The sky was strands of purple and blue swirled with black so that the colors bled together in a way that things in the real world didn't. This place looked like Tokyo down to the smallest detail at times, but with a sinister slant to things. It was usually night and overcast no matter the time of day or the weather, but the Mirror Universe was like that. It differed from iteration to iteration and location to location, but some of the rules remained the same.
There were Shadows, you fight them or they kill you. Your Persona was your Shadow bound to your soul by a yolk of sheer will. And not everyone was able to do what they did, so it was up to them to protect what they could and beat back the darkness.
Their leader had made a mistake in the past, one that had cost them lives. It wouldn't be repeated here.
Small puddles of water rested in the divots in the concrete near the corner. It would be okay to rest here. Pressing the butt of her spear into the wet pavement, Nanako bent down to stretch her back. With her free hand she pressed the mouth piece closer to her face, Miss Kirijo said it was unnecessary, the equipment could pick the sound up, she still did it anyway.
"They're quiet tonight," she said between breaths. "I've only seen a few of the little guys."
Kirijo's voice was in her ear loud and clear. "Don't get complacent. We haven't figured out the pattern for this event yet. We really don't know much of anything about what's driving them this time."
It turned out that this was a common thing, places would become infected with shadows. Sometimes the deaths surrounding it just went unsolved and the event stopped on it's own. Other times the event gets wildly out of control. Like Port Island. Like Inaba, where Nanako was from.
"I know, I know." Nanako said. "You've been pushing me extra hard-over doing it could get me hurt too, you know?"
Something whipped through the air near her head and she brought the spear up above her head, bending down to cover herself from the blow. The metal shaft of the spear clanked against her attacker's weapon.
She was strong enough to use her back and shoulders to repel the attack, but in doing so she lost footing and tumbled to the ground. The Shadow before her was in the guise of a vicious looking knight riding atop an angry eyed steed.
From her place on the ground Nanako muttered a single word: "Persona." A swirling double helix of color welled up around her. "Persephone!" A beautiful maiden with billowing auburn curls and a crown woven of leaves sprung out of the shimmering aura that surrounded Nanako and launched a heavy wind attack that bounced the knight away from her and crumpled it and the steed into the street in a heap.
Persephone vanished and Nanako climbed to her feet, resting her weight on the spear. She paused to dust the butt of her skirt off and situate the rest of her clothing.
Miss Kirijo came over the earpiece. "Are you okay, Nanako?"
"I'm fine. More than I can say for our friend here." She lifted the spear in one hand and twirled it expertly one time. "Sorry, buddy, I happen to remember your weakness."
The creature was a few short feet out, but that was the thing about being a Persona user in the Mirror Universe. It made you stronger. You could jump higher, had better stamina, and could fight better. You were like an anime character. Or better yet, you were in the most wire-work heavy Wuxia movie you could think of. Nanako crouched into a quick squat and bounded up into the air, kicking off the light pole that lay dormant on the corner for an extra boost. As she reached the pinnacle of her leap she called out. "Persona!"
Persephone appeared feet below her and rushed down to slam into the knight and horse to hold them in place. As Persephone made contact, she shattered into nothingness and Nanako clasped her legs against sides of the spear and her feet rested on a small pair of nubs three-quarters of the way down the shaft.
She tore down through the air driving the head of the spear deep into knight's back and down through the horse. Black and red plumes of smoke erupted from the wound, spraying out with a hiss. The Shadow vanished leaving only the concrete to hold up the spear. Nanako hopped off and began wiggling it free.
A familiar voice sounded from nearby. "A little cocky, aren't we Nanako-chan?" Rise Kujikawa was standing on the opposite street corner dressed as fabulous as you'd expect THE Rise Kujikwa to be dressed. There was a pair of sunglasses on her head and she was holding some kind of fancy health juice. She looked just a naturally flawless and effortless as she always had.
"You were watching the whole time; I guess Miss Kirijo doesn't quite think I'm ready to be on my own, then?" asked Nanako.
Rise crossed the street, taking a sip of her drink midway through the crossing and she stopped in front of Nanako. Rise was still substantially taller than her and had grown quite a bit in her second year of high school. Though Rise treated their height difference like it had been when they first met; she did this thing where she squatted down and rested her arms on her upper legs. It made Nanako feel like a child all over again.
"I know that's not it. Mitsuru knows first hand how dangerous all of this can be. Two of her friends were...taken from her by this."
"And I'm almost as old now as you were the first time you jumped into the TV," Nanako said.
"I was kidnapped and forced into it." Rise said. She stood back to her full height, looking at Nanako with a little smirk. "I'm not saying that you're too young to do this, Nanako-chan and I'm not even saying that we know best. We just want to make sure that you can handle yourself and that if need be you can go on without us if that's a thing that has to happen."
Nanako's expression soured as she considered a world with out Rise and Mitsuru Kirijo - she considered how badly Yukari had been hurt last time. That's what this was really about. They were drilling her because of what happened to Yukari.
SIS, or the Shadow Investigation Squad, as they called themselves, was really only the three of them, Chie Satonaka, and Yukari Takeba (when she was well enough to get back in the fight). They could be small and mobile and use Rise's travels to mask their own when they needed to. A lot of that travel took place without Nanako, but maybe once she was out of school.
"I understand," Nanako said.
Rise patted her shoulder. "Mitsuru, any sign that this is anything other than a garden variety outbreak like the others?"
There's a long silence. "There's a mega structure below the city, it's almost like, well it reminds me of the tower from Port Island..."
"Do you think there's a risk that it's related to the Avatar of-" Rise was cut off by Mitsuru.
"There's no way. Nyx is leaving Earth alone as far as I can tell. This is similar, but different. Meet back at the room and we can look into it," she said.
"Come on Nanako," Rise said and with a press of a button they were dropped back into the rainy, late evening Tokyo streets.
The air conditioner rattled in a way that made sleep hard to come by. This life of holidays on the road with SIS and unfamiliar ceilings was never going to be the kind of thing that she got used to. Nanako missed her small house back in Inaba sometimes, she missed the fresh country air along the rain spillway where she used to go with Chie to practice.
This hotel room air was dry and lifeless. It cooled the sheets of the bed, but it was too much of a hassle to get up and mess with the thing. She drew the blankets up over her shoulder and covered her neck.
In the darkness of the room her mind kept playing the images of Yukari and that Shadow. There was no warning, nothing was particularly different about this Shadow. RIse had sensed a strange strength in it, but it didn't seem to be more dangerous than a lot of the creatures they had face.
Nanako could still feel the warmth of Yukari's blood running down the side of her stomach and pooling in her lap as she cradled Yukari's body.
Behind them the ring of Miss Kirijo's saber and Rise's shielding and directions were drowned out by the moment. Nanako could have sworn that she felt Yukari's life slipping away. Yukari was recovering in the hospital now. But it had been the most serious thing to happen since they started this.
Nanako shifted in the bed, shoving her fist into her pillow to fluff it. She was sixteen now and an orphan. Her father died two years back from a heart condition and the Kirijo Group's current head and grand daughter of their founder, Mitsuru, approached her with an offer for a scholarship.
Of course, this scholarship program was fighting Shadows.
Sure, there were things that she wanted from life. She remembered the type of high school she saw on television and the little snippets of American TV that she caught. Everyone was always involved in interesting things. Her cousin had done so much in that year he lived with them. There was milestones and class rankings and boys and kissing.
Nanako rolled onto her side, wrapping her arms around the thin frame of her shoulders. The Mirror World was dangerous, but over there it seemed safer than navigating the real world. The rules over there were clear.
Rise sat on the corner of Mitsuru's desk with the tiny bit of green tea extract papaya juice that she had left. Mitsuru hated when someone sat on her desk, but had given up on telling Rise what to do. "So do you sense it?" Mitsuru asked.
There was a beat of time where Rise turned to look Mitsuru in the face, narrowing her eyes at the woman who was her superior and the more experienced of the two of them. Then she smiled an spoke. "Of course I do. My Persona was made for sensing these things-it was the OG navigator and sensor." Rise used a pair of, what Mitsuru knew to be English letters, she didn't understand their context here and ignored it.
"How deep does it go?"
"That's the scary part," Rise said. She was dressed exactly like one would expect Rise to dress in a casual setting, but she entered the Mirror World like this. Open toed, short heeled shoes, white capri pants, a babydoll tee with the name of some foreign band plastered on it. "I sense it as deep as I can sense. It goes down far and it seems like it's growing."
Mitsuru swept her red hair away from her face, pushing it over her shoulder. "Was it always there?" she asked.
Rise shrugged. "I sensed something the moment I came to town last week; that's why I called you. I didn't realize that it was a place and not a thing until just a few hours ago."
"I don't like it. This is much bigger than any of the previous random sightings of Shadows have been and the mental shutdown cases that were going on just a few months back feel like they're connected to that world and apathy syndrome."
"Yeah, but they stopped and this world is still here," Rise said.
Mitsuru slid a photo from under a stack of random papers on the hotel room desk, it was a print out of an assorted group of people cast mostly in silhouette, but there was enough light to catch glimpses of the curves of their masked faces and hints of their eyes. They were young. "The Phantom Thieves phenomena and the "Phan-Site" went live shortly before all the cases of this stopped. If I had to bet on it-"
Rise cut her off. "I was hoping they'd make an appearance, I bet their leader is kind of hot under that little party mask."
"I have questions about this heart stealing thing, among other things."
Rise shrugged. "Each little pocket of the Mirror World we've seen has variations of the rules. After all, we didn't have to jump in a TV to get here either."
"I'd say we go to this megastructure tomorrow afternoon and have a look around. Just on a clearly exploratory basis. I want to see what's growing beneath the Tokyo streets," Mitsuru said.
"You think it's like Tartarus and you're wondering," Rise paused to take a long drag from her straw. "If Nyx was at the top of that place then what's waiting for us in the depths of this one?"
Mitsuru often wondered if the growth of Rise's person had somehow made her psychic, but she wasn't about to confirm anything the woman said to her. "It's possible that the Phantom Thieves, if they're like us, haven't realized there's something below the city or that they have no ambition to explore the depths of that place."
"So we need to at least poke around down in...whatever this place is." Rise said.
"I was thinking we'd call it Jahannam, it seems to fit the theme," Mitsuru suggested.
"Is there a theme?" Rise asked. She only waited a second before speaking again. "We should probably get some rest, especially if we want to make visiting hours at the hospital tomorrow." She hopped down off of the desk, tossed her juice cup into the trash and headed for the door.
"Right, I'll see you in the morning-I've got some stuff to finish up here."