Testament: Persona

Chapter 8: Femme Feline part 2

The fight with Mammon shook the three young Persona users to the core. Not once in their lives had they've been this afraid of death. Fighting Demons from the lesser categories sure have become part of their nature by now, but Mammon, that thing was in another league entirely. Currently, they are in the medical ward of ASDA's Tokyo branch, waiting on Mitsuru, who was quickly sent to the intensive care unit.

Akihiko and Shinjiro are currently waiting inside the white hallway of the medic ward, accompanied by Jou, Jin, and Araki from the 66th unit. Despite the serene color of their surrounding, designed to imbue calmness, all that Shinjiro could think about was how his actions almost cost Mitsuru her life. Jou, accompanying the two youth, put a pat on his shoulder, "she's in right hands," Shinjiro didn't respond to Jou's word of encouragement.

Suddenly, the door opened, revealing medic officers in white attire covering their entire bodies like hazmat suits. Akihiko quickly stood up and took a glimpse at Mitsuru, who is still bedridden on her bed.

"How is she?" Shinjiro inquired one of the officers.
"Kirijo-san showed no sign of Magnetite infection, so the worst possible scenario has been avoided. But.."
"But?" Akihiko looked at the medic officer sternly.
"She's going to need additional help for psychological trauma, I'm afraid."

Jou turned his gaze towards the redhead, who seemed to be sleeping soundly with several types of machinery and an IV drip connected to her. Then, he turned to the other two silent Persona users, Akihiko and Shinjiro, who remained motionless. This team still has a long way to go, he thought to himself.

Akihiko gripped his arm tightly and had his sharp gaze filled with anger, and walked away, only to be stopped by Araki and Jin.

"Where do you think you're going?" Araki stretched out her arm and gripped Akihiko by the arm, stopping him in his path.

"I'm going to find the bastard that did this to Mitsuru." Akihiko gritted his teeth and tried to pull Araki's arm away, but her grip was much stronger than he thinks it is, much to his surprise.

"What can you do at this point?" Araki looked Akihiko in the eyes, "do you even know what are you facing?"

Akihiko looked to the floor, seemingly have calmed himself. "You must understand why we can't let you go. We can't lose any newtype Persona users," Araki let go of Akihiko's arm.

"What the hell was that thing, anyway? It was stronger than anything we fought before." Shinjiro pulled his fingers into a grip and raised them to his forehead.

"It was a Category 7," Jou said, shocking the two Persona users, "Mammon. We fought him before, and it took the 1st and the 2nd unit to stop that thing."

"Shit." Shinjiro looked away.

Akihiko grunted, feeling his helplessness; he punched the wall, "Dammit! Even with this power, I couldn't do anything!"

"You made the right choice letting Naoya-san handle it. You guys wouldn't stand a chance against it." Jin scoffed.

Akihiko and Shinjiro got worked up at Jin's remark, feeling belittled by him. Shinjiro pulled Jin by his collars and snapped, "is there anything else you want to say?"

Jou quickly slapped Shijiro's hands away and stood between the two men, "stand down, Jin. And you, Aragaki, you'd better show restrain. Direct those anger to the enemies, not your comrades."

Jin pulled out his PDA, showed the screen to the two young Persona users. On the screen is their battle data and result, which shows unpleasant scores. "Don't get over your head, kid. Just because you're a Persona user doesn't mean you can storm into any fights." Jin put his PDA away and walked a few steps back, leaning his back against the wall, arms crossed.

Jou sighed, letting out internal fatigue due to the uncomfortable awkwardness of the situation. 'I could really use a smoke,' he thought to himself.

Shinjiro suddenly had a spark of thought. He's been distracted with guilt about Mammon and Mitsuru that he let the Nekomata slipped his mind. He reckoned a faint pulse when he checked on her at the alleyway. Shinjiro asked Jou, "Moriyama Natsuki, where did you take her?"

"Containment procedures. We got it under our surveillance, alright." Jou frowned at the question, "why?" he asked.

"Are you going to kill her?"

Everyone in the room stayed silent for a moment until Jou cleared his throat and explained, "actually…."

Meanwhile

Natsuki felt her consciousness drifted back, trying to open her heavy eyelids. It takes all her strength just to open her eyes with all the sudden bright light spotlighting her face, plus the pain pulsating within her cranium deafening all her sense of hearing with her own heartbeats.

Where am I? She thought to herself as she mustered her strength to finally open her eyelids and started processing her environments. She's surrounded by white walls separated by same-colored white square tiles, with spotlights aimed at her from the four corners of the room, emitting preliminary heat from it. She tried to cover her eyes from the light, but her arms are bound together under a rugged white garment. She struggled hard only to find herself looking at the only mirror right in front of her and recognized that she's in a straitjacket.

"Hello? Somebody!" She cried. Oxygen started to pump in and out her lungs at a faster rate. Her uneasiness started building until she felt a hand on her left cheek. The brown-skinned lass looked to the mirror but found no figure but herself, bound to a steel chair in her straitjacket.

Feeling the helplessness grew within her, she felt the palm on her cheek start caressing in a way familiar to her. As she felt the jolt of mixed terror and relief, she tried to mouth the name of the person, but before she could open her mouth, she heard the person whispered in her ear.

"Talk, then you and your family dies."

Natsuki's heart skipped a beat, followed by the acid twirling within her stomach trying to burst out of her. At that moment, she no longer feels the person's presence in the room, but the word that was spoken to her terrifies her.

Moriyama Natsuki has never been the goody-two-shoes daughter, never been the straight-A student. She thought to herself, that's probably she's struggling to find affection from others and looked to the other side of her world. Having idolized the adult nightlife, she mostly spent her time fooling around with attractive guys, dancing in the nightclub, even to the point of doing illegal substances. But there's one thing that she regretted that moment. She shouldn't have joined that cult, she thought. At first, she was there for the drugs they distribute there, and then she craved more. And more. To the point that she couldn't stop consuming the medication, the red pills. And one day, a voice spoke to her. It was a mildly lascivious voice that sounded so sweet she could hear it hundred times. The voice said something about a contract and relieving all her pain in the world, to which she complied. Instead of joyful gratification, she found herself in an even more problematic situation. Her choices have involved her parents now. And having known the person that whispered to her, she knows too well to betray their expectation.

Natsuki bit her lower lip, holding the tears trying to flow down her hazel eyes. 'I fucked up,' she thought to herself.

That instant, a static sound followed by a distorted voice rang within the room, "Moriyama Natsuki, please do not be alarmed. We're here for a little chat."

Natsuki's gaze shot up to the mirror in front of her, knowing there are people right behind the walls, watching her. She immediately understood the situation she's in. She has to keep her cool. Let anything slip out, and not only her but her parents' heads will be on a spike at any moment's notice. She has to get out if she wants to live.

"What do you want from me? Let me go! I have my rights, you know!" She grunted weakly, still feeling the lightness in her head.

"Umm, I'm afraid that's not the case," the voice continued speaking after a slight pause, "have you ever been on a blind date?"
"Blind date?" Natsuki almost let a chuckle slip out.
"The moment you sat on the table, you will be sitting face to face with your date partners. I always start with this question," the person behind the voice cleared their throat and talked in a more elegant, deeper voice, "tell me something about you."

Natsuki frowned, aware that her interrogators are not being serious with her. She replied, "what do you want me to say?"

"Oh, where are my manners? I shall start first then. I play guitar, my favorite star is Angeline Jolly. Recently, a girl really caught my attention. Hoo boy, how much can I tell you that she's totally my type!"

Natsuki growled impatiently while the voice babbled on and on about the girl of their dreams. Until the conversation reached a certain point. "…so, this girl I'm totally going for has a tattoo on her chest."

Next thing she knows, a holographic image of a tattoo shaped like a pentagram with intricate engravings along the lines. Her pupils dilated, beads of sweat started building on her forehead and slowly dripping down to her chin.

"You've seen this before, right? As a matter of fact, you have one on yourself."
"W-what about it? It's just a tattoo," Natsuki's voice trembled as she tried to compose herself, to no avail.
"Where did you get this?"
"I told you it's just a tattoo!"
"Are you sure?"

Then the screen switched to a different screen, showing snapshots of helter-skelter murder scenes and accidents. All photos have one coherency, which is the pentagram tattoo imprinted on the bodies within those photos.
"These photos are classified and not for the public eyes to see. But since you have gotten involved in all this, I suppose you have the right to know your doing," the screen then showed pictures of human remains with scratch marks all over them. Natsuki swore she could feel the acid within her belly rose to her throat, begging to be let out.

"I s-swear, I didn't mean it! There's this t-t-thing! She told me to do it!" She stuttered between her words, hyperventilating. In that instance, her body swung to the side and fell off the steel chair. The voice stopped broadcasting for a while.

Natsuki's eyes opened wide, revealing round yellow orbs with black slits as pupils. She wriggled within the straitjacket with all her strength, trying to rip the arm restraints apart.

"You want to know the truth?! I'll give you the truth!" she hissed loudly in a different, more raspy voice.

"Oh, I won't do that if I were you." The voice said, following a sound of a click of a button.

Natsuki, or its Nekomata at the moment, broke free from the restraints and continued to rush towards the two-way mirror, proceeding to raise its arm, projecting all momentum into a single powerful hit. Its knuckles made contact with the glass surface, cracking it in the process. As she pulled back for a second strike, she smelt a strange smell coming from the walls. In an instant, the room is filled with green-colored gas, confusing the Nekomata, stopping her in the middle of whatever she's trying to pull.

Gradually, the Nekomata felt a unique sensation building within her flesh. It started as a tingling feeling that slowly turns into an itch. "What the fuck did you do?" The Nekomata gritted her razor-sharp fangs tightly together as the itch turned into excruciating pain. It could feel the sensation slowly biting off its skin, crawling slowly into the deepest layer of its muscle fibers. Its feet slowly succumbed to the pain and crashed to the floor. But it didn't end there. It's only starting to get worse. It instinctively scratches her body, trying to wipe off whatever's crawling inside her body, screaming in agony.

The pain is all she could think about now.

The Nekomata opened its tightly shut eye to take a glimpse of her own figure and shrieked at the sight of its skin curling black and flesh droplets falling slowly from its chalky white bones.

Unable to bear the pain, she wailed desperately, "Make it stop! Make it stop! I'll be a good kitty! Please make it stop!"

The green gas slowly sapped out through the slits on the walls. As soon as the gas cleared out, it revealed the figure of Nekomata lying on its back on the floor wheezing excruciatingly. The fangs protruding from the gap of her mouth slowly retracted, returning the body to the original owner. Natsuki opened her eyes, bracing herself to the sight of her crumbling body.

Instead, she found her body parts to be perfectly intact despite what she went through. She sluggishly sat up, thinking to herself that it was the most hellish 10 seconds of her life. "What was that?" She whispered, trying to reassure herself.

"Magnetite gas. Pretty cool, huh? It sends the pain to all your pain receptors' nerve endings, made to drive even Demons go crazy on that." The voice broadcasted, seemingly more amused than remorse.

"If you'd just call out your cat friend, one press of a button is all it takes to let you taste all that again."
"Please don't!" Natsuki quickly blurted out.
"Then, please humor me. Can you tell me anything about the tattoo?"

Natsuki dropped silent as if trying to assemble the proper answer. She's on edge. Not only she's got her head and her parents on the line, but if she does not answer carefully, she might have to go through the pain all over again, or probably worse.

"T-there's an initiation ceremony. A-and the voice calling out about contract or something. Please, I can't really talk about this. Just let me out!" Natsuki yelped and started crying.

There's a brief silence from the voice as Natsuki's sobs got louder, apologizing repeatedly.

"Look, if you'd only tell us about the tattoos, we promise not to hurt you. Give us anything. Names, places." the voice said in a sympathetic tone.
"I can't really talk about these things. They're going to kill me if I do." Natsuki quickly put a hand to cover her mouth, realizing what she just said.
"Who is going to kill you?"

"Who goddammit?!" the voice got louder, startling Natsuki.

With the lass stopped answering the question, her interrogators soon find themselves into a restless state. The cat and mouse game with Natsuki didn't go as well as they'd planned, which should call more severe measures. On the other side, they know that the person they're interrogating is still just a kid that maybe did a few wrong choices in life. Desperate, the broadcast died down, but before the noise being cut, Natsuki could hear a distant voice echoing from the voice receptor,

"I'll handle this."

Fearing for her life, wondering what 'handle' could actually mean, she pushed herself to the corner of the white room, nuzzling her shuddering knees close to her chest. She doesn't hear it but she could feel faint footsteps walking towards the room, getting louder by seconds.

With a loud bang, an opening that looked like a door that she could've sworn wasn't there before opened up, revealing a dark space behind the mirror big enough for 5 people to cramp in. And through the opening, a man in his late 20s waltzed into the room and approached her. The man crouched down, fixing his gaze at the same eye level as the girl. The man gently pulled out a handkerchief from his breast pocket and handed it to the girl.

"I believe we met today, Moriyama-san. My name is Toudou Naoya."

Receiving the kind gesture from Naoya, though unflinching, Natsuki instinctively dropped her guard and composed herself.

"Look at these," Naoya pulled out a set of crime scene photographs and sorted them out for Natsuki to see sheet by sheet. Each picture depicts the horrible demise of human lives and anarchic destructions, including the man Natsuki slaughtered in her frenzied state a few days back. "Have you ever heard of the Berserk accident? It's what the news has been hot about these days, about people suddenly going out of control and suddenly showed prowess impossible for human logic to comprehend. And this tattoo is engraved on all the preps on the Berserk case."

"Toudou-san! She's a civilian. We can't disclose those information to- " a female voice yelled out from the dark room but was cut by Naoya.

"I said I'll handle this, didn't I?" Naoya's dagger-sharp gaze pierced the ASDA personnel behind the mirror, leaving them dumbfounded.

"As I was saying, we could really use your help in solving this case. All we need is a name. Who instructed you to get this tattoo?" Naoya asked sternly.

Despite Naoya's persuasion, Natsuki still remained silent, staring blankly at Naoya's violet iris. Due to her uncooperative behavior, Naoya let a sigh out of the opening of his teeth, "I believe life is always fair. You reap what you sow. That's how the world works, Moriyama-san. But no matter how many bad choices we made in our lives, we should always try to make a better tomorrow, don't you think? So what I'm offering you is a way to make things better."

"Make things better?" Natsuki mouthed in a volume only audible to Naoya.
"Yes. We can stop the Berserk case with your help."

"Just a name will do."

Natsuki thought to herself about the dilemma she's facing. She's regretting all her past decisions, but at the same time, fearing for her own life and her family. No, she can't say it after all. Does lying her way out of this is a viable option? But the words Naoya said echoed within her, and the thought of redeeming herself from the guilt starts to sound appealing. After deep reasoning, she finally mustered her courage to speak a name. The name that shouldn't be mentioned. If I'm going down, might as well bring you down with me!

"L-lon-" before she could finish, a spectral arm stretched out from her shoulder, choking the life out of her. Followed by the phantasmic arm, a second figure taking a visible mixture of a human a cat oozed out of Natsuki's torso.

"He told you not to talk!" the Nekomata hissed. With lightning speed, Naoya summoned Vishnu and grabbed Nekomata's arm, pulling it out of Natsuki's psyche with full force.

"There you are! You finally had the guts to show your true form, you mangy cat!" Naoya exclaimed satisfyingly, and Vishnu slammed the cat monster on the floor, holding the back of her neck, preventing it from regaining her posture.

"You human bastard! Don't think you've won! HAAHAHA, you lose!" Nekomata laughed maniacally that made Naoya feel the uneasiness of his action. He quickly set its eyes closer to his and ordered Vishnu to cast a spell that allows him to enter a trance state, resonating with the Nekomata.

His resonation showed him blurred, chaotic visions of Natsuki and Nekomata's memories. He could make out a vision of red pills, and the moment Natsuki made a contract with the Nekomata. Wait, he thought to himself, as he saw a shadowy figure whispering its threats to Natsuki's ear moments ago. A strong gust of wind-like force pushed Naoya's psyche. It showed him a vision of people in matching red robes with the pentagram emblazoned tattoo visibly emblazoned on their body marching towards… towards the Moriyama residence! Naoya quickly attempted to announce a countermeasure and tried to cut the link. But he forgot one thing.

The spell's resonance works both ways.

He felt golden pair of arms choking him by his larynx with enough pressure that could easily break his neck if he's not in his astral form. From the dark space surrounding him, a golden skull nudged out of a distorted dimension right in front of his face, revealing a look he's known for a long time.

"Mammon."

"I must compliment you for getting this far, emperor!"
"Fuck you! Let go of the girl!"
"You did well discovering the failsafe I implanted in the girl."
"Dick move, Mammon! Why don't you and I finish this once and for all?"
"Are you sure you have the time for that?"

Mammon pointed its finger at the vision of the mysterious group of men heading towards the Moriyama residence in a van. They took out machine pistols and other guns, distributing them among themselves. Naoya quickly broke free from the skeletal grip, yanked its arms away from his sight. With a loud laugh almost zealotic in nature, Mammon's figure slowly faded to black miasma.

"Sit tight, I'll come get you next!" Naoya smirked and broke the resonance, returning him to the physical world.

"Are you done there, boy?" Naoya could hear Vishnu groaning.

"Yeah, do your Megido whatever thing," Naoya said.

Immediately, purple energy started manifesting under Vishnu's arm and directed the unstable energy to the Nekomata at point-blank.

"Please! NO! HAVE MERCY!" The Nekomata shrieked, fearing for its own safety. Alas Vishnu ruthlessly increased the density of the blast, burning the monster cat's body to ash.

"Manipulative women aren't really my type." Naoya stood up and fixed his suit. Having accomplished its summoning purpose, Vishnu returned to Naoya's body and reimbursed its phantasmic body to the young adult's psyche.

Naoya took a short glimpse at Natsuki's unconscious body and picked her up towards the backroom.

"Get medic! And assemble a unit ASAP!" Naoya gave out orders.
"But we don't have the order to-"
"Goddammit, just do what you're told! We need a strike team dispatch towards the Moriyama residence!" Naoya pulled the younger protesting ASDA personnel by the collars.
"But, sir, we don't have any units that can dispatch right away-"

Right when Naoya was about to lose it, Shinjiro walked into the room with Akihiko and Jou following him.

"Naoya-san, we'll go!" Shinjiro suggested.

"You guys are hurt. There's no way that you're in the shape to-" As Naoya tried to stop his underlings from killing themselves, Jou stepped in.

"My team will go with them. Brief us along the way. Is that alright, Naoya-san?" Jou had a slight smile on his face, signaling Naoya his trust and willingness to give the young Persona users his support for their chance on a revenge match.

After a second of lamenting, Naoya nodded, "Alright. Go now! I'll be there as soon as I can." Naoya finally reassured himself that his team will be safe under Jou's command. The 66th unit, alongside Shinjiro and Akihiko, swiftly marched outside towards their destination.

"Moriyama residence it is!" Jou exclaimed.

"Don't die on me!" the team could hear Naoya's voice echoed through the halls.

With a new mission right ahead of them, Jou led his newly formed team towards the Moriyama residence.

Next chapter: Home Invasion

A/N: It's been a long while since the last update, and I apologize for that. Did a little tweaking on the story and a little rewriting on previous chapters. Trying to build a more coherent world and story while honing my degrading writing skills, so sorry if some parts are difficult to understand. If you have anything to ask, go ahead and ask in the review section and I will try my best to answer your questions. Again, very sorry for the late update. Favorites, follow for updates or reviews would really be appreciated! Thank you for reading!