Disclaimer:
Atlus is the creator of the Shin Megami Tensei series of games, which this story uses as source material. As per the subject matter, all characters, events, places, and concepts used in this story are a work of fiction.
Fall and Rebirth
By: RB3
Temperance Arcana 2: Kirijo Kidnapping
Friday, August 10, 2012
After emerging victorious over Belberith, the Investigation team went from cell to cell, releasing every man and woman trapped in there. Where there were unhatched fly eggs, the team incinerated or otherwise destroyed it. Each prison was grateful for their rescue and being spared the gruesome fate of the dead. Following his own rescue, Dojima had been given time off by the Inaba Police Department to recuperate. Now that he had a Persona too, in the form of Hachiman, he knew too much about the Shadow world to be kept in the dark.
Nanako brought him to their usual meeting place in the food court of Junes. Dojima's mind buzzed with numerous questions, as a detective was apt to doing when on a case. The team answered everything they could to the best of their knowledge. "So all this Shadow and TV world stuff happened last year too and that now, demons are invading the town?" asked Dojima incredulously.
"Yeah," replied Kanji.
"Again, someone broke into our system. We don't know who, but they have to be stopped and soon," said Atsuro.
"Even so, I can't allow Nanako to be put in any more danger," said Dojima.
"...But we need her!" said Chie.
"If it wasn't for her help, we might not have found you," said Naoto matter-of-factly. "You and the other victims are lucky to be alive now."
"Dad, I don't care if you say 'no.' I'll still find a way to help them," said Nanako defiantly.
Dojima sighed. Nanako was growing up so fast. Not only did she resemble her mother, she was also starting to act like her too. His wife had a somewhat stubborn streak to her, wanting to do things her way. He largely played along since he trusted her to have a good head on her shoulders. Despite that stubborn streak, she was always a loving wife who only wanted what she believed was the best for her husband and daughter. Though Dojima didn't like it, he knew Nanako would find ways to slip out of his grasp.
"Alright, I know when I'm beaten," said Dojima, admitting defeat. "At least if I'm around, I can protect her."
"So, does this mean you're going to be coming with us on trips to the other side?" asked Yosuke.
"My job will make that difficult," lamented Dojima. "I'll try to when I can, but I can't make any guarantees."
"This isn't something the police can resolve on their own," said Naoto. "Dealing with the supernatural isn't something they are equipped to do."
"I know," replied Dojima.
"Despite that, however you want to proceed, we'll respect your wishes," said Naoto. "We always keep someone in reserve to protect Nanako from harm."
"That's fair," remarked Dojima. "So, what about this Kirijo Group lead? What have you found so far?"
"Colonel Fushimi is going to raid the factory on Monday," replied Saemon. "I'm hoping they will seize information that will explain how they are bypassing our security. If they can find out who is responsible for all this, even better."
Monday, August 13, 2012
A calm starry night set over the Kirijo Electronics factory between Inaba and Okina. On the roof, smokestacks rose into the sky, momentarily dormant while its workers rested for the night. At the front, a blue sign indicating the factory's name rested on a small concrete island, displaying the company slogan "bringing you the future." The crickets chirped away, the only thing breaking the silence of a warm summer night in Japan.
Several black vans approached and surrounded the factory. Numerous men and women in black uniforms, bulletproof vests, and ski masks emerged from the vehicles. They loaded their assault rifles and formed groups near the entrances to the building. The terrorist-like men quickly advanced into the building, where they encountered a patrolling security guard in the lobby. The entry team immediately trained their weapons on him.
"FREEZE!" the leader of the squad demanded. "Hands in the air!"
The guard, too terrified to fight back, immediately complied with the leader's order. They forced the guard onto the ground, where one of the men handcuffed his hands to his back. Some other men came in from the vans and put a sack over his head before leading him out into a van. The team delved deeper into the factory, arresting security guards and janitors all along the way. They eventually bagged the heads of each captured person and gathered them in their vans.
When the team reached the deepest section of the factory, they found a solid steel door blocking the way to a stairwell which led to the basement. Since the door was too thick and strong to bust open. One of the men retrieved a forged key card and swiped it through a nearby card reader. The lock dinged and the door popped open. The team descended a flight of metal stairs and found themselves in the basement, which had numerous secure steel doors. Each door led to a lab which had plastic, fully sealed windows allowing visibility into the lab itself.
The main, largest lab was a large room filled with massive, clear plastic canisters jars filled with black ooze. These oozes gave off a familiar, yet sinister sensation. Via wires, these jars were connected to computers which seemed to gather readings on the oozes. Another team entered what appeared to be a secondary factory floor. The most interesting item there was a man-sized, cylindrical device mounted on a small tripod. The device appeared to be able to spin on a vertical axis and had unknown mystical symbols etched on its side. It was connected to diagnostic computers by several wires.
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
The Survivors looked over the items Fushimi had seized in their raid. Fushimi's men had taken nearly everything in the factory that wasn't nailed down, from samples of Kirijo technology to hard drives, schematics, and dossiers in the factory. Though it would take a long time to sort through everything, Atsuro was up to the task, as was Naoto. They began with the hard drives, looking through them on a laptop, but so far, the only things they saw on them were related to sales or merely correspondence between workers in the factory. From the emails and memos, all of these things were materials for a mysterious "Project C."
One type of item in particular stood out from the others. It was the strange cylindrical device or drum. Saemon looked over the item, strongly drawn to its unusual appearance. He had a sense of familiarity from viewing it which put him ill at ease. "Saemon, do you recognize this thing?" asked Yuzu as he looked it over with Saemon.
"I get the feeling that I've seen this item before, but I can't put my finger on it," he replied.
"When we found this thing, it was hooked up to a computer by wires. It looked like the Kirijo Group was testing it," informed Izuna.
"I see," remarked Saemon. "So they were trying to build it..."
Atsuro and Naoto continued to examine the hard drives and found an old email between a Hiroshi Matsumoto and the Kirijo Group's head, Mitsuru Kirijo. Matsumoto, the head of the electronics division, was requesting funds to expand his business. He cited the highly profitable previous business quarter as justification to issue more funds to it. Mitsuru agreed with Matsumoto's assessment and promised to authorize the funding.
"So the plot thickens," remarked Naoto.
Atsuro continued to scan the documents and found one by a scientist under Matsumoto. From the contents, Matsumoto's team had harnessed the Shadows' power over time, space, and even reality. They learned about the demons through a vision from the Shadows. The Shadows also revealed the demon Babel and the computer system which harnessed its power to summon and control demons. Using the power of the Shadows, they gained access to and altered the computer system to enable them to control it to some degree, effectively creating a back door.
Matsumoto's group had little control over the demons at first. The first demon they tried to summon, an Abaddon, ran amok in their lab, doing significant damage. They eventually used their technology to dump the Abaddon in the Shadow world to escape its rampage. As time progressed, they refined their system, summoning stronger demons and with more control. Eventually, Matsumoto's teams began summoning the Bels themselves, culminating with the binding of Pabelsag under their control. The drum-like device was one of the newer tools they had developed to help summon demons.
When he read that document, Atsuro looked over at the drum. "So this thing is like a big comp. I'll have to reprogram the Babel system to block the Shadows access. I'll let Fushimi know later," remarked Atsuro.
When Fushimi and Saemon received the reports from Naoto and Atsuro, Fushimi already knew his next move. "We are going for a decapitation strategy while we still have the initiative. We are going to capture Mitsuru Kirijo and Hiroshi Matsumoto," he stated flatly. "Shirogane, Kihara, I want you to focus your research efforts on these two individuals."
Atsuro and Naoto focused their research on Mitsuru Kirijo and Hiroshi Matsumoto, finding several nuggets on Mitsuru. They looked over some pictures and articles from the media on her relating to big Kirijo Group events. Mitsuru was the last remaining heir of her family's company. Photos showed her to be a strongly feminine, red-headed woman in her twenties. She had a very noble, high society demeanour. She especially liked to wear white blouses or turtlenecks and heeled shoes or boots.
"Wow, she's so young!" remarked Atsuro. "She could have been one of my seniors in school."
Naoto opened a Gekkoukan yearbook to pictures of the various clubs. "Look at this picture," said Naoto, pointing to the Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad, or SEES. Her finger was on a teenaged boy who looked stunningly like Saemon! "Isn't that Saemon in the photo?"
Atsuro did a double-take on seeing the photo. "Yeah, he looks so much like him. I really have to look carefully to tell them apart." Atsuro looked over the list of names. "Hmm, he's Minato Arisato."
"Sanada was in this club too," noted Naoto, pointing to his picture, which was just to the right of Arisato's. "It appears the three of them knew each other."
"This is interesting," remarked Atsuro. "I'll report this to Fushimi."
When Atsuro showed Fushimi the photos, he studied every detail on her to commit the image of his prey to memory. Atsuro also mentioned her connection to Akihiko Sanada, who was Dojima's current police partner. "I see, good work. I'll distribute copies of these pictures to my men so we can identify her. As for her connection to Sanada, it is best that nobody mention this, at least until we have captured her."
"I understand," said Atsuro.
Sunday, August 26, 2012
At her luxurious mansion somewhere outside Iwatodai City, Mitsuru Kirijo was seated on a small wooden love seat with beige cushions. Her room was a spacious abode with a large flat screen television and a bed in the corner. The room had a decidedly feminine appearance to it, with lighter and brighter colours and a soft aura to it. She held a cell phone up to her ear and was talking to an old friend, Akihiko Sanada, who had recently gotten a job at the Inaba Police Department. He was even promoted up to being a detective's partner.
While she had heard from Sanada that he had been injured on the first day of his new position, he was recovering steadily and rapidly. "Good news, Mitsuru, my doctor had just given me the green light to go to Yakushima tomorrow," informed Sanada.
"That's great!" remarked Mitsuru.
"Yeah, but I was told not to engage in anything too strenuous. I'm still not at 100% yet, so I gotta take it easy," said Sanada.
"Did you find anything new about whoever or whatever did this to you?"
"Unfortunately no," replied Sanada. "Although Dojima came back with the other victims, he wasn't very talkative about his experiences there. Honestly, I don't blame him. I thought that monster might have been a Shadow, but it didn't look or act like any Shadow I've ever seen before, so I'm not sure. How are things going at your end? I've heard someone broke into one of your factories."
"Yeah, they took grabbed things from the factory's R&D lab in the basement. My security believes these people were professionals, possibly police or military. They sabotaged the security system before they entered and were in and out very quickly. They knew what they were doing. It's a good thing no one was hurt during the raid."
"I haven't heard anything about that incident from my end, unfortunately," informed Sanada. "I'll tell you immediately if I find anything new."
"Of course. Listen, I'm going on ahead to Yakushima. I'll meet you later this evening."
"Sounds like a plan. See you then," said Sanada, hanging up the phone.
Mitsuru changed into her street shoes before heading out to meet her limo driver. The black-haired driver opened the door for her and helped her get seated in the back. He started the engine, the windows slid closed and the air conditioner started whirring in the background. The limo pulled out of the driveway and travelled some distance before entering a highway. It picked up speed to keep pace with the faster traffic. Even with the greater speed, the trip was so long that Mitsuru's throat started to get dry.
She opened a nearby liquor case and poured herself a glass of wine. The driver, seeing her sip the wine in his rear view mirror, let out a sinister smirk that went unnoticed. Mitsuru savoured the taste of the wine on her tongue. After a few more minutes on the road, her vision started to blur. Her eyelids became heavy and started to droop from what she thought was a long and monotonous journey. She let her eyes close and dozed off, her head slumping onto the side of the limo.
In the front, the driver let out a satisfied grin, like the Cheshire Cat. A brief flicker rippled over his form. His face momentarily vanished, revealing a skull covered by a black shroud. With his true, death-like face exposed, the driver almost seemed to cackle with glee at his handy work. The illusion flickered back into existence, covering the driver's face once again. The limo continued on its way down the highway, until it took a right turn into the wilderness outside of Iwatodai.
Monday, August 27, 2012
All was dark for Mitsuru Kirijo. She had dozed off after sipping some wine during her limo ride to the boat which would take her to Yakushima. When her eyes groggily opened, the light of a fluorescent ceiling light filtered into her eyes. As she regained her senses, she sat up and found herself in the basement of a house with only a single oaken door at the far side of the room. The top portion of the door had a single square opening. This opening was covered by a hatch which opened from the outside.
Somebody opened the hatch, revealing the bronze mask on his face. The mask had red markings which represented eyes and a mouth. From the window, the rest of the creature's body was not visible. The creature was as Ongyo-Ki, an oni, and was apparently Mitsuru's guard. "You're awake... The boss wants to speak with you."
Ongyo-Ki opened the door, handcuffed Mitsuru, and led her out of her cell. A second Ongyo-Ki flanked Mitsuru and the two brought her across a street to a second house. Along the way, Mitsuru caught sight of the bizarre, rippling red and black sky of the Shadow world. Somehow, she was not in the real world anymore, but had no time to ponder that. The Ongyo-ki took her into a room lit by a spotlight with only a single chair and a black screen in front of it. They put Mitsuru into the chair and locked the door behind them upon leaving.
A voice introduced himself over the speaker system and blitzed her with questions about the Kirijo Group and its involvement with demons. They asked her about Project C, the research project which the Kirijo Group had undertaken to bind demons. "I don't know what you're talking about," replied Mitsuru, one of her many denials.
"We have documents with your name on it," said the voice. "You are funding research into the control of demons. Do not try to lie to us!"
A picture of a memo appeared on the black screen. "I only gave him money to help finance production of new chips for smart phones," denied Mitsuru. "This isn't for some secret project!"
"Who are you trying to fool?" asked the interrogator. "We found the lab. We know what went on in there."
On and on the interrogation went, with the interrogator blitzing her with questions, accusations and demanding her to respond to them. Mitsuru responded by denying everything, from the accusations and to having any knowledge about the Kirijo Group's involvement in the occult. After hours of this fruitless cycle, the interrogator sent Mitsuru back to her cell. Fushimi searched out Saemon and reported his findings. "Ichihara, I'm afraid we weren't able to find out anything from Ms. Kirijo yet."
"Damn," remarked Saemon. "Keep trying, maybe she'll change her mind later. Let's give her time to reflect before we ask her again."
The next few days went by like before, when Fushimi took her back in for more questioning. Mitsuru still wouldn't tell them anything new about the Kirijo Group's activities. As the Ongyo-Ki escorted her out once again, Saemon just happened to be outside of the interrogation building, talking to Atsuro. When the procession emerged from the door, Saemon looked at them to see what the commotion was all about. At the same time, Mitsuru took a good look at Saemon's face and did a double-take.
"Mi... Minato?" Saemon was puzzled and pointed to himself as though asking if she was talking about him. "Yes, you. You're alive? How is possible?"
"I'm not sure what you're talking about," replied Saemon.
"Move it lady," ordered the Ongyo-Ki, who rudely grabbed her and pulled her away from Saemon.
The other turned to Saemon. "Sorry about this, Lord Abel. We'll take the prisoner straight to her cell."
The Ongyo-Ki did as promised, leaving Saemon to ponder what just happened. "What was that about?" Saemon asked Atsuro.
Atsuro remembered what he saw when he was doing a background check on Mitsuru. "You look like her friend from high school," informed Atsuro. "His name was Minato Arisato. He and Mitsuru were part of a club called the Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad, or SEES, when she attended Gekkoukan High School."
"Ah, I see," agreed Saemon.
"Come to think of it, this might be how we can get her to talk. Let's talk to Fushimi about this," suggested Atsuro.
END OF CHAPTER