Malice. Pure, unfiltered malice. That was all the Team could detect coming from the Shadow that Morgana called the Reaper. Its singular eye narrowed at them, as if their very existence insulted it. Morgana turned the bus around in a fit of desperation, terrified for both her life and the lives of her comrades. The Mona-mobile was able to do a complete u-turn as the Reaper turned back the hammer on one of the pistols. The bus was barely able to make it a few feet before the Shadow fired the bullet, a sound more akin to a death wail than a gun going off. Morgana turned the corner, dodging the round. And if it was a normal bullet, that would be enough. But nothing about the Reaper was normal.
As the bullet speed behind the Mona-mobile, the Tricksters felt the sheer raw power coming off that small slab of metal in waves. As the bullet passed behind the bus, the metal let out a whine, then a screech, and before the Team knew it, the back of the Mona-mobile was being ripped off as the bullet passed by, the glass shattering as if a loud scream was unleashed. Time seemed to slow down as the metal twisted like a wave traveling in the same direction as the round, and before long the entire rear of the bus was completely torn off and ripped to pieces just because a bullet barely missed it. With the rear suddenly dislodged, the vehicle spun out of control into a crash, tossing around its riders like they were candy before finally colliding with a wall.
The bullet didn't even need to make contact to do damage. No wonder Morgana was so scared of this thing.
"Everyone ok?" Yu cried, and was met with dozens of groans.
"Come on, GET UP! We have to get out of here now!" Morgana yelled, forcing herself to her feet, with the rest of the Team giving pained groans as they forced themselves to stand. Getting out of the wreckage that was once the Mona-mobile, the Team saw the Reaper waiting for them, no doubt to see if they died in the wreck. It was incredibly disappointed. Pulling back the hammer of its second pistol, Yu let out a panicked order.
"MOVE!"
The Team forced themselves to do just that, Morgana healing the group so that they could at least try to outrun the monster. Yu looked over his shoulder to see it aiming one of its pistols at the group. Before it could fire, Yu unleashed Izanagi, who swatted the gun away with his blade, the absurd length of the barrel working in Yu's favor. The bullet launched, but rather than be stopped by the wall it should've hit, the wall instead collapsed before the impact, and the same thing happened to the next one and the one after that, leaving a trail of holes through the concrete. By now the group had made it to the escalators that would take them down to the next area.
"Narukami come on! You don't stand a chance against that thing!" Morgana yelled as she and the others frantically made their way down. Yu himself turned around and sprinted to join his teammates. Meanwhile, Izanagi hurled a bolt of lightning at his opponent, but the electricity passed over it like water over glass. The Reaper tried to swat the god away, but Yu's Persona proved to be too illusive. That's when the Shadow fired without pulling back the hammer first, causing a gust of wind far bigger than anything the Team conjured to collide with Izanagi, forcing him to the ground. Before the god could even fully realize what happened, he found himself pinned underneath one of the Shadow's revolvers. The Reaper pulled back the hammer this time and pulled the trigger.
Under normal circumstances, any damage done to a Persona would only result in a headache that would vary in intensity depending on the damage. But that didn't happen. This time, when the bullet passed through Izanagi's skull, Yu felt something just stop working inside him. The Wild Card clutched his heart as he felt his eyes roll up into his skull. Blood as black as ink oozed out of his eyes, nose, and mouth. Izanagi, now with a giant hole in the back of his head, was limp and lifeless as he lost his color. Before long, the Persona seemed to turn to clay, turning a dusty brown as cracks formed across his body, before finally crumbling to dust. Akechi turned around just in time to see his friend fall to the floor.
"NARUKAMI!" The ace detective cried out.
The Reaper turned its attention to the survivors, who had arrived at the station that would take them further down, and slowly began hovering to where they were. But Akechi refused to leave his leader in a dismal place such as this. Summoning Robin Hood, the Persona grabbed the corpse that was once Yu Narukami, and flung it to the escalators, where Akechi picked him up and threw him down before putting Robin Hood away so he wouldn't meet the same fate as his friend. The Reaper pulled back the hammer and fired, and Akechi only barely managed to get them both out of the destructive radius the bullets seemed to have. The roof collapsed as the cursed metal flew into it, and the Tricksters hoped that would slow the Reaper down long enough for them to heal Yu. When Akechi slid down to the lower level with Yu's still warm body, Shiho screamed when she saw her leader.
"W-what happened to him?!" She yelled.
"The Reaper happened. Damnit, we should've used the Goho-M the moment Venus told us it entered." Morgana grumbled, reaching into her utility belt.
"Izanagi got shot, and Yu ended up like this. Not only that, but he's showing the same symptoms as those with mental shutdowns. All the victims look like this; eyes rolled back, black blood pouring from the eyes, mouth, and nose. Makes sense now that I think about it; Personas are just a person's Shadow that's been accepted, and that... thing is far stronger than anything we've faced." Akechi observed as he laid his friend's body down.
"Stand back!" Morgana ordered, slamming the last Revival Bead into the Wild Card's chest. Yu's eyes rolled back to the way they should be, and he let out a feverish gasp of air. He forced himself upright, hacking all the way. Shiho let out a sigh of relief as Yu let out Izanagi, who seemed to be in a daze, swaying side to side as he hovered. But before anyone could celebrate, they heard a massive boom, like a wrecking ball, and small chunks of rock made their way down. Then they heard the chains.
"The Reaper's coming! You guys have to get out of there!" Hifumi warned.
"Damnit! Alright, everyone get close to me!" Morgana ordered as the sound of chains grew louder and louder. By the time the Reaper laid its eye on the Team, Morgana had thrown the device down, enveloping them in a bright light. When it vanished, they were gone, leaving the monstrous Shadow to stew in loathing the fact its prey got away.
The Team itself found itself not at a safe room like last time, but at the entrance of Mementos, where Hifumi was waiting.
"That was close. I thought you could only kill someone's inner self if it was a Shadow, not a Persona." She pondered.
"Under normal circumstances, but the Reaper is on another level. It's claimed the lives of Wild Cards and Champions of Ruin alike. There's a reason Master Igor instilled a deep fear of it when he created me." Morgana explained.
"I just hope we don't meet it again. We lost our last revival bead because of it." Shiho pointed out.
"Sorry about that guys. This is on me." Yu apologized bashfully.
"No it's not. If the Mona-mobile hadn't broken down it wouldn't have found us." Morgana replied, shame reverberating in her words.
"What's done is done. Rather than moping around, we should learn from our mistakes. It doesn't matter who's responsible, all of the pieces are still on the board, and that's what counts." Hifumi responded.
"Venus is right. We're all alive to fight another day. I suggest we go back home for tonight." Akechi suggested.
"Agreed. But we come back tomorrow and see if we can make it to Sugimura." Yu declared, pulling out his phone and bringing all of them back to the real world.
Yu came into the apartment tired and disheveled. The encounter with the Reaper had indeed been a daunting one, and even Izanagi himself claimed to feel fatigue. Right now, he just hoped that Makoto had already made dinner so he could chow down on that then go straight to bed. But when he came in, he instead found not just Makoto, but Sae as well, setting the dinner table. The younger Niijima beamed when he entered the room.
"Ah Yu-kun, perfect timing!"
"Hey Makoto." Yu replied lazily.
"You appear tired Narukami. Been staying up too late?" Sae asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Just didn't sleep well last night is all. By the way, we saw that… announcement you made in class." Yu added, hoping to divert attention away from how he looked.
"Oh really? What do you think about it? I've heard a lot of mixed opinions about it at school." Makoto informed.
"I think you're making a mistake by provoking them like that Sae-san." Yu responded honestly.
"Oh? How so?" Sae asked, curious.
"Well, you just taunted an unknown force. Said force is able to forcibly make people have a complete 180 in terms of personality, and we don't know if that's all they can do. You painted a target on your back."
"All officers of the law have targets painted on their back. Besides, if they do come for me, I'll at least be able to learn their methods."
"So that's why you did it? Put yourself at risk of getting shot just so you can learn where the sniper is?"
"Why are you so opposed to it Narukami?"
"It's just… I don't want you to get hurt Sae-san. Makoto and I need you. If you go down, I don't know who will take care of us." Yu answered, surprising himself with how honest he was with the first sentence. Try as he might, he couldn't bring himself to hate Sae enough to hurt her. But no matter how much he didn't want to, Sae might not give him a choice.
"Narukami look at me." Sae ordered, gingerly touching Yu's arm. The teenager found himself looking into his guardian's crimson orbs.
"You and Makoto are the reason why I'm going after the Phantom Team to begin with. So far the changes of heart have been just giving the victims a complete 180 in personality, like you said. There's also some kind of website where anonymous people can post the names of people whose hearts they want the Team to steal. You and Makoto are good kids, and I don't want you two to throw away your futures by turning into a pair of punks just because some idiot posted your names out of jealousy, anger, or some other reason."
"Well, we might be targeted anyway, given that you've declared war on them." Makoto reminded, causing Sae to give a slight wince.
"But even so, I still support them." the younger Niijima continued, earning surprised looks from both Yu and Sae.
"You do? Why?" Sae asked.
"They got rid of Kobayakawa. After what he did to Emiko, Shiho, and who knows how many others, I'm glad that he's finally rotting away. I wonder if dad would've supported them."
Yu saw Sae's eye twitch at the last part. She turned to her sister, but there was sorrow in her eyes, rather than anger.
"I don't know Makoto. But daddy's not here; we are, and it falls on us to protect each other, no matter what."
"And uphold justice." Makoto added. Sae shook her head, a deep frown on her face.
"No. Justice isn't even a concern. It's nothing more than a lofty ideal that only disappoints, a tool used to trick people into thinking the world is fair."
"I disagree. I think that true justice exists, and it's something that benefits the innocent, and that everyone should try to uphold." Makoto responded.
"Interesting."
Without warning, Sae turned to her ward.
"Tell me Narukami, what is justice to you? I would've thought what happened to you has changed your view on it." Sae asked, narrowing her eyes.
"I… I don't know to be honest. Before I came here, I thought justice was just following the law, and look how that turned out."
"And now?"
"Now… I don't know. But whether it was just or not, I'm glad that Kobayakawa is gone, and I'm sure plenty of people feel the same about him and Mitsuyo.
"Fair enough. I take it that means you also support the Phantom Team?"
"Yea. A part of me hopes that they'll eventually come across the bastaaaaaaa, guy who framed me, and they'll make him confess."
"What about the other part?" Makoto asked.
"The other part knows that's a pipe dream." Yu confessed, which got a solemn nod from Sae.
"You're starting to learn how the real world works. Even if they somehow found him and proved your innocence, the record would be difficult to expunge."
"But it'd be therapeutic knowing that he got what he deserved."
"It's a rare thing for someone to get what they deserve Narukami. It doesn't matter if they're good or evil." Sae replied, a bitter edge in her voice.
"Well I suppose you're right. I mean, I didn't deserve the hospitality you two gave me. You could've thrown me into an attic and left it at that."
Sae reached out and gently took Yu's hand with her own. Her words were resolute, but warm.
"We're family Narukami. And come hell or high water, family sticks together."
"Come on, the food's getting cold. Let's eat, and talk about something else." Makoto suggested. A suggestion the other two were happy to take.
Once Yu was finally in the privacy of his room, he looked at his diary. The last entry was a while ago, most of the pages now detailing strengths and weaknesses of the various Shadows he's encountered. They were useful before Hifumi joined and began to keep a catalogue of her own in Fu Hao. Even so, Yu kept it updated, just in case Hifumi was sick or otherwise unable to join them. But from time to time, he'd use the diary for its intended purpose. And now was one of those times.
Dear Diary:
Well, the past few weeks have been eventful. Not only did we successfully give Mitsuyo a change of heart, but because of that, Sae-san and Akechi had to make an appearance on the news to give a statement about the Phantom Team. Akechi supported us, as expected, but Sae has now become the face of opposition towards us. She said we were too dangerous to be left free, and in private, she said that she's concerned that we could be a threat to her sister, and even compared what we're doing to the Mental Shutdowns. And now, I have a choice; either try to find a way to meet her on my own terms, or be branded a dangerous criminal all over again. My friends and I have found a way to do the former, but what will happen after that will determine a lot about the future of the Phantom Team. I hope I'm doing the right thing.
Ryuji sat in his room, leaving unfinished homework on his desk, failed tests in the trash bin, and a paused video game on his TV. He couldn't focus, no matter what he tried to do, Iwai's threat looming in his mind. So far, the yakuza member hadn't made any demands, but even Ryuji wasn't stupid enough to think that he'd stay away forever. That's when his phone rang.
"Here he is; the biggest douche of the universe! In all the galaxies, there's no bigger douche than you!" The device sang.
Yup. That was the ringtone Ryuji set for Iwai. The delinquent considered ignoring it, maybe smashing his phone against the wall so he could have an excuse not to talk to the criminal. But Ryuji knew that it would only stall the inevitable. So he instead picked up.
"The hell do you want?"
"Wow, you actually picked up. I was worried I'd have to come and meet you in person."
"The hell do you want, asshole?"
"Heh. You got your father's fire. Good to know you got at least some of his blood in your body. As to what I want… well, that's a matter best discussed in person. There's an alley in between the bookstore and the arcade, it leads to a small shop. Meet me there tomorrow, five PM, sharp. And don't think about keeping me waiting. You won't like what happens." Iwai instructed, his voice icy as he stated the final sentences.
The tone from the device let Ryuji know that the yakuza member had hung up, and the delinquent let out a low pitched whine. He was stuck between a rock and a hard place, and he didn't know what to do. He couldn't go to Akechi, Yu, or Makoto on account of his fight. He couldn't go to Shiho or Ann because they wouldn't know what to do either. He couldn't go to his parents because that would only complicate things. That left only one person. Tomorrow, Ryuji would ask her for advice.