Persona 4

Ge-Ni-Us

Intermission 8: Myriad Truths

He forced breath into his burning lungs, forced his aching muscles to grip his sword, forced himself to keep his gaze steady.

How long had it been? He'd lost track some time ago. This fight... it felt like they'd been fighting for days... weeks even. Reiko knew that the flow of time was skewed inside this world, but still...it couldn't have been -that- long... could it?

They'd come to settle things...to write the ending to their long story. And here... they stood on the cusp of that.

The great creator goddess, Izanami. The fallen and damned, Izanami. The one whose hand had started all of it. Bit by agonizing bit, they'd fought her. Slowly they'd begun to peel away the bindings of this strange being.

And yet... every time they pressed her, she merely pressed back. First, her body bound and blinded as it was, hidden within the folds of her beautiful silk robe. Her yards long silk black hair flowed out behind her in waves.

But that terrifyingly beautiful and poetic image didn't last. The veil had been pulled away. And what it revealed was an all-together more terrible thing. A skeletal figure so large, it dwarfed even Ameno-Sagiri. Izanami's bound form was lifted high into the air, a veritable crown of dark glory set on a figure that embodied death itself.

Several sets of clawed skeletal arms lashed out at them, again and again.

But still.... they fought back. Reiko and his friends would not yield... not now. Not when they'd come so far and done so much.

And the final coverings were torn away.

The bindings had been released.

The beautiful and terrifying cover was torn asunder and revealed the truth.

Izanami was a god who had... died once already. She had eaten of the underworld's fruit.

Her crimson emaciated body was like a thing of nightmares. A corpse given motion. Hollowed eyes pierced them almost as much as those skeletal claws that still lashed out at them. And yet, still, her long black hair flowed out behind her.

But it's beauty was lost amidst the horror of her true form.

This was the truth of what they faced.

And they were pushed to the brink of their existence. Izanami's power was entirely overwhelming. How do you kill what is already dead? How does a mortal defy a god? Try as they might, willpower alone would not win them the fight.

Izanami was... stronger than them. Noticeably stronger.

Her massive form hovered in front of them, haloed in the colors of unholy glory.

And that... was when her frigid voice resounded.

"Goodbye. Accept the reality of your death."

She reared up, drawing in the fullness of her awe-striking form, and the world...changed.

The already hazy world around them grew blurry and undefined. Everything within sight took on a sheen of bloody red. The air itself seemed choked with the smell of blood.

The darkness at their own feet shimmered and rippled.

"Wha-.... what the hell?!" Kanji cried out as clawed hands rose from the darkness beneath them and grabbed onto him as if he were their saving grace.

"No! Kanji!" Teddie dove for him, but his hands fell short. The same hands reached up and grasped him.

Izanami was silent, content merely to watch events unfold as the black fog surrounded her foes.

Kanji fell to a knee. He could feel his life-energy leaving him. And then... suddenly... he was enveloped by darkness.

Teddie stared... horrified as Kanji vanished. He struggled against the shadowy hands that clawed at him.

Reiko stared in horror. Those claws that seemed to want to drag his friends down to hell itself... had gripped each and every one of them.

"Sen...pai...." Naoto struggled to even breath as she fought the claws of darkness.

One by one...his friends vanished into the darkness. First Kanji... and then Teddie. Naoto slid into a pool of darkness and then Yosuke. Chie and Rise both struggled valiantly but, in the end, they too plunged into the dark.

So shocked was he that the genius failed to notice the darkness beneath him shimmering.

However, another pair of eyes did not miss it.

"No... not you!" Yukiko dashed forward, throwing her weight into Reiko and knocking him aside.

Reiko's very soul went cold as he watched Yukiko struggle against her shadowy bindings. Her eyes and his were locked on one another for a single moment and Reiko realized... she was smiling. "Not.... You."

And then... she was dragged under.

Yukiko vanished amid the dark.

"No..." There was no energy in his voice as Reiko stood, staring at the area Yukiko had just stood.

"It is... unfortunate that our battle must end this way..."

Reiko's pale face shifted slightly, to look upon Izanami in all her unholy glory.

She swept a corpse-like hand forward and... like his friends before him... Reiko was dragged down into the unending darkness...

-o-o-o-o-o-

The first thing he noticed was the howling wind.

He felt like... somehow... that was all there was.

Just... the howling wind and his own fading consciousness.

Everything... was becoming nothing.

'Is... this.... really where it ends?'

There was a pang of regret with that.

'Is this... really as far as I... we... can go?'

The wind howled, and darkness took his sight. The wind howled, and the darkness took his touch. And suddenly... the wind howled no longer, for it had taken even his hearing.

"What's the matter? Isn't it... too early to give up, Reiko?"

'Un...cle?' He didn't know -how- he knew... just that he knew. He could not feel, he could not hear, he could not see, and yet... he knew. He could feel the presence of Dojima standing beside him.

"You taught me what family really is. I mean... I had my hands full with Nanako and then -you- came rolling along. Heh..." Reiko could feel his uncles typical wry smirk. "I was honestly at a loss. But then, I can get back up as many times as I need to... if you two are with me. I guess...a father can be pretty stupid like that, huh?"

The presence faded. The silent, hazy, darkness was all that remained. Dojima's presence may have faded but it was soon replaced by another.

"Don't go!" It was Yosuke's voice. "Everything changed when I met you. My whole world did..." Reiko somehow knew his friend had a wry expression on his face. "...I did." The brown haired, head-phones wearing boy was silent for a moment. "You're so stubborn. You can't let it end this way, right?"

Again the presence faded and again it was replaced.
"You... can't just leave me behind." Chie this time. "I'm honestly... such a two faced coward... But you understood me. You accepted me for who I was. I can become strong... because of that."

There was another long moment of silence, which gave the gray haired boy some time to think. He'd never really... affected... people before he'd come to Inaba. Not in any meaningful way anways.

"Don't you dare close your eyes... not yet." Yukiko's voice. There was a slightly pause where Reiko could hear his dark haired girlfriend take a deep breath. "Which is more deserving of being free? The one that wishs and does nothing or the one that tries and tries until he gets it?"

He recognized those words. They were, for the most part, the very same ones -he- had told her. Honestly though... he was starting to get a little annoyed. He was so tired, but he couldn't just ignore them.

"I'll give you all the strength I can, Reiko. You're my... -our- last hope. So please! Get back up!"

"Senpai..." Even Rise now. "Thanks. For everything. You've helped me out so much..." The idol was valiantly holding back her tears. "When I was down... when I was sad and didn't know -what- to do...it was -you- who helped me. So now... let me help you! That's why... You gotta stand back up!"

"What are you doing there, boy?" Another voice he recognized. Hisano-san. The elderly woman he'd met on occasion down by the river. He could somehow feel her... amusement. "You're far too young to die here. You, who gave these old bones a new meaning to life, should live for many years to come. You can't die before I do!"

Had he... really done that? All he felt he had done, really, was spend some time with her, and talk to her. But to say that he gave her a new meaning to life? It sounded so... grandiose. And perhaps... perhaps it was.

"Senpai... If you stay down I won't ever forgive you." Naoto? And she sounded so... emotional for a change.

His friends kept wanting him to stand up.... but could he? Was he really able to continue fighting? After all... a god was impossible to defeat... right?

"For a long time... I felt trapped between what I love and what I was. But you told me to be proud of who I am. That I could be a... a woman -and- a detective. I admired that. You looked the problem in the face, and... ran right over it. Someone like you doesn't leave things half done!"

'I'm... not that strong, Naoto.' And yet... Reiko hung on. His consciousness refused to submit to oblivion.

"C'mon senpai. You ain't tha type ta just sit down and wait fer the end..." Kanji as well? "Hell...you accepted me... even when I really couldn't accept myself. You told me... what the world thinks o' a guy like me... don't matter. It's what I think o' me that matters. If you can laugh at the entire world... then this should be nuthin'!"

There was truth to that he supposed. A genius, for all his abilities, got used to being doubted. He got used to people thinking things impossible...

Impossible?

That's right... he hated that word.

"Why haven't you stood back up yet?"

'Minami-san?' Reiko remembered her. The housewife he'd met on occasion, while he'd been working at the daycare.

"Wasn't it you that showed me...that a persons fate... is only decided by themselves and no other?"

Had he said that? Well... it -did- sound like something he would say. However, that conversation had only been in passing, he was sure. And yet, she'd taken it to heart.

"What's the matter? You just gonna let it end like that?" Kou's voice... and he could feel Daisuke's presence as well.

"C'mon! Stand up. You aren't alone... just like me n' Kou aren't..."

'Dai...suke...'

The presence of the two sport aces faded...and, for a moment, Reiko finally thought silence upon him.

"You gotta be joking!" But just as his eyes were about to shut... Ai's voice chimed in. "If you disappear... how am -I- supposed to step forward?! I couldn't stick by someone who gave up half way like that. -You- aren't like that."

His unseeing eyes inched ever closer shut. He was... so tired. All he wanted to do... was....

"You idiot..." A fond voice, somewhat like a sisters. "I swear... you're so stubborn... You always try to take everything on your shoulders." Yumi, the girl he'd helped through a personal crisis. "Wasn't it you... who taught me that some things can only be done -because- you're not by yourself?"

That's... right. He -had- said something to that effect, hadn't he? Sometimes... you could only stand because you had others to lean on. But he was so damnably tired. He could barely keep his eyes open.

"Sometimes, you just have to man up, no matter how hard it is..." A younger voice this time. "Isn't that what you told me, Reiko-san?" Shu, the boy he'd tutored for a while. "But... you were right. I'm not alone. And you aren't either!"

Somehow, he felt amused at himself. How did -he- ever let himself get into a position where a brat like Shu could talk down to him. He wanted to laugh.

And then... he felt it. A cold, wet nose nudging his cheek.

Even the fox, it seemed, wouldn't let Reiko go without a fight. It yelped at him... as if demanding him to stand back up. It was then... he realized... his sense of touch had returned to him.

Even his eyes, once covered by darkness, were beginning to refocus the world.

"Sensei..."

'Teddie?' The once-upon-a-time shadow always called him with such reverence... but he hardly felt worthy of it.

"Don't you worry... I'll protect you." He could feel the affection radiating warmth. "You're important to me. You gave me a reason to exist. I'm... not alone anymore, Sensei, and neither are you!"

Right...there were too many important things.... important people...

He couldn't just be selfish and let them all go. He would never be tired enough to just let them slip out of his hands without a fight.

"Onii-chan..." That small and innocent voice. Nanako! "Are you...going to leave me behind? I-I'll be good, I promise! So... please... don't go!"

That's right...

He couldn't just abandon them.

He couldn't leave things half done.

For a single moment, he could have sworn he'd felt Margarets form standing beside him, smiling mysteriously like she always did. Then... her presence was gone.

And then... the world came into focus. Warmth flooded his body.

He could feel them. The emotions of his friends and family. Of the people he held dear to heart and who held him dear to theirs. It was like a fire burning inside him, a beacon of light in the darkest of nights.

His wavering consciousness came back to him, supported by the hearts and thoughts of many.

It seemed, once more, he would have to prove the impossible...

...possible.

-o-o-o-o-o-

"And so.... it ends." Izanami looked down at the swirling shadows that had engulfed those with the gall to oppose her. She was about to turn away, and return to her regular form when a single flash caught her gaze.

The shadows swirled and parted, revealing the prone form of her gray haired adversary.

On the red tile floor...his hand flexed into a balled fist.

And the eons old goddess was awe-struck.

Reiko.... rose to his feet. Slowly, but surely...he got back up. And, as he did so, his body became enveloped in azure fire. The intense blue flames ate away at the shadows and banished them .

And something... changed. The air itself changed. The -world- itself changed. Or perhaps... the change was merely within Reiko himself.

"How... can this be?" Her booming voice echoed her disbelief. She swiped a hand forward, and the shadows under Reiko shimmered again. Those very same claws of darkness stretched up to drag Reiko down into the darkness....but they could not hold him.

Their grips merely slipped off him every time.

"Impossible! Can the will of so few... surpass the will of all mankind?!"

Was it just Reiko? Or did he hear a note of... fear... in the goddess' voice?

She reared up and swept both corpse-like hands forward.

And divine fury embodied in the form of lightning crashed down around him. The flames around him dispersed and Reiko was knocked back a step. Despite the pain, however, he did -not- fall. Again the lightning fell and again he was pushed back.... but he -did- -not- fall.

"This... cannot be!" There was definitely fear in her voice now. No doubt about it. "How can your powers rival -mine-?!"

Again and again she rained down divine lightning on him. But no matter how much fury she poured down on him... he did not fall. "Why?! Why don't you understand?! It's impossible for humans to grasp the truth with their own hands."

Reiko smirked wryly. He was tired. He was sore. But he had to finished this. He had to. Izanami's words only made him want to defy her more. There was one thing he had to tell her. If there was -one- thing the genius believed in, it was this...

"Impossible..." Reiko spoke softly, though he knew the goddess could hear him. "...is just a word that losers use to feel good about themselves... when they give up!" He stuck his sword into the ground. He could feel the energy welling up inside of him. He gently took his glasses off before casting them aside without another thought.

He didn't need them. The fog... didn't blind him anymore. He rose a hand, as if reaching our for something. And there Izanami saw it, a Tarot card.

It twirled into existence and settled into Reiko's outstretched hand. And then...

...he crushed it.

The card shattered like glass. And Izanami beheld a... nostalgic figure.

The 'change' Izanami had felt before... had been the birth, or perhaps 'rebirth,' of Izanagi-no-Okami.

A pure white figure hovered in the air just behind Reiko. He held his pure white spear forward as Reiko mimicked the motion and thrust his hand forward.

"And this..."

Reiko's ashen gaze snapped directly to the hollowed eyes of Izanami herself...

"...is Myriad Truths!"