette said. "Most Shadows we've met tend to be preeetty self-aware when they have a face."

"I was just hiding and suppressing my fears, for what good that was doing. I knew I had some dark thoughts but… to think they'd just pop out and switch places with me."

"So you did have a hand in killing our teacher."

"For what it's worth, I'm sorry."

"What about Saki-senpai?" Yosuke asked her. "And Ms. Yamano?"

Shadow Sacchin turned to him, bewildered. "Who?"

"A student from our school, and the late TV announcer. They died here last April."

"April?! B-but I wasn't here until last month!"

Again, conflicting emotions shifted over his face. Mostly relief. Even if his voice cracked trying to be confident. "S-See?! Sacchin couldn't be the one responsible!"

"Yeah, but who killed the other two? And why?"

"One thing at a time, Amagi," the red-haired boy told the black-haired girl. Then he turned back to the Shadow. "Do you know what your vampire half is trying to do?"

Sacchin frowned. "I think… she's trying to move this castle over to the real world."

"What?!" Understandably, the teens were all aghast and dismayed.

"But why?" the pigtailed girl cried out. "Don't vampires want to stay in dark, gloomy places? She could hide out here and no one would ever know!"

"Not to mention all the prana-erm, magic energy, around here," the boy added.

"That was the idea at first. But I learned the hard way that vampires can only sustain themselves for so long without blood. It's as necessary to survive as air and water. But this world only has Shadows, who lack blood for sustenance."

The bleach-haired teen scratched his scalp in wonder. "But couldn't she, like, just leave this place like the rest of us? And steal us like Taiga or Mitsuo?"

The woman in a tiger-striped shirt and sundress huffed. "Haven't you forgotten, Kanji-kun? I was the one who pushed her in, not the other way around! Erm, no offense, Sacchin."

"It's fine. I'm glad you are well, ma'am."

The other girls looked concerned, as did the bear. "But wait, does that mean-!"

"Yeah. It means that she can't be the culprit after all, because she doesn't have the power to push us into TVs," the redhead confirmed aloud. "Satsuki's Shadow being here proves that."

"Huh?!" the punk boy yelped. "But she was trying to get Mitsuo to awaken his Persona, right?"

"That's just it. I was trying," Shadow Sacchin said. "I was shocked at how you all were able to come and go as you pleased, and when my other-self saw myself, she didn't try to understand. Not that I could even think of how to address her, either."

"I don't think vampires could begin to understand humans," Shirou added. "They're more monsters than anything-urk!" He felt a smack at the back of his head, delivered by the irate pink-haired girl, pointing to Yosuke and Sacchin. He flushed in realization. "Uh, sorry."

"Then wait… isn't this a good thing?" the brunette asked. "Like, she's trapped herself in here, right? Then we don't even have to fight! We can just leave her here and she'd starve to death!"

The group of teens looked at her bewildered, shocked and surprised. There was indeed truth to her words; a vampire with no one to feed on would quickly perish. But were they so eager to stop a vampire by leaving? Shadow Sacchin was terrified of being alone again, to a fate she probably deserved but still deep down didn't want. And looking at Yosuke, she could see more emotions flare up in tandem. Dismay, horror, and anger. He opened his mouth to retort.

"Not anymore, I won't."

Everyone froze. It wasn't Yosuke who'd said that. Nor was it any of them. That was Sacchin's voice, spoken aloud all around them, but without the reverberating filter. Before they could do anything else, a blood red circle of fairly intricate writing appeared on the floor beneath them. The resulting flash blinded them to their surroundings…

<><><>

Moon Voidania, Throne Room

Kanji didn't know how his eyes were hurting; he was wearing translucent lenses for crying out loud! Still he was rubbing them for all their worth as the light didn't seem to dim. "Gah! Shit, what just happened?"

"I apologize for the irritation, Kanji-kun. My teleportation spell needs some work, I suppose."

Everyone gathered their bearings and noticed they were indeed in a new room. Nearly everything was dark and damp, with a handful of candlesticks all burning on posts. A dark red carpet led from the closed doorway to an elevated set of steps. Before them was a bronze throne, made tall and sharp, and situated just in front of a large skeletal dragon head as if it was hunted and set up as a taxidermy trophy. And sitting on the throne, lax with her pale skinned legs crossed and a wine glass in her hand, was Satsuki Yumizuka the vampire.

She smiled down at them, an expression of amusement and confidence. She was completely relaxed and yet her presence ebbed fear into them. No one said anything, nervously keeping their weapons ready at a moment's notice.

Tama's not here, Shirou noticed. The fox always did keep her distance from the group, so she wasn't within their proximity when the transport happened. He just hoped she could manage on her own, maybe find her own way out.

"I know we're doing this out of order," she said in a sultry voice. "But I've humored your antics long enough. Avoiding me, training right at my castle doors, taking away my bear butler, the loss of my brother…" she actually looked sad upon mentioning it. Which might be true as her Shadow croaked a sob. Satsuki sneered at her other self. "And now you went and dragged my skeleton out of the closet? I expected more from you. Especially you, Yosuke-kun."

"Spoken like someone who is hiding from the truth," Yosuke spat back.

"Oooooh, still got some bite in you after all! Guess it was a good thing I let you leave after all." She grinned as she watched her wineglass spin in her hand. "But we're ending this little game today. Right here. Right now."

"Damn right we are! Teddie! The Diorama!"

"On it, Chie-chan!" Teddie clapped twice, cupped his hands… and nothing. Blinking, he clapped again. Slowly to make sure it stuck. Then faster, and faster with each frantic insistence until he was giving a thunderous applause. "AAAAAH! WE CAN'T GOHO-M!"

"What?!"

"Hahaha, the looks on your faces!" Satsuki laughed and reclined over the arm rests. "I've been practicing too, you know. Learning how to manipulate all floors of this castle."

"It's just like what your Shadow said, then," Shirou surmised. "You're trying to figure out a way back to the real world."

Satsuki pouted with extended cheeks, looking away. "She just had to go and blab out the surprise. I was really worried too, you know, having her say I was close to starving. Mitsy's blood alone isn't enough, and I felt I was on a time limit to meet the next rainy day."

"But~," she coyly smiled, pointedly looking at Chie. "Little miss Tomoe over there reminded me you could just leave again. If I keep you trapped here, then I don't have to worry about starving! You'd serve me as thralls, willing or otherwise, as I can move freely between worlds for more victims."

"We won't help you eat more people!" Yukiko yelled.

"We won't fall for your brainwashing tricks, either!" Taiga added.

Satsuki shrugged. "Then I'll simply feed on you. Eight warm bodies will help satisfy me more than one."

"Eight?" Teddie blinked. Then he started counting the group. "B-but I don't taste good! You said so!"

"Yes, but you've seemed to have gained a human-shell filling since you awakened. I'm extra curious how you taste now."

"Eep!"

"Way to go, loudmouth," Yosuke seethed at Chie. She felt guilty and responsible, but really didn't like being blamed by Yosuke of all people.

"I get why you wouldn't like it, but all things considered it was a good plan!"

"It was a horrible plan that you just thought up! I sure as hell wouldn't want to resolve this case by running away!"

"And you won't," Satsuki promised. "I will break out of here through the power of this Palace, or by breaking one of you to be my thrall. I've survived an executioner and a boy who could cut anything to death. Between the two of them, you're just gnats."

She rose up and stepped away from her throne. "As soon as I'm done with this glass, we're doing this. So best make your final prayers or decide whether you want to serve me." Then she started drinking.

Shirou knew this would be their hardest fight yet, but perhaps it wasn't entirely hopeless either. She had been stuck in Teddie's world long enough without sustenance that she was weaker than normal. But how long would it be until she figured out how to bring her whole castle over as her personal Bounded Field?

There might not be a better opportunity to defeat her. Unfortunately, it didn't look like his classmates were able to fight. For all the talk of preparation, it took all their nerves just to keep standing in her presence. She hadn't let out the full extent of her killing intent or hypnosis yet either. But those that could fight…

"Fuji-nee, can you fight?"

"Damn straight," his guardian boasted. She swung her shinai twice to amp herself up. "I still owe that brat a rematch for when she trashed my apartment."

"Teddie?"

"I-I'm here, Shirou-sensei!" the bear assured. His costume might look soft and unimposing, but the grip on his claw was indeed holding fast.

"Good. Everyone else, stand back and keep Rise safe."

The remaining classmates turned to him in dismay. "What?!"

"This isn't up for discussion," he said firmly. His eyes stayed firmly on Sacchin and her dwindling drink. "We don't know the full extent of her power, so it's best to have some strength in reserve."

"At least let me fight too, man!" Yosuke cried. "This is important!"

"I know it is, Yosuke," Shirou said. "Which is why I'm trusting you to keep her Shadow safe."

Yosuke grimaced, looking between Shirou's imposing back and the vulnerable Sacchin still in his arms. Taking one last look at the vampire, he cursed his weakness and ran behind a pillar. The others watched on, torn with indecision.

"*gulp* Ah~ that's the good stuff." SMASH! A moment later, the glass was tossed aside and shattered on the floor. Satsuki smiled. "I've always wanted to do that."

Shirou had his eyes on her the whole time, sword steady and ready to block at a moment's notice. Which was why it was so baffling that she seemingly vanished from her position one moment and was crouching low in front of him the next.

Her attacks were unrefined, thrashing arms and scratches instead of trained martial arts. But they had power and speed behind them. Despite her small frame, Sacchin had the ferocity of a berserker, matched by her coy smirk as she spun on her heels to strike Shirou with both hands as if swinging a bat.

BOOM! Shirou collided with a support column with enough force to crack and crush the foundation.

The team stared at his prone form in mute horror, then back at the smiling vampire. "I forgot how squishy you hu-"

"HIYAH!" Taiga roared, swinging her shinai ferociously. Interrupted but not deterred, Sacchin stepped aside as it sailed in front of her, before rearing back her hand flat and thrusted out for a stab. Taiga pivoted her bamboo sword diagonally to parry the arm away, and then swung horizontally. A flurry of smacks of wood meeting hardened skin echoed in the chamber. And yet the Yasogami students still watched on, entranced by the level of fighting in front of them.

Teddie was not idle, though, as he summoned his faithful folk-hero Persona to cast healing light on their leader. "Guys, either shape up or ship out!" Teddie cried out. The rebuke snapped them back to their senses.

Kanji moved forward, pulling out a small fist-clenched item from his pocket. "Eat this!" He threw it as hard as he could.

Sacchin reacted instantly without looking; she grabbed Taiga's weapon with one hand enough to crush it, and then lashed out with her cutting fingers with the other to intercept the missile. However, as soon as it was cut, it detonated akin to a smoke bomb, covering her in white dust that felt itchy and smelled…

Oh God, what WAS that smell?! It was enough to make her retch and cough into both her hands.

Hands that were no longer stopping the shinai, so Taiga stepped away before summoning Kaihime, which zeroed-in on the vulnerable vampire.

As if in unison, Teddie and Kintoki-Douji channeled their prana for a joint attack. Shirou, bruised but still conscious, focused intently on his Persona card for a do-or-die maneuver.

"Bufudyne!" Teddie acted first, casting the strongest of ice magics that his Persona could muster. Not a shard, nor a block, but a frigid tree akin to the likes of the Bifrost formed from beneath Sacchin. The tree pierced her limbs, freezing her already dead body from the inside out.

"Tempest Slash!" It was Taiga's turn, willing the Princess Persona to swing her sword down hard and fast to bisect the tree, top down. A three-tiered explosion followed; one from the ice breaking, another from the force of the 'kamitachi' second strike, and the last from the sword proper making a devastating impact from its blue-aura prana charge. Ice, wind, and stone scattered all around.

"Trace Power!" Shirou rushed in through the storm, grafting his new light Persona into a partisan with a red shaft. He closed the distance and shoved his lance into Sacchin's heart. As for the finisher-

"Reinforce!" He poured all his remaining prana into his weapon, and light pierced out her body all over. Harder, sharper, longer, stretched to the absolute limit-!

BOOOM! Just like with that Yomotsu demon back in Golden Week, his projected weapon detonated from the overflow. He learned from his mistake though, reinforcing his body armor and maintaining distance with his polearm, and quickly projecting another part of Power into his free arm to form a tri-pointed shield with an octopus emblem.

The shield definitely helped with the blowback, allowing him to land on his heels with barely an injury. He peeked over his shield, looking at the explosion dust covering the throne. Everyone else maintained their position and watched too, hoping for an upset victory.

"Are you all right, Power?" he stage-whispered as he waited.

"You are as reckless as my ward forewarned," the gray-skinned, red-armored angel said in his mind, most likely frowning and folding its arms. Yet he nodded in approval. "But you made good use of the power granted, as it is intended for risk. I recommend against that tactic a second time, though."

Shirou nodded. He was still getting a handle on Tracing his Personas, but the power harnessed in them was beyond measure. There was no better chance to strike Satsuki with its full might than that moment.

"Did we do it?" Yukiko asked aloud. Everyone hoped that was the case, but Shirou knew deep down it was a false hope.

"Not yet," Rise said, looking through her Persona's lens. "Her vitals are low though and… growing?!"

The dust settled, and the vampire was still standing. Her silhouette was distorted as if part of her body had been cleaved off. But it was reforming at a rapid rate as red prana sparks swirled within her. A low rumbling echoed throughout the halls, growing into maddening laughter.

"You've gotta be shitting me!" Kanji paled.

"How-?!" Chie choked. The fear and reality were setting in that they were facing a true monster.

"AHAHAHAHAhahahaha!" Satsuki whipped her head back in a full guffaw, wiping her brow and hair back with her arm. Her skin unblemished, her wounds gone, even her clothes were remade down to the last fiber. "Man, I was worried you guys would be pushovers, but I might actually have to work for my meal after all! This is gonna be fun!"

Fun was the last thing Shirou was thinking about, and he might have to resort to his Plan B sooner rather than later.

Because the fight against Vampire Satsuki Yumizuka was just beginning.

 

[Jason Wu]

Because the fight against Vampire Satsuki Yumizuka was just beginning.

Click to shrink...

Read this story on FF awhile back. Didn't realize it was posted here

 

[Heliel43]

Why this story isn't getting enough attention here in QQ?

 

[Kishou the Badger]

Why this story isn't getting enough attention here in QQ?

Click to shrink...

Well I only just started sharing it on here. As it's branched onto a bunch of other places to read (Spacebattles, Sufficient Velocity, Beast's Lair, Fanfiction) it's kinda divided up

 

[sickboy398]

Hmmm Which rank is she in anyway ? Nightmare , knight ?

 

[Tobi]

Yay! An update! Good to see that her humanity is still there and yay, boss fight time. It's a good thing they did not bring in Naoto.

 

[Kishou the Badger]

Hmmm Which rank is she in anyway ? Nightmare , knight ?

Click to shrink...

Rank 6 actually, just a newborn inferior Dead Apostle.


Also, sorry things have been slow. Been playing a lot of SMTVanilla lately, and might 100 percent it just to carry over some bonus items and super demons in Vengeance. Did get me some cool ideas for other stories but that's for another time.

That said, you know what's awesome about finally sharing F/RO over here?

Unrated content.

Granted I'll need to make a whole separate thread over to the NSFW stuff but I'll probably have a field day doing what-ifs, mostly Shirou with one of his love interests. Because I have a set mind of where to take the main story, but with the lewd potential in Fate or Persona, the sky is the limit.

 

[Kishou the Badger]

A little preview of what I've got ready before actually posting. I normally do this at spacebattles but thought I'd do it here regularly too for more engagement and stuff.
<><><>


The throne room turned into a warzone almost immediately. Blast of elemental magic, mostly of fire and ice, hailed with reckless abandon. What tremors weren't caused by their destructive power came from overwhelming strikes of their opposition.

"Spread out!" Shirou ordered. "Don't give her a reason to strike us all at once!"

Vampire Satsuki either didn't hear or care of their planning. She was too busy laughing and dancing, beside herself. She moved like a madman without rhyme or reason, rushing to one Persona to the next.

She barreled through Konohana Sakuya's flames to bite down on her mask, eliciting a painful scream and bloody pop from Yukiko's forehead. She then leaped away as Tomoe lunged, grabbing her glaive in a tugging session, and then swing the warrior behind her with a thud hard enough to bounce. The gasp Chie made told him it must have hurt.

Take-Mikazuchi got a good hit in with his bolt-sword, digging into her shoulder blade. Kanji flinched, almost aghast how gory that blow was to anything not a shadow. That hesitation cost him, as the vampire took the time to pry the blade up and out of her body, regenerating even before it was removed.

He redoubled his efforts, pushing harder and letting out an attack for good measure. "Zionga!"

A thick blue bolt struck her, a clear hit with the bolt sword as a lightning rod as it shattered. Take-Mikazuchi quickly stepped back to marvel of the gambit. Yet it did nothing to unnerve Satsuki. A twitch of her eyebrow was the only sign of discomfort she made.

"Nice trick," she smiled, holding out her hand. "High-five!"

"Huh?"

Satsuki leaped up and palmed Take-Mikazuchi's hand with her own. The high-five was more of a joy-buzzer, as her defibrillator-charged hand. It was more intense than any lightning the Persona could manage, and even through his resistance, the pain was excruciating enough to fizzle him out.

The others gasped in worry of their friend. "Kanji!" "Kanji-kun!"

"I-I'm okay!" Kanji wheezed. The attack was enough to put him to his knees, leaning on his metal board for support. He looked up to watch for any other trick-

Only to freeze, seeing Sacchin standing right in front of him, inches apart.

"Now what do we have here~?" she asked coyly. Her blood-red eyes seeming to glow as her hand reached towards his face. Towards his glasses-

WHAM! At the last moment, she moved her hand to the side and caught Jiraiya's punch before it connected to her head. She turned and smirked at the ninja Persona. Kanji took the opportunity to scamper away; not exactly cool or coordinated but he was more than a little scared being that close to Satsuki.

"I was wondering where you holed up, Yosuke-kun," she said. "Why don't you come out and play for real?"

A burst of wind shot up from behind Jiraiya, howling like a wolf. His fist pushed harder against her hand, surprising the vampire at his ingenuity. She even had to squint her eyes as the gale and dust was starting to sting a bit.

She only blinked, but it was enough of a delay for Jiraiya to pivot his body to a spin kick. And at the exact moment the kick landed, the wind trajectory changed, boosting the force of his leg and sending her flying.

Her boyfriend had some moves AND moxie.

She righted herself in the air and exerted a burst of force to stop the pushing gale. It caught more than a few gawking fighters unaware that she was suddenly flying in mid-air, but not enough to stop the God Persona to swing his blade down overhead.

Smirking, Satsuki clasped the blade with both hands, stopping it just from reaching her brow. The force did push her back down, her feet now planted to the ground and cracking underneath. The rumbling was loud, but… why did it sound like crackling thun-?

BOOM! A bolt of Zionga struck a moment later, singing her clothes and skin, as well as part of the castle floor. She still held firm to the blade, her smirk falling slightly out of annoyance.

"I thought we established that doesn't work?" she asked the Persona rhetorically.

Izanagi – and by proxy, Shirou – didn't answer. He just redoubled his efforts as more sparks danced his metal tips.

Just as she contemplated whether to break his polearm, Jiraiya caught her peripheral vision. It was just a moment, but he passed the same spot again. And again, as he zipped around her in a circle.

A faint whistle, almost unheard in the roar of battle, started to grow in volume. And a thick green torrent of energy formed, with her firmly in the center. If that wasn't enough, the booming thunder also echoed in the halls, striking almost uncontrollably around them.

Then, a brilliant white light flash, if only for an instant, directly above her. She knew as she was forced to stare up past Izanagi in their deadlock.

"Garu-!"

"Zio-!"

It was in that moment, Satsuki realized their intention. "Oh."

""Dyne!""

With the forced of a jet-propelled hammer, the collision of two forces became one. A spiraling vortex that imploded on itself, and a lightning bolt as thick and hard as a tree trunk. It was enough to slam Satsuki down to the floor… below the collapsed one.

 

[Jason Wu]

Persona Vampire hunters. Fun premise

 

[Testerx900]

I'm personally expecting Kagutsuchi showing up again &/or Jiraiya evolving into Susano-o.

 

[S!ËGFR!ÊD]

Persona Vampire hunters. Fun premise

Click to shrink...

Nah, that's just the current arc. Can't wait for the Grail War, Rin will be pulling her hair out over Shirou's bullshit. Also waiting for Angra to show up having subsumed Kagutsuchi.