Author's Note: I know this is pretty late but what can I do? University's been a pain, keeping me away from this story for 3 weeks. I think I almost had a withdrawal from not writing anything non-academic works...
Anyway, hope you enjoy this chapter too. It will answer a few questions, although there is too much dialogue.
Disclaimer: I don't own Persona 4, Persona 3 nor any character that would be in this story. They belong to ATLUS.
August 13, 2015 5:50 PM
Souji felt his aching body respond to his mind as he tried to move. Even the slightest twitch made him groan in slight pain. He blacked out after Izanagi finished off the last Shadow, if he remembered correctly. He also remembered waking up after he was strapped securely onto the stretcher. Even then, when they transferred him carefully and secured him, he felt like screaming his head off because of the contact against his skin.
He did a good job of holding in his pained scream as to not make the paramedics panic. There was nothing wrong with his physical body; it was his metaphysical one that was damaged.
He just hoped that the pain would go away after he got some sleep...
August 13, 2015 6:10 PM
Souji was woken up when a pair of slender arms wrapped themselves around his waist. He also felt someone's head push against his throbbing cheek. His eyes watered as he screamed in pain when the arms and head instantly jerked away from him.
His cheek burned as he clutched it, causing it to hurt even more. He gripped the white covers of the hospital bed as he tried to numb the pain from his waist and cheek. He could also hear frantic voices all around him, making his now throbbing head add to the pain he was in. He felt arms hold down his arms and legs to stop his thrashing about on the bed.
He felt the tears in his eyes flow down as they now added to the pain he was feeling. He could hear someone trying to console him while stroking his hair. He finally snapped as he felt petite hands comb through his hair. He found his voice after he had enough of the pain.
"DON'T TOUCH ME, GODDAMIT! IT HURTS!" he roared as the hands restraining him let go of his limbs in shock. The hand on his hair remained there, as though frozen in shock. And then slowly, the hand pulled away. He then heard a soft stream of apologies and the soft padding of feet followed by the opening and closing of the door.
Souji breathed heavily for a few minutes because of the pain and to calm himself down. He heard the door open again and the sound of a tray being put down on his bedside table.
After a few minutes, he felt his consciousness fade together with the pain he felt...
?/?/? 7:07 AM
Souji felt like his body was made of lead. Not only that but he felt like his whole body was sore. It wasn't like the pain he experienced during the fight with the Shadows. It didn't merit a scream from him. Instead he let out a soft groan and tried to rub the sleep off of his eyes with his right hand. He tried to lift it up to his face and felt someone else's hand tighten its grip on his own. He turned his head to the right to see Naoto Shirogane sleeping beside his bed. She fell asleep while sitting on the chair beside his bed. He also saw Yosuke sleeping on the other side of the room on the small sofa of the hospital room with his headphones hanging around his neck.
He felt another squeeze from his right hand and saw Naoto stir and open her eyes blearily. She looked around the room as if to ascertain where she was and then snapped her head towards Souji. He couldn't think of anything to say so he just smiled at her.
"You're... finally awake..." she started as she wiped the tears that started forming. "How could you b so reckless? Why didn't you say you were going back here?" she asked as she tried to compose herself.
Souji tried to find his voice but nothing but a rough, rasping noise came out. Naoto cut him off by looking him straight in the eye.
"We could've helped you..." she said softly as some tears fell from her eyes.
Souji's breath hitched as Naoto sobbed quietly, hiding her face on the bed's surface. He turned to his side, ignoring the stiffness he feels throughout his whole body and reached his other hand out to run his fingers through her hair.
"I-" Souji started but he coughed to clear his throat. "I'm... sorry. I just... didn't want... any of you... caught up in this mess."
Just then, the door of his hospital room opened and Dojima walked in with a tote bag and a Junes paper bag. He placed both next to Yosuke and walked towards the couple. When he was close enough, Souji saw that he had a bandage on his right temple. He also had bags under his eyes. Souji assumed it was because of the reports he had to make and the interviews he had to do for the media.
"Good of you to wake up." Dojima said as he crossed his arms.
"I'm sorry for all the trouble..." was the raspy reply of Souji. He tried to sit up on his bed and he was assisted by Naoto. She propped his pillow up so that he would be more comfortable as he sat up. With a quiet "thank you" he turned to his uncle.
"Now's the time to explain everything that's happened. We've been waiting for you to wake up for 2 days." Dojima stated as he narrowed his eyes at his nephew. Souji just stared at him stoically, not betraying a hint of emotion before he averted his gaze. He looked at Naoto and then at the sleeping form of Yosuke before he looked at Dojima again.
"Alright. But please get the others here so that I don't have to tell this story twice..."
August 15, 2015 7:38 AM
Yukiko Amagi sat in front of the reception table near the entrance of the inn. She put her chin on her hand and waited for people who wanted to stay at their inn, answer the telephone for customers wanting to reserve rooms and banquet halls, but none came. It was quite understandable with the time being early in the morning. She would rather be in the kitchen, waiting for the food to be brought to the rooms of the customers or out in the hallways, sweeping the floor than to just sit here and wait.
Especially now that she knew that something was happening. She didn't know what was going on exactly but she knew it has to be something that would be in the same degree from when the murders happened during her second year of highschool.
She felt a very familiar wave of energy pass through her when she was out on an errand the day before yesterday. She even felt Amaterasu become agitated within her. Until now, Amateraus was still agitated that it started to bother her.
She shook her head and wished that she was wrong. That there wasn't going to be another incident like those kidnappings and murders. But when she heard about the two large men chasing Dojima's car to the hill on foot, the gazebo being destroyed and the fact that a lightning strike hit the top of the said hill while the weather was fine, with just the light fog rolling in, was too good to be just a coincidence.
She sighed and continued to stare at the inn's entrance when the inn's telephone rang. She jumped up from her seat from shock and answered the phone.
"Good morning. Thank you-" she started but she was cut-off by Naoto's voice.
"Yukiko-san, please come to the hospital right away. There is something that we need to discuss together with the others." said Naoto. From the sounds in the background, Yosuke was already there together with Kanji.
"I don't know if I could go there, but I'll try to come. I'll call you later if I can't come." replied Yukiko. She was starting to believe that whatever happened on top of the hill was the topic that was going to be discussed.
But why in the hospital? Amaterasu asked Yukiko. Yukiko didn't answer as she didn't know either.
"Please ask for Souji-kun's room. That's where we will meet." And with that, the line went dead.
Yukiko stood there for a full minute, still holding the phone. She was in a state of shock. Shock because of the suddenness of Souji's return to Inaba, but also the fact that he was in the hospital. She put some of the pieces together and immediately rushed to her room.
'He might be connected with the incident on that hill!' she thought as she ran towards the direction of her room. She didn't care whether the front desk was left with no one to take her post right now.
She quickly left and went to her room to change out of her work clothes to a black blouse and a white skirt that ended just below her knees. After a few minutes, she was out of her room. When she arrived at the entrance, she was stopped by her mother.
"Where do you think you're going?" her mother asked. She had her arms crossed which was a sign that she did not approve of her behaviour. Yukiko cringed inwardly and walked slowly towards her mother.
"A friend of mine is in the hospital. I need to be there for him..." she pleaded as she looked at her mother. Her mother held her gaze for what seemed like hours to Yukiko when her mother suddenly shook her head.
"Fine. Go. I'll take your shifts for today. But be sure to be back before it gets dark." Her mother reprimanded. She wouldn't want her only daughter to walk around town especially with the fog rolling in again at indefinite times.
"Thank you, mother!" Yukiko said as she bowed low and ran off towards the shoe rack on the side of the entrance and wore her sandals.
"I hope it's nothing serious, Souji-kun..." she whispered to herself and ran to the bus stop.
August 15, 2015 8:04 AM
The ride to the hospital was uneventful. Yukiko stepped out of the bus and went straight to the reception desk of the hospital. She saw a nurse typing in the computer while looking over what Yukiko guessed to be a patient's report.
"Excuse me, can I know the room of Souji Seta?" she asked the nurse sitting behind the desk.
"Room 208. It's in the left wing of the hospital." The nursed answered with a small smile and turned back to the computer.
"Thank you." And with that she walked towards the stairs of the hospital. She hoped that whatever put Souji in the hospital was nothing serious.
I wonder if he really had something to do with the recent incidents on that hill... wondered Amaterasu as Yukiko continued to walk up the stairs.
Yukiko stopped in mid-step as her Personas statement made. That was the most logical conclusion except that they shouldn't be able to summon their Persona in this world. That one factor was what made her think that all of this was a big coincidence. Maybe all the rumors circulating around town was nothing but that; rumors.
As she reached the second floor of the hospital, she heard two voices shouting at each other. She turned and saw her bestfriend, Chie Satonaka and her bestfriend's boyfriend, Yosuke Hanamura shouting at each other's faces. It looked like Chie was fuming over something and Yosuke was defending himself, his arms at raised a bit just in case of a sudden kick from Chie.
"How could you not contact me?! You're not his only friend in Inaba, you selfish asshole!" Chie screeched as her clenched hands swung furiously in front of her.
"Hey, I contacted you!" Yosuke shouted back as she dodged a stray fist that swung towards him. "And he was the one who didn't want to-"
"I'm your GIRLFRIEND!" Chie cut-off as she swung her fist towards Yosuke's arm. It hit its target and Yosuke yelped in pain and glared at his girlfriend. As fast as the glare appeared, his eyes softened and he let his arms fall to his sides.
"Look... I'm sorry. I didn't mean to do it. But..." Yosuke sighed as he searched for the words to explain himself. "He didn't want anyone to know he went back. Hell, I only found out he came back the day before yesterday..." He scratched the back of his head and looked back at Chie. "It also looks like he got himself into trouble. Maybe that's why he didn't want anyone to know about it. The only one he contacted was Dojima-san."
Chie visibly relaxed but she still had a trace of being pissed when Yukiko walked over to them. Yukiko reached out a hand and touched Chie's shoulder to make her friend relax a bit more. Yukiko turned to Yosuke and gave him a nod before motioning for the couple to follow her to Souji's room.
"So Yosuke-kun..." Yukiko started as Yosuke held the door of Souji's room for the two ladies. "It seems like you know a lot of what happened to Souji-kun. Care to enlighten us about it?" she added.
"As I'm sure that you heard earlier, I don't know what happened. All I know is that he was taken here after the incident on top of the hill." answered Yosuke as he closed the door behind him. "He's going to tell us what happened anyway so it's better to just have him tell the story."
Yukiko looked around the cramped hospital room of Souji. Kanji was standing in the corner of the room, leaning at the wall and looking straight ahead at the opposite wall. Souji and Naoto were sitting next to each other at the small sofa provided in the room, both of them conversing silently. And the last one she noticed was Dojima sitting on a plastic chair near his nephew.
Everyone was there except for Teddie and Rise who can't make it because of the non-ending tours she had to do because of her work.
For the past 2 or so months, no one has heard from Teddie. Everybody in the group was worried about what was happening in the TV World for Teddie not to visit their world every now and then.
Yukiko also noticed the tense atmosphere coming from Kanji, Naoto and Souji as she, Chie and Yosuke pulled out chairs for them to sit on. It felt like an elephant was in the room with them as they made themselves comfortable. Nobody spoke for a few minutes. She felt Chie fidget a bit because of the heavy atmosphere that their other friends were emitting.
After a few more minutes, Kanji sighed and pulled himself off the wall of the hospital.
"What's wrong?" he asked as he stared hard at Souji. "You just wanna get together? Forget this, man! I've got more important things to do back at the shop so if you'll excuse me, I've got to go." He started to walk towards the door but was stopped by Yosuke.
"Look, dude, I know you're hurt but they're our friends, man." Yosuke said as he tried to reason with Kanji. "Are you going to let that ruin our friendship?" he added as he stood his ground against the towering form of Kanji.
For a moment, Kanji looked like he was going to give Yosuke something to think about when he tries to stop him again but he thought better of it and just walked back to the corner of the room. Yosuke visibly relaxed as he walked back towards his chair next to Chie.
"Remind me never to do that again..." he whispered to Chie. He turned to Souji and looked expectantly at him, urging his best friend to start talking.
Souji looked at Naoto who nodded at him and at Dojima who was staring at him intently, waiting for him to start with his story. He took a deep breath and started.
"First, let me ask if you remember the reason I transferred here to Inaba?" he asked the group. Dojima was the first to answer.
"It was because my sis and your dad went overseas to work for that electronics company." Dojima said as he rubbed the stubble on his chin. "But what does that have to do with anything?"
"That's where it all started actually..." Souji answered. His friends all looked at him with surprise as they heard his answer. "My dad was actually tasked by the Kirijo Group to manage the American branch of the company. He found some files that were never meant to be seen ever again by any person, or so what Mitsuru Kirijo told me when I escaped."
"Wait, wait. Escaped? Escaped from what?" Yosuke interrupted. "And what were those files all about?"
Chie smacked Yosuke at the back of his head to stop the stream of questions that was threatening to flow out of Yosuke's mouth.
"Let him finish first, then you can ask all the things you want to, okay?" she hissed at her boyfriend and signalled to Souji to continue.
"Well since Yosuke asked anyway, I was escaping from Shadows and a few hired guns by my father. They want me to be in their sight most of the time because of an experiment that they were going to conduct. The files were about an experiment that was done on Port Island back on 1999. The Kirijo Group gathered a large amount of Shadows to conduct an experiment about time shifts or something like that. I can't really remember what she said..." Souji trailed off, deep in thought as he tried to recall what Mitsuru said to him about what he got himself into.
"The hell...? Dude, your own father was going to use you as a lab rat?!" exclaimed Yosuke as he tried to process everything that his best friend just said. "And Shadows? I thought they only live inside the TV?" he asked no one in particular.
"That's what you said but apparently, that's not the case." answered Dojima. "I saw them myself. They were there and Souji defeated them with Izanagi."
"Wait. He was able to summon Izanagi?" Yukiko asked, astounded by the fact that a Persona was able to materialize in the real world.
So what we felt at the inn was Souji summoning Izanagi. concluded Amaterasu inside Yukiko's mind. 'It would certainly seem like it.'
"Yeah. He was. I actually thought he was going to commit suicide right then and there when he pulled out a gun." he said. He looked at the look of confusion that swept the faces of the teenagers except his nephew who was still trying to gather his thoughts.
"Gun? What gun? We don't use a gun to summon our Persona. We just crush cards and they come out." Chie said as she fiddled with the hem of her blouse.
"There were no cards. Just a gun that he shot himself with. In the head, no less." Dojima answered. He rummaged inside the tote bag that he brought earlier and produced a gleaming silver gun that had the letters S.E.E.S engraved on its side.
Souji looked up as his uncle held up the gun.
"That's an evoker. It can make you summon your Persona in the real world although you still need to be in an alternate dimension to be able to summon..." he shook his head and put his chin on his palm.
"Anyway, as I was saying earlier..." Souji said as he tried to remember all the things that Mitsuru and her companions told him.
"That experiment failed and explosion occurred during that time in the area. I think the experiment was to gather Shadows and combine them to make a really strong Shadow that would bring... The Fall... I think was what it was called." Souji said as he pushed his knuckles to his forehead. "The experiment actually made a rift in time which was named The Dark Hour. That's when the Shadows appear in a tower called Tartarus..."
"This is all too much to take in..." whispered Naoto beside him. He noticed the frown on her face but he continued with his explanation anyway.
"Anyway, that was the data my dad got his hands on. But this time, he's going to change the Shadow variable in the experiment with Personas. I don't know why he would do that but it must be because Personas are Shadows who have reached their full potential, therefore using Personas would have a higher chance of completing that experiment." he finished. He then looked around the room and saw their faces of confusion and puzzlement.
"Wait... so those people who were chasing you before..." started Dojima.
"They were former employees working under my dad. He took their egos away, leaving behind the body and the Shadow inside them. He could order them around and they even have the freedom to react to those orders. They're just puppets waiting to be moved by their master..."
"That's sick, man..." commented Kanji. He listened through the whole thing and he couldn't believe someone would actually be able to do that to anyone, no matter how much technology advanced but apparently, he was wrong.
"I know... and he's probably looking for our group and Kirijo's group as well. He needs all the Personas he can get to do his experiment." Souji said as he crossed his arms.
"Wait, don't we get one of those Evoker things?" asked Chie.
"You wouldn't want to use it. It's hard to control your Persona when you summon it." answered Souji. "That's the reason I was brought here in the first place. Besides, you can still fight the Shadows even without your Personas. I've beaten a few of them without using Izanagi when I escaped..."
A few minutes of silence hung over the group as they tried to process all the information that Souji dumped on them.
"So what's your next plan of action?" asked Dojima, making all the heads turn to him.
"I was thinking of getting Rise and Teddie here with us. We need to be together to be able to move. We might be a bigger target that way but we can take on anything if we're together." Souji said, authority evident in his voice.
"Then I'll try to contact Rise-chan right now. If you'll excuse me." Naoto took out her phone and walked out of the room.
"I'll call someone from stocks to check if the TV we use is still there. It was moved back into the storage area because nobody was going to buy something that expensive in a town like Inaba." Yosuke said a-matter-of-factly. He took his phone out and headed out the door himself.
After a few minutes, Naoto went back inside the hospital room.
"Rise-chan would be back in Inaba tomorrow at the latest. She cancelled her appointments and used 'family matters' as the reason to cancel those appointments." she reported to everyone inside the room.
A small smile appeared on their faces as they heard the news.
"We pretty much are like a family..." commented Chie as she swung her legs back and forth.
The door suddenly opened and Yosuke burst through the door. His face was pale and sweat was starting to roll off his forehead.
"Dude... bad news. It looks like your father's just as sharp as you are..." he said in a shaky voice. Souji stood and walked towards his best friend.
"Partner, what happened?" Souji asked as he gripped Yosuke's shoulder.
"Your father just bought our TV yesterday paid in full and to be delivered yesterday at the Kirijo Group's headquarters..." he said as he looked at Souji in the eye.
"Shit..." Kanji cursed under his breath. This wasn't anything like all those years ago. They need to act fast in order to save Teddie. They couldn't spend a week to train before going after the kidnap victim.
"Change of plans. We go to Tokyo. We'll save Teddie." said Souji, his eyes looking forward, full of determination to save his friend.
A/N: Thank you for reading this! I'm sure I lost a lot of readers because of that 3 week hiatus I've been in.
Anyway, thanks for the views, reviews, favorites and the alerts! I appreciate them a lot!:D
MegaPotato: Thanks for the review! Glad to know that you think it's getting interesting. I hope I can meet your expectations.:) I like SoujixNaoto with SoujixChie in a close second.
CometRacer007: I'm sorry for the long wait for this chapter. I hope it's still to your liking. Thanks for the review!
Yuuji Narukami: Sorry for the wait. Too many things going on at school.:\