Me: Uh...

Picup: ...?

Me: I WANNA READ A P3 LEMON!

Picup: Uh... what do you expect posting it here will do?

Me: ... I might get lucky? Nyaro?

Picup: Good luck...

Me: Not a Yaoi lemon either... or Yuri... did I spell that correctly?

Picup: (shrugs) Did you spell anything correctly?

Disclaimer: (World opens the door) The author doesn't own Persona 3 because
Atlus made it. XD

oOoOoOo

Imperfect Arcana

Chapter Four: The Attempt

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Mitsuru slid to the floor, her back against the wall, clutching her arm tightly. The bite had
reopened, blood slipping through her fingers as she applied pressure. "Uh..." she felt
light-headed, but she couldn't stop. She rose to her feet once more, urging herself to go
on, to find a way out. Unfortunately, her legs gave out as the four cuts on her calf opened
again.

'Always seems to happen at the worse possible time!' she thought angrily, biting her lip.
Her blouse was becoming a fine shade of crimson and her skirt was coated with blood.
Both were just tatters of what should've been her uniform as were her boots, but there
was nothing she could do about it in her current position.

She could feel her Persona, Artemisia, fretting in the back of her mind. Sure, the persona
was a warrior, but her master was in grave danger if this continued any longer. Mitsuru
tried to ease the worry, but pain blocked every attempted. 'If I could contact someone...!'
she winced, panting and hanging her head.

'Contact...'

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Akihiko stopped, looking around the Port Station. People stared at him as he looked
around quickly and then moved on, running in another direction. He stopped near
Paulownia Mall, panting for breath, fist resting on the wall. "She has... to be
somewhere..." he muttered, standing full height.

Pi, pi, pi! Pi, pi, pi!

The teen was taken aback as the ring sounded in his ear. 'This better be an emergency...'
he thought, annoyed. The ringing stopped as he finally decided to answer, raising a hand
to his ear. "Akihiko here," he said, moving back into an alley way, away from the public
hearing.

"Aki... hiko... It... Mitsuru..."

His eyes widened, "Mitsuru?! Mitsuru, is that you?!"

"Yeah... I... exit..."

Everything was breaking up occasionally, static scrambling the lines. He gritted his teeth,
trying his best to hear everything she said.

"Uh... It down for now... but I don't know how long..."

"How long what?" he demanded. That sharp, intake of breath before she spoke made him
Worry. Where was she? What was happening to her? He closed his eyes frowning deeply.

"Mitsuru..."

"I can't... it's getting hard to keep moving... I don't know..."

It was starting to break up again. Mitsuru recalled the last time it did that, before the
Emperor and Empress had attacked both her and Yukari. It had been caused by the floors
in Tartarus, but it didn't seem like...

Her eyes widened as she noticed the presence. Looking over her shoulder, she saw the
massive Shadow hovering overhead. It had changed in the short time, its body no longer
a complete, dripping mess, but more solid. Eight, small, white dots were emerging from
its chest, almost like ribs emerging from skin.

It snarled, raising a claw and lashing down at her. Mitsuru rolled away, but grabbed her
waist as it too started to bleed again. "Ah!"

"Mitsuru...! What...?"

Akihiko could still hear everything but she couldn't respond. She was choking as a tendril
of Shadow wrapped around her throat, raising her into the air. Her hands grabbed at the
black vine, trying to get free. It pulled her back towards its body where more writhing
tendrils awaited, reaching out to bring her back into the mass. With her close enough,
they pulled her in, sinking fangs into flesh, drinking from reopened wounds, cutting more
and more. Mitsuru cringed, feeling something slice her wrist, blood seeping down to her
hand, dripping off her fingers.

"Mitsuru!"

"Akihiko...!" she exclaimed, crying out as fangs sunk into her throat. Through pain, she
finally understood the Shadow. Minds of a normal human help it grow, but a Persona-
Users' blood was an entirely different story. How many times she warned the others not
to go to Tartarus alone was this reason indeed. Then, one more question was boggling her
mind.

'Did I call it?'

"Mit... Say... some...!"

The mysterious, rib-like appendages rose out of the Shadow's mass, closing quickly
around, forming a cage. Finally, she spoke as every bit of green light disappeared,
"Don't... try to find me..."

"What are you talking about Mitsuru? Mitsuru!? Say something!" Akihiko yelled. A
muffled roar responded, followed by a crunching noise. Nothing else happened as the
connection became dead. "Huh!? Come on!" He ran out of the alleyway, looking around
frantically. He ran as fast as her could, all the way to Gekkoukan High School, stopping
before the gate to rest. His searching would have to wait until the Dark Hour's return.

'But...' he thought, brows furrowed, 'How long will Mitsuru last?'

Her whole body felt like it was on fire and worse yet, in the darkness, she could only
imagine where those tendrils wandered on her body as they searched for more of their
crimson elixir. Occasionally, she felt blood drip from her curled fingers, most likely into
the waiting mouth of a Shadow attachment. Strength that swelled within her soul from
Artemisia died quickly as light-headedness sunk in deep.

While physically, her body screamed and pleaded for help, Mitsuru's mind hoped that the
rest of the S.E.E.S. members didn't find her. They shouldn't see her in this state, fallen
prey to a Shadow she called, barely clothed and covered in red almost head to toe.

'Forget about me...' she thought, 'Don't come to Tartarus...'

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Me: That's chapter four!

Akihiko: (glares)

Me: (innocently) What?

Akihiko: ... (walks out)

Me: (sighs) That's how I got the TC group mad too... Dammit...

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