I don't own Persona 3, Shin Megami Taisen do.
-Battle Start-
The Priestess didn't give Minato[Magus] and Fuuka anytime to think as it quickly summoned a Dancing Hand shadow that began to focus on attacking Fuuka who had summoned her persona to guard against it. Seeing this Minato[Magus] was quick in rushing to Fuuka's aid dispatching the lesser shadow with little effort…only to be met with two more Dancing Hands rushing at him, this quickly turned into an endless cycle for every Dancing Hand Minato defeated the Priestess had already summoned two more to take its place. The waves of lesser shadows had separated Minato[Magus] from Fuuka (still being protect by her persona) since instead of attacking her they had been simply pushing her back until she stopped moving as if she had come in contact with an invisible wall.
A primal yell was heard from where the two S.E.E.S. members friends with observing the battle, it was Shinjiro who was rushing towards Fuuka not caring about the rules imposed on the battle, but his charge was halted as he came in contact with the invisible barrier that prevent him from advancing any further. Seeing this, the Priestess took a moment away from summoning another wave of Dancing Hands to casting a spell skill directed at Fuuka. When Fuuka was struck she dropped to her knees holding her head and began shaking it from side to side, which her would-be savior noticed.
"FUUKA! Damn…Aigis what did that shadow just do?" Shinjiro asked his voice full of worry and distress.
Aigis was quick in searching for an answer. "Accessing recorded skills database…*beep*…skill found it just cast Pulinpa a status aliment skill that has a 25% chance of inducing panic on the target."
"By the looks of things it worked, DAMN this is crazy it keeps messing with Fuuka and summoning more shadows to attack Minato" Shinjiro exclaimed slamming his fist on the floor.
The statement caused an expression of understanding to show on Aigis' face "It's trying to tire him out!" Aigis exclaimed drawing the rest of the S.E.E.S members' attention "That's why the High Priestess said he wasn't allowed to use Wild! I have recorded everything from Minato's practices with his shadow abilities and his battles, besides Agi and Agilao twofire spells Magus only has a basic Dia healing spell and Minato needs to have time so he can cast the spell for it to work, where if Minato were to shift to Wild's Fool Arcana Form he would be constantly recovering stamina with some access to Magus' Agi spell…" Aigis' trailed off as she watched in shock and horror as the Priestess shadow began to send multiple shades of ice hurtling towards Minato which made her cry out in concern "NO this shadow has Bufu ice spells, which are Magus' elemental weakness…*GASP* all those rules were just so the shadow would have an overwhelming advantage in battle!"
A look of realization appeared on Shinjiro's face "Damn She's right the no Wild rule, making Fuuka fight, all of it…GOD DAMMIT we were suckered!"
No one could see that Fuuka's eyes were wide in shock and sadness for she even under the effects of the Pulinpa spell she had overheard everything; she realized that it had all went according to the Priestess' plan the only reason Fuuka was picked to be Minato's ally was that she would simply be dead weight, Fuuka had thought or more hoped that she might have been picked due to an arcana compatibility or something of the sought but now she knew she was picked just to be a distraction to Minato so that the Priestess' shadow minions would have an easy time attacking him since he would be too distracted protecting her, and now Fuuka was heartbroken over the fact that she was now indirectly responsible for her friend getting hurt if anybody was looking at the High Priestess at that moment the expression on her face would convey that she was very pleased with herself. The Priestess' assault soon became even more brutal for while she continued to summon wave after wave of shadows she started to use the scrolls attached to her head as flexible blades focusing on attacking Fuuka since Minato was too preoccupied with the swarm of Dancing Hands relentlessly attacking him.
With every attack Fuuka lost more and more of her resolve "I'm scared!" *scrolls attack* "I'm afraid!" *scrolls attack again* "In a fight…I'm…useless" her hands dropped to her side as she became still. As the battle continued Fuuka just sat on the floor with her eyes closed as tears ran down her face. She could not hear her friends crying out her name as she sat on the floor unmoving lost in her own world.
-In Fuuka's Mind-
Fuuka opened her eyes and was greeted by an empty space "Hello…anyone here?" her voice echoed throughout the whole area, it was an endless void no here or there, no up or down just an empty black vacuum.
"Hi…scaredy cat!" despite the answer being said in a soft voice each word was dripping with malice.
Turning her head and body from side to side Fuuka tried to see who had answered "Who are you?" she asked.
"*chuckle* Why don't you take a look?" emerging from the darkness Fuuka was confronted with the voices owner…herself with bright yellow eyes, a sarcastic smirk and dragging a large medieval shield.
-Real World-
The battle wasn't showing any sign of ending in S.E.E.S. favor. Minato[Magus] was losing ground as it could be seen from the fact that many of his extra arms were now swaying virtually life less indicating that he was running out of energy. He still pushed on hoping to find an instant to turn the tide of battle but with each Dancing Hand he defeated it seemed that moment was not going to present itself any time soon.
-Fuuka's Mind-
While the battle raged the other Fuuka had spent the whole time taunting Fuuka for every word was spoken with a mocking childish tone "I can't do anything so I'll just sit back and hide behind Lucia waiting for my friends to help me" her words left Fuuka speechless, as her doppelganger's voice changed from a mocking tone to a hate filled one "All you can do is protect yourself…you little coward!" Fuuka just stood still not responding "Sitting around doing nothing but repeating myself and stating the obvious that's what I'm best at, right?"
Fuuka looked at her doppelganger with tears in her eyes "That's not what I want" she said shakily her fists balled.
"THEN WHAT THE HELL DO YOU WANT!? HUH? TO BE USELESS LOAD, THAT'S WHAT YOU WANT?!" the other Fuuka screamed her face full of rage.
"I WANT TO PROTECT EVERYONE!" Fuuka yelled in response.
The other Fuuka stood still wide eyed from Fuuka's surprisingly loud declaration, tilting her head to one side and raising an eyebrow the doppelganger asked "…Really?" as it continued to stare at Fuuka.
Fuuka didn't answer but only stared back at her counterpart with soft determination in her eyes. Smirking the other Fuuka spoke "Well I guess you do have some backbone to do SOMETHING after all…but this…is far from over…" Fuuka's doppelganger spoke its taunting tone ever present as it faded back into the darkness.
In the back of her mind a small serene voice spoke to her "Fuuka…wake up…they need you"
-Real World-
Fuuka opened her eyes and she strangely felt lighter then she had before in years. She slightly raised her head to see Minato[Magus] still fighting. Seeing her friend go to such lengths made her feel something she couldn't understand at first but she quickly realized what this strange feeling was and she could have sworn that it was her persona that had just spoken to her but that had wait she needed to assist Minato[Magus] who was still trying to hold of the small army of shadows. She was also aware of the sharp scroll tendrils and ice attack that were barreling towards her as the High Priestess watched waiting to see Fuuka fall.
Fuuka slowly rose from her knees and turned her head so she was looking at the shadow from within Lucia´s shield and the shadow was shaken for Fuuka no longer showed fear on her face…now instead of fear Fuuka's eyes were half lidded and she wore an almost cold smirk on her face that seemed to send a chill through the train cart as if trying to deliver a message to everyone and that message was 'Gotch Ya, Bitch'. The Priestess' multiple razor sharp scrolls and Bufu spell that had been speeding towards Fuuka momentarily stopped in mid attack…as if the High Priestess was now deliberating if it should continue with its attack on the now fearless Fuuka or hold back and see what had changed, but in the end the Priestess' arrogant pride overcame her doubt and so she followed through with her attack with every intent of skewing and freezing Fuuka after her ribbons break through her Persona's globe like shield but the Priestess´ desired end did not come to pass.
The High Priestess' multiple scrolls didn't break Lucia's cracked shell as it had intended to which Fuuka asked "Surprised? Well so am I!" the scrolls that had before creaked Lucia's shell never reached their target do deliver the final blow, as if hitting an invisible wall the Bufu spell halted and the tendrils bent inches away from hitting Lucia's globe like lower body. The Priestess had a look of disbelief as it could not understand what at just happened to the fragile fearful Persona user that was mere seconds away from being destroyed for now it had seemed that she had been replaced with someone who carried and air of confidence. "You know I always felt weak and helpless even after I awakened my persona because even with Lucia by my side I couldn't do much except provide information on enemy shadows and the only person I could protect was myself." Her voice came out calmly and somber "I hated that fact, and no matter how much of it was true I didn't want to accept it because I would have to accept that I couldn't protect my friends no matter how much I wanted to but I've figured out why…it's because not only did I want to help my friends but I also felt sorry for the shadows we had hurt and providing information meant the less time either side at to fight. So I have to say thank you because now I can fight alongside the others even if not directly, I can only defend but that doesn't mean I shouldn't look down on myself for that. Not being able to attack isn't the same as not being able to counterattack, for I now know what I should be feeling when I help my friends succeed in our missions…I should feel happy since it means that they are safe, you used me as a handicap now you will be first to feel Lucia's first counterattack…AEGIS REFLECTOR!" Ending her declaration the scrolls that had hit the invisible wall were sent back towards the Priestess with twice the speed and power from their initial attack, piercing everything in their path. Seeing what was coming towards him Minato[Magus] jumped out of the way so as not to be decimated like the miniature army that had been swarming him, but it didn't end there the scrolls that demolished the lesser shadows skewed the High Priestess' torso without losing any momentum. The Priestess didn't have a seconds rest as it was struck with the reflected Bufu spell that ending freezing the now struck scrolls in its torso making impossible to pull them out.
Minato[Magus] saw what had had happened and used the opportunity to conjure knives for the multitude of hands his Magus Form provided and flung them at the High Priestess' face not only making her feel the pain of having her face being turned into a giant Higher Shadow pin cushion but also severing the tendrils like scrolls that were attached to her head. This action caused the S.E.E.S. members to breathe a sigh of relief as the shadow was now incapacitated and Fuuka was out of harms way but now something strange was happening in the monorail cart…the temperature was raising.
Akihiko wiped his brow with the back of his gloved fist as he tugged at his shirt collar "Man…why is it getting hot in here?" He turned to his friends noticing that no answer was needed as they too were sweating. The temperature quickly rose to new heights which caused them to remove their jackets or in Mitsuru's case scarf but that little to alleviate the situation *bark, WOOF* the group of young people looked towards their canine ally to see Koromaru barking wildly towards the shadow which to them didn't make sense until they turned towards the front of the monorail car.
They saw their leader was the reason the temperature was rising because now each and every one of his shadow hands had flames dancing in their palms. With the Priestess incapacitated Minato[Magus] walked up to her raising one of his left hands towards her, he was breathing heavily due to the sheer number of shadows he had battled. "You made a test stacked in your favor that's NOT HOW IT'S SUPPOST TO BE!" he roared snapping his fingers launching a powerful Agi spell at her face to which she screamed when it exploded on contact, even before the smoke cleared he launched another with one of his right hands. He wasn't showing any signs of stopping as he launched more and more Agi spells at the ever growing cloud of smoke coming from the Priestess´ face, he continued swinging his multiple arms from side to side snapping his fingers every time one of his hands lined up with the Priestess to send another Agi spell to detonate in the higher shadow´s face. He didn't speak during his onslaught if anything he was only growling to the point that everyone else could almost feel the rage that was coming from him. Explosion after explosion were going off as Minato[Magus] began to fling all his arms wildly no longer focusing on just the Priestess' face as now he was now covering her whole body with the seemingly endless fiery barrage "HURTS DOESN'T IT? YOU FORGOT ELEMENTAL WEAKNESS WORKS BOTH WAYS!?" Minato[Magus] roared not caring that the Priestess was now barely visible behind the wall of smoke his attacks had created he just kept launching more and more…He was visible exhausted since he had halted his onslaught after a full three minutes of relentlessly burning the Priestess, the smoke cleared to show the higher shadow covered in burn marks and bruise from the intense heat and impact of the Agi spells. Raising all of his hands Minato[Magus] was using one finale spell at first it seemed to be another Agi but the flame grew much larger and the heat it radiated was hotter than any of the previous flames "You…haVE…LOST!" Minato[Magus] roared launching his largest Agilao spell at the now almost completely charred limp Priestess
The Higher Shadow was now still and limp showing no signs of getting up, Fuuka stumbled then fell backwards which would have ended with her falling on to the floor but she instead fell towards Shinjiro who instinctively caught her in his arms which everyone took as the signal that the battle had ended with the group all running towards the exhausted friends.
"Easy there Fuuka" Shinjiro said as he gently sat Fuuka on the floor but not letting go for fear of her falling over.
"Thanks…my scans never tried me out like that before, I guess actually using skills takes a lot more out of you then simply using your Persona's inherit abilities huh?" she finished giving a tried smile.
Her friends now surrounding her with Akihiko and Junpei holding Minato up, before anyone spoke Ken asked Fuuka "How did you do that?" clearly referring towards Fuuka's sudden burst of power that they had witnessed.
She slowly shook her head "I can't quite remember something…happened…in…my mind…I don't know what happened but the more I try and to remember…the foggier my thoughts get…" Her speech was justly slow and tired.
Yukari and Mitsuru quickly began to cast Media spells to help heal their battle weary leader and friend. The group's attention was drawn to the higher shadow as it moaned in pain. The Priestess' body was being drawn into her mask just like Magus when he first appeared before the S.E.E.S. group, when it finished all that was left was the Priestess' mask lying on the floor of the train cart that had returned to its regular size. The now semi healed Minato picked up the mask from the floor staring at it with intense distain filling the air with tension. Aigis spoke in an attempt to lighten the mood "It appears that you gave her a terrible case of explosions." Aigis' joke was met with some of her friends looking at her as if she had grown a second head while others merely shook their heads groaning, even Koromaru found the joke bad as he had placed one of his paws on his face.
Akihiko and Mitsuru both asked at the same time "Aigis…where did you hear that joke?"
"YouTube" Aigis stated matter-of-factly.
"Dude what happened back there you went all crazy on that shadow? Your voice was messed up too." Junpei asked his voice a mixture of worry and excitement.
Magus appeared on Minato's chest which caused Junpei to embarrassingly jump into Chidori's arms "His desire to protect Fuuka mixed with the rage I was feeling towards my sister for her crooked tactics, the end result was Minato temporally BECAME a higher shadow. I must say it was quite impressive"
Junpei interrupted while getting back on his feet "Yeah, wait? What?...You're saying he turned into a shadow?"
"Somewhat, he temporally tapped into the full power of the magician arcana using me as a conduit…in fact I must correct myself for my early statement, for that brief moment of intense emotion Minato didn't just become a normal higher shadow he became the new Magician higher shadow." Magus said finishing his explanation.
Before the matter was pressed any further Ken spoke out "Let's go back to the dorm, it's been a long night". The group acknowledged that even if most of them had not taken part in the fight they were all tried, so they began the long walk back to the dorm house.
-In the streets-
A lone figure stood on top of a building unnoticed, it had watched the battle against the Priestess shadow and the resolve and strength of the humans who had obtained victory with rapt attention as one would watch their favorite performance. As it now watched the S.E.E.S. group return to their dorm a gentle smile graced its face "Perhaps I should inform the others of this development?" it asked itself in a soft spoken tone as it disappeared not leaving any trace of having been there in the first place.
-Back at the Dorms-
After returning the group was still on edge for they knew Minato was going to put on the Priestess mask so it could merge with him, "Everybody ready?" Minato's question was answered by the nods of all present.
"Now young one put on her mask" Minato placed the mask upon his face as Magus instructed resulting in a large amount of shadow to appear from it. As before Minato's body was covered from head to toe in ink black shadows but this time he was expecting it so he was not panicking as he had before, he waited expecting something similar to the his first merger but was surprised for unlike the first time his weren't restrained and could feel as the shadows that had enveloped his body were now becoming tighter not a threating manner but become more like a type of…wrapping. The shadows had that had enveloped his body had changed, unlike the first time where his body seemed to be covered in tight leather Minato now appeared to be like an Egyptian mummy wrapped in black bandages.
"O…k…That's weird…are you alright?" Chidori asked.
He nodded and he sensed that some of his bandages were changing, since his eyes were covered by the mask what he couldn't see but his friends could was that slowly some of the wrapping began to lose their original pitch black color which gradually faded to a clearer snow white color. The S.E.E.S. members stood patiently watching as Minato's formally all black bandaged body now had become a mummy of black and white wrappings. To which Minato felt…a difference from the first to which he commented "Something's…different…".
Although his mask didn't appear Wild's voice could be clearly heard "That's because ol' Magus and I merged with you willingly, where in this case you had to beat sis into submission and she's always been a sore loser, so this is going to hurt a lot…for who knows how long" the fact the Wild's voice didn't carry his usually joking tone showed that he was serious.
"Oh goooddhhhAAARGG" His words became howls as hot intense pain of inhuman levels shot through him, his body arched back to the point where his head was almost touching the floor before it jerked backed so his body was standing tall for all of two seconds before he started to stagger and lurch about at random. He swayed in every direction possible like a puppet that had lost its strings the only things that came from his mouth were screams of pain and pleas to make the pain stop. His head was pounding, ears ringing, his muscles felt as if they were being torn apart, he felt like any second he was going to throw up or soil himself from the sheer amount of pain he was feeling, it robbed him of his senses leaving nothing for him but to suffer more pain; it felt as if his blood had been replaced with fire and that his body had been skinned then covered with salt, madding was too soft a word for what he was suffering, and since Minato already housed two higher shadows his voice was a mix of his own Magus' and Wild's voices. Due to his body being covered he couldn't see the faces of his friends but he could still vaguely hear them.
"PLEASE SOMEONE MAKE IT STOP!" Yukari screamed covering her ears, closing her eyes, and turned away in hopes of blocking out even a little bit of he friends torture…it didn't work she could still feel how her friend was suffering.
Ken screamed "SOMEONE CAST A HEALING SPELL" which was realized with Mitsuru rushing over to her friend, she grabbed on to him to keep him stable as she began to use her Media spell, but every time she tried the spells glow around his body would appear then fade.
"MY SPELLS BEING BLOCKED" she shouted with her voiced full of desperation and dread, but even with the revelation she continued to try to heal him each time growing more and more desperate yelling each time it failed with tears in her eyes "WHY" fails again "WONT" fails again "IT" fails again "WORK?!" fails again.
"COME ON CAN'T ANYONE DO ANYTHING!" The cry came from the normally stoic Aigis who appeared short from having the anti-shadow weapon equivalent of a seizure or panic attack with sparks flying from her joints. She also had steam bellowing from her "ears" which indicated that she was overheating her processing systems in the attempt of trying to formulate a solution to her leader's plight, "I have to help him" the message repeated in her mind over and over even when her system were blaring WARNING SYSTEMS OVERHEATING, FORCED SHUT DOWN IMMINENT. The message of forced shut down caused her to cease her overtaxing of her system, it was not that she was afraid of a forced shut down it was because if she was forced to shut down then she couldn't help Minato. Her body's cool down process needed only a minute or two but while her body was cooling she began to put her processors back to work in formulating a plan of action although now she was doing it with calmer mental state.
The whole S.E.E.S. group members began yelling as to most of them it seemed to the only thing they could do, some begging for their friend's safety others shouting encouraging words to Minato hoping to help him surpass the sheer amount torture he was feeling. Despite their pleas his body continued twisting itself around, the air filled with sounds of bones constantly cracking and Minato's endless cries of unrestrained anguish; he collapsed onto the floor his bandaged body contorting itself in every direction to almost disturbing extremes screaming all the while clawing at the mask in a vain attempt to remove it.
To the whole horror show Junpei cried out "DUDE, LEGS DON'T BEND THAT WAY" as Minato's legs were now bending at all kinds of inhuman angles that would seem normal on a ball joint doll but the creaking noise the knees made assured that it was not supposed to be possible for a human to do it. Groaning Junpei feel to his hands and knees placing his left hand over his mouth moaning "ugh I'm gonna be sick" his voice was garbled showing that he was indeed close to vomiting.
After what seemed like hours the worry the S.E.E.S. members felt only doubled as Minato had become deathly still, a few moments later Minato's prone body gradually rose to its feet; he took long deep breaths to fill his lungs with much needed air since he had spent around the past twenty minutes screaming to high heaven and low hell. The bandages unwrapped themselves to reveal a three important features about Minato's new High Priestess Overshadowed form. The first the bandages that had encompassed his body were connected to the back of his head and were standing as if gravity didn't have any hold on them while they slightly swayed in all directions despite the lack of wind, Second is that instead of a full black hooded long coat his upper body looked like it was in skin tight latex and his lower body was covered by a robe like garment which divided into multiple ribbons near the end, his body and clothing were completely black on the right side and in contrast totally white on the left side, and third…Minato now had a pair of C-cup sized breasts with a black J on his left one and a white B on his right one.
Minato looked towards his friends expecting faces full of relief instead he was met with looks of…surprise. He didn't understand why until he followed their gazes, looking down at his formally flat chest he finally noticed what his friends had been staring at. Slowly placing his hands under his new assets he slightly lifted them. His mind could register his hands on…himself so yes they were real and a part of his body. Holding them in place he raised and lowered his hands as if weighing the two mounds of flesh that now rested on his normally flat chest, this continued for a few seconds as if he was trying to come to some kind of conclusion while his team mates looked on in stunned silence the whole time. Finally he finished getting "acquainted" with his new features, he let them go and watch as the slightly bounced in place before becoming still again. He looked up to see the slack-jawed blushing faces of the rest of his friends. He slowly turned his head scanning their expressions as if trying to gauge their reactions, they all had a look of utter shock on their faces except for Aigis and Koromaru who had titled their heads sideways as if confused by what they saw. When he continued on to look at his female friends he noticed that expressions of utter shock seemed to hold a tiny ping of jealousy as well. Satisfied he calmly looked up towards the dorm's roof before he took a very long deep breath. The words that came from his mouth were in a manner vastly opposite to his normal disposition and could be heard around within a four block radius of the dorm, a few stray shadows turned to look in the direction of the loud noise.
"WHATTTT THEEEE HELLLLLLL!"
Reviews are always welcomed I do read them.
