Chapter 10 – Jiraiya: Yosuke's Facade

I stood in front of Yosuke as the Shadow was making me back up from him. He was trying his best to slap the golf club out of my hand, but my grip held it tightly. I pulled a trick to have the Shadow move away from him before any injury occurred on Yosuke's body.

"Oh no!" I cried out as the golf club slid onto the ground and I was left with nothing to defend myself. I was guarding my face, but my eyes were averting over to Yosuke. He seemed to have blacked out as if he were in a coma, because I don't think he could feel any of this. "Izanagi!"

I called out my Persona, and commanded it to attack it. I heard the word "Cleave" come out of my mouth as I pointed to the Shadow Yosuke, but the attack didn't connect like I thought it would! Instead, it left me more fatigued than anything else. I think all he got from it was a tiny scratch. It was then that I felt the yellow hands grab me and hold me up in the air. I tried to get out of it's clutches, but it began to slap me around with it's other hand and I began to wince from the stinging pain.

"I-Izanagi..." I cried out, "Zio!"

Izanagi flew up to the Shadow and zapped him with a bolt of electricity, making me fall out of his hands and drop to the floor. I was already bruising up and everything. I hate how my jacket flew off me when it did... It revealed all the scars this monster had given me now! Not to mention, but I didn't have high knee socks on right now.. "Do it again, Izanagi!"

I heard Teddie's voice from afar. "It seems like it's only weakness is Electricity!"

"Pain in the ass!" The other Yosuke yelled as I saw his palm coming towards my direction. We kept inching farther from Teddie, and even more distant from Yosuke. I felt a hard smack coming towards my face, and was knocked down onto the ground again. His hand was crushing my back... At least, that's what it felt like..

"Heh, that's it?" The Shadow faked a yawn, "Boring~!"

"N-No.. it's not over yet..." The dust was crawling around my face as if I were being attacked by many insects. I was already running low on stamina... One large strike could be the last.. "I-Izanagi! Zio!"

Once again, Izanagi came from behind and zapped the Shadow to push it off of me. It was getting weaker, just as I was when using all those moves. I could move, but.. It just stung so much!

Stung... Medicine!

"I need to put on some medicine.." I told myself, "But, where'd my jacket go?" I began to search for it with my eyes until I found it on top of Yosuke. "D-Damn it..."

"What a freakin' pain in the ass! Get out of my way!" His footsteps were rumbling again, coming after me the best way he could. He was charging into me now, and I could only dodge it by ducking so he would go right over me. Yosuke's Shadow knew how to deal some damage, I'll give it props for that.

"Sensei, are you alright?" Teddie had cried out from faraway.

"I'm injured, but I'm okay!" I hollered back. "Get to Yosuke! Grab the medicine out of the bag and toss it to me the best way you can!" It didn't even take him ten minutes to run to my jacket and pull out a bottle with some liquid in it. Without hesitation, I poured it on top of me, and for some reason felt instantly a little better.

However.. My weapon...

It's not like I needed it anyways, the Shadow was already on his lower legs. With this I held out my hand and pointed it to the soon-to-be defeated Shadow.

"Izanagi, Zio! One more time!"

"Damn you to hell!" It screeched out once the lightning bolt connected. I watched as the dark aura began to radiate from it's body, and soon turn back into the original Yosuke look-a-like. It was on the ground, and I felt like I was going to collapse. I pushed myself too hard in that battle, and I wanted to get out of there fast...

...

"I.. I..!"

Teddie walked up to me, and Yosuke came from behind shortly after.

"Yosuke, are you okay..?" Teddie asked him with concern shown fully on his face.

"Yeah... W-What happened..?" He asked us, mostly turning to me. Those injuries were pretty visible right about now.
"Look over there.." I dusted myself off, pointing to the Shadow that had now stood up by itself.

It stood there.. like a statue: Silent. Yosuke was just shaking his head in denial again.. As if he felt so disgraced.

"You..." He began to speak, "You're... not me.."

"That thing came from you, Yosuke." Teddie explained, "You have to admit it, or it'll go berserk again.." Yosuke seemed reluctant to answer, though.

"It's okay.." I gave a small smile, "You're still you... Yourself."

He turned back to me. "Myself..." He turned back to the ground, "Dammit.. It hurts to face yourself."

I held my shoulder to try to stop the pain from throbbing in that direction. I noticed the golf club was by my feet, but I decided to ignore it.

"I knew it wasn't lying, but..." His voice was cracking as he walked up to his 'other self.' "I was so ashamed that I didn't want to admit it.."

"You're me... and I'm you. When you get down to it, all of this is me."

The Shadow just gave a serious nod, now having a blue flame surround him. It was dimmer than mine, but you could at least see that it was changing into something new. My jaw dropped as I saw what it was becoming. It looked like it had mouse ears on the top of it's head, and yellow stars for eyes. It wore a red scarf, a yellow crest on it's chest, and a white suit that had some parts of it that looked camouflaged. It also held yellow stars in camouflaged gloves..

"A Persona..." I whispered. "It's gotta be."

It also changed into a card, and "slipped" into Yosuke's soul.

"This..." He took a deep breath, "is my Persona... Jiraiya..." He then turned back to both of us, and fell to his knees. He shook his head in misery.

"When we heard Senpai's voice..." He caught my attention. "I wonder if that was something she was keeping down deep inside... Haha. 'A pain in the ass,' huh?"

"Yosuke.." I looked back to him.

"What a way to find out.." He ignored me, "Gee, this is so embarassing.."

I walked back up to him, ignoring the bruises that showed on my body now. I even picked up my jacket and carried it across my shoulder.

"Those bruises.." He looked up to me, "If you weren't here.. If you didn't fight, I dunno what would've happened. ..Thanks, Remi."

"It's nothing." I grinned, helping him back up to his feet as we both looked back to Teddie. "Hey, Teddie?"

"Yeah?" He answered back.

"Do you think Senpai could've been attacked by her other self here?" He pointed to himself, "Just like it happened to me?"

"I think so." Teddie began another explanation. "Shadows that appear here are originally born from humans. Sometimes the fog will clear, and they go crazy! And.. you saw what happens next." He looked to me, "A strong-willed Shadow draws others to it, and it wants to kill the host!"
"Man.. That battle hurt!" I looked down, "All these bruises and scratches I got make me look like I was beaten up!"

"However, it gives a reason why people die when it's foggy in our world." Yosuke looked like he was in thought, "Remi.. I'm-"

"Don't worry about me, worry about yourself." I scolded him, as he looked like he were about to faint. "I have to get you out of here and fast..."

"Yeah, it's not safe for you here.." Teddie spoke, "It's not made for humans. I think we're done with this place, anyways..."

"Heh.." I helped Yosuke by putting his shoulder over mine. "You said my nickname.. I'm glad."

…

We walked back in silence, as I held the golf club and egg in my arms. I turned to Teddie, and Yosuke began to say something.

"Teddie, you said this place was reality to humans who enter here, right?" He questioned, "Does that mean that the shopping district we saw right now, and the room with all the posters in it reflected the people who died in here?" He scratched his head, "I guess what I'm trying to ask is.. Did those places appear here for the people who entered?"

"I don't know.." He bit his lip, "It's never happened before. Though, if the Shadows attacked them there, it's probably true."

"So, it was the same for them?" I began to ask.

"The fog does lift here occasionally," He replied, "The Shadows always get violent during that time. I have to hide when it happens because of them! I've sensed people twice when the fog came, but when it disappeared they were both gone."

"So let's summarize this," Yosuke got off my shoulder. "Senpai and Mayumi Yamano got thrown in here, they probably couldn't get out of here so they wandered..."

"And that Shadow probably came out of them after awhile, and killed them after going berserk." I was putting my two cents on this, too. "Does that sound right?"

"Seems so." Yosuke was still thinking. "So if I were still here when the fog cleared..."

"You would've been dead by now, most likely.." Teddie sighed, "You were really lucky Sensei and I were here with you."

Yosuke grit his teeth. "Dammit! Senpai and the announcer were stuck here, and they didn't get any help..!"

"Yosuke..." I looked down as well.

"They disappeared when the fog lifted," Emphasis on 'lifted,' "They had to be safe before that, since no Shadows attacked them. They attacked us, though.."

"Could they be spying on us?" I was talking to myself. "They might be seeing us as enemies..."

"It'll be dangerous." Teddie looked back at me, "But, we might be able to fight them, and save others!"

"Huh?" My eyes widened. If that were true...

"So, you're saying that if more people get thrown in here, we can save them before they're gone?" Yosuke's voice was filled with a little hope. "Like how you guys saved me?"

"It sounds about right!" I was even happy to know that we could help the ones in need. "We have to catch him, and make him stop it!"

"I'm finally understanding what's going on.." Yosuke chuckled.

"H-Hey, can I ask something too?" Teddie asked as if he were hesitating to say something. I just nodded. "If Shadows were born from humans, then what was Teddie born from?"

"You don't even know?" Yosuke scoffed, "How should we know?"

"I know some things!" He looked at Yosuke, "Mostly about this world. However, I don't know anything about myself... To be honest, I never thought about it until now..."

"Are you serious?" Yosuke spoke out, "No wonder we couldn't get a straight answer..."

"B-But!" I had burst into the silence. "I think it's a good question. I really do.."

"Will you guys..." Teddie winced, "come back here..?"

"We promised we'd help, didn't we?" I chuckled, patting his head. "Of course!"

"Y-You'll keep your word..?"

"Well, you aren't letting us out if we don't." Yosuke winked.

"Oh yeah, I'll let you out now." Teddie gave a nod, "...In fact, I'll be waiting for you guys here. We can only meet up if you come in from the same place."

"Oh, the TV from Junes?" I was thinking about it. "What if we come in from somewhere else? Can we?"

"You can, but.." Teddie sighed, "You'll only end up somewhere else. Not even close to here.."

"We'd probably be dead if we can't end up in the same place as Teddie." Yosuke spoke out, "What about that thing though?"

He was pointing to the egg, and I looked back at it too. "This is so awkward.." I began to say, "I don't know what it does, or even why it's here!"

"It came out when you got your Persona, right?" Yosuke looked at it, and rubbed it as well. "It feels like silk... Maybe it has something to do with you?"

"Probably so.." I heaved a sigh, "Well, it shouldn't be important right now. I'll take it home with me! However.. Teddie can you show us the way back?"

"Mhm!" Teddie smiled, kicking the floor to have the three TVs pop up again.

"Um.. What if there are people out there?" I panicked. "Then, it'll look really weird..!"

As soon as I said that, Teddie began to push us through the TV. It was hurting me, as I was being pushed in at the same time with Yosuke. I just closed my eyes as I felt us swirling through from the TV.

Honestly, I dislike how the battle came out in this chapter, but I guess it's okay for a first timer. Yosuke's battle was pretty short...

So, Yosuke Hanamura obtains Jiraiya, his new Persona. Remilia still wonders about that Mysterious Egg, and what it could do! Will they be able to solve the murder mystery, and maybe even the egg mystery?

Persona 4 (C) ATLUS

Remilia Konagi (C) Me~