Chapter 7: Tuesday 16th April
Once the curtain was briskly thrown aside, the blinding light streamed into the hallway, forcing Kota to shelter his eyes with his arm. After a brief moment, the light lost its intensity, and the Wild Card user was able to make out some of his surroundings.
The spotlight that remained fixed on the exploring party was the only source of light in the room. Rusted chain link caging constrained the group to a narrow wooden walkway heading in a straight line towards the centre of the dark room.
Kota glanced to his right towards Jaden, the classmate showing signs of nerves by the slight twitching of his eye. As he returned Kota's gaze, he composed himself and gave a curt nod of assurance. The thought of going through what he experienced with Jaden's despair evoked some fear in Kota, but at least he won't be alone this time.
He walked down the pathway towards the black abyss with Jaden and Glitch trailing closely behind him. As the group moved slowly with great apprehension, the lone light followed them closely. The moment Kota stepped onto the course dirt surface at the end of the planked avenue, the light abruptly shut off with a loud fizzle as if the light had burst.
"Dammit!" Jaden exclaimed in fright. "A-Are those monsters toying with us or something?"
"Quiet!" Glitch hushed from nearby though she couldn't be seen in the darkness.
Suddenly the sound of a drum roll filled Kota's ears as two dim spotlights appeared and circulated the room. The suspense kept everyone high-strung as they remained rooted in place.
Ladies and Gentlemen, we thank you for your patience in awaiting tonight's main event.
A deeper, more human voice than the one that greeted the party at the entrance of the tent announced over the drumming in a tone that was building up to a climax.
Before we begin, we ask all spectators to remain behind the fences at all times in the interest of everyone's safety. We must also ask that you don't try any of tonight's show at home as the performance is produced by a trained professional.
And now… without further ado… give it up for our beast tamer, Akina Yonashi!
Light flooded the room without warning, showing the large and bare arena that Kota had stepped into with a large alcove at the far end blocked off with study metal bars. Cheers erupted from all around the seating area behind the tall fences, even though there was no sign of anything using the worn benches. Standing motionless like a statue in the centre of the arena was none other than the beanie-wearing girl that Kota and Jaden had come for, keeping her vacant eyes locked onto the ground. On the ground either side of her was a coiled whip and a small, tired-looking stool.
"Yonashi!" Kota could feel the worry and stress roll off his mind as he moved quickly towards her.
"Why…" The girl was unscathed and wearing her Gekkoukan uniform, but the mood she was letting off was massively out of the ordinary for her, yet Kota found it eerily familiar.
"It's alright, Akina. We've come to get you out of here." Jaden was walking briskly beside Kota when Akina started panicking as her classmates came close to her.
"No!" Akina mistook a step backwards before falling to her knees. Her hands flew up to grasp the front of her beanie, covering her eyes in the process. "Just leave me alone."
"We can't do that. Staying here will be dangerous."
"I don't care," The girl wailed, her grip tightening on her headdress – as if her very being depended on it. "I just don't want to go back." The phantom crowd began mimicking the sound of whispering between each other.
"Akina! Just think for a moment," Jaden spoke. "We've all been worried sick about you."
"Don't you think I've had enough? Huh!?" The massive amount of voices sounding simultaneous had built up into a loud, continuous buzz filling the entire arena. "I'm sick of the bullying, the gossiping behind my back… the lying…" Akina was trembling as the voices sounded even louder and more harshly.
"Yonashi, please…" Kota felt sick in the stomach from the seeing the pain in her eyes. If only he had realised how insecure Akina felt about him and Jaden keeping a secret from her, he would have tried to tell her sooner. "We never spoke badly of you. We just didn't want you to get involved with this place."
"That may have been the case… but that doesn't change anything." The whispering slowly died off, letting the silence take over the room once more. Akina's arms dropped limply to her side, leaving the dark rings around her eyes easily visible from where the boys were standing.
"I'm… not normal. I wasn't born with dark hair or deep brown eyes like most people." The albino looked to have winced slightly as she spoke of her abnormality. "Actually I couldn't be any further from that image… I'm a monstrosity in everyone's eyes."
"Akina…" Kota could hear the hurt in Jaden's voice as he gritted his teeth through the pause. "Stop saying stuff like that! You're better than this!"
"I… I can't pretend anymore! No matter what I do, I'm stuck with this body… and with it comes the alienation that everyone forces on me." Akina shut her eyes off from everyone though the tears still managed to well up between her eyelids. "Maybe if I was better at dealing with people, everyone would be able to look at me and see more than just my red eyes and pale skin… But I'm not good enough… I'll never be good enough." She slowly got back to her feet and looked weakly at her two classmates through eyes that could be likened to an endless red void, like staring into an endless desert free of anything of significance.
"So, please… Jaden… Kota… let me free myself from this life."
The request made its impact like a spear hurled through Kota's chest, as Jaden let out a shaky breath as if the air was knocked out of his lungs. Glitch, who had been keeping her distance from the school students during the exchange, remained largely unaffected in comparison.
"If you guys let her die, there's no telling what consequence it will have on the Subex and the world above it." There was a trace of urgency in her usually bland voice, but Kota couldn't shake the stunned state to act in any way.
A hundred hands clapping at a slow tempo in unison shook the arena as Akina turned her back on the group and scooped up the whip and stool from the floor. The clapping sped up as the girl took several slow strides towards the dark alcove, shooting an immense feeling of fear through Kota's body.
That was when he noticed a dark mist spill silently through the bars and swirling in a circle on the arena floor. As the mist started to build, a black figure started to be built from the ground up. Four large paws attached to brawny legs, a bulky midsection with a long whip-like tail, thick bushy mane and red glowing eyes.
Whiffs of fine smoke rose slowly from the shadowy figure as it bared its fangs and growled menacingly. As if she wasn't perturbed at the slightest, Akina stopped looked straight at the Shadow without any sign of movement.
"No…" Jaden stared at the scene unfold before him with wide-eyes. "We can't let her go ahead with this!" The speed of the clapping continued to hasten as the lion took a few slow, deliberate paces towards its intended target. Instead of using the stool and whip to fend off the animal like a monster tamer, Akina dropped them and just stared at the lion. She was accepting her death and even if it was against her word, Kota couldn't live with himself if he stood by and did nothing.
"Kota!" As if Jaden's plea flicked a switch in his mind, Kota dashed as quickly as ever as the beast pounced. Calling forth his sword, the Wild Card put all his might into delivering a fatal overhead swing to the charging beast. Right as the Shadow's sharp teeth were within inches of its intended prey, Kota intercepted it by inflicting a giant laceration through its stomach.
The shadow hung in the air as if frozen in time, before rapidly disintegrating into the sickening smog that it was formed from. The invisible crowd responded vulgarly with deafening boos and hissing, having been cheated of its promised entertainment.
"What…" Akina had not even flinched during the whole ideal, her face void of emotion and impossible for Kota to read.
"Akina… regardless of whether this is how you truly feel or if this place in influencing your thoughts, I know that you will regret ending it all here." As Kota reasoned with her, Jaden gave a silent nod of encouragement while Glitch looked on with a hint of concern being shown in her eyes. "If you're afraid of anything, Jaden and I will do anything we can to help once we're all safe."
"What the hell! There's nothing you can do for me, so how the hell can you say that?" The look she gave Kota was similar to that aggressive glare that she had shortly before she fell into her coma, except her lifeless eyes made it much more malicious and sinister looking. "You know what? I bet you just want me around to be the butt of your jokes."
"Wait, no. It's not like-"
"I refuse… I refuse I refuse I refuse I refuse!"
"Look out!" Glitch yelled out to Kota moment before he felt himself get blown away by an explosion hitting him from behind. Instead of having the burning sensation that he had once felt when he fought in the spaceship, the hair on his body went stiff and his back muscles constricted as if it had an abrupt exposure to sub-zero winds.
The boy landed nastily on his shoulder and rolled just shy of Jaden's feet, thankful that this floor wasn't covered with broken glass like the previous ones.
"You alright?!" Jaden pulled his friend to his feet before both students looked up at the despair-induced Shadow that hovered above Akina.
It was a purple creature with large wings and fair, oily hair. Its body was largely hidden by the enormous mirror it held in front of it with its four scrawny arms. The face that peered over the intrusive object was heavily wrinkled, almost looking as though it was disfigured.
"This world has forsaken me! It has cursed me with this outward form, and that is why I want no further part of it!" Akina glared at the three intruders with a furious look on her face.
Countless specks of black partials appeared seemingly out of nowhere, leaping through the fencing from all directions into the arena. Just like how the Shadow lion had originally appeared, two more beastly figures started to between the Imp and the Persona users.
All the specks had taken their forms, and while they both had the same body as the lion Kota had fended off earlier, the heads were absent. Instead, the necks were extended to form flat faces of different colours. The red-faced one had its squinted eyes pointed inward while baring an open-mouthed grin. The other with a blue face had their eyes pointed outward while wearing a large frown. Both creatures had massive tongues dangling close to the ground and dripping with thick saliva.
"As if having to deal with Yoda's neglected cousin wasn't enough, those things look freakin' gross." Jaden pulled out his flails from thin air while looking at the Shadows with disgust.
"Enough pointless commentary," Glitch said sternly. "They look to be preparing for an attack."
"Out of all the people that have caused me pain, the two of you have been the worst!" Akina yelled from behind the aggressive-looking shadows. "I trusted both of you, and yet, you turn your backs on me the moment I'm not needed… If you plan to keep hurting me, I'll just have to respond in kind!"
The Imp's mirror glistened before the lions were enveloped in bright orange light. Kota could sense the heightened power from the beasts before the red lion pounced at him.
"I've got it covered." Jaden's Persona Coin materialised in front of him. "Mercury! Set him alight!" The impact from the frail scattered the coin into hundreds of minuscule sparkling particles, awakening the gold-armoured warrior.
Mercury let off a powerful horizontal swing to launch a fireball from its flaming mace. The projectile curved in several directions before hitting its target straight in the chest, exploding on contact. Yet, to Jaden's surprise, the attack didn't slow the beast even slightly.
"What the heck!" Jaden yelled in awe as Kota had to brace himself at the last moment before the red lion struck him with a powerful 'Headbutt'. The painful blow felt as though it almost caused his chest to cave in as the Wild Card was knocked into the air. Gritting his teeth through the agonising feeling, Kota managed to use the momentum to roll into a crouched stance with his own coin just levitating in front of him.
"Dante!" With a swift clench of his fist, the horned warrior let loose a sudden burst of wind that hit Kota's attacker before it could react to the counter-attack. The wind-based attack launched the beast, sending it flying in the air before collapsing by the feet of the other Shadows.
"It looks like wind is the go-to element against that Shadow." Glitch said from behind the two boys, keeping herself well away from the battle.
"Damn, nice moves man!" Jaden complimented before the Imp sounded out an intense screech that conjured a large, jagged block of ice the size of an average-sized person. It hung in the air for a brief moment before spiralling towards the blonde. Having learnt from earlier mistakes, Jaden dove to his right and escaped the projectile easily as it let off a small explosion on impact.
"…But, don't think that I'll just let you show me up this time!" Jaden called Mercury to deliver another ball of fire spiralling towards Akina's Despair in retaliation.
Before the attack had reached its target, the blue beast let out a cringe-worthy sound that could only be explained as being a mix between a deep purr and a thick gargling noise. A purple light appeared to arise from the ground around the monster and surrounded it. Before the light vanished, a bright flash and an accompanying sound filled the arena from the enemy. The impact from the fireball forced the Imp to stagger in the air but otherwise weathered the hit while sustaining little damage.
"That Shadow boosted the Despair's defence. It's going to be tough to beat it without weakening it again." Glitch continued to inform the team during the battle as Jaden exhaled a frustrated sigh.
"Kota, I'll soften them up for you. Dekaja!" Mercury forcefully crossed his forearms and maces with each other to make the shape of a diamond over his chest, conjuring a sphere of wires that flashed various different colours surrounding the Imp and lions before imploding. The glow that was emitting from the Shadows due to the buffs looked to have been removed entirely.
"Thanks, Jaden. Persona!" Dante swung his sword across his body with one hand to call down an electric bolt. The attack shocked the Imp and caused it to recoil in pain while letting out a distressed snarl. All the while, Akina was watching the fight with dull eyes and a scornful scowl on her face.
"My family… my teachers… my classmates…" Akina was trembling with the rage that she struggled to hold it in. "Not one single person could find a single worthwhile quality about me. What on Earth would make you guys any different from them? You're both lying! There's no other explanation!"
The Imp delivered another lung-bursting scream, damaging enough to force Kota and Jaden to cover their ears. Without as much as a warning, the mirror cracked from the harsh vibrations in the air before the glass shards shot out from the frame and started to rain over the school students.
Distracted and disorientated, the Persona-users barely reacted until the large shards passed cleanly through both of their bodies and leaving them both sprawled on the ground. While the wounds had completely healed themselves as quickly as they were inflicted, the burning pain continued to linger with every breath as if large lumps of dry ice had firmly embedded itself inside of their lungs.
Kota grit his teeth and pushed himself to get up. Despite the pain that fought to pin him down, the second-year recuperated in time to see the two big-tongued beasts charging towards him.
"Repulsing Burst!" Dante appeared in a defensive stance, holding his large sword in front of him like a cross. With a glisten of his glass eye, the Persona sent out a wave of wind that halted the Shadows' advances, forcefully sending them back on skidding legs to where they previously stood.
"Can you keep going?" Kota noticed that Jaden was slow to recover and turned to his friend. The blonde's fist tightened around his weapons as he shakily lifted his torso from the ground.
"I'll be 'right." Jaden gingerly stood back up, though his legs were visibly shaking from the strain he put them in.
These Shadows were far tougher than any of the others Kota had to face in the circus tent. While he and Jaden both grew stronger as they became more familiar with their powers, neither of them expected to have this tough a time overcoming the Despair that stood between them and Akina.
"You can't outlast the Despair if you keep exchanging magical attacks," Glitch called out. "You're going to have to get close to it."
"It's not going to happen while those two things are in the way," Kota responded.
"Well, do something about them first. The Imp has left you an opening."
"The mirror..." Upon close inspection of the winged monstrosity, Kota could see what Glitch was referring to. The mirror that Akina's Despair was holding no longer had any of its reflective glass left due to the large attack that it had just dealt. Small specks of light were being sucked into the frame in order to restore it, though the glass looked to be returning at a snail's pace. "She's right! Let's focus our attacks on the two beasts before it recovers."
"Understood." Jaden made his coin appear before promptly smashing it with his flail. "Go for it, Mercury! Bash!"
The gold-armoured Persona soared towards the red beast, appearing only as a blur to the human eye. While the targeted Shadow jumped at him, it was easily overpowered as Mercury's flaming maces hit the beast with a horizontal swing. Black ooze spilt out in thick clumps from the neck of the obscure creature as it staggered, unsure of where it was standing.
"I'll get the other one. Dante, use Zio!" The more conservative of the two Shadows was forced to jump to its side in order to dodge the bolt of electricity. Kota mentally called for Dante to continue the assault, sending more Zio attacks its way. While the blue lion evaded every one of his attacks, Dante did well to occupy the Shadow's attention while Mercury went to work on its ally.
"Now to finish this one off!" Jaden started to spin one of his flails at an intimidating speed. Kota could see the fire in his friend's eyes as the blonde's Persona appeared above him in a readied position. "Assault Dive!"
With the sudden stop of the flail with a grasp of the chain, the signal was given for Mercury to deliver a brutal downward charge. The red lion was a sitting duck as the impact of the attack immediately tore through it. With a gargling wail, the unfortunate enemy had rapidly deteriorated like many of the other Shadows slain before it.
"Ha! That's one down. The rest should be a cakewalk." With one Shadow reduced to microscopic specks, the odds were evened out with two fighters on either side.
"That damn Gatogi kid..." While she had been quiet for much of the fight, Akina was watching the exchange of blows with keen interest. "Ever the opportunist. You haven't been preying on any vulnerable girls while I have been gone, have you?"
"What?!" Jaden was left taken aback by Akina's question out of left field. "What the hell makes you say that?!"
"You act like you're so innocent… You remember how we met right? I was standing out in the rain. Being stranded in the rain after being subjected to constant bullying, I could not have been any more vulnerable."
"Stop it." Jaden held one of his flails in front of him in an intimidating fashion. "I don't like where you are going with this, so cut it out!"
"Don't let your emotions get the better of you," Glitch spoke from the sidelines. "You're still in the middle of a battle."
"Try to calm down, Jaden. She wants you to get riled up." Even with his own effort to settle his friend down, Kota could see that Jaden wasn't listening.
"You took advantage of my sorrow and made me trust you."
"Made you?" The flail that Jaden held out wavered as her words sunk into him. He was eventually shaking to the point where he had to lower his arm. "It was your choice whether or not we kept seeing each other."
"No." Akina had a look of regret on her face as she shook her head. "I was so distraught that I couldn't refuse your kind words. At first, I wanted to avoid you because I thought you had the wrong idea..." With closed eyes, a sad smile stretched across her face. "But then I saw how pitiful of a person you really are."
"Huh?" Kota watched as Jaden was left speechless. He could fell the shocked silence weigh heavily over the arena, for even Glitch couldn't bring herself to speak out in hope to readjust his focus.
"I suddenly felt obliged to look over your worthless ass because you were just as alone and hopeless as I was. Did you think that I was really interested in hanging out with the heir to the bank that has been ruining my family? I did it to get one over you, idiot."
"I... That can't..." Jaden barely choked out those words as the revelation hit him like a ton of bricks. He almost looked the part of a broken man with his head bowed and the hurt that could be seen in his eyes.
"Jaden?"
"Attack Incoming! Look out-" Before Kota could console Jaden, Glitch yelled out with great urgency. Just as the cyan-haired boy comprehended her words, another wave of glass shards rained over the pair of Persona-users. Without preparing for the hit, the wind was knocked out of Kota as he was thrown across the battlefield as though he was completely weightless. Hitting the ground hard, the Wildcard kept his tight hold of his trusty sword with his entire body flattened by heavy damage and near-crippling exhaustion. Still, the cyan-haired boy hadn't reached his limit quite yet.
"Dante!" Kota yelled as the Persona materialised above its master. The stern, driven look on Dante's face could not have been further from mirroring Kota's, who expressed the intense pain he felt as he got himself off the floor. "Try going for the other one."
The one-eyed warrior wordlessly obliged by casting another Zio attack. The moment the lightning hit the winged imp, however, a mind-numbing pain felt as though it was bouncing around the confines of his skull. His vision blurred, the boy lost his balance and fell to his knee. After Dante exploded into blue shards, Kota could feel the foul breath from the beast Shadow as he could make out a large paw raised above its head.
Yet the blow was not able to be dealt. Another figure that looked to be holding a pole-like weapon rushed in and impaled the unnatural creature through its chest. With a brief struggle, Kota's saviour swung their weapon to the side in order to throw the enemy to the side. With that small window of time, the large figure swiftly grabbed Kota with one arm and dashed away from any potential retaliation from the Shadow.
Now being held close to the one who intervened, Kota was able to make out the worn dark material of their cloak.
"Glitch?"
"Fighting without acknowledging your own limits is suicide. You should have known better." Kota was harshly dropped to the ground upon being brought out the Shadows' reach. Sitting upright, he felt a small object drop on his lap. "Eat it."
Dazed, Kota could barely feel the chocolate wrapper in his fingers as he took hold of it. He tore through the paper packaging with some difficulty and took a bit of solid treat. Luckily, it didn't take look before his vision started to clear once he had taken only one bite.
Thanks to Glitch, Kota found himself next to the fencing that closed off the arena, away from the Shadows he was previously fighting. The cloak-clad ally took her position between him and the enemy while she readied her dual naginata in case the Shadows had decided to pursue them. Yet, they seemed to be occupied by something else.
"You're not capable of fighting these Shadows. We need to get out of here."
"Huh?" Using the chain link fencing to assist him, he stood up to find that, on the other side of the arena, Jaden was still laying face first on the ground with both Shadow looming over him. "What about Jaden? We're not going to leave him!" Kota made a move towards his friend but he the fatigue made him too slow to get past Glitch, who took a firm grasp of the boy's shoulder before he could get away.
"He's out of reach. We'll be throwing our lives away if we get anywhere near him."
"But-" While he didn't want to admit it, the Wild Card didn't have the strength to argue with Glitch, let alone calling his Persona to fight with him.
Kota cursed his weakness as he watched the Shadows set upon Jaden. Glitch may have been right about him not being strong enough but if he ran, he would be throwing the lives of both of his friends away. If he did that, how would he be able to live with himself?
