Shadow Over Trolberg
A Hilda/Persona 4 AU
By Daring D.D. Danger
Endgame: Reach For The Truth
3/20David gasped a little as he tripped on Twig. He was attempting to oversee everything going on at Randall's goodbye party. Frida was decorating and Hilda was cooking.
"Frida, does this taste right?" Hilda held out the spoon to her friend and she took a bite.
"Seems weak, Hilda," Frida said.
"I should add this, then!" Hilda held out a small bottle with a skull on it.
"Should I help them?" Randall asked Kelly, who sat on the couch with him.
"Nah, it's your goodbye party, after all," she replied. "Just relax.
"Randall!" Hilda ran over with the spoon. "Try this!" Randall could sense something sinister about the spoon.
"Oh no. You aren't poisoning him during his own party," David said.
"You try it, then!" Hilda put the spoon in his mouth. David began running around and screaming.
"You seem off today," Hilda said.
"I'm fine," Randall assured her.
"I can't believe you're actually leaving," Frida said.
"Big bro! You got a letter!" Little Hilda yelled, while rummaging through some Junes bags. "Uh oh! I think I forgot to get Daddy his pickled radish." She looked down. "Now I have to go back and get it," she mumbled.
"I'll go with you," Randall said.
"You'll come back on your breaks, right, big bro?" His cousin asked as they walked together through the shopping district.
"Yeah, I'll be here in the summer," he replied.
"Goodie! Then it won't seem so bad," she said. Suddenly, she stopped.
"What's wrong?"
"I wanna be with you forever! Promise you won't forget about me!"
"I promise." Randall's cousin hugged him.
"You better not, ever." They hugged for a while.
3/20
"Hey Randall, give this a try!" Hilda handed him the spoon of food. Randall looked around at his friends, as if he'd woken up from a daze.
"Is something wrong?" Hilda asked.
"It's probably your cooking," David laughed.
"Then you eat it!" She shoved the spoon in David's mouth, he began screaming and running around the room.
"Big bro! You got a letter!" Little Hilda yelled, while rummaging through some Junes bags. "Uh oh! I think I forgot to get daddy his pickled radish." She looked down. "Now I have to go back and get it," she mumbled. Randall took a look at the letter. He flipped it and saw it was from Trevor.
'I'm sure you're surprised to get this letter. I'm writing because I have something to tell you. It's true. Ny game is over. Our friends were right. I have to abide by the rules of this world.
Something still bothers me. I can't stop thinking about how this all started. The Midnight Channel. I can't seem to remember who originally told me about it. It seems like Van Gale and I only gained our power when you came to Trolberg, so maybe there is more to this. Maybe you can make something out of it.'
Randall called the group to Junes where he read the letter to them.
"What is the source of the Midnight Channel rumor? That is an interesting question," Kelly pondered.
"Couldn't you use your Persona from the moment you got here, and go in the TV?" Frida asked.
"Yeah, I could," Randall said.
"In that way, you are like Trevor and Van Gale. You never had to fight your own Shadow."
"We must be missing something. If the Midnight Channel and the power to enter the TV weren't related, these things wouldn't be lining up," David said.
"What if the person that told Trevor about the Midnight Channel also gave him the power to enter the TV World?" Hilda suggested.
"Hmm. Do you have any idea who that person would be?" Kelly asked Randall.
"No," he replied.
"Think about when you first got your power. That might help us find the person who started the rumor about the Midnight Channel."
"I'm not sure. I do remember having a really strange dream, the first night I was here."
"Was the dream prompted by anything?" Kelly asked.
"I'm not sure… unless- the day I got here, I went straight to my Uncle's house." Randall trailed off.
3/20
"Alright, open up!" Hilda approached with the spoon.
"Big bro-"
"Hilda!" Randall ran up to his cousin. "On the first day I got to Trolberg, did we stop somewhere before coming to the house?"
"What's got you so freaked out?" David said.
"Where did we stop?" Randall asked again.
"The gas station," Lil Hilda said. "We talked with that attendant guy, and after, you looked really sick." Randall sprinted out of the door and into Trolberg. As he ran it began to rain, and he started getting a severe headache. Eventually he had to stop and take a knee.
"Something wrong?" A voice said. The gas station attendant walked up behind him. "You should go home if you aren't feeling well."
"Who are you?" Randall asked.
"That's a strange question to ask," he replied.
"Tell me who you really are!" Randall yelled. The boy began laughing.
"I never expected you to make it this far. You wielded your power so well I should've seen this coming."
"You did this to us! You gave these powers to Trevor and Van Gale too."
"Really. You don't remember?" The boy took Randall's hand. Suddenly the memory of his first day in Trolberg came back to him. "Remember that welcoming handshake you got? Just a few strangers was all the spark a small place like this needed. But that spark was more than I anticipated. It was enough to fill the whole town with fog. Then you had to clear it away."
"No more games, who are you?" The boy laughed at Randall, before being consumed in white light. He transformed into a woman in white.
"I am Izanami. Ameno-sagiri, who controls the fog, is merely an aspect of myself I fostered long ago," She said in a new voice, that seemed to echo from nowhere.
"You're the one who created the Midnight Channel, and spread the rumors about it!" Randall said.
"Yes, and I gave you the power to enter that realm. The world you call The Midnight Channel. But that is all I did." Izanami lowered to Randall's level and stared with deep red eyes.
"What do you mean?"
"I was merely observing what you did with that power. I wanted to know what kind of world humans yearned for. It was your individual will that determined what you would see on that channel. There was no other trick. Whoever was shown was someone who the collective community desired to see more of. There were those who were hiding aspects of who they are, and those who desired to see what they were hiding. So I created a window to link the two. "
"And that window is the Midnight Channel," Randall said softly.
"Now you get it! I gave you exactly what you wanted to see. It was the curious nature of humans that truly set things in motion. Whatever they truly wanted was shown to them, a reflection of their own hearts' desires. Human beings are such a foolish species, the truth is the last thing they long for. They only wish to see what they want, they prefer to live in a world that is engulfed in fog." Randall's headache worsened again. "Now you understand. For humans to be truly happy, they must be trapped in fog, where they can see nothing but what they desire."
"I don't believe you at all! Being trapped in the fog isn't the answer, it doesn't bring happiness!"
"Are you really in a position to be telling me this?" Izanami laughed.
"What are you talking about?"
"Do you really want to see the truth? Are you sure? Do you really want to see the cold hard facts about reality?"
"Are you telling me this isn't..." Suddenly Randall was filled with visions of his friends, lifeless and trapped in a dark fog. "That's right. It's not."
Randall was suddenly in another world, just as dozens of shadowy hands dragged Kelly into the ground, screaming for her life.
"This is the unpleasant truth of your reality." Izanami now towered over him, obscured by fog.
"Orpheus!" Randall's Persona lunged at Izanami and was blown back with enough force to drive it into the ground and cause Randall to scream.
"Is that the best you can do? You disappoint me," Izanami taunted. Shadowy hands began grabbing Randall's limbs and dragging him into the void. "This is the voice of the human race. They're saying they are happy in the fog where they see what they choose. You're disrupting their happiness." Just as Randall was about to go under, David ran up and grabbed his hand, pulling him free.
"You okay, bro?" He asked.
"Yeah," Randall replied as the hands began trying to drag David under. "David, fight it!"
"I can't, bro! it's up to you!" David was pulled under.
"David!" Randall yelled as he fell to his knees.
"Frida!" Hilda yelled in genuine fear as a hand took her by the head.
"Hilda!" Frida was trying to crawl free.
"Don't do this!" Randall begged.
"Frida! Save me!" Hilda cried with her last breath.
"Save us, Randall!" Frida tried to reach out a hand.
"Don't do this! Please stop! I don't want to see this!" Randall begged as his friends disappeared. He smashed his fists on the ground.
"Now do you understand? All that awaits if you pursue the truth is anguish and agony. Wouldn't you prefer to spend eternity in a world of your own desires? Wouldn't that bring you far greater happiness?"
3/20
Randall looked around his uncle's home. Everything was where it was the last time.
"We'll be friends forever, won't we?" Randall asked.
"Why even ask the question? Of course," David said.
3/20
"Here you go!" Hilda handed Randall the spoon once again.
"I'm not letting you poison him!" David said as Hilda put the spoon in his mouth, causing him to run screaming. Randall laughed with the group.
3/20
"Let's add these." Randall handed Hilda several ingredients. He was feeling unusually tired.
"I'm not sure about that," Hilda said, worried.
"It'll be fine. It'll all be fine," Randall assured her.
"Forgive me for this." Randall suddenly awoke to being slapped across the face by Margaret. He was suddenly blown away as she summoned a Persona. "I'm sorry things have come to this. I must say goodbye." The Persona launched a volley of fireballs, Randall cowered and prepared for the hit, but it never came. He looked up and noticed one of his Persona had come out on it's own and taken the hit.
"Big bro! You'll come back, won't you?" Lil Hilda's voice said.
"Hilda?" Randall asked. Margaret launched another attack and another Persona grew from him.
"You really had my back. Don't lose now, okay?" The Great Raven's voice joined the echo as the attack deflected. The pattern continued as more and more voices joined the echo. Hilda's mom, the Librarian, Twintail, Euryale, even the Woodman. More and more Persona spilled between him and Margaret and she began to weaken. The Rat King, Tontu, even David's troll joined the voices.
"You've saved my life in more ways than one. I was supposed to take care of you, but you took care of me." As Randall's uncle spoke, Randall stood, summoning the Persona on his own this time. "That's how we were able to truly become a family." Suddenly, light filled the area. The room was filled with TVs, all depicting Randall's face, but with yellow eyes.
"I was afraid of a future without my friends. Afraid of leaving everyone behind. Afraid of moving forward on my own. I don't want to be alone again. I've been alone and I won't go back." Shadow Randall finished talking.
"I won't go back!" Randall's Persona began charging an attack.
"Now, time to end this!" Margaret said. Both Persona launched an attack, knocking both back with a scream.
"I wanted to stay with everyone forever. I didn't care if it was an illusion created by the fog. Life without connection to people is miserable. It's not the life I want. I just need them here, no matter what the cost." Randall got up crying as his Shadow spoke.
"You're right. I had no use for the truth, did I? As long as I had them, I didn't care if it was an illusion. It didn't matter." Randall looked at his Shadow. "I know who you are, and you're me." The Shadow smiled and disappeared, taking the form of a single card, which fell into Randall's hand.
"I am no longer alone!" He yelled as Orpheus sprang forward and destroyed Margaret's Persona.
"Even if you should lose everything, you will never again feel like you have been abandoned." Margaret walked forward and extended a hand. "Do yourself a favor and don't ever forget that." He shook her hand and found that she'd given him something. He looked at the glowing pearl like object in his hand.
"This is a crystal of the power you have nurtured on this journey. This orb whisks away false pretenses and dispels lies as it illuminates the truth." Igor's voice seemed to come from the orb. He looked in front of him as Margaret vanished. He held the orb in the air and the room filled with light.
Randall was now back with Izanami, but she was now a large demon skeleton, red flesh dripping off of the bones.
"Interesting. Why did you come back?" she asked.
"Is what I'm seeing now your true form?" Randall asked.
"That changes nothing. The collective will of humanity will pull you into the abyss. Over and over again." As she spoke, hands began clawing at him from the ground, but they were unable to maintain a grip. He walked forward in Izanami's direction.
"What's this? The will of one human can't turn the will of the masses. Izanami shot lasers from her eyes, but Randall summoned Orpheus to take the blow, and kept approaching Izanami.
"Why do you keep pushing forward? You will be happier with the illusion. Embrace the fog and get trapped in a world that gives you what you desire."
"What makes me happy is not your decision to make." Randall summoned the Persona that defeated Ameno-sagiri to deflect another blow.
"Your friends no longer exist in this world. Do you want to live alone forever?"
"You're wrong. I am far from alone." His Persona was destroyed and lightning began surrounding him as he continued to walk forward.
"Human beings do not have the potential to defeat the fog. Stop fighting and embrace it."
"I think it's time I showed you what true potential is!" Randall was surrounded in blue light as he held his hand up. "Izanagi-no-Okami!" The Persona towering as high as Izanami appeared behind Randall.
"Do you think you're a god!?" She launched an attack. Izanagi deflects it and severs several of her limbs in the same swing.
"Impossible," she says quietly. Light began gathering around Izanagi.
"Anyone can do it. As long as they open their eyes and look around, they will see it. They'll see the truth!" A shot hit Izanami in the chest. "There is a fog, they just have to embrace the truth to get rid of it!" Another shot hits the goddess. "This is what's right, and this is the path I chose to follow!" Finally, Izanagi used all of its power. When the light cleared, Izanami was consumed in red flame.
"Very well" She laughed as she began to disintegrate. "If that is what you desire, you've managed to clear the fog in this world and the real world. I shall observe from on high for now, and we will see if this does lead to happiness."
"Fine, you'll see it for yourself," Randall smiled.
"You have done well, child of the humans." With that, she vanished. He blinked and was transported to a verdant green landscape.
"Is this the TV world?" He looked around as birds sang. "Is that what it was like before the fog?"
"For someone of your age, you've had a very powerful and meaningful journey," Igor's voice echoed.
"Now that the fog is cleared, there is nothing left to lead you astray. Follow your heart, as it leads you down your own path," Margaret's voice joined.
"I'm afraid to tell you this, but it is the last time we will invite you here," Igor's voice faded.
"What the?" Randall turned to see that David had awoken in the grass. "Wasn't I?"
"What? Where are we?" Kelly asked.
"It's so pretty..." Frida looked around.
"You're all here..." Randall shuddered.
"We found you!" Hilda yelled as everyone ran up and hugged him.
3/21
Randall found himself in the Velvet room one last time, the blue train car riding through the fog.
"At long last, the contract has been fulfilled, and you were truly a superb guest. Now it's time for you to go and embrace what you see before you. Behold how beautiful the future is in the world you've fought so hard for, and won, for yourself." The car stopped and the doors opened as Igor spoke. The Velvet Room faded for the last time.
Randall stepped onto the train that would take him away from Trolberg.
"Well, see you around," David said.
"Give it your all, okay?" Frida added.
"I've always got your back," Kelly flexed. Twig barked from next to her.
"Come back and see us again. Take care!" Hilda said.
"I can't wait to see you again!" Alfur was waving from Hilda's shoulder.
"We're all gonna miss you," Uncle Elison said.
"See you later big bro! Bye bye!" Lil Hilda waved.
"I guess this is it, goodbye!" Randall said as the doors closed and the train began moving. The others began running alongside.
"I'm so glad I met you! Thanks for everything!" Frida yelled.
"Whatever you do, don't forget about us!" Hilda yelled.
"Just so you know! I love you!" David yelled, shedding a tear.
"Wherever you go, we'll always be friends!" Kelly yelled.
"I'll never forget any of you," Randall said to himself. "I promise."
End
Authors Notes
It's odd to finish this story I'll admit. Since I haven't done authors notes on a fic since Remorse, I thought I'd say a few things.
Shadow started as kind of a joke, but I took it more seriously around the fifth chapter on. I actually have a lot of regrets about this story looking back, because of the way it started. I never really felt like I got even time for every social link in particular (sorry Tontu). I also really came to regret how a lot of it had to be very cookie cutter from Persona 4 (especially the Ameno-sagiri section and the part where Nanako/Lil Hilda runs away). I suppose I couldn't do those parts better than Persona 4 did, because it's already a masterpiece. Also I regret naming the MC's cousin Hilda. It was originally for that moment of Hilda meeting a little version of herself to be cute, but man did it get annoying by about the Heaven chapter.
This story was being written around the same time as Remorse, when I was just starting in the Hilda fandom, back in early 2019, and it's ironic it took me until pretty much when I had my falling out from said fandom to finish it, here in mid 2020.
A fun fact to add, This story inspired Viridescent Shadows. I had the idea after writing that conversation between Randall and Twintail about her past, and of course I finished that story and it's sequel before Shadow Over Trolberg.
As far as what I will do in the future? I still like Hilda as my muse, so I plan to keep writing it. After this I'm thinking I want to pick Seventeen Forever back up though (black sheep of my fics amirite?). Also expect Into The Hildaverse, Act 2 very soon, as well as Viridescent Shadows 3: Gemma Chronicles. Also another unannounced project of mine, about another Tarot themed video game I like. (Something's Changed, And I didn't know, You're slipping away…) Will there be a Shadow Over Trolberg 2? Maybe, I've thought it through but the idea feels lofty at this time so probably not.
I want to give a shoutout to Ghost In The Mirror author Nick, who inspired this damn fic out of a joke (which is why a lot of side characters in this used names from Ghost in the Mirror)
Miss Lovelin, the Lilliputian Perspective author, for editing this entire forty thousand word monstrosity for grammar, and for being a pretty cool GF for a few months last year.
Newgame+LD, The Paradox trilogy author, for creating a fan cover for this story, before it had an official one.
David, the creator of Randall, for letting me borrow such a cool OC
Bidoof64 on Discord, for being a sometimes overwhelming fan of my work
Finally, Hiro, the artist who drew the official cover, and who has gotten me through a really rough COVID19 quarantine, I love you, you dork.
Lastly I figured I'd tell you what everyone's Tarot Arcana was, just for funsies.
Randall – The Fool
Hilda – The Magician
David – Strength
Frida – The Hierophant
Trevor – The Emperor
Kelly – The Lovers
Twig – The Chariot
Alfur – The Star
Uncle Elison – Temperance
Lil Hilda – The Priestess
Margaret – The Empress
Johanna – The Moon
The Librarian – Death
David's Troll – Justice
Twintail – The Devil
Tontu – The Hermit
The Rat King – Fortune
The Great Raven – The Sun
Euryale – The Tower
Woodman – The Hanged Man
The Investigation Team/Seekers of Truth – Judgment
Until next time,
Daring D.D. Danger