In this chapter, Tao will encounter her shadow self. And so will Sahori.
I figure Tao won't fight her own shadow though. She's too pacifistic.
And you don't have to fight your own shadow in Persona 5. No cast member has to fight another cast member's shadow. Not even Futaba.
Though it would be interesting to see that happen.
Maybe in a video game Atlus made.
Chapter 7: Persona Awaken
As the power trio traversed the desert that was Minato (or at least was Minato), our heroes made a surprising discovery.
They saw what appeared to be Tao, but she felt depressed. And she lacked the angel wings as well.
She looked like a normal human being.
And she was dressed in dark blue. It was kind of like how her friend Sahori dressed, incidentally.
"Wait, is this a clone of you?" asked Ichiro.
"It looks this way. But it could be a shapeshifting demon. They can be sneaky like that." explained Yuzuru.
So it would be best if they did not drop their weapons.
"Would you please accept me?" asked the depressed version of Tao.
"That depends. What exactly are you?" questioned Tao.
"I'm your alternate self. The side of you you don't openly discuss." explained Tao's alternate self.
"Oh. Yeah, I'm familiar with that." noted the girl. She imagined that her friends also had one, but it would be best if she didn't delve into their secrets.
She wanted to be a good friend.
"Would you please accept me? I'd feel so much better if you did that." explained Tao's shadow.
"It might make me feel a bit sad, but sure." nodded the girl with the kind heart.
"Really? I was expecting you would reject me." questioned the shadow.
"I can understand why you would think that, but even I feel gloomy sometimes. I do live a good life though." explained Tao.
"Good. I wouldn't want it to end." nodded Yuzuru.
Tao accepted her shadow.
"I guess you can feel depression." noted Ichiro.
"I don't feel it often, but yes, I can feel it." nodded Tao. It was the same as everyone.
As soon as Tao accepted her shadow, a halo appeared on her head.
She had unlocked her Persona, which was Maria.
"Huh. I was expecting a big battle or something." noted Ichiro.
But perhaps her shadow didn't want to fight her.
"Maybe, but it's not really in my nature to fight someone." remarked Tao.
"I suppose it's understandable. I'm willing to fight if I feel like it is for noble causes, but I suppose Ichiro would also prefer the pacifistic route as well." remarked Yuzuru.
"I feel like Tao and I are connecting well." spoke the blonde.
"We sure are." nodded the girl with the kindhearted smile.
It looked like Sahori, but was in a devil costume.
"Nuh-uh. You aren't me." contradicted the redhead. Since when did she wear a devil costume?
She dressed like all the other school girls.
"Um, you don't want to do that, Sahori." warned Yosuke.
"You don't want to admit it? Fine. But this will only result in violence." warned Sahori's Shadow.
"She isn't wrong." pointed out the boy who was Yu's BFF. He had seen this happen before. Multiple times.
And he and his friends had always gotten into a fight when that happened.
"I'm prepared for a fight, to be honest." explained Sahori.
She had those daggers for a reason.
"I suppose that's fair. I'd hate to fight someone who couldn't fight back. And you do have a friend with you." spoke the shadow.
"I guess I'll accept you…but only if I can't win." spoke the redhead.
"What if you do win?" asked the shadow.
"I'll consider it anyways." said Sahori.
"Sounds good to me." explained Sahori's alternate self.
Sahori's Shadow transformed into a demon.
"You can have your friend fight me if you want. It would make things more fair, to be honest." recommended Sahori's Shadow.
"That would be a good idea." nodded Yosuke.
"Ok!" exclaimed Sahori.
Sahori's Shadow attacked using fire.
She moved out of the way.
Yosuke cast Garu, injuring the shadow.
Luckily, this shadow did not seem particularly strong.
Yosuke's Shadow wasn't.
But then again, it appeared that the shadows got stronger the more people were pushed into the Midnight Channel. Kanji's Shadow was stronger than Yukiko's Shadow was, for instance. And he was able to summon two guardians for support.
He just might encounter stronger shadows, assuming they won this fight.
Sahori's Shadow attacked Sahori with a pitch fork.
"Ow!" exclaimed the redhead.
"You OK?" asked Yosuke.
Sahori nodded.
Unfortunately, her shadow followed by punching Yosuke in the face.
"Ouch!" exclaimed the boy who represented the Magician arcana.
Sahori kicked her shadow in the leg.
Sahori's Shadow swung her pitchfork at her alternate self.
"Whoa! That almost hit me!" exclaimed Sahori as she ducked underneath it.
She punched her own shadow in the face.
Sahori's Shadow dropped down on her knees.
"Congratulations on defeating me. But will you accept me now?" asked Sahori's Shadow.
She liked to think that she would.
"Alright, I will admit you are me. But I don't recall ever wearing a devil costume. Except during Halloween." acknowledged Sahori.
She remembered her first Halloween. It had been delightfully spooky. And she had enjoyed it very much.
Of course, she had also remembered to brush her teeth afterwards. Candy did give you plaque.
"I guess you have a naughty side." nodded Yosuke.
"Yeah, I do." agreed Tao's BFF.
Sahori's Shadow combined with Sahori.
"Hmm, accepting my shadow makes me feel funny." noted Sahori.
"Believe me, I know how that feels." remarked Yosuke.
"You do?" asked the redhead.
"Yeah. I've accepted my own shadow in my past." noted the boy.
"It's surprising how alike we are, huh?" questioned Sahori.
"Have you been picked on in the past?" asked Yosuke.
"Well, two members of my lacrosse team have insulted me sometimes." explained the redhead.
"Welcome to my world." spoke the magician.
"I'm happy to have someone who understands me so well." noted Sahori.
"Yeah. I'm glad you decided to transfer to my school." spoke the fellow transfer student.
"You're a good friend." remarked the redhead.
"Well, we might as well get along since we're working together." suggested Yosuke.
She nodded.
"Do you feel stronger now?" questioned the boy who kept having misfortunes happen to him.
"Yeah, I do." nodded Sahori.
"Good. It will increase our chances of survival out here." pointed out Yosuke.
Sahori smiled.
"Sure will!" exclaimed the redhead.
Chances are Sahori would have a persona of her own from now on.
In Sahori's case, her persona was Lilith.
Suddenly, a red flame appeared on her hand.
"What the-" exclaimed Sahori.
However, it disappeared shortly afterward.
"To be honest, I once went through what you went through. I couldn't accept my own shadow either." noted Yosuke.
Her shadow reminded him of his own.
"I understand." nodded Sahori.
"So, it looks like you can also use magic now." noted Yosuke.
"I guess it does look that way. Maybe we could learn from each other?" asked the redhead.
It would be a good idea. After all, Yosuke had experience using personas.
Though she wondered how Yosuke had experience fighting shadows in the first place.
"Maybe I could learn things from my demons?" asked the boy.
He liked to think he could.
"You certainly can!" nodded the Napaea.
However, he couldn't help but shake the feeling that other people might encounter their shadows while they were in the Netherworld.
Would they be as lucky?
He wasn't sure how shadows were in Da'at, but he expected something was going on.
"By the way, I think you're supposed to represent the devil arcana." noted Yosuke.
"The devil arcana, you say?" asked Sahori.
Somehow, that made sense.
She liked to think she was a good person.
But she seemed to recall doing evil things in a past life, for some reason.
But that was in the past.
As a side note, she believed her best friend represented the Sun Arcana.
She had a sunny personality, after all.
Though she wasn't sure what arcanas the students that had come with her represented.
It wouldn't be hard to figure out though.
Meanwhile…
It did not take long for Izanami to realize what was going on.
"Interesting, it appears that my Midnight Channel is starting to combine with the Netherworld." noted Izanami.
This sure was an interesting turn of events.
Considering the barrier between the Netherworld and Earth was disappearing, this made sense. The world was starting to get a bit more…chaotic.
Angels were trying to keep the peace, however. So Tokyo wasn't too different from before.
She wondered what this would mean for humanity.
Would it be safe?
She knew that YHVH gone, Tokyo was in danger of disappearing.
But she was using her power to prevent that.
Even so, she wondered what this would do to humanity's future.
Would they be able to defend themselves from Shadows? If they thought happy thoughts, it would be enough to deter them.
But they likely didn't know that.
Well, she knew she could count on the Inaba Investigation Team.
They had also been making new friends, which increased their chances of survival.
But maybe it could be best if she tried to repair the barrier.
She didn't quite have the power that YHVH himself had, however.
Though she wasn't fond of YHVH herself.
He limited how she could interact with the human world, as strong as she was. She could give humans her power, but it was rather limited. Though Tohru had gotten the hang of it rather quickly.
Though she did wonder if she should have given him that power.
What did he have against the other gods? She felt that there were plenty of gods that could be very helpful to humanity. She heard of Khonsu Ra. He wanted what he felt was best for everyone. And a lot of others would agree on his ideals.
Not all gods had humanity's best interests in heart, however. A few of them were incredibly dangerous. Like the goddess Mem Aleph. Everyone was afraid of her.
Perhaps he was worried that they would threaten his power.
Luckily, she had managed to escape his tyranny relatively unscathed.
But even so, she might consider finding her special someone. The other gods were searching for their special someone as well. They had all their own ideas of what the world would be like. So she might as well do so herself.
Unfortunately, not all of them were willing to compromise. Though she was personally.
She didn't feel the need to recreate the world though.
She had already managed to do herself.
But she figured it might be a good idea to help humanity create their new world.
She wondered what they would create.
But since the gods had their own ideas as to what world they would create, perhaps the humans would as well.
She could only hope that the humans wouldn't fight each other too much. She did care about them, after all. And constant conflict would only result in sadness.
There seemed to be no way to stop the angels and demons from fighting each other, however.
So perhaps the conflict would continue on.
Meanwhile…
"There sure has been a bit of turmoil in Inaba, hasn't there?" asked Marie.
"There certainly has." nodded Igor.
It appeared that demons were entering the town.
This could be good, but it could also be bad.
He knew that Jack Frost was innocent…but other demons were not.
"Luckily, it appears that there are people who are willing to fight them. But it's anyone's guess as to who will win the competition that Lucifer set up." noted Igor.
"Why would he want to do that?" asked Marie.
"I suspect he wasn't really interested in ruling the throne. I suspect he wished for everyone to be free of YHVH's tyranny." explained the man with the long nose.
Eleanor nodded.
"So he's planning to choose a successor?" questioned the brunette.
"Perhaps he believes in order to get what we want, we need to be strongest. I suspect morality might play a factor as well." explained Igor.
"I can only hope somebody with a strong moral center will win the competition." noted Marie.
"I can certainly hope so too." nodded Eleanor.
Meanwhile…
"I think it's time for us to enter the Netherworld ourselves. We need to do something about the attacks." noted Rise.
"I guess these demons are responsible. We only need to fight evil demons, right?" asked Teddie.
"Well, there are demons that are not necessarily evil, but feast on humans. I get the impression from the bite marks found on one of the victims." explained the popular girl.
"So they're not malicious?" questioned the blonde.
"Probably not. But we still need to protect Tokyo from them." noted Rise.
"You have a point." nodded Teddie.
"Still, I do think a peaceful resolution with them would be a good idea." explained the girl with pigtails.
He nodded.
But could demons be reasoned with?
Meanwhile…
Ryotaro Dojima left the police station.
"That was a good day's work." remarked the man.
He decided to slurp some coffee.
Suddenly, a King Frost approached him.
Unsurprisingly, he spat out the coffee he was drinking.
"A living snowman?!" exclaimed Ryotaro.
"Hee-hello!" shouted the king.
"I must be dreaming…" remarked the man.
"Have you seen my son, ho? He went to play in the hee-human world. But hee-he should have waited for me!" exclaimed the king.
"You're a father, too? I know what that's like." spoke Ryotaro.
"Does this mean you will help me-hee?" asked King Frost.
"I never thought I would meet a living snowman, but I understand your concerns. So yes." explained the cop.
King Frost gave Ryotaro a picture of his boy.
And yes, he was a Jack Frost.
"So that's what he looks like. I'm sure this will be helpful." noted Ryotaro.
He sure hoped that his daughter was doing alright.
This snowman was harmless, but he wondered if something crazy was happening in Tokyo.
It wasn't even winter.
Still, he should try to help the snowman find his son.
Even if he had to work overtime.
Meanwhile…
"Yes! Another Junes commercial!" exclaimed Nanako.
Jack Frost was watching curiously.
She decided to allow him back in the house. He explained that he was feeling overly warm outside. It was a warm, sunny day after all.
Warm weather wouldn't cause Jack to melt, but he preferred cold weather. And he was sweaty.
Inevitably, a familiar tune began to play.
"Everyday's great at your Junes!" sang Nanako.
"You like to sing too, ho?" asked Jack Frost.
"Yeah, I do. What do you like to sing?" questioned the girl.
"Christmas Carols, ho!" exclaimed the snowman.
"That doesn't surprise me." nodded Nanako.
They certainly were connecting well.
She couldn't take Jack to the North Pole though.
She decided to watch a movie.
It was Peter Pan…though it was ironic considering how fast she was growing up.
But she liked it nevertheless.
I could have Tao fight her own shadow self, but that would be…depressing. But I also figured that Maria would be a good choice for her.
I figure having Sahori fight her shadow self would work though.
And yes, somebody suggested that.
I like being open to suggestions. It does help keep the story moving forward.
I hope you liked the arcanas I came up with for Tao and Sahori. I figured it would fit their personalities.
I'll see if I can come up with arcanas for Ichiro and Yuzuru.