25.
3.24.16
"Well...I woke up in the middle of the night, and I saw this light shining from the wall socket. So I decided to walk in-"
"You decided to walk in?" Yosuke interrupted. "You didn't decide to wake me or Souji up, you just walked your fuzzy ass in there?"
"If you're going to be mean," Teddie said, "I'm just going to sit down and meditate." And he plunked down on the grass and came as close as he could to crossing his arms.
"Please continue," Naoto said.
"Like I said before, it seemed like a really nice light. So I didn't see any reason to wake people up, especially in the middle of the night when they're usually really cranky. Actually, Yosuke's always cranky. Anyway, so I thought I'd go explore and talk to Artemisia, since I could sense her." Naoto almost interrupted to ask how, then thought better of it. "But it...stopped being nice here. I picked up one of those flowers, and..." He shivered. "I felt like I was falling asleep and couldn't stop."
"And the next thing you knew, we were here?" Souji asked.
Pink bloomed on Teddie's cheeks. "Wow, yeah! The next thing I knew, three beautiful girls were sobbing over me, saying they loved me!"
"We didn't say that!" Chie squealed indignantly.
"We should have left him to rot," Yukiko grumbled.
"The bubbly, vivacious, windblown Rise-chan; the spunky, spritely, squeezable Chie-chan; the gracious, aloof, imperial Yuki-chan. Trifecta!" Teddie exulted. "But no boyish, squeamish, mysterious Nao-chan. C'mon, Nao-chan, don't I do it for you?"
"That's all you know?" Naoto said, before this could go any further (and her face get any pinker). Not even waiting for Teddie's reply, she turned to Souji, as if to force everyone's attention onto him. "Any ideas?"
"Do you think Kirijo's here?" They all stared at Chie, who took a step back, then kept talking. "Uh - that is - I was just saying if she had those bloody sockets, doesn't it make sense she could get here too?"
"I dunno," Yosuke said doubtfully. "The only reason we got in is because we have Personas. Unless she captured more of the other Persona-users - or is really a Shadow or something - I don't see how she could get through."
"But there's that other woman, Yukari Takeba," Yukiko said. "If she can access her Persona, she could have opened a gate to Elysion. If she's working with Kirijo. Which we don't know for sure," she ended, glum.
"That follows," Naoto said thoughtfully. "I still wonder at the roles the asphodels play. Perhaps their crossing from Elysion to our world is what caused the gates to appear in the first place, and going back requires a Shadow or a Persona. Which argues that the Kirijo Group made the first gate some time shortly before Teddie vanished."
Yukiko glanced around. "If Kirijo's here, I wonder why haven't we seen her. How big is this place?"
"I can't tell," Rise said. "It's bigger than Kanzeon can scan all at once."
"Teddie," Souji asked, "did you know there were this many Personas?" He gestured around the field.
"I don't know a lot," Teddie admitted. "I guess...you can find Personas in other ways than the TV World."
"The Kirijo Group," Naoto said, "extensively studied Shadows and Personas on Port Island. I don't know if they were able to manufacture Personas at will, or in what numbers." She looked around the silent figures; there were too many to count, but she didn't think there were more than three hundred. "I don't think the Kirijos can account for all of these, but that may explain some of them."
"It doesn't explain what they're doing here to begin with," Yosuke said.
"Let's get out of here," Souji said, helping Teddie to stand. "I don't think this place is doing you any favors."
3.24.16
Masaru Shirogane did the crossword of a lesser-known Welsh newspaper while waiting for a return call from a colleague in Port Island, hunting for information on the Kirijo Group. It didn't take his mind off of Naoto, but it channeled his energy to something constructive - something constructive and unimportant, so if he messed up or got distracted or never finished at all, no one would be hurt. Not so with solving cases.
Absently, he realized he'd been doodling Naoto's profile in the margin of the puzzle, Naoto as she'd looked as a toddler. He smiled, shook his head at his own preoccupation, and poised his pen to scribble it out. And couldn't bring himself to, because, doodle or not, it was his grandchild's face. He lowered his pen with a sigh. At least he knew what she was up to now. If he had a chance when this was all over, he'd give her a pointed lecture about leaving him in ignorance of her peril for three months.
I didn't know about the TV World and the death goddess until it was all over, he reminded himself. She got through that all right. She was damn lucky. It was too much to hope that she'd be that lucky a second time. But then, she had a few important things in her favor: She was smart, driven and capable. She was also only twenty years old. He might have encouraged Naoto to become a professional detective before she'd hit puberty; he and Yakushiji might have praised her for remaining composed in the face of adults; people might have raised their eyebrows at her unexpected level of maturity; but part of her would always remain a child to her grandfather. And he couldn't forget that his own son had not lived to see thirty.
There was a knock at the door - just three knocks, not Naoto's favored signal. "Enter," Shirogane said, putting the crossword to one side.
Yakushiji stepped in and bowed. "Sir, there is a disturbance at the front gate."
"Of what nature?"
"Three individuals demand entry. Their leader gives his name as Akihiko Sanada."
Shirogane leaned back in his chair, folding one hand over the knuckles of the other. He knew the name from Naoto's story. He knew that this Sanada had last been seen attempting to kill his grandchild. He knew also that Sanada was at least nominally allied with the people who had saved Naoto and Rise Kujikawa. And he knew that Sanada had once been engaged to Mitsuru Kirijo and had defended her from Naoto at peril of his own life.
He lowered his hands. "Please show them in." As Yakushiji left, Shirogane opened his desk drawer, withdrew a small pistol, loaded it, and set it back in the drawer, partially closing it.
In short order, the door was again opened. Shirogane impassively watched as they filed into his office: a weedy young man with a battered baseball cap and a bloodstained tee shirt; a blonde girl in a high necked green dress, moving with an odd stiffness that made Shirogane suspect she was one of the androids Naoto had mentioned; and a tall silver-haired man with a leather jacket and gloves. All of them looked as though they'd seen trouble, their clothes stained and ripped, the taller man with a bruise on his jaw.
The hatted man glanced around the small study as if trying to catalogue every detail or threat, rolling his shoulders nervously. The android met his eyes as he looked at her, standing quietly, wasting no movement. The gloved man stepped forward, approaching the desk.
Shirogane gestured them to sit. They remained standing. "Shirogane-san," the gloved man began, "my name is Sanada." Shirogane didn't acknowledge that. Sanada's face was calm, but Shirogane noted that his left fist was clenched tightly. "Do I have to explain why I'm here?"
"It would be beneficial," Shirogane said blandly. "Both for you to achieve your ends, and myself to ascertain whether I should let you."
If that nettled Sanada, he still kept his tone businesslike. "I know you're holding my friend here. Fuuka Yamagishi."
"Ms. Yamagishi arrived here two days ago, suffering from fatigue and malnutrition," Shirogane answered. "She is currently in my care, yes."
"In your care or being held prisoner?" the other man broke in. Shirogane assumed this was Iori.
Shirogane chose his words carefully, weighing what he would commit himself to. "You showed compassion and solicitude to my granddaughter when she fell into your hands. I would not repay you with anything less. Ms. Yamagishi is quite safe."
"I didn't ask if she's safe," Iori said. "I asked if she's a prisoner."
"I am not," Shirogane continued, "so certain of Sanada-san's compassion." He looked up at the policeman. "If I am to hand Ms. Yamagishi over to you and believe you are my ally, I must first understand why you nearly killed my granddaughter. By your comrades' admission-" he nodded towards Iori and the robot "-you and she shared the goal of killing Mitsuru Kirijo. But you thwarted her and defended your enemy."
Like a chink in a wall, doubt broke through Sanada's composure. He hid it by lifting his chin, looking at some point over Shirogane's shoulder.
"It is not easy to kill a friend," the android said, voice soft but heavy. Naoto had said her name was Aigis, and now that she had spoken, Shirogane looked at her with more interest. Aigis brought her hand to her throat, the gathering of a bright red ribbon. "Even with all she's done, we remember Mitsuru as she used to be. If I saw someone trying to hurt her, I might protect her, even if I were trying to kill her as well."
Sanada's expression was closed.
Shirogane shot Aigis another look. Was she an android? It was difficult to believe a machine could understand doubt and regret. But he guessed the influence lay with Sanada, not his followers. "I understand your reluctance, but it does not inspire trust."
"It's my fault," Sanada said. Shirogane recognized his tone of voice. He'd heard it from Naoto, and himself, the inflection of someone saying very hard words while trying to maintain an unbreakable façade. "It won't happen again."
Shirogane had heard many promises in his life, few of them kept, no matter how sincerely they were made. He wasn't even sure if he believed in Sanada's sincerity. "If I entrust Fuuka Yamagishi to you, what will you do in return?"
"As you said, we both want the Kirijo Group neutralized," Sanada replied. "I can't offer you money. I doubt you want it. The most useful thing I can do is to help your granddaughter." He took a steadying breath. "And I will."
3.24.16
Fuuka stirred, the familiar voices disorienting her. Was it time for school? Had she fallen asleep during the Dark Hour? She opened her eyes to see Akihiko leaning over her, saying her name.
"Senpai?" she whispered, the honorific coming naturally to her. She was about to ask why she was in a hospital before she realized this wasn't a hospital, only a clinic - the Shirogane clinic - and she was far from her days as a member of SEES.
"Hey, Fuuka-chan!" Junpei stepped into her line of vision. On the other side of the bed - was that Aigis? "Don't look so scared. It's just us."
Fuuka hadn't even thought to be scared until he said the word. Then she braced, her eyes widening. Had Mitsuru sent them? Whose side were they on? What had happened to Souji and those others? Were they back yet? Was it all over?
"How do you feel?" Akihiko asked. "Do you think you can move?"
Fuuka sat up. Her arms trembled and she was very stiff, but otherwise she was better. She didn't let down her guard. "What's going on?"
"Whew!" Junpei sank onto the chair by the bed, elbows on knees. "That's a tall order. And we just got through explaining it to Shirogane-san. And you've been out of the loop for a while, stuck in the mansion."
Fuuka ran the edge of the thin blanket between her thumb and forefinger. "I didn't believe people when they said I'd been missing for so long. I remember being taken and forced into the back of a car. The ghosts made me Evoke, and then..." She squinted. "And then I have hazy memories of being in that room ...and something about flowers...and it started to clear up, and Rise-san was there, and I didn't know how much to tell the ghosts, but I knew I couldn't get out on my own, so I tracked Persona-users for them...and...those boys found me."
"The flowers..." Aigis' voiced trailed, distant. "We have seen them, though none of us have handled any."
"From what I've seen and what I can guess," Akihiko explained, "the asphodels allow a Persona to manifest in this world. They somehow break down the barriers that inhibit us from our Personas. Like Evokers." He looked to the side, eyes growing distant. "I remember hearing the Kirijo Group experimented with different formulae in their labs. Mitsuru... I don't remember hearing about asphodels, but they used many combinations of drugs to suppress the conscious mind. Some succeeded."
Junpei tightened his mouth. No one mentioned Chidori.
"Fuuka-chan," Akihiko went on, thinking, "you called some of Mitsuru's henchmen ghosts. Why?"
"Because they-" She looked puzzled. "It - it seemed the right word. There's something missing in them."
"Personas," Aigis said.
Fuuka looked up quickly, about to speak, then frowned as she considered it. "But most people don't have Personas."
"Most people don't have manifested Personas," Aigis said slowly, as if reasoning it out as she spoke. "Most people are never able to personify them. It is unnecessary for them. You cannot provoke a manifestation on your own, and attempting to force an evocation rarely works well."
"But that never mattered to the Kirijo Group. Mitsuru's grandfather began twenty years ago," Akihiko said heavily, "trying to cultivate Personas. Most of the tests turned up negative, but they kept the data. Now the group's made more Persona-users."
"But then why are they missing their Personas?" Fuuka asked. "I don't see how it's possible, not without killing them."
"When you separate a human from its second self," Aigis said, "the human becomes a shell. When we evoke our Personas against the ghosts and kill them, even their bodies disappear. I do not have enough data to conjecture what happens to the Persona.
"The ghosts have broken the barrier necessary to form a Persona, then lost their Personas," Aigis went on. "They seem to have gained better hearing and more stamina than a human. But they are also numbed to many human emotions - such as fear. They are more reckless, therefore willing to carry out Mitsuru's plans."
"And Mitsuru's-" Junpei glanced over, seeing that Akihiko was looking away "-done it to herself."
"Mitsuru," Akihiko said, not turning, "shrugged off a bullet wound to the heart." He sighed. "Last year, I heard rumors of people in the Kirijo Group dying from experiments, Personas manifesting. I thought someone in the group must've turned against Mitsuru, but when I investigated further..." His voice trailed off, his eyes dark, head slightly bowed. In a way, he looked like Shinjiro. "All month, the group's been moving quickly. Mitsuru must have gotten hold of those flowers recently, perfected her methods."
Fuuka shook her head, wishing she could disbelieve, fingers twisted tight. "Why is she doing this?"
As she looked around the circle, gazes flicked away, faces tilted down. In the end, it was Aigis who said it, though she had the most to fear: "Minato."