"Teddie, protect my uncle."

The bear stopped tugging on his sleeve. "H-Huh?"

"Get him out of here. Get him back home. I beg you."

The bear gesticulated wildly, frantically gesturing to the behemoth before them. "What about you?!"

Souji swallowed the lump in his throat as he stared into the giant voids where the woman's eyes should be. She was waiting. He didn't like that.

"I don't know—just—go! Just go! Get him out of here, please!"

He could see Teddie hesitate, the bear's ears flattening to his head. "O—okay... I-I think he'd be real upset if anything happened to you, though..." There was another moment of hesitation before Teddie ran away from his side. He looked over his shoulder to watch the bear struggle to lift Dojima with his paws and drag him away. When he saw Teddie finally get a good grip onto his uncle and start to take him away to safety, Souji finally turned back to the monster looming before him.

His heart was pounding in his ears as he stared down this being of Death.

"Vessel of Hope..." her voice travelled through his entire body. It pinched every nerve, made every hair stand on end. Her grotesque face leaned closer, almost touching him. Her... skin continued to melt off infinitely, burning and sizzling the ground into nothing at his feet. He thought he saw the gleam of something in her empty sockets—a pupil in the far depths of her skull?

"Are you ready for your death?" She gave him no time to reply as she lifted one of her massive, clawed hands. In the panic, he felt Izanagi manifest in front of him, rushing forward with his glaive. Electricity poured into his Persona's weapon as it slashed into her hand, but it didn't stop her. The small gash sealed up almost immediately from her dripping flesh. Her hand slammed down into Izanagi, and Souji felt all the air escape from his lungs from the impact. He could only watch in horror as the hand slammed down onto him, forcing him onto his back. He couldn't even scream at the pain as his face was pushed into the burning flesh. Couldn't scream as the giant fingers curled around him, picking up pieces of the floor as it lifted him off of the ground.

She clenched her fist as tight as she could, the debris digging into his back. He felt Izanagi fizzle out of existence. Her flesh scorched through his clothes and he could feel the burns blistering all over his skin. Blood started to pool in the back of his throat. He was nauseous. He thought he was going to melt alive.

Then the grip loosened. He opened his eyes, and, through the tears, he could see what he thought was light, but was only fog. It took a moment for him to register he was falling, and when he looked down, all he saw was Death's gaping maw opening into a void.

There was nothing he could do as he was dropped into her mouth. He thought he heard Teddie yell for him before he was consumed by the darkness.

He thought it would be slimy as he fell, considering it was someone's throat, apparently, but, as he crashed and fell into walls he couldn't see, he was hit with nothing but cold. It was ice cold. It burned his burning skin even farther. He couldn't scream. He couldn't do anything as his body turned numb. He saw dots of tiny lights below him. They almost looked like stars.

He fell into them with a surprising splash. He sunk into the depths and he was in a meadow full of flowers. He laughed and twirled. A girl was with him. Her smile was radiant and shone like a thousand suns. He would never meet someone so

-dead. His family was dead. He stood in the doorway, petrified. Their necks slit, his daughter staring right at him with cold, horrified eyes. Who had done this? Why would anyone do this to his poor, innocent girl? She did nothing wrong! Nothing! He was going to find who did this and

-cry. The tears wouldn't stop. She was so happy. She was finally getting married to the love of her life. Her wedding dress was perfect. Her hair was perfect. The ceremony was perfect. Nothing could ruin this happiness. Nothing. It would never—

He coughed and gagged as he resurfaced. He struggled to move his arms to keep himself afloat, but his body still refused to work, and the... water? The stomach acid? Whatever he lay in was thick. It almost felt like the Shadows pulling him down, without the claws.

He saw something fall from above, only to catch a quick glimpse of a bleeding silhouette crash into the substance with him. The force sent him back under and he

-held his stuffed toy proudly in the air. Mommy made it for him! Just for him! It was the cutest, bestest bunny in the whole wide world! It was gonna be his new bestest friend that would live with him forever! Now he just needed to give the bunny the bestest name in the whole world! Hmm, what could it be? Oh! It would be

-"Yukari, I'm home!" He could hear the thunderous sounds of his daughter's feet as she raced to meet him at the door.

"Daddy!" She almost slipped on the floor before she used the momentum to leap and give him a hug around his waist. "I missed you so much!"

He laughed, patting her on the head. "I know." He felt the guilt rise in his chest. He would have to tell her and his wife now, or he'd never get the chance. "Listen, Yukari, there's—there's something you and Mommy should know."

"Huh? What? Why do you look so sad?"

"Let's find Mommy, okay? I'll tell you both."

"Oh... okay." She stepped away from him hesitantly. Even though it was in his bag, he could feel the weight of the letter as if it were in his trembling hands. He watched Yukari

-disappear. Where did he go?!

"Get back here, dammit!" Se yelled fruitlessly, rounding the corner of the alleyway. She flew out onto the street, people flooding the area. Se couldn't find him. Fuck!

"I'll find you! I swear, even if it's the last fucking thing I do! Do you hear me, you little

-bit of salt."

He peered into the stew on the stove, mystified. It smelled so good. How did Dad always make things smell so good?! It was

-terrifying. Her leg was crushed under the cave-in. She couldn't move. Oh, God, dhe was going to die in here. She had so much left he had to do. She had to

-pull the trigger. He looked into the mirror, his eyes blank and dead. The makeshift gun was up against his temple. All he had to do was pull the fucking trigger. It'd be over in an instant. Everything would be over.

He heard a voice from the living room."Daddy, look! Come look what I drew!"

His hand shook.

If he couldn't do it when he lived alone, what made him think he could do it when they were here? Fuck. He put the gun down, lowering it into its nondescript case. Maybe when they left he'd finally be able to

-help her. He had never seen a woman so pale before, he was frightened she was already dead. He could feel her breathing, however, and knew that wasn't the case. He carried her carefully. On his hunt for food, a maiden was the last thing he'd expected to find. He would help nurse her to health, even if it meant he would go without food. She was almost nothing but skin and bone. How could someone get into such a

Breath filled his lungs again as he somehow resurfaced once more. He forced his arms up, fingers brushing against a star—brother pulling her hair. Daddy yelled to stop. There was a screeching sound and bright lights and—his eyes burned as he gagged, swallowing whatever substance he was in. He felt his foot brush against another st—clinging onto her sister's leg. She couldn't leave! She wasn't allowed—he felt himself sink a little as the shock hit him. He had hundreds of names running through his head. Who was he again?

Eiichiro Takeba?

No...

Kotone Shiomi...?

No...

Tohru Adachi...?

No.. wait. Wait yes, yes that was right. He was Tohru Adachi... wasn't he? He struggled to keep himself afloat—water filled his lungs. He saw the lifeless cat drift by. He just wanted to save the—every star shocked him like a bolt of electricity. He was getting confused, he—couldn't believe her eyes! What a giant birthday cake, and it was all for—couldn't breathe. He didn't want this. Someone, help him! He needed out of here! He was—scared. The woman was holding him down, squeezing his neck. He couldn't—move. He was sinking again, no matter how badly he flailed his body to keep afloat.

He had to keep trying. Someone would—she couldn't believe it. Was she really running away with her girlfriend to defy—help him. Someone had to be there to help—took Izanami's hands. The woman smiled so tenderly. It was time to—him. He wanted to go home. Someone take him—a chime. 'I am so sorry. In another life, perhaps I could have...'

'Theodore, you must leave her to fate.'

'I wish there was

-blue. It was there for an instant and then gone.

Who was he again?

Who...

Where... was he again?

He was on a bench. In a park. He was writing a story of a pink alligator

and the piano continued. She had never heard anything so beautiful. It was

pain. He could feel the blood leaving him with every pulse of his heart. He wasn't going to die today, he

threw up. She knew she drank waaaay too much last night, but it was all in the name of

death. She looked into the river. It could sweep her away. Nobody would notice she was

happy. He'd never been happier. Leaving home, laying next to his husband. What else could he

hear. Why couldn't he hear anything? She was talking, and, yet, it was silent. Why couldn't he

hit her?! None of her moves connected! Izanami dodged everything she threw at her! It wasn't

okay. He knew it wasn't okay, but he smiled anyway. Anything to keep her happy. Anything to

stay the night. She was so nervous. It was the first time she was over at a friend's house. It was

hell. The claws scratched into his eyes and pulled him under. Izanami was taking his wife and he

passed! She couldn't believe it! She was going to her dream college! She had to phone and tell

Izanami-she smiled. She cupped his cheek gently. 'The pain will not last. You are safe with me.'

He surfaced. He felt the liquid fall down his face. It felt like it was trying to peel away his skin as it fell. Where? Who...? What...?

He saw something bob in the distance, illuminated only by the stars—he pushed his horse too far. Her ankle was broken. This was all his fault. He—it was a person. He saw a person in the distance. Were they drowning? They were on their stomach and—agony. Why did the baby have to be so early? This was—

His head was spinning. He wanted to throw up. He lost track of the person. Had they even really been there? He

was falling. He hit tree after tree branch before getting stuck. His ribs were definitely

blue. And she got a homerun! Her first homerun, she couldn't

carry him anymore. This was it. They were going to die in this fog. They

heard a chime. No, wait, that was the bell. It was time to go home! She had to

run. Had to escape the monster chasing him. Had to get home. Run as fast as

lightning. She to felt it surging through her veins, hair on her arms standing on end as she

shook their hand. The servant smiled. He felt nauseous when he let go. He

fought. She wouldn't let this god kill her! Not like this! It couldn't be her time yet! She

deserved to live! He didn't want to be forgotten! His life was so much more than

this! Fuck this! Screw this! This was all bullshit! Gods were nothing but a

mistake, it had to be! What did she do to deserve this? Was this a divine punishment? She was in

pain. The claws dug into his skin. His blood felt like static. He was going to

die.

He was going to die.

But... who was he...?

...

...

...

A flash of blue. And then it faded to red.

A... disfigured bear. Dragging a man. He raised his hand. The flesh fell from his fingers and burned the ground. The bear panicked. He lowered his hand to grab them. To grab the bear and the man.

To grab...

To... grab the bear... and the man...

To grab... Teddie and Dojima.

To kill them.

He was going to...

kill...? Them...?

He...

No...

No, no, no! No!

His eyes snapped open. He was sinking further into the abyss. Even as the liquid went through his nose and gaping mouth and filled his lungs, he still found it in himself to scream. He felt his body radiate with energy, a light filling the abyss. He looked at his trembling hands. He was... glowing. Brighter than any of the stars in this dreary hell.

He closed his trembling hand into a fist. A glowing butterfly passed him by. He heard a voice in his head.

"You know what you must do."

It was his own, yet, different. Stronger. Determined.

He swam, surprisingly effortlessly, to the surface. The body he had seen was no longer there. Nothing he could do about it now—all he could do was safe his uncle.

He remembered now.

He was Souji Narukami.

He willing all the energy he had. He felt Izanagi appear behind him. No, it was something more than Izanagi.

He couldn't dwell on it.

With a yell, the new Izanagi darted forward. He was also glowing radiantly, almost too much for Souji to look at, but he watched anyway. Izanagi readied his glaive, striking and slashing at the end(?) of the abyss.

Souji held his breath, seeing the flash from Izanagi's strike disappear in a dazzling sparkle.

But nothing happened.

He was about to cry out in agony, order Izanagi to strike again, before he saw the light from the strike return. Slowly, it cracked. And then it peeled apart. There was a harrowing and horrifying cry, shaking the abyss of stars tremendously. The sound pierced into his skull, before he found himself moving. The cut had opened even wider—even longer than Izanagi had actually cut. It looked like Death's—no—Izanami,i's body was disintegrating outwards from the source of the wound.

The abyss of stars was leaking out.

He was ready to scream as he felt himself falling out of Izanami's body and down the waterfall of stars, but he felt Izanagi grab him by the wrist, gently carrying him in the air. He watched as the abyss pooled onto the ground, the thousands of stars following it. Some fell through the hole in the floor from where Izanami had grabbed him. He felt guilt pang in his chest as he watched the stars... change. Their forms were indistinguishable at first, but, soon, as they fell out of Izanami's body and rested on the floor, they slowly turned... into people.

Some wore clothes he remembered from fashion trends years ago. Others wore clothes he only saw documented in history books. Some were children, some were old, some were inbetween. They continued to spill out from the wound, some of the stars falling into the hole or down the sides of the railings. He couldn't do anything to help them...

And, there, amidst the abyss and people formed from stars, he saw Teddie and his unconscious uncle. Teddie was looking up at him, flabbergasted. He saw Adachi's unconscious body spill out of Izanami's wound, teetering on the edge of the hole.

"YOU-"

He almost forgot about the deity herself. He could feel the heat of her breath on his back. Izanagi pulled him away, quickly, turning around just in time to see her hand swipe at him. She almost caught his face with her nails.

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!"

She looked ready to swat at him again, before changing her mind and moving her hands to her gaping wound. Her melting flesh seared into the wound, the woman screaming in pain, "YOU'VE RUINED EVERYTHING!"

The abyss and stars leaked out between the gaps in her fingers, but, slowly, it stopped to a crawl. She pulled back her hands, the wound pulsating in her rotting flesh. Some of the abyss still poured out from the cracks she couldn't seal, but the stars could no longer fit through.

She swiped at him again. Her gargantuan size made her movements slow, allowing Izanagi to rush him away with ease. However, her harsh swipe brought along a harsh breeze. He saw Teddie topple over, his body squeaking as he flailed to get back up. Some of the unconscious people moved dangerously close to the railing edges. Adachi's legs were dangling through the hole in the ground.

She swiped at them again. If Izanagi kept carrying him around, nothing would get done. If they didn't fight back now, what was the point?

Steeling himself, he closed his eyes. With a thought, he felt Izanagi drop him. As he started his descent, he slowly opened his eyes, watching the scene unfold before him. Izanagi darted around Izanami, cutting and slashing her along the way as he did. She was too slow to catch up to him. What looked like Shadows pooled out of her open wounds, screeching and squealing as they fell to the floor.

Which he was going to do.

He quickly shut his eyes and braced for impact, until he gagged at something grabbing him by the collar of his shirt. It was choking him, and he scrambled to try to grab whatever was holding him. His fingers grabbed the arm, and a shock travelled down his arms. His fingers twitched and burned. He finally opened his eyes again, ignoring the tears, when he realized he was descending slowly. He couldn't turn to look at who had him in their grasp, but he could feel a pair of eyes on him.

He scoured the crowd of bodies until he landed on Adachi. The man stared at him through half-lidded eyes. It wasn't long before Adachi passed out, and the grip on Souji's shirt faded. He had no time to react as he fell the rest of the way. He heard a snap as he landed. He gasped in shock, unable to determine what broke, before the gasp turned into a yell as he felt Izanagi get hit. The blow rocked into his abdomen, his ribs feeling bruised.

He coughed and gagged, trying to lift himself up to see what was happening before Izanagi was dealt another blow to the back. The pain surged through him, and it was all he could do not to cry. Izanagi was struck again—again—again. It was too rapid fire for that huge, lumbering form Izanami had been in. He couldn't look to see what was happening, the pain hitting him from all angles. He was seeing stars as he looked at the ground. He was too nauseous to throw up. It felt like every bone in his body was breaking into tiny little pieces with every strike Izanagi took.

"Get up!" He heard a voice frantically beside him. "You have to get up!" He felt plush mittens grab him by the shoulders and attempt to hoist him into a sitting position. He couldn't keep his head up, and he felt it listlessly roll from side to side. A cool wash fell over him, and he felt his pain subside, only a little bit.

"Come on! Wake up!" Teddie cried. Of course it was Teddie. He was doing this to save Teddie and his uncle, and then... he had to be saved again. He was saved by Adachi, too, the man who threw him into this whole mess. He kept getting saved by others.

Not anymore.

He had to save himself.

He had to save them.

Lightly pushing the bear aside, he gripped around until he found the railing next to him. He pushed himself to his feet, past the pain. He felt another blow to Izanagi—in the gut—and he seethed. His whole body tensed, his knees trying to collapse, but he forced himself to stand, even as his knees knocked.

He stared to where he felt Izanagi. The Persona was in the air, getting battered around by Izanami. She had shifted her form back to the one in the dress. Her skin was that fake porcelain. She summoned spears and swords and maces made of Shadows, pummelling Izanagi with nothing held back.

He could see Izanagi's glow fade, the Persona flickering into static.

No... Izanagi wasn't his name.

Souji pushed away from the railing, forcing his body to stand without help. He knew what snapped now. His left wrist. It was on fire as he attempted to curl both his hands into fists. The nausea rose the longer he stood, his body exploded with pain as he watched his Persona take hit after hit. It felt like his head was going to split—he could feel blood pooling from his nose and into his mouth.

He wasn't watching Izanagi fight for him—fight with him.

"Izanagi-no-Okami!" He yelled. He saw a flash from his Persona's eyes. "Let's finish this! Together!"

Izanami rocketed towards Izanagi-no-Okami with a glaive to rival his own, looking as if she were going to decapitate the Persona. However, Izanagi-no-Okami exploded with a radiant light, even moreso than before. Izanami screamed, the Shadows forming her weapon falling into harmless waste onto the ground or into the fog past the railings.

Souji took a step forward. Izanami's porcelain skin had cracked, her rotten, melting flesh back into plain view. Her fake face disappeared, replaced with her true face. This time, instead of two empty sockets, one had what looked to be a mechanical eye, rainbows colouring the sclera.

Souji took another step forward as the deity reeled back, grimacing from Izanagi-no-Okami's light. She attempted to flee, flying backwards. A dense fog escaped from the mechanical eye, but Souji... with Izanagi-no-Okami... he knew where she was.

Izanagi-no-Okami followed after her into the dense fog. Souji couldn't physically see through it himself, but he took careful steps around the bodies on the floor, trying to get closer to the action. His legs still shook. His legs wanted to give out with every single step, but he pressed on. He was going to find her.

She continued to pour out endless amounts of the dense fog, to where Souji could barely see in front of himself anymore. He had to stop walking in fear of stepping on anybody on the ground. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

And another deep breath.

He heard a chime.

When he opened his eyes, he was seeing through Izanagi-no-Okami's eyes. He could see her. Not physically, not with an outline, he couldn't see her past the fog but, yet, at the same time, he could. He charged, the modified glaive in his hands. The fog parted as he dashed through it, electricity following in his wake.

He could hear her soul.

He could see the fear in her missing eyes.

Beams of light shot out from behind him, dissipating the fog entirely. There she was, frantically trying to flee again. He could see fog emerging from the eye once more.

No.

Not this time.

She wasn't going to prolong this any farther.

He looked up from his own body. He was seeing through his own eyes and Izanagi-no-Okami's. Somehow, it made perfect sense, even though he didn't understand it.

Izanagi-no-Okami started his charge once more, rocketing through the air with blazing speeds.

There was a terrible scream that echoed through the air when his glaive pierced through her eye and out the back of her skull. Her body twitched and spasmed, gasping and gagging in pain as her body slowly started to both break and completely melt away.

"This... isn't over... I'll... be back... children of man..." She cursed, hands gripping onto Izanagi-no-Okami's as she continued to die.

Souji felt all the energy drain from his body, and he fell to the ground in a heap. He whispered as his vision faded out, "I don't care... I'm... going... home..."

When he felt Izanagi-no-Okami disappear with Izanami, he drifted off to sleep.