Persona 5: The Darkest Hour
The Mysterious Girl
[Opening Scene: Iwatodai (?)
Theme of the Mysterious Hour: Their Own Past from Persona 3: FES]
Sanada Akihiko knelt on the ground as he held his right shoulder, blood dripping down his bare chest as his short silver hair and blood-red cloak swayed from the gentle breeze.
He just couldn't believe it.
After all of these years, it had returned.
Akihiko stood up and panted as his gray eyes stared at the Torn King of Desire's electrified remains and spat in disgust. "I always hated that shadow," Akihiko muttered.
Aki-kun, are you okay?
Akihiko's head snapped up at the voice in his mind and said, "A little banged up, but I'm alive. That's all that matters."
That is a relief.
Akihiko's eyes scanned the tower with narrowed eyes, dozens of coffins around him. He was jogging on his way home to his wife and newborn when that familiar feeling overcame his body, and he was attacked.
But how could that be? Minato stopped the Dark Hour and prevented the Fall. And yet Tartarus stood tall once again. "Fuuka-hime," Akihiko began. "I know Mitsuru and Yukari are on their honeymoon down in New York, but get in touch with Mitsuru right away. After that, see if you can locate any Shadows nearby or as far as Juno can allow you to scan."
Understood Aki-kun.*sigh* There goes our peaceful night with Shinji.
"I'm sorry. Hopefully, whatever is going on, we can figure it out with the others," Akihiko told her as he began to walk with a slight limp. "I'll be home in a little while."
I love you. Be safe and come home soon.
Despite the situation, Akihiko smiled.
"I love you too. Sit tight. I won't be long," Akihiko replied.
[Scene Change: Shibuya (?)
Theme of Battle: Last Surprise from Persona 5]
"Oh fuck me. I still have nightmares over this bastard!" Skull exclaimed as Gabriel floated in the air, a serene smile on her face.
"She can't be as tough as she was during the build-up to Yaldabaoth," Panther replied as she held her whip.
"What are you doing here?!" Joker demanded. "We ended the Metaverse when we defeated Yaldabaoth and Maruki!"
"The Current Wild Card of the Velvet Room, we meet again," The shadow said, her voice serene, nearly betraying her nature as a shadow. "Step aside so I can complete my mission."
"Why are you after this girl?" Queen asked.
"She is needed to free our lord from imprisonment…" The shadow replied. "Please…release her to my care."
"How about no," Joker replied before he ripped off his mask and shouted, "Arsène: Eigaon!'
Arsene appeared behind Joker and launched a large beam of black and red energy at the angelic shadow, which flew backward in the air with a scream.
Skull and Noir ran side by side as the shadow fell to one knee and leaped into the air, and with a scream, Noir's ax and Skull's spiky baseball bat crashed into the shadow's head, causing the familiar inky black substance to fall from its head.
Queen dashed forward and landed two hard jabs before she leaped up and landed a solid knee to the shadow's chin, which caused the head to whip back only for Panther and Morgana to be seen falling towards them.
"Hecate: Agidyne!" Panther shouted.
"Mercurius: Garudyne!" Mona followed up while Queen, Skull, and Noir dashed backward just as the joint attack sent down a heatwave like no other onto the angel, causing it to wail before exploding into the inky black substance.
(Theme of Confusion: Between Doors from Persona 3: FES)
"Wow…We didn't give her a chance," Skull said.
"It's weird, though…She seemed so weak. We could have never done something like back during the trail to Yaldabaoth," Joker noted.
That's what I was going to warn you guys before you all decided to gang-bang he.r
"Oracle," Skull said. "Oh, nevermind…"
She was strong but compared to what we fought before Yaldabaoth, she was pretty weak. All of you guys, at somewhat full power, wiped her out. She stood no chance.
"Good, but we have more pressing concerns now," Noir said as she knelt beside the unconscious girl and picked her up in her arms. "We have to get her inside."
"Grab whatever she dropped beneath the car over there," Joker said. "The rest of you, be on guard for more shadows."
Whoa! I'm feeling strange
"What's going on up there, Oracle?" Joker asked.
I'm sensing something. Not from the tower but….Another Persona user?
"How can that be?" Panther asked. "We're the only Persona users in the world, right?"
Whoever this is, they're pretty strong for me to pick up on them from so far.
"Can you pick up on their location?" Fox asked.
Hm. It's southwest from here. If I had to guesstimate, it could be as far as Kobe. but it's too far to pinpoint the exact location.
"I have her weapons," Queen said as she stood up, holding a naginata and a gun in her hands.
"She had a gun?" Skull asked.
"Yeah, but this feels different from our Metaverse ones…" Queen said. She tilted the gun left and right until she saw the words EVOKER etched onto the side.
"Evoker? What is this?" Queen asked.
Without warning, the world shifted back to normal, with the Phantom Thieves' attires returning to normal and Morgana morphing back into a cat.
"What the hell?!" Ryuji shouted with alarm.
With a scream, Futaba fell from her vanishing persona and right into Yusuke's arms. "Thanks, Yusuke," Futaba said as Fox nodded and sat her down on her two feet.
Once she got her bearings, Futaba eyed the gun in Makoto's hands and grinned.
"Lemme see!" Futaba said while attempting to snatch the weapon from Makoto, but Makoto stared at her with a dangerous glint in her eye. Futaba whimpered and hid behind Ren, who gave Makoto a raised eyebrow.
"Makoto-chan…" Ren said with a warning tone.
"Sorry, leader, but this could be a real gun. I don't want her to injure herself," Makoto said.
Ann suddenly snatched the gun from Makoto and said, "She's not an idiot, Makoto-senpai," Ann told Makoto, who jumped in alarm.
"Don't sneak up on me!" Makoto exclaimed before she frowned and said, "Ann-chan, I told you Makoto was fine," while Ann handed Futaba the gun.
"Thank you, Ann-chan!" Futaba chirped before she looked at Makoto and said, "And thank you for wanting to protect me. That means a lot."
Makoto gave her a smile in return.
"Come on, let's head back to the café and grab some rest. There is no telling when our mystery guest will wake up," Ren said.
[Scene Change: Iwatodai - Sanada Residence (Nighttime)
Theme of the Sanada Residence: 3/31 from Persona 3: FES]
Sanada-Yamagishi Fuuka opened her eyes in alarm as she felt Juno's presence vanish into the void as the world returned to normal.
She was sure she caught another Persona user. They were far, but she could sense them.
And she knew it couldn't be Rise because she was touring across the United States.
How peculiar…
Before Fuuka could think on it more, the sound of a baby crying caught her attention.
Fuuka stood from her kneeling position and walked down the hall, its walls decorated with various pictures of her friends from S.E.E.S and the Investigation Team before coming across a room.
She walked into a burgundy-colored room that had a glow-in-the-dark baby carousel gently turning above a crib. She approached the crib and smiled when she saw her platinum-teal-haired baby crying. "Awww, I'm here, Shinji," Fuuka cooed as she picked up her son and cradled him.
"It's okay, I have you," Fuuka whispered, but she couldn't help but frown in concern.
Who was that other persona user and why were they strong enough for her to sense from so far?
(Scene Change: Shibuya – Café LeBlanc (Daytime)
Theme of the Mysterious Girl: Blind Alley from Persona 3: FES)
"She still sleeping?"
"Yeah, ever since you guys saved her last night."
"I hope she wakes up soon. She has to be involved with whatever is going on."
The girl let out a slight whine and clenched her eyes tight before slowly opening them to reveal a navy blue-haired female doctor, a silver-haired woman, and a teenage male with messy black hair and glasses on his face, all of them looking down at her.
"Ah, she's finally," the doctor said with a lazy grin.
"Sure am," the girl responded as she pushed herself off the bed and then asked, "Where am I?"
"You're in the Yongenjaya neighborhood in Tokyo," The silver-haired female said.
The girl let out a sharp gasp. "T-Tokyo?! How did I end up in Tokyo?!" She exclaimed.
"Where are you from originally?" The woman questioned.
"Iwatodai," The girl said.
"Iwatodai?!" The silver-haired female and the messy-haired boy exclaimed in unison, with the doctor chuckling in amusement.
"That is leagues away from Tokyo," The doctor said.
"How in the hell did you get here?" The teen male asked.
"I don't know… the last thing I remember was…" she held her head in pain and closed one eye, trying to focus.
"Relax, don't strain yourself," The doctor said. "Now, what is your name?"
"Arisato Minako," Minako replied. "What are your names?"
"I'm Amamiya Ren. This is Doctor Takemi Tae, and this is Niijima Sae," Ren said replied. "Nice to meet you Minako-san."
"Thank you, Ren-san…" Minako replied.
"Now, other than the confusion about your location, how do you feel?" Tae questioned.
"I feel like a bulldozer hit me," Minako dryly replied.
"You should be. A shadow was chasing you," Ren stated.
"Yeah…Damn thing was far stronger than what I was used to," the girl said before she looked at Ren and asked, "How do you know about shadows?"
"Why was one chasing you?" Ren retorted.
"I asked you first," Minako said with a pout.
"Just answer her question," Sae said to Ren, who frowned briefly.
"Fine, fine. My team, the Phantom Thieves have experience fighting Shadows," Ren said.
"The Phantom Thieves?" She asked with confusion. "Who are they?"
"You don't know about the Phantom Thieves?" The silver-haired woman asked curiously.
"No…" The girl replied with a frown.
"Wow, I think you're the first person to not know about us. The entire world has been buzzing about our team for a good chunk of the year," Ren said. "Well, the reason we know about Shadows is that we've been battling them inside of Palaces…"
"Palaces? Did they look like Tartarus?" Minako asked curiously.
"Tartarus?" The doctor asked.
"The large green makeshift tower…Kinda glows in the moonlight…The one that appears every Dark Hour. That one," the girl answered.
"Futaba mentioned it yesterday," Ren said with a frown. "I've never seen it before."
"B-But I saw you and the other people out during the Dark Hour. You had to have seen it before," The girl said.
"It's the first time it's ever appeared. At least for me. Do you guys ever remember seeing it?" Ren asked both Sae and Tae.
"When I was younger. I thought I saw something like that," Tae said with a tilt of her head.
"Not really…I remember one night when I was younger, things seemed weird after midnight, but I was half awake," Sae admitted with a shrug.
"I see…" Suddenly, Minako's stomach began to growl, and she looked up sheepishly at the trio. "Um…Is there any food nearby? Particularly a buffet?"
(Scene Change: Shibuya – Sakura Residence (Daytime)
Theme of the Mysterious Girl: Blind Alley from Persona 3: FES)
"We're going to a buffet!" Futaba excitedly exclaimed as she smacked her hands together.
While Ren, Tae, and Sae were at Café LeBlanc, The rest of the Phantom Thieves were currently in Futaba's living room, with sleeping bags scattered across the floor where they all slept.
"Oh! I wonder what buffet," Morgana said curiously. "I hope it has lots of fish."
"I hope there are beautiful paintings on the walls as we eat. I would love to observe them if so," Yusuke said with a smile on his face.
"Ryuji-kun…Ryuji-kun, wake up," Haru said as she poked the sleeping blond's face, which caused him to grumble before his head slumped, still unconscious.
"Haru, I don't think Ryuji is going to register those tiny pokes," Makoto stated before she leaned close to his ear and shouted, "Sakamoto!"
"Gah! Yes, Makoto-senpai?!" Ryuji sprang up from the sleeping back and sprang up at attention.
"There you go," Makoto said with amusement, but Haru frowned slightly.
"Isn't that a little mean?" Haru asked.
"It is, but he sleeps like a damn rock," Ann said as she stretched out her limbs.
"Yeah, sometimes I need a good kick in the ass," Ryuji replied as he relaxed. "So, did that mystery chick wake up?"
"Yeah, her name is Arisato Minako, and she is from Iwatodai," Futaba said. "I am currently searching for her now…" Futaba said as she typed away at her computer. "In the meantime, Morgana, do you know anything about the Dark Hour?"
"The Dark Hour…I do not know anything about that, unfortunately…But I think I have an idea on someone who might know," Morgana said.
"Go grab that information, Morgana," Makoto said. "If this "Dark Hour" is similar to the Metaverse, we'll need to be careful in case Yaldabaoth has returned."
Morgana nodded and ran to the front door, which Haru opened and then closed when Morgana ran out of it.
"Arisato Minako…I found something but you guys won't believe it," Futaba said before she grabbed her phone and said, "Ren! Get over here right away. I found some information on our mystery girl."
It took a few minutes, but Ren walked into the room with his hands in his pockets. "Sae and Tae are keeping an eye on Minako-san. What have you learned?" Ren asked curiously.
"So from the crest and her uniform, it turns out both belong to Gekkoukan High School. The crest itself was modeled on the 2009 version of it, so that made me think she went there, but it turns out, there is no record for an Arisato Minako that went to that school period," Futaba explained.
"Interesting…" Ren said.
"But there is more," Futaba said. "There was a student that went to Gekkoukan High School with the name of Arisato Minato. He was a third-year student who died suddenly in 2009 on January 31st due to severe exhaustion from what's on the report. But there was a strange item on his person…"
"What was that item?" Ren asked.
"A gun was on him…" Futaba said.
"A gun?" Makoto asked. "We all have guns Futaba…Fake ones but still guns."
"But this one was the exact make and model of the gun Minako had. The one we fished out from beneath the car with her weapon after we laid the smackdown on that angel," Futaba said. "But what is interesting is that this gun that was on his person wasn't a real gun, but it wasn't a fake like ours either."
"Anything else?" Ren asked.
"This is where it gets juicy. In the police report, the Kirijo group made the gun with a serial number, and that same number is on Minako's gun as well," Futaba finished.
"The Kirijo group…" Makoto murmured. "Are you able to find out more?"
Futaba gave her a mischievous grin and replied, "I'm already in a fierce battle with the Kirijo's firewall. It's going pretty good, but they are damn good at defense."
"Let us know what you find out," Ren said with a nod before he looked around and asked, "Where is Morgana?"
"We went to find out more information on the Dark Hour," Ryuji said as he yawned.
"I see…Good. Now all of you get ready, so we can go eat," Ren said with a grin.
Captain Blues: And that is the end of this chapter. See you next time!