Right before our eyes, the shadow transforms from a Chie lookalike to a strange, yellow, banana-shaped creature sitting atop what appears to a three struggling school girls. Well this is an interesting choice of form. It doesn't exactly look equipped for battle, but I shouldn't underestimate it. It is a shadow, after all.
"Quick, you need to help Chie!" Teddie screams. Right, we need to fight this thing. I glance over at Yosuke to make sure he's ready.
As if he's done it hundreds of times, he whips out his sword and slices the tarot in front of him.
"Jiraiya!" He calls his persona to appear. I stop him before he can attack.
"No, allow me to go first," I command as I summon my persona and order him to use Rakunda. This should lower its defense. "Go, now!"
"Alright. Go, Jiraiya!" Upon my partner's command, his persona summons a gust of green wind to attack the enemy. In an instant, the shadow falls to its knees, too weak to stand any longer. That seems too easy. This can't be the end.
"Oh, oh! She's weak to wind! Keep it up," Teddie's annoyingly high voice squeals.
"Alright, partner, let's knock her out!" Yosuke demands.
"Understood!" I reply readying my gun. In a furry, we both simultaneously rampage on the shadow, dealing a significant amount of damage. As I had predicted, this is not the end. Even after our attack, the creature stands once again.
"Oh, it looks like you won't understand without a little pain!" She screams as she casts a spell of her own. It sends a sends a blue lightning bolt at us from above. For me, it causes little damage. Yosuke, on the other hand, is knocked to the ground.
"Yosuke-senpai, are you alright?" I ask, taken slightly off guard.
"Oh no, Yosuke's weak to that one," the high-pitched voice says. She must be targeting Yosuke because I don't have any wind spells.
The shadow makes use of my confusion by attacking Yosuke once again. "No!" I scream as I run towards him in an attempt to block the attack. Sadly, my attempts are in vain as she sends her whips down on my friend. Damn it! It looks like I must make protecting Yosuke my priority.
"Tarukaji!" I cast a spell on Yosuke to bring up his attack. This should help. As of right now, I do not possess any healing spells.
As I rush over to help Yosuke to his feet, shadow Chie summons a green force field around herself. I grab Yosuke's hand and pull him up. "Are you okay, senpai?" I ask.
"Yeah, but I'm pissed now!" Without missing a beat, he casts the same attack as last time. This time, however, it has a way lesser effect. "Whoa, what?"
"Its last attack must brought it's resistance up. Let's only use our weapons for now." I draw aim my gun and fire three times.
"Right!" Yosuke mimics my actions with is nata.
"Haha!" The shadow laughs. "You two are both so serious, and yet we've only just begun." She throws an attack at us, this time a blue light. My partner manages to dodge while it hits me dead on. Though it hurts slightly, it doesn't stop me from fighting back. We attack it with our weapons once again.
"Its resistance might have worn off. Try your wind spell again." I suggest. Yosuke complies, once again knocking her to her knees. "Okay, let's go!" In one more all-out attack, we weaken her greatly.
"Ngh… Don't make fun of me… You're nothing against me!"
"I would beg to differ." For one final attack, I send Sukuna Hikona flying at her. With one final scream, the shadow falls to the ground, illuminated in a black and red glow. Within an instant, we all run to Chie's side. It seems she had collapsed when the shadow transformed.
"Are you alright, Chie-chan?" Teddie asks. When did he even get here?
"Wh-What was that? What happened?" She struggles with her words. Looking up at her other self, the lookalike remained silent. "What? Are you done now?"
"Hold on, Senpai. Please, control yourself. You are alright." I try to calm her down. "None of us are judging you based on what we saw, same as with Yosuke-senpai. We understand."
"Yeah, exactly," Yosuke adds. "We all know what's going one. We know that everyone has more than one side to them. It's alright."
After a long pause, Chie looks make at her shadow. "Yeah, I think I understand now. You are me, in a way. A side that I hate, one that I tried to forget existed. Still, nothing I can do will change that fact that you are a part of me." With those words, the Chie-doppelgänger gives off a blue light as it transforms into a Persona. 'Tomoe' something inside me says.
"I-I," Chie continues, "I guess I really am like that deep down. But that's not really what I feel about Yukiko. "
"Oh come on, like we didn't get that from the way you just stormed in here by yourself." After my friend's words leave his mouth, the girl in front of me collapses onto her knees. "CHIE!"
"I-I'm okay, just tired."
"Come on, Chie, you don't need to act strong for us." Yosuke looks back up to me. "What do you think we should do from here?" Glancing down at Chie, she certainly doesn't look okay. Her breathing is heavy and I highly doubt she could walk more than a few steps without falling over. Perhaps we should rest for now. In any case, Yukiko should be fine until the fog comes again.
I share my thoughts with the others. "Agreed." The two boys say in almost perfect unison. Chie opens her mouth to argue, but decides against it. It seems I'm not the only one who noticed.
"Chie, don't worry. Yukiko will be fine," Yosuke assures her.
"But still, if those really were Yukiko's true thoughts, then I need to talk to her. She kept on saying that I am so strong, but she's the only reason I am. She is my strength, and she needs to know that."
"And that she will," I add. "Once we make our way through this place and rescue her, you can tell her. That would not be possible if we run in blindly and get injured. Who will save her then?"
It seems my question gave her a lot to think about as it takes a while for her to respond. "You're right." She pulls herself off the ground using Teddie's head. "Oh and, um… I-I'm sorry about before, when I rushed in here. I shouldn't have done that.
"That's quite alright, Chie-senpai. I can understand your reasons. Just please refrain from committing such acts in the future. Even with a persona, this world is still dangerous alone."
"Right." She nods her head in agreement. With that, we venture out of the castle and back to our original location. Upon our arrival, Chie suddenly becomes weaker and leans on Yosuke for support.
"Whoa, you okay?" he ask with concern over-flooding his voice.
"Yeah, I just feel weak. I don't know why. Are you guys okay?" I share a glance with Yosuke. We both appear to be completely fine. Why would Chie be the only…? Oh, of course!
"Right, I had forgotten, you aren't wearing the glasses." I quickly remove my pair and attempt to hand it to her.
"Nuh-uh, there's no need for that," Teddie interrupts. He pulls out a yellow pair of glasses. "Here you go, Chie-chan!" Wait, he had a pair already made that just so happened to match Chie's outfit exactly. Strange, but I have more important things on my mine.
Chie places the glasses over her eyes and gasps in surprise. "Whoa, awesome! It's like the fog just disappeared!" Her excitement didn't last very long. "Wait a minute, why didn't you give them to me before!?"
"Wha- no! I just made them right now, what more do you want?"
"Oh, well, okay. Hey, can I keep these?"
"Sure, I made them just for you, after all." Teddie is starting to sound more and more creepy. Should I be concerned?
"Alright, cool! With these, we'll be able to save Yukiko for sure!"
"Yes, exactly," Yosuke agrees. "From now one we're a team." He takes a slight pause. "If we're a team, we'll need a leader."
"Oh, oh!" Our bear friend exclaims. "I nominate Nao-chan!" Wait, did I just hear him right? He thinks I should lead? What could have made him come to that conclusion?
"No way, I'm not a leader! If anything, Yosuke-senpai should lead us. He seems to have a good feel for the situation and acts like a natural-born leader."
"Oh, come on, Naoto. Stop being so modest," the green girl says. "You're a detective, I'm sure you're smarter than the two of us combined."
"Not only that, but you seemed to be good at giving orders during that last fight," Yosuke adds. They truly want me as a leader? No, they must me judging the situation wrong.
"I don't believe you understand. Being a leader is not about being smart or bossy. Having good social skills is also very important. I am quite certain any of you would beat me by a long shot in that area."
"Social skills?" Yosuke sounds confused.
"Yeah, you seem perfectly fine to us." Perfectly fine? Me? Have I really been doing an adequate job as a friend? Even so, I highly doubt that would last very long.
"Perhaps I may have been preforming medically as a friend to you, but that is merely because you gave me a push. Without me being approached first, I am certain I would have been spending my lunches in the library and days off at home."
"So what is you need a push, I still think you would be a great leader." Though his words make no sense to me, my partner says them with such certainty I begin to believe them to be true. Well, if they are all in agreement…
"I believe I have no other option than to agree with you. I will try my best. If I do not seem adequate as time goes on, feel free to replace me with another. I will not blame you."
"Somehow, my answer make's Chie chuckle. "Okay, fine, but I don't think that's gonna happen."
Out of nowhere, a bright light overflows my vision and a voice enters my head.
Thou art I… And I am thou…
Thou hast established a new bond…
It brings thee closer to the truth…
Thou shalt be blessed when creating
Personas of the fool Arcana…
Oh, a new social link? And more than one persona is involved? Interesting, I had no idea that was possible.
"Okay then, we should head home for now. We will need to conserve our strength." I turn to Yosuke. "Could you please walk Chie-senpai home, just to be safe." I quickly turn back to Chie. "I mean no offence. I only believe that you may be suffering minor side-effects from these events. I would request the same for anyone."
The girl chuckles once again. "See, you're a leader already." Blood rushes to my face.
"Anyway, sure, I'll take her home. Come on, Chie." After saying our goodbyes to Teddie, we climb through the stack of TVs to the real world. Upon parting ways, I walk through the shopping center to get back home.
Out of nowhere, I hear a strange sound come from behind me. I turn around to find a blue door on the wall next to the weapons store Chie-senpai was talking about. What? When did that get there? I give a quick glance to the pedestrians passing by. None of them seem to be noticing. Is it that I am perhaps the only one who can see this door? Why would that be?
"So, the time has finally com. Now, would you kindly step inside for a moment?" a voice says in my head. Is that the mysterious man I meat before, Igor? A blue light erupts from my pocket. It's the key given to be before. After making sure no one was watching, I quickly use the key on the door. Opening it, I am blinded by a bright light.
"Welcome," Igor greets me. My eyes finally adjusting, I see three familiar faces. Two I place immediately, Igor and Margaret, but the other I have a harder time with. I know I've seen this person previously, just not in here. "It seems the catastrophe you are destined to meet has already taken lives to get to you. This should not bring fear to your heart, for you already know how to fight. It seems you will soon be in need of our services." Ah, it seems my questions will finally be answered.
"You have the ability of the wild card," Margaret clarifies. Wild card? I wish they would stop being so vague. "As you grow more bonds, you will become more powerful as a result. Our role is to assist you in doing so."
"Our job is to give your bonds the form of personas. As you gain more and more personas, I can fuse them together to create even stronger ones. You have the ability to hold multiple personas." Is that what he means by 'wild card'? "As my assistant has just said, as your bonds get stronger and you develop you social links, you will gain more power."
"Excuse me, sir," I cut in, "would you mind if clarify what you have just said? Are you implying that I cans obtain more than just my initial persona by talking to others and forming so called 'bonds'?"
"Exactly, my dear." So I need to meet more people and start more 'social links' in order to gain more power. I already have the Magician Arcana with Yosuke-senpai, as well as the Fool with my all of my friends. That would be two down. How many of these would I need?
"Oh," Margaret says, "and one more thing, if I may. I would like to introduce to you our third member of the velvet room." Yes, the new girl. I had forgotten about her. The unfriendly girl shows no intention of introducing herself. Ah, I remember now. This is the girl I had met on the first day at the station. So much has happened to her, I had forgotten. "Marie?" Margaret attempts to gather her attention.
"Yeah, I heard. Nice to meet you, I guess." The blue-hatted girl says in a voice completely devoid of emotion. It seems she has forgotten me as well.
"It is nice to meet you as well, but I believe this is our second, no, third meeting. I saw you at the train station, I'm not sure if you remember."
"Hm, maybe. You do look familiar. Anyway, my name is Marie."
"She is a bit impolite at times, but please forgive her for that," the older woman says as if the one in question is not in the room.
"Maybe I would be a lot nicer if you didn't keep me locked up in here," Marie mumbles to herself.
"Marie, please, you know little to nothing of her world. We cannot have you causing havoc."
"Fine then," The girl stands. "I'll have this girl with me." This girl… Is she referring to me? When did I volunteer for such a thing!? Then again, if I were to show her the town, it is possible that we will form a social link together. I need as many of those as I can.
"Marie, do not force our guest into-"
"Pardon the interruption," I say, "but it wouldn't be a bother."
Marie's eyes light up. "Really? Awesome. Let's go." She roughly grabs my arm and pulls me out of the velvet room. "Finally, fresh air." She turns to me. "So, where are we going?" Oh, I hadn't thought that far ahead. All I know of in this town is Junes and a weapons store. I highly doubt she would like to go to either of those places.
Thankfully, I am saved from answering the question when I hear a voice come from behind me. "Hey, Naoto-kun!" I turn to see Yosuke half-jogging in my direction.
"Oh, hello, Yosuke-senpai. Have you successfully returned Chie-senpai to her home?"
"Yeah, she seemed fine so I left. What are you doing out here? I thought you would be at your house by now."
"Oh, um." How am I to explain this to him? "I was just looking for a place to take a friend. Would you happen to know a place we could go?"
"A friend… Oh." It seems he has just now notice Marie, who has been leaning against the wall impatiently. "Who's this?"
"Oh, right. This is Marie, an acquaintance of mine. She wants to see the town, but I suppose I am not the right person for the job as I know little of this place myself."
My friend gives a curious look at Marie, who has yet to show any acknowledgement, but for answering my previous question. "I was actually just about to go get a steak skewer down the street. You're welcome to join if you want."
"Steak skewer?" Marie questions under her breath. "I want one of those. Take me." Her voice is much more demanding than before.
"Oh, um, okay then. Let's go." With that, Yosuke leads us to a stand not much farther down the road. "Here we are."
Pulling away from us, Marie runs up to the employee. "Hey, get me one of those skewer things." She orders.
"Sure thing. 320 yen, please," the kind woman responds.
"Wait, I actually need to p-"
I quickly run to her side and pull take out enough money for the three of us. "Here you go, ma'am. And make that three skewers, please." I hand the money over. That was close. I probably should have taught Marie more about our culture before now.
"Oh, come on, Naoto-kun. You didn't need to pay," Yosuke says. Good, he's focusing his attention on that instead of Marie's behavior.
"Oh, it's no bother. My family has plenty of money to share. You could consider it payment for introducing us to this place."
The velvet room resident looks at me confused. "You need to pay people for that here?" she asks me.
"Not necessarily, no. I am to show my appreciation."
"Wait, Marie-chan," Yosuke starts, looking at me to confirm that he used the right name, "where exactly are you from?"
"Where I'm from? I don't exactly know how to answer that," she responds before I can stop her.
Before to many thoughts roam through Yosuke's head, I elaborate on what she said with lies. "You see, I met Marie-chan through my work as a detective. She is not allowed to say a lot about herself to the public. All I should be allowed to say is that she is from America." That's the only thing I can think of that works in our favor. Now we have a reason to not answer more questions and have an explanation for her western name.
"Oh, I-I see." Yosuke sounds flustered. Marie opens her mouth to say something but is, thankfully, cut off my the employee.
"Your food is ready."
"Thank you." I hurriedly grab the food and put it on the table next to us. "Let's eat." We all sit down and enjoy the meal in a slightly awkward silence. Once I'm halfway thought my skewer and the other two are almost done. Yosuke's phone goes off.
"What is- oh crap! I forgot I need to get back to work. A sale's going on tonight. See you later." He runs off.
"He's weird," Marie commentates. "But anyway, this thing is amazing. Do you get to eat this every day?"
The question throws me off. "Um, I guess it would be possible is I chose to do so, but I would not recommend it."
"What, why not? They are so good. And you bought them for all of us. I can't believe you have so much money. That's awesome. You're awesome." As off as her reasoning is, it is nice to get such praise. "And since you're so awesome, you better do something awesome for me at some point. It's so boring locked up in that room."
"That would be understandable." It seems Marie has high expectations for me. Out of nowhere, a familiar feeling spreads throughout my body.
Thou art I… And I am thou…
Thou hast established a new bond…
It brings thee closer to the truth…
Thou shalt be blessed when creating
Personas of the Aeon Arcana…
Ah, a new social link. Aeon Arcana, huh. I've never heard of that one before. Looking up, I see the sky darkening. "Oh, I apologize, but I must be taking you back now. I may be needed back at my home."
"Uhhhh, fine. Just remember to show me more things later. Don't you dare forget." She stomps away in a childlike manner. No matter, poor Nanako-chan has been home all alone all day. I had promised her I would be home as soon as possible. I'm a terrible person.
Upon returning home, I find Nanako and Dojima eating diner. Well, at least he came home. "Good evening," I tell them both as I walk through the door. Not finding it to be my place to intrude on a family dinner, I walk over to the stairs and attempt to go to my room. Before I can do so, however, Dojima calls me down.
"Excuse me, but can I ask you something?"
"Of course, what is it?" I walk back over to the table.
"You aren't still trying to learn more about the case, are you?" he asks bluntly.
"No, of course not," I lie. Where did this come from, anyway?
"Oh, I see. I'm sorry; it's just been bothering me. Your grandfather had told me that you're quite persistent, so I was worried you wouldn't take no for an answer."
"You've spoken with my grandfather?"
"Yeah, he called me a yesterday to ask if you were alright. He told me that you both 'reached a disagreement,' as he put it, and you hung up on him. I told him that you seemed alright and that he shouldn't be worried." He was worried about me? I am such a bad person. I should have called to apologize before now for my behavior. I am the one in the wrong here and he is worried about me? No, that is not right.
"Okay then. I'll call him tonight. I'm sorry for causing you any trouble."
"Trouble? You haven't caused any trouble. Anyway, yeah, you should call him. But, just remember that well you're out here I'm your guardian. Your grandfather trusted me to look after you and I intent to do just that."
"Understood." I confirm before running up to my room and dialing my grandpa's number.
"Hello, Shirogane speaking," he answers.
"Hello, grandpa. It's me, Naoto. I'm calling to apologize for the other day. I acted far out of line and made you worried. I'm deeply sorry." The words came out so quickly even I had trouble understanding them.
"Whoa, slow down, please. Naoto, what's wrong?" I repeat myself to him, slowing down my pace.
"Once again, I am so, so sorry."
"Naoto, you're fine. There is no need for you to be so apologetic. It seems I was I the wrong as well. It was wrong of me to refer to you as not normal. Not only that, but I never even asked you about how you like it there, or for more information about your friends, or anything a normal parent, or guardian, should."
"No, there is no need for you to apologize either. I understand how you must have been worried about me. And you are right. It isn't normal for a person my age to be aloof. I just have trouble talking to most people. I have been trying to, though."
He chuckles from the other end. "That's great to here. If I remember correctly, you mentioned that you have befriended 2 second years. How did that come to pass?" I fill him in on all the events leading up to this point. I leave out the parts involving the case for obvious reasons.
Once I am done with my story, he gives me more details about his case. Though I felt exhausted after today's events, it is always interesting to listen to Grandpa talk about cases. It reminds me of a time when these stories were just, stories. Now, they have become a harsh reality to me.
"Hey, what time is it over there?" he interrupts his own story to ask.
"Um, it is about 9 o'clock. Why?"
"Oh, well then we should probably end our conversation here. I wouldn't want to keep you up to late."
"Oh, okay then. Goodbye. I'll be sure to call you soon."
"Goodnight, Naoto. Please, stay safe over there, alright?"
"Yes, of course."
"Good. I'll call you as soon as I can." He ends the call. It isn't until he hangs up that I realize just how tired I was. After clumsily changing my clothes and climbing into my futon, I slowly drift into the best sleep I've had in ages.
Author's note: Very important
As you can probably tell, I will be starting social links soon. Before I do so, however, I would like to explain who I plan to do them now that way if anyone has any suggestions I can adjust accordingly. If you are not interested in reading all of this, then you are free to only read certain sections. I do not believe it I necessary to read what is below, but I should answer most questions people have.
1. What Social links will I be doing
As of right now, my goal is to do as many social links I feel it is possible to get Naoto into. For example, Dojima and Nanako's will be simple because she is already living with them. Sayoko Uehara's will be quite hard because there is no reason for her to get a job at the hospital and the first few ranks will be a mess because Sayoko can't be hitting on Naoto like she did on Yu. The only ones I know for certain I'll be doing are:
All party members
Dojima/ Nanako
Marie
Adachi
Yumi (requested to me over Ayane)
Kou/ Diasuke (I already have a good idea on how to write Naoto into it)
2. How will I format the links/ different ranks
For a majority of characters, each social link will simply be given an entire chapter. I will not show specific ranks, but I will have moments where Naoto will be like 'I think I understand _ even better" or something like that. The only social links that will progress throughout the story are:
Dojima/ Nanako
Adachi
Marie
Teddie
3. How close will I stick to the social links in the original game
Though most will stick to the original plot, they will all be quite different. The one that will stay the closest to the original is Marie's. Adachi's will be the most changed as I will change the entire plot of it.
Anyway, that's all folks. Since school will be out soon for me, updates should become very often.