[Chapter 10]
My Will
I head inside of the school building as I shelter the journal from the rain and began to become rather nervous at something like this. I manage to find a free seat as I stare at the journal that should be kept in private and my mind began to wonder of Ayakane.
She could of drop it...yeah, that could be it.
I thought of many possibilities as to the reason of her journal being on the floor but I still felt doubts of my reasoning.
"Hey Luck."
I look up to see Luck calling me out and with his clothes wet from the rain as he probably didn't expect the weather just as I did. Luke tilt his head with a smile as he notice the girlish book in my hand and
"Is that yours? I never picture you with that kind of hobby but I never could guess you." Luke smile.
"No, it belongs to Ayakane and I found it near the main entrance of the school." I reply, quietly.
Luke notices my seriousness as I stare at the journal of her and he cough in his hand to get in the mood as she looks serious.
"So, you think she is missing or perhaps kidnap by someone?" Luke asks.
"Of course not." I spoke, and then hesitate for a bit. "I don't know if it is correct but, I do feel like that's what happen to her." I answer.
"I see, I will tell the staff council and the main office to call Ayakane from the office's speakers. Surely she will be found with my help and those in school staffs." Luke proudly explains.
I felt relief and quite frankly, happy to have a friend like Luke on my side as he has control on the school with his position. It almost felt selfish to use his position to find Ayakane but I had to know for sure or else I will continue all day with doubts.
"Thanks, Luke. You always seem the person to help and I am thankful for what you are doing." I smile.
Luke rub his nose at my answer and he quickly dash into the main office as I hear Ayakane call out from every room of this building and I pray that my feeling are false. Time passes by as staffs, teachers, and even the students became worry sick at Ayakane's absent and the time for class is coming close. I began to become impatient as I tap my index finger on my knees while I look at the floor below and Luke is working very busy with everyone to find Ayakane.
...damn it! I wish my feelings weren't true...I wonder where she left...perhaps...
"Everyone seems panic about something, what happen?"
I look up to see Jane looking confuse at the state of the school and she probably doesn't know the problem we all having.
"Ayakane is missing.." I spoke, softly.
Jane looks serious as I mention her disappearance and she took a seat next to me as she look at me.
"I was worry you were going to say that and I think I know where she is." Jane explains.
I felt my heart jump from my throat as I grab Jane's shoulder and looking at her directly.
"Where!" I ask.
"Easy there, you seem worry? Don't you remember, this happen before to me as well, and all of the students that went missing all ended up in Hotspot, for some strange rea-"
I didn't wait for Ayakane's explanation as I made a run for it toward the heavy rain outside and I am welcome to the sound of rain hitting the floor hard. I felt the rain easily covering me and my glasses getting foggy from the wetness. I remove my glasses to put then in my collar as I locate the statue which I did and I took out the video camera from my backpack.
"What are you doing?"
My focus on the reflection is interrupt by the sound of Jane's shouting from behind me and I turn around as I touch the statue in front of me.
"Going to rescue Ayakane from Hotspot, that's what I am going to do." I reply.
"Are you insane, going in Hotspot during the rain is suicidal as the shadow become agitate and more violent from intruders." Jane explains.
"Even so, I am willing to take that risk." I answer, confidently.
I look at the reflection as the darkness is within my sight and any moment, I will enter Hotspot to rescue Ayakane from death. In that moment, Jane tackles me and away from the reflection but it is too late for such attempt. She only tackles me into Hotspot as our clothing changes and the school became creepy as a sign of entrance.
"You stubborn fool!"
Jane surprising punches me in the stomach as I quickly back away from her as she looks angry at me. I kneel down with my right knee on the floor and covering my stomach to suppress the pain. The sound of rain still continues even in this place and even I still remain wet in this place.
"You can't do it alone, I know that feeling very well and even I fail to accomplish that task so, please stop this nonsense. We can't save everyone so let's just find leave from here, together." Jane pleads.
I remain silent as I manage to recover from her blow but my mind has being made up. I decide to follow my feelings to protect Ayakane, another friend that I need to rescue as I would do the same for them. I turn away from her as I walk into the abandon school's main entrance to find Ayakane by myself if necessary. Suddenly I felt a dangerous presences approaching me and so I dodge whatever I felt. I notice Jane throwing a punch from behind me and looking a bit angry at my choice as he grip her right fist.
"You don't understand at all about trust and how weak we truly are in Hotspot. If only you have infinite power unlike us then maybe I will listen but now..." Jane trail off.
Jane made a dash toward me as she quickly turns to grab my left arm and lift my entire body from the ground to slam me down into the floor. I felt my back hurting a lot from that move of her and I struggle to get up as I focus on the pain.
"You are not strong, you are weak like us and we can't help no one like this.." Jane sadly mutters. "I am sorry but it is the truth that you will one day face." Jane adds.
I bite my lips at Jane's speech and how wrong she truly is as she has the powers to fight back just like me. I stand up to face her as I put back my glasses to focus on Jane first before moving on.
"You are wrong, I do have that power, and you can definitely fight back against this if you only try with your might, like I have right now." I reply.
I stand tall with my belief as we do have the power to change and overcome Hotspot and its mystery revolving around it. Jane thinks about my proposal for a second but she look at me with anger as I sight at Jane's stubbornness to believe on her or others.
"If you can talk big.." Jane trails off.
Jane grabs her necklace with her left hand tightly while she extends her right arm to materialize her two-handed sword. Bahamut appears above her as she point to me and putting her sword on her right shoulder.
"Then does mean you have the will to defy me. Show me this power you claim you have and I won't go easy on you! " Jane spoke, confidently.
I adjust my glasses as I summon my weapon to fight against her and I need to keep my power a secret for now since I can't avoid this painful fight.
For Ayakane!
I widen my eyes as I charge as I began to jump in the air to slash down but Jane easily push me away with her stronger blade in her hand. I land in the floor as I glance up to see Jane rushing with her blade in the air and I manage to dodge her swing. Even so, Jane manages to carry her body to reach me with a kick in my back as I hit the trees. Jane buries her sword in the floor as she extends her right arm to me and holding her pendant.
"Come Bahamut!" Jane commands.
Bahamut appear as he open his mouth to hit me with a fire attack from nowhere and strangely, that attack felt like nothing to me. I push the firework from me as Jane became stun at my resistance to fire as I smile with pride.
"Impossible, Agnostos Theos has resistance to fire attacks!?" Jane spoke, angrily.
"It isn't Agnostos Theos, but rather.." I spoke, as I lift my weapon to summon my new Persona. "Let's go, Tam Lin!" I summon.
A long, white-haired young man appears from my sea of consciousness wearing light-green armor and a long spear in his left hand. Tam Lin spin his spear above him as Jane try to dodge the attack by steeping away but my Persona long spear manage to slam her away hitting the building. I could see Jane struggling to get up and voices screaming inside of the building coming from the shadows. I became worry as we raise suspicious to us and the Shadow has realize our rude entrance.
Now I can rescue Ayakane!
I ignore Jane as I quickly ran toward the main entrance to find Ayakane, but Jane stab me in my body as I felt the sword hitting vital organs inside of me. I felt dizzy as I feel my blood running down my stomach and I slowly back away from the blade as I grab my cut to stop the bleeding.
"Don't worry, I can heal that wound easily and I know there no reason with you anymore, so I decide to make you pass out cold should that option occur." Jane explains, as my vision became blurry. "Which sadly it did and I never thought you will get this strong, so you should be happy with your strength and this is as far as you go, leader." Jane smile.
I became dizzy as from the blood loss and fall into the floor crawling in the mud toward the entrance but Jane stops my progress as she stood between my destinations. I became tire from fighting a more experience Persona-user and I slowly fall asleep as I fail to save Ayakane. A couple of second pass as I stare at pitch-dark of my eyelids and I became healthy despite the previous wound.
"Are you going to give up, again?"
I slowly open my eyes to see my Shadow looking at me with disappointing eyes and frustration of my loss from Jane. I became curious to his existence and why he is helping me rather than do something else with his time.
"Of course not, I just too weak like Jane say…" I mumble, angrily.
My Shadow sighs. "Is that what you think? So in the end, you didn't want to save OUR childhood friend from those pesky Shadows, correct?" My Shadow asks.
I became puzzle as he mention Ayakane being my childhood friend and we clearly aren't, as I have no memory of such thing occurring in my life. My shadow became angry at me for not remembering something important to him.
"Damn it! It seems she has deleted some part your memory, what an annoyance. Let me show you the truth and hopefully, we can link together better than this" My Shadow explains.
"Show me? Show me what exactly, and what do you mean by link?" I ask, confuse.
"Just watch; it should make some sense after you regain your loss memory." My shadow answers.
My other self began look down as he tap his feet in the dark floor beneath us to quickly change the whole dark, gloomy place into a classroom for middle school students. My heart began to feel pain and that static sound is following after, as if something is preventing me from remembering something. I grab my head from the headache and I notice students bullying a girl.
"You draw horrible, you should just give up."
My eyes widen as the children began to bully one them but one boy, away from the group began to watch from far as it got his attention.
"Yeah, an ugly pig like you would never be an artist so stop pretending to be one."
Another insult, the girl began to weep silently as she hides her sadness from the students and I felt angry at those bad children. Thankfully, the teacher kindly stop her student from bullying the girl and I felt relief to see her doing something like that. The children went away as the girl remains alone and without friends, as she remains in that pose for a while now.
"So tell me, what would you do if you saw something like this?"
I turn to my left to see my Shadow crossing his arms as he look at the lonesome girl weeping on her own and I turn to see her as well. Normally, no student will protect her since she is alone and never defend herself from them but I am no normal person.
"I would have befriended her and…" I pause, thinking and hesitating. "Try to make her feel good about herself and tell her that I would be her friend so she can lean to me." I reply, truthfully.
That's right; I can faintly remembering an exact scene occurring to me before.
I wanted to approach the girl to comfort her but the boy from before approach her and began to talk. I became stun at our exact idea and I wanted to know who exactly this boy is.
"Hello!" The boy greets. "Wow, you sure are good at drawing with paint and you look really cute with long hair, so don't let anyone judge you for it." He spoke, chuckling. "Despite paints getting in your hair." He happily adds.
I froze with shock as the boy standing before me is me, I felt strong pain as I can feel nostalgic follow up with strong pain and I fell into my knees as the pain became unbearable.
"Let's be friend from now on and forever!" The boy spoke, smiling.
"Thank you…my name is Ayakane Koifumi..nice to meet you." Ayakane shyly mutter.
Suddenly, the pain began to disappear as I felt more at peace and I close my eyes to feel the pain lingering in my head gone. I took a deep breath from this and release it with a long exhale to relax. I open my eyes to find myself back in the dark room and my Shadow smiling at me.
"Good, I can feel my real self coming back already and do me a favor. Don't lose her and don't lose your way, for OUR sake."
[Jane POV]
I sigh as Luck finally remain immobilize as he pass out from the blood loss and I felt guilty for making Luck realize his weakness.
"I shouldn't, it was in due time after all and right now, I couldn't effort to lose another friend.." I mutter.
I look down to see my friend unconscious in the muddy floor and I began to rub my eyes from the situation. I snap out from this guilt as I began to grab his leg to pull him back into our world before the Shadow attack us in our time of weakness. Suddenly, I felt a powerful aura coming from behind me and turn around to see Luck trying to get up from the floor which made me to take some distance away from him. Luck seems more different than before and I felt like I should be more cautious of my every move which confuse me is to why I felt like this.
What is this feeling?...Fear…
I felt my breathing become heavy as Luck's presence sharpen the atmospheres around him and I became nervous for his next action. Luck turn around with a serious expression which isn't like him and he remove his glasses as he fold them to put it away. I took my battle stance I notice his glowing yellow eyes and his shadow is involve in this somehow. Suddenly, his small blade turn into a long, skinny one and he slam the blade into the floor as he rest upon the hilt.
"That was pretty good Jane, you are indeed strong enough to fight any threat that may come our way." Luck spoke, calmly. "But, it won't be enough to stop me from rescuing my childhood friend from danger and so you will lose in the next 5 second or so." Luck confidently announces.
I became angry at his bold prediction and so I dash after to him despite his new power. I need to end this pointless battle once and for all so we can escape from here. Luck spread his wing which made me worry since he never use those and I wanted to stop but Luck quickly fly toward me with his thin blade on hand. In one second, our distance became close to zero as his blade is near my throat and his serious eyes are watching me very close with determination. I became shaken by his power as I lost this battle like he predicted and I release my weapon from my grasp. Deep inside of me, I felt happy of this result and he will likely travel father than I would ever imagine.
[Luck POV]
I notice Jane dropping her weapon as she give up on her foolishness and I slowly back away from her as I remain cautious still. Jane looks up with a smile on her face and I raise an eyebrow to her reaction since she lost after all.
"So this is your power, huh? Show me more of your potential and if you need my help, then ask away and I won't hesitate now." Jane spoke, smiling.
A smile slowly appears in my face as I gain Jane's trust at long last and now we can work together without a doubt on her mind. Jane looks at me with curious on her eyes and hesitating about something on her mind.
"Luck, how do you summon another Persona? It shouldn't be possible for you to summon another Persona, beside Agnostos Theos." Jane explains.
"That's a part of my power as well and I just found out last night." I reply.
" I see.." Jane mutters, curiously.
I notice Jane's leg moving impatiently and she seem to act rather differently as she began to blush and not looking at me in the eyes. Jane caught up to my gaze and tries to get her calm composure that she acts out of pride of some sort.
"W-What, why are you looking at me like that?" Jane asks, nervously.
"Heh, so you act calmly to hide your true emotions from people and this is how your true self is. I never expect Jane to be girlish when she drop her act and trust someone." I smile.
I smile as I put my left hand in my hips and while Jane blushes at my truthfulness which made her puff her cheeks.
"Well, I am sorry I act like this, okay! I just hide this from people since they take advantage of me in the past." Jane spoke. "A-Anyways! Enough about me, lets rescue your childhood friend? Do you know Ayakane?" Jane asks, changing the subject.
I sigh. "Yes, I forgotten something very important and now that I remember, I will do anything to save her once more and I need your help, please help me." I plead.
I raise my right hand toward her and she became happy knowing she is reliable to me since she wants to be useful to someone. She happily accepts that offer and we walk together toward the main entrance like a team. We arrive to the 1st floor to immediately spot Ayakane on the floor, laying down and I quickly run after her.
"Oh, so my hero finally shows up."
I stop at my track as I hear Ayakane voice speaking to me and I notice a dark aura coming out from Ayakane's body to form another Ayakane. I calm down as I focus on this strange enemy and three Shadows began to appear. Jane quickly appears beside me as she too took her battle stance and became shock at Ayakane's Shadow.
"A Shadow? But this one is loose compare to your." Jane spoke.
"It appears so, Jane, I want you to take care of the three Shadows on your own and I should focus on Ayakane's Shadow." I plan.
"Why on your own? Shouldn't we stick together against her?" Jane asks.
The shadow change into a different form as the familiar pumpkin-headed Shadow appear once more to battle and I know Jane can easily handle them, and I know for sure I can handle Ayakane's Shadow.
"You have some very strong resistance to fire attacks, and I have a strong bond with Ayakane. Now you understand where I am going with this." I spoke.
I grab my scarf as I felt confident on this battle and Jane pause for a bit to realize my plan.
"Ah! Now I understand your plan, and I agree with that but you need to be careful. People's Shadow are tricky to handle, even if they are friend, or foe." Jane answers, while giving me tips.
I nod to her advice as she quickly rushes to cut the competition and I remain alone with Ayakane as she remains silence while acting strange for a Shadow.
"You left me all alone to suffer as you gain friends on your own." Shadow Ayakane spoke.
"You know that isn't true, I am here for you after all and I want you to be by my side again, like old time." I reply.
"What about your judgment? You believe in me, my art, and even so, you throw me away like thrash, like the rest of the people before you." Shadow Ayakane said.
"You are wrong and you know that, let's just talk like rational people and without any fighting, alright?" I ask, calmly.
Ayakane's Shadow emotionless face remains unfazed by my reasoning and strangely, her Shadow feel odd to me. Even though it is my first time dealing with this, I can tell something is strange about Ayakane's shadow and I need to fix it. Ayakane's Shadow materializes her weapon, a bow and she put her arrow inside the weapon to fight against me. I sigh at this development as I have to fight my childhood friend in order to save her in the first place and so, I bring my weapon out to indulge her curiosity.
[Ayakane POV]
I became very uncomfortable at the scary atmosphere changing so quickly and I slowly manage to go inside the building to find some answers. I open the main entrance door to see rotten hallways and darkness overwhelming me as I try my best to see inside of it.
"I am having second thought about this.." I mutter, quietly.
I manage to bring some courage into me as I walk close to the wall as I guide in this darkness and I notice a girl standing the middle of the hallways. I became startle at first but I became relief as she wore the same shirt I had and perhaps she became lost just as I.
"Hello, are you lost?" I ask.
The girl remains silence and weirdly unmoving to my question which made me feel uneasy at her behavior. The urge to run away from this place became the first thing in my mind and so I carefully and slowly without any noise, head back to the exit of this building.
"Are you going to run away, again?"
I pause at my voice asking me the question and I pause with fear as I see the girl having the same face as me looking at me back. I couldn't answer her question as my breathing became heavily and scare at this thing. She grins horrific as I fall into the floor with fear at this monster with my face and I felt dizzy.
"What's your judgment?" She asks, once more.
"I d-don't understand, w-who are you?" I ask, nervously.
"I am your shadow of your most true inner self. You will never find good judgments in this rodent world of ours, try as you might to steel yourself from salvation, in the end, you will fall back to where you started." She spoke.
The girl approach me as I remain frozen with fear and I couldn't look away from myself grinning at my attempt to stand up. I couldn't hold myself and so, I pass out as my vision became darkness and I felt my body hit the floor.
[Chapter 10 End]