Chapter 25
Disclaimer: I only own the OC
"So we handed the box to Grandmaster… now what? He left us with a fortune cookie riddle and left!" Sho slumped over with his back to one of the pillars. I chuckled as I sifted through a bag that the Grandmaster lefts us. The last words the Grandmaster left us still rang in my ears.
"Thank you. You have done well, and here's your payment. You'll also find the necessities here to… clean up the mess. Right here would be fine. I'll see you when you're done."
"Dam man, you must be tired. Usually you're a lot more sharp than that…" Pulling out a small bottle labeled "soma", I took a sip, feeling my strength come back. Tossing the bottle over to Sho, I smiled as he caught it in midair. "Drink a sip of this. Not too much though, this stuff is rare."
"What is this shit?" The punster asked, sniffing the bottle suspiciously. "Doesn't smell like anything. Why are you asking me to drink this? It makes no scents…"
"It's called soma, and it'll completely rejuvenated you. Drink some. We've been hiking through the TV world for ages, and we need our strength back. Fast." I kept a straight face, refusing to acknowledge that a pun has been made.
"Okay, if you say so…" Sho took a sip of the Soma, and grimaced as it burned down his throat. "Hoo! I can feel it working… This is some strong stuff… Are we fighting soon?"
"And how did you come to that conclusion?"
"Duh, Caius. I might not be as good at scheming and planning as you are, but I'm not stupid. I almost brought about the end of the world, which is more than you can ever say for yourself." I rolled my eyes as Sho smirked at me. "Anyways, there's only one reason Grandmaster would leave us that kind of rare meds, and you would urge me to drink it fast, and that would be because we have to fight soon."
"Yeah, you hit it right on the mark…" I ruffled through the bag some more and found two envelopes full of cash, and two Space Badges. "I don't know how, but Grandmaster know that we alerted the Shadow Ops with our last job." I tossed one of the Space Badges and envelopes of cash towards Sho, pocketing the rest. "And then he managed to gather a few of the rarest medicine and equipment you can find in the Dark Hour or the TV World, and gave them to us."
"So you're saying that the Grandmaster expects us to handle the whole Shadow Operative attack team? How ironic. It was exactly what you wanted to avoid! Hahahaha…" The punster laughed loudly and stood up, completely reenergized by the soma. "So where are we meeting them?"
"Here. With those two sensors of theirs, it's unthinkable that they won't be able to find us. Might as well wait for them to slowly slash their way across an army of Shadows, rather than meeting them out in the field when they are fresh."
"Tch, you remind me of that Adachi guy. He was also like that, waiting for the enemy to make their way slowly towards him. You know that he drove me nuts, keeping me cooped up in the school. What's wrong with taking out your enemies before they get to you?" Sho muttered angrily.
"I don't know what Adachi would say, but I do know one thing." I replied wryly, "And that's the fact that Adachi managed to keep Inaba under the terror of his murder spree for a whole year, give or take. You got taken down in a weekend. Really says something about your respective tactics, right?" Sho glared at me angrily, and I raised both my hands in a sign of peace.
"Besides," I continued, "even you must agree that fighting the whole Shadow Operatives head to head right now would be bad, right? I mean, from what I heard you neutralized a few of the strongest fighters of the Shadow Operatives before carrying out your plan. And that was when you were at your peak. Now, however, we have just hiked for several hours and we're basically running on weird Shadow meds. You get my drift?" The punster glared at me for a few more seconds, and then sat back down again. I chuckled to myself and leant back against the pillar. Turning my face over to the Gates of Heaven, I relaxed.
'Eubuleus, that door is locked, right?'
'Yeah, it's propped shut by several large pillars.'
'Good… I suppose a nap is in order than…'
The golden gates faded away along with my consciousness…
A loud banging noise woke me up from my slumber. Rubbing my eyes, I stood up and stretched. At the other end of the plaza, I saw Sho get up and do the same. Walking over to him, I drew my Lupara and popped two buck-shots into the barrels. The banging was coming from the Gates of Heaven, with the Gates trembling with every crash.
"I think that's our guests… you ready for it?" I asked Sho. The punster smirked and drew his katanas, clashing them against each other in a shower of sparks.
"I'm more than ready… But knowing you and them, you guys would want to throw around some philosophical debate over what's wrong and what's right. Am I right about that?" I chuckled sheepishly.
"Yeah… That's right on the mark."
"Hmph. Knew it." The punster snorted. "Do what you want then, but bear in mind that I'm not holding back in the fight. I fight to kill." I raised an eyebrow in mock hurt.
"Who do you take me for? I bet I've killed twice as many people as you have, including a couple in Sumaru City, I might add. Don't mix me up with the Shadow Operatives. Just because I'm philosophical doesn't mean I'm anywhere near moral."
"Heh, just what I wanted to hear." Just as Sho finished answering, the Gates of Heaven swung open with a loud crash, revealing sixteen figures standing behind the Gates.
"You sure you could take at least eight, bro?" I muttered to Sho next to me. The punster chuckled.
"I was about to ask you the same thing…" As the punster muttered back, the Shadow Operatives slowly advanced towards us. A gray haired youth and a mechanical maiden stood at the very front.
"There they are! Be careful guys, both of them are giving me a bad feeling…" Kujikawa's voice rang up from the back of the group. Fuuka soon joined in.
"Yes, Rise-san is right. They're both giving off an extremely dangerous aura. Not just Sho, but also Caius…" Narukami nodded his head in acknowledgement, while Aigis crouched down as if in preparation for battle.
"Caius Gevauden-san…. I thought I caught a glimpse of you before the destruction of the dormitory. Was that level of destruction necessary?" Aigis spoke up, her body still tense. I shrugged.
"Collateral damage is, by definition, unnecessary. What was the injury count?"
"Why do you want to know? So you can gloat over it?" Hamamura snarled towards me. I smirked at his angry face.
"Suuuuuure Hamamura, I would totally gloat in your face that I snuffed out an unsuspecting and defenseless passerby. That is totally me right?" I bent my neck to the side, feeling the joints crack. "No, seriously I'm just curious. Did anyone die in that little… demolition?" From the side of the group, Shirogane walked forwards a few steps.
"There were a few injuries, but nobody was killed. Nevertheless, there was a massive amount of property damage that you must be held accountable for. So I would like to take you in for questioning on why you were in the Minatodai dorm to start out with, as well as your relationship to the man next to you, who is a wanted criminal by the Shadow Operatives." I looked over to Sho, who had tensed up at his mention.
"Oh, so that's the charges against me? Trespassing, property damage, and correspondence to a wanted criminal? I don't really think that's it. Cos' the lot of you sure don't look like you're here on a simple matter of trespassing. You look like you're all decked out for war. You must be expecting me to put up quite a struggle to avoid… what, a maximum sentence of 1 year in a detention facility? And that's assuming that you can prove that trespassing in Minatodai has the same harmful effects as trespassing in a military zone." I smiled at all the Shadow Operative's tense faces, "And as for the property damage, well, none of you can prove that right? But I do so hate to be a leech on the taxpayers, so here…"
Pulling my latest paycheck out of my pocket, I dropped the envelope full of cash on the ground, and slid it over to where Aigis and Narukami were standing. Both eyed the envelope warily.
"I'm not unreasonable. The money in that envelope should be enough to rebuild Minatodai. Maybe not as the luxury dorm that it once was, but a basic three-floor dorm with a kitchen and common room? You can totally get construction teams that would do that for this amount." At my side, Sho raised an eyebrow.
"Wow, you really giving them your whole paycheck? I mean, really?" I smirked.
"No big deal. Pretty sure they're not gonna take it. Plus, the last paycheck was enough for me to live like a king for a year or two, so I don't really need this one." Right after my words fell, Satonaka took a step forward from behind Narukami and swung a heavy kick at the envelope, sending it flying at my face. Reaching up, I caught the envelope in the middle of my palm before it could hit me.
"Don't you think you can pay us off with your filthy money!" The Chariot spoke through clenched teeth. I smirked at Sho.
"What did I tell you?" I muttered under my breath. The punster shrugged. Pocketing the money, I took a step forwards and raised both hands in mock resignation.
"Calm down, Satonaka-san. What would you have a guy do? You people rush in here, breaking down my door and charging me with property damage. I'm a nice guy, so I give you guys the money to pay for this property damage. And now you yell at me, saying you don't want my 'filthy money'… There's just no pleasing you, isn't there?" I lowered my hands, and cracked my neck once more, smiling widely at the Shadow Operatives. "Or is there something bigger at work here? Something that none of us have mentioned yet?"
A tense silence followed, before a huge man wielding a shield stepped forward.
"Cut the crap. You're the one who murdered Nametame and kidnapped Marie, right?" The man's tone was relatively calm, but I could feel fury rushing through him.
"Ohhh…? A murder charge. Now that explains why you're all armed to the teeth… Tatsumi-san, right?" I smiled mockingly at Kanji Tatsumi, "Well maybe you should've mentioned that first, unless… there's nothing that points to me being the murderer to Taro Nametame, other than the fact that I'm a Persona-user, right? You've got law enforcers amongst your members, and they warned you guys that there's nothing incriminating against me, right?" Shirogane stared back defiantly as I leered at her out of the corner of my eye.
"Quit dodging the question, dammit!" The Emperor yelled at me, rapping a knuckle on his shield.
"Whether I murdered Nametame? Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe I'm exercising my right against self-incrimination. But I can tell you that I have nothing to do with Marie's disappearance. That, you can take for a fact."
"You fucking punk!" Tatsumi raised his shield and started to charge at me, only to be held back by Narukami. The Fool looked at me, his mouth forming a single word.
"Why?" I raised an eyebrow.
"Narukami, you are aware that that question could be aimed at half a dozen different subjects that all make sense in the current context, right? C'mon, give me something to work on here." The Fool slightly lowered his blade and stood up straight. The rest of the Shadow Operatives maintained their fight stances. Sho shifted impatiently next to me.
"Why did you kill Adachi?" My eyes widened at the unexpected question, and my right hand clenched as the familiar heartbeats resonated through the palm once more.
Ba-dum… Ba-dum…. Ba-dum…..… Ba-dum…..Ba-dum…..Ba-dum….
"I had no choice. What would you have done, Narukami? With five seconds to think before the carnage begins, what would you have done? Would you have done what I did? Or would you have kept Adachi alive while the rest of the Shadow Operatives tore his Persona apart, bit by bit?" The gray-haired Fool kept silent for a while before responding.
"I don't know. Which is why I am confused. Murder has always been… an act of evil in my eyes. Yet what you did to Adachi… I can't even start defining how confused that made me…" I chuckled at the Fool's confession.
"Heh, and so you should. As long as you remain on the 'good' side of moral and law, you would never understand the bond that was shared between me and Adachi. The bond between murderers." I smiled nostalgically as I remembered our first time killing Shadows drunk. "If it makes you feel any better, his murder was committed with his own blessings. For him, death was preferable to losing his Persona."
"I see… why betray us then? I thought we were teammates, but now you're standing on the other side of the battlefield."
"Should there be a reason?" Junpei's voice snarled, "He wasn't worthy of trust to start out with, being from Strega and all that. Should we really be surprised that he ended up betraying us?"
"Betraying you?" I repeated, amused. "When did I ever betray you? I believe that after the Sumaru City job, I was honorably discharged from the Shadow Operatives by Mitsuru Kirijo-san herself. Am I not allowed to seek employment elsewhere after leaving the Shadow Operatives? Or do you guys require a lifetime of servitude from your employees?"
At my words, most of the Shadow Operatives did a double-take, and shifted their attention towards Kirijo, who didn't even blink an extra time from all the extra attention. I furrowed my brows in confusion.
'Why on earth are they so surprised at that? Unless…'
'Kirijo must have told them a completely different story than what had happened. After all, the only ones to bear witness to our discharge from the Shadow Operatives were her and us.'
'True…'
"Kirijo-san, you told us that Caius just disappeared without a word… You even forbade Rise and Fuuka from scanning for him until the destruction of the Minatodai dorm. May I ask, what is the meaning of this deception?" Aigis asked. Kirijo lowered her rapier by a bit and shook her hair out of her face before answering.
"It was to protect Caius, in a sense." I raised an eyebrow, and several of the Shadow Operatives shot each other confused looks. Kirijo continued on: "I recognized that what Caius did was the only clear course of action at the moment, and the most humane out of the available options. By all means, he saved us a huge fight, and saved Adachi-san from much suffering.
"But I also recognized that the choice was controversial enough that he would have to face social, if not legal, repercussions, and so I did what I thought was best for him. By discharging Caius honorably in private, and declaring him a MIA agent in public…"
"You basically placed me into an impromptu witness protection program." I finished for her. "I salute you, Kirijo, since you managed to pull off such a gambit with no one the wiser, yet you forgot one simple detail: Witness protection programs only work when the ones being protected are in on the secret. As such, you only made sure that I got branded a traitor in addition to the rest of my infamy." Mitsuru's face twitched at my words, and she completely lowered her rapier.
"Yes, that is a result of the lies that I wove. Please accept my deepest apologies." Stepping forward, the Empress sheathed her sword and bowed deeply in my direction. "And that goes to the rest of the Shadow Operatives as well. I'm sorry that all of you are once more inconvenienced by my lack of faith in all of you."
"It's seems like old habits die hard, huh?" Takeba said from the back, her tone reproachful and exasperated at the same time. "Ah well, you really need to learn how to trust others Kirijo-san. We got all riled up and thought Caius was our enemy for a while there, but I guess everything's fine now…" The actress lowered her bow and relaxed slightly, as did a few of the other Shadow Operatives around her.
"Don't lower your guard, Takeba-san." Shirogane was among those who kept their guards up as she spoke up, "Just because he isn't a traitor doesn't mean he is a friend. Right before all this, he mentioned that he is under someone else's employment, and there is also the fact of Nametame's death, Marie's disappearance, and his break-in to Minatodai. He's been busy, and we can't assume that he's friendly."
"Right on mark, Shirogane." The Shadow Operatives tensed up again with my agreement. "I happen to be working for someone who doesn't really want you guys snooping around here too much, and asked me to stop you guys here. So, we can either do it the nice way, with you guys either leaving or staying here peacefully, or we can do it the extremely… messy way."
"So you ARE the enemy!" Ken swung his spear around a few times and entered a fighting stance. Next to him, Koromaru snarled at me. Next to me, Sho let out a bark of laughter.
"Of course we're the enemy, kid! What, did you think that we were just gonna talk it out over a cup of coffee or something? HAH! I thought that since you brew up, you might've grown a bit more mature, but nope! Hahahaha…" I pinched the bridge of my nose a few times in exasperation.
"As Sho said, we are currently at a conflict of interest here. You guys want to detain the two of us. We like our freedom, and we have been given orders to stop you guys here. Quite the dilemma, if I do say so myself…." I cracked open an eyelid and peered at the Shadow Operatives. "I don't suppose that I can convince you guys to leave us in peace, so we can part ways as friends?" The Shadow Operatives stared at me in disbelief, and Narukami chuckled.
"Nope, I don't think so. What about you? Can I do anything to convince you to join the good side again?" The Fool smiled sincerely as he stated his offer. "I'm sure Kirijo-san can whip up something to help you with the charges that you face." The Fool stood in front of me, smiling, oblivious of all the stares of disbelief from his comrades. It was my turn to chuckle.
"Nope. You see, Narukami, only hindsight is 20/20 on who is 'good' and who is dead. Before that, we only have our values to guide us." I grinned widely at my enemies as I crouched into a fight stance. "Just as your values are based on morals and the law, mine is based upon the trust between a client and a mercenary. I would never betray my client as long as my client doesn't do anything to break our trust."
"Stop giving yourself such noble excuses!" Hanamura snarled at me, "You're just a worthless criminal, like all of the others!"
"Tch, tch, tch, Hanamura. You shout that insult as if it means something. 'I am human. My opponent is less than human.' Isn't that thought the cornerstone for every single lethal conflict in human history? In the current context, your insult merely solidifies our status as foes." I grinned mockingly at the Magician. "But I assume since you came here armed to the teeth, you already consider me a mortal enemy, right?"
"So you would not reconsider?" Narukami asked one last time, lifting his sword once more.
"Would any of you?" I pulled the hammer back on my shotgun and hefted it onto my shoulder. "Besides, we are far past the point of no return. Even if you guys are right and I am fighting for the wrong side, it makes no difference. I am in blood /Stepp'd in so far that, should I wade no more, /Returning were as tedious as go o'er."
Narukami nodded solemnly as he crouched into a fighting stance. Next to me, Sho rubbed his katanas together, making sparks fly.
"Are you done yet?" The irritated punster asked. I nodded. "Finally! That conversation was getting unbearable! Heat Riser!" Sho crouched into a fighting stance as a glowing aura infused into his body. I chuckled and crouched down as well.
"Power Charge." An electrical spark flew down my body, and I felt various joints on my body pop as my body tensed up. The Shadow Operatives were also casting various buffing spells upon themselves, lighting up the plaza with the light of their spells. I felt a maniacal grin creep up my face, and Eubuleus shivered with excitement at the bloodlust within me.
'Hehehe, it's been a while since we last felt such bloodlust. Shall we dance then?' His voice was brimming with excitement, a feeling that we shared.
'Eubuleus, let's give them hell.'
A/N: Coming up next, giant fight scene! God, we've got 18 fighters this time, so it'll be hell to plan out...
This is sounding old, but don't forget to review! Thanks!