Shin Megami Tensei

Persona 3: ParaPol

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Persona 3, SMT, or any characters within. They belong to Atlus.

Chapter I: New Dilemma

"So I said to him, keep the wrapper!" Mitsuru said to an audience of her friends in the S.E.E.S. lounge area. They laughed at her joke, for the most part, allowing Mitsuru to sit back in her comfortable chair and listen to the next person's joke.

She found herself doing this a lot lately: sitting in the lounge every afternoon and telling juvenile jokes to people she barely knew from Gekkoukan, but Gekkoukan graduates nevertheless. Every afternoon she would exit her office and take an hour-long break. Even though she thought it was meager, it had to be better than the breaks that S.E.E.S. field soldiers received, including her old dorm mates.

Junpei was somewhere in Central America, scheduled to arrive back in Japan today. His mission was to investigate the truth behind a myth of an ancient lost treasure of cursed Aztec gold. Supposedly, it was a success, but with Junpei, she never knew.

Akihiko was conducting a raid in Transylvania as she sat there. Local ParaPols had requested S.E.E.S. to intervene with the vampire situation over there, and in turn, Mitsuru enlisted the aid of the Romanian military to raid a Transylvanian village to kill one of the vampires there.

As for the rest of her old friends? Well, Yukari and Minato were still missing (much to the frustration of Fuuka and the entire S.E.E.S. spy agency), Ken was currently giving his valedictorians' speech at Gekkoukan, and the rest of them were somewhere within this facility. Somewhere. Mitsuru never kept tabs on the whereabouts of her friends.

When the elevator to the lounge 'dinged' and Mitsuru saw one of her aides come out of it, accompanied by Fuuka, she motioned to excuse herself from the area and head over to the rather small, nervous looking boy. Barely even old enough to serve in S.E.E.S., he had chosen a job at the civil branch rather than the military.

"Mrs. Sanada, ma'am!" the boy saluted, prompting Mitsuru to salute back, albeit rather lazily.

"Yes? What is it?" Mitsuru asked.

"Well, I...er...it's just that..."

"This is exactly why I came along," Fuuka said, putting her hand out in front of the boy's mouth to stop him from speaking and coming closer to Mitsuru so she could speak in a hushed voice.

"Mitsuru...you should come with us..." Fuuka whispered, prompting Mitsuru to look back at her friends in the lounge.

"Why Fuuka? Anything you can tell me in private you can say right here, unless of course it's-"

"It's classified information. In fact, the boy was only about to tell you a portion of the story."

"Classified, huh? Fun." Mitsuru remarked, taking off her glasses and rubbing the space in between her eyes with a few of her fingers. Nowadays she didn't have much to speak to Fuuka about other than mission briefings and classified information. Neither of which was much fun. Granted, being the commander of a major ParaPol wasn't much fun, either, but it was still a hell of a lot better than having to sit through one of Fuuka's intelligence presentations.

Fuuka motioned to the elevator, but stuck her palm out when the aide tried to enter.

"I'm sorry, you'll have to catch the next one. You understand, right?" Fuuka asked, ushering Mitsuru into the elevator and hurrying in herself, quickly pushing the 'close' button. The stunned aide kept looking at the two women through the gap in the doors until it finally closed, offering Fuuka complete and total privacy between the two of them.

"Okay, Fuuka. What's this new 'classified information', because we all well know that there isn't much in the ParaPol community.

Fuuka sighed and pulled out a pack of gum, offering Mitsuru a piece.

"Want some? It's mint flavored."

"Geez, everyone has their own vice in this world," Mitsuru said, slapping her head and looking earnestly at Fuuka. "Fuuka, I know you didn't come to see me just to offer me a pack of gum."

"It's about Akihiko," she said unremorsefully, popping another stick of gum into her mouth. Mitsuru was silent at first, but quickly jumped on those three words.

"Wait, what do you mean 'it's about Akihiko'? Did something happen to him!? What-" she said in a panic, forcing Fuuka to raise her hand up to Mitsuru mouth and offer her some gum again.

"No I don't want your damn gum! What the hell happened!?" Mitsuru shouted, forcing Fuuka to put the gum back in her pocket and quickly explain to Mitsuru exactly what she didn't want to hear.

"I used one of our surveillance satellites to make a quick pass over Transylvania today. I thought I might to an after-battle damage assessment upon that raid that Akihiko was scheduled to complete and report in on."

"Yes, I know. I authorized the entire operation. I took every safeguard there was to protect Akihiko! Now what happened."

"Apparently, there weren't enough safeguards in place. I have the photographs in my office. They're awaiting analysis, but preliminary results don't look good...we found the wreckage of two helicopters and the bodies of twenty soldiers. Some of the soldiers were so badly disfigured that we couldn't tell if they were ours or not, but I counted at least fifteen casualties...both helicopters were ours. Mitsuru, I'm sorry," Fuuka said, placing her hand on Mitsuru's shoulder.

Mitsuru was proud of the uniform she wore. She was proud of her crimson slacks with vertical silver stripes down each pant leg. She was proud of the pure silver top, with its crimson-colored breast area. She was proud of the numerous awards that hung from her chest. She was proud of the single black star that anointed each shoulder, signifying her rank as S.E.E.S. Supreme Commander. But what she was most proud of this uniform was not of her own design. She hadn't done anything to earn it, in fact, she didn't even believe she deserved it.

It was the "SANADA" name-tag that adorned her breast, just above her service ribbons.

Mitsuru didn't cry. She couldn't cry. She was too shocked to cry, before Fuuka spoke up again.

"There is some good news however...one of the helicopters didn't appear to be shot down. In fact, the wreckage is relatively intact. What's more, there's evidence of human activity around the helicopter crash site indicating survivor activity."

"Or it could be some poor villagers pillaging our technology to sell it to the Russians. Fuuka, I want to believe, I do, but..."

"But that's just it, Mitsuru! The crash site is in a valley in the Transylvanian Highlands that is so remote that it would take a helicopter just to reach there! Even though it would only be a five minute helicopter ride from the village where the raid took place, it's altitude prevents access by nothing but helicopter – or an Everest-class mountain climber," Fuuka said, blowing a bubble in her gum. Mitsuru quickly popped it with her finger.

"So, what are the chances of Akihiko's survival?" Mitsuru asked, still trying to take the gravity of the situation in.

"Right now, the odds are somewhere around thirty percent, but my team and I can have enhanced results within the hour!"

"Do it. I want a report on my desk as soon as it's done."

"Your desk? Mitsuru, don't you think it would be better if we relayed the information straight to Outpost Chernobyl?"

"No Fuuka. We don't leave our men behind. And by we, I mean me. I'll be mounting the search and rescue effort myself if I have to. Thirty percent is still actionable."

"Actionable, but not recommended," Fuuka said, just as the elevator 'dinged' to bring them to the administrative levels.

"We'll see about that later. Remember: results on my desk."

"Got it, Mitsuru," Fuuka replied, punching in the elevator code for the intelligence floors. As soon as the elevator doors closed, Fuuka brought her PDA out of her pocket and put another stick of gum in her mouth.

"Computer: find image results for individuals Takeba Yukari and Arisato Minato."

"Searching...Found. Total imagery of three-thousand-seven-hundred-forty-two individuals registered in database matching facial profile. Further rendering?"

While it was true that every member of S.E.E.S. carried their own personal PDA linked up to the S.E.E.S. data network, Fuuka's was different. With a little help from Aigis, she was able to carry an entire spy agency in the palm of her hand, something that would prove to be quite useful now.

"Computer: narrow search to eastern hemisphere. Use iris color recognition and contact differentiation."

"Searching...Found. Total imagery of nine-hundred-nineteen individuals."

"Computer: narrow search to eastern hemisphere, north of the equator. Use nasal bone recognition as well as national ID database."

'Searching...Found. Total imagery of two individuals last reported seen on the island of Luzon, Republic of the Philippines. Report is currently: five hours old."

"Bingo. Computer: search the island for spiritual emission anomalies."

"Searching...Found. Two hot spots of spiritual emission detected at Grid Alpha, Sub-Grid Gamma, Sector Kappa, Ward Eleven, Section Nine. Civilian name is Manila International Airport."

"At long last...I've found you two...now, to find where you're going. Computer: Search civilian database for flight logs containing the passenger data of those two individuals."

"Searching...Found. Individuals Takeba Yukari and Arisato Minato are both outbound from Manila International Airport to Bucharest International Airport. Estimated time of arrival in the Republic of Romania: nineteen hours."

"Romania, huh? Could it be that you two are after the same goal? Well, we'll just have to see. Computer: contact Outpost Chernobyl and order the deployment of an S.E.V. To detain those two individuals upon landing in Bucharest."

"Yes, Officer Yamagishi."

"So, almost a year and a half in hiding, those two are finally coming out, huh? They've got a lot to explain..."