Persona 4 and it's world is owned by Megami Tensei. Not me. This just for fun.

A/N: Here's the second half, sorry if there was a cliffhanger. It was getting too long of a chapter.

Dance of the Cards

Dance of the Cards

XIV. The Priestess's Fear

June 2035

Evening

Sakura moaned as she awoke, almost everything hurt. To make sure nothing was broken she wiggled her fingers and toes. Everything seemed to be in working order.

"Why do hills dislike me so?" muttered Himeko. Sakura opened her eyes. The sun had stained the sky a rich orange. Sakura thanked all the gods she knew that it hadn't set yet. She sat up to look around.

Himeko was near by, apart from a few scratches she didn't look any worse for wear.

"We fell down a hill during a camping trip." Himeko shook her head. "I feel like I'm in one of Natsuko's mangas." She stood, brushing off leaves. "However let's save ourselves shall we?"

Sakura looked up at the incline they had fallen from. It didn't seem too steep. "I think we can make it."

The homeroom teachers and most of the second year boys were looking for the two missing girls. They had gone over the path leading to next camping site, but had found nothing. Akira managed to keep his face calm, but that didn't stop his heart from racing. How could he explain to anyone else, how this could be a lot worse to two girls losing their way. He was sure if he tried to explain about the shadows, he would be deemed insane. Hell, he could barely even keep from signing himself up.

"Come on, the rest are headin' back." Mashima placed his hand on Akira's shoulder. "The teachers will keep looking, but they don't want more students getting lost."

Akira nodded, following the rest of the group, he managed to sneak out often enough at home, he could do it here. The group started up the slight incline toward the main camp.

When they reached the top they saw one very dirty, slightly starched girl helping an equally dirty girl onto the level path. Both looked rather surprised at the large group of people near them.

"Amagi, Onishi." The homeroom teacher from 2-3 approached them. "Are you the two of you badly hurt?"

"It's not too bad," answered Himeko.

"All the same, let's get you check, both of you." The teacher put her arms around the girls and started back to camp.

Akira felt the tension loosen from his heart.

Evening

Kotori was almost surprised at how easy it had been to sneak out of the tents. She thought after everything that happened earlier the teachers would be doing a tighter watch. She glanced to her left at Himeko, who seemed to be fine. None of her cuts turned out to be very deep. However if Akira stood any closer to her, they just might fuse together. His frown only deepened as Sakura informed them of what had happened.

"I thought Davis was your friend?" asked Akira.

"He is my friend," answered Himeko. "He's just been...strange lately, not himself."

Akira didn't believe her, but said nothing.

"Davis-senpai wasn't the only one. Kobayashi-sensei was also being strange...both were wearing jackets." Sakura flushed, wondering if it had sounded as stupid to them as it did to her. "I mean thick jackets..."

"It's fine. I know what you mean. It's can't be normal, whatever it is." Daisuke placed his hands in his pockets. "I am sure this might have something to do with the shadows."

"We can't blame every strange thing on the shadows. We're outside of Inaba. According to Igor that is where the problem is."

"Maybe Akira is right. Anyways the gods are keeping the shadows in check remember? So they shouldn't have broken...um..out." Kotori struggled to find the right word.

"Right... " Akira looked back to the others. "There isn't much we can do now and we are missing two members. Let's just finish camping."

"Fine," agreed Kotori. "But when we get back we need to figure this out."

Takahito was rather unhappy with the fact that both of his sisters were out of town. It rarely happened and when it did it left his grandfather's full attention on him; something he really disliked. It wasn't so bad when his father was around, but tonight he was staying late at the Dojo. Takahito knew he could tell his father anything, but he didn't want another reason for his grandfather to call him a nancy boy.

"Takahito."

Takahito looked up at the sound of his grandfather's voice. "Yes, Grandfather?"

"Why are you here?"

Takahito tried to remember if anything had been planned. The only thing he could think of was a large business meeting that was at the inn, but there was no way the his Grandfather was excepting him to be there helping. Inn work was women's work.

"I don't understand Grandfather."

Ryuutaro Amagi gave his only grandson a long look. Takahito was use to such a look, they all were, it hardly bothered him anymore. Soon Ryuutaro seemed to grow bored.

"Why are you not at the dojo with your father?"

"I do not participated in Kendo, Grandfather."

Ryuutaro grunted, "It is a good thing that that school is not your father's or he'd have no son to give it too. No one would respect the owner of a school who does not even practice the art."

Takahito was glad that the table hid his clenched fist, he didn't want him to know how much the words affected him.

Before the conversation could continue the door slid open. Souji stood in the doorway. He gave a smile in greeting to his son, but when he turned to Ryuutaro it was gone.

"Father, I trust you have been keeping pleasant company with my son." Souji gave his father-in-law a level look, one far more powerful then the one Ryuutaro had done before.

Ryuutaro just grunted and returned his attention to the newspaper.

Takahito managed not to smile, but just barely. He had always enjoyed the fact that his father could cow his grandfather so easily. He had wondered how his father had learned such a look. Now that he knew it was from facing down the shadow, and just maybe the end of the world, he hoped that he would be able to make such a look as well.

"Taka, your mother will be joining us for supper, please prepare the table."

"Yes, Father." Takahito was more then glad to leave the room.

Afternoon

The next day Takahito couldn't be happier to be sitting with the rest of SOTA in Batafurai.

"Why does all the exciting stuff happen without me?"

Himeko gave Reika a level look. "I could push you off a rocky edge if you like."

"Nah, I'm good."

"Anyways," started Kotori. "We've caught the two of you up. We need to figure out in the world is going on. Oliver has been Himeko's friend for years. It's highly unlikely he'd just decide to randomly push her, and Sakura, off a cliff."

"I don't see how we can figure this out now. He's been acting a little strange, like he's sick. He's been a bit slow at practice and is almost always drinking something warm. Not everything has to do with shadows. Some things are just mundane."

Kotori highly doubt that, but choose not to comment. "Can anyone else think of something?"

"I think we should just wait." Reika holds up a hand. "Just hear me out here. We don't really know what's going on. Let's keep our eyes out for anyone acting like Oliver. Sluggish and wearing warmer then the season requires clothes. If more people turn up like this we can assume it has to with the shadows. If not then Oliver has just gone bat shit."

"Eloquent as always," muttered Akira. Himeko was the only one who heard him; she kicked him with her heel.

At the moment Himeko's phone chimed. Glancing down at her wrist she saw a text from Natsuko. She opened the message to read; Grandfather needs us all NOW.

"Takahito and I must go now."

"What?" Takahito tried to keep the whine from his voice. "But we're suppose to go to the Twilight."

"It has something to do with Grandfather."

"Yeah, cause I want to spend more time with him." Takahito's words were harsh, surprising everyone. Without waiting for a response Takahito stood and walked out.

"I'll go make sure he doesn't do anything stupid." Himeko went to followed Takahito, but was stopped when Akira gently grabbed her arm.

"Wait, I'll walk with you." The two left.

"Well since they're gone I'm going to head out too. I've been having a good track record with Aya, I'd rather not break it." Reika glanced at her watch. "It's nearly sunset, well what's suppose to be sunset. It will be dark soon. Carefully getting home, we don't know how many...Olivers there are out there." With a wave she left.

Sakura didn't really notice, all she could think about what the fact that she might not get home before the night fell.

"Onishi, we can walk you home if needed."

"Yeah, we don't mind."

Sakura looked over at them. "I would greatly appreciate it."

The three of them walked up the slightly inclined road that curved around the back of Sakura's house among others. Kotori was explaining what happened on a show Daisuke still wasn't sure exactly what it was about. He noticed that Sakura had become a bit tense. Her tension increased as they rounded the bend.

"Onishi, are you okay?" asked Daisuke.

"Yes, I just don't really like taking this way."

"Then why did we take it?" Kotori stopped walking.

"It's faster and...could we keep walking please?" Despite the fact that she was talking to Kotori she refused to look at her. While Daisuke was still learning some rules of his new country he was sure that was consider rude. Sakura was many things, but rude wasn't one of them.

"Sakura."

Sakura looked at Daisuke surprised at the use of her given name.

"This is something more then just a dislikement of a path."

"That's not a word, dislikement."

"Kindly don't avoid the subject."

There was a pause then Sakura hide her face in her hands. "It's the shed."

Kotori and Daisuke had to lean closer to hear her.

"The shed behind Kotori-senpai."

Both looked to see an old wooden shed with a patched blind over the single high window.

"I hate that shed. It's what started everything." Sakura took a deep breath before continuing. "I can't remember the exact date, but my aunt asked me to get something from the shed. I didn't like it to much, but father said we should be as Auntie asked, to make her more comfortable and all, so I went. It was really windy that day. I propped the door open but the wind shut it...It became very dark and felt awful."

Kotori wrapped an arm around Sakura. "You don't have-"

"I want to. I tried to opened the door but couldn't. My Auntie forgot that I was in there. She tended to do that, forget. It wasn't until Nii-san got home from practice and found me missing that I got out. We figured I was in there for about two hours, but to me it seemed like forever. After that I was terrified of the dark and cannot go near the shed. It's really annoy too cause I didn't care about the dark before and now..."

"Come on." Kotori led Sakura to the stairs a bit further up. "Is it okay here?"

"Yeah, I need to be really close to...um...freak out."

"Don't worry you didn't freak out."

Sakura gave a dry laugh. "Thanks."

Daisuke still hadn't moved. He was staring at the shed. Without taking he eyes off the shed he pressed the 2 on his phone and waited.

"Daisuke?"

"Himeko-san I,we, need you to come to Sakura's house. Take the back way." He heard some rustling and the quiet sliding for a door.

"I'm in the middle of something here."

"It is important, truly?"

The line was quiet. "Well, it is not anything new. If this is very, very important I can go."

"It is."

"Fine. Do I need to get Takahito?"

"No, just you."

"Fine. I'll be there shortly."

Fifteen minutes later Daisuke saw Himeko walking towards them. He still wonder how anyone got around in a kimono.

"That was fast," said Kotori.

"A worker was driving into town, he gave me a ride. Grandfather probably thinks I've run off to marry him, but you said this was important."

"It is." Daisuke pointed to the shed. "Tell me what you think of that."

Himeko looked at the direction he was pointing. "The shed. It looks old and slightly unused."

"No Himeko, don't look with your eyes."

Himeko's grey eyes snapped back to Daisuke's green ones. The look in them made Daisuke glad "if looks could kill" was only a saying.

"What?" Himeko managed to made the word seem like a threat.

Sakura had joined Kotori, with so many of the SOTA around the shed didn't seem as bad. "What is going on?" she whispered Kotori.

"I have no clue."

"This is for Sakura. Please help your friend."

"That's low, Takigawa." Despite her words Himeko did as he asked. She turned to face the shed. She started to center her focus but as soon as she did the horrid feeling overcame her. As fast as she could she stopped. "There is something, something that Sakuma-sama needs to look at."

"The shine priest?" Kotori's eyes widen. "You mean Sakura-chan's shed is possessed?"

"I don't know, that's why we need Sakuma-sama"

By the time Sakuma Makoto had gotten to Sakura's house night had fallen and Sakura's brother,Taro, had joined them. He stood in front of Sakura, putting himself between her and the shed.

"You sure this is going to work, Sakuma-sama?" Taro asked with his Shinai at the ready.

"If not that is why you are here. The desire to protect youngest siblings is very strong. Since the others here are all younger then you, it will work just fine."

"As you say." Taro fixed his grip on the Shinai.

Sakuma shifted his stance and brought his hand to the front. He muttered something the others couldn't hear. The air, especially for Sakura and Himeko, seemed to get heavier. Something started to appear, but Sakuma was already moving again.

"Rin. Hei. To. Kai. Jin. Retsu. Zai. Zen." Sakuma moved his hand, but none of the other could see just what he was doing. The air felt lighter again.

For the first time that Sakura could remember, she feel fine. She looked at the shed and feel nothing.

"It's gone," Sakura stated, not really able to believe it.

"Yes, it was small thing. Only angry because it was trapped. It was more then happy to leave."

Himeko bowed to Sakuma, "Thank you very much Sakuma-sama."

Sakuma bowed back. "To improve the life of a child is no burden."

"For you deeds I can have Father make your favorite meal. It has been some time since you and Auntie Chi have come for a visit."

Sakuma smiled, "That sounds lovely."

Evening

Daisuke entered his house to find hear unfamiliar voices coming for the lounge. As silently as he could he approached the lounge. Soon he was able to distinguish the voices. He knew those, he heard the words they had said so many times in his head that he doubted he would ever forget them. He certainly didn't want to be see by those people again so he headed to his room without telling his father he had come home.