Shin Megami Tensei

Persona 3: Carpe Diem

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Persona 3, SMT, or any characters within. They belong to Atlus.

Twelfth Story – George Sears

When Hidetoshi woke up he had a massive headache and his chest felt numb, this, along with the fact that he was currently tied to a chair in a brightly lit room didn't help matters either.

"Ah, my head...what the hell happened?"

"Sheesh, you're finally awake, took ya' long enough," he could hear a familiar voice say.

"Kenji? Is that you!?"

"Yeah! Look behind you, man," Kenji said. Hidetoshi looked behind him to find that Kenji was tied in a chair set only a few meters away from him.

"Where are Tanaka and Kaz?" Hidetoshi asked.

"Hell if I know. All I remember is getting shot by that hot lady. Do you know where we are?"

"No."

"Do you know who that lady was?"

"Some lady named Natasha Chernenko-"

"When do you think-"

"Jesus Kenji, enough with the questions!" Hidetoshi said loudly, frustrated with Kenji's incessant, child-like demands for answers. He honestly had no earthly answer to them anyway. All he knew right now was that this concrete hell of a room wasn't ergonomically designed and that that Natasha lady was one mean woman.

"Sorry man, but you were talking to her before, so I just assumed-"

"Assumed what? That she'd tell me that she was going to shoot us with tranq and drag us to some...whatever the hell this place is?"

When no answer came from Kenji, Hidetoshi mentally slapped himself for asking that question.

"I can't believe you actually assumed that. Regardless, we have to find a way out of here," Hidetoshi said, trying his best to untie himself from the chair. Unfortunately, plastic ties don't easily shred themselves, especially against human fingernails.

He sighed. Aside from Kenji and himself, the concrete room was almost completely featureless. There were no windows: the only light came from an extremely bright light somewhere in the ceiling. Like in the S.E.E.S. Complex, this room's ceiling was unimaginably high. There was a door to Hidetoshi's right. It was a steel door, no doubt impenetrable from the inside. Beside the steel door was a mirror. Either that or a one-way mirror with that damn woman behind it.

"Hey, bitch! I hope you're happy! We don't know who you are or what you did to us, but we're pissed!"

"Wow, 'Toshi, I've never heard you curse before!" Kenji said out loud, prompting Hidetoshi to quickly glance over his shoulder the best he could in this situation.

"What did you just call me!?" Hidetoshi asked in shock, just as the two of them could hear the bolts on the steel doors begin to click before it opened.

"What? I just didn't want to have to pronounce your full name, so-"

"That's not the issue here! It's probably one of those things I'd accept if it was...you know...not you, Kenji."

"That hurts, dude. That hurts."

The two of them continued arguing while a bemused Tanaka stood over them with Natasha by his side. Of course this time, Tanaka didn't have his hands any place where they shouldn't be.

Natasha cleared her throat as loudly as she could, prompting the two boys to look over at her and Tanaka with mixed feelings of relief, anger, and confusion.

"Well, I see you two are awake."

"And lively," Tanaka said in as much of a monotone voice as he could.

"Hey man, what the hell! What gives!? How come you're untied and we're not!?" Hidetoshi yelled as Tanaka pulled out a pair of sunglasses from his suit and put them on, ruffling his hair a little to match his 'look' from a few years back. Back before he knew S.E.E.S. Before all of this happened.

"Why you're not untied? Let's see...hm, probably because of that little temper tantrum you just threw," Tanaka said sarcastically, pulling out a small utility knife from his suit as well.

"This thing works wonders, by the way. Opens wine bottles, cuts your fingernails, gets you loose from hostage situations," Tanaka said, before Natasha spoke up to the boys.

"Actually, I set him free. Now we shall set you free, unfortunately," Natasha said, grabbing the knife from Tanaka's hands and heading over to Kenji first to quickly slit the ties that bonded Kenji to the chair. Kenji turned around to thank the woman for releasing him, before remembering that she was the one to blame for this entire situation.

She then moved on to Hidetoshi after Kenji said nothing and cut his ties. He brought his hands in front of his face, inspecting them, before quickly testing his reflexes and saying a quick "thank you" that was more a formality rather than a genuine feeling of gratitude.

"Good, now that the gang is all assembled, can we please get back to business," Tanaka asked, pulling out a cigar before Natasha slapped it out of his hand.

"This is a no smoking facility, Tanaka!"

"Hey! Hey! Hey! These kids aren't supposed to know my name until after-"

"I'm not a member of your organization, so I don't care. Come on, boys. Follow me," Natasha said rather bluntly, leaving a look of disappointment on Tanaka's face.

"Wait!" Hidetoshi said, reaching his arm out towards Natasha's shoulder just as she turned around and slapped it away. "W – Where's Kazushi?" he asked, uncertain as to his friend's fate.

"Oh, the other boy with you? It turns out he and our leader have some very common interests. You'll see him shortly," Natasha said, shortly pausing before opening the steel door once more.

"Don't hate us, we're only doing our job. Just like you," Natasha said before taking a key card out from the hem of her skirt and waving it in front of the door. The locks could be heard clicking again, before the giant steel door slid into the wall to reveal a hallway equally as featureless as the room the two boys were held in. Maybe this is how S.E.E.S. would turn out in a thousand years...that is, if S.E.E.S. - or the human race, even – survived that long.

"Grey on grey. I like the color scheme," Hidetoshi remarked snarkingly. It wasn't like Hidetoshi to be this annoyed. After he became friends with Minato, he vowed he would use his energy to be positive and help people.

But, given the circumstances, he judged even Minato had a right to be angry.

"So, where are you taking us? Another holding cell? Our execution? What?" Hidetoshi asked.

"Or the cafeteria, I'm starving!" Kenji said, trying to break the tense atmosphere between the all.

Tanaka remained silent, thinking to himself why he had to get involved in this stupid mission.

Natasha, on the other hand, didn't stop, didn't turn around, and most certainly didn't raise her voice beyond a monotone, robotic level.

"Actually, none of those. You are meeting the man whom you yourselves were supposed to kidnap. Ironic, isn't it?"

"I think I would appreciate the irony more if I wasn't the one who was kidnapped," Hidetoshi snapped back.

Without even noticing it, the boys were walking from the dull grey concrete of their holding cell's hallway into a glorious pearl-white marble corridor that was decorated with some of the finest sculpting Hidetoshi had ever seen. The transition between the two was so perfect that he didn't know he was in a different part of the base until they reached a pair of large wooden doors, which easily dwarfed all four humans outside.

Next to the doors, built into the wall, was an intercom system. Beside that was a small computer screen, showing an apparent map of the base. According to the map, Hidetoshi noted that they were currently...on the hundredth level of the complex? That couldn't be right.

Natasha went over to the intercom and pushed a small red button. Static filled the air just as she began to talk.

"Sir, the last two prisoners have awoken. Shall I send them in?"

There was moment of silence, before a man's voice could be heard over the intercom. Speaking in perfect, formal, and slightly accented English, the man spoke up.

"Yes, thank you for doing what I've asked, Natasha. I'll buzz you in."

Just as the man's voice was cut off, a loud buzzing noise could be heard. Natasha gripped the golden handle of the door and pulled it open, revealing a lush and luxurious office. The floor was covered in a Persian rug, the walls made of redwood, a desk ornately crafted throughout the generations from actual wood from the Ark of Noah; said to be the finest in the world.

Even the electronics in the room were pure black and blended well with the décor around them. But the main feature was behind the desk. Behind the two men laughing their troubles away over some taped footage between a 2010 baseball game between the Tokyo Giants and the New York Yankees (organized personally by the man sitting behind the desk).

On the far side of the room were floor-to-ceiling windows that revealed the most beautiful underground garden that they had ever seen. A waterfall that originated high above, on the surface, led to a small pond down below. Even the surrounding steel and concrete were engineered to be both structurally strong and aesthetically pleasing when viewed next to the garden.

The group could clearly see Kazushi, who was sitting on a couch a few meters away from the desk.

The man in the high-backed chair behind the desk, however, could not be seen. Only his grey hair was visible, before he pushed a button on the chair's armrest and paused the taped footage.

"Are they all here, Natasha?"

"Yes, sir. I have brought the new Japanese ParaPols," Natasha said, bowing her head in respect even though the man couldn't see her.

"Very well. Thank you, Natasha. You may take your leave, now."

Natasha bowed once again, turning her back towards them and leaving the room without saying another word, before the man in the high-backed chair whipped it around to face them all.

Hidetoshi and Kenji gasped in awe. Tanaka raised an eyebrow as to their surprise.

The man was tall: at least two meters. An old Caucasian male with full grey hair and a short beard and mustache. His right eye was covered with an eye-patch and he wore a long, tan overcoat with a simple emblem on the left sleeve: the square and compass. The emblem of the Free Masons.

"You're..."

"George Sears. Head of the American Order of Free Masons, Queen of Hearts in the Valley of the Queens, and North American Knight of the Round Table...Tanaka, I assume your mission is failed, then?" the man asked, pulling out a box of cigars and offering them all one. All but Tanaka declined.

"Thanks, I thought this was a no smoking facility?" he asked, pulling out a lighter and clipper from his suit.

"No, we just set that rule up to annoy you, my friend. So...what does the Asian Knight have to bring to this fair discussion?" the man asked again. Though he matched the description...the picture, even. Nobody was sure if this man was the man whom they sought. Nobody but Tanaka, and none of the boys were willing to interrupt these two old men in their talk. This was "adult time". The time where the old and the wicked conspired against the young and the pure.

"So, you still haven't-"

"On the contrary, Director Sears. My mission has just begun."

"Oh?" he asked, puffing on his cigar a bit before continuing. "And what would that be?"

"To dethrone one of the Queens," Tanaka said bluntly, forcing Mr. Sears to nearly choke on his cigar.

"What did you just say!?"

"You know perfectly well what I just said. There's no other way Natasha would've been in Cuba with me if you hadn't personally sent her to check up on me," he added, choosing to walk over to the couch where Kazushi was sitting and sat down next to him.

"And you also know that Asia once again has a competent ParaPol to compete with you Westerners. You know who I speak of, and who I want gone..." Tanaka said, taking a deep breathe through his cigar and smiling.

"Is this Cuban, by the way?"

"No. It comes from the volcanic soil of the Dominican Republic, which is a nice substitute," Mr. Sears said. The two gentlemen, although at odds over the current topic, never really erupted into anything more than meaningful dialogue and friendly chatter.

"Ah, I see."

"No, you don't. Legitimate American businessmen sometimes like to pass this stuff on as Cuban, selling it at an exorbitant price. You yourself couldn't tell the different. Now, if you can't even tell the difference in a good cigar, how can I expect a man such as yourself to tell the difference in ParaPols? Because, after all, we're dealing with much more than money here...in our business, the stocks are made of human souls."

"You act as if I don't know such a thing. Why then, would I put all of my investments into a single ParaPol? Quite simple: they've saved the world one more time than yours has, and that's all I need to know."

Mr. Sears laughed a little, puffing on his cigar before answering Tanaka and throwing his argument back in his face.

"Save the world? Please. Any high school kid with a laptop and an internet connection can simultaneously cause a doomsday scenario and save the world at the same time."

"From three-thousand year old magic that brought about the appearance of the Harbinger of Death – including Death's Incarnation? As well as...oh, wait. They've saved the world two times more than your organization has. Fancy that, huh?" asked, grinning a little.

"I don't suppose both of these incidents are related to the events in Japan in the last two years?" Mr. Sears replied.

"They are one in the same. In fact, I won't be surprised if they have more world-saving to do."

"Hm...and are these the kids that twice saved the world from paranormal evil?" he asked.

"No, these are recruits. The real deal is back in Japan. And get this, they've all got the Eighth Power."

Once again, Mr. Sears almost coughed on his cigar before continuing.

"You mean Persona? How...oh, bollucks! That's just a myth!" he said, raising his voice.

"I'm not lying. In fact, these kids have lived through events that your ParaPol has only known as myths and legends for the past thousand years. I'm sure you'll be understanding when the Queens meet next month in Rome?" Tanaka asked, a grin so wide that Kazushi was slightly scared of it.

"Heaven be damned if you're lying, Tanaka. If you tell the truth...I suppose you really do deserve the title of Asian Knight."

"So you agree with me after all, then!?" Tanaka asked excitedly, getting up from the couch.

"Only if you're right," Mr. Sears replied, forcing Tanaka to sit down and fold his arms, shaking the ashes off of his suit and onto the couch.

"Whatever floats your boat, buddy. The fact remains that I'm right. The only thing you have to do is figure out who's going to get dethroned."

"Probably the Caliphate of Mecca. It's not as if the Middle East can't be handled alone by the Knights of Malta. After all, what could go wrong?"

"Exactly."

Author's Note:

Yes, I know George Sears is Solidus Snake. A small tribute to the series who's format I'm copying for the RES series.