Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or any content from the Megami Tensei series as a whole. I do not claim to own anything. All contents' right belong to their respectful owners. Once again, I do not claim to own anything.
Not gonna clamber about in the penultimate introductory author's notes. Don't worry though. I'll ramble like a buffoon on the epilogue's.
With that aside, welcome to Persona: Be Your True Mind Chapter Twenty Nine.
Chapter Twenty Nine: Pandora
Two momentous monarch butterfly wings, topaz yellow, sapphire blue, ruby red and onyx black lining the unique design, unfurled from beneath the shattered husk of degradation. Two lengthy antennae sprouted up, gently dangling from maroon and cobalt blended hair mirroring the fashion of cut as Maki Sonomura's. Her face was identical, an entrenched mauve scar, crudely star-shaped was brutally contrasted against her lime toned skin. She had a limber, hourglass figure, finely sculpted and abundantly proportioned. Her shambles birth mutated the environment. The fighting arena was cast into a psychedelic lightshow. A punitive discothèque splattering refractions and acidic swatches and smears of the rainbow layered on black and white checker board.
"Like, what happened?" Ayase asked, dumbfounded at the scenery transformation.
"I feel like I'm tripping balls, man." Brown jested.
"What's with the freaky light show?" Yukino mused.
"Did she move us with the DEVA System?" Reiji snarled.
"No! We have to still be in the Avidya World!" Eriko protested.
"Kirishima is correct. The Avidya World and Pandora are connected. We destroyed her chrysalis, her evolutionary phase, and like a butterfly she has reached a new age of species and most likely enlightenment. Hence the empirical transformation of our surroundings,"
"What the hell does that even mean, Nanjo?" Masao yelled.
"We've peeled the repressed psyche to the heart, Masao-kun." Maki answered. "We are seeing Pandora at her purest."
"Yes Sonomura," Kei confirmed. "It is almost similar to the division of Aki and Mai. The barbarous cocoon was the dress of the real Maki Sonomura's nihilism. This butterfly woman is Maki Sonomura's refined Avidya. One can infer, this was the catalyst-form of Maki's sparking cynicism."
"You can also propose the previous Pandora was the evils of the opened box called the Avidya World, and we are now observing what remained at the very bottom of the forsaken box of myth." Eriko offered.
"Hope…" Naoya said.
"Like, my heard hurts." Ayase complained, rubbing her forehead.
"So, what do we do, then?" Yukino asked concerned.
Reiji rammed his last clip in his assault rifle. "We keep fighting."
"Reiji's right." Maki said. "We must defeat every inch of Pandora to free the real me."
"I don't think, she'll let us mess with the DEVA System either." Naoya added.
"Wait!" Brown shouted. "Maybe, she doesn't want to sacrifice us to the void!"
Pandora laughed softly. "Please, give up…it is useless to oppose me…all will soon be lost…everything useless will become nothingness. Please, for your sakes, yield."
"How'd she go for the peaceful resolution, Brown?" Mark asked, sardonically.
Brown groaned, lactic acid aching him from his singular stab. "Aw man...I'm tired of battles."
"Todo, I suggest we strike at the distance we are currently in. Gaining ground to attack may be a tactical mistake given our opponents newly endowed complacence with us."
Naoya nodded at Kei's affirmation of proceedings. "Let's empty our clips then. Fire whatever rounds we got left."
The group followed Naoya's plan, putting away their melee weapons for the favor of taking up their side arms.
"Let's show this bitch how we do things down town (A/N)!" Brown exclaimed, turning his TMP side ways to unleash a swath of bullets.
"RAAH," Reiji's war cry accompanied the arrangement of his M4 Carbine's thunderous shaking as its full automatic firing rate unloading the magazines cargo.
Ayase and Maki raised and sighted with their H&K VP70 and Browning High Power respectively. They fired off their remaining clips, the handguns jumping in their hands frantically.
Yukino slotted the shells in her Ithaca and went to town.
Masao's M1100 bruised his shoulder purple. The recoil punching as vast as the scatter shot from the modified barrel.
The long barrels of Kei and Eriko's Springfield M1903 and Remington M700 waited patiently between the blares of handgun, shotgun, and automatic rifle fire to shoot free their high tensity ammunition.
Naoya cocked his MP5 and in thirty seconds shuffled his last burst of bullets at his adversary.
Bullets and buckshot tore in the flawless, precious skin, punched gaps in the marvelous wing span, warped the delicate antennae, but Pandora's face was unscathed. She was unfazed. Her blood-less finger caressed the arrow's scar inflicted by herself no less as the firing squad buried their ankles in shell cases. The hot rounds furrowed her flesh, but she no longer felt pain. In fact, she no longer felt emotion. The bullets and shrapnel lodging themselves in her artistic figure were futile. They were nothing. They had no meaning, no effect. They're wielders and firers had no meaning, no effect. She, Pandora, herself, Maki Sonomura had no effect, no meaning, except to create oblivion, surrender living Hell to succumbed nihility.
Dry clicks, discarded firearms, but the nine were as feisty and frisky. They did not understand the meaninglessness of solitude, abandonment, fraudulent succor. They refused her beseeching. Their souls were scorching, but she would blow out their flames.
"Symphony…" Pandora hissed, as the nine were rethinking their deployment stratagem.
"Of…" Her ravaged wings and savaged antennae prepared themselves for a brisk motion.
"LAMENT…" She cried, lashing her feelers, fluttering her wings, mangling her deformed and wounded body to a disproportionate contortion.
"What'd she do?" Brown asked, cocking his neck.
"Like, swept the floor?"
"I don't believe that is the correct answer, Yuka."
"She's wobbling. Our bullet storm decimated her!"
"No, Kido, she is nonplussed at her indecision bereft assault."
"Her vitality must be huge compared to her chump change of a first form."
"Kei and Yukino-chan are right!"
"Then, how do we beat her?" Masao demanded.
Naoya was not paying attention the squabbles of the now. He was tuning his perspective to past. He shut his eyes, permitting the quintessential third to remain open. He shut his ears to the cacophony of voices, allowing his honed sense of sound detection take control. He felt an impending condemnation. A wind of guilt as a banishing wave summoned at Pandora's will. It was aimed for the nine of them with a staggered, transparent indiscrimination! He was sure of the fact!
"Watch out!" Naoya ran in front of his friends, uncorking his power. A milky white aura of Neutral energy overflowed from him. His dam had burst and his aura consumed the entire room, overcoming the mesmerizing amphetamine induced distortions of dimension. The wave hit him hard, his aura channeling the entirety of the invisible force to the manipulator of wind. Naoya clenched his face with his right hand, frightening his friends and allies.
"Nao-kun,"
The brunt Symphony was able to breach Naoya's encroachment of aura, his comrades losing their impunity to Pandora's guilt ridden wind.
"NO!" Naoya exclaimed, the lamentations bowling through their critical essence.
Their hearts quivered as one. Their eyes strained together in a row. They trembled in grief unanimously, but it was for the shortest temporal fold. Pandora's breeze was merely that. A breeze, barely prickling them, narrowly was ruffling their attire.
Naoya's eyes shot open, tickled at Pandora's confident stoicism. "You think that was…bad…for us?"
Pandora's brow strained.
"We've dealt with worse shit than that." Masao admonished.
Her lower chapped lip was sucked in her mouth.
"Perhaps earlier in our personal Avidyas, prior to receiving a revelation of the heart…" Kei began.
"The tiniest guilt would insurrect our passion." Maki finished.
Pandora was insecurely digging at her scabbed scar.
"All of us; however, faced ourselves and our inner problems." Eriko explained.
She scratched deep enough to draw blood.
"We ain't got guilt stocked in us anymore!" Brown declared.
"We are, like, different people, now." Ayase stated.
Glistening sweat dotted her shuttering demeanor.
"We are embedded with a brand spanking new purpose of life!" Yukino exclaimed.
"Our reasons and determinations aren't paltry things you can choke and squeeze; you on the other hand," Reiji cracked his knuckles.
Pandora gulped, guarding herself. "Why won't you give up? How…how can you be so strong in this meaningless existence?"
Naoya flicked his earring, his bright white aura skirting his figure. (A/N) His friends aligned beside him, mixing their righteous velvet blue power. "The world isn't as bleak as you think it is!"
"NO!" She bemoaned at the eruption of stifling, blue, and white vivacity.
"Everyone has their own thoughts, their own faces, their own mind!" Naoya's hand shot to cover his face. "I'll make sure Maki doesn't feel you again! These are my true thoughts, my true mind!"
"HOW," Pandora covered her eyes at the glaring exuberance.
"Weren't all alone!" In Naoya's declaration, an amazing event occurred. The confines of the aura rippled acutely. The density and opaqueness cleverly slipped ghastly acreage. The nine encompassed by their utterance of internal brawn of educated wisdom, suddenly lapsed in their routinely fashioned gestures. They forewent their individualized evoking phrases to rolling open their palms before them. A inner niggling of the soul was compelling them to do as such as if they were meant to do it instinctively all along. To their showered eyes of intense effluence of the spectrum of color stole breath from their lungs as the cards enclosing their deserved and rewarded soul facets classified as their maximized protection Ultimate Personas became in their hands. The enigmatic Spell Cards called forth in the place of their renditions were veiled in glory, numerical patterned, and representationally portrayed. The welled power flowed concisely yet was brimming, thriving nearly in the confines of a concrete totem of the ability. Their Personas in their hands, asking not to be released as they would, but to be offered in inclusion. Deep within their combined consciousness, they recognized, what they themselves in a variant form, hazarded them to accomplish. The exact technique was meticulously extrapolated in their minds. Their bodies thus converting the stride to the afflicting mechanism.
"We have others who help us stand up for ourselves!" Naoya continued, the vigor renewed in his absorption.
Masao grunted, a fragile Spell Card materializing in his hand. "With Nao, my best bud, I know we can do it to it! My Ultimate Chariot: SUSANO-O, the God of Seas and Storms!"
"Others who care for our well-being,"
Yukino examined her card betwixt her index and middle finger. "All right, Naoya, give her a good kick in the pants! My Ultimate Empress: DURGA, the Shakti Who Can Redeem Situations of Utmost Distress!"
"Others who wish to do nothing but protect us!"
Eriko held her card to her bosom, breathing in a rhythm. "I know we can succeed…my love. Here is mine, as well! My Ultimate Judgment: MICHAEL, the Chief of the Angels!"
"Others who'd put their life at risk for us!"
Hidehiko swiped at the underside of his nostrils. "Come on, N.T., here, mines the greatest, of course! My Ultimate Justice: TYR, the God of Glory and Victory!"
"Others who want someone to be there for them,"
Ayase yawned gingerly, playfully flipping her card. "Like, take it. Get it over with already! My Ultimate Magician: FREYR, the God of Sun and Rain!"
"Others who have wisdom to pass on to us,"
Kei tucked his scarf in his shirt, his Spell Card in his dominant hand. "Todo, you truly are our leader. Lead us to peace. My Ultimate Hierophant: YAMAOKA, the Loyal Butler of the Nanjo Family!"
"Others who are rough on the outside but inside they care for us,"
Reiji flashed his canines; the bittersweet obtained Spell Card hovering in his gloveless fist. "You're the one who talked shit to me and backed it up, Punk. We ain't losing, not with mine and Alice's resolve! My Ultimate Death: MOT, the God of Death!"
"And others, who love us more than they can possibly love themselves!"
Maki cupped her Spell Card in solace. "Nao-kun…here….show her what we have. My Ultimate Priestess: VERDANDI, the Diviner of the Present!"
"Together we can't lose! Here WE go! MY ULTIMATE EMPEROR: AMON RA, THE KING OF ALL GODS!"
A bronzed man, with glistening golden bracers arose from the united front of summoning strength. His striped flowing robes hugged and strayed from his moderated frame. The hard shade of navy blue and scintillating gold stripes matched the evident Deshret discernible atop of the venerable crown of the exquisite, ephemeral emperor extremely eclipsing the laudable presence of the Egyptian Pharaoh. In his hands he wielded an oak staff, six feet in length merged with a crescent moon furnish, and as burnished as his grieves. Amon Ra's scepter boiled with a glorious sphere of force. The Spell Cards of Naoya's companies, lending their internal strength, were magnetized to this planetary conjuring. They orbited around it, leaving aerial streaks of luminescence, until they impregnated the beget sphere, bolstering intense expansion of mass with each assimilation. Particles were gathering, merging to the singularity coherently concentrated at the absence of the crescent moon adorning the King of All God's rod.
"HIEROGLYPHIEN!" Amon Ra slashed his charged staff, cutting through the disrupted air with precise coercion. A belt of unbelievable power surged uncontrollable forward unencumbered. A solar flare as vaunting as the suns rays using the Ultimate Persona as a conduit funneled a supreme, superseding, stream of white. The beam of expanding matter was a spring of combusting cosmos, an embodiment of irreproachable awe-striking uproar.
And as Naoya Todo's ultimate attack enveloped Pandora in a tumultuous turmoil exceeding the zephryical bedlam of his Tempest. Maki Sonomura's words could be heard.
"We're both part of Maki Sonomura. You and me, these are our friends."
"This big bang is our friendship. Let's end this together, with this meaning to life."
A dim sob was heard in the blackening white.
"Thank you…"
Thus Pandora ceased to be, leaving hope brimming in the dusked corner of a sickly girl's weeping heart.
The white settled and the aura cleared. Pandora was defeated.
"At last…it's over." Kei announced, certain in the matter.
Naoya arched his arms, excited, the cool and collected leader dropping briefly. "WOOHOO,"
"Yeah," Masao joined, tossing his own arms around the shoulders of Kei and Nao.
"That chick is toast! (A/N)" Brown hollered, twirling Ayase in her pirouettes.
"Phew…" Yukino dragged the perspiration from her pores. "Glad we are done. Cut, print, develop film, right, Kei?"
Kei was currently wedged in the middle of Masao and Naoya's gamboling. "Uh…yes….Yukino."
Suddenly, Eriko hauled Naoya from the line of joyous gyration to plant a peck on his cheek and seize him in an ironclad hug. "Oh, Naoya, we've…we've reached the epilogue! The book of our escapades is finally climaxed!"
"Eriko..." Naoya groaned, practically suffocating. Typically, he would say otherwise to her outward affection. Instead, he inhaled. "You smell nice." Which was a really perplexing scent given the laborious and arduous efforts and encounters they endured and enacted the passed three days.
Reiji walked leisurely to a crouching Maki who had kneeled and watched a piece of herself discover self-actualization or Zen enlightenment in demise.
"We won, Airhead." He said politely. "Lay on me your bubbly optimism. Cross-my-heart I won't snap."
"All of you…thank you." Maki somberly replied.
"You're welcome, Sonomura, now get off the ground." Reiji answered.
"We have to part ways now…"
Inactivity and vacuous sound from the eight's ebullience. She faced them with credence, for her nailed mask was gone. "I'll never forget you all."
"Part ways," Naoya repeated.
"Whaddya mean, part ways," Masao demanded.
"Masao," Kei grasped his hand firmly on his friend's shoulder. "She is the Ideal Maki. She is only a shadow of the real Maki Sonomura, identically to Mai, Aki, and Pandora. She can't go with us to the real world."
The Ideal Maki nodded, a grimace pinching her. "It was fun. Really it was."
"Hey! That's not fair!" Brown and Ayase exclaimed.
"Whoa!" Yukino interrupted, losing herself.
"Are we…fading?" Eriko exclaimed as she became transparent.
"Correct, Kirishima." Kei calmly said, he too fading as well as a protesting Masao, flabbergasted Brown and Ayase, startled Yukino and Eriko, and a rueful Reiji. Naoya; however, did not begin to fade.
"We are returning to our proper dimension." Kei explained, vanishing.
"Wait! Hold on! Maki—" Masao disappeared in his objection.
One by one they were spirited, expedited conveyance to the real world in the city of Mikage, all except Naoya Todo.
"Maki…"
"I sent all of them back to the real world."
"Why leave me, Maki?"
"One second…Naoya." Maki inched closer to her childhood friend's taller figure, stretching on the tips of her toes, leaving a dear kiss on the black haired boys opposite cheek.
Naoya was stiffened. "Maki…"
"Thank you, Naoya. I hope you'll still think about me…at least once in a while."
"I can never forget you."
"Goodbye…" She stuttered, unable to keep her formality. "Nao-kun…I love you."
Naoya faintly grinned, returning her present with his own upon her forehead. "I love you too. I always will, because you ARE Maki Sonomura."
The Ideal Maki smiled, tears welling as Naoya vanished in a translocation of matter as his comrades did. In transformation, the despaired galvanized moment of the Ideal Maki Sonomura's became the happiest moment she could ask to be delivered.
"Farewell…"
Persona: Be Your True Mind
Philemon was standing on his platform in the verse between consciousness and unconsciousness, addressing politely the transacted souls of his chosen children. They lingered in interference, statically broadcasted back to the frequency spun to their original location, where the incidents began from where they were finitely concluded.
"Nothing more need be said. I'm sure you have all discovered by now your true selves. The smiles you wear are no longer false masks. You may find yourselves troubled or suffering or lost in the future, but there is nothing to fear. Look to your soul for your true self. No matter what trials you may face, that will be enough for you to weather the storm. Now, go forth…into your bright futures."
Philemon's soliloquy was followed with a burgeoning, respectful bow of thanks. Then, his fingers caught the butterfly side of his faceless mask. His jet black ponytail bounced as he removed his façade of protection. His eyes were a familiar murky brown, matching the eyes of a boy with an earring who helplessly slashed him with a katana. Hollowed jowls positioned to a serene expression, emulating praise and adherence. The aged face of Naoya Todo spoke.
"Congratulations. Fare thee well. Until we meet again,"
Philemon's coattails frenzied as he levitated, smiling his revealed face to the abyss of velvet blue. He was shuddered in a golden light. His severance was his dissembling Guiding substance broken to sustained monarch butterflies. They were purely golden, gently migrating from his pervading crux. Humanity was the victor in a game of gods. They no longer required a Guiding Monarch, a deity to offer a fighting chance on the curved oppression, but if the Crawling Chaos was to ever crash on the shores of the Earth's coasts in recurrence, Philemon would manifest again also, to grant his competitor Nyarlathotep, a bout worthy of their celestial wager. After all, one-sided bets are boring.
Persona: Be Your True Mind
A/N: Do I real have to tell you the references? I can't hear you. Oh, come on, who you gonna call? Apart from Brown's two references, the scene where Naoya is abreast to everyone, the image in my head I wanted to convey was the box art for the PSP remake. It's a pretty atmospheric image and that was the inspiration for the general stance. Nothing special, but thought I'd share that with you.
Well, Chapter 29 is done. The penultimate chapter is complete. All that is left is Chapter 30 the epilogue, so I'm going to talk a bit on this chapter so that way my long winded blathering is equally spaced out. I do want to clarify first however the scene of Maki kissing Naoya and saying she loves him. Now that is a scene in the actual game. Unquestionably the intention of the authors of the game were to provide Maki as a love interest for the MC as most prominent (in certain playthrough cases, the only) female companions/childhood friends in Japanese anything are. I've made it clear from the get go, Naoya's love of Maki's is plutonic. It is not carnal, plus if it was carnal he would buck horns with Mark constantly and his best friend would resent the hell out of him in each instance, so when Naoya says he loves her and he always will, he is saying that as in the love of family and he finally admits 100% the Ideal Maki Sonomura is Maki Sonomura which gives her great happiness in the saddest moment of her existence.
As for Philemon having the face of Naoya, to be fair the game never specifically says he has the face of Naoya, but if you watch the FMVs the eye colors are very distinctively similar. Plus in Innocent Sin, they pull the same thing. It's possible to have Philemon's masked removed in the ending and his face is revealed to be that of protagonist Tatsuya Suou. Since the same scenario writers wrote both games, I'm sure it is meant to be Naoya. Why exactly? I'm not sure. Philemon really is not supposed to be a person, hence the mask. Nyarla is not meant to be a person either hence why he takes on so many different forms throughout the P2 duology. One is a Jungian convention; the other is just a Middle God (I believe, although he might be an Elder God) from Lovecraft's mythos. Philemon is an archetype. He takes shapes and forms to guide others. That's it, though I do try to give him some character, especially since Nyarla has a hefty amount of personality in Persona 2. Though you can also argue Philemon has a personality in Persona 2 as well, albeit he's kind of a quieted asshole. Oh, yeah, in Eternal Punishment he's the Ultimate Boss, which is as awesome and hilarious as killing Lord British in the Ultima games. THIS IS FOR SITTING ON YOUR ASS AND MAKING US DO YOUR BIDDING!
I don't want to exactly dictate my favorite chapters and least favorite chapters here, because the story is not completely over with, but I do want to talk about characters and how I fucked up and well handled them. So, I butchered some things. For the record, Yukino is not a Yankee, she is the Japanese term Yanki which is a subculture of delinquent students popularized in Japan in the late 80s and early 90s. I found this out way to late to really fix though the reformed delinquent student motif was established and handled. Maki's condition is vague, but I believe she definitely did suffer from mental illness brought on by fatigue. Her nihilism and grandeur was probably brought from the ailing and therefore made the Ideal World with the DEVA System. Problem is I did not cleanly diagnose that. To be honest, sometimes in plot points, things were so unclear and unexplained that I had to make my own specific deduction out of the perplexity just to justify what the hell was happening. In the end, I think I could have presented the real Maki and her condition better.
Ayase and Brown, from the drawing board they were comic relief, because I could not fit them in any role of protagonist. Naoya's the leader, Masao's the go-getter, Reiji's the stoic badass anti-hero type, Kei's the serious team-keep-on-tracker, Maki's the geki girl, Yukino's the abusive team mom, Eriko is just barely relevant as the walking dictionary, but what can Brown and Ayase do? Of course, it does not help I had zero access to walkthroughs were people used Ayase, Brown, or Eriko in their parties so for all I know I could have terribly ruined them for some people who know them as well as I know Reiji. So, because of lack of knowledge and information, I effectively had to make Brown the plucky comic relief coward who becomes a badass, which is initially similar to his personality in the game of the clown, huxster, takes nothing serious funny guy. He's like Joe Peschi in Goodfellas you know without the hair trigger and threats of inexplicit/explicit violence.
Ayase, I just don't know. She has no motivations for doing any of this shit. I had to make up a situation to persuade her character into some sense of gratitude and that's why she's sticking her ass in the fire. There is a reason she is the default fifth member of your party if you go to a point of no return in the game without recruiting Eriko, Brown, or Reiji. She is automatically assigned pretty much coincidently in terms of storyline and she is like the worst character in the game, as bad as Cielo in Digital Devil Saga 1, which those unfamiliar with that game, Cielo is weak to status ailments. STATUS AILMENTS! IN A MEGAMI TENSEI GAME!
Eriko, I think I portrayed too "scarce in objectivity." I mean I was railroading her to Naoya, but I mean that's her purpose. Rival love interest and demon dictionary. So, I made her the Paper Mario Goombario and Goombella of the party who can reveal details about the opponents. If I cared for the designated role of character to be the scanner gameplay mechanic like Fuuka and Rise in P3 and P4, I would have made Eriko that person, but I really wouldn't like it, because it would just make her seem ineffectual when she clearly is not. She is canonically a fencer! Fuuka is a techie and Rise is a pin up girl idol! At least they have an excuse not to be able to fight! And no, Ultimax Ultra Suplex Hold does not count! They could have added Tatsuya, Maya, Lisa, Ulala, freaking Eikichi or any P1 characters, but instead the one of two characters who have no business fighting in a fighting game get to fight in the fighting game.
I'll talk about Naoya, Kei, Masao, and Reiji, most likely in the beginning author's notes, then at end give my favorite and least favorite chapters as well as my overall thoughts, concluding breakdown and what you guys can expect next.
Either way, I hope you enjoyed this chapter of Persona: Be Your True Mind and I'll see you next time for the final chapter, Chapter 30: Peace Diner on Joy Street.
