Thump, thump, thump.
Beating, like the heart to a fatal dance, was syncopated by the crackling of tension and lightning.
"Hey, Junpei… What do you do to make you feel alive?"
In his hand, was her hand, where he could feel lifeblood silently flowing, living… dying. A hand that showed no scars, but had felt pain, however faint or fleeting. "Bet you don't just mean 'breathing', huh?" Chidori didn't give him an answer. He sat down next to her and she didn't seem to mind. "I guess… I guess I've never given it that much thought. Is that why you draw?"
She'd snatched her hand back. "Maybe… But, most of these are just scribbles… I don't understand myself very well." The warmth of his fingers lingered on hers. Calloused, yet soft.
Junpei nodded. "I see…" He closed his eyes, now aware—basking in the heartless sun. "I used to think maybe… I could get a kick out of playing hero." Chidori gave him a look of confusion.
The pain seared away at his nerves, dancing and trampling on them, using him as the road to scrape the dirt off their shoes.
"But… I don't know anymore." He gave a sigh. "I actually went to apologise to someone last time I met with you. And I feel kinda better, I guess. I think I want to feel like what I'm doing is significant. That the effort I put into… I dunno… fighting. That when I fight, it's for something good and that people can be like, 'Wow! You really rock dude! You're the best! Thanks for protecting us!' when I'm done."
A frown crossed her face as she tried making out the meaning of his words. "Do you fight alone?"
"Nah. In a team. I don't really call the shots, which sucks…" Junpei sighed. "No-one really knows about us either. It's kinda lonely, being a vig."
Nerves fired.
"So you mean… you fight to… protect people that you don't know. You don't receive any praise for it. Do you want that?" Chidori asked, continuing to draw.
He raised an eyebrow. "Yeah. But… wait, you actually believe what I'm saying?"
"Depends. What do you think you're saying?"
Junpei's eyes widened. "Agh, man… It's supposed to be a secret and all. I'm not supposed to tell ya something like that." He'd probably get chewed out for it anyways.
She paused. "That's too bad. I was looking forward to hearing your story." He chewed his lip, but definitely decided 'no'. "Maybe another time? It's not like I'll tell anyone else."
He found himself nodding. "Yeah, that's probably for the best. You know. For whenever the worst of the danger goes away and stuff!" Junpei couldn't help but grin.
Chidori gave a hum of affirmation and closed her sketchbook. "Well… thank you, Junpei. I had fun today."
"Y-You did?"
She stood and motioned to leave. "I'll see you another time." As it turned out… they had something else to attend to that they needed Medea for.
…
The muzzle of the Evoker was pressed against her temple.
"Hey, Takaya. Do you really think it's a good idea to just leave SEES to that bunch of Whisperers?" Jin sighed, clenching his fists. Takaya's eyes were dazzled, fixated on the stretching light of the moon, almost glowing with ethereal power as Hypnos raged under his skin. "We could've gone to… up the ante a little."
"Medea…" she murmured, revelling in a euphoric high of power that only summoning her Persona could give her, accented by hard, painful notes against her mind and body.
Takaya just smiled eerily. "I wouldn't worry too much. But if we must… we do have the final assurance that we need," he replied. The grin he had widened as the barrel of his revolver touched, moved her hair behind her ear in a mockery of hand gestures.
In blue light, only stabilised by suppressants, formed a lithe woman with red and black seared onto her skin. Her amber eyes lit up with power, mimicking the cup of flames she held in one hand. Raging with vengeful life, tendrils of fire created a hot, fearful air that covered the life signatures of the four now heading over to Club Escapade.
Sachiko gritted her teeth. Just her luck that she had to run into Strega while the Shadow Whisperers were getting ready to leave. The fact was that while she had a gun against her head and the threat of a Persona being unleashed against her person, she couldn't do much.
There were so many words that she wanted to say and she ended up cursing aloud in Whispers. "That dork better not do something stupid." How the hell did she manage to get caught up in a damsel in distress situation when she'd managed to avoid it for so long anyways?! Just her luck, wasn't it?
She'd gathered some clues from a Shadow that they'd recently been forced to attack another person who'd awoken during the Dark Hour from their call. It then froze up as if by some overpowering force and was made to attack her somehow. By the time she'd started running, there was a wave of Shadows on her tail, throwing fire, ice and wind at her; their spells.
Couple that with Takaya, Jin and Chidori coming in from the other direction and she was more or less screwed.
"It appears that she truly does have the same abilities…" Takaya commented aloud.
Jin furrowed his brow. "Hey. You know that if you try to get a Shadow to help you, we're just going to kill it? It's not like they're any competition."
She sighed. "Oh, don't worry. I wasn't." Just busy cursing the non-comforting feel of the gun against her head.
"They're almost there," Chidori notified, dispelling her Persona.
…
"Dodge!"
Junpei hopped away from the Mazionga, now scorching his previous spot. The blue-white electricity came down in a thunderbolt from above, cracking, splitting his line of sight.
Arcana Hermit reared and swung wires and cables about the floor as a flash of spiritual power came from the generator on its back. Junpei managed to deflect the attack, pushing the wires with the flat of his blade.
"Careful! It just used Mind Charge!" her voice came through.
Ken pole vaulted with his spear over the attack, leaping nimbly the end of his weapon into the Shadow's side. "There's another Mazionga coming!" Fuuka exclaimed.
Shinjiro scoffed. "That kid better not get himself into any trouble…" He braced himself to dodge the aforementioned attack, toting his bus stop sign on his shoulder.
Minato waved his compendium, he and the book bursting with spiritual power. "Blue Wall," he murmured.
"Hey Ken! Watch out from overhead!" Junpei shouted.
He flicked off Arcana Hermit's side with a backflip, spinning his spear. Landing rather safely on Castor, Ken replied, "Thanks! But what's another Shadow doing here?!" He watched the enemy he hit with his spear as it clambered to full form on the ground—a Magical Magus.
As Shinjiro lowered his Persona, he noticed the wildly sparking lightning bolt coming from above Ken. A blue wall formed above Shinjiro as he commanded Castor to dodge the Mind Charged Mazionga attack. The blue-white lightning hit him head on in the process, although it was partially neutralised by the energy of the wall.
"Fuuka, the hell's going on?!" Junpei exclaimed, jumping away from the Zio attack and summoning Hermes. His Persona gleamed and shot towards Arcana Hermit, wings pinned as it repeatedly dug into it like a nail.
The Shadow let out screeches of anguish upon each hit. Seeing more Shadows somehow able to seep through the ceiling, Hermes shot towards them the same way it did before, piercing into them and whizzing into the next like a torrential pachinko ball. "There's way too many of them! Where are they even coming from?!"
"E-Everyone, there's a large wave of Shadows coming to attack us! There are so many of them! The others can't hold them all back and some of them are getting inside," she tried to explain. "I don't understand… I should've been able to sense them before they came here and…"
…
It blacked out the moon.
The sight, dark as coal, enveloped their vision.
"There are more than eighty Shadows in that wave," Aigis spoke aloud, peppering the Shadow Wave with machine gun fire.
"Eighty?! I've never seen that many Shadows in the one place—" Mitsuru stopped herself. She had, once before.
Blobs of Shadow dropped off from the wave, disintegrating into incognito forms. Some of them turned into their full forms, beginning to assault the team. Most of them, when each of the members were occupied, scuttled into Club Escapade and seeped through the ceiling like liquid straining through sponge.
With the Shadows hiding them and with Chidori's power, Kishimaru, Yoko, Hakori and Shina managed to slip past them, all except for Koromaru, by sense of smell. "Arf arf!" he barked, summoning Cerberus.
The three headed hellhound howled, summoning waves of fire to catch the four off guard. Maragion spread, even hitting some of the Shadows in the wave before them. Koromaru let out a yelp of surprise when he saw a rare, golden Shadow scoot past and take the hit as if nothing happened.
A Supreme Hand?! Really?!
…
"Some bodyguard, Shina."
Hakori cursed as he brushed off the small flames that he caught from Koromaru's Maragion attack.
"Hey, what works, works. I wanted to bring along something like an Avenger Knight Shadow, but I can't control those." She shrugged and sighed, side eyeing Kishimaru. He didn't return or even notice the distasteful look she gave him, only heading straight for the basement. "Some conversationalist…" she muttered to herself, following the leader.
Minato was horror struck at the gelatinous movement beginning to pour into the basement like sludge rain.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
The wailing he heard wasn't just something his mind thought up. In fact, he could hear it ringing in even his teammates' ears. Eerie Sound. It came, like a hurricane, blasting the team's ear drums off with screams and moans of terror.
Like a typhoon, spells and skills were lashed upon the now distressed team.
Junpei could only hope to hear again, even as he pressed his hands against his ears. Even Shinjiro couldn't handle the overwhelming wave of Shadows armed only with Castor and a bus stop sign, but he did manage to block the brunt of the attack for Ken.
"Glad to see that you've made your decision, Minato-kun." An all too familiar voice cut through the shrieking throng.
He could also hear the sound of three other simultaneous whispers in the background, telling the wave to stand down awhile.
She warned him to be careful. Not to join them. What did that do?
Minato breathed out, feeling his chest heave and head pound from Distress. "I haven't," he hissed. "Sho!" On his whisper, the Brave Wheel appeared in gelatinous form from his compendium, hovering in the air. The Intrepid Knight had also reverted to incognito form.
"The seeds of doubt have already been sown," Kishimaru whispered with a thin smile. The other three; Yoko, Hakori and Shina began chanting in whispers, making a majority of the Shadows shudder on their command.
"Why are you denying it? After all, it's not like you've ever cared about your so called 'team', right? You considered my offer because you know how much they've treated you like shit!" Kishimaru laughed, grinning down at Minato all the while.
Junpei's gaze shot towards Minato at Kishimaru's words, who was shuddering as he muttered indecipherable Shadow Whispers.
"Minato-kun. Together, we're going to destroy until there's not even a trace of them," he urged. "Unless… You really do feel a connection with them? Is that why you're making those two Shadows fuse?" Kishimaru whispered.
Minato's eyes gleamed as the two's incognito forms began combining, his hand, in a single motion, brought into the form of one of his new commands.
"I do have to tell you… This isn't exactly a request. We have her."
An influx of blue and black energy whipped around as he dared add something else to the mix. "I thought… I could trust you before. I thought you were my friend," Minato spoke aloud. "But if you're here because you think you can hurt her, then I don't know what you've become."
The incognito form of Masashi joined the growing blot.
Kishimaru grinned. "It's too bad. We had so much catching up to do… Only to be cut short."
"By order of your fear; your anger; and your suffering, we who wield this ancient tongue do command and empower your agony," the whispers started. "In this dark art will we rain death upon your adversaries," he continued, "Merge!"
A similar influx of ruby coloured energy cracked like thunder and lightning as the Shadow Wave whizzed into Arcana Hermit.
Minato felt the surge of whispers even reach the notepad he'd hidden the other Arcana Shadows in and his compendium. The black pages morphed into incognito form as well, joining the mass of Shadows melting into Arcana Hermit's form.
Minato's three chosen Shadows burst in azure light, forming what he called the Rising Knight. Kishimaru's trusty steed turned steely grey with a metallic body and limbs. Emerald and amber light streaked across its body, the same colours lining the knight's armour. His helmet had turned lion-like, reminiscent of Sho's head and now wielded both a lance and a winged arm cannon. Imprinted on it was a yellow cross and the number XIX.
Engage 'Rule of Cool'.
Ichor melted and slathered Arcana Hermit as the Shadow Wave—those that weren't engaged with the others outside—arched towards and covered it in an extra layer of ichor, burning and melting into its body like acid.
The dark chrysalis was lashed with red, like paths of lightning streaked across the Hermit's hunched, lupine body. Its masks burbled, morphed and combined onto where the head would be, becoming a white, malformed mask with a hollow smile. A constant sheet of lightning hovered over its fur, metal-enforced arms had gelatine wings and four rings of tank tracks wrapped around its body like bandoliers. The wires it was previously attached to were drawn towards its back, plugged into the now sparking generators on it.
Junpei's eyes widened as he told Hermes to attack with Torrent Shot. It zoomed towards the electrical cloak, making him cringe as he felt some of the lightning paining his Persona and plunged into its flesh.
Arcana Hermit, now fully reformed, swung its cross adorned sceptre, creating a fierce gust of wind with Magarula. Not once expecting the attack, Shinjiro, Ken, Castor and Hermes were blown back by its attack.
The gust of wind slammed Junpei into the nearest wall, winding him easily. "How can it…?" he struggled to say.
"I-It! It has the power of those Shadows… and I can also sense the presences of the Empress and Chariot full moon Shadows!" Fuuka realised. "But… I thought we destroyed them…"
Taking the opportunity, Kishimaru smirked. "Well, if that's not proof that Minato wasn't on your side, then I don't know what is," he pressed.
Minato's eyes widened. "Hey!" he called to the Shadow, his hands brought into yet another command. Responding to his will, a purple haze fell over his teammates and over Arcana Hermit, lighting up over the four former and weakening the Shadow with Rakunda. As another amber light formed over Arcana Hermit, it gave a roar and flashed once again with Mind Charge. "Yeah, I wouldn't still be helping my team… if I was against them!"
Junpei stared at Minato, finally recovered from the earlier Wind spell. "Minato!"
He looked back at Junpei, about to summon with his Evoker.
"We're still going to beat these guys' asses, right?!" Two bangs rang out as Orpheus and Hermes formed.
He gave the slightest smirk as he registered Junpei's apparent faith in him. "I'm going to, if you are," he answered. "Matarukaja!" Minato called to Orpheus, while his fingers continued with the position symbolising Makarakarn.
A similar amber light enveloped his team from Orpheus, now playing an empowering melody on his lyre. "Hermes!" The winged Persona enveloped itself in flames, spiralling towards Arcana Hermit.
Rising Knight followed by casting Makarakarn on him. The Magarula that came to knock Hermes back reflected from the mirror. Wind slashed back, Hermes was chest bound, slammed into it, rebounded and crushed it once more before dispelling.
Although the Rising Knight was draining the spell's energy, Minato didn't share the same immunity and was forced back against the attack, nicked and bitten by it.
Shinjiro gritted his teeth as he withstood the effects of the two wind spells that were thrown at him. Just his luck that his first encounter with one of those full moon Shadows was this one, where the craziest shit had to happen.
Ken struggled to stand against them, somehow managing to lodge onto a row of cables with his spear, summoning Nemesis after the onslaught was over.
Arcana Hermit cried out as it was knocked onto the floor. "Ken!" Minato called, turning to his new Shadow companion with the symbol for a simple attack. This was where he had to rely on his Shadow's intelligence.
"Right!" Nemesis rushed towards the downed Arcana Hermit as Rising Knight loaded its cannon with shells.
…
"Come, Hypnos."
A grisly figure, suspended by means of the wings grafted to its spine, appeared in a burst of red light. The pale Persona, riddled with bulging, red veins, had tiny dots of light flowing through it, channelling just under its body. The energy coalesced into a violet orb then thrown overhead.
"W-Watch out! Above you!" Fuuka warned the outside team members.
Mitsuru glanced upwards, immediately summoning Penthesilea as she stepped away. "Bufula!" The shards of ice came to counter the Almighty attack. Catching on, Koromaru summoned up flames in Agilao, while Yukari tried slashing it away with a Garula.
The three attacks fought back the larger one, eventually blasting in an explosion of light.
Takaya clapped as the SEES members managed to counter his attack. "Hmph… Almost impressive," he spoke. "I'm afraid, however, that this little show will have to come to a premature end. If you dare make a move towards me, my associate," he gestured towards Jin, "or those Shadows, I will not hesitate to end her life."
As Hypnos and its attack disappeared, Akihiko gritted his teeth and spoke what was on everyone's minds, "Y-You brought a hostage…" Sachiko glared at the ground as she felt the muzzle of his revolver press a little in her back.
He was sure then. If Minato truly had begun fighting against his new foes, he would be stopped by her.
…
"I'm afraid that if you keep going like that, someone is going to end up hurt."
Minato snapped his head to face the voice. It was him—Takaya, wasn't it? "Ken, wait!" he shouted, immediately regretting it as he began coughing diluted blood profusely onto the floor.
"W-What happened?" Ken murmured aloud, halting Nemesis as he turned towards the source of the voice, along with Shinjiro and Junpei.
He growled, shifting Rising Knight to face the group of seven. "So Minato-kun… I'm afraid that this ends here, with you joining Strega," Kishimaru stated, gesturing towards Sachiko. She chewed on her lip as she locked eyes with Minato. Junpei, Shinjiro and Ken stared at Minato, imploring him not to. "Just summon those Shadows into your compendium, defuse yours and leave SEES."
Thump. Thump. Thump.
Sachiko seemed resigned. She knew exactly what he was going to do, even though she said herself not to. As it was, she wasn't fearless enough to think that she could get out of the situation; her death was just a bullet away, after all.
With Minato's conductor-like movements, Kishimaru grinned wildly. The Rising Knight split into its original components into his compendium and the still downed Hermit began a transformation into its amorphous one, compressing with blue light. His spiritual power crushed the Shadow, smaller, and smaller, with more resistance the smaller it became.
Eventually, it reached page size and flew into his compendium, affixing itself to the spine. Taking a deep breath as his power faded into the air, the sparking in the room died down and he walked towards the group, passing an apologetic look to Sachiko, who seemed to return the sentiment.
"Hypnos."
"Moros."
The two Personas flared into existence.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
They readied their weapons and Personas, now calculating several things at once; including the possibilities of their deaths.
Edited: 14/12/16
AN: Hey guys, here's some info about the new fusions.
Name: Rising Knight
Arcana: Sun (4+7+8=19)
Components: Intrepid Knight, Brave Wheel, Arcana Justice
RAW: Drain Wind, Drain Fire, Null Light
Skills: Garudyne, Magarula, Mind Charge, Power Charge, Makarakarn, Gigantic Fist, Heat Wave, Rakukaja
Agidyne, Maragion, Kill Rush, Matarunda, Rakunda
Twin Shot, Torrent Shot, Myriad Arrows, Vile Assault, Hama, Poison Mist, Samarecarm, Unite
Unite is a special skill which basically makes it so Arcana Justice can be attached to any weapon, including non-Shadow weapons. Minato hasn't gotten a chance to use it, however. It doesn't necessarily guarantee that the resulting weapon is functional though.
Name: Arcana Hermit
Arcana: Fortune (3+5+6+7+9=12 mod 22)
Components: Arcana Empress, Arcana Hierophant, Arcana Lovers, Arcana Chariot, Arcana Hermit, and other miscellaneous Shadows
RAW: -
Skills: A LOT
There wasn't a lot of fix here; just some continuity issues with the way Minato commands Shadow Fusion products. I might edit this more when I have time later on, but the chapter was surprisingly pretty solid even with just a brief once over, so who knows. Anyways, thanks for reading and hope you enjoyed the chapter!