Hey y'all! I couldn't wait to get this next chapter out, hope y'all enjoy!

Chapter Four: Shadow Assassins

'What're you doing here?' I asked her.

'You met the shadow hunters, did you not?' She said.

'Yeah, I still don't get any of what is happening.' I admitted.

We sat down and looked into the night sky for a moment, before she decided to speak up.

'Tell me, did my sister ever mention anything about a man named Makoto Yuki?' She asked.

'No.' I replied.

'He is the one I am searching for a way to free from a demon known as Nyx. Have you heard that name before?' She asked.

'Only from Mitsuru mentioning it – so Yuki was their leader and died to save them all?' I confirmed.

'He is not dead, I would have felt it. I will free him, but I need your help first. This shadow you faced before holds the key to Nyx's layer – but it also seems to have some sort of intellect unlike the others you have faced before.' She explained.

'You want me to defeat it?' I asked.

'Your time will come to face it, yes.' She stood up. 'You never did face your shadow in the TV world, did you?'

With that, she took her leave. My shadow? Come to think of it, I never faced my own shadow to gain my powers, they were given to me by Izanami. I wondered if that was a good or bad thing, could it be possible that my shadow was still lurking in the TV World? Rise came out and shook my shoulder, waking me up from my train of thought.

'What's wrong?' She asked.

'I'll tell you all tomorrow, this is far from over.' I told her and walked back inside.

The next morning, I woke up feeling like something was watching me sleep. I rung everyone and told them to meet up at Junes. Upon my arrival there, I noticed a hooded man sat down playing with some sort of device behind the table everyone was sat at. We entered the TV World and collected our personas that we left there, thinking we would never need to use them again. I placed the compendium on the table when we returned and Naoto and Chie started studying it.

'Hmm.. This does seem like an odd thing for someone to give you. Even with all this crazy stuff going on around us.' Chie concluded.

'So, what is it used for?' Yosuke asked.

'It seems to work as a device for Yu to be able to summon multiple personas in the midst of battle. I do not know what these 'social links' are though.' Naoto stated.

'So, the shadows have returned huh?' Rise stated.

'Yes, we need to practice using our powers in the real world. We don't know what kind of differences they may have here, compared to the TV World.' Yukiko suggested.

'How though?' I asked.

'The Dark Hour would be perfect timing for us, but we'd have to go back to Port Island for that.' Yosuke stated.

On the way home that night, Rise and I decided to walk through the central shopping district to get there quicker. It was late, so all of the shops were closed for the day and there was barely anyone around. All of a sudden a sound of a sword being unsheathed was heard from behind and my instincts took over, dodging out of the way and covering Rise. The hooded man from before was stood before us.

'Rise, get out of here! I'll keep him distracted!' I ordered her.

'Not a chance, I'm not leaving you here!' She yelled back.

She ran over to the side and grabbed a steel pipe from someone's yard, throwing it to me. I figured that summoning my persona in the middle of town wouldn't be the brightest idea I've ever had. I clashed with the hooded figure and we fought until I tore down his hood, revealing that he was nothing but an innocent civilian with yellow eyes, the key feature of a shadow. I continued to fight it, knocking it to the ground. I was about to knock it unconscious when it used some sort of cloud of smoke to escape into the darkness.

'What the hell was that?' Rise asked.

'Some sort of assassin by the looks of him, but his eyes suggested he was a shadow.' I pointed out.

'A shadow assassin? This is getting out of hand now, anyone could have seen that!' She exclaimed.

'A shadow appearing in Inaba without The Dark Hour having taken place could only mean something bad.' I told her. 'Let's head home, quickly.'

We went home and quickly went to bed for the night without saying a word to Nanako or Dojima. The next morning, we were woken up by Nanako who was knocking on my door. I opened it half asleep.

'What's wrong?' I asked her.

'Some lady is here to see you, she came in a limo.' She told me.

I told her that I'd be down in a moment and proceeded to wake Rise up. We made ourselves look a bit more presentable and went downstairs to greet this woman. When we got to the living room, Mitsuru was stood there waiting for us.

'Hi, what're you doing here Mitsuru?' I asked her.

'Please, I'll explain later. You're friends are waiting.' She responded, concerned.

She took us both outside to the limo and we got inside. Everyone except Teddie was in the limo waiting for us both. I knew immediately by the looks on their faces that this wasn't a social call.

'Listen bro, something happened last night. Teddie was taken.' Yosuke told me.

'Taken? By who?' I asked.

'The shadows, they attacked Yosuke's place last night whilst his parents were out and took Teddie.' Chie explained.

'We were attacked too, but we managed to beat off the attacker.' Rise told them.

'It seems that specific persona users were targeted by these 'shadow assassins', myself, Rise and Teddie – one's that can provide tactical advantages and store information on enemies previously faced.' Mitsuru explained. 'I have a theory that they are linked in some way with the shadow we fought before, which is very bad.'

'Why target them?' I asked her.

'If this shadow were to gain all three of us, then it would have infinite knowledge of all of the shadows in both The Dark Hour and the TV World. Meaning that it would be able to create a shadow that is practically invincible.' Mitsuru explained further.

'You can't just create shadows, can you?' Yosuke asked.

'Normally, no. However, this shadow is another failed experiment, the same as Nyx, although this time the shadow can morph itself into the form of another shadow, several shadows or with enough knowledge, an entirely new form of shadow.' Mitsuru concluded her explanation.

'So how do we find that dumb bear then?' Kanji questioned the four.

'Your friend is as good as dead, I'm afraid.' Akihiko replied. 'He's probably been taken to Nyx's layer.'

'Then let's bust him out of there and kick this Nyx guy's ass!' Kanji shouted.

'We don't know where he is. Not to mention that it would be a suicide mission in our state.' Mitsuru answered.

We continued to talk about our options and came to realise that nothing could be done about Teddie right now. However, he was momentarily safe as this new shadow needed all three of those persona users before it could do anything. We decided to work together with the shadow hunters in order to find some way of defeating this new threat before the summer ended. There was no way that the world was going to be safe until this shadow had been killed. That evening, I walked around with Yukari and Mitsuru, showing them where we get our supplies from in Inaba.

'Thanks for showing us around.' Yukari told me with a smile.

'No problem.' I told her.

'Hey, I didn't want to say anything in front of everyone else, but if we wanted to save your friend. Isn't a confrontation with Nyx inevitable?' Yukari asked.

'It took everything we had, including the life of a dear friend to hold him back. I definitely think that he is controlling this shadow though.' Mitsuru confirmed. 'The only way we would stand a chance is if we had two persona users that wielded the powers of gods.'

'So we're basically screwed, is what you're saying?' I asked, puzzled.

Mitsuru seemed to be troubled by something and walked ahead of us. I attempted to catch up with her, but Yukari pulled my arm back to stop me.

'Don't, she gets sensitive around the topic of Nyx. Her family was responsible for its creation and it took the soul of someone closer to her than anyone has ever been to stop him, not even permanently. Give her some space, will ya.' Yukari explained to me.

'I see.. I had no idea.' I answered, looking at Mitsuru barely keeping it together.

'She has to keep a calm and strong composure, otherwise she'd put the team at risk if we were attacked. I almost feel bad for her to be honest.' She told me.

We looped back around to the Dojima residence in complete silence. Yukari left and Mitsuru stopped me just before I entered the house.

'Listen, there's another persona user in Inaba that could help us. I have no idea who it is, but it is said that they can command a God too.' Mitsuru told me.

'Why not tell everyone else that?' I asked her.

'It's just a rumour, I want you to confirm it in that Velvet Room of yours, or whatever it is.' She asked me.

I agreed to talk to Elizabeth about it and she spoke the name of the persona that this person was now able to command. When I heard her name, a shiver went down my spine as I got flashbacks of the past. I never in my life would have possibly thought that I would now require the aid of this monster who tried to shroud the world in fog. Who caused the death of innocent people in her idea of a test of our strength. Yes, her name was...

Izanami...

Yes, Izanami will be making her return in this story, this time on the good side. Thank y'all for reading, I hope you enjoyed and feel free to leave a review.