EDIT 4/16/2021: removed a particular section of text during Maruki and Kaz's conversation, because it revealed too much, too soon.

6 / 7 / 2016

Niijima massages her temples, "So you're...human?"

"Purebred, down to the bone. I have no idea how I became a cat, though."

"And you're rummaging around Palaces to look for ways to get your body back?"

"And memories. But yeah."

"You've lost your memories...?"

"In general, I know that the answer has at least something to do with Palaces. That's where I met this guy," cat points a paw to me.

Takamaki asks, "You met inside a Palace?"

"Yeah, he was scared shitless, puked all over himself—mmrow!"

"It's amazing nobody's run you over yet," I say, picking it up by the scruff of its neck.

"And it's amazing you haven't gotten your pretty little face all beat to shit, considering how many people hate you."

"You wanna help us out?" I ask it, dropping it to the table.

It lands, as cats do, on their hind legs. "Sure! Always lookin' for new Palaces to explore. Besides, I'm bored."

"He'll be able to help us, too...?" asks Niijima. "No offense, but..."

Yoshizawa tells her, "He has a Persona."

"He does? You do?"

"Theoretically, anything that has a heart can have a Persona," Cat says. "Just so happens that under all this fur lies a human heart."

"So can animals summon Personas?" Niijima scratches her head.

"I don't think that's impossible. Dogs, cats, and other relatively intelligent animals can attain a will of rebellion, I suppose. Now then! Kaz, gimme a sitrep on this piece of shit."

"Name's Junya Kaneshiro. Yakuza boss of bosses of bosses known as Sakahagi. Sadistic. Violent. Ill-tempered. Psychotic. Doesn't like it when people steal from him. Ego prevents him from taking any kind of loss well. Obsessed with corralling power and authority for himself, at least enough to make sure people don't tread over his robes."

"What's the Palace like?"

Niijima cuts in, "He views Shibuya Station as a bank. His patrons are pigs. His cohorts are flies. Because he believes himself to be untouchable, the bank's floating high up in the sky."

"That's all you know so far?"

"One more thing," I speak to the Cat, "You can sense the Shadows' weaknesses, right?"

"Yeah."

"Can you determine our Personas' weaknesses?"

"Sure, err, gimme a sec," it focuses its eyes on me, for about a second or so. "No way."

"What?" I ask it.

"Since when were you weak to nuclear attacks? Your Persona wasn't weak to anything, last I remember. Come to think of it, he's a lot weaker than he should be..." Something in the cat's head clicks in place, then. "Oh. I get it."

"Me too."

"Hmm. I guess in all the chaos back then, I never did get to teach you guys the basics behind specific attacks. Very well then! Since Kazuya's Persona now has a weakness, its you guys' jobs to compensate whenever he gets his ass kicked!"

"How did his Persona get a weakness?" Yoshizawa asks it. "I didn't think it could be weak to anything..."

Niijima turns, "What do you mean by that?"

Cat faces her, "As far as straight up brute-force and strength is concerned, Kazuya's Persona is stronger than anyone else's here."

"Are you serious?" Niijima shakes her head.

"Yes. If all of you decided to fight him all together, you'd have a pretty good chance, I suppose. But I don't know if you've got much more than that. That said. He's weak to nuclear abilities, so you in particular have something of an advantage."

"I'm aware his Persona is powerful, I've seen it in action for myself, but...," Niijima turns to Yoshizawa. "Is this true?"

She sighs. "Kamoshida jumping off the roof was the result of him holding back."

The both of them look back at me. Niijima's shocked stare in particular offends me more, so I turn back to the cat, "Explain. What's this about weaknesses."

"Well, Personas typically exert their power through elemental forces, like fire, and ice, and lightning, and what have you. Naturally, certain Personas have strengths and weaknesses in accordance to their powers. For example," he turns to Takamaki. Sniffs her a little. "Her Persona dishes out fire like it's nobody's business, and so because of that she can absorb any flame-related attacks coming her way. Unfortunately, she's weak to ice, as a result. Weaker than someone normally would be, anyway; likely she'll be incapacitated out in the cold."

"What about us?" Niijima asks, pointing to herself and Yoshizawa.

Cat sniffs, "Redhead's weak to any attack involving darkness."

"Darkness...?" she shudders.

"For the sake of simplicity let's call them Curse attacks. Better stay away from places with low light, or Shadows with a strong inclination towards the more demonic side of things. As for the newbie chick," sniff, "you're weak to psychokinesis."

"Psychokinesis...?"

"Means you're either really really repressed, or you get easily messed up in situations you don't know how to handle just yet. Gotta get a handle on that self-control, lady. Guys find that unattractive."

Niijima narrows her eyes at it, "I see why Hikawa-san doesn't like you very much. But why is he weak to nuclear attacks, then?"

"Well," cat clears its throat, "let's just say trauma has a lasting impact on creatures born of your heart."

Niijima turns to me, "Trauma?"

"We're not talking about that," I sigh.

"Your Persona used to have resistances to every kind of spell, attack, and magick imaginable, but now they're all gone. You may be able to dish out a ton of damage, but you won't be able to take it back. Kazuya, getting it off your chest might undo your weaknesses—"

"Fuck you. And shut up." I slump into my chair and hold my head in my hands. "You're giving me a goddamn headache."

Niijima draws closer, actually sounding a little concerned, "Hikawa-san, you nearly died when he struck you with—"

"I want you on my goddamn case about this least of all."

Cat sighs, "You still see her, every day, you told me. It's eating away at you. Unless you let it go, you'll be—mrow!"

I throw it out the open window.

"OH MY GOD WHAT—!?"

"H-Hikawa-san!"

"Morgana!"

Cat's fine, as everyone finds out when they rush to the window and push me out of the way. It's hanging by its tail, looped around the branch it had used to jump from the tree to the windowsill.

"Alright Kaz, I get the message." Niijima grabs a nearby mop and pushes the stick end outward next to the branch, allowing the cat to grab on as she pulls it back into the room. Once it lands back down it rushes up to me again. "Don't come crying to me when you get cancer in your balls."

"What exactly happened?" Niijima cuts in again.

"Well I can't tell you, or else Kaz'll get arrested for animal abuse."

I shake my head, "Doesn't count. You're human."

Cat laughs, "Then you'll be arrested for murder! Not much better, is it!?"

For the past two weeks I've been seeing her goddamn everywhere. She's even here now, standing between Niijima and Yoshizawa, a half-contented smile across her face.

"Hikawa-san," Niijima's tone is a pleading one, though ultimately stern. "You nearly died, back in the Palace. If we're going to work together to stop this man, we need to account for each other's strengths and weaknesses."

I smirk at her, "My God, Makoto Niijima, actually thinking ahead? Stop the fucking presses."

She approaches me, to the point where she's looming right over me with a glower. Her rage is utterly controlled now, each hint of bile in her tone completely on her allowance. Had Kana and I never met, I might have once been scared of her. "If you're as powerful as everyone here says you are, then you're the first and last line of defense. I don't intend to let a single one of us die when venturing into his Palace. Not even you."

"Then you give too much of a shit about me." I grab my bag, getting off my seat and turning from the rest of them. "We start tomorrow, after class. Meet me at the walkway."

Kana's laughing at me. Laughing so loudly that were anyone else able to hear her they'd cover their ears in vain.

"Hikawa-san, wait—"

I head out the door, slamming it in Niijima's face.

Making it home is a fucking nightmare in itself, not just because I'm sick and barely hanging in there. Nor because I've now made a team with two people who hate me, one person who should, and a fucking annoying cat thing that can't shut up. Nor because after today we're on a crash-collision towards the end of our lives, unless we change the heart of someone who if anything shouldn't even have one.

It's because even though I've spent the entire day trying to find the words to explain what the fuck just happened yesterday, nothing's coming to mind. I make it back to the apartment, my head feeling six different kinds of fucked up and Maruki looking jilted at the sound of his door opening.

He's sitting at his table, a mug with hot tea in his hands. I lower my bag and sit across from him.

"I'm sorry. I couldn't afford to have you send me to a hospital, or call the cops on me. It was the only way I could think of to get you to understand."

Maruki says not a word, for a while. He takes another sip out his mug, stands up and paces the place twice over, a hand over his mouth. When he works up the courage to face me again I can tell he's trying too hard.

"Tell me again...," he mutters meekly, "wh-what's this about…Palaces and, and, and Treasure?"

If only the cat were here, then he could provide exposition for me.

"It's as I told you yesterday. When someone bears an unconscious, distorted desire, a cognitive world forms. At the core of said world lies a Treasure, a manifestation of their distorted desires. And if you steal the Treasure, you undo those desires. Make them feel guilty over the shit they've done."

"You say that so simply," he places his hands on the table, eyes on me. "Like it's not one of the most profound discoveries in the history of clinical psychology, to say nothing of how it could impact the world."

"Thank God the world doesn't know shit about it yet, as far as I can tell."

"So that whole…realm you showed me," he mutters, "that was your…your Palace?"

"No. It's something else entirely."

"What the—then what was it!? How can you even do any of this? Kazuya!?"

"Maruki…"

"Kamoshida and Kobayakawa. You changed their hearts? You went into their Palaces, stole their Treasures, and changed their hearts!? You drove your gym teacher and your principal to suicide!?"

"I drove the gym teacher to attempt suicide. The principal, I don't know for sure what I did to him."

"What do you mean!?"

"You remember what I told you? About how, when I really get furious or stressed, I see myself from somewhere else and my memories get all hazy? That's what it was like. One of them was a rapist, and the other a drug trafficker. Both of them chose to victimize their own students. I couldn't just let them go."

"Did you…did you plan to have them killed...?"

"I wasn't concerned with whether or not they lived or died."

"Kazuya...," he scratches the back of his head. "I..."

"I'm not in the mood for another lecture."

"You're not supposed to say something like I wasn't concerned with if they died so casually, but...," Maruki grits his teeth. "I can't say they didn't get what they deserved. But, Kazuya…what you did, you'll have to live with that, forever."

"It's no hardship, Maruki."

"That can't be true."

"What if it is?"

Maruki keeps himself steadfast. "Then it's just…profoundly sad."

"I don't need your pity."

Maruki returns to his seat, "Kazuya."

All the spite I use to shell away my self-hatred has vanished. All the anger I could have worn as a mask has melted away. I haven't the spirit to even be anything other than coldly, brutally honest with both him and myself.

My left hand trembles, the edges of my eyes sting horribly, and a void in my chest I'd spent most of my time this year trying to ignore has grown infinitely wider. Trying to push it to the back of my mind has done nothing but keep it in the forefront.

"I killed my girlfriend."

Maruki turns defensive of me all a sudden, "That's not true, she—"

"After her mother died, she fell into a deep, extreme, suicidal depression. Every day I'd see her growing more distant and frail, furious at herself and the rest of the world. I entered her Palace because I wanted to save her. I wanted to get rid of everything strangling her heart. But she was...on a knife's edge, psychologically speaking. I did everything in my power to make things right. I failed."

"...she ended up killing herself, anyway."

"Yes."

"I'm so sorry to hear that."

"She wouldn't tell me a single thing going on inside her head. When I found out I could enter people's hearts, I felt I had no choice but to change hers. I didn't believe she could recover on her own, and judging from her Shadow's disposition, it was unlikely she ever even would. And yet things turned out far worse than if I'd chosen to just do nothing."

"And there's no way you could have told me this without sounding utterly insane."

"No. I tried to save her—I tried to do the right thing, but all I did was ruin her. All I did was put her in a hospital, force her into a sleep from which she may never wake up. She—she made me want to be a good person, don't you understand. I never wanted to be a good person, I never cared. Not before her. She'd just rouse that in me. And I was so desperate, so desperate to keep that and so desperate to save her that in the end, I—"

"Kazuya," Maruki gets out his seat and grips me by the shoulders, so I force myself to look him directly in the eyes.

" After that, I tried to get away from all of it. Palaces, Treasure, everything having to do with any of them," and I exhale harshly, "but like I said. I couldn't find it in me to let either Kamoshida or the principal get away with what they'd done."

"I can't even imagine what this must have been like for you."

"Good."

"But now, you—you told me yesterday that you're going up against the yakuza?"

"His name is Junya Kaneshiro. He and his people target students from various schools, using Shibuya Station as a hub. They would have kids cart drugs around for them, in-debt them, ruin their fucking lives. Kobayakawa was one of his fucking lapdogs and he'd have kids from Shujin carry around books packed with all kinds of narcotics for him. But he's grown bolder, fiercer, didn't really give too much of a shit about Kobayakawa's product getting snatched by cops. Unfortunately we have a two week deadline before he fucks our lives up."

"Why!? What did you do!?"

"The person who blackmailed me into changing this piece of shit's heart felt so ineffectual she wanted to be useful in any way. Ended up getting me a bottle smashed over my head. That said, thanks to her we do now have a way into this fuck's Palace. But also thanks to her, we have to give him three million yen in cash in two weeks' time. Or else us and everyone we know is fucking dead or sold into sex slavery."

"A-and you planned not to tell me!?"

"Yes. I didn't want to involve you into this."

"I'd be involved in it whether you'd tell me or not!"

"It was supposed to be a covert operation. Whistle was blown due to circumstances I hadn't expected. I'm sorry."

"Can't we just call the police!?"

"No. One thing, he's in league with the cops. Another, he's stated if we do try to approach the police for help, he'll send people after us. So there's nothing can be done except to change his heart."

"Kazuya. You're asking me to let you put your life at risk. "

"There's nothing you can do to help."

"Don't be so sure!"

I whirl around at the sound of that fucking voice, "Are you for real!?"

"Name's Morgana!" Cat cheerily shouts. "I introduced this guy to Palaces, what can I do ya for ?"

"A-a talking cat!?" Maruki very nearly fumbles out his chair right then and there.

"So can you or can you not teleport?" I ask the cat, annoyed.

"Technically I teleport. I use Mementos to get around. Places there correspond to places here. And I've followed you here multiple times already, so it was easy peasy. By the way," he turns to Maruki, leaping up to the table, "I'm not a cat."

"Wh-what!? Th-then what are you!?"

It pauses, then smiles, then says with a guttural and foul voice that sounds like an eldritch creature from the bottom of the Lake of Fire, "Your worst fucking nightmare—" I slap it upside its tiny little head. "—sorry, sorry, couldn't resist."

"Why the fuck are you even here...?" I ask it.

"Wanted to follow you back. Planned to give you a lecture on the importance of teamwork and what-have-you. Then I find out you're talking to this kinda handsome dude about Palaces. So, I waited for the time to step in."

"What is going on!?" Maruki cries.

"Lemme tell him. Please?" Cat grins pleadingly. "Guy looks like he's melting down."

In all honesty I should and normally would just shut it up and tell Maruki to forget this ever happened. But something else happens, something that surprises even myself.

"Y'know what? Go for it."

"You sure?" it smiles.

I sigh. "Cat can explain this shit a thousand times better than I can. Help you wrap your head around it. Interested?"

Maruki blinks his eyes. For a second his right hand trembles, but he keeps it steady and still before I can bring it up. "Tell me."

The cat goes on another spiel about what the Vortex World is. His explanation is clearer, more concise, and he's able to answer virtually every question Maruki has that I can't be asked to actually discuss. Between the talking cat and the discovery of another plane of existence and the general reveal that I fucking murdered my girlfriend, Maruki's taking everything surprisingly well. He looks like he's caught between being overjoyed about a scientific discovery that could create an entire new field in neuroscience, while simultaneously trying to keep what's left of his mind.

This'll probably bite me in the ass sooner rather than later, most likely even sooner than I'd hope. But I suppose I have my reasons.

By the end of the cat's TED talk, Maruki leans in his seat. His knowledge of the world as he knows it is now completely upended. Though he hasn't completely lost it, I doubt this is the sort of thing you can just process over the course of a single night, or two, or even a month's worth, maybe even a year's worth, perhaps even longer than that.

Maruki almost looks like he's gonna go catatonic again. He doesn't; in fact, the spine I had once thought he didn't have becomes bolder and brasher.

"—so anyway I dunno how to get my human form back and I'm thinking that by going into Palaces I can—"

"Let me help you."

I slam my hand down upon the table, "Why the fuck does everyone want to be a part of this stupid bullshit!? Every single fucking time I try to scare them straight they say they wanna help instead!"

"I'm not about to let you pit yourself against the yakuza and just hope you come back alive! You go to that world using an app! I can join you! I can help you stop this man!"

"Maruki. You're a nice guy. Perhaps a little too nice for my taste, but still. In all honesty, I actually kinda like you. If you come with me to that fucking world, you will die."

"You haven't died."

"You're fucking milquetoast, what the hell do you want me to tell you!? That I think you'll make it out there!? You want me to fucking lie to you!?"

"Kazuya."

"I've tried to keep as many fucking people away from this as possible, don't fuck it up for me now—"

"Kazuya."

"Shut up, shut the fuck up, you're not going to argue with me on this fucking bullshit I swear to God—"

"Kazuya, unless you let me come with you to change this person's heart, I'm sending you back to jail."

"You wouldn't. Not when something like this is at stake. You don't know what it's even like in there. What makes you think you can even fucking do anything!?"

"I think I...might be able to help you change this person's heart, at least."

I laugh so loudly I'm pretty sure I've woken more than a couple of our neighbors up, then I cough and groan and want to die all over again, "What the fuck makes you think you can do that!? Cuz you're a therapist!?"

"He has a Persona," cat says suddenly.

I turn to it, grabbing it by the scruff again, "He has a Persona?"

"Sort of," cat sighs. "It's not exactly fully made manifest yet. But I can feel it. It's like an embryo. It's there, but it's not…coming into being, yet. That said, it's been there for a while now."

"A-a while?"

"Like...a few years? Can't really estimate."

Maruki's confused again, because the cat hadn't mentioned Personas yet. "What are you talking about."

"If my guess is right, it's probably a powerful one," cat nods.

I shake my head, "Define powerful."

"Potentially, it can kick your guy's ass."

"Are you fucking kidding me."

"What's a Persona?" Maruki asks the cat. "I-I've read a little of Carl Jung, so I might have an idea on what you're saying, but..."

"Within each and every last one of us lies what's called a Shadow," the cat says, eyes glinting greedily as it wriggles itself out my hand. "In rejecting one's Shadow, one enables it to fester and rot, and in their rejection of it, it comes alive in ways they could never have imagined, forming a Palace. But if someone gathers up the strength to face themselves, they will develop a will of rebellion, and that will manifests itself a Persona: a thoughtform created from the strength of your own heart." It turns to me. "You need all the help you can get to stop this Kaneshiro guy, don't you?"

I look at Maruki, then back at the cat, then to my quaking left hand, then to Kana, and back again to Maruki. My left hand rises to my head as a headache comes on, "Maruki, please don't."

"Kazuya, if there's anything I can do to help, I —"

"Even if this ends up the death of you?"

"Why would it end up the death of me?"

"Because everything this fucking place touches dies, or is going to die sooner than they should."

"I'm willing to take that risk. I can't let you rush into this by yourself."

Why the fuck does everyone keep giving a shit about me even when I tell them they shouldn't? "Fuck it then, whatever. How should we do this?"

Cat looks at me, especially fucking smug for some reason, and I squint at it. It turns back to Maruki, "Open your phone."

Oh my God. "Wait, wait, you're not—"

Maruki taps at his phone, shaking his head at the sight of the screen, "Vortex World Navigator...?"

"Hit Enter Mementos!"

"Maruki stop, stop just wait for a fucking second please no—"

"Wh-why, what is it, what!?"

"Just do it!"

I get off my seat, "MARUKI WAIT STOP—"

「 ENTERING MEMENTOS 」

-ENTERING REGION OF AIYATSBUS-

"—goddammit."

The world transforms into the desert wastes I'd entered in months past, curled inward and inverted upon itself. The black sun at the center of this dead realm spits and spews dark matter as the sound of thunder screams across the skies. The sands hike up inside my shoes and I find my clothes have already transformed; coat and red gloves and white mask and all. Cat's his old bobble-head self again and Maruki's curled up in a ball, facedown, with his arms covering his head.

This place faces slightly less disintegration, compared to the other region I'd been in; surrounding us are buildings, some toppled over one another, but all mostly still standing. Darkness coats each corner and the hairs on the back of my neck stand strong, something from an alleyway or a broken window or any other dark spot could leap out at us and result in grievous wounds or worse.

"Why?" I seethe at the cat. "Why here!? I nearly died here!"

"And you didn't! And you got a kickass Persona out of it! And his is definitely gonna be stronger than yours, so calm down."

"I fucking hate you."

"This way we can get it over with, Kazuya! Besides, I'll be able to heal him up!"

"What if the Matador comes at us again, knocks you out like he did last time?"

"Then slap him until he gains a will of rebellion."

"What if I get knocked out, too?"

"Then we hope and we pray he has balls." I whip out my phone and hit the app again, but before I can hit the exit button the cat cries out, "This is the fastest way we can do this, come on! Don't give up on it now! Besides, now he knows about Mementos he can just come back here whenever he wants—!"

"AAAAAHHHHH!" What comes out of Maruki's mouth then, once he witnesses what's become of the world, is a series of What thes and How dids and Who thes that end with "OH MY GOD A MONSTER CAT!"

"Not a cat."

Out his mouth comes a WuhWuhWuh noise that blooms into "What is this place!?"

"This…is Mementos," says the Cat. "Palaces are founded on people's unconscious and distorted desires. This place was founded on the unconscious and distorted desires of the whole world."

"The…the whole world?" Maruki rises from the sands, uncaring of how his clothes are caked in white particles. "So this is…humanity's Palace…?"

"All of humanity has collectively developed an unconscious, distorted desire that lies at the center of this world," Cat points to the black sun hovering in the sky. "This is where Kazuya's Persona first manifested itself into being, and it's where you'll hopefully be able to manifest yours, too."

Maruki looks at me, his wavering eyes suddenly turning inflexible. He dusts off the sand covering his clothes and his face in a motion that makes him look mildly panicked, but he regains himself well enough to ask us, almost confrontationally, "What does a Persona look like?"

"I'll give you a taste," cat coughs, sucking in a deep breath, "Mercurius!"

Cat's Persona charges out its massive head. The bizarre gangly seven-foot tall creature with a staff and supernaturally bright eyes and wings at his heels takes Maruki aback. Though he's keeping himself imperturbible the slow way he turns his head to me betrays his feelings. "You're saying I've got something like this inside me!?"

"It's the power we use to change people's hearts. Without it, I'd have been dead by now."

"Remember what I said about Shadows?" Cat smiles, "The extremes of humanity are reflected in its gods and demons. As such, all Shadows and Personas take the form of a mythological creature, though said creature tends to change its shape depending on whose heart it's born from."

"So yours is Mercurius?" Maruki chuckles, "Interesting...I'd say I can't believe it, but, I can't deny what I'm seeing. Unless I've gone insane. And this is all in my head."

"You haven't," I sigh.

"What's your Persona like?"

I shake my head, "Look. The only way for you to awaken to your Persona, it seems, is through some...extreme bout of stress. I nearly died here summoning mine. You still wanna risk it?"

"Well...we've come this far," she smirks worriedly. "I'd like to give it a try."

I stare at him. Then I turn to the cat. "Any Shadows near us?"

"Not right now, but pretty sure there will be, soon."

I rip the mask off my face, Satanael spreads out his wings and his eyes shoot scores of boiling flame. At Maruki he directs his gun, the barrel even larger than the man's head, and lighting bursts across the nerves in my brain as I tell him, "Dodge."

BOOM.

Twenty feet worth of sand gets thrown into the air.

Good thing Maruki jumped to the side.

"WH-WH-WHY!?" he cries, crawling away from me while most of his body lies covered in the sand again, "WHY!?"

"You feel anything!?" Satanael raises his gun again.

"NO!"

I let out something psychotic that bleeds into my smile, "You'd better!"

BOOM.

I aim now in places relatively close to him, but out of range juuust enough for him not to get parts of himself blown off. He's freaking out and running the opposite direction of wherever I fire, dozens of clouds of sand marking places where he would've gone. I can control precisely how wide and how far the shots should be, so Maruki isn't in nearly as much danger as he thinks he is.

I'd rather he obtain a Persona from an encounter with me, rather than an encounter with the Matador. I'm doing this for his own sake. Despite the explosions occurring literally a few feet away from him and the constant barrage of loud gunfire.

"Hmm. Didn't think of this. Interesting plan."

"Will this work?" I ask the cat.

"Maybe. Give it a little longer," it responds. "Ooh! I'll see if I can speed things along! Maybe he'll be more stressed if I kick up a lot of sand in the air!"

I smirk, "Alright then."

"Mercurius!"

Fifteen minutes later, Maruki's lying flat on his back, in the center of a valley of craters, pits, and crevices spread so far and wide and deep that it'll take the sand about an hour to cover it all back up. He's utterly unharmed, though with sand stuck in his everything, ringing ears, and a thousand-yard stare that even the most hardened veteran would look upon with pity.

I snap my fingers in his face over and over again. "You there?"

Evidently he isn't.

I tell him, "Imagine that, but from someone who literally couldn't give a shit if you lived or died. You think you'd be able to survive that?"

I grab him by the shoulders and sit him upwards; suddenly the light returns to his eyes and he regards me, his expression utterly devoid of courage. Then he turns away, his eyes refusing to stare anywhere but down. "I…I can't…"

Cat sighs, "When you summon a Persona, there's supposed to be fear and determination stirring in your heart. I think we focused too much on instilling the fear part."

Good. Now he'll hopefully just forget this shit ever happened and leave me alone. I'd hoped to actually have talk to someone about all this bullshit, and hopefully delay my suicide by another few years. But, hell. I suppose this is for the best.

I take out my phone.

「 EXIT MEMENTOS? 」
Return Through Entryway?
Return Through Current Location?

"You sure you wanna leave now? Not give him another shot?"

"Guy like him doesn't belong in this world."

"Shame you think so. You'd work well together."

"Don't be stupid—" I see something then. Far away from us all, but so bright it cannot be ignored.

The cat's eyes widen in horror then, and it whips its head around to the open road right in front of us. "Oh shit."

"What—?"

Though it's far away it barrels at us ever closer, reaching speeds no vehicle should ever be able to reach on their own. And I know it's a vehicle; it sounds like a motorcycle, much like Niijima's Persona, even. But its sounds are guttural, more vicious, like its wheels bear the scars of a thousand battles, like the fumes of its engines come straight from Hell itself.

"Get Maruki out of here!"

I grab Maruki, whipping my phone out but just as I'm about to hit the screen the fire grows brighter and larger and far beyond anything it should be—

「 ERROR: CANNOT EXIT MEMENTOS, POWERFUL ENEMY NEARBY 」

MAKE WAY, MAKE WAY, MAKE WAY!

—and Maruki pulls us both away from the blaze, a trail of fire scorching where I once stood.

A screech stops the vehicle in its tracks about two meters ahead of us, and we see him.

Tall and hardy, built like a logger. He bears a sleek, black leather outfit from head to toe, a red scarf bundled in the space opened by his collar. Though he wears a helmet like a biker should, I don't see why he needs to, for he is already dead; the only part of him uncovered is his face and neck, and it's the same hollow skeleton frame that belonged to the Matador. His motorcycle is rather vintage-looking, sleek and black, almost belonging from another era entirely. The roars of its engines sound like the screams of children being eaten alive by their own mothers.

If only you could look at your own eyes. So few carry that same fiery rage. Your lust for discord is impeccable.

The biker's stopped in his tracks and has resorted to revving his vehicle over and over again; through completely black eyeholes he stares into our souls, into mine in particular, and lets out the same laugh the Matador had—yet now with a distinct Western inflection to his tone.

I whip out my phone and try to get us the hell out of there, tap away at Return Through Entryway? over and over again but it doesn't fucking work and the fucking error message is all it gives me.

When the Matador proclaimed he'd found a worthy candidate to remake the world, I was skeptical. Even when he spoke of it having been The Morning Star's choice, I remained unfazed. But seeing the way the flame within you flares, I am naught but amazed at whom he has chosen to serve as the Emancipator. Truly, you may just possess the will to rescue humanity from its death throes. And you, snivelling wretch, it laughs, addressing Maruki, you think you can dare stand by his side?

"Persona!"

Satanael blasts in every direction the Biker rides, but every shot misses by an inch or less, it charges in a zigzag pattern and though I'm able to see exactly where it goes, and fire exactly where it will go, it's always able to evade each of my shots.

Before long a leather vice grip locks around my throat and I'm unable to breathe as I'm lifted up in the air. I'm chokeslammed into the fucking ground by a creature that bears the strength of a thousand men, and in the few seconds I black the fuck out Satanael fades away entirely. My brain feels like its collapsing, blood lapping out my eyes and ears, and I don't know how I'm still alive.

"Kazuya!" cries the Cat.

You intend to protect him, Emancipator? It bellows out laughter so loud it nearly shatters my eardrums, Fool! There can only be one victor in this Game! All others must be trampled away into void!

"Cat, turn into a car and get Maruki out of here stat—"

"We can't just leave you here!"

It takes me everything in my lungs to scream, "GET OUT OF HERE RIGHT NOW!"

There can be no half-measures in the pursuit of Emancipation! Furiously the engine roars, the screams growing louder and louder as the hollows in its eyes grow blacker than night. All who stand in your way must perish, for any restraint shall shackle you from your fullest potential!

"S-Sata—"

It grabs me by the face and grinds my whole body across the gravelly road for about four meters or so, passing by Maruki and the cat before stopping with a final slam.

The both of them scream for me, Maruki's horrified by what he's seeing and I try to pull myself up with half a face but the Biker grabs me by my black locks of hair, its black eyes almost hypnotising me as I lose sight in one of my eyes.

I hear Maruki cry out "KAZUYA!" as most of me goes numb and I hear my mother telling me she loves me and that I was all she could have ever wanted her son to be—

Take this to heart, boy. There can be no change without sacrifice. If for the sake of the Emancipation you seek, may all you cherish be damned. It drops me, its eyes darting towards Maruki, Petulant children. A chained heart has no place in the world that must be! Only one Reason shall dominate all others! I SHALL TAKE YOU BOTH TO A WORLD WITHOUT LIMITS, AND TEACH YOU TRUE EMANCIPATION!

And it charges. It rushes towards Maruki and the cat with the force of a tank that can go a hundred miles an hour. The cat leaps upward, into the air, coming back down as a car and screaming for Maruki to get inside, but Maruki just fucking doesn't.

Instead he stares the Biker down.

He rises to his feet.

And he listens to the voice in his head, as time slows down just for him.

"From ashes you were made, to ashes you shall return."

Maruki's head throbs and for a second that might as well be a century, he feels like he's being carried through the skies, raptured away into Heaven. An unknowable pain spears from one end of his brain to another, but the pain produces a euphoric melancholy that echoes across his bones.

"At last, you've come to grips with your heart's desire.
Never compromise, not even in the face of Armageddon.
Since the moment you devoured the fruit of knowledge,
your fate has been sealed."

A woman's voice speaks to him, a voice he hasn't heard in years, as she wraps him in her arms and her warmth kneads the pain away bit by bit. Nostalgia and rage, undying misery and wretched ecstasy—all these thing swell across his heart as he sees a world without pain, without misery, without guilt or shame or sadness. A cloak blooms over his shoulders, as pure white as snow. Gold blankets his entire body as a large steel plate of a mask forms over his head.

In his right hand he now bears a scepter which he shall use to replenish the world itself from all its horrors. For the first time in years, he knows exactly what he must do, exactly how far he must go, exactly what has stood in his way all this time.

"In pursuit of godlike wisdom and understanding,
Challenge the very fabric of reality and all its miseries,
Even if from Eden you shall be banished, forever and ever."

"I hear you!" He rips off the golden mask from his face, screaming, "ADAM!"

And out his skull rises a ten-foot tall golden statue of a man despairing, head upturned. Whatever expression it bears is obscured by its left hand covering its face, leaving visible only an open mouth trapped in a mute scream of agony. The statue is naked, save a loincloth of leaves that stretches down to its legs. Fused to its right hand is a red apple, blood cascading down from a bite mark in the fruit down to its arm, down to the sands, down to the deepest parts of the Vortex World. The statue bears cracks and degeneration along its legs and its arms, a gaping hole in its chest revealing a beating human heart.

"Thou art I, and I am thou.
From the Sea of thy Soul, I cometh.
I am Adam HaRishon, Original Sinner."

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Alternate Title: Bullying Maruki

Adam HaRishon is the name given to the Adam of the Book of Genesis, the human Adam who ate of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and in so doing disobeyed the only command God had given unto him. In this sense Maruki is in a more ignorant stage of his existence, and in his desire to attain understanding of the human unconscious, commits what in all likelihood is naught but a terrible mistake.

One of the original plans for the plot was to make Maruki have his own separate group of Thieves who would encounter Joker and the other characters partway through the story. Be an ideological/philosophical enemy group for them to face. But as I refined it more I realize it'd have been too complicated. Anyone who wants to give it a try, be my guest lol; a major criticism I have of Royal is in how the Royal-exclusive content feels too tacked-on and inorganic. Maruki, KaSumire, and the whole final arc is really well-done, but doesn't exactly fit in very cohesively with the rest of the game as a whole. Wanted to merge those elements together from the beginning and see where things go from here.