Persona: World And Judgement – Chapter Twenty
Cold Lanterns
Well, happy twentieth greeting to you guys! It's the twentieth chapter! It won't be long until I go to the USA in early August. Remember guys, this is when I won't be chapter writing for some time. There'll be a reminder on my profile in case anyone forgets! Looks like there's no announcements again, so LET'S GT-R-DONE!
08/06 - Midnight - The TV World
Delving back into the depths of the desire-ridden world, Yu was more determined than ever to make this operation successful and everyone was awake and willing to make it happen as well. But even though the normal routine of losing one person and rescuing that one person was easy to follow, they all felt that they lost a crucial member like they did a couple of nights before. Ken might have been the youngest of the group with the exception of Koromaru, but they all knew that he was a strong member as well, and the worries of his Shadow ever showing up rose to new heights.
Yu also set a different atmosphere when they all gathered together around the platform with the Midnight Channel insignia. Instead of his calm and collective personality as a leader, he felt urgent towards the situation and just the sight of the fog made him a little uneasy, giving him thoughts as to if he would confront the trench-coated boy again.
"That's weird..." Rise said behind Kanzeon's crown, "...I've found Ken, but at the moment I'm getting readings that he's in the dungeon that we've already been to; the one where we fought Junpei and Koromaru's Shadows..." It didn't seem so much as 'weird' to everyone else, but they felt like they understood why.
"The Memorial?" Junpei asked, knowing too well what Rise was talking about, "...I really don't want to go back there. And I'm sure Koro-chan would agree with me on this one." At first, he felt put off but he knew as much as everyone else that they couldn't afford to lose a teammate, especially when it is Ken.
"But there's something different about it this time..." Fuuka said in echoes from Juno, "The surroundings at the Memorial have changed slightly. We should be careful when approaching it." Yu had taken Fuuka's concerns into account, but to him time was of the essence and he felt the need to compensate for his failure of preventing Ken from entering the TV in the first place.
Suddenly, as he looked into the fog that surrounded the platform, a shady figure was seen in the distance. But when he examined the outline of that person, the head seemed to resemble that of a hood, and immediately he knew that it was the hooded trench-coat that taunted him in the misty background.
At first, Yu didn't want to take notice of him and focus on Ken's rescue, but as the boy turned his body around and ran deeper into the fog, Yu remembered the way to the the Memorial and saw that he was running in that exact direction.
"Hey, wait!" Yu yelled out to the boy before sprinting into the fog. When everyone saw this, they quickly reacted and tried to run with him. But when Yu only became an inch deep into the abnormal thickness of the fog, they instantly lost him and tried to keep up with him if they were to find him again.
While they did this, Yu gave all his effort to keep the boy within his limited sight and overcame his struggles when sprinting was becoming a hard task. There were fortunately no obstacles to stop Yu, and throughout the duration of the pursuit, he kept his legs moving after the aches and pains he could feel in his muscles after the long period of time.
But eventually, the hooded boy stopped in his tracks and quickly turned round to Yu who also stopped just a short distance from him. Yu was slightly hunched over to catch his breath and an unlikely eye of fury that creased his eyebrows behind the lenses of his glasses. "Well, that's an ugly sight..." the trench-coat spoke, not showing a sign of fatigue from the running, "...The high and mighty leader pulls an angry look. That's not like you."
"What?" Yu asked him with a raise of his eyebrows, "You don't know me..." But as he said this, he felt like he went off topic and even off task. He shook his head vigorously to shake off the previous conversation. "But that's not important...you lead Ken here, so where is he? And if you're thinking about saying anything cryptic, you can forget it!"
"It's not within my business to tell you that," the boy spoke with stern, "besides, it won't benefit me or the other one."
"Business? So there is a reason you're doing this..." Yu said, trying to collect as much information as he could out of the boy.
"Of course there is. But your meddling here just makes it so difficult to even get rid of one of you. You could say that we underestimated all of you."
"You just lead us in here just to get us murdered by our own Shadows? This is exactly how Adachi did it, except he did it out of vengeance. But your purpose is unclear. You might not even have a real purpose at all!"
"Oh, believe me we have a purpose. But, as a detective, it's your job to work it out. I'm not going to say anything more tonight apart from this..."
Yu was ready to listen to what the trench-coat was about to say, but when he left a pause, it gave him an opportunity to mess him about. In an instant flash, the boy rushed to Yu and grabbed the chest of his jacket, lifting him in the air helplessly and watching him try to squirm out of his grasp.
"It was a big mistake letting your other friends know about me and my companion. And because of that, I'm in the mood to cause some havoc to you all..." the boy spoke in a cynical tone, "...but things will get even uglier if you keep saving them. So, just to make it easy for you to understand...Stop saving them." the boy said finally as his message.
The message seemed very fearful if not heeded, but Yu knew too well that he wasn't in any way prepared to do what the trench-coat was telling him. To him, the message was completely futile, but he couldn't help but think where he had heard that sequence of words before.
"You can forget it..." Yu said with a solemn tone, trying everything to get out of the boy's grasp, "Now get off me!" He then gave a wide swing of his arm to throw a second punch at the trench-coat. As the fist was propelled into his hood, the boy recoiled at the attack and as a result lost his grip on Yu's collar.
Yu looked to the boy for any other expected movement, and when he did, he found something that he never found on his person before. Upon recoiling, something that looked like a tie, that was wrapped around his neck, slipped out of his trench-coat. But what made it so shockingly familiar was that the tie was of a blood-red colour. Yu couldn't help that he had seen that tie before and the message that the boy gave him coincided with the familiar aspect of it.
"Fisticuffs now?" the trench-coat asked in mockery as he rubbed the pain away, "You're full of terrible surprises tonight!" Yu didn't want to show his anger any more than he did then and tried not to let it get to him, but after getting a slight satisfaction of possibly bruising him, nothing seemed to be making the boy angered in any way; only indulgent.
"I'm a fair man though...I'll let you try and rescue the kid." the trench-coat finally said before turning his back to him. Yu was annoyed for the boy to think of Ken lightly, but he just wanted the boy out of his sight for that moment. As the boy walked into the fog, he gave another snap of his fingers to clear the fog with a huge gust of wind.
When the surrounding thickness of the fog was swept away, the boy was nowhere to be seen despite making a slow exit from the area. But Yu didn't think upon it too much and felt relieved of his hatred towards his enemy, knowing that he couldn't see him anymore.
With the surroundings around him cleared of any obstruction of sight, he looked around where he was and immediately found a set of stairs; the same stairs that lead to the Memorial which stood at the top. But like Fuuka said at the beginning of the operation, things have changed slightly since the last time he and the others came to these stairs.
As Yu's eyes followed up the stairs, there were lanterns of equal number on both sides of the staircase and all of them were lit with bright orange flames. But there was something peculiar about them all. He walked up to one of the lanterns and held his hand over the lantern, but instead of feeling heat, it felt colder than the air he was standing in. The steam from the freeze of the dark flames fell to Yu's feet, giving him a cold sensation on his legs and making his hairs stand up.
"These lanterns..." he thought to himself, "...these lanterns are the ones provided for the Memorial." The symbols on the lanterns and the materials used to make the lanterns were all the same as the ones he had come across. But the heat of the flame wasn't there; only the freezing touch of one's own suppressed emotions.
"Yu!" shouted a voice from behind him, catching his attention. As Yu turned round, everyone ran to him and took a short moment to catch their breath. "I know you were a good runner in sports club Yu, but you could've at least waited for us to catch up!" Yosuke said, hunched over, and supporting himself by holding his knees.
"Why'd you run off like that anyway?" Naoto asked, finding it odd as anyone else else did that Yu ran off into the fog without leading his team properly. Yu looked around the area for the boy once more before turning back to the group. "It was one of the culprits. I was trying to catch him," he replied, "but no, I wasn't able to."
Everyone's suspicions were then quelled from their minds and turned their attention to the entrance of the Memorial and shrine. They all noticed the lanterns on both sides of the staircase and also felt the cold sensation Yu felt when they put their hands against the skins of the lanterns. It was strange to them to feel a burning light feel so cold.
No one said a word on the way up the stairs and the coldness of the lanterns kept them from making any conversation. With every step they took, the worries continued to build, dreading their own thoughts of what had become of Ken. But there was only one way to find out, and the answer lied at the top of the staircase in waiting.
Throughout the duration of climbing steps, Yu contemplated on the boy's remarks to him about his unlikely expressions of anger and hatred. It was only on a small conversation about it, but the way the boy phrased and said it somewhat annoyed him. He questioned his own personality and only came up with excuses as answers. "Why am I getting so worked up?" he asked himself in his thoughts, "I'm not a violent person. I'm not as bad as he is..."
After a while of doing this, they finally reached the top of the staircase and immediately looked towards the former battlefield, gazing around at the small changes in surroundings at the shrine and Memorial.
Around the memorial statue and around the shrines and altars, there were many lanterns that brightened up the cracks and rips in the ground from their last operation. They even contributed to the cold air around them, and the small amounts of frozen steam that fell to the ground created a mist that made the dirt and concrete disappear in its clouds. The mist was deep and when they all walked through it, they all felt as if they stepped in deep snow that was built up as high as everyone's knees.
But that wasn't all. When they all looked to the memorial statue, the words that once had Junpei and Koromaru's loved ones' names on were gone, and it was replaced by the word 'Mom', written in the stone constantly on every side of the statue.
It might have been a beautiful sight back in the real world, but because of the tainting of different shades of green reflecting off of the mist and lanterns, the environment around them was awful to look at, especially when the features were created out of Ken's own desires and suppressed feelings.
"Ken..." Akihiko mumbled to himself whilst fixating his eyes on the statue, remembering the story of Shinjiro's accident that killed Ken's mother. And he also knew that it would be the main thing that will be fuelling the Shadow's strength if it were to show up.
But when everyone looked above the statue, there he was, sitting cross-legged with head lowered into his arms, hiding his face away from view. But there was something different about Ken, and there were features that were applied to his self that were too familiar to even deny what had happened.
It was true though; he has become his own Shadow.
"I wanted to forgive him..." Ken spoke, merging his solemn tone with the uncomfortable resonance of the discorded voice, "...but how can I? Mom was the only family I had left...and the worst part, he made me lose her in my own memories...he still is..." It seemed as if they were all listening to an elegy. But when he brought his head up, it was even more saddening to look at him, even when the golden-yellow were shown from under his eyelids.
He continued, "Everyone is blind to the facts in that world...no one knows the real cause of my mom's death because no one will believe me...everyone just accepts what they want to believe up there...and that hasn't gotten anyone anywhere...I wish they would all just die!"
They all heard the final part of the expression of sorrow loud and clearly and recoiled in shock at what he said. It would have been the last thing they were ever hear from someone like Ken or possibly any other boy his age.
"Ken, what in the world are you saying?" Fuuka shouted to him, almost as if she was calling out to the real Ken that was trapped inside his darker self, "You don't mean that, do you?"
"No one is good for that world...so why live in it? There's always pain and suffering no matter what...and no one will turn to you when you start to cry..." Ken said, straightening his legs from his cross-legged position and slowly stood up on the statue, standing up straight to make himself feel taller than the friends he fought with.
They have all witnessed Shadow's before, but after seeing Ken, they all thought that his Shadow was the darkest they've seen. He was more sombre, more tainted, more broken than all the others.
"I'm not prepared to fight you Ken, not at all," Yu said as he reluctantly drew out his katana, already worried about what the outcome might be at the end of the upcoming battle, "but if that's what it takes...then I'll do everything until I'm broken to bring you back. I'd rather you were back with us safe than down here hurt...and we'll be there to fix you up."
As Yu said this, everyone followed suit and drew out their own weapons, standing in their battle stances with their leader. "So...if you can hear me Ken..." Yu shouted through the Shadow to the real Ken with fears rising, "...hang in there..."
Twentieth chapter completed! Ooh things are getting tense here now aren't they! Anyway, keep reading and reviewing guys! And I must tell you now, the next chapter might not be out until I come back from holiday which is around the middle of August. I'll get some work done during the time I have now until I go and I'll finish it off when I come back! So, until next time guys! CYA!
Next Time... [Midnight Channel broadcasts...]
BGM: Backside of the TV - Persona 4 OST
Kanji: Err... Naoto?
Rise: Kanji! Don't go near her! Something's definitely wrong!
Yukari: Wait... the Taurus... isn't Mitsuru...?
Shadow Ken: It would be much easier if I could just make them believe me; if I could just control them to believe me...