CHAPTER 7

The next few weeks consisted of being with Riza, who had truly begun to open up after moving in with Ami and I, going to the Velvet Room to make Personas and register new ones in the Compendium. Then, came the night hours, when we let off steam by hunting down Shadows in the nests we could find. And boy, was it hella fun. When all of us were in, Riza even let off stress and decided to pitch in combat. And it was like she had a normal, albeit strong as hell, Persona. Guardian came and went naturally, without any cost to Riza. It was similar to watching a flower bloom in a garden you created, beautiful and gratifying.

It was the eighteenth of October, and Halloween was coming up. Tonight was a night of the full moon, like Kamas had warned me. So when I remembered that, I of course brought it up in conversation in the dorm lobby.

"Hey guys, remember how we're supposed to go after the nest again tonight?" I asked nervously. Riza looked very somber all of a sudden, as if she knew what I was going to bring up.

"Yeah, what about it?" asked Leon nonchalantly.

"Well, I got a tip that that may not be the way to go…" The others except Riza looked at me with concern. "Tonight's a full moon. And according to some friends of mine, Shadows get stronger with the moon…" Ami made a thinking face.

"Come to think of it, they have been ramping it up a bit, haven't they?"
"You have trustworthy allies, my friend, though there is one thing." Said Hayder seriously, "If the Shadows really are going to be at their best tonight, then the one time we SHOULD be down in the nests is tonight. What makes you claim otherwise?"

"The Bosses." Interjected Riza suddenly. Everyone looked at her, and she began to explain, "Boss Shadows are the toughest of the toughest. Normally, they only appear when the moon is full in replacement of the Shadows that normally crawl out of the nests."

"Hmm, intriguing, well, I suppose we should get ready then." Said Shina, standing. Hayder nodded in agreement, and everyone headed to their rooms to prepare for the boss.

That night, tensions were overcharged as we patrolled the city, only to find that all shadows were gone. It looked like Riza had been completely right, which, in this case, wasn't exactly good. All was quiet, when suddenly…

"Everyone, to the radio tower, now!" I heard Hayder announce with panic. I bolted as fast as my body would allow to the tower. And there, coiled around the metal spire, was a huge metallic beast. I'd call it a halfway mix between the serpent I faced on the first day in the nest and a dragon, but that wouldn't exactly do it. The top half of its skull was bone white, its eyes were blood red, and all along its body were parts that were also bone white, like armor. It saw us, and let out a bone chilling scream before leaping down at me and letting an orb of fire spiral toward me. Just as I was about to do something, Pandora, Ami's persona, joined by Guardian, knocked away the fireball.

"Thanks!" I shouted to both girls, who nodded.

The Draconian Serpent burrowed underground and chased us down with bursts of flame, which we were forced to narrowly avoid. Our Personas made it so we didn't really have to damage the beast directly, but they still did little-to-nothing, even Guardian. After several assaults from the Draconian Serpent, we were split up, and forced to go to the rooftops of several adjacent buildings. The Draconian Serpent coiled around the Radio tower again, but this time, it was to take shots at us.
"Dammit, somebody put that thing out of commission! Let's keep the snake on the ground!" I shouted into the earpiece while Riza got onto the same roof as me.
"I've got it covered," replied Hayder. Suddenly, I saw Hayder summon Poseidon and use his ice attack on the tower, destroying it, and sending the beast plummeting. The Draconian Serpent hissed at us.

"Gahhh, this is getting us nowhere! We have to use a fusion attack on the thing!" Shouted Shina over the earpiece.

"I'll do it! Mine and Jay's are the strongest! We have the best chance of punching a hole through that armor!" Riza replied.

"Okay, everyone, get back down and come together. Distract it!" I shouted. Everyone got off their rooftops, but Riza and I stayed on the edges of combat while the others ran next to one another, distracting the creature. The Draconian Serpent chased them furiously, not paying attention to Riza and I. We held hands, and raised them up as the sky darkened. Nidhug and Guardian appeared behind us, and prepared to face the giant foe that opposed us. Nidhug breathed fire onto Guardian's scythe, and flew up, high above the Draconian Serpent, and fired down at it. Guardian leaped into the air, and caught the flames with her scythe, which glowed a brilliant orange, before bringing the scythe down directly into the top of the Draconian Serpent's skull with a loud 'CRUNCH!', and Riza and I watched as the Draconian Serpent desperately tried to resist the hot steel being pressed into its head. In a particularly powerful swing of the Serpent's head upwards, Guardian used the momentum to rise high into the air, and came back down, this time bringing the Scythe down in the Serpent's neck. Guardian disappeared, and Riza had a wicked smile on her face. The Draconian Serpent spotted us and, in a rage, tried to breathe a fireball at us. At first, I got ready to turn tail and cheese it, but Riza grabbed my hand and said,

"Wait, just watch what happens." As if on cue, an explosion was seen right behind the Draconian Serpent's face, and the scythe flew through the air, returning to its owner. Upon further exam, I realized that the explosion had somehow caused the Serpent's head to snap clean off. I whistled, saying,

"Riza, how the hell did you do that?" She giggled, almost in a creepy (yet cute) way,

"It's actually simple. There are two chemicals the Draconian Serpent uses to secrete fire: its saliva, so it never runs out of fuel, and the ignition gland in the back of the throat. When it fires a fireball, it spits a glob of saliva at us, but to get it as actual fire, it needs to go past the ignition gland. But if we position the Scythe just so it blocks the fireball, then it has nowhere to go but up through the hole that the scythe made…"

"Thus stretching the hole until the force of the explosive fireball decapitates the beast." I finished for her. She laughed,

"Well, don't look scared of me, Jay. I'll only kill you if you get me mad!" she said with an innocent smile that made me question whether she actually meant it. She, of course, followed that with, "That was a joke." And I just chuckled lightly in response to the culmination of both a morbid joke, and my lovely friend's maniacal genius.

Late that night, when I was in my room, Kamas appeared behind me.

"Hi again," she said calmly, "I see you survived."

"Not that it was easy, but yes." I said. "Thank you for warning me, Kamas." She shrugged,

"Whatever, I'll see you a week before the Full Moon's here again to remind you." She disappeared into the darkness, leaving me to my lonesome once again.

The next ten or so days were quite enjoyable. For one thing, it was spring break, so everyone got a vacation from both school and Shadow Hunting. Just before leaving, Ami and Leon decided to call everyone to the lobby. When Riza and I got there, Ami and Leon were talking to Hayder and Shina. Ami saw us, and waved. We headed over, and Shina greeted us with,

"Hey, if it isn't the two late-comers, thanks for showing." Hayder scolded her, then said to us,

"Sorry, we've had AP testing, and it's been particularly frustrating for Shina. It's over though, thankfully. Anyway, Ami, Leon, why'd you call us down?" Ami smiled and started to explain,

"About a week ago, Sir Leon the Clumsy over here pulled down one of the wall-lights here," she put her hand on one, "and it turned out to be an old passage to an underground sanctuary from civil war times. So, Leon and I got some pros to renovate it, and…" she pulled on the light, and a fake wall slid open, revealing a passageway that led to a rather spacious basement with wooden flooring and glass doors. We entered into some kind of conference room with a large, wooden table in the center with the letters 'N-E-S-T' engraved into the center of it. At one side was a gavel, and another at the other side. In addition, there was a larger room attached that was a full kitchen/bar with a dining area.

"…And we turned it into somewhere that we can have meetings and celebrations! Ladies and gents, we humbly present, the 'Nest!'" Ami finished, taking a bow. I have to admit, when I saw that hella awesome basement, my jaw hit the floor, as did the others', I imagine.

"Well, you've really outdone yourselves this time, you two…" Said Hayder, as he traced the lettering, "But why are there two gavels?"

"I can answer that," said Leon suddenly, "my idea was that, since we're a team, we shouldn't have one leader, but two."

"Clever thought," Hayder mumbled just within earshot.
"So, who're the Leaders?" asked Shina eagerly.

"Hayder and Jay, easily." Replied Ami quickly.

"I'm honored," I admitted in response to the sudden responsibility of leadership. Hayder, on the other hand, just nodded.

"However, we'll have our first meeting after we all get back from vacation." Leon stated with a lighthearted laugh, and everyone agreed.

While the others took this time to go on vacations, get some extra work done, etc. etc., I instead took this time to nurture my friendship with Riza, which I had started to neglect while balancing both school and Shadow-Hunting. So, I was quite happy to get out and about with Riza. We went to shop the first day, looking through various clothes to see if anything caught our eyes. A personal favorite of Riza's was a black shirt that had the phrase "Venit mors ad omnes, sed aliis clementer agimus, deinde tuto, vita potest, quamdiu nobis auferet." Which roughly translates to, "Death comes to us all, but should we treat others kindly, then the guardian, Life, shall cling to us for as long as she can." And when I say roughly, I mean that it's about the closest you can get to the English phrase.

Anyway, we spent the following day at the movie theater, watching some romance she felt like seeing. But, to be honest, I was paying far, far more attention to Riza than I was the movie. She seemed, fidgety, though that's not precisely the correct word. Either way, she was restless throughout the entire movie.

After the movie ended, she asked me to stay with her in the theater for a quick second. She pulled me aside, and we shared our first deep kiss (with no Leon stopping us this time). It's a rather strange, albeit wonderful feeling. Our tongues fought for dominance, and I could barely see her blush in the theater lights while our hands joined one another. We pulled away when we were both out of breath, and her only words were,

"You have no idea how long I've been waiting to do that with you, and how nervous I got doing it." I laughed and said,

"I noticed, miss restless." She pouted at me,

"And you didn't even say anything?" I just smiled like the Cheshire cat and replied,

"Nope!" She sighed and groaned,

"Oh how the olden art of Chivalry dies upon your swift and clever tongue, young knight." That made us both laugh, and we set up a date for the following day.