Consider this fanfiction to be the love-child of the movie Inception and the Persona series, primarily P3 and P4. I've made my own tweaks and stuff, but yeah. Got nothing much to say but read and enjoy! Comments and reviews are welcome.
Prologue
"Are you trying to tell me that I'm dreaming right now?"
"Absolutely."
"And why would this be relevant to the business at hand at all?"
"Well Mr. Saito, because the only way we can protect your most deepest, darkest secrets is for you to let us 'in.' The only way we can accomplish this is by stepping into a place where those secrets are floating around in your sea of consciousness. Or should I say unconsciousness?"
The Japanese businessman known as Saito crossed his arms. He had been spending the past 2 hours sitting on a very sleek table, with nothing but a lone clock sitting at the center of the table. Directly across from him was a woman dressed in very sharp business dress; she wore a white blouse with black pants that were matched with a dark jacket. Her dark-blue hair was mostly covered by a black cap that she wore in such a way to cover one eye, although her lone visible eye gave off more determination and intelligence than most detectives with two eyes. The one detail that caught Saito's eye was the fact that this woman wore a tie along with the blouse; he considered this to be an interesting juxtaposition of male and female dress. Nevertheless, the woman's demeanor kept him from making any criticisms on her outfit.
"Well then, Miss Shirogane, please do continue."
"Thank you, Mr. Saito. As you mentioned before, you had a very important piece of information that was monumentally important to your company. It was a tip you received from a very important friend, and you've even trained yourself to bury it deep within your subconscious."
Saito nodded.
"In fact, I should point your attention to these people and the place we are currently in. You recognize this casino-resort, correct? It's the newest one you've completed, and you just had your grand opening three days ago. However, do you remember what happened between your grand opening and today?"
Saito seemed puzzled at first. Once he started thinking about it, he sighed and shook his head.
"Do you remember how you got here?"
Saito took another moment to try to remember. Once he realized he couldn't, he raised an intrigued eyebrow.
"You see, Mr. Saito, most people can't remember how or when they begin dreaming. Most of the times it seems like it's another part of daily life. This casino-resort is constructed by your subconscious, and is the setting of your dream. And the people out there on the casino floor, outside of this conference room, and even throughout this building, are all a part of your subconscious.
"So they're not real?"
"They're projections of your subconscious, designed to protect information you've stored below your consciousness."
"How so?"
"You see, I have reason to believe someone is actively trying to steal your information...and they are somewhere in this dream right now."
"How are you so certain?"
"Because I am a special part of your subconscious designed to combat such intrusions. You see, the thief has been trained to invade your subconscious and plant a bit of himself in it. Take another good look at the people outside on the casino floor."
Saito looked through the glass window. The conference room held a vast view of the entire casino floor, where people were gambling regularly. They looked like regular people, except for one detail: they all were wearing colored masks. Saito did not see them before the meeting had started. The masks themselves were solid colors; Saito could pick out roughly three kinds of masks he could see, and he could faintly notice all of them had some type of roman numeral number on the forehead.
"You see, Mr. Saito, when your subconscious starts becoming more secure or aware of 'foreign invaders', they become a bit more hostile. These aggressive parts of your subconscious start donning these masks as indications, but the thief has disguised himself as one of these masked people."
"Really now?"
"Yes. You see, the thief is using this mechanism to his advantage because your subconscious would not try to question which masked person could be him; it would simply go into an endless cycle of questioning itself, rendering it useless."
"And you're not wearing a mask...but aren't you a part of my subconscious?"
"As I said before, Mr. Saito, I am a special part of your subconscious. If I were to behave in the same way as your regular subconscious, I wouldn't be much good, would I?"
"Ah, I see."
"I can safeguard the information for you AND capture the thief red-handed if you tell me the whereabouts of the information. I'm certain you must have it in a safe. Since there's no one in this room but us, not even your regular subconscious, you may disclose the information to me here and now, and I will investigate the location tonight; I'm sure the thief will strike quite soon. Your subconscious can't know about our role, since the thief may one of the subconscious, and will try to thwart us. He may even turn your subconscious against us. Thus, your subconscious must not know exact details about us...but even as I am telling you all of this now, your subconscious will slowly become aware of a foreign presence."
"How will this help?"
"You see, if your subconscious is aware of a foreign threat, but has no clue as to who it may be, it will start questioning itself, and it will go nowhere. The thief would not be able to act on his own without sticking out like a sore thumb, and that's where we will catch him."
"You know, I can't help but to think perhaps you are the thief, Miss Shirogane."
"With all due respect, Mr. Saito, if I were the thief I would have already stolen your information by now."
Naoto's taking her sweet time in there...
Kanji was leaning against the wall, right next to the door to the conference room. He was a bit surprised how comfortable he was wearing a very well-fit pin-striped suit. Naoto had suggested for him to wear a tie, but Kanji neglected to wear that entirely.
Normally he could be leaning casually, but he kept his stern, threatening face on, since he was directly across from two of Saito's bodyguards. Before the meeting started he didn't pay much attention to them, but once they had put on the masks, they began to eye them very carefully.
So they got their masks on already, huh? Damn, Naoto's going for the 'Charlie Gambit'! This better work...
No sooner after he finished that thought, Naoto and Saito came out of the door. She queued Kanji to bow to Saito as he and his bodyguards did the same. Afterwards, Saito prompted exited, walking back to his chambers. Naoto and Kanji made their way to their hotel room, silently passing by other masked people. They began to talk as soon as they got into the room.
"So could yah explain to me again why you're going for a point-blank shot?"
"Come now, Kanji, I thought I explained the gambit before the mission started."
Naoto elegantly took off her jacket and slid it onto a nearby chair. She loosened her tie and pulled out her pipe, lighting up for a quick smoke. After a couple of puffs, she sat down facing Kanji, who was casually sitting down on the bed.
"Yeah yeah, you said some mumbo-jumbo about freaking Saito out with some actual details about what's going on. After that...uh..."
"Yes, you're correct so far. By telling him some of the facts of the dream state, I've raised his subconscious's awareness to the situation. Once it accepts that it may be its own enemy and that we are the solution, we should be able to slip by their security."
"And then we nab the goods, right?"
"Well, without sounding too much like a juvenile thief...yes."
Naoto chuckled briefly while Kanji scoffed at the small jab at his ego.
"Alright then...so when are we cracking that safe?"
"Seeing as how our exit route will be open in about an hour, we should get going now."
Almost immediately Naoto and Kanji made the preparations. In a matter of minutes they had both changed into dark clothes and had equipped sneaking gear on. After a quick nod and a lock check on the door, they opened the window. Kanji threw down a rope while Naoto climbed down a few floors. Once she reached the target window, she used a silent window-cutting device to make a large, circular hole. Once it was complete, she swung and slid right in.
She stuck out a "thumbs-up" signal outside of the window, which gave Kanji the clear to climb down by himself. He tied the rope to one of the towel bars in the bathroom (which was firmly attached to the wall), and proceed to climb down the rope himself. He had a bit of an urge to yell "Cowabunga" and kick the window, but Naoto flashed him a look right before he could kick through the window and make a loud noise. Seeing that very serious and nearly terrifying look on her face, Kanji decided to silently go through the hole.
They had both arrived in another room, similar to the conference room in size, but all that was inside the room other than ornate pictures of Japanese warlords and tigers was a lone safe in the center of the room.
"No guards...everything is going according to plan."
"Yeah... so why do you look like we're in deep shit, Naoto?"
"Because everything is going exactly according to plan. My instincts tell me something is supposed to throw a wrench into our plans, but..."
"Whatever! Let's just crack this thing already!"
Naoto proceed to careful open the safe with the lock combination Saito gave her, while Kanji kept on lookout. Once the lock clicked, she slowly opened the safe and took out the note. Kanji couldn't help but also turn to look at the note. They both glanced through it, realizing it was indeed the information they needed.
"Excellent. Now that we have another clue, we're another step closer in catching the 'Comatose Killer.' Now we should hurry and-"
No sooner when Naoto whispered exit suggestions, the lights in the room came on. Naoto and Kanji found themselves surrounded by several bodyguards, armed with guns and donned in the colored masks. As they turned around, they saw a man with a special black and white mask holding Saito hostage. Saito had been tied up and his mouth was taped as well.
The black and white masked man clapped slowly.
"Interesting approach...directly alerting the patient so his subconscious would get all wonky...nice attempt, Miss Detective! Unfortunately you assumed I had the ability to merely pose as one 'person' in his subconscious. However, I must say that I have already infected his entire subconscious, so needless to say...ALL of it is me. Or you know, not really me but part of my subconscious that's invaded Saito's...well, you're smart enough to know the drill already."
"If that's the case...then Saito's subconscious is entirely..."
The man in the black and white mask threw a thumbs-up sign and made a bell sound.
"We have A WINNER! Yes, Miss Detective, dear Saito's subconscious is now consisted of my Shadows. And yes, in case you were wondering, Saito will still be comatose and you will be devoured by his subconscious...redone by me, of course. Thanks for playing!"
The man in the black and white mask swiftly pulled out a knife and slit Saito's throat, killing him instantly within his own dream. As soon as the body fell, the bodyguards all prepared to fire at Naoto and Kanji.
"Any last words?"
Kanji flipped the masked man off.
"Well said, Kanji. Now then, let's get out of here!"
Naoto pressed a button on her watch. All of the sudden an explosion opened a hole through the ceiling, momentarily blinding the bodyguards with the debris. They immediately opened fire, although blind-shooting. The bullets were hitting something, but they didn't realize until the dust cleared that Naoto and Kanji were protected by an armored motorbike. Kanji revved up the engine as Naoto held on tight.
"Smell you later, asshole!"
Kanji let off one more fresh insult before accelerate through the crowd of bodyguards. The duo burst right through several walls before going through the main hallway. The sounds of bullets whizzed right by Naoto's and Kanji's heads. Once they broke the main door down, they found themselves driving right through the main casino floor.
Almost instinctively Kanji swerved out of the way to dodge incoming lightning bolts. About five Bronze Dice were right on their tail. Naoto tried using her gun to shoot them down, the best she was doing was probably tickling them.
"I didn't expect actual Shadows to develop from Saito's subconscious...looks like the Comatose Killer really outdid himself this time!"
"HOW COULD YOU BE APPRECIATING THE BASTARD'S METHODS RIGHT NOW?"
"Sorry, about that, Kanji. Anyway, our exit should be right through the main door!"
"Got it."
Unfortunately for them, there was a mammoth Gigas-type shadow with a metallic body and red hair right in front of the door that was supposed to be their exit.
"Damn it! How much time we got until the 'kick'?"
Naoto looked at her watch.
"Twenty seconds."
Seeing as how the Gigas was standing right in front of the exit, Kanji and Naoto decided to think fast. Naoto aimed her gun for one of the tables in front of the path and shot two of the legs off, creating a ramp out of the table.
"Kanji, wait. Even with this speed I don't think the table could support all of our weight-"
"COWABUNGA!"
Without any regard to logic or gravity, Kanji rode the table-ramp and launched himself and Naoto into a collision course with the Gigas' face. In midair Naoto and Kanji leaped off the motorcycle in opposite directions. During the Gigas' confusion Naoto shot the motorcycle's gas tank. The erupting explosion blinded the Gigas as Naoto and Kanji landed gracefully. Well, Naoto landed gracefully; Kanji landed on his face.
"Ten seconds, Kanji!"
Naoto and Kanji belted to the door, trying to escape from the Shadows that were closing in on them soon, including the angry Gigas. Kanji ripped the door open, releasing a blinding light.
"And...NOW!"
Before the shadows could reach Naoto and Kanji, they were both immediately sucked into the bright light like a vacuum. The door shut tight, and locked with a resounding click.
Naoto and Kanji woke up next to the comatose Saito. They were in the hospital room where Saito was treated and kept alive through the machines. In addition to the hospital machines, Saito was hooked up to the same strange device as Naoto and Kanji. They both removed the wires that connected all of them.
"You guys 'bear-ly' made it in time! I was so worried..."
Teddie had been the one operating the device while Naoto and Kanji were infiltrating Saito's dream. He was not wearing the usual bear suit that his teammates were used to seeing in battle. He was still dressed in black slacks and a white dress shirt, with his patented red rose where his heart was. He still had his odd hairdo and blue eyes, but he was always a bit teary-eyed from the recent dream missions, especially since each one was becoming more dangerous than the last.
The total time that elapsed in the real world was one hour; this was equivalent to one day (24 hours) in the dream world. Naoto and Kanji had spent roughly 6 hours setting up the meeting with Saito in his dream world and executing the heist, so only 15 minutes had passed in the real world. For Teddie, it was a very long 15 minutes.
"I appreciate the concern, Teddie, but we were able to obtain another clue, albeit we did it by the skin of our teeth."
"Yeah...it sucks we can't use our Personas like we did 10 years ago."
"Well, you guys were able to make it out alive, which seems good to me! I couldn't 'bear' the thought of losing you guys in there..."
Naoto chuckled slightly while Kanji groaned at Teddie's patented bear puns.
"True, if we would have been killed in Saito's dream world, we would have been prey to his infected subconscious. Whoever this Comatose Killer is, he's been much more proficient at invading his victim's subconscious and turning them into Shadows. It hasn't until recently been as serious as the Shadows we used to fight 10 years ago...but we don't have enough Potential anymore to do direct combat."
Saito's life meter had been beeping regularly while they were talking, but now it was slowing down. It slowed to a tick a few seconds, during which everyone looked at the meter. Once it stopped completely, everybody sighed.
"Damn...another one bites the dust."
"Unfortunately we weren't able to save Saito from the Comatose Killer...this makes three victims now."
Suddenly, there was a knock on the door.
Before Teddie and Kanji could make a quick scramble to clean up the equipment, Naoto held up her hand and stopped them.
"Come in."
When the door opened, a vert elegant young lady walked in. She was dressed in a blue jacket and a blue skirt, with navy blue high-heels to match. She kept a very serious, but deep look on her face. Her gray hair was very neatly done into a stylized ponytail.
"Good afternoon, Naoto. Kanji. Teddie. As you may know already, I am Margaret."
Naoto nodded.
"Yes, I had a memo from the woman herself that you were coming in. Even though the equipment is from the Kirijo Group, I assume you aren't here to find any faults, are you?"
"Not at all. I am here to inform you of a change in operations. The Kirijo Group has decided that there should be a new method designed for the missions concerning the Comatose Killer. I understand that you currently cannot use your Personas inside the Dream World, correct?"
Kanji chuckled.
"Damn, word travels pretty fast. Yeah, we figured that out a while ago already, but now the Shadows that the Killer implants in the victim's subconscious are a hell of a lot stronger now! We can't fight them like we used to."
"Yes, the Kirijo Group's analysts have calculated this phenomenon already, although the timing of the presentation of this information is rather...inconvenient, you may say. However, I am grateful that you two were able to make it out alive."
"Thank you Margaret, but I'm sure you understand Kanji and I can only go so far with merely our wits."
"Yes, which why I have come to inform you of the construction of the new team."
Margaret handed Naoto a folder marked "P5." Naoto flipped through it briefly, while Kanji and Teddie were peering over her shoulder.
"The Kirijo Group has decided that a new team should be designed to infiltrate the victims minds to search for clues, and if possible, also destroy the Shadows that infect the victims' subconscious. Analysts only have made projections, so it's not certain whether it is possible, but in light of other alternatives, perhaps it may be the best method to use currently. The new members should consist of people who have a high concentration of Potential. The five names of the people found through the system are in that folder. Also, my Master has worked with them to find the next Wild Card as well."
Naoto nodded carefully.
"I see. So then I suppose our job is to find the members for this new team?"
"Yes. I take it you read the main location for all of these members?"
Naoto smiled.
"Well, of course. It's been 14 years since I've been to Port Island. Do you remember that class trip, Kanji?"
"Hell yeah! Fun times. Although it says here the kids are located in the college university nearby that location."
Margaret nodded.
"Yes. The core members of Team P5, including the Wild Card, are all located at Gekkokan University."
Prologue End
Notes: Thanks for reading. Any positive/negative/constructive feedback is nice and highly appreciated. Actual chapters will come once I iron the details out; this story is going to be a bit more complex than what I've written before (that's what I get being inspired by Inception), so please let me know along the way if it doesn't make sense, or if some details/story elements aren't explained that well. Thanks in advance!