An arrow flew across the dark room, piercing the targeted shadow directly through its head. The creature fell face first on the hard floor, disintegrating away.
"Nice shot!" Behind her, Yukari heard the unmistakable voice of Junpei call as he hacked away at another shadow.
"You'd better pay attention to what you're doing!" Yukari shouted back, watching as the shadow he was fighting lunged at him.
Junpei leapt out of the way and sliced its head clean off, grinning back at her.
S.E.E.S was on a routine mission in Tartarus, taking on a high floor in the Harabah block and cleaning out the shadows that inhabited it. The group tried not to spread out too much, but when a particularly large army of shadows scrambled into the room, they all separated into smaller segments to take them on. From across the room, loud barks and gunshots echoed off the walls as Koromaru and Aigis took on a large shadow in the corner.
Fuuka stood in the center of the room, her Persona summoned. She was monitoring the weaknesses of the shadows, calling out to her companions and telling them if certain attacks were stronger or weaker against the opponents.
Akihiko and Minato battled a large shadow that tried to advance on Fuuka, while Mitsuru and Ken were nearby Junpei and Yukari, finishing up the rest of the smaller ones.
They all regrouped in the center of the room after the last shadow was struck down.
"I think that's enough for tonight, everyone. We should head back now," Mitsuru sheathed her rapier and gestured to the warp that would take them back to the first floor.
A rumble of agreement sounded through the group. They were all sweaty and tired; the Dark Hour was soon going to come to an end.
The walk back to the dorm was short and easy. The group had gone back the same way so many times that they didn't even have to look at the street signs. It was as if their feet were on autopilot as they kept up conversation on the way back home. They bypassed several coffins that were surely the few pedestrians that walked the streets at night.
Reaching the front of the dorm, Mitsuru swung open the door with everyone following her lead. On a typical night after shadow slaying, S.E.E.S would usually shower and go to bed. That was where everyone was headed, if not for Aigis' odd behavior.
Said robot was stood firmly just outside the building, not moving in like everyone else.
"Yo Aigis, you alright there?" Junpei slightly nudged the android to stir her.
Her bright eyes were transfixed on the large moon in the dark green sky. She refused to look away for a few more moments before speaking.
"Why is the Dark Hour still in effect?"
She spoke softly, but her words reached everyone in the dorm. Yukari and Fuuka stopped on the first steps of the stairs to look back at her.
"What was that?" Akihiko walked back outside and stood behind her. "What did you say?"
"My internal clock reads 12:03 in the morning, yet the side effects of the Dark Hour are still in motion," Aigis explained.
"Well, maybe your clock is off a bit. It could happen, right?" Junpei looked back at the others.
Instead of words, a loud crashing sound echoed in response. The rest of S.E.E.S rushed outside to investigate. A small cluster of shadows scrambled around in the street, knocking things down.
"How did we miss those?" Junpei asked, nearly yelling his thoughts.
"Some of them must've been following us," Akihiko said back to him.
Without saying anything, Aigis rushed down the street, engaging with the dark creatures.
"Come one!" Akihiko urged. He ran down the street himself, pulling out his evoker.
Gunshots rang out as Aigis hammered on the large shadows. The grotesque things had an unnecessary amount of legs, some of which were sticking up in the air, not reaching the ground. Each shadow wore a green mask with no eyes or mouth, there was only lines for eyebrows and the imprint of a nose. A large open mouth was drooling under the mask, with large bottom teeth overtaking most of the space.
"I need your help!" Aigis cried out, wrestling one of the shadows, the many legs covering its body kicking her down.
Akihiko took a running leap at the shadow nearest to him and let out a series of strong punches.
By then, most of S.E.E.S had caught up to the pair, yanking out their evokers.
"Come, Isis!" Yukari called out, pressing the gun to her forehead.
With a bright flash of light, her Persona materialized, summoning a large gust of wind that tore through a shadow to the left of Akihiko.
The shadow turned away from the boxer and fixated on its attacker. With a loud screech, it jumped forward and began chomping down on Yukari's Persona, using its large bottom teeth to dig into the body of Isis.
Yukari stumbled back in pain, not expecting the immediate response. Surely the shadow should have been stunned in the very least, even if it was resistant to wind. Yet this shadow hadn't even flinched.
Fuuka stood near the back of the group after summoning Juno. Focusing on the shadows in front of her, she scrunched her head and closed her eyes, waiting for the voice of her Persona to lead her to an answer.
She was not given anything.
Yukari looked to be in terrible pain and her Persona eventually shrunk away, breaking into tiny pieces of blue light. Akihiko was struggling under a shadow and Aigis had begun to back up from the enemies, waiting for the assistance of her companions.
Fuuka wanted to help desperately, not being a fighter herself. The shadows were right in front of them all, so why wasn't she getting a reading off of them?
Awaiting Fuuka's command, Mitsuru stood next to her, offering protection if it was needed and support if the weaknesses of the shadows were ice-based.
Distracted by the monsters before her, she almost didn't see the look of distress on Fuuka's face.
"Yamagishi, what is it?" She turned away from the battle, resting her hand on the outside of Juno.
"I can't sense anything from the shadows," Fuuka whispered, a mix of fear and confusion taking over.
The battle raged on as Minato and Junpei both drew their swords, rushing into the crowd of black mass and hacking away at the many appendages sticking out.
Akihiko stumbled out from the mass, having finally thrown off his attacker.
"Be careful! These guys are really strong!" Akihiko called out, before slowly getting to his feet.
Just as he said that, Ken was flung backwards in the air, hitting the ground with a loud thud. He groaned in pain, reaching for his spear that had landed a few feet away from him.
Koromaru growled and took an attack stance. With a loud howl, he summoned Cerberus, letting lose a fury of attacks on the shadows.
Yukari made her way over to Akihiko, clicking the evoker to her head and bringing Isis once again. She began healing Akihiko, who still hadn't rejoined the battle due to his fatigue.
Aigis was running out of options. She had made her way to the other side of the shadows, away from the team. She had an opportunity to strike with the shadows' backs turned to her as they fought the others. However, she knew she ran the risk of shooting her friends if she did. In addition, by summoning Athena she would be at risk of the same punishment that Yukari received. Once the attention of the shadows shifted to her, it would be five against one, while also taking a lot of damage herself.
Plans began shifting through her mind as she began to analyze her situation more thoroughly. Perhaps if she could separate a shadow from the bunch and take it on, she could keep it away from the others and make their load lighter, so to speak. She narrowed her eyes in concentration as she began to put her plan into action.
After the healing, Akihiko was up again, this time summoning Caesar to fight.
"Back up guys, I'm unleashing a storm!" He shouted.
Junpei and Minato ran behind him, covered in scratches and scrapes, with Minato even sporting what looked like a bite on his face.
Koromaru backed off too, understanding the command. He grabbed ahold of Ken's jacket and pulled him to safety as he ran back. Aigis heard the call and put off her plan of assault until the shadows were stunned.
With a brilliant flash of light, Caesar let out a full force Ziodyne, shocking all the enemies in sight and killing two of them.
With three remaining, Aigis used her new found energy to grab one of the legs on the middle shadow and toss it away, letting out a torrent of gunshots in its body as it flew in the air.
Ken stood next, petting Koromaru and then rushing forward to the shadow in front of him. He spun the spear above his head and leapt in the air, stabbing the shadow nearest to him. The shadow's mask cracked and its body slumped down as it begun to turn to mush.
Aigis finished up her opponent with a swift kick and Mitsuru finally took her stance, summoning Artemisia and commanding a strong ice attack, swiftly putting an end to the last shadow.
Juno disappeared in a flash of light and the group let out a sigh of relief.
"Did anyone notice that those shadows were a lot stronger than usual?" Junpei was the first to speak up after the ordeal.
"You think?" Yukari shot back.
"I'm sorry everyone," Fuuka spoke up next, looking at the ground. "Juno couldn't get a read on the shadows you were fighting. I don't understand why, it was like they were blocking my ability or something."
"Hey, don't let it get to your head, we were all having trouble with those things; though I think that's pretty obvious," Junpei grinned at her and gestured to the injuries he and Minato had.
"Indeed, there was something off with those shadows. Besides that, we have not addressed the pressing issue that remains," Mitsuru added. "Why is it still the Dark Hour?"
Everyone was silent. There was no present answer to the question, only theories that gave more questions.
"Well, let me heal you guys first, then we can discuss things back at the dorm," Yukari summoned Isis again, casting a healing spell that closed all the small cuts and turned their bruised skin back to their proper skin tones.
"Maybe we should get some sleep first. This could all be some misunderstanding, right? Maybe the clock is off or something. Besides, we're all really tired after that battle. If we are correct, then we can discuss it in the morning after everyone's rested up. We can also talk about those new shadows and what happened with Fuuka," Minato spoke up, looking to each member of the team. He noted the tired look in their eyes, fatigue taking its toll on some of them more than others.
"I agree. We should all rest. We'll discuss things in the morning," With a flick of her hair, Mitsuru walked down the street and inside the dorm, with the others following behind.
And so it begins