Nanjo couldn't sleep, he never liked people that lied to him, and Mitsuru did for an entire year with the spy infiltrated as one of his buttlers. - "I got cocky..." - he thought, he had this problem since he was young, he remembered that when he was 17 years old he got overconfident and attacked a demon and managed to kill but he never noticed the demon coming behind him, he was saved by his friend Masao Inaba with his Persona Susano-o. Afterwards he started being more careful around the enemy but he never thought Mitsuru would pull a stunt with her ice spell the way she did. - "Clever..." - He admired how well trained Mitsuru was when it came to tactical attacks and tricks. He thought of the lengths she went on to get Kandori's research on artificial Persona-users, an infiltration for an entire year, that spy even gained his trust. - "I can't destroy those files..." - he thought, he couldn't let anyone take them, not even Mitsuru. It was like he said, he risked his life to take those papers, they were under heavy security, it took him months to find its whereabouts but he didn't do it alone.
-Spring, year 2000-
After he left Maya's group when they found Tatsuya Nanjo got on his motorcycle and went to see Eriko Kirishima who was with a fortuneteller.
"It seems you're still into the ocult and tarot readings, Eriko." - said Nanjo to Elly while holding his helmet.
"How could I not? It's just amazing how many meanings a reading can have... and of course demons exist so more reason to do so, maybe cupid will smile on me one day." - Elly as always was cheerful when she was talking with her friends and Nanjo wasn't an exception even though he was always a serious man. - "Want me to read your fortune?"
"No."
"Come one, Kei, it's going to be worth it." - she took her own tarot deck out of her purse. Nanjo stared at her displeased.
"I said no, Igor always read mine and it was always uncomfortable when he did... and call me Nanjo."
"But Igor is a nice man and he always did it with good intentions." - she smiled at him while shuffling her deck.
"He didn't. Brown told him that I made a joke about him using a curtain to wipe his nose instead of a tissue. After that all of the fortune tellings he did were either that my money was going to be stolen, that I would go to jail and that one of his servants would use Megidolaon on me."
"... Did you say that about his nose?"
"Of course not but he wouldn't believe me."
"I didn't know Igor had servants."
"Me neither, I thought it was only Belladonna, Nameless and himself working under Philemon."
"Okay, it's done." - Elly already put all the cards on the table.
"I said no, Eriko." - she was ignoring him.
She put a card on her left, it was the Judgement card, on her right she put the Empress card, avobe she put the Magician card, below she put the Justice card and on the center of the center of the four cards was the Devil. - "Ooh, interesting."
"What?"
"I thought you didn't liked fortune telling, Kei."
"You ignored me and went through with it so what difference does it make now?"
"Hmm..." - she gave him a sarcastic teasing smile.
"Don't mock me." - he gave her a cold look.
"Fine, don't be so scary with that look." - Elly crossed her legs and leaned closer to the table and told him her interpretation of the cards. - "Your judgement on what is right or wrong will be clouded by something representing the devil, decieving, evil, enticing, making you reject your nurturing nature and what is right for the common good, using your intellect however may turn the tables bringing everything into balance again.
"..."
"... What?"
"That sounds ridiculous."
"Why!?"
"Eriko, you know me and I would never be decieved by something 'evil', it would never work."
"Complain to the cards, not me."
"It doesn't matter, I'm leaving." - Nanjo got up from the table and started walking towards the door.
"Where are you going?"
"Back to the hotel, it's almost midnight and I need to check something I found."
"What is it?"
"Research files from Kandori."
"What are they about?"
"..." - he was relunctant on telling her but he knew she had the right to know as well, they were friends that needed each other in every hardship. - "Creating artificial Persona-users by forcefully extracting the joker from inside their mind."
"What!?" - Elly got up from her chair and looked at Nanjo with fear.
"I haven't read much into it but... apparently awakening to a Persona unnaturally comes with a price to the user, leaving side effects and other sorts of malice."
"That's awful..." - she had a sad look on her face. - "I want to see it too. Is it in the hotel?"
"No, I have it with me, it's in the bag of my motorcycle."
"Take me with you then."
"Fine, take my helmet." - he handed his helmet to Elly.
"Thanks, Kei." - she smiled at him. - "It will probably ruin my hair, though."
"Call me Nanjo." -both went outside and Nanjo got on his motorcycle.
"Hey... Kei... the bag is open."
"What!?" - He turned around to see that the bag was in fact open. - "It got stolen!?" - Nanjo thought. - "I should have brought it with me inside!"
"Kei, look!" - Nanjo looked at the direction Elly was pointing and saw a black car driving off at a high speed.
"Could it be the thief?" - he thought, maybe they were driving off to get away from him as fast as possible or maybe not but he didn't have any other lead, he had to follow them and retrieve the documents if they had them. - "Eriko, get on!"
"Got it!" - she did what Nanjo told her to do. Nanjo started the engine and went on at full speed, it didn't took him long to catch on to the car. The window on the left opened and man came out with a gun, Nanjo didn't see which kind but he assumed it was a 9mm, and began to shoot at them. - "Dammit! It is them. Eriko, I'll make sure the bullets won't hit us, try to take out the tires! Yamaoka!" - Yamaoka appeared and deflected the bullets with his spear.
"Okay, leave it to me! Gabriel!" - Eriko summomed her Persona Gabriel, the archangrl appeared wearing a green suit and had pipes in her back appearing as wings. She ordered Gabriel to throw small ice stalactites at the tires of the car, all of them were missing.
"I can't hit them!"
"Throw an ice block at their front, that will make them move at the opposite direction the ice falls and afterwards shoot at the tires when you get the chance!" - that's what she did, missed, missed, missed, it hit! The car flipped on its front leaving the car upside down. Three men in black suits got out injured but still adamant on attacking Nanjo and Elly. Of course the bullets couldn't hit them, Yamaoka was deflecting the bullets while Elly changed her Persona to Michael to help him out. - "That is enough! Just give back what you took and I'll let you go!" - yelled Nanjo while the men were pointlessly wasting their time attacking the Persona users.
"I'm afraid I can't hand this to you, young Nanjo!" - the men stopped firing and another man got out of the car, be was wearing an expensive suit and had an eyepatch in his right eye. That man had a piercing glare that starled Elly a bit. - "Unlike Mitsuru's I can't see theirs..." - the man mumbled - "We need these documents, you'll need to get through to get them."
"Who's he?" - Elly asked while thinking how handsome he was.
"Well... fancy meeting you here, Takeharu Kirijo. You certainly know how to greet someone, have you told me it was an arms greetings I would have brought my sniper rifle."
The man called Takeharu Kirijo took out a gun and pointed at them. - "Do NOT mock me, kid, I don't recommend doing so."
"Oh? Is that a threat?" - Nanjo said with a cocky smile. - "I doubt you'll be able to hit anything, your eye sight will sway your aim."
"Believe me, I always come prepared, I never dwell on my pride unlike someone in front of me."
"A little bit to your left, honey." - said Elly, Kirijo ignored her, he still wasn't used to his eyepatch.
"I guess you know what these documents are for, am I correct? They're dangerous, Takeharu." - Nanjo took a slight step forward.
"Yes, that's why we need it. I'm actually surprised you don't know what the reason is." - Nanjo looked at him with a confused stare, what was he talking about? - "Then again, how would you, it appears the Dark Hour doesn't appear here... I guess that's good." - Kirijo thought to himself. He was glad the Dark Hour wasn't occuring on Sumaru City but wondered why since it happens everywhere else, what was different for Sumaru City?
"Takeharu, give me those documents." - he took another step forward. a gun shot was heard and Yamaoka deflected the bullet, Nanjo stopped advancing. - "You're serious about this."
"It was obvious from the start that I was. My men firing at you even injured as they are, myself without an eye and using a gun with little care as to what I hit. And of course..." - another black car appeared and stopped behind Kirijo. - "... like I said coming prepared." - the man took a cylinder from his pocket and threw it at Nanjo. Yamaoka reacted to hit the object back at Kirijo. - "A grenade!? Eriko, look out!" - before Nanjo could react to push Elly back the grenade exploded and a loud bang was heard along with a strong light, it was a flash grenade. - "Dammit! Eriko, are you okay!?"
"What!? I can't hear you!"
"Are you okay!?"
"Yes, I'm fine. Pixie, help us." - she changed to the Persona Pixie to cure the stun effect on both of them. - "Where did they go?" - she asked while putting her hand to her still hurting head.
"I don't know." - Nanjo ran to where the Kirijo once was. "It looks like they went left, there are fresh tire marks here. Get on the bike, we'll keep chasing them."
"Okay... ow my head..."
After minutes of driving they caught up, luckily the street they were in didn't have exits on its sides. They turned right, turned left while still deflecting bullets.
"Enough!" - said Kirijo. - "There are more pedestrians here, stop shooting." - his men complied.
"They stopped shooting." - said Elly. - "Maybe he cares what his actions causes."
"No, he does it because of civilians... before he attacked us with all he had... he knows we have Personas." - Nanjo told Elly who was healing a wound on the former's leg since a bullet brushed him. - "But I still cannot let them get away with it. Yamaoka!"
"Gabriel!" - both Personas appeared. Gabriel prepared a long lance made of ice, it took her almost a minute. Both Yamaoka and Gabriel grabbed the ice lance and with all their strength they threw it at Kirijo's car.
"Kirijo, sir, look out!" - a bodyguard yelled. Kirijo was taken by surprise when he looked behind him and saw a lance coming at them at a high speed. - "More ice!?" - the man yelled in frustration.
The lance pierced the roof of the car completely freezing it. The roof of the car shattered due to the extreme cold temperature of the spell. - "Drive faster!"
"I'm going as fast as I can, sir!"
"Good, we're getting close."
"Kei, we're getting to the outskirts of the city!" - she pointed at a sign that was far ahead from them.
"It doesn't matter, we need to get those papers." - he accelerated. They were getting closer, they were almost between 15 to 20 meters away from the car. They were getting closer to exiting the city.
"Huh? What's happening!?" - they were distracted by something.
"The ground is moving. An earthquake!? Eriko, hold on!" - Elly grabbed Nanjo's waist trying not to fall off. The earthquake was getting stronger, at this rate they will fall off from the bike. They felt a bump from below them, Nanjo lost the balance from the bike. - "No! Eriko!" - they fell off, Nanjo grabbed on to Eriko before they would hit the ground trying to protect her from further injuries that they will already get. They rolled and rolled in the ground with Nanjo getting injured the most due to his larger body size in comparison to Elly until they came to a full stop. Elly only got a dislocated finger and some bruises on her arms and legs, the helmet protected her head. - "Okay... one, two, three! AGH!" - she managed to put it back to its place, she took the helmet off. She looked back at Nanjo and saw that his head was bleeding but it wasn't sirious, she later saw that his left shoulder was dislocated and that he was in a lot of pain. - "My god! Kei, are you alright!?"
"Get off me!" - Nanjo pushed her back and struggled to get back up. - "Cu Chulaaaainn!"
"Diana!" - Elly summoned a woman with a bow and arrow but threw away the latter and the former growing in size. Nanjo always admired how quick she reacted in a battle. Cu Chulainn handed his spear to Elly's Persona, Diana, and both Personas grabbed the bow and spear and used their strength to prepare and fire the spear at Kirijo's car which was already far away. The Personas fired the spear at a blinding speed that even cut the wind as it passed through... however the spear missed.
"What!? How!?" - Nanjo couldn't understand how the attack missed, it had the aim of both Personas, it should've been a perfect hit... but... something wasn't right, the car was decending in the distance. - "What's happening...?" - No, the car wasn't decending, it was them that were acending.
"Kei, look, what on earth is that!?" - both of them saw a huge silver metal thing appearing on the horizon, it had a slight curve as if it was a huge metal ring. Nanjo and Elly both stared with fear and surprise at the events ocurring in front of their eyes. The metal object kept lifting itself up until it was above the city, it was clear at first glance that the metal object was in fact a massive ring covering the city. Another "ring" appeared behind them, it was larger than the first one.
The spear missed, the earthquake, Kirijo's car appearing as it was decending from the ground... - "The city... is the city... floating?" - he came at the realization that Sumaru City was flying... somehow, he didn't know how or why it came to this, all he knew was that Takeharu Kirijo got away from with Kandori's research on artificial Persona users.
"We need to find Maya and the others, Kei. Maybe they know what happened."
"Probably... dejá vù..." - he felt like he lived this situation before but quickly dismissed it. He got down to his knees and hit his dislocated shoulder on the ground. - "AAAAAAGH!" - he fixed his shoulder back but not without a great amount of pain coming from it.
"I could've healed you, sweetie." - Elly said sarcastically.
"Silence." - they both went back to the motorcycle and decided to go back to the hotel just to rest since it was pointless to follow Kirijo at this point. - "We'll go look for Maya and the others tomorrow... we need to rest after all that."
"Sure. Uhm... thanks for protecting me back there, Kei." - she smiled at him.
"That's what friends are for." - he smiled back.
"Want me to heal your head wound?"
"Yes, please do. I'm having a headache, I don't want to crash and dislocate my shoulder again for you."
"Haha, I'll keep that in mind.
After returning to the hotel, both Nanjo and Elly went to their respective rooms and slept. The next morning both of them did what they could only do, fight demons and the New World Order to protect the city while Maya's group defeats Nyarlathotep. After hours of arduous and life threatening battles the city came back to the ground, Maya, Tatsuya, Katsuya, Baofu and Ulala managed to stop the crawling chaos but not without a heavy price regarding Tatsuya's fate...
It was 10:57 PM, both Elly and Nanjo went to gather with Maki Sonomura, Yukino Mayuzumi and Reiji Kido in a bar to talk about Kandori's research data.
"That sick son of a bitch. Even dead that bastard keeps causing trouble." - Reiji leaned back on his chair with an frustrated expression, Maki filled his glass. - "Thanks..."
"But why did he bothered doing that research?" - Yukino asked. - "I mean, after you guys killed him four years ago you mentioned he was at peace or at least looked like he was."
"I'm not entirely sure, he was on his right mind yesterday on the ruins. I sometimes can't understand what is on that man's head." - Nanjo explained. - "Even if he was just a walking rumor he acted the same way, same body language, same outlook on life... I honestly think Nyarlathotep's power is frightful."
"Tch... who cares? What matters now is where are those papers now."
"How are we supposed to know?" - Maki leaned on the table with her drink on her left hand. - "That Kirijo guy escaped right when the city started to fly. He might as well be on his way to another country."
"I doubt it. He has motives to use those documents and he seemed desperate, I assume he's still in Japan... possibly."
"Jeez, you don't know? Talk about useless."
"I was trapped inside this city as well, Hidehiko, just like you... When did you get here...?"
"Just now. Why didn't you guys invite me to talk trash about that Nyrlepopet?"
"It's Nyarlathotep you jackass." - Reiji kept drinking. - "And we did tell you to come."
"Whatever. I didn't come here for that, I actually have great news."
"What is it, Brown?" - Yukino was checking her stuff from work while listening.
"Our good ol' leader is coming to visit!" - after saying that Maki and Elly stood up and had a shocked expression which changed to instant happiness... and both looked at each other and sat back down.
"... Awkward..." - Yukino whispered.
"... No kidding..." - Reiji answered while avoiding eye contact with Maki that was looking at him.
"Huh, so Naoya is coming back. When is he coming?" - Nanjo couldn't help but smile, Naoya Toudou was the man he respected the most out of his group of friends.
"In 30 minutes, actually." - both girls stood up again in happiness, looked at each other and sat back again.
"... Desperate aren't we..." - Reiji whispered.
"After four years it's no surprise." - Yukino answered avoiding eye contact with Elly who was looking at her. - "That's great, I'll have to ask what he did in all these years."
"He apparently doesn't want to talk about it."
"Why?"
"I dunno, I asked and he just took a long minute to answer 'it... doesn't matter'... yeah."
"What the hell is up with him?" - Reiji asked perplexed, Yukino held his glass and said to stop drinking, it was getting to him. - "Fine."
"Who knows... eh, whatever, let's just wait here until he comes." - Brown sat down at Nanjo's side and ordered a bottle of scotch.
"I just don't don't understand whay you guys are drinking so much."
"Come on, it's about enjoying the moment, Maki."
"It ruins one's skin, Yukino."
"When you're about to have a kid and a nagging girlfriend you don't have a choice." - Reiji answered looking at Yukino as if his eyes begged her to let him drink a bit more, Yukino said to go ahead. - "Thanks."
"Fine... just this once."
All six of them started to talk about trivial stuff like work, how many Personas they have at the moment and where they would spend their vacation this summer. After a while they talked about the feats of Maya's group, mostly praising Tatsuya after the final battle. Reiji mentioned he proposed to his girlfriend and said that after thinking a lot, he'll name his unborn child Takashi if it's a boy with Nanjo saying it was a fine name.
34 minutes passed, it was 11:31PM.
"He's here!" - Brown yelled. Both Maki and Elly nod and went to greet their friend.
"Welcome back!" - both were smiling when the man in question entered, his piercing reflecting a dim light, and returned the smile.
"Hey, long time no see." - their former leader said.
"Four years too long, Naoya." - Yukino said giving him a pat on the back. - "It seems you still have that piercing."
"I'm not taking it off any time soon... nice pseudo-afro."
"Shut up, moron." - she couldn't help but smile.
"It seems you still have that weird sense of humor." - Nanjo walked towards him and extended his hand.
"Says the guy that has none." - they both shook hands. - "So... flying city, how did that happen?" - Naoya sat down.
"You heard then." - Nanjo asked.
"I saw. I actually got here yesterday but I only saw a crater instead of a city."
"It's a long story."
"I'm all ears."
"Nyarlathotep." - Maki said.
"... I see. You guys dealt with him?"
"No, some other guys were dealing with that thing." - Reiji had a last glass of scotch.
"Really... Philemon gave them Personas to deal with him?"
"Yeah, it actually goes way deeper than that but that's basically it." - Maki explained.
- "I'll give you full details tomorrow."
"Sure."
"Anyway, we have some more issues with us." - Elly told Naoya about Kandori and his research.
"Artificial Persona users... how does it work?"
"I managed to read a bit on it and basically it isn't stable. A Persona can overtake the user ans turn them into a demon."
"... And this Kirijo man stole it from you... how?"
"I left it on my motorcycle, I never thought someone would steal it, I was careless."
"Eh, nothing you can do now. The guy stole it, we'll just get it back, I would just kick down the door."
"Not if they gun you down, Captain Naked."
"Say that again to my face you poor excuse of a TV star."
"I see. Well, I traveled through all of Japan and saw some places that were under the Kirijo name, he probably will do experiments with that data in one of those places."
"I know those places as well but I doubt he will go through them in such obvious places. He knows I would go to one of those places and get them back. He wouldn't risk those documents due to an idiotic choice."
"I know more places. Did you know they have a bunker on Tokyo? It goes a few docen of meters down."
"... No, I didn't know... how did you find such thing?"
"Boredom, and I couldn't sleep that night, so after following a trail I found such place, same with the more hidden ones in the country."
"What trail are you talking about?" - Nanjo asked confused.
"What time is it?"
"11:45"
"In fifteen minutes you'll find out." - Naoya had a sip from his glass. - "Not a pretty sight, though." - he mumbled, all his friends looked at him confused.
"What happens in fifteen minutes, Naoya?" - Maki asked.
"... They don't know..." - Naoya thought. - "That thing started last year and no matter where I went it kept happening.. how can they not know?" - he remembered that event at midnight to be almost like a nightmare, he lost sleep for at least an entire week until he found out how it worked once he inflitrated in that Kirijo bunker in Tokyo he mentioned. - "It may sound cliché but if I explain now you won't believe me nor will you understand, so just be patient."
"Okay... sooo... why don't you tell us about your travels?" - Maki asked with a smile, Naoya face just went dark.
"I uh... rather not talk about it... haha." - Brown looked at Maki with a 'told you' kind of face.
"Traumatic?" - Nanjo asked.
"I didn't enjoy it."
"Why?" - Yukino asked.
"Don't ask. Anyway, I know that the Kirijo Group are located in Tatsumi Port Island but I don't think that Takeharu guy will hide in such an obvious spot. I will tell you where these locations are and we will split up to find Kandori's documents, it's the best way I can think of."
"I could send my men to look for them and save time." - Nanjo said.
"Don't. If Kirijo is involved with something serious like creating artificial Persona users then I'm pretty sure he will have something prepared for us."
"He knows we'll go."
"Yeah, if you send normal people they'll end up dead the moment they get inside."
"How many of those facilities did you find?"
"I started to take note of those facilities the moment I found that bunker in Tokyo. When I went inside I started to read stuff I found and I knew they were in something shady so I wrote down every Kirijo related place I found."
"... So that's why you came to 'visit' us." - Nanjo pointed out.
"Yeah, sorry. I wanted to ask for your help regarding this, Mark is still in America so I can't ask him and Yuka isn't that reliable... and she has a baby to take care of."
"I'm gonna be a father too but I can still help."
"... You're gonna be a dad?"
"Yeah, so?"
"Nothing... poor woman."
"Screw you."
"Anyway, how are you going to deal with it?"
"I will go to the nearest facility near Sumaru when the baby gets here since both my future wife and the kid will stay in the hospital for a few days before they can go home. I will try to come up with an excuse."
"Okay, you're lucky because I got seven places you can visit. Here thet are." - Naoya passed a piece of paper to Reiji.
"You can count on me, but since they're seven it will probably take me some time even after the baby comes."
"Elly since you travel a lot due to your modeling career I'll give you twenty of them."
"Got it. I'll also take the one in Tokyo since I need to go there tomorrow."
"Yukino, I'll give you ten and and some names from the people involved with the Kirijo Group so you can beat up info out of them."
"Beat them up? What kind of woman do you think I am?"
"The same woman that stole money while punching me in our 1st year in Hermelin."
"... Fine... why can't you just forget that? I said I was sorry."
"Brown, I'll give you-"
"Thirteen, I already picked them."
"Okay. Maki... you take the ones you want."
"I have vacations this december so I'll get fifteen, it will probably take me three vacations, though."
"It's okay, I'm counting on you." - both shared a smile. Nanjo snirked a little.
"Stop it, Kei."
"Stop what, miss jealous?" - Elly kicked Nanjo's leg.
"And Nanjo-"
"I'll take the rest of them."
"You sure?"
"Yes, you already took your time finding all these locations and I have a lot of free time so I can take it."
"Fine, good luck then." - after splitting work between them they talked about how to get inside the Kirijo facilities until it was 11:59PM.
"It's almost midnight, get ready, everyone."
"For what?"
"You'll see" - the clock marked 12:00AM. What they witnessed was something akin to a nightmare, the atmosphere around them was heavy, everything around them had a sickly green color, their drinks turned red, the sky outside had a dark and sinister green color as well with the moon being the most nerve wrecking sight of all for a reason they could not explain. Multiple coffins standing outside and inside the bar. Even Reiji who was arguably the most stoic one out of the group looked scared and felt a chill ran down his spine but tried to stay calm even with the heavy atmosphere that felt like a massive amount of preasure in his head. All of them, except Naoya, were surprised and felt the same as Reiji, they couldn't even say a word, it was too much to process at once.
Brown lost his balance and fell from his chair, he was hyperventilating and sweating, Elly was being held by Yukino to support her since the former looked out of it, but Yukino wasn't calm either, she had her hand in her mouth since she felt like vomiting due to the sight she was experiencing in front of her but immideatly held the feeling back. Naoya was holding Maki's hand under the table since she looked terrified... but she didn't seem affected by the heavy atmosphere unlike the others, Naoya noticed this and he didn't understand since even him felt sick when he first witnessed this event. Nanjo had a cold sweat and tried to keep his composure, he slowly stood up and leaned on the table and tried to slowly breathe.
"That's it, close your eyes and slowly breathe just like Nanjo. You'll soon feel well." - Naoya kept holding Maki's hand until she said she was okay.
Nanjo was getting better but still breathing slowly but heavily. - "Naoya... what is the meaning of this? What on earth is going on!?" - Nanjo stood firmly and felt slightly better, same with everyone else with Brown still slightly shocked.
"This is why I found those Kirijo facilities. The blood you see here on floor for some reason formed a trail to those facilities and in all of them I found documents mentioning this anomaly is called the Dark Hour."
"Dark Hour? What do you mean?"
Naoya crossed his arms and explained. - "The Dark Hour is apparently a hidden hour. You could say that, in theory, we have 25 hours in a day."
"H-hey... what do you mean 25 hours? What thr hell are you talking about, man!?" - Brown went paranoid at that statement, he felt like he was joking.
"Just look at your watch, it should've passed four or five minutes already after midnight." - all of them checked their wristwatch and all confirmed that the needles haven't moved at all. All of them wondered if they were broken but quickly dismissed it due to being too much of a coincidence that all of them just stopped at midnight. - "This event lasts at least an hour, since nothing works during this so called Dark Hour I used an hourglass to measure how long it lasted since at my first experience it felt like forever."
"What do you mean nothing works?"
"Anything that works on electricity or batteries such as vehicles, cellphones, flashlights, clocks, etc. just stops functioning, I don't know the reason."
"What about the coffins? Why are there coffins here all of the sudden?"
"... The coffins are people." - all froze at the statement. - "The coffin you see behind the counter is the barman, the coffins protects them."
"Protects them? Protects them from what?"
"Well... it's hard to say... they're black blobs of slime that when are disturbed turn to really strange creatures, not demons that's for sure. According to the documents I found they are called Shadows, they feast from the human psyche and thus the coffins are there, however there are times where people aren't in their coffins and just turn into those Shadows due to the latter's involvement in their psyche and the people that make it through the Dark Hour just don't remember anything."
"Talk about exposition... that's a lot to swallow." - Yukino just held her head trying to comprehend what Naoya just explained.
"Well, you better accept it right now, we're getting outside, there could be one of those blobs outside... which reminds me, how did you guys didn't know about this?"
"I... I don't know, I've never seen such thing." - said Nanjo while his friends and himself walked towards the door.
"Huh... anyway, this started to happen last year maybe around July or August, I don't really remember." - as they walked in the street they saw cars with coffins inside, puddles of blood in side of the road.
Maki said she moved to Sumaru along with Yukino in 1998 and bothe pursued different jobs. Nanjo said he heard the rumor of Kandori walking around in Sumaru last year in early August and decided to look around but it was actually Reiji the one the rumors were about much to the latter's anger when he heard about it. While her modeling career is a nation wide job for Elly she had a lot of work in Sumaru for three months since July, afterwards she had a vacation but decided to stay in Sumaru and later took a hiatus that had to be extended due to the weird events in the city. Brown moved to Sumaru two months after Maki and Yukino since he was offered a job at a TV station in the city after he gained popularity in Mikage-cho. Reiji was in Sumaru since February and he met his girlfriend a short time afterwards.
"Wow... incredible coincidence there that all of you ended up in the same place... spooky."
"Yeah, weird."
"Uh... Naoya?"
"What is it, Brown?"
"If nothing works during this Dark Hour thing... what happens to planes?" - all of them came to a full stop.
"Huh... nice question... I guess they crash or just stay up in the air... I guess." - they continued walking.
After several minutes of walking through the streets of Sumaru they found the so-called Shadows, indeed they were just black blobs. Reiji as hard headed as he is just attacked causing the black blob to mutate into what Brown mentioned something that looked like the American wrestling star named Hulk Hogan. Maki gave the idea to just negotiate with the thing to avoid fighting which Naoya answered that, unlike demons, Shadows are violent by nature and don't have the necessary intelligence to speak and negotiate which he found out the hard way once. After defeating the Shadows they kept exploring and kept finding more of them in different shapes and forms with most of them wearing masks, some had the form of deformed babies, some looked like a dancing couple but without heads and once saw from afar a big one that carried a pair of guns and a long black coat with Naoya mentioning better not to bother it.
"How did Masao and Ayase dealt with this, Naoya?" - Nanjo asked.
"I once called Mark and the conversation was brought up and said that he witnessed the Dark Hour during daytime at 10:00AM and from what I heard from him it looks even worse to the point he lost sleep for a month. About Ayase she didn't even know what I was talking about so it appears she just sleeps right through it."
After fighting Shadows Naoya said the Dark Hour would be over soon and said they need to be back at the bar that they were at. The Dark Hour ended after a few minutes when they entered the bar and after processing all that they witnessed they decided to talk about finding the documents Kirijo stole.
"Anyway... it seems that the Kirijo Group is clearly connected to this somehow from what I can think of so we need to take back that research data." - Nanjo explained.
"If he finds out how to use it, which is the most possible outcome, he will have at least a dozen of artificial users, Nanjo."
"I know, Maki, but it's better to stop him at a dozen than at a hundred of them." - after paying for his drink Nanjo decided to go to his hotel. - "What are you going to do now Naoya?"
"Eh, I guess I'll rest from a traveling a bit, I think staying still for a moment is what I need... I don't have a place to stay, though."
"You can stay at mine if you like." - Reiji said.
"Thanks but I'm not comfortable living with people I don't know."
"Nah, don't worry she's a nice gal, she'll recieve you with open arms."
"Hehe... right. Thanks, man." - Naoya stood up along with Reiji and went with him to the latter's house but not without Naoya waving his hand his friends before leaving.
"You girls lost your opportunity to ask him to stay with you." - Yukino's statement made both Maki and Elly blush a bit.
"Says the girl that won't admit that she likes an old man."
"Shunsuke isn't an old man!"
"Oooh, now we're going by first names eh, Yukino?"
"Knock it off, Eriko!"
"Enough childish behaviour you two. Go home and rest, we have an entire country to explore now so you need to prepare." - after scholding both Yukino and Elly Nanjo put on his helmet and went to his hotel.
"Jeez, I hate when he's like that sometimes. Whatever, I'm going to visit Igor for a while. See ya." - Elly stood up and left the bar with Yukino and Maki doing the same.
"Why does she always visit Igor?"
"Who knows, they both enjoy the ocult and tarot reading, I guess. Eh, see you later, Maki."
"Bye, Yukino."
After that day all, except Naoya, started to the search for Kandori's research data. However Naoya didn't like staying still and accompanied Maki in some of her searches.
After three years one of them finally found it. Since his son didn't need more constant care and his wife is very comprehensive on his decisions Reiji took three facilities from Nanjo and one of them was the island of Yakushima. Since he never saw the beach he decided to take this place and for some reason he took his wife and child with him since he felt it was unfair that only him would enjoy the beach even though his mission was dangerous and it was too late to realize that the decision to take them along with him may have been imprudent but in a way it was good since he saw that they were happy playing in the water and he only thought how blessed he was to have such a beautiful family.
When 9:00PM hit the clock he went back to the hotel that Nanjo payed and Reiji started to plan how he would enter. He thought that entering during the Dark Hour was the smartest way to do it since there wouldn't be any guards considering they would be coffins at the time and he can deal with Shadows on his own. Nanjo told him before he left to not act without thinking, if he did Kirijo would act again against Nanjo, if Reiji managed to find Kandori's research then he needed to make it look that Nanjo had nothing to do with it. Yukino already took care of the scientists that might have memorized the entire document by threatening them and, just like Naoya said, beat them up even though she wasn't happy to do so. The plan was that after whoever finds Kandori's research Nanjo would order his people to hack into Kirijo's computers to delete any trace of copies of the documents leaving Takeharu without anything regarding artificial Persona users.
12:00AM hit the clock and after making sure that his family turned to coffins he decided to go to the hidden Kirijo facility that was on the island. Instead of busting the door open with his Persona he tried to find a ventilation shaft and found one but it was small, he luckily fits but it would take him some time to get through. While trying to make his way through he found a Shadow, Reiji barely could move his hands to at least attack it on his own so instead he used the smallest Persona he had in his repertoire.
"Dammit, this things are starting to piss me off. Poltergeist!" - the small Persona appeared and used a Garula spell on the Shadow destroying it.
"It's already been three years since I started to experience this stupid Dark Hour. When is it gonna end?" - he continued his way through and finally found an exit from the vents. All he saw were a fee coffins, he had a little bit more than 40 minutes to search for those documents, he thought it was enough to pull it off. In 27 minutes he searched in at least seven different rooms, he did it as quickly as possible before the Dark Hour ended. The only things he found were files about something called "Plume of Dusk", other things describing the moon, Death, how the Shadows manipulate time and space and something else...
"Hmm, I guess Nanjo will be interested in this... robot girls...? What the hell?" - He didn't find anything in this room, he went to the next one. Nanjo told him that the most possible place to find the research data was in either the scientists' offices or the lab itself, the only problem was that Reiji couldn't differentiate a scientist's office from a regular worker's office so he decided to look in every room possible.
He had 30 minutes left. While he walked down the hallway a door caught his attention, the plate on the door read "Anti-Shadow Weapon Storage."
"They already developed weapons to fight these things?" - he wondered what kind of weponry the Kirijo made to fight the Shadows. "Special Tanks?" - he thought. Reiji entered the room and all he observed were capsules but he couldn't see what were inside them, they were slightly beneath the ground, he ignored it and continued his search. He spent five minutes in the room reading all sorts of non-sensical documents he couldn't understand. - "Ugh, I'm tired of this... then again everyone did work in this more than I did. I remember Maki saying she got shot in the leg by something in one of these facilities." - after a quick look he couldn't find the documents, there weren't much to begin with, he was growing impatient, though. - "Godammit! Where the hell are these stupid papers!?" - after his outburst he heard a noise from behind him, it was a mechanical noise rising from the ground, it wad one of those capsules. - "Uh-oh." - he ran towards the door to leave as soon as possible but when his hand was reaching the doorknob he heard a gunshot and a bullet almost hitting his head. He quickly turned around but didn't see anything, he was calm trying to hear any sort of sound of the individual that shot at him. He quickly turned around again and threw a punch. His fist hit something hard... - "A girl!?" - what he punched was a girl that looked like a teenager possibly 15 to 16 years of age, she had short blonde hair and deep blue eyes and was wearing a gown. His hand started bleeding. The girl had her hand covered under the sleeve of the gown and was holding a rifle.
"Intruder, leave this facility or I will have to use force. You have ten second to comply." - the girl was pointing her rifle at Reiji, she wasn't having any doubts, she was serious about shooting him.
"I'm sorry, kiddo but I can't, I need to do something here."
"7, 6, 5..."
"Huh, would you at least hear before shooting?"
"There is no reason to. 4, 3..."
"Why is that?" - he was slightly nervous for some reason.
"Intruders need to learn their place. 2, 1, 0. Goodbye." - she started to shoot at Reiji.
"Shit! Mot!" - his Persona Mot shielded him from the gunfire. He ran to a nearby desk and threw it down so it can act as a shield instead of using his Persona, it was useless since the bullets were piercing the desk. He rapidly ran and decided to incapacitate the girl either mano a mano or with his Persona.
"Palladion." - she could also summon a Persona. The Persona rushed towards Reiji pointing at him with some sort of spear that was inside of itself.
"Should've guessed." - the girl should have either been a regular person not attacked by the Shadows or a Persona user. - "Changing tactics, then." - he summoned Mot and ordered to do the same but at the Persona. Mot threw a punch and clashed with Palladion's spear staggering the latter, Mot disappeared leaving Reiji completely uncovered, the girl wondered why would he leave himself open for attack and heard a noise behind her, a white baboon appeared, it was the Persona Thoth that Reiji summoned.
"Another... Persona. How...?" - the girl was surprised. Thoth hit her head with his book sending her flying to the wall.
"Wow, I think I over did it... oh she's still moving." - he walked towards her and summoned Mot back and the Persona formed a fist and slammed it to the wall, it was a threat. - "Listen, kiddo, you're gonna help me find something I need or else I'll punch your head so hard it's gonna detach itself from your body." - the girl froze for a moment and quickly calmed down.
"You are not serious about destroying me, I can see it in your eyes." - Reiji didn't flinch at her remark, in fact it's been years since he decided to stop being violent thus losing that threatening look he had as a teenager.
"I see, then I'll break your arm then, you can heal that way."
"... You are serious with that statement."
"Right? So, help me find what I need and I'll let you go."
"I can protect myself with my Persona."
"I'm stronger than you, kid, I'll rip your Persona in half if I need to."
"..." - she was staring at him calmly with a blank expression she never seemed to change.
"It looks like you realize that. Will you help me, then?"
"You seem kind."
"... I'm threatening to break your arm, what's the matter with you?"
"Forget I said anything. What do you need to find?"
"Research data about artificial Persona users. I want you to tell me where they are."
"I do not know, I've been inactive for various years. I am unaware of the activities that the Kirijo Group has done." - she stood up. - "Why do you need that data?"
"Your boss, Takeharu Kirijo, basically tried to gun down my friend and stole it from him." - Reiji leaned on the wall. - "Those documents are dangerous. It says that awakening a Persona unaturally is tragic for the user, either attacking them, killing them or worse turn them into a demon."
"A demon...?" - it looked like she didn't know what he meant by demon. She thought that maybe he meant Shadow. - "I see, then I'll help you out."
"You are willing to betray your boss, then."
"I believe that saving humans while dooming others due to the dangers of an artificial Persona is not any better than leaving them to die."
"At least you have your priorities straight." - Reiji gave her a proud smile, it was nice finding someone mature at her age.
"We need to hurry, then, the Dark Hour will end in 22 minutes." - she headed towards the door along with Reiji, he stopped her.
"By the way, I'm Reiji Kido... nice to meet you. What's your name?" - the girl turned around and looked at him with her beautiful blue eyes.
"... I am Aigis."