Minato sighed as Junpei shot him a glare from afar. The capped teen was like this in every single cycle, throwing snark around and being jealous. He tolerated it before but right now, he wasn't sure if he could stomach Junpei being an ass towards him.
"Quit glaring at me, asshole," Minato spat, unable to hold his anger in check.
Junpei growled in return, taking the retort a little too personally.
"If you want to glare, do it at Mitsuru-senpai," Minato spat again, jerking his thumb over at the senior.
Junpei sighed in annoyance and Hamuko got between the two males. "Calm down," She smiled. "We're a team, no matter who the leader is."
Minato snickered inwardly and shrugged. "Let's just get to the damn station." He walked away.
Hamuko and the rest followed him.
...
Minato was somewhat excited as he waited for Mitsuru to arrive on her motorcycle. He could easily rush in and blast the shadow to smithereens but that wasn't his objective this time. He looked over at Hamuko and grinned sickly. She was his objective this time.
Mitsuru reached them on her prize motorcycle shortly and soon, everyone sans Mitsuru went towards the monorail for tonight's operation.
Junpei received a smack from both Hamuko and Yukari for trying to peep up their skirts. Minato turned his head away and shrugged. He could look through walls without any problem. This really didn't bother him.
As soon as they stepped inside the ever familiar monorail, the doors shut and everyone went into panic mode, beside the fallen one, of course.
"And we fell into a trap," Minato sighed, sneering slightly at Mitsuru. "Geez senpai, couldn't you see this coming?"
"..." There was silence on the other side for a few seconds. "I apologize. It was rather careless of me."
"If we all die," Minato carefully chose his words. "Then the bla-"
Mitsuru cut in sharply. "Don't be ridiculous! You will not die!" She sounded somewhat shaken as well.
"I hope so," Minato nodded, barely holding back another taunt. "Let's move on!"
'Proceed with caution," Mitsuru muttered, trying to calm herself down.
Minato scrutinized the body language and facial expression of his teammates. Yukari was cautious and slight unnerved. Junpei was acting like some hotshot and looking around wildly for enemies to kill. Hamuko was quiet and calm but she looked gritty and determined as well.
... He was kinda like this during the first Journey.
Regardless, he trudged on with the team behind him. Again, he could finish this in seconds and even blow up the entire vehicle but he had an IMAGE to maintain.
After several cars, the team finally came across a shadow. "Tsk tsk," Minato sneered as the shadow retreated and Junpei started yelling.
"It's going away! We have to chase it!" He cried.
"I don't think so," Hamuko bit her lip. "The monorail is one way so I think we'll run into the shadow sooner or later."
"Arisato-kun," Mitsuru spoke through the line. "What do you think?"
"We should be careful, or whatever," Minato actually yawned, making Mitsuru twitch a bit.
Junpei fixed a glare at his leader and scowled. "We don't need your fucking permission for everything! I'm going after it myself!" Minato had thought this through and he went with the most logical and most beneficial way he had theorized.
Minato grabbed a hold of Junpei's neck and threw the capped teen to the side, smashing him into the wall of the monorail.
The two females gasped as Minato gave Junpei a rather psychotic smirk which made the teen gulp. The Agi user slowly stood up and glared at his leader again. "Why the hell did you do that?!"
Hamuko tried to step in between the two boys again but Minato snickered. "I save your life. Be grateful."
"My ass," Junpei spat. "I could have killed the damn thing myself!"
Minato faced him with a vacant stare. "How about you show me how good you exactly are?"
"Stop it guys," Hamuko let out an exasperated sigh. "We are a team here, remember?"
"I'm just cleaning his head from bullshit and foolish notions," Minato shrugged, still staring the capped teen down.
"It would be in our best interest if you move on," Mitsuru growled, clearly irritated from the senseless quarreling. "Iori, you will listen to him. He is your leader!"
"Senpai knows I'm better than you," Minato snickered as Junpei bit his lip.
"I..." Mitsuru stammered on the line as Junpei glared at the ground. Did Mitsuru really think he was worthless compared to Minato?
"L-Let's move on, please," Yukari murmured, tugging on Minato's sleeve as Hamuko calmed Junpei down.
"Fine," Junpei sighed, still somewhat annoyed and depressed.
They kept moving and soon, the monorail began to move. The monorail lurched forward and picked up speed as everyone tried to balance themselves. Minato smirked, feeling a little excited. This was shaping up to be exactly the way he planned.
"What's going on!?" Junpei cried.
"The monorail seems to be under the enemies control," Mitsur was panicked like never before. Minato's words clearly got to her. "T-This will crash into another train if you don't stop it!"
"I told you," Minato whispered and Mitsuru swallowed the lump in her throat. The tensions levels were rising very high.
"I sense a strong presence in the front car," Mitsuru explained, her voice still cracking somewhat. "Defeat it right now and halt the train!"
"Gotcha!" Hamuko nodded furiously, gripping her sword tightly. "Let's go!" The teenagers started to run towards the first car, disposing of any enemy that came in between them.
Just as they were about to smash the door of the front car, Mitsuru yelled out on the line, in complete and utter agony. "B-Be careful, more enemies-" The line disappeared.
"What happened to her!?" Hamuko cried as the train kept speeding up.
"DAMMIT!" Junpei bit his lip and eyed the final door. "Senpai is in trouble. What can we do!?"
Minato bit his lip to cancel the oncoming chuckle. "I can go..." He said with a dead serious face which he was barely able to maintain. "I can move out of this place but you'll have to defeat this thing on your own."
"B-But, how can we?" Yukari muttered. "You-argh!" If Minato didn't leave, then Mitsuru would most likely die.
"Hamuko," Minato faced the redhead. "You're in charge!"
The redhead looked utterly serious this time. "I understand. We'll handle this. Go and rescue senpai!"
"Like hell you will," Minato said to himself as he gave them a false thumbs up and teleported away from the train. The other three looked on in amazement but Hamuko noted that they had 3 minutes to finish this shadow. The second in command kicked the door open and moved in for the final battle.
...
Minato looked remorseless despite the fact that his ex girlfriend was lying in a pool of her own blood. He kept looking at her with his vacant and cold stare, not bothered a bit by the blood and her injuries. He walked over and rolled the Empress over with his foot.
"Pathetic," He spat, observing her bruised frame. Out of pure spite, Minato shot a fireball at her prized motorcycle and watched on with glee as it exploded into a sky high flame.
"Guess that prick is good for something," Minato chuckled, seating himself on the steps as Mitsuru was still passed out. He leaned back and let out a sigh, just waiting for the monorail to crash.
...
"Ugh!" Hamuko sidestepped the numerous tentacles and cleaved through some of them before she dashed ahead and pressed the evoker to her temple. "Orpheus!" The beautiful persona rose up from the sea of her soul and smashed the heart shape lyre right onto the shadow's cranium, eliciting a shrill screech.
"Drat!" The redhead rolled away to avoid a bufu spell and looked over at the male. "NOW!"
"HERMES!" The messenger of Gods shot like a bullet towards the shadow, cutting the abomination up on its chest. It caused another screech followed by several sharp icicles in the direction of the persona users.
Hamuko was quick as she jumped under a seat but still suffered some damage. Junpei took the shots like a man but Yukari ended up collapsing to the ground with a scream of pain.
"Yukari!" Hamuko cried and yelled out the next second as frost bite assaulted her back, making her drop to a knee. She twirled around and shot a glare at the shadow. "Damn you!" Orpheus rose again and shot a fireball this time, catching the priestess off guard and damaging her further.
"We're close!" Junpei panted as he quickly attended to Yukari who stood up as well.
...
Minato was still humming songs as Mitsuru laid motionless on the ground. He sighed and kept waiting. "Crash already, dammit!" Yet nothing really happened and it made the fallen Messiah growl. "That bitch won't get a happy ending! I will see to that!"
...
Hamuko was busted up and bleeding but the shadow was on its last reserves as well. Hamuko shrugged the pain of another bufu spell away and dashed ahead to finally finish this once and for all.
"I can do this..." Hamuko panted. "Minato-kun gave me this..." She pressed the evoker to her temple again and was about to summon her persona for perhaps the final time but she was caught off guard by another round of icicles in her direction.
The attack bruised her leg, shoulder and abdomen, making the redhead drop to a knee just a few feet away from the shadow. She looked back and saw that both Junpei and Yukari were barely holding the smaller shadows off.
"I can't lose..." The redhead bit her lip as the shadow geared up for another attack. "I have to win! I don't want people to die!"
"I won't lose!" Hamuko stood up and glared daggers at the shadow. She pressed the evoker to her temple and reached deep into the sea of her soul. "Angel!" A vicious gust of wind smashed the shadow into the wall and Hamuko let out a victory smile.
...
"She's going to win!" Nyarlathotep yelled into Minato's mind. "GO QUICK!" The revelation made Minato cuss out. He stood up and teleported onto the tracks once again.
"She won't get the feel good story!" He swore, dashing ahead. "I swear on my honor!"
...
Hamuko panted and dropped her blade as the shadow withered away into nothingness. The train didn't stop and both of her teammates were barely holding onto consciousness. The redhead gathered up every energy left in her body and made a run for the control room.
She spotted the brake in seconds since Hamuko was fond of train simulator games in her childhood. She reached over and put her hand on the brake, almost shouting in joy that she had completed the mission and didn't disappoint Minato.
Hamuko was about to press but something else happened. She felt someone grabbed a hold of her head and moments later, her head was smashed into the console with such force that the female felt that her brain shook due to the impact.
Hamuko was fighting back the concussion when someone kicked her with so much force that she was sent flying away into the previous car, crashing into the other two teenagers.
Minato scoffed and shook his head. "I told you. There will be no happy endings!" He turned around and let out a snicker. Collision in 5 seconds now. The deranged teenager teleported to the outside and let out a cruel laugh.
The collision happened and it made Minato grin wider as the sick impact produced an equally sick sound that rattled his own brain for a few seconds. It was quick and painful but the image of the speeding train utterly smashing into the stationed one was his salvation.
It seemed like hell on earth. He also heard several pained and horror filled cries coming from the weaklings inside but they died down after the horrific clash. Minato readjusted his bangs and waited for a few more seconds to see if they were up or not.
He soon teleported into the monorail and looked around. The place was thrashed and he loved it. They wouldn't be going to school in this condition.
Minato's cold eyes soon found his three 'friends' lying pathetically on the ground, busted and caked in blood. All three of them unconscious and barely breathing. Minato walked ahead and observed Hamuko's condition, which was pretty bad.
"You surprised me," He shot her a feral grin. "But like I said, you will suffer every goddamn minute of his blasted Journey."
Hamuko barely opened one of her eyes to see a vicious smirk plastered on someone's face. She couldn't make out who it was but the smile was so horrifying that it made the redhead pass out again.
Minato stood over his former best friends and possibly the nicest girl in the class with no pity at all. First step into breaking her spirit achieved.
Sad, ain't it? Yeah, I was sad writing this too since Hamuko did such a fine job in finishing the shadow but Minato screwed it up. :L Again, this will get dark and I'll keep warning you again and again. Don't expect pity and friendship from such a psychopath.
Also note how Minato fucks around with his team mates and riles them up.
Still, I hope you liked the chapter. Hamuko is no weakling and she'll get better and better but Minato is just on another level right now and that brings up another question/quiz, how do you guys see Minato going down? :P Please answer this.
Anyway, like always, my dear readers and followers, review us your thoughts since they motivate us and all that.
Thanks a ton for the reviews so far and we hope you enjoyed this as well. Toodles.