Author's Notes:
It was a fantastic vacation. Went back home for the first time in months so I hadn't thought of anything story wise for about a week. Now I have 3 days (starting 4/15) staring me in the face to get back into the groove. Last we left our heroes, Raven found herself in a bit of a pickle. Luckily for her though that mysterious man she had spotted was one of the awakened. After a brief battle with the entities known as Shadows. Akihiko Sanada and Raven saved the plane and their next stop was set for the Iwatodai High Dormitory. There she, and the other Titans on the plane, will meet the third party that Cyborg and Akihiko were talking about. What will this new alliance mean for the Titans? When will they be able to get back home and live in the Tower once again? For that matter, who is watching Jump City while the Titans are away from it?
Demonraily: That was a slight overlook based on my knowledge of a game I played a long bit ago. With that knowledge now renewed such an oversight will not occur a second time. Thanks for the support. More of the persona spectrum will begin to find it's way into the story from here on out.
S4656guy: What I said above. More Persona influence on the story to come.
Ladypixi: I do admit in a Private chat we had that the fighting was kinda bouncing all over the place. This will be kept better track of in future battles.
Now with no further interruptions and pause, the continuation of the story. (No really. No further interruptions. I must apologize readers. Been playing the hell out of Injustice lately. )
Monday, March 20th. Evening. 4 Days before the next Full Moon. Landing at an Airport Outside of Iwatodai.
Raven awoke to the sounds of murmuring among her fellow travelers.
"Friend Raven, At last you awaken!"
Raven groaned. "Good morning to you too, Starfire."
"Quite the contrary, Raven." Robin said down the aisle. "You've been in a healing coma for almost the entire flight. Any idea why?"
Raven shook her head as her eyes adjusted to the overhead lights. "What time is it?"
"About Seven or so... don't ask me what day it is... this jet lag is murder." Beast Boy stretched out next to her. "When are they going to let us off this thing? I need to get out of this tin can."
Raven rolled her eyes. "Stop complaining."
Beast Boy laughed. "Easy for you to say. You weren't sitting next to the Snoring Wonder all flight."
Raven hid a blush before Beast Boy's seat belt began to glow with black energy and painfully tightened around his waist.
"I kid, I kid!" Beast Boy frantically apologized.
"Raven!" Robin snapped. "We can't do that in public, we've got a cover to uphold."
Raven reluctantly let her captive loose.
Smug as ever Beast Boy just couldn't leave it alone. "You were adorable when you drool in your sleep Raven." He snickered.
"I will end you one of these days I swear it." Raven pretty much engulfed herself in her hoodie and pulled her knees up to hide further.
"Beast Boy! Stop it. I swear I'm not going to come all this way just to have to babysit everyone." Robin spat.
"Sure thing, Dad." Raven shot back.
"Yeah, we're just messing around, Robin." Beast Boy added.
A glare with fire in her eyes hushed the wanna-be comedian immediately. "Why can't we leave?" Raven asked, hoping that would get them back on topic.
Robin looked back at her. "We were hoping you could tell us. Something attacked the plane and no one knows what."
Raven looked back to where Akihiko was sitting, but his seat was empty. She sighed. "Do we have to do this now? In the middle of everybody, Robin?" Besides not wanting to be interrogated in public by the Junior detective, she knew that she wasn't the one who could best explain.
Robin crossed his arms in frustration, but nodded. "Seems we will wait then."
Raven let out a sigh of relief as stewards announced they were free to exit the plane. She gathered her small carry on bag and followed the other titans out. There she saw Akihiko speaking to a group of concerned citizens.
Akihiko lied through his teeth. "The cause of the unsightly damage to the plane was large accumulations of ice that pelted the plane while passing though a cold weather front and then chipped off parts here and there due to the speed of the plane."
Raven rose her eyebrow. "That's the story they're going with?"
A lot of people didn't buy it, but couldn't explain it themselves either.
"There's no way ice shards did all that?" Robin shot back at Akihiko. Looking suspiciously at the damage.
"Well, do you have a better explanation?" Akihiko returned the serve back at the Boy Wonder.
Robin did not, but he wasn't sold on Akihiko's. "It looks like something clawed at it frankly."
Akihiko laughed some. "Looks like someone is bit too into Japanese myth. Surely nothing living would be able to make such marks, am I right people? Or perhaps you too believe in dragons like this here young lad?"
Raven knew if she didn't get these two apart they'd be at it all day. She wanted to get to this Dorm before the next Dark Hour. "Robin, just let it go, or do you want us to be stuck here another extra hour?"
Robin let out a huff and backed down. "We have an investigation to perform."
Raven shook her head. "Save it, I have a feeling we're going to see a lot more of this officer."
"This man of red and white does seem familiar from somewhere, Friend Robin." Starfire added to the pot.
Robin took that tid bit and worked out who he was. "I see. So it seems we had some insurance getting to Iwatodai." He looked the man over. "What do you read off of him, Raven?"
"Besides that he's an awful liar? Well I got to meet him and let's just say that you and him share a lot in common. By what I read off of him you two could go back to Gotham and make even HIM cry." Raven smirked a bit.
"Got enough baggage of my own. Don't need anyone else's carry on to hold." Then Starfire's luggage arrived. All fourteen bags of them. "Starfire!... I thought I said only to bring what's absolutely needed to survive."
"But I surely could not live without my supply of Tamaranian health supplies. I have plenty for everyone if they have the illness of movement?" She proclaimed with much pride.
Beast Boy wasn't buying. "I think I'll deal with the motion sickness. It's a lot safer, Starfire."
She huffed at their reluctance to use their world renowned remedies. "Well I shall carry them straight away then." She reached for the bags and started to lift.
"Wait, Starfire. You can't carry all of that?" Robin halted her.
"Of course I can. I'm well capable to carry all of our bags of holding." Starfire smiled.
"He's right. You carrying all of that isn't very natural, Starfire." Raven looked at Robin and Beast Boy. "Well?"
Beast Boy looked at the luggage mountain before them. "You aren't suggesting that we carry all of this burden? What do I look like, a pack mule?"
Raven gave Beast Boy a smirk. "Payback, Boys."
"Boys?" Robin said in protest.
"Not very gentlemanly to make a woman carry the bags." Raven reminded.
"Well, I'm not a gentleman..." Beast Boy crossed his arms before being pelted with one of Starfire's sacks full of only her various gods know what.
"Do mind bruising the Yumlchap fruit, friend Raven." Starfire looked at her bags being thrown in distress.
"How about Beast Boy's face?" Robin added before he too felt the grace of one of Starfire's carry on bags.
"Everyone gets to carry." Raven put her foot down on this one. "Besides. This stupid cover up was your idea to begin with, Robin. Time to pony up for that." She was still mighty bitter about the whole having to go to school and be sociable thing.
Moments later the boys were hands, shoulders, backs, and possibly mouths full of things while the two girls lead on to the lobby carrying the bare minimum.
"I think I can learn to enjoy this cover up thing." Raven smiled in the direction of Starfire.
"You are perhaps working our friends too hard, friend Raven. Are you sure we are not to help them?" Starfire looked back at them with concern.
"Cultural customs, Starfire. Remember we are trying to blend in." Raven actually had no idea what the customs of Japan were when it came to men carrying things for women, but she was going to milk it for what she could for as long as she could.
They reached a man holding a sign that read "Robin Drake"
"Looks like that's for us." Starfire pointed the bag boys to the chauffeur.
Raven felt a strong sense of tragedy in the man, much like she did when she first met Akihiko.
"Awwww man. I can't believe I got strung along doing this." The man seemed quite upset about having to be there. "Yo! Over here!"
The three gathered at the man which finally about took the rest of the boy's strength as they fell at their feet in an avalanche of totes and suitcases.
"Just reminded me why we never leave Jump City." Beast Boy quipped before pulling himself out from under Starfire's and his own luggage.
"That's why I travel light." Raven pulled up her one and only bag.
"Yeah, but you get to go back home when ever you want. That's not fair." Beast Boy continued to complain.
Robin dropped his load and addressed the man holding his name. "Right here."
"Alright. It's about time. You're the new transfer students, right? I thought you'd never make it here." The man adjusted his cap and scruffed his beard as he looked over the three. "The name is Junpei Iori. I'll be leading you on to the ride to Iwatodai."
"More public travel?" Raven said with dread.
"Hardly." Junpei smiled wide. "Mitsuru set us up. We got a sweet ride lined up. It's the only reason why I even agreed to go on this stupid errand. She knows exactly what buttons to push."
Raven quirked her eyebrow. "Can't wait to meet her."
"Oh, you will. She's waiting at the Limo with some of the others. Plus a sweeeeet spread. I think she bought us all sushi to help us break the ice." He seemed way too excited for some food.
"So Cyborg and Red-X must already be there." Robin looked at Junpei and then at the bags. "You going to give us a hand here?"
Junpei was knocked back with insult. "I'm no butler. Why don't you carry yer own bags?"
Beast Boy pleaded with him. "Come on, man. Give us a break. We had to carry all of this stuff from the lobby across the hall, And her highness didn't find it cultural for a woman to carry their own stuff."
"Whaaaat? That isn't a thing?" Junpei Looked at the two women as Raven grinned innocently. "Who told you that?"
"I read it before I came." Raven lied.
"I thought it was customary for people of Japan to be polite and courteous to their fellow peers." Starfire added.
Junpei stifled his anger. "Arrgh... well I suppose I've got a reputation to uphold, but so help me if somebody eats the good rolls before I get my share there's going to be hell to pay."
The three of them now shared the burden as Junpei led them to the long white limo that waited for them in the parking lot.
"So much for being discrete." Robin rolled his eyes.
"Mitsuru has accepted her roll in things. Needless to say subtlety was never one of those things that she was gifted with from her upbringing. With her father gone and her being the face of Korijo Group she rarely gets a moment outside the limelight." Junpei's voice was not that of jealousy, but it was showered in a tinge of pity.
"So I guess we will pretty much get lost in her wake. Trust me, I don't mind that in the least." Raven was no stranger to hiding behind other people's reputations. To date she has never had to answer a single question regarding Teen Titans activity. She always had Cyborg or Robin in front of her to explain things.
"Well, let's meet up with our new partners." Robin said before finishing loading the trunk with an array of bags with the other two.
When the door opened the sight was one to behold. Everything was stacked to the nines in food and beverage.
"Sweet, mother of Neptune. Look at all that Sushi." Junpei grinned from ear to ear.
"Too bad none of it is something I can eat." Beast Boy looked at the spread in sadness.
"On the contrary." A voice from the front of the limo spoke. "We were made well aware of your eating habits and also bought you a set of California rolls with tofu. No meat involved." The woman with red hair nodded respectively at the entering Titans with Cyborg sitting across from her and a shorter girl with blueish-gray hair sat in the middle of them with a mighty complicated Lap-top.
"Sup guys. Check it out, we're high rollers now." Cyborg high-fived a newly brought back to life Beast Boy as they soaked up this treatment.
"Woah, This is too cool. When do we get to eat it? My stomach is demanding nourishment." Beast Boy drooled at the sight of his personal meal.
"Not yet, we still have to see to it one last member arrives." The woman insisted.
"Mitsuru means she spent a pretty penny to make sure we had plenty to keep us all entertained for the ride up to the dorm. Now this is what I call a conversation piece. Look at the size of those Salmon nagiri-zushi." The two jokers hovered over their respected dishes like vultures.
"Enough Iori. I don't wish to flaunt anything. I only mean to show an appropriate, customary, welcome to our guests." For someone so famous she did have a sense of humility.
"Well received, new friends. May we do the customary shattering of the ice?" Starfire sat next to Junpei who was quite weary of her odd behavior.
Raven sat next to Cyborg trying to get reads off people. All she could pick up was all the thick scrutiny off of Robin. "I don't think we've heard anything about you." Raven directed at the girl who was about as fish out of water being social as she was.
"Um... Me? I, uhhh..." Raven felt a bit of relief that she was not the only one nearly as out of her element. The girl looked out from over her lap top screen at the new arrivals.
"This is Fuuka Yamagishi. You would not believe the skill she has around a computer. I swear it's nearly up to scratch to mine and I'm about 40% computer." Cyborg smiled at her.
She smiled back sporting a blush. "Th-thank you, Mr. Stone. You flatter me way too much, but I'm glad to be of service. No matter how little I may be able to do in battle."
"You'll do great as you always had, Yamagishi. With your knowledge of Shadows and Mr. stone's new technology you'll be back to your glory days of the original S.E.E.S." Mitsuru assured.
"Original S.E.E.S.?" Robin queried
Mitsuru nodded. "Yes, it was the group of us, plus one you might have met on route. Also three back over at the dorm that made up what's left of the team that stopped the destroyer, Nyx."
Raven felt a surge of unease at the mentioning of that name. As if a part of her was writhing in pain having heard it.
"Friend Raven. Are you still ailing from the illness of movement? You don't look so good." Starfire was all but ready to shove some disgusting looking green fruit down her throat.
"No, I'm... I'm fine. Just a bit of jet lag." Raven hoped. "What happened to S.E.E.S.?"
Mitsuru let out a small sigh. "Well we had hoped it was disbanded for good because we had fulfilled it's purpose. It now seems that we were wrong in that. Worse still, our weapons against the shadows are gone. We made a pact. That those of us that lost the ability to summon would not artificially return to that ability. There is still two of us that could use those weapons, One has not reached their complete adulthood and the other. Well, we will introduce you to her later."
"A pact?... You don't say." Raven held back a jolt of guilt knowing what she did. Just then Akihiko entered the Limo and shut the door behind him. "Speak of the devil."
"I hope I didn't miss anything important. Life of a law enforcer is not an easy one when shadows are involved. Honestly I don't know how Detective Kurosawa kept people so calm during it all." He sat across from Robin who gave him the mother of all stink eyes.
"Just some basic introduction, Akihiko. Please help yourself everybody. Our party is now complete." With that the limo jerked into motion and they were off to Iwatodai dorm.
"Ready" Junpei grabbed a pair of chopsticks like swords
"Set..." Beast Boy followed in kind.
"GORGE!" The two started to shovel it in without a care in the world.
Raven and Mitsuru both let out scoffs of disgust at their manners. Starfire kept trying to get a piece or two, but frantic chopsticks kept getting in her way. Cyborg and Fuuka seemed to have gotten cozy together talking techno-babble to each other. Which left both Akihiko and Robin with hands folded under their chins, just reading each other. Looking for any splinter of weakness in the other.
"So..." Akihiko uttered. Narrowing his eyes at the Boy Wonder
"Yup..." Robin responded in kind.
"Real men introduce themselves with their fists. Care to spar a match?" Akihiko brewed with testosterone and confidence.
"You were reading my mind. You will have to show me where you train." Robin confirmed the arrangement.
They were so similar it actually hurt Raven's eyes to look at the two.
Mitsuru let out a half a smile. "Boys will be boys, right?"
Raven gave one up to match. "Do they have to?"
"Afraid so." They both conceded the notion. "I must talk to you some time. In private, Miss Roth."
Raven nodded. "I think that could be arranged when we reach the dorm."
They both took in the beginning of this alliance. It seemed it had the headwind to be quite the wild ride.
End of Chapter Notes:
I must say that I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do with this chapter. I had a long trip behind me and a lot of stuff going on that distracted me this installment. Because I thought to myself that I didn't want there to be so much skipped time I gave you this rest chapter. I originally had them appear at the dorm which will result in more conflict, but then restarted. This story will be chalk full of fighting and the like. There is no problem in focusing in on the light-hearted moments. That's what I always liked about the Teen Titans and Persona was that it took the best parts of conflict and of friendship and gave great balance of the two. There will be blood. There will be tragedy. There will be twists and turns. For now though I want to enjoy the characters being put into development. Every Titan and every S.E.E.S. member will have their own chance to shine. I don't want this to be battle after battle, I want there to be chances for them to just be fun. Things are going to start getting complicated for our heroes as the full moon comes ever closer. If you like these types of chapters of comic relief let me know. If you'd rather me just get along with things and ditch some of it let me know. You just have to realize how thurough in detail Persona was when it came to it's every day existence. I wanted to bring some of that into the Titans universe and as you will see bring Titans things into the Persona one. I hope this kept your interest. I appreciate the views and the words of criticism and praise alike. More to come next time when we meet the remainder of S.E.E.S. and get our first glimpse of where the Titans will call home until they solve this mystery.