Chapter 11: Powerless Wild Card

Friday night:

The wind blowing through the main road of Tokyo which was illuminated by dozens of police cars, the officers gathered around a small bundle, was rather could for the current season.

"And there are no clues at all?", a young man with silver hair asked.

"None at all, officer Sanada.", one of the police officers under Akihiko Sanada answered. "No finger prints or anything else could be found on the corpse."

"Ugh...", Akihiko groaned in slight anger and lifted the blanket that veiled the corpse one more time. It was a little girl, about four years old. "Traces of semen?"

"They´re still investigating that.", the officer said. "The parents are currently questioned as well. They have no clue how the little one could end up here, more than ten kilometres away from her home."

"Damnit! That´s already the third child those month!", Akihiko snarled and punched the street lamp.

"Officer, don´t you think it´s time that you returned to the police office? Your colleagues at the University will be fine without you.", the officer said.

"No, I can´t.", Akihiko disagreed and bit his lip. "There´s something... strange about that University... I still don´t really know what, but I´ll find out."

"But..."

"Tell me if you find something new.", Akihiko interrupted him. "I have to return to the University."

"Yes, sir!"

Akihiko adjusted the collar of his jacket, trying to block out the cold wind, and wandered towards his car.

"If I catch that guy, so god may help me, I´ll tear him apart..."

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Not far away from Tanaba University, Mr. Bagman sat in his reading chair and drank red wine, classic music playing in the background, and looked at his TV where a little girl - the girl that lay dead on the main street of Tokyo - could be seen raped by Mr. Bagman and then murdered.

"Hah, there´s nothing better than a little movie, red wine and Bethoven before going to bed.", Mr. Bagman sighed in bliss, deposited his now empty glass on the table near him and went towards the bedroom, his eyes bright yellow. In the corner of the living-room the real Mr. Bagman stared lifelessly to the ceiling, his corpse half-eaten by flys and maggots, the whole room smelling like decomposition.

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A blue light was glimmering right in front of his closed eyes, got stronger and stronger and finally, when he opened his eyes, Souji found himself inside the Velvet Room in which its residents Igor and his new assistant seemed to be lost in a serious conversation.

"So he´s still not to be found?", Souji could hear Igor asking in what seemed to be a worried tone.

"No, master.", Aigis replied in her robot-like voice.

"Hmm...", Igor sighed and looked at the floor, deep in thought.

Souji startled a bit; never before had he seen Igor like that.

"Um, excuse me...", he started hesitantly, being unsure because of the long-nosed man´s behaviour

"Hmm?", Igor looked up, absentminded, his face now taking on a look of surprise when ne noticed Souji. "Oh yes, of course. I apologize for letting you wait like that.", the little man finally said, now smile like a lunatic like he usually did. "As you surely remember from your last nightly visit in the Velvet Room, you´re still fast asleep in the real world."

"Yeah, I know.", Souji said and shortly looked at Aigis who was once again looking outside the limousine´s window.

"Well, today´s meeting will be rather unpleasant.", Igor said.

"What do you mean?", Souji asked.

"Master Philemon is nowhere to be found.", Aigis spoke instead of Igor.

"Master... Philemon...?", Souji repeated, confused.

"Meister Philemon is the God of Awakening, the entity that I and the other person residing inside the Velvelt Room are to serve.", Igor explained.

"What? So you´re not the master of this place?", Souji asked, eyes huge.

"No, no, never. Together with another person I´m the servant of master Philemon, our function being helping persons with the power of the Wild Card on their journey.", Igor said and chuckled like a lunatic, as usual.

"Why did that Philemon disappear? And what... consequences does him not being here anymore have?", Souji asked.

"We don´t know about the reason behind his disappearance, and even if we were, we couldn´t tell you, my boy.", Igor said. "Master Philemon´s power had already been very weak during your last journy and were steadily depleting, and now, since a while, we can´t detect his presence anymore."

"Oh... And the consequences?", Souji pressed on.

"The power of the Wild Card is thus rendered utterly powerless, my boy.", Igor said, regretfully.

"That means I... I can only someone Izanagi now... right?", Souji asked, suddenly feeling like vomiting.

"That is correct.", Igor admitted, sighing.

"Can´t... Can´t somebody search for him?", Souji asked and looked from Igor to Aigis.

"Oh, we´re already searching.", Igor said. "Aigis doing it ceaselessly. But there are even more pressing problems which we have to take care of. Oh my, this is really what one calls a dilemma! My, it really is!"

"So... I guess all Social Links are... useless as well?", Souji asked after a while.

"No, no, my boy, the Social Links strengthen your bonds and can also be useful for your companions. Never, never stop searching for new Social Links and strengthening them!", Igor objected.

"Master, if you´ll excuse me...", Aigis suddenly said, stood up and bowed before Igor and Souji, and just exited through the firm walls of the limousine. Souji started gaping, and he tried to stick his hand through the walls, without success.

"Amusing, isn´t it?", Igor said and started grinning again. "Well then, my boy. You know now about everything concerning this matter, your informed. This will be a very hard trial for you this time, and I really hope we can find master Philemon soon. In the meantime you have to use all your skills to find your way through that trickery fog of lies. Until then... farewell..."

The room disappeared into deep fog, and everything around him went dark.

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Saturday morning:

The loud ringing of the alarm clock and Yosuke´s loud shouting made him slowly waking up, his eyes blinking away his sleep. He looked at Yosuke´s bed and spotted Yosuke beating the crap out of Teddie with his pillow.

"YOU - STUPID - BEAR - ARE - NOT - ALLOWED - TO - SLEEP - IN - MY - BED - TOGETHER - WITH - ME!!!", Yosuke screamed, hitting the blond shadow during every word he spole.

"But Yo-- ow! --suke! I´m telling you, I´ve seen Kou in my dreams!", Teddie informed Yosuke and dodged another swing with the pillow.

"How nice! So you had a wet dream about Kou! That doesn´t mean you have to climb into my bed and try doing those things you dreamed about with me!", Yosuke continued shouting.

"`Wet dream´? What´s that?", Teddie asked curiously, the next swing with pillow achieving a direct hit and throwing Teddie to the ground. Whimpering, he shakily stood up and only now noticed that Souji was now awake as well. "Ah, Sensei!", he happily shouted and jumped onto Souji´s bed. "You know what? I´ve seen Kou, and--"

"Yeah, really interesting, Teddie.", Souji only said, absentmindedly, still thinking about the events inside the Velvet Room, stood up and shuffled towards the kitchen to make himself a cup of coffee.

"Hmph!", Teddie sulked, jumped up from the bed and turned on Yosuke´s laptop.

"Hey! Stop slaughtering those innocent women on RuneScape, you beast!", Souji heard Yosuke shouting, followed by a mad cackle from Teddie.

Souji sighed. He´d only be able to summon one Persona, just like the other...

Why did this Philemon disappear NOW? Why now, when they needed him the most?! It was almost Sunday, the day that `Operation Save Kou!´ started, and there were already dozens of probkems.

"A great start...", Souji mumbled sullenly, dumped the rest of the coffee which just tasted bitter today inside the sink and went back towards the bedroom to get changed for the next seminars.

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Annotations: Ugh, I don´t know why exactly, but this chapter was a serious pain in the behind to post. Normally I just start writing until the end of the chapter, but I had to pause so many times this time...

Also, I may start posting this story under "Megami Tensei", in case anyone´s wondering why I start posting the same thing again. ;)