"Akihiko?" Kotone asked, looking up at the gray-haired male who had definitely matured since the last time she saw him. Not only had he grown physically, but there was something about him that seemed unusual. It was as if he had dealt with situations like this many times before.
"Yeah, that's me. Take you and your friend and run towards the end of the street. There'll be someone there to take you somewhere safe. Don't worry, I'll be there in a second." Despite the seemingly grave situation, the male was able to produce a small smile. Feeling a burst of confidence, Kotone nodded before running over to Shouko and helping her up.
"Follow me," Kotone stated, before taking Shouko's hand and leading them down the street. Looking back, she could see that Akihiko was fighting those three with a being of his own, various attacks being exchanged between the two sides. No, there was no time to worry about him. Kotone would just have to trust him.
"Where did he say to go?" Shouko asked as the two of them continued to run down the street. Kotone didn't know herself, but Akihiko did say to keep running, and they would find someone.
"Hey, over here!" Hearing a voice calling out to them from the side, Kotone looked over to see a brown-haired girl standing beside a building. Without hesitation, Kotone and Shouko ran over to where she was standing, before they were quickly ushered inside. Now inside the building, Kotone slowly slid down to the floor, out of breath and overwhelmed. Seeing a bottle of water being offered to her by the girl who led them inside, Kotone managed a small smile before accepting it.
"Thank you," Kotone stated, opening the water bottle and taking a sip, before giving it to Shouko.
"I'm glad we were able to save you two in time. I know you probably don't know me, but I'm Yukari Takeba. I'm a senior like you all, and friends with Akihiko. You girls probably know who he is already though, right?" Yukari asked while Kotone and Shouko glanced at each other.
"Not really, we only know about him because of all the girls who gossiped about him before," Kotone stated, while Shouko nodded in agreement. Yukari seemed relatively surprised by this, before letting out a soft laugh.
"I see, I certainly wasn't expecting that. Anyways, you can just call me Yukari since we are around the same age. What are your names?"
"I'm Shouko Azumane."
"Kotone Shione," Kotone said.
"Anyways, can you tell me what's going on here? Kotone and I were walking home from school, then the entire city just went dark. On top of that, there were three people trying to kill us," Shouko explained. Kotone was quick to take note that Yukari didn't seem fazed by this either. It was quickly becoming clear that she and Akihiko were used to this already. Did that mean there were others like them?
"This must be confusing for you, so I'll do my best to explain things. Why don't we get settled in, since it may take some time for me to explain everything fully." Following Yukari deeper inside the building, they entered what looked to be some sort of a lounge. Taking a seat on the sofa, Shouko sat down beside her while Yukari sat across from them. After a moment, she cleared her throat before she began speaking.
She started by talking about Personas and the Dark Hour. How she and Akihiko were members of a group called SEES, whose goal was to fight shadows and try to end the dark hour by clearing Tartarus. How a boy named Makoto Yuki had joined their group as their strongest member, before eventually making himself a barrier to prevent the end of the world. This resulted in him going into a coma before dying a few days later. After his death, SEES needed to come together and face the fact that they needed to move on from this, finding answers to their past and what they needed to do to move on. And with that, the group had dispersed, moving on to do various things in life.
"Except, the Dark Hour has returned?" Shouko asked. Yukari gave a grim nod, while Kotone couldn't help but feel anxious. Was Makoto's sacrifice all for nothing?
"Yes. A few months after we had dispersed, the Dark Hour returned. We're not exactly sure what the cause is, but it's definitely back."
"But this Dark Hour is clearly different since the transition happened during the afternoon," Shouko stated, earning a nod from Yukari.
"Unlike before, the Dark Hour does not only occur at midnight. Rather, it happens at a random hour during the day, and the duration of it is completely random as well. The shortest the Dark Hour has lasted has been for a couple of minutes, while the longest has been almost three weeks. No time passes in the real world when the Dark Hour takes place."
"What about SEES? Can't you guys come back together to fight it?" Kotone asked, seeing a pained expression flash across Yukari's face for a moment.
"That's unfortunately not possible at the moment. SEES hasn't seen all of its members for many months now. Out of our seven members, three are dead and one is missing." Yukari's voice trembled as she spoke, even the slightest mention of their fallen members being difficult to her. While Kotone had a feeling that the group would never be fully assembled again, she was hoping for the ratio of active to inactive to be positive.
"I'm sorry to hear that. But if there are three of you active, then who is the third?" Kotone asked. It was then that the door flung open, prompting both Kotone and Shouko to practically jump out of their seats, scared out of their minds. However, they were greeted with the sight of a rather lazy-looking man, letting out a yawn before immediately stopping upon seeing who was in the room.
"Morning, oh- Who are these chicks, Yuka-Tan?" The male asked while Yukari let out a slightly exasperated sigh.
"This meathead is our third active member, Stupei Iori. He's kind of dense and stupid, but he's a good distraction in battle."
"What the- It's Junpei, not Stupei!" Junpei explained, prompting Kotone to smile a little. Despite the seemingly dire circumstances, it seemed that they were managing.
"Anyways, who are you two? I'm Junpei Iori, the brains and brawn of this group," Junpei exclaimed proudly, making it hard to distinguish whether or not he was joking. After the two had settled down, Kotone and Shouko introduced themselves.
"Nice to meet you two, I hope we get along well!" Junpei said, offering a friendly smile.
"Oh, I should have asked this earlier, but do you two know anything about the silver-haired woman chasing us?" Kotone asked, feeling the mood take another drastic shift.
"Her name is Elizabeth. We thought of her to be an ally, but it became clear that she was far from that, after she killed three of our members in battle. We don't know what her motive is or what turned her, but we have a feeling that she may be responsible for the Dark Hour starting again." As Yukari finished speaking, Junpei slammed his fist against the wall, causing Kotone to flinch slightly.
"We're going to solve this mess once and for all. And when we do, I'm going to-" Junpei seemed to realize what he was saying, stopping himself before he could continue.
"Ahaha, sorry about that. Let's just move on with the conversation," Junpei stated, managing a shaky smile as he rubbed the back of his head. Kotone remained silent, letting the thought settle in her head. If she was able to kill three members of SEES, would Akihiko be alright on his own?
"Don't worry, Kotone. Akihiko will be alright," Yukari stated, a small smile on her face, seemingly reading Kotone's mind simply based on her expression. Hearing the front door open in the distance, Kotone found herself standing up in anticipation.
"Speak of the devil, looks like the big man's here," Junpei stated, walking over towards the doorway just as Akihiko entered. However, upon seeing him, a rather horrified gasp had left Kotone upon seeing his left arm was gone all the way up to his shoulder. However, there was no blood whatsoever, and he seemed to be fine. Taking note of Kotone's horrified expression, Akihiko let out a small chuckle.
"Oh, did they not tell you? I lost this arm a few fights ago, but that hasn't stopped me from getting in on the action. You might not have noticed at the time, considering how fast everything was moving," Akihiko explained, which made sense to Kotone. She was so overwhelmed, she couldn't even notice the absence of his limb.
"Even without an arm, you're able to hold your own against Elizabeth?" Shouko inquired, while Akihiko managed a slight shrug.
"I wouldn't go so far as to say that we're on equal ground. However, I can say that I won't go down without a fight. Besides, look at what I got." It was then that Akihiko held up a single page, which everyone in the room seemed to recognize instantly.
"I managed to catch her off guard and steal a page from her grimoire."