Death's Shadow
By Shini'chi Raine
A/N: And finally, another installment in the Persona Series! …Not. This is in an alternate (parallel?) universe, same characters, same place, different setting, different plot; …yay(?) Well, read on!
Categories: Games/Persona Series
Genre(s): Romance/Adventure
Rated: M – Language, Violence, Sexual Scenes
Pairing(s): FeMC/Shinjirou, minor FeMC/Akihiko
Summary: P3P: A silent breath escaped her; she had mastered breathing silently through her nose, for her job required utter silence as its main weapon. Her small dagger moved at lightning speed to slice her target's throat, and paused a bare millimeter from the skin. It was him… AU-ish.
Disclaimer: I do not own Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 Portable or any of its characters. I'm simply borrowing them for my amusement, and as thus, you cannot sue me! Bits and pieces of this are referenced to Brent Weeks's Night Angel trilogy; I do not own his ideas, simply enjoyed the novels and am forever in awe of his writing skills.
Chapter Prologue
"Remember: silence, stealth, instant death, escape route… silence, stealth, instant death, escape route…"
Murmuring under her breath, she repeated the words like a mantra, watching the white thin stream of her breath as it slowly dissipated in the air. Her scarlet eyes glittered in what little light the moon offered despite the black hood she wore to cover her face; it made her eyes appear to glow eerily. The material she wore for her occupation absorbed light and allowed her to melt into the shadows; to fade and become one with them. A signal was made; she blinked, and seemingly vanished. An instant later—perhaps about ten seconds—ten bodies fell to the ground, appearing to simply faint one after the other, one body for each second. The earpiece sounded, vibrating first in her ear and then bits of static, and then a rough, semi-playful, if sarcastic, voice spoke.
"…Well done, Arisato! Return."
She turned away from her work, heart frozen years ago, as she shed not one tear at the dead bodies littering the ground. A Voice sounded in her head, the Voice that had followed her since she was seven years old; it was laced with concern, but she knew better. It was thanks to this… Voice… she had this strange power. This strange ability that gave her the current job she worked. Not that she was self-employed or anything like that; oh no, she was one of many among her kind, but she had reached the top position in less than two months. Many of her kind hated her for it. After the death of her precious one, she vowed to never let anyone close. She smiled coldly as she leaped across rooftops at speeds clearly inhuman. Well, it didn't matter; she had stopped being human a long time ago. The Voice in her head ensured that.
Chapter 1: Fool's Way
"Arisato! What are you doing?" I froze as a sharp voice pierced the air, and flinched as a red-haired woman—around the same age as myself, if a little older—approached. Her name was Mitsuru Kirijo, the heiress to the prestigious Kirijo group. I worked for them. Of course, my job was a… special job.
"Milady, I am simply writing a report about my… expedition… last night," I replied in a steely voice. The Kirijo heiress and I didn't get along very well; we barely lasted a whole work day without having to grit out teeth not to spit out curse words (okay, well, in my case, I had to do that). She just seemed so uppity all the time because of the money she owned. She wasn't exactly spoiled, considering how her father was, but that didn't mean she wasn't annoying in her own way, either.
Mitsuru had the looks, the intelligence, and even the "brawn" for everything she had going for her. I think I lost count of how many suitors came through the door on a daily basis asking for her hand—of course, they were only after her money, and she herself was simply a "bonus." Unfortunately for them, Mitsuru's way too smart to be stuck with a greedy, incompetent guy. She was simply that, well, fortunate… Unlike me, who her father had picked up off the streets some ten or so years ago after the tragedy of my family; I owed them my very life. …Which, of course, meant that I worked for the Kirijo group.
Bummer.
"Sora, are you listening to me?"
I scrambled out of my thoughts as I returned my attention to Mitsuru, who had apparently been babbling about some nonsense or other. It was hard paying attention to her; while she spoke and gave great speeches, she was still awkward in social situations. Not that I helped any, regardless of that past of ours involving several years of growing up with her. The Voice sounded in my head again, though I blocked it out. I have no use for it at the moment; I have no idea why it continuously tries to plea with me about something or other. How I know it pleads or begs or whatever is beyond me. I just know that I got this "Voice" after the death of my family and my—
"I'm sorry, Mitsuru, what were you saying again?"
I had to stop those thoughts. I swore to never have emotions again; well, rather to have emotions of "caring" ever again. I can still love and care, but probably just friendship. I barely tolerated Mitsuru as it was. Anyway, we had moved off into her private office, so instead of calling her "milady" I switched to "Mitsuru" because she hated that a "childhood friend" (yeah, right) called her "milady" or even "Kirijo" (see, picky and uppity… oi). Mitsuru sighed as she looked at me with eyes of sadness, eyes that I did not want to witness or feel piercing into my being, as if she knew why I was the way I was.
Hmph.
"Get on with it, Mitsuru," I pushed, speaking tiredly. I'd had a late night. The effort put into these nightly expeditions—as I liked to call them—could make a girl rather grumpy, and I was pretty grumpy and tired. My mission had involved around ten people, and all had been found guilty and had need to be "executed" as Mitsuru loved to say.
I was their executioner, of course.
"Sora, I wanted to say well done on the case last night. Still, I wish you could have been a little less flashy… my father had a terrible time trying to cover up the mess you left behind."
Oops. I knew I'd forgotten something last night. I sighed and plopped down in one of her comforters that she kept for visitors or guests when they came into her office. Sadly, I was a natural at what I did, and that sometimes scared me more than it scared my employer, Mitsuru's father. I used to play bodyguard to Mitsuru before I was taken away to be trained for my current job. I sighed as she did, and almost grinned… except that I didn't really feel any particular emotion except tiredness. A lot of what I feel is forced, although in my head I know I'm feeling true feelings, no matter how hard I try to block them out. It sucks, but…
I'm still human; I just have a harder time expressing how I feel these days.
"…at my school dorm tomorrow. Pack up and get ready."
I blinked. "Excuse me?" I nearly barked out, incredulous. Mitsuru raised an eyebrow as she started tapping a finger on her desk, a habit she'd picked up to show her frustration whenever she had trouble conveying to anyone who apparently hadn't listened well enough.
"You heard me, Arisato—" I flinched again; I hated it when she referred to me by last name, "—I said that my father wants you to come to Gekkoukan High, where I go to school. He's moving you to the dorm I will go to live in during the semester. You'll be enrolled as a junior there. As such, you'll be moving into that exact school dorm tomorrow."
If I wasn't already having problems expression emotions, I'd probably gape at her. "Wh—" I started, but she held up a hand. "No, I'm not hearing any questions, Sora. If it makes you feel better, Akihiko will be there."
I wilted. Years ago, I'd had a crush on a guy named Sanada Akihiko. He was an orphan, like me, and had known Mitsuru for just a bit longer than I had. That crush had died off, however, when he had come into my life. He was Akihiko's best friend and practically brother… if it weren't for him, I think I wouldn't be having as much trouble doing what I do…
"Oh yes, one more thing, Sora."
I waved a hand loftily to let Mitsuru know I was listening.
"You have one more case tonight, and your target is…"
I sat up and sighed. "What now?"
"That guy. The one we've been hunting down for a while now. We got him, and you, Sora, are going to execute him."
Mitsuru offered me a folder and as I took it to read it, I could only frown. The picture was blurred, showing the skillfulness of the target to avoid having his face seen clearly, but it was, no doubt, the guy who the Kirijo group had been trying to find for months. I'd only had one run-in with this guy, but I hadn't really done much about it, seeing as he hadn't been my target at the time.
Grumbling, I stood up and nodded stiffly.
"Done."
I left without waiting for Mitsuru to dismiss me. I had a lot of things to do to be prepared for my target tonight. He was going to be tough, but I'm sure I can get him "executed."
I didn't know it at the time, but he'd be my last target to have survived my nightly jobs.
[Persona 3 Portable]
He grunted as his friend the boxing champion punched him hard. "Are you stupid!" the teen shouted. "What made you think it was smart to get involved!" Akihiko Sanada glowered as he growled down at his best friend who was currently nursing a soon-to-be very bruised cheek.
"Seriously, Aki, you have to learn to control your damn punches. And I didn't get involved on purpose, you know that. It was the only way. Mitsuru asked me, you know. For her."
"But… you know, she… and…!"
He stood carefully, moving to a distance where Akihiko couldn't punch him, and sighed. "Look, Aki. I said I would. And… you know. It's for her, not for Mitsuru."
"Fine. Just… argh, fine!"
He knew that Akihiko also held feelings for her—their childhood friend who was not Mitsuru—but so did he. They both loved her so deeply, but she had chosen him over Akihiko. It was his job to protect her. If something happened to him, Akihiko would be there for her. But he had promised a long time ago he wouldn't abandon her.
Too bad he'd broken that exact promise.
"C'mon, we gotta get you ready. Mitsuru's texting me non-stop here."
He shook his head and grunted again as he nursed his cheek. Why had Aki have to choose boxing of all things? Well, he supposed it didn't matter. Right now, what mattered was her. He could only sigh to himself as he followed his best friend back to their school dorm.
[Persona 3 Portable]
I managed to fight back a soft sound of surprised as I accidentally slipped and lost my footing. The Voice chimed in again, trying to tell me about something, but I ignored it. It was only useful when I used the powers it gave me. For now, I used it to increase my speed and fix my grip as I ran across the rooftops. I soon spotted the building of where my target was, noting each window.
The one thing that surprised me was that the building was the same dorm I'd be moving into tomorrow afternoon, but I didn't bother to question why it was this particular building. For all I knew it could be some asshole who snuck in trying to peek at the girls or whatever. Well, he deserved to die for that! I smirked as I changed my grip, landing lightly to avoid gaining attraction. I only had one target tonight, which was also surprising, but hey, it was that guy, so whatever.
I skillfully unlocked the window leading to the room where the target was supposedly staying, tiptoeing carefully as I shut the window, but kept it unlocked. I blinked, using my powers to adjust my eyesight to the darkness, and I found my target asleep in bed, as promised. I waited to see if he would wake up or in general make any movement that might cause him to wake up, but nothing happened after about ten minutes. I withdrew my blade with practiced ease and silence and approached the quiet target, soon to be silenced forever.
[Persona 3 Portable]
He tried to even his breath as well as not move, almost missing the sound of the lock on his window because he was concentrating so hard. He strained his ears trying to listen for light footsteps or even the silent sound of air from someone breathing, but after the window had been shut, he couldn't hear a thing. He closed his eyes, managing to feel a presence he had also nearly missed, trying to pretend he was asleep.
Come on… come on… What are you waiting for!
He let out a silent breath, trying to calm his beating heart. She would move soon; she was highly trained and the fact that Mitsuru had been spreading fake rumors about him would've attracted her to him sooner or later. But she was just taking so long…
[Persona 3 Portable]
A silent breath escaped her; she had mastered breathing silently through her nose, for her job required utter silence as its main weapon. Her small dagger moved at lightning speed to slice her target's throat, and paused a bare millimeter from the skin. It was him…
She froze; eyes wide. It couldn't… it shouldn't… why!
She sheathed her blade as she backed up slowly. Her target shifted, moving slowly, as if he was scared she would bolt out the window as he sat up on the bed.
Lucky for him, she was frozen to the spot, trembling though he couldn't see it through the outfit she wore. In fact, save for the fact that he knew she was there, he couldn't even see her to start with. But that odd blob in the darkness told him where she was.
He reached out a hand, and she finally spoke.
"Shinjirou…"
[Persona 3 Portable]
A/N: (takes a deep breath and sighs) Phew, the preview of the chapter's finally finished! Good grief, I had so much trouble with this story—and the chapter itself—and just ARGH! Hahaha. Review, please!
Chapter 2 Preview
"Why are you here!"
"For you, that's why. I promised, didn't I?"
"You broke that promise! I thought you were… you were…!"
"No. I told you, I promised…"
End Preview
A/N: ;) Hope to see you next chapter! Later!