Here is chapter one and the first of the indy missions of the former investigation team from Persona 4, first up is Souji! Please enjoy and remember to tell me what you thought of it! Part two of Souji is next followed by part one of Yosuke's indy mission.
Chapter One: Time to make History
Souji Seta sat back in his chair adjusting his tie at the same time. He was in school to study law and just got back from a formal sit in on a real court case.
"What a long day" he said exhausted, he was in his small apartment just off his college campus. Souji was about to hop in the shower when a knock was heard at his door.
"Who could that be at this hour" he checked his watch, it was 11:00 PM. Souji opened the door and noticed a package addressed to him resting on his porch.
"What is this?" he picked it up, Kirijo Group he read in his mind,
"Wait, isn't that the group from two years ago?" he shut the door quickly and retreated back into his small living room. Souji opened the package and removed its contents, a letter, a red armband that read "S.O" on it, and what looked like a gun. He immediately looked at the letter, reading it in his mind,
Dear persona user
You have been selected by the Kirijo Group as a recruit for the "Shadow Operatives". Inside this package is a mission brief, complete it and the position is yours. The gun shaped tool in your package is not the type that shoots bullets; it is called an Evoker and is used to summon a persona anywhere, any time. Instructions for its use are enclosed. Please make sure you can use it with no trouble before you embark on the mission. Do not tell anyone about your mission it is specific to your own skill set. Thank you and good luck
Mitsuru Kirijo
Souji put the letter down and read the mission brief, it mentioned shadows that gathered in a warehouse in the city he was attending college in.
"That's really close to here." He commented gripping the evoker in his left hand.
"So how do I use you?" he asked the gun shaped object. Souji read and understood the instructions,
"So all I have to do is aim at my head and fire, sounds easy enough." He thought that the Kirijo Group was trustworthy enough when he had met its agents two years ago. He retreated into his bathroom and turned on the shower, the noise would conceal any sounds that were about to happen. Souji looked at the gun,
"Shoot myself in the head? Is this really gonna work?" he questioned, he noticed his hand was shaky,
"No, come on Souji get it together, if there are shadows around it's your responsibility to take care of it." He stopped shaking as he placed the evoker to the side of his head,
"Yeah, no one else can take care of this" he said slowly gripping the trigger, he closed his eyes and squeezed, *BANG* the sound of a gunshot shocked Souji as he shot his eyes open and jumped back, but what was in front of him shocked him even more. It was his persona, Izanagi-no-Okami in all his glory. He was the same persona he used to defeat Izanami back in Inaba when the murders were still happening.
"I-Izanagi?" he questioned, the giant persona turned and looked at him, he silently got on one knee like he was swearing allegiance to Souji then disappeared into thin air. Souji picked the evoker off the floor and placed it on the counter.
"So it really does work" he took a deep breath,
"So much for a normal life, I wonder if the others got similar packages. At any rate, this is my fight, I can't ignore a bunch of shadows and if they are appearing in the real world, something must be amiss." The buzzing of hiss phone knocked him out of his thoughts,
"Oh crap I was texting Yukiko" he got his phone and looked at the message,
Did you fall asleep?,
Souji quickly texted back,
No, just took a shower is all,
Souji hoped that she would buy that, *BUZZ* he checked his phone,
is everything okay?
Souji knew how to handle this,
Yeah everything is fine, don't worry about me so much, hun
he sent the message and got an immediate response,
I try not to but I just miss you is all
Souji's heart broke a bit, he hadn't been to Inaba in a while,
I know, I'll try to visit soon, I am going to bed, I love you Yukiko.
Souji did not get a response to that one, so he turned and took a shower thinking about seeing his persona again.
The next morning Souji attended his classes as normal. Once he arrived at his home he tossed his backpack aside like dirty laundry and reopened the package he had received.
"Just gotta deal with the shadow threat, shouldn't be too hard, right?" he told himself as he plugged in the address to his phone.
"Whoa, it's close, better take care of this fast" he told himself. Souji grabbed the evoker and put it in his jacket pocket along with a picture of Yukiko for motivation. As he was leaving he received a phone call from none other than his girlfriend.
"Souji! How are you?" Yukiko asked in a rather cheerful tone.
"Hey Yukiko, how is it going?"
"I asked first Souji!" she raised a fine argument,
"I'm doing alright, just stressed from these exams" Souji said. He was thinking about telling her about the package and the fact that shadows were appearing again, but he bit his tongue.
"Are you alright Souji? You sound tired" Souji failed at disguising his shaky voice, yeah he was exhausted from school but someone had to stop these shadows, right?
"Nothing you need to worry about, Yukiko. Just some things I have to take care of is all." Yukiko sighed over the phone, she had obviously meant for Souji to hear it,
"Fine, just don't do anything dangerous" Souji smiled,
"Oh so you do care?" he said slyly,
"Of course I care, Souji, just be careful, I don't know what I would do without you." Souji detected something amiss, Yukiko was being awfully attached today,
"Hey, uh, did something happen to you Yukiko?" She was silent as Souji waited for an answer, suddenly he heard sobbing from the other side of the phone,
"Yukiko, you okay?" he asked somewhat panicked,
"No, I'm really not Souji" Souji prepared himself to listen,
"My father has fallen extremely ill, they don't think he will live another week" she broke down after that, Souji wished that he could hold her in his arms right now, long distance sucked big time.
"Yukiko, I am so sorry, is it his heart again?" Yukiko muttered something that sounded like a yes.
"How about I visit this weekend?" Yukiko answered,
"You sure you can afford to do that?" Souji smiled,
"Anything for you, and besides your father is like my family too, I'm sure my teachers will understand."
"Ok, I'll see you Friday Souji" Yukiko said,
"I'll be there" Souji answered before closing his phone, not even three seconds later he received a text from Yukiko,
I was serious about you being safe, don't do anything dangerous
Souji did not text back. He left the single room apartment and headed to the address, a warehouse just off of campus.
"This place looks abandoned, was this a prank or something" Souji was knocked out of his thoughts by movement in front of him, it was a shadow, a small one but it was still there.
"Damn, what's with this fog?" Souji questioned,
"Wait, it's just like the fog from the TV World a while ago, don't tell me it's back!" Souji grabbed something from his back pocket; it was his gray glasses from the time he spent with the investigation team. He smacked them on his face and slowly opened his eyes taking a deep breath at the same time.
"Let's do this, Izanagi" he gripped his evoker and ran into the fog covered warehouse.
What Souji Seta was walking into was beyond his wildest imagination, he entered a large room covered in fog except for a single path leading to a throne on top of a bunch of cages. Inside the cages were some familiar faces, shadows that Souji recognized were locked up, for what reason Souji figured there was a higher force in power here.
"Who's there, show yourself!" He yelled in an attempt to confirm his suspicions but he received nothing in response.
"I will show myself in good time my boy" the voice made Souji shiver as it invaded his ears, it was an empty, dark voice filled with insanity, Souji shook his head trying to maintain his composure.
"My name is Ryu and I am a collector of sorts. Mostly shadows as you can see, I'm always looking to add to my collection." A figure appeared in front of him, it was an evil looking man with wrappings around his face except for his eyes, the rest of his body was concealed in blackness and his eyes were blood shoot and empty making Souji shiver more.
"You look scared young man, is something the matter?" he appeared behind Souji, his tongue almost licking the side of Souji's face,
"Yes, you will make a fine servant. Give in to the shadows it will be so much easier for you." The man calling himself Ryu suddenly disappeared into thin air, Souji rubbed his eyes,
"Damn it, am I this out of practice?" he had beads of sweat dripping down his face, and he was finding it hard to breath properly, Souji took a knee and before he could react he was surrounded by Mayas. He grabbed his evoker and tried to summon Izanagi, but it was knocked from his hand before he could shoot, he fell to the ground, whatever had hit him hit him hard and it was not alone, Souji couldn't reach his evoker and had nothing to defend himself with, he felt the shadows closing in,
"Shit, this was a stupid idea, I should have ignored that damned package!" He closed his eyes waiting for the end.
"Forgive me Yukiko….."
Souji was ready for the finishing blow; he slammed his eyes shut as the shadows surrounded him.
"Trismegistus!" Souji heard another voice yell out not even a second later the shadows that were about to end his life were set fire and backed off as they became ashes. Souji stood up and tried to run to his evoker only to be stopped by another shadow.
"Oh, crap!" he said taking a step back, suddenly a sword flew from the rafters and stabbed the shadow right in the blue mask it was wearing. "Damn, forgot one" the same voice as before, it was confident, not like the voice of the one who controlled these crazed shadows. A man jumped down from the above catwalk and smirked as he grabbed the gold handle of his katana.
"You must be Souji Seta, right? The name's Junpei Iori, good to know ya!" he extended a hand; Souji took it and nodded slightly, still a little bit shell shocked. "W-what is going on?" he managed to ask the older man, Junpei had a light beard and wore a leather jacket with jeans and tennis shoes. "Figured as much, they were never good with details" Souji perked up,
"What was that?" Junpei rubbed the back of his head,
"Nothing, look all you need to know is that I am a member of the shadow operatives. We are putting new recruits like yourself through trial runs but it's dangerous so our bosses sent current members like me to help out." Souji was starting to understand, the Kirijo Group needed the help of his investigation team, the close friends that managed to stop the Inaba murders while still in High School.
"I see, so who is that?" Souji pointed to the man who called himself Ryu. He was clenching his head as if he had a headache the size of Okina City. Before Junpei could answer Ryu spoke,
"Your trying to separate me from my children aren't you?! You want to steal them from me!" Souji and Junpei got ready to fight, Souji started by running to grab his evoker before he was blocked again, he retrieved it and got ready to pull the trigger, Junpei readied his evoker as well. Junpei smirked suddenly as he put his evoker away,
"I'll let you handle this one, strut your stuff peacock!" he bowed and took a step back. Souji gripped his evoker tightly as Ryu continued his insane ramblings.
"But you won't succeed, they won't leave me for you, no, they won't leave like everyone else." Souji clenched his fist as a dark aura enveloped the crazed man,
"I'LL KILL YOU BEFORE YOU STEAL MY CHILDREN!" The shadows he called his children exploded around him in a cloud of black smoke. "Here we go!" Junpei said from behind Souji as if observing a show,
"He must be supremely confident in his skills" Souji theorized. He had no time to think further though as what was now before him was a large behemoth holding two cages in each one of its gargantuan hands.
"Attack! Attack! Attack!" the giant yelled as multiple shadows emerged from the darkness of the cages and flew right at Souji. Souji refused to hesitate this time,
"This is it, let's do this like old times, IZANAGI!" He yelled as loud as he could shooting the evoker into his head. A blue light surrounded him and the original God Izanagi-No-Okami appeared in all his glory.
"Maziodyne!" Souji announced to his white robed persona, Izanagi simply nodded and spun his blade in the perfect circle summoning lightning blasts from out of nowhere killing all shadows in the area. After the smoke cleared Izanagi stood confidently in front of Souji,
"That was beautiful man! Very impressive, Souji!" Junpei patted Souji on the back. The beast formally known as Ryu was still up and rampaging around the warehouse, "We aren't done yet" Souji said, Junpei nodded,
"Very true, shall we end this?" the behemoth punched downward right in between Souji and Junpei knocking both of them backwards and causing Izanagi to disappear.
"Dammit" Souji cursed slowly standing while gripping his aching side.
"You alright Souji?" Junpei asked from somewhere in front of him.
"I'm ok but that was on hell of a punch" Souji said back,
"You can say that again, he's more powerful than I thought" A light enveloped Junpei for a brief moment and then went away, Junpei looked tired before and his jacket was ripped but now he was just as he was before the punch,
"Oh, it's one of my persona's abilities, it's called spring of life" Junpei said proudly.
"That's a nifty ability" Souji commented. "Why?" The giant shadow beast asked,
"Why won't you leave me alone? Why does everyone hate me so much, just leave me alone!" Ryu cried out flailing pieces of stone at the two men challenging him.
"What is this guy's deal?" Junpei questioned,
"Who cares, time for some action. Souji, attack with me let's see what kind of damage both of us can do at once!" Souji nodded and readied his evoker. Two shots and two personas emerged
"Alright Trismegistus, use Agidyne!" Souji nodded thinking of a good compliment for Junpei's fire.
"Alright Izanagi use Garudyne!" The wind attack was like a tornado as it gathered up the powerful flames and headed straight for the shadow beast before them, the flame tornado hit with deadly accuracy and the monster fell backwards and lay there silent.
"That's how it's done, that was awesome!" Souji shook his head,
"How old is this guy?" he thought to himself.
"Well I guess that settles it, you are defiantly welcome on the Shadow Operatives" Junpei followed up with a thumbs up to which Souji nodded in recognition.
"Here" Junpei handed Souji a red bandana with a black "S.O" printed on it.
"Just put that somewhere on your body and you are officially a member, I look forward to kicking more ass with you!" Souji wrapped the bandana around his upper right arm and tied it tightly.
"I'll be happy to join you guys, if there are shadow problems, I can't ignore it, not with my power." Junpei nodded in approval,
"Couldn't have said it batter myself." He said with a laid back tone.
"IT'S NOT OVER YOU BASTERDS!" The shadow beast stirred and shot up from its back with large scorch marks all over its body.
"No way, he's still alive after an attack like that?" Junpei said in disbelief,
"Hey Souji quick question, do you have the skill Megidoloan by any chance?" Souji nodded a quick yes and Junpei's face lit up,
"Ok, then have this", he shot his head and his persona emerged,
"Use Tarukaja!" The area around Souji's feet glowed yellow and he felt a surge of power that was transferred to his persona,
"Now let 'em have it Souji!" Junpei said jumping backwards out of the way, Souji took a deep breath as he stared down the shadow beast that towered above him, Souji shut his eyes and envisioned those he wanted to protect, he saw Yukiko, Yosuke, Kanji and all the others that he had helped while in Inaba. Suddenly his eyes shot open,
"This is the end of you!" He said with confidence,
"Izanagi, Megidoloan, bring him down!" Izanagi nodded once and jumped up to get to eye level with the beast, he spun his blade and it began glowing with pure power. Almighty power began to pour out of the blade and hit the beast directly causing a massive explosion that did not even phase Souji, Junpei was blasted back slightly himself, but after the dust settled, there was no more shadow beast to be seen. Souji heard whistling behind him, "Damn man you make me proud to wear this" he said pointing to his own bandana. Souji nodded,
"Ryu should be dust, so what happens now?" Junpei shrugged,
"We go back to the Kirijo building in Tokyo and wait for more orders" Souji sighed slightly,
"Alright, I'm ready to leave behind my studies to help the Kirijo group" Junpei smirked,
"Of course you are, studying can wait, we got shadows to kill!" he slapped Souji on the back lightly
"But before we head back, is there a good bar around here? I could really use a drink, you know?" Souji smirked slightly,
"I know one place" "Lead the way then" Junpei said.
The two Shadow Operatives were well into an evening of drinking by now, it was currently 1:20 in the morning.
"Yooooooo Souji, what time is it?" Junpei asked drunkenly. Souji had a few as well but he was nowhere near as messed up as Junpei was right now,
"I think it's almost 1:30" he said in response se to the question. Junpei started laughing randomly,
"The night is still young then! To the Dart Board!" he said raising a glass as he marched over to the dart board. Junpei's game had defiantly improved since high school, he was surrounded by women watching him nail his fourth straight perfect Darts game.
"That's amazing!" one of girls cooed,
"Thanks, years of practice right here!" Junpei said pointing at himself. Souji was told once that he was a darts master when he was drunk, and he wanted nothing more than to see Junpei knocked off his high horse. Souji ordered a few more drinks and was on his fourth when he decided to walk over,
"Hey!" he said a little loudly, Junpei shot his head up to see Souji with his glasses on and hair smoothed back,
"A challenger approaches" Souji said bowing and smirking. Junpei bowed back,
"Have at thee than worthy opponent!" he said beckoning Souji over to the dart board. It was one of the closest matches in the bar's history according to the manager, both Souji and Junpei had a perfect game going into the last round.
"You turn peacock, goo luck up there!" Junpei said drunkenly, Souji took a deep breath, he was damn near hammered at this point but he was surprisingly focused on his objective, he tossed the dart and scored a score of 20 on the board for his first non-Bull's eye of the evening,
"Player Advantage" he simply said handing a Junpei his final dart. A full crowd was gathered to watch the two drunk men play and they were getting in to the game, everyone was silent, Junpei lined up his shot. He tossed the dart and it hit a bull's eye winning him the game,
"Boooyah! Enemy Advantage!" he said at Souji who simply shrugged taking another sip of his beer. The night went on and the two operatives could not have asked for a better bonding exercise, the pair played poker and won, they had the game of darts, and they beat a couple of older guys in a drinking game neither of them remember playing. Overall it was a great night and a great way to unwind after the Ryu fight earlier. The next morning, they woke up with slight hangovers but still managed to find Junpei's car and take the drive to Tokyo where Souji would meet with Mitsuru to confirm his admission to the Shadow Operatives.
Well that was Souji's solo mission, next up is Yosuke's entitled "Playing Hero" Update soon! PLEASE TAKE THE TIME TO REVIEW THIS STORY, I NEED FEEDBACK! Until next time ~~ Ishvalanblood