Persona: World And Judgement – Chapter Thirty-Six

Search Parties

Hello again, my gorgeous lovelies and my macho manly men, and welcome to the thirty-sixth chapter! Before I start, I hope you had a wonderful April Fool's Day and hope that you all had fun pulling pranks on friends and family. You've got to have some mischief now and again after all! Also, I hope that the Spring season is keeping you nice and warm wherever you are; but if you are in the UK like me, I hope you are wrapping up warm because it is absolutely FREEZING out there and no one knows why. It's meant to be Spring! Now with that little rant out of the way, LET'S GT-R-DONE!

08/08 - Morning - Iwatodai Station

It wasn't an operation, but the equipment they needed to prepare themselves felt like the same burden they always felt in the TV world with every mission. They needed umbrellas, they needed gloves and scarves, and they needed coats and jackets that were at least waterproof. All of these things were a must if they were to just go out into the heavy rain; something this simple hadn't needed so much preparation at all, so they thought. Despite it though, it was necessary for the sake of Marie, and her request wasn't just something they could turn down. They had already disagreed the night before because of the potential dangers, and to argue against her favour even when the rain was the only minor hazard would be completely ignorant of them. To make it up to her though, they were all outside, splitting themselves up into small groups to cover as much of the Tatsumi Port Island ground as they could, in search for the missing friend.

Throughout the island, there were three parties that spread the group around the landscape, spanning from the Naganaki Shrine to the Gekkoukan High School, and from there to the Paulownia Mall. The first group consisted of Yu, Koromaru, Chie, Fuuka and Kanji, and after already checking the entire area of the Iwatodai Station, they swiftly made their way to the shrine, being sure to check every corner and crevice of the city as they went. The Tatsumi Port Island was a very big place, and with just a small number of individuals in each group, the confidence in finding this specific person wasn't all good and well with most of the group. "Remember guys..." said a crackled voice of the walkie-talkie that was strapped to the side of Yu's torso, "...the guy I met might hand around in enclosed spaces, so don't pass any hidden spaces without checking them first."

"Don't worry, Marie," Yu spoke into the radio with reassurance, "we're on our way to the Naganaki Shrine now. From what we know, very few people go round the back of the shrines, so hopefully we can be in with a chance." He released the button and held the device in front of him in case anyone else wanted to contribute; lo and behold though, Yosuke's voice crackled from the static. "Does anyone else get the feeling like we're looking for a needle in a haystack?" he asked, only getting disapproved shakes of the head from the group. Before Yu could press the button again however, another voice came through the miniature speaker. "That's not very encouraging of you, Yosuke-kun..."said Aigis, clearer than all the other voices that talked through the walkie-talkie. Some could understand what Yosuke was saying though.

It was worrying enough that the chances of survival for this individual were lower than anyone could expect, but to find someone they've never met and don't know much about in a highly populated city almost made Yosuke's comment seem like a complete understatement. Putting the poor weather conditions into consideration also made the search more difficult than needed, reducing the visibility in some places of the urban jungle. But despite this, everyone was committed to helping Marie getting her friend back; the hope of finding him, however, was slowly diminishing the more they thought about the circumstances of the search.

"Anyway, Marie..." Yu spoke again into the mouthpiece with the trigger pressed down, "...we probably should've asked at the start, but before we get going, what does he look like? Were there any features of him that could help us distinguish him from the crowd?" After asking, he released the button, holding it close to his ear for when Marie replies. There was a long pause before he could hear the bleeping tones of the radio, followed by the buzzing of Marie's voice. "Err...well, he always wore a navy jacket with his hood up..." she replied, confident with what she remembered, "...and he was about your sort of height, Yu. But apart from that...I'm not sure what else."

It was the minimal Marie could offer, but those two things were just about the right information for Yu and some others to come up with one person; in fact, there were two possible people who would fit those criteria. With a slight look of surprise, he exchanged this expression with the other four members in his party. Their feelings were no different from one another; they knew they had come across the same realisation. "A hood? That can't be good..." Chie commented with a dispirited tone. No one couldn't have put it better themselves, not even Fuuka or Kanji. Koromaru gave one his growls, as if the thought of the hood riled him up.

08/08 - Morning - Port Island Station

Meanwhile, on another side of the walkie-talkie, Yosuke, Mitsuru, Junpei and Ken were just as stricken by the same feeling the others had, and because Marie was with them, she could only look at them with confusion as to why they stopped to think when they should be looking around the Port Island Station. "Marie, are you sure he was wearing a hood?" Junpei asked, thinking that Marie was only taking a guess at what her friend was wearing, "Wasn't it like a beanie or something like that?"

"No, it was definitely a hood. I would've remembered him wearing a beanie otherwise." she answered, only worsening their fears more than helping them, "Besides, why do you ask that? It's like, as soon as I mentioned his hood, it suddenly became a problem. Why?" It wasn't a surprise that Marie would sound agitated as she asked; she was being questioned on her own memory which may have insulted her in some minor way after all. No one liked her tone, but they knew she meant well, and without back-chatting, Mitsuru proceeded to explain.

"We apologise if we irritated you, Marie-chan," she began courteously, "it's just that, what you have told to us fits a similar description to others we know of. Do you remember last night when we told you about the boys who lured you into the TV?" As Mitsuru posed her question, Marie tilted her head up slightly to recall her memories to mind, nodding as soon as she remembered. "They wore hoods and dark jackets. And going by this, it might be possible that you were friends with the enemy the whole time."

"What?! How can you say that?!" Marie yelled in rage with an expression that drastically changed into her tempered disposition, "He looked out for me! In fact, we both looked out for each other! And he was chased away by the Shadows, so why would he put me in the TV after that, huh?!" She argued her case to the best her memory could provide her for, but she only needed her anger to put her points across. She was still right however; the act would be seemingly idiotic otherwise.

But the Ken had an explanation of his own, applying his own knowledge to the argument. "But that happened to Yu-san before though..." he said, hoping that Marie wouldn't yell at him after he had his say, "...one of the boys tricked him into putting his trust in him. He was the one that gave him that scar on the side of his face." After hearing him out, Marie found it hard for herself to keep to her own points, slowly convincing herself that the boy she met may not be as he seems to be. But then, the same thing could be said for the others; they found some difficulty in understanding the sequence of events the boy took to lure Marie into the TV. That was, if it was the same boy that did this. They all took both sides of the argument into account and immediately found a problem.

"Maybe the others would know..." Yosuke said, pulling out the walkie-talkie from the side of his jeans. He held down the button and brought the speakers to his lips in the hope that someone would answer quick enough to resolve the issue. "Guys, we need some help here..." he said before moving on to explain the situation. It was a long, winding process to go through, and Yosuke felt light-headed after saying a mouthful of information into the radio. But if they had any chance at getting somewhere, it had to be with others from the group.

However, the first to reply to Yosuke's call was Fuuka. And she didn't sound very enthusiastic when the transitional buzz came into the speaker. "Hmm...that's a tough one..." she said, instantly downing everyone's spirit, "...but if we're going to find out, there'll be a good chance that we'll find out today. We just have to keep looking and follow the description Marie has given us."

08/08 - Morning - Paulownia Mall

"Right." Aigis spoke again through the static noise, ending her transition with a click that followed after her voice. And with that, she returned to her own search party, continuing with the patrol around Paulownia Mall with Teddie and Yukiko; Nanako was also with them, but she had other things on her mind, including the many leisures the mall had to offer. The same could be said for Teddie, having already lost his focus on the task at hand and tagging along with Nanako to discover the stores with her.

Whilst the two were skipping and prancing around the Chagall Café with cravings for hot chocolate, Aigis and Yukiko decided to look elsewhere, specifically the spots where society never touches. They had already checked all around the outside of the Paulownia Mall, and entering the inside, they were soaked to the skin, or in Aigis' case, to the metal. Even so, Aigis felt like brand new that day; she was fixed up with some new metal platings and paintwork that shone a slightly brighter shade of white than the last ones, and the wires inside her were newly insulated, making her somewhat a little more energised. The rain didn't phase her at all, and it wasn't because she was waterproof; she had faced her Shadow, and that was enough for her to be completely focused on her duties.

One of the perks of being a humanoid machine was that Aigis' body temperature wouldn't change no matter what the weather conditions were like; she reason being that she doesn't have a core temperature, let alone any. But Yukiko on the other hand couldn't feel anything in her fingers, and when the rainwater and cold winds seeped through her red cardigan with wooly shirt underneath, the numbness slowly travelled into her arms. The only warmth she had was the heating system in the mall, and her own body heat. All she could do was wrapped herself in her own arms, shivering as she walked with Aigis to continue the search.

"Brr! What a miserable summer..." she remarked, rubbing her upper arms to create a warming friction, "...I don't know how the others can cope in that weather though. They must be soaking!" Aigis couldn't help but chuckle; not out of sadism, but because she's seen nearly everyone in the group commenting on the same thing. As they walked, Aigis led Yukiko to the entrance of the mall, stopping underneath the heating fans that were situated at the doors. And soon enough, Yukiko started to warm up, dropping her arms back to her sides as she bathed in the lukewarm breeze.

"I'm not the one for this kind of weather either, Yukiko-san," Aigis said as she looked out of the doors into the miserable landscape that scattered its overflowing puddles and saturated soil, "the rain reminds of tears sometimes. And the clouds make everything seem more grey-coloured. There's no wonder why so many people look so unhappy on a day like this; I would. Like so many humans, I prefer the sun...it brings out the beauty in the world like no artist could." Yukiko had always seen a human heart in Aigis from the very day they met, but hearing those poetic words coming from her own lips made her sound even more human than most. She didn't see the world at face value; rather, she could see so much more than that. She saw the world for its beauty, even in its blandest state, and only a mere machine unlike herself could completely miss something like that.

"I'm sure a lot of people could relate to you, Aigis. You have an amazing way of thinking for such art. If only I could look through your eyes...then I just might just take a leaf from your book and see things a whole lot more differently." Yukiko replied, smiling in awe at Aigis' inspirational thoughts and ideas. Aigis just shook her head with a smile, which seemed odd to Yukiko at first. "Beauty is a difficult conception to come by," she explained, "some people may see one thing in one way, and other people may see the same thing in a different way. There isn't one, absolute way to look at it; everyone has their own individual response."

"That's quite true..." Yukiko commented as she looked out to the landscape Aigis analysed. And just at that moment, she remembered another work of art that she wanted to share with her beauty-beholding friend. She thought of the poetry and stories Marie used to write, and the meanings she decoded upon reading them were almost vivid in her mind. "I remember reading Marie's mermaid poem before," she mentioned, "I think it was called 'Sea Foam'...and when I read it, I had some trouble finding out what it meant. But when we rescued her from the TV world, I finally knew what it meant. You're right Aigis...beauty is something you can't easily understand at first. You can't fake it; you can't mimic or imitate it; you have to...feel it, it seems."

"It looks like I'll be taking a leaf from your book as well." Aigis replied with a wide grin, admiring Yukiko's own theories and beliefs. Yukiko giggled knowing that they were fans of one another. Soon enough though, the time for talking about their favourite subjects came to an end, and when Yukiko's shivering was quelled, they felt the need to proceed with their task. "I think we've digressed long enough. Let's get back to the search." Yukiko suggested, getting a nod from the android as they walked with each other away from the entrance doors, continuing on to find the mystery friend.

08/08 - Morning - Iwatodai Station/Naganaki Shrine

Back in the rain though, Yu and the others weren't getting any dryer, and there were some signs that some of the party were coming down with colds. Making their way to the Naganaki Shrine, they began to sniffle and cough, constantly being battered by the skin-biting winds that were contributing to their decline in personal health. They had to hold out though, even if their umbrellas were about to be broken by the gales. And so, they kept striding on.

"Hey, senpai..." Kanji called for Yu as he violently sniffed up his blocked nose, followed by a congested cough afterwards, "...where have Naoto and the others gone today? Aren't they helping us with finding this guy?"

"No, they've gone to the hospital..." he replied, changing the position of his head to stop the rushing downpour from entering his eyes, "...they wanted to investigate the ward Minato was in so we wouldn't have to leave it any longer. Hopefully we can finally get some answers...and if we find Marie's friend today, it could be just the thing we need to progress with the investigation."

And on that note, they walked on, being sure to check everywhere as they went according to what Marie had given them. They needed to find a boy in a dark jacket with his hood up, roughly at Yu's height. The description was too ominous to ignore, and there were two possible individuals who would meet that criteria; or in their case, two culprits. Two boys. Two people that had caused trouble from the day Yu made contact with them. Until then, it was all speculation. The thought of it, however, wasn't something they could shake off; the probability of it was too likely.

And at long last, after a loooong month, the chapter is done! Quite a short one this time, but it's something to get back into the swing of things. Anyway, keep reading and reviewing my lovelies and I will see you again in the next chapter! Thank you very much for your patience and I hope you have enjoyed this chapter! CYA!

Next Time... [Midnight Channel broadcasts...]

BGM: Backside of the TV - Persona 4 OST

Naoto: I don't think I've seen that kind of disease before.

Yukari: Well... it's not really a 'disease'.

Akihiko: ... Some people can be the unlucky ones if they get a case of Apathy Syndrome.

Rise: You shouldn't be so hard on yourself, Senpai. You're only human you know.

Yukari: Every time I think of him, it's always the same story. I remember him, I cry, then everyone worries about me...