Enjoy!

~Kuntakintae

"Move!" Akira shouted loudly, injecting as much panic as he could into his voice as he grabbed Futaba's wrist and dived to the side. His eyes were alert and sharp as he scanned the area, and felt a small bit of relief when he saw that his shout had managed to break all of his friends out of their frozen state.

"How the fuck are we supposed to fight this?" Ryuji cursed loudly, directing it to a particular person standing a safe distance away from them. Said person gave an insufferable smirk, his hand reaching for something behind his back before pulling out a pistol.

"Using these, of course," Akechi twirled the pistol around his finger, looking completely relaxed and irritatingly smug.

"What are those toy guns supposed to do?" Ann shouted with a panicked voice as she dived to her right, the pixie just missing her by an inch as it flew past at the a high speed. One thing was sure- it would not feel good if they met it head on.

Akira's body was completely strung up and tensed, his alertness heightened to the maximum as his eyes seemed to move all around the place. It was not the pixie he was afraid of- even if the pixie rammed into him at the speed of sound, he would not let out so much as a grunt of pain.

It was his friends that he was afraid for. They still did not know a single clue about how things really worked in the Metaverse- and Akechi had just thrown them into a fight without even a short briefing about how to fight back.

Akira really wanted to gut the accursed man with his dagger at the very moment, but refrained from doing so as what Akechi had done had not crossed his limits yet. Both he and Akechi knew that the Pixie was probably the least dangerous shadow in the entire Metaverse, and even normal humans would be able to avoid the Pixie if they were careful.

Still, they had limits to their stamina, and while the Pixie was not really that strong- and Akechi probably had a few recovery items in hand just in case-, Akira did not want any of his friends to get severely injured.

Hence, he pulled his Tkachev, pretending to stare hard at it with as he tried to make his face seem as uncertain as possible.

The gun felt weird in his hands- it had been many years since he had used this particular weapon. It had been the first gun he had used when he had become a Persona user, and it had brought him through many tough situations and battles.

He had stopped using it after he grew stronger, but still kept it deep within his chest of old belongings back at the shop as a keepsake. He never thought that he would use it again.

"Are you seriously believing him?" Futaba asked in a shaky voice, fear and panic evident in her voice as her eyes darted back and forth between the charging pixie- who was currently chasing a cursing Ryuji- and the Tkachev in his hand.

Akira gritted his teeth, seemingly hesitating for a second before raising the weapon and taking aim at the rampant Pixie. "No harm trying," Akira said in an unsure voice, before pulling the trigger.

A deafeningly loud burst of gunfire attacked everyone's eardrums, and echoed down the dark tunnels of the Mementos, followed by a high-pitched, shrill scream of pain. Everyone that had been panicking and running about like headless chickens immediately stilled, their eyes wide and their jaws hanging as they stared at the writhing shadow.

Akira made sure to fix his eyes upon the barrel of his weapon, staring in what seemed like shock at the smoke lazily floating out of the muzzle. On the inside, however, he was silently impressed at his own acting skills.

His persona was Arsene, so it made sense that he would extremely proficient at fooling others and holding a facade. However, it truly was difficult to act surprised at something that seemed so common and mundane to him.

"What...just happened?" Haru's voice was filled with as much disbelief as her face showed. Everyone's eyes locked onto the smoking muzzle of his weapon, then shifted to the writhing and screaming pixie thrashing around on the floor, a pool of blackish-red gooey substance forming beneath it as it bled through a hole at its right shoulder.

"This thing...actually works?" Yusuke spoke more to himself than anyone else, his voice sounding extremely perplexed as he inspected his weapon- an assault rifle made to replicate the "Black Assault".

Three seconds later, he hummed to himself in wonder before taking aim at the writhing Pixie- whom was beginning to recover- and casually pulling the trigger. A split second later, a thunderous bout of screams and gunfire resounded through the area, followed by even more shouts and screams as Yusuke lost control of his weapon.

"Watch where you're pointing the gun!" Makoto shouted at Yusuke in a frantic and enraged voice, while Haru- whom had let out a scream of shock and terror when the bullets just went over her head- glared daggers at said man. Ryuji and Ann were thankfully out of his arc of fire, while Akira and Futaba were behind Yusuke, thus not affected by his spraying.

To be fair, the one who had went through the worst ordeal was the screaming being currently in the middle of all of them. The pixie- who had just begun to recover from the injuries it sustained from Akira's Tchakev- was now screaming and squirming on the ground again, it's body riddled with even more holes as before.

It was a slightly disturbing sight, and Akira understood why all his friends looked extremely uncomfortable. Even if it was a mere shadow, and the substance that it was bleeding did not look anything like blood, the screams were real, as was the disfiguration of the Pixie.

Thankfully, whatever skin or flesh that flies out dissolves into black and red mist and eventually dissipates into nothingness, and the shadows seemed to have no innards, just a black nothingness within them, thus saving them from having to witness anything gruesome or gory.

"S-sorry," Yusuke stuttered, guilt evident in his voice as he took a step back, hands up in a 'surrender' posture. Everyone eyed him carefully for a second longer, making sure that he was not going to go trigger-happy again before taking out their own weapons, staring at them curiously, succeeding in momentarily ignoring the cries and throes of pain and rage of the Pixie.

"As you have seen," Akechi's voice traveled across the air, using a tone that lecturers usually used in their classes. "While those guns that you are currently holding in your hands were simply toys in the real world, in the Cognitive World, it becomes into real, functioning weapons."

"The reason is simple," Akechi continued explaining, not giving anybody a chance to interrupt his explanation. "The shadow's cognition of your weapons are that they are real, and they are dangerous. Hence, even if, to you, they are mere toy guns, to the shadows, they are real guns. Hence, you can use the guns on them in this World."

Makoto's eyes brightened, and a look of understanding dawned upon her face, and Akira's sharp eyes could catch a glint of excitement from her eyes as she lifted her hand and aimed it right at the Pixie.

Akira was even more impressed when he saw Haru do the same a few seconds later- and he could see the slightest upturn of her lips, but it disappeared soon after, and a look of uncertainty and hesitation replaced the sadistic look she had been wearing before.

Akira's body shook a little, and his brain suddenly went to overdrive as he scrutinized Haru carefully. However, he could no longer spot the quirk of her lips, nor the spark of aggressiveness that had lit her eyes up for a split second. A frown settled upon her face, and he started to ponder upon what he had just seen.

It was not the most opportune time to look into those matters, however, and he decided to shift the issue to the back of his mind for the time being. Eliminating the Pixie was the more prevalent issue.

"Cool!" Ryuji's exclaimed in a child-like manner, before aiming his Granneli M3 at the Pixie with an excited grin- and Akira would have been worried if Ryuji would turn into a serial killer if he had not known Ryuji for the past eight years.

"Let's burst him down together," Ann said, aiming her weapon as well, underlying excitement and anticipation in her voice. Akira had a strange feeling that perhaps- just perhaps- his friends were enjoying killing the shadow a bit too much.

He looked down at Futaba, and saw her twiddling her thumbs, looking down at the floor and only the top of her head visible to her.

"What's wrong?" Akira asked, a frown of worry on his face, kneeling down to take a look at Futaba's face. He was surprised when he saw a slight hint of embarrassment on her face.

"I...didn't get a weapon. I thought it was completely redundant, so..." Futaba's voice was full of shame and guilt. Akira's worried feelings leaked away, and he let out a chuckle and patted her head lightly, causing her to glare at him.

"Don't worry about it. I don't really want you to fire a gun anyway," And what he said was true- he doubted Futaba had the strength to fight shadows, Persona or not. She had always been extremely thin, and he knew that she as definitely not fit enough to fight shadows.

He had guessed that her persona would be more of a support type than a fighter type- though he would have to wait for her persona to reveal itself to affirm his hypothesis.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Futaba retorted with an annoyed pout, to which he smiled gently and shook his head, withholding himself from answering her. He knew that if he spoke his true thoughts out, Futaba would deny it to the ends of the earth, and would also feel useless as she would think herself not helping her friends fight at all.

To a certain extent, it was true- until she unlocked her persona. But, he did not want to bring her down, so he simply chose not to say it.

"We'll talk later," Akira said in a soothing tone. "Let's finish this shadow first."

With that, he stood up straight and lined his Tkachev towards the Pixie, who was just about to get up again. He briefly wondered why this particular Pixie had been so weak. Yes, the PIxie was possibly the weakest shadow in known existence, but it still should not be so weak as to be unable to fight back after being on the receiving end of a mere few bullets.

However, after a split second analysis of the Pixie in front of him, he understood- Akechi had already cast a debuff on the shadow when he had tore off its mask. All of it's attributes were lowered by a considerable margin- to the point where it would be completely possible for normal human beings to eliminate it with simple weapons.

Akira frowned slightly when he realized he had let that small action slip his notice, and made a mental note to pay more attention to the surroundings. His mind had been too fixated on keeping his friends safe- so much so that he had missed out tiny details around him that could potentially change the entire situation in a blink of an eye.

It was fortunate that it had been Akechi's actions that reminded him of it, and no something worse.

He looked away from the Pixie and glanced at his friends, noticing that their eyes were also darting around, meeting each other. He could feel their anticipation, but also their hesitation to pull the trigger. As his eyes shifted to Makoto, a slight surprise arose in him when he saw her eyes staring at his.

A short moment passed- and the two of them understood what the other was trying to convey without any words needed. Akira simply nodded, and gave a small, encouraging smile. Makoto returned the favor with a grateful one, before hardening her face hardened and she shifted her gaze back to the shadow.

Taking a deep breath- Akira could see her arms shivering almost imperceptibly-, Makoto took aim.

"Fire."

Ear-splitting sounds of gunfire rang through the air, followed by a still silence as the screams of pain abruptly halted.

They had killed their first shadow.