SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION
4/26 ?
All he could see was black, as dark as the moonless night. The feeling of weightlessness as he fell, and fell, and fell, became familiar to him. How long has he been falling? Where was he? He tried to reach, to grab hold of anything, but all there was was emptiness as he fell deeper into nothing.
A quiet glow soon appeared in the distance, a beacon of light in this expanse of black.
"Well met, Wielder of the Justice Arcana."
"Who… are… you…?"
"An impressed benefactor. Facing the dark alone, what reckless bravery."
"I… had… no choice…"
The voice let out a laugh.
"He has chosen well… Although recklessness can only take one so far."
The voice chuckled quietly to itself once again before growing silent. The light grew closer to him. He extended his arm, desperation building with each movement. Then, he felt it. Perched on his fingers, a small butterfly rested. His eyelids grew heavy as his consciousness slowly faded away.
"Time marches on. Until we meet again."
Ken awoke with a jolt, his eyes taking in the surroundings. His arm ached. Did he sleep on it? Why was he on the floor? He heard Koromaru's soft rhythmic breathing, quietly sleeping away next to him. His face softened as he picked up the peaceful dog, walking over to his bedroom.
Did he have a dream? He tried to recall the events to no avail when a sharp pain erupted through his body, dropping him to his knees.
"Ah shit… Forgot about that," Ken cursed before limping over to his luggage.
He rummaged through to contents until he pulled out a small plastic bottle of painkillers. Stumbling to the kitchen, he noticed a trail of blood, his blood, on the floor. I'll clean that up tomorrow, he thought before grabbing the evoker off of the floor.
He took a deep breathe and placed the evoker onto his temple, hoping he had recovered enough for a Diarahan.
Tomorrow was going to be a long day.
4/26 Early Morning Tuesday
At 6:04am, the precinct was ablaze after the morning's debriefing, ready to take on the day. Akihiko leaned against the counter, a white mug bearing his name in his hands, a gift from Mitsuru. Although his girlfriend excelled in many things, artistic was not one of them. His fingers affectionately traced the haphazard strokes as he waited for the hot water to finish boiling, his mind wandering to recent events.
The thought of two Shadows appearing yesterday right under their noses concerned him. Fuuka had briefed them last night at what happened. Although it was good that no one was harmed, the possibility of a non-persona user getting caught in the situation was always at the back of his mind. The calling card fiasco was the work of the persona users, no doubt about it. To add fuel into the flame, the sexual assault case had not gained any traction among his peers, murmurs of simply bullying being thrown around the building.
"Always high schools, huh," he commented bitterly.
The already familiar ding of the kettle broke him from his thoughts. He yawned, grabbing the container of instant coffee from the cupboard above.
A beep sounded from his pocket. Akihiko raised an eyebrow as he fished his phone out. A text from Fuuka?
[6:05am] Fuuka: Kamoshida placed himself in suspension. Something's happening.
His mug nearly slipped from his hands, reeling back from the message. He placed the mug down and proceeded to reply.
[6:05am] Akihiko: And the persona users?
[6:07am] Fuuka: Just listened to the cafe and I think he's awake right now. I'll see if he show up for school. I'll keep you updated.
Akihiko grumbled his frustrations and pocketed his phone back, his peaceful morning already ruined. He had hoped it would be a quiet day in that side of his life but it seemed fate was determined to be fickle in that regard. Finishing up brewing his coffee, he exited the staff room and walked over to his desk.
"A report on the latest update in the Shibuya trafficking ring... New evidence… Eye-witness… Anonymous tip..." he slowly listed the new information he had received in the debriefing. It seemed that a few detectives had started making some progress with the elusive trafficking ring. Like a bird of prey, his eyes homed in at a single name written in one of the paragraphs.
"Kirijo Group…?"
4/26 Morning Tuesday
He wanted to die. Figuratively of course, although he may soon mean it if the people around him refused to be quiet. The constant murmurs of his classmates slowly grew in volume as they trickled in for their first class. The rumors of Suguru Kamoshida, the upstanding teacher, suspending himself spread like wildfire across the school. The school was on the move, seeds of doubt planted by the calling card from yesterday slowly germinating, permeating throughout the student body.
Yet Ken did not care, at least for now. It had been a while since he had completely drained himself in summoning Kala-Nemi that he had completely forgotten the consequences. How many Megidolaon did he even cast? The pounding in his skull grew while his parched mouth desperately needed liquid. His body was on fire from pain, the pills and extremely late diarahan only doing so much while body naturally healed. He really hoped his wounds wouldn't scar.
He heard the chair in front of him being pulled out. "Ibuprofen by any chance, Amada-kun?" his classmate, Okumura, offered with a kind smile.
Ken returned the smile. "Thank you, Okumura-san, I don't think it'll help me though." He stared at the plastic water bottle on her desk. "Can I have a sip of water though?"
Okumura giggled and placed the bottle on his desk. "Take it, I think you need it more than me right now."
Bless her soul, Ken praised.
The bell finally tolled, the students around him shuffling to their respective seats. Sighing in relief, the room soon fell into a comfortable silence as class started.
Yet Ken did not care once again. He stared at his phone, affixed on the mysterious app. His mind wandering to yesterday.
The castle had started to shake as he hunted down the remnants of the castle guards scurrying throughout the corridors. Before he knew what had happened, a piece of the ceiling came crashing down on the Shadows. The impact had shattered nearby windows, shard of glass flying, some of it embedding into his skin. Seizing the opportunity, he had jumped out of the second floor, watching the castle slowly crumble into nothing.
His thumb traced the area where the button for Kamoshida's Castle would usually be, the empty space feeling foreign. He let out a sigh. What's done was done and from what saw, all four of the persona users were safe. Still, the sheer stupidity them rushing into a Shadow lair like that made him unreasonably agitated. Regardless of the turn of events, the castle was no more and all that was left was the other location this app had found.
Suzui's Seabed. He took a deep breath then slowly breathed out to collect his thoughts. If it was anything like Kamoshida's Castle, it would also be a Shadow lair as well. Although the Shadows he faced in the castle were weak, succumbing to a single hit from Ken, would this place also be similar? Would the other persona users have access to this as well? Furthermore, the most important question still remains. Why was he given this?
4/26 Lunchtime Tuesday
Lunchtime soon came and Ken found himself hidden away in the student council room, secluded from the bustling hallways of the school. The quiet, muffled sound of footsteps and murmuring from behind the door was oddly comforting to him. Class was monotonous and constantly fighting back the urge to vomit exhausted him. He placed his head on the table, hoping to catch a few minutes of sleep.
"Amada-kun?"
"H-huh?"
Begrudgingly, he looked up from his comfortable position to see Makoto staring at him with concern. He offered her a weak smile as he sat up. She placed her bag beside his and sat down facing him before letting out a tired sigh. Ken chuckled at her display and dug into his bag, producing a small chocolate bar.
"KitKat?" he offered. "You look like you really need it."
She smiled sadly and accepted. "This calling card has me running around the school. Kamoshida-sensei suspending himself also doesn't help anyone."
"Did you find anything else about Suzui-san?"
Makoto frowned and cast her eyes down. "I think I'm finally understanding the situation but..." Ken heard a rare moment of hesitation in her voice. "He doesn't seem like that kind of person…"
Silence fell between the two exhausted student council members, Makoto munching on the chocolate bar and Ken looking out of the window.
"Were you able to deliver the package to Suzui-san?" Makoto asked.
Ken turned and shook his head, sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck. "I tried. But… It felt wrong to intrude. Her mom…"
The hollow grieving eyes of Shiho Suzui's mother flashed into his mind.
"W-what they need right now," Ken paused, "what everyone needs, is space."
Makoto let out another sigh as he finished. "I understand… I guess I got too zealous in trying to get her back up on her feet, I forgot to consider how she or her family felt. Guess I'm useless, huh?"
Ken shook his head and smiled sadly. He locked his eyes with hers. "Nothing wrong with trying to help. Good intentions, Nijima-san. You're not useless."
Makoto beamed at him. "I try."
Ken noticed her smile didn't reach her eyes.
4/26 Evening Tuesday
Akihiko paced back and forth in the small apartment, anxiously waiting for Mitsuru behind the screen to finish reading the report he had received earlier in the morning. Fuuka sat at the dining table, a mug of coffee beside her, looking over her school plan.
"You really taking this undercover job seriously, huh?" Akihiko commented.
Fuuka grinned. "It helps a lot to get organized. Plus, imagine if Shinji saw me today! Me! Teaching a home economics class!"
He let out a laugh, memories of Fuuka's disastrous cooking felling his best friend way back during their high school days. Granted, he reasoned, Fuuka's cooking had improved dramatically, he was still nervous when he found out the only open spot in the school for her was a home economics class. Shinjiro would've been proud.
"Ahem," Mitsuru called behind the screen. "It seems there's some connections with a few employees of the Kirijo Group."
Akihiko raised his eyebrow in curiosity. He leaned in closer to the screen, noting the necklace he had bought her for their anniversary wrapped around her neck.
"Nice necklace," he slipped out with a mischievous grin.
Mitsuru frowned, thankful that the pink tint on her cheeks would barely show on camera. "Akihiko. Focus."
"Sorry."
"Now, as I was saying. I traced down some of these names to a few middle ranking employees in the company." Mitsuru paused, a finger on her chin.
"Although… It could all just be a coincidence. The connections between some of these are very vague. For example," Mitsuru pulled up a photo of a man. "Daisuke Ooe. A shady politician and one of the names in the report. He went to the same college with an employee of the company."
Akihiko stood up straight, deep in thought. "I think Takane-san was the one who found out about Ooe and his link with the drug trafficking case. I'll ask him tomorrow if he has any other details."
Mitsuru nodded. "Let me know what else he has to say. Now about these Shadow appearances…"
Fuuka cast her eyes down, slightly ashamed that she couldn't do the one thing she was brought in to do. "I couldn't get a good sense of how dangerous the first one was but the second one was… Really strong."
Mitsuru placed her finger on her chin once more. "Reaper-level?"
Fuuka shook her head. "Not that strong, but I don't think Senpai can handle it alone…"
The three were silent for a moment at her words. Akihiko stiffened. He was dealt a slight blow on his manliness and pride, but he would never tell her that. He coughed to get their attention.
"Will we need backup then?" he asked.
Fuuka shook her head. "I think for now, we need to observe. I don't want to bother anyone unless we really need to."
"Yukari's shoot was relocated to Hokkaido but I believe Kujikawa-san and Tatsumi-san will be at Tokyo for a few weeks soon. I'll let them know to be ready just in case. Now, is there anything else?" Mitsuru asked before ending the video call.
"Oh!" Fuuka called out. "I need a favour Mitsuru-senpai!"
The redhead raised an eyebrow at her kouhai. "Hmm? Go ahead and I'll see what I can do."
"Can I get complete access to Tokyo's electrical grid?"
Mitsuru's eyes widened and she gaped at the request. She stumbled a bit before placing both hands on the desk, deep in thought. The Kirijo group was influential but Fuuka's request was at a whole other level.
"A-all of it?"
"All of it."
"U-uh… I'll see what I can do."
Author's Note: So yeah... Thank you for those that reviewed the last chapter. I honestly SUCC at writing now but this plot bunny (do people even use that word anymore?) has been in my head for the last year and a half that I just had to go back in here and iron it out. Once again, thank you for those that reviewed and those that didn't, I still appreciate that you took some time out of your day to read my story.
Also, the first part was inspired by KHIII. Thoughts on the game? As someone who played/watched all, and I mean ALL, games/cutscenes, it was pretty emotional but the ending was hmmmmmmm...