Death was calm. He lacked glands, and as such couldn't keep strong emotions for long. That did not mean he changed his views. He currently sat with his bony fingers steepled, thinking, on his black desk on his black room inside his black house in a realm he crafted from scratch, where everything was different shades of black(1) despite his best wishes. It was build-in, unfortunately. The only color in this entire world came from Albert, his servant, or the golden fields of corn in front of his house, which he had created from living memory from a brief time when he were... no, better leave the past as the past.
This… thing had destroyed a soul. A soul! The thing that was the darkness behind the eyes! The two stars that were his own eyes briefly flashed red again at the thought. The only thing that could survive after Death collected his toll, and it was ripped apart.
Despite his nature, Death never held ill will towards the living. He liked the living, even. All he did was help them find their way after their breath and heartbeats stopped. It was a job he was proud of, and for the first time, he couldn't perform it. He could not help someone cross the desert, because there was not a someone there, not even a memory. And Death knew – he could remember the future, even when the future changed (and lately, it had been changing far too much, at each passing second) – he knew Dweebil would not be the last one.
He needed to do something. But first…
I NEED TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THIS
These beings were not part of his world; they had brought them. Death knew all there was to know, but only so far as his jurisdiction went, and up until a few days ago, it went everywhere. Now everywhere had something from somewhere else.
Death concentrated, trying to find out where – ah! There! Death would have smiled, if he weren't already unable to stop doing so. And it was somewhere they couldn't go, to boot. You needed to have a self to find that place, and if there was something they hated, it was individuality.
But... those who ran that place were powerful enough to banish him if they wished so. He needed to find an excuse to go there uninvited and be accepted. How did humans do it, again? He looked up as his servant walked into the room, dusting it out of principle(2) and the idea occurred to him.
ALBERT, HOW ARE THE KITCHEN SUPPLIES?
"Welcome, to the Velvet Room."
Minato opened one eye, feeling dead inside. The interrogation, after the discovery of the 'Gonne', had been halted, mostly because the teen shut his mouth and refused to open it again, least he risked digging a deeper grave. He, or rather, his body, was currently sleeping on the cells, this time with two competent guards keeping watch instead of the fat sergeant and the ugly pickpocket.
"It seems you have been put in quite a conundrum." Igor chuckled.
"Evoker's gone." Minato said flatly.
"Indeed." Igor closed his eyes, but kept the smile "…but it may come to a surprise for you to learn that it would not have mattered much, either way."
Minato looked up. What?
Elisabeth cut in;
"The power that helped you create your personas, the links that were forged to last forever… are not from this world."
The teen blinked. Did it mean...?
"Your links left you when you left your world. Should you return there, they would be re-opened, but here…" he shook her head with a bright smile "I'm afraid you would only be able to invoke Orpheus." She giggled, hiding her mouth with her hand.
Which was quite useless by the end of the trip, Minato thought to himself looking down, as Elizabeth kept on smiling at his misfortune. He knew her well enough to know she didn't mean to offend, she just... wasn't normal, when you came down to it.
"But that does not mean you cannot forge new bonds on this new world." She added, and Minato looked up again "A fresh start and new opportunities. Maybe even new Personas for the Compendium; a new world with new myths."
So there was a chance. Still, the hope was fleeting.
"But the evoker-"
"Do you know why the evoker was shaped as a tool of death?" Igor interrupted, opening his eyes. "Tell me, how did you feel when you first used it? And from them on?"
Minato remembered cleary. Putting the gun against his own head, even without knowing it wasn't a real gun, and pulling the trigger…
"It felt like dying." He stated flatly "Whenever I used it, it felt as if I died. For a few seconds."
Igor nodded.
"Indeed, the fake gun was designed to make the user believe death's grasp had reached them. And do you know why Personas answered that call?"
Minato only stared. He never much cared to question how the magic gun worked properly. It was magic.
"Personas are a manifestation of your 'self'; the 'who' you really are behind the masks you show the world, and above all, the 'who' behind the masks you show to yourself." Elizabeth said. "It is not anyone who can accept who they are, without denial brought by shame or regrets, and so their portential remains unlocked. But that changes upon facing death; when you believe there will be no reason to keep the mask on, when life is over, so there is no reason why pretend to not be the person you know you are, you unconsciously shed off your mask, revealing your true self to all… including you."
Igor continued;
"The reason the evoker tricked you into thinking you died is so that you would stop, for a fleeting second, worrying about keeping your mask. And with the mask gone, your 'true self' could be manifested. Of course," he added with a smile, "for a Fool like yourself, the 'true self' was not static. You have the rare gift of a truly open mind, Minato, it is not many who are as fluid and capable of change."
The teen had by now a glimmer of hope.
"You mean that if I could accept me for who I really am…"
"… you would no longer need an evoker."
Minato's eyes, which were up until now more dead than usual, seemed more focused.
"How?"
Igor and Elizabeth smiled at his new determination.
"All you have to d-"
Knock knock knock
Igor stopped on his tracks, looking confused. He turned to look at Elizabeth, who seemed as lost and shrugged.
Knock knock knock
"Excuse me for a second." Igor got up from his chair and walked to a bookcase/wall. Minato had never seen stand, and noticed the... uh... 'man'? Had a terrible hunchback. As he approached the bookcase, a blue door appeared.
Knock knock knock
"This has never…" he muttered as he grabbed and opened it.
HELLO NEIGHBOUR, came a voice, and from his sitting angle Minato could see a bony hand holding a cup, COULD YOU SPARE A SOME SUGAR?
"How… How did you get in here?"
Igor was baffled, which was a sight Minato thought he would never see.
MY JOB IS GETTING EVERYWHERE. EVENTUALLY. Death said, BUT I THOUGHT POLITE TO KNOCK THIS TIME
He put his head inside the frame and looked around.
NICE PLACE YOU HAVE. AH, HELLO THERE
He gave Minato a short wave. The teen couldn't help but wave back. Elizabeth looked as if she should burst into laughter at any moment from Igor's reaction.
PLEASANTRIES OUT OF THE WAY, the empty cup on Death's hand disappeared, since he no longer needed an excuse to knock, I NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THIS OTHER... 'DEATH'
Igor looked at Death up and down.
"Why?"
The skeleton's eyes flashed for a second.
BECAUSE IT IS WRONG
Igor stared at the blue stars inside the skull for a few seconds, then grinned his usual grin, while taking a deep bow out of the way so that Death could walk in, starting his usual presentation.
"Welcome, to the Velvet Room. This place exists between dream and reality, mat-"
IT IS ABOUT THREE WAVELENGHTS SOUTH OF MY REALM said Death, nodding and walking in.
At this Elizabeth started to lose her ability to control the giggling. Igor didn't seem very pleased. He turned to face her.
"Elizabeth dear, please instruct Mr. Arisato on how to accept his true self, me and Mr…."
DOOR
Igor turned to face the reaper.
MY NAME IS BILL DOOR
Elizabeth let out a perceivable snort hiding her mouth with her hand.
"A fine name." Igor said, letting out an annoyed glance at his assistant. "Me and Mr. Door will be discussing the nature of the Fall. I trust you can help Mr. Arisato by yourself."
"S-sure…" she said, managing to control her giggling. Igor nodded, and he and Death walked through another door that appeared in the middle of the long corridor.
Elizabeth walked up to Minato and gestured for him to get up, using her finger to clean up a tear that had formed from the strain of not flat-out laughing at the rare sight of Igor loosing his composure. When she reached the teen, she put on her serious face, by which is to be understood she was smiling knowingly. She motioned for him to stand up in the middle of the corridor, and he obeyed.
"I have to warn you that the process does not come without a risk. Should you face your true self and not like what you see… your true self may not like you as well. There are better ways to go than being murdered by your own thoughts and feelings."
Minato nodded.
"Are you still sure?" her smiled became even more sweet "'Of thy own free will'?"
He nodded again.
"Then, good luck." she raised her hand and flicked him in the forehead.
And the strength of her finger sent him flying back and tumbling for about ten meters through the book corridor.
Only, he realized as he got up, he was still standing in front of her. Or rather, his body was still in front of her. He looked down, and realized that his body was also… well, where he was. How did this work? His real real body should still be sleeping in the cell, so…
He saw his own 'body', in front of Elizabeth, turn around to face him. It had the same bored expression Minato usually sported, and the same mannerisms – the way it would keep a hand in his pocket, the slightly pompous (now that he saw it from outside, did he really arch his back that way?) way of standing… the only difference was its eyes; instead of the gray of the teen's eyes, this other Minato had bright yellow ones.
"I am a shadow," he said in a monotone "the true self."
1 No, not even grey. Nothing even close to white, unless you counted the bone decorations in some places, everything else was just blacks and deeper blacks.
2 Death never bothered to create dust into his realm. Still, both he and his servant knew dusting is something servants do, and neither of them wanted to drop the farce.
A/N
DemonRaily Thank you for the very first positive review (and well, very first review at all). I plan to explain the slight overreaction they have for the Gonne in a few chapters, though I think most people who have read Men at Arms can guess out what it will be. As for the ease Carrot snapped the evoker in half, well, yeah, huh... I got nuthin'. Carrot is in the books many times described to be unnaturally strong, but even by those standards I think I may have exagerated for the sake of the scene. Then again the disc runs on Narrativium, so anything that would work for a scene will probably happen. Also, I also dislike Yukari's route (Chihiro is may waifu, except when it's Chie). I only stuck with it because the game seems to make it pretty clear it is supposed to be the canon relationship, and I'll try to stick with the canon whenever possible, except when I think it would be cool to do otherwise (like Death breaking the hourglass in anger. That should have stopped the dwarf's heart immediatelly.)
On a more general note, I have already written the entire scene of Minato facing his Shadow, but when I reached the end of it I re-read and was like "no this is stupid" so I'm trying to fix it, with varying degrees of success. May take a while for the next chapter to come out, is what I'm trying to say.
