Callmecrazylol: I don't know if you'll actually get to see Messiah in this fic. I mean, Death's still in Minato's guts, so no (actual) persona Thanny, meaning no Orpheus-Thanatos fusion for Messiah.
Ichinaruko: I need to clarify: Takaya had friends in high places (Nyar's champion and/or Ikutsuki), Nyar himself couldn't give a fuck about him. As for the P4 crew… yeah… uh… you'll see… eventually… Only hint you're getting is Nanako absolutely despises Minato… probably. Maybe. I dunno. We both know I lie a lot and/or change my mind a lot. By the way, I am still a sadist. I just show at… more opportune moments.
AmeYuuki: Oh, I know. Never got to play PQ myself, but I know the big scene. I wonder if PQ2 has anything remotely similar to that? Eh, probably not.
Fun Fact: I am now taking Duolingo classes to learn Japanese… and it's fucking tough. I can't even learn Spanish, why am I doing this to myself?
Also, a little warning… shit happens. Seriously, I wanted to keep this story rated T, but after what I just wrote? Welcome Order and Chaos to the rated M club.
"Ugh," Minato's knees nearly gave, forcing him to stumble onto the ground beneath him after hours upon hours of endless running. He tried moving again, but his body screamed at him and the adrenaline he had coursing through his veins wore off ages ago.
He didn't even have the energy to use another healing spell on himself and he'd been overexerting himself to the point that even the personas he had that could heal passively couldn't do much for him anymore with how much damage he'd done to himself.
At the same time, he couldn't afford to waste any time just because his body didn't want to keep going anymore.
"No more," Minato coughed, reaching out for another object out of his bag only to find nothing that he'd want. How many healing items had he wasted on this? The number was too high to count. He would probably hate himself if he knew the exact number.
His body was a wreck and he was completely exhausted and sweating in what could easily be subzero temperatures. All of this in the name of some kids he just met briefly a few days ago.
Of course he did. Either he was an idiot, or Ikutsuki knew him better than he thought. Jumping the moment he heard about Takaya and then completely destroying himself trying to get back. Talk about taking the bait…
"Tch, humans are so fragile," The parasite scoffed. "We both know he's not going to just wait for you to kill him, yes?"
Biting his lip, Minato's body scream and wailed at him, trying to force him to rest before he destroyed his muscles any more than he already has.
"Didn't know you…" Minato coughed out, trying to catch enough of his breath before taking off again, "wanted him gone so badly."
"If there's one thing in which I find most insufferable about your kind, it's your hubris," Death replied, the venom in his voice showing his usual contempt for all of humanity and its creations, "He DARED to think I'd not only spare him, but award him kingship of the new world that'd be born once I've cleansed it of your kind; such an insult cannot go unpunished."
"Pft." Minato rolled his eyes before taking off as fast as he physically could, continuing to use his personas to melt the snow in front of him as best they could. The damn thing sure was a selfish pain-in-the-ass creature, but at least they agreed on one thing: Ikutsuki needs to die.
Luckily for him, the blizzard that had been plaguing the area relentlessly had begun to ease up slightly. It was still snowing heavily and the wind was as brutal as ever, but the fog that had taken place had partially lifted, enough that he could see the orphanage in the town from where he was standing, he just needed to push a little bit more.
Gritting his teeth, Minato continued to push his way through the snow until he finally managed to make it to the front door. Everyone else was probably locked inside their homes waiting for the storm to pass, so no one was going to notice him swinging the door open and throwing himself inside.
"Kuso," Minato cursed under his breath, slamming the door shut before leaning against the wall to finally take some of the weight off his legs. For the first time, he was finally able to rest with his personas finally having time to heal the damage he had done to himself.
All he could hear was the sound of him panting heavily in the dark building; the lights either having been turned off or whatever means of gaining electricity they had didn't work so well in a snowstorm. Whatever the case, he was left shuffling in the darkness for now.
Minato was finally able to set his bag aside, but not before pulling out a small pink gem in case someone else was in here as well. Losing the extra weight sure made his shoulder feel a lot better, although his legs had gone numb from pain to the point that he didn't even feel anything there.
Times like this reminded him of his life before the apocalypse. He was a quiet kid most of the time, but that didn't stop him from getting into fights occasionally.
What was that Father liked to say to him? "You got a lot of heart, but you start using it with your head."
"Heh," he chuckled. He had to admit, the old man sure knew him pretty well. One could only wonder what he'd do if he was here right now. Probably tell him off for how stupid he was right before telling him to get back on his feet.
"Hello?" speaking of which…
Minato turned to the speaker in question and saw the same woman who had greeted him before, Ms. Akane.
"Akane," he returned the greeting, noting the look of fear and surprise in her eyes. Her hands are shaking; she's nervous, not just surprised. That's all the confirmation he needs to know she has a dirty little secret.
"A-Arisato," she said his name with a trembling lip, taking a step back. Her eyes began scanning the room before focusing on a pair of scissors. They were made for children so they weren't great for cutting, but anything can cause damage if used the right way.
"Catch." Minato tossed the pink gem in the woman who instinctively tried to catch it, only for it to call and shatter on the floor, turning her irises pink.
"Where did the children go?" Minato asked, knowing full well he was going to get an honest answer.
Akane blinked before answered in a deadpanned voice, "We gave them away to an old man who required them for his research."
"This man," Minato coughed out, punching himself in the chest as he tried to breathe again, "Was it Shuji Ikutsuki?"
"I do not know for certain, as he did not give his exact name," Akane answered. Makes sense enough; spreading your name around wasn't a good way to remain hidden. "However, I believed that the man you are looking for and he are the same."
"And the cult you sent me after?" Minato rubbed his legs, biting his lip as he began to feel the soreness in his muscles again. It was painful, but it was an improvement over what it once was.
"He told me to send anyone matching certain descriptions that way."
"Those descriptions being…?" Minato waited for an answer.
"A young redheaded man with a scar on his face and another man with blue hair and a fringe that covered almost half of his face," she answered.
"How many kids have you done this to? More importantly, who else in this town knew?"
"I have not kept count." Akane's answer couldn't help but make Minato's stomach churn. She couldn't even keep count? How many children are dead because of her?
"When the man approached us, he came bearing gifts from Lord Nyarlathotep," she explained, "he said he could give us more, enough for us to live comfortably again and perhaps even a chance to become citizens of one of His cities someday. We merely needed to provide him with research subjects and we would be given compensation, even if his research ended in failure."
"And the town?"
"We voted on it as a community," she explained, "voting was mandatory for all residents and the votes were unanimous. We began sending people out to search for the unwanted."
"Unwanted?" Minato growled, standing back on his feet and glared at her with his eyes beginning to flash in response. "Is that what you call them?"
"They are orphans," Akane answered immediately, not even showing a shred of sympathy or regret. Gem or no gem, she could still show… something to show she was reluctant to act, but it simply wasn't there. "Even in the old world, they were seen as a burden on the families that took them, were they not? We took the unwanted and gave them a purpose."
"You sick fucks…" Minato barked, forcing himself to stand again now that his body was given enough time to recover. "So everyone agreed? Find and give kids a home before sending them to their deaths?"
"We thought it best," Akane responded. "They had no future. Now, we could have one and raise children of our own with His favor."
Minato bit his lip and clenched his fists, fighting the temptation to tear her to pieces then and there. Giving away innocent children just so they could live without it being so hard for them? That was it? That was their reason?
It should be natural for him now, shouldn't it? People were horrible, self-serving creatures but also opportunistic. They saw a chance to rise above what they were and they went for t, no matter what price they had to pay and no matter how repulsive the request was.
Hell has a special place for monsters such as them, but now wasn't the time to send them there.
"Where are they?"
"He used to come here and take them himself, claiming that he was bringing them on a field trip." Akane's irises were beginning to dim and the pink in her eyes was beginning to fade away as the gem began wearing off. "But this time was different. He sent a message a few weeks earlier that he wanted me to deliver them myself."
Minato lunged at her, grabbing her by the throat and pinning her against the wall, just in time for her eyes to change back. Where she had once possessed a blank expression and whose voice reflected the appropriate apathy, now she was up against the wall, eyes darting across the room as she futilely tried to push him away as the fear of what he'd do to her began to settle in more and more.
"Look at me." Akane felt her throat begin to be crush, briefly restricting her ability to breathe until she complied and stared into his bright blue eyes. "You're going to lead me to them…"
As time progressed, the blizzard died down more and more.
The howling and strength of the winds had begun to deteriorate so that moving was far more manageable than it had been before, something that Minato was thankful for as he was unsure if he was ready to face the full strength of a whiteout like that again, especially in his current condition.
"Quit screwing around, walk," Minato snapped at Akane, frustrated at the slow pace she had been moving at.
She said nothing in return, but the rate at which her legs did increase. She's already lucky that she's still in one piece after what she did, she knows better than to push her luck any further.
He could see her shivering from the cold, not having had the time to prepare properly for the weather, but so be it. Monsters like her didn't get any sympathy from him. Far as he's concerned, this is what she deserves.
Eventually, she stopped in front what looked like steps leading into some sort of bunker. From one of the olden days, or something Ikutsuki had himself with the help of his friends? Who could tell and more importantly, who cared?
"Tear her apart…"
"This is?" He asked.
"End her…"
"Yes," Akane nodded in confirmation, turning towards him as she spoke.
"DO IT…!"
"When I came here, he was waiting for me and—" her words were cut off when she felt a stabbing pain in her stomach.
Minato wrapped one hand around her throat and used his other to push his dagger deeper, keeping his eyes focused on hers as he watched them become teary and full of pain.
"Here's what I'm going to do," Minato kept his voice low and calm as he twisted the knife in her, ignoring her screams and wheezing as she attempted to claw at his hands that quickly became slick with blood, "I'm going to cut you open like a pig, and then I'm going to leave you here. You're die, slowly and painfully. Either from shock from the blood loss or—even better—your body will slowly begin to freeze as you become covered snow, and later on, even perhaps even become coated in ice."
Minato tilted his head, smiling at the woman who continued to wail and writhe in pain, "look on the bright side, you finally get to see what you look like from the inside."
Twisting the knife just a little bit more, the Blue-Oni slide the knife from one end of her stomach to the other, cutting her open and exposing some of what he assumed would be her small intestines before letting her go and fall to the snowy floor.
"Hehe..." The chuckling echoed throughout the bluenette's ears as he saw and heard the woman scream, tears falling down her cheeks, saliva spilling all over her pretty face from all her wailing, twisting and turning with her hands on her wound, trying to force everything back where it's supposed to be, but unable to do so as her hands were too slippery and her movements were unsteady from all the agony she was in.
She was still letting out shrieks when he descended down the stairs, taking an object and breaking it in half, keeping one piece with him while throwing another on the ground before he entered the bunker.
When he stepped inside, Minato was greeted to the familiar sensation of heating from the ventilated air. Hung along the walls was various small lights that illuminated the path ahead of him, making it seem as if it were one long tunnel.
The tunnel was too narrow for any of his personas to materialize here for combat. He could still infuse his weapons with magic or use any of his gem if the need arises though.
"Where are you?" Minato voiced his thoughts out loud, knowing he'd never receive an answer.
He kept traversing down the long tunnel until he was greeted by another barred door. It looked like it was made of steel if he had to make any guess and god-knows how thick it was. Judging by its appearance and the lack of any way to open from this end, it probably had an electronically controlled locking mechanism. It was definitely not something that someone could normally break through.
Taking a few steps back, readied a blue-ish gem. These ones backed a lot of power, so he had to pick the dimmest one he had, lest he risk the roof collapsing on top of him.
However, before he could throw it, the door suddenly unlocked, opening as if to welcome its newest visitor.
"Waiting for me, huh?" Minato shook his head as he entered the room. Ikutsuki really did know him better than he thought.
Within the room, he was greeted almost immediately by… another door; same sort of locking mechanism and everything. To his right, however, a large monitor...
"Glad to see you after all these years," the monitor flickered to life, revealing the smug image of an old man whose eyes were hidden from the light reflecting off his glasses.
"Wish I could say it was mutual," Minato returned, crossing his arms. "Of course, if you were to come here and allow me to put my hands around your throat…"
"You've certainly grown colder with time," Ikutsuki noted, pushing up his glasses and showing the eyes that had been hidden before. "Perhaps—"
"Shut up and tell me where the kids are." He wasn't in the mood to hear any puns or play his game. "What did you do to them?"
"Me? Nothing," Ikutsuki raised his hands for a moment before quickly putting them back down. "I merely sent them to navigate my little labyrinth."
"And…?" Minato narrowed eyes as he glared at the old man.
"We've shared this world with shadows openly for… almost twenty years now," Ikutsuki said, his voice making sound almost like this was a good thing. Hell, to him, it probably was a good thing. "However, I always wondered, how do shadows—more specifically the feral ones—react when they're forced to interact with, say, children under the age of ten."
"You what?!" He didn't just send them in a labyrinth; he sent them to their tombs.
"I already learned that at such a young age, they cannot develop shadow selves." Ikutsuki seemed to be flipping through some notes off the screen as he spoke. "So I became curious, how did shadows react to them? How did they react to shadows? I must say, the answer was quite disappointing."
"You… killed them…" he slowly said the words.
How many were there, nine or maybe ten innocent boys and girls, torn to pieces by monsters by a madman. All of those children, sentenced to death, all so a town could have a more 'comfortable' life. They died, crying out the name of the woman who gave them away to their executioner.
"Oh no, not all of them," Ikutsuki shook his head, his eyes shifting, likely towards another monitor on his end. "It would appear that one of them is still alive in the labyrinth."
A few more clicks were heard and the pressing of keys, and suddenly the door to the labyrinth was open. "I suggest you hurry."
Minato hissed at the old man, extending his hand and drawing an arming sword before running into the children's tomb with the door quickly closing behind him.
The tunnels were as narrow as the ones before, except these were much darker with less lighting providing much less visibility. How many of them died simply because the shadows' dark forms were too hard to see?
No, it was better not to think about that.
It was better not to think at all.
Right now, the last survivor was in danger, and he had to find them before it was too late.
He rushed through the halls, marking the ground with his sword with each turn to ensure he didn't get lost or go in circles.
He didn't know how far these tunnels went or if he was going the right way. If only he had someone like Fuuka here and he'd be able to find the survivor in a flash.
If there even is a survivor—for all he knows, that could have been another lie that Ikutsuki made. At the same time, he knew that it was one that wasn't a risk he could take.
As he approached a crossroads, something caught his ear—a hissing noise.
Minato immediately ducked, dodging a shadow that had leapt into the air in an effort to grab him.
The blob-monster hit the floor, with its body twisting and contorting as it tried to do the simple action of turning around to face him again.
Before it could however, it found itself being stabbed by the Blue-Oni's blade, forcing out one last shriek from the creature before it faded away.
"Weak…" Minato pulled back his blade that had been partially stabbed into the ground. It made sense they were so feeble in strength; it was already a mystery how Ikutsuki got them here, but it was doubtful this little maze of his could contain any of the higher-level shadows out there. They were weak, but still strong enough to kill an unprepared person, or…
Minato turned his head towards where the shadow had come from, and he quickly wished he hadn't.
He covered his mouth by instinct, looking away and forced the air down his throat so that he didn't end up suffocating himself.
Was that…?
No, the blood is already congealed. This one has been dead for a while, but the last one is still alive… they had to be.
"May you find the peace you deserved in the afterlife," Minato prayed for the lost boy whose body continued to lie motionless on the floor, and who will soon be forgotten by everyone but a select few, "and I'm sorry that I couldn't save you too."
He could blame Ikutsuki all he wanted, but he killed them too. He's the one that left them to fall into their hands.
It was his stupidity that caused all of this and now he was going to have to learn how to live with himself.
Shaking his head, he kept on moving through the warren that Ikutsuki made.
He was going to have to hurry now; killing one of their own is bound to get the rest of the shadows riled up. They're going to be far more aggressive now.
Drip
Drip
Drip
The ichor on his sword continued dripping from his blade onto the floor at increasing frequency as he found himself face-to-face with more and more shadows.
The place was like a nest for these things. Maybe it was. He didn't know exactly what caused shadows to suddenly appear, so maybe this actually was a nest for these things.
What was that tower back at home? Tartarus they called it? He hasn't been there in… he didn't know how many years. Have any of the others ever gone back there? A question to be answered later or maybe even never.
The hooded man stopped when he stepped in another trail of blood. This was relatively fresh, but also too large for a child… at least, one who's long to live.
He looked to the opposite direction of the trail and saw another shadow slowly creeping up on him. One slash of his sword was all it took to take it down, but not before he noted the blood on its talons.
Swallowing hard, he continued following the trail of blood and the sounds of wheezing grew louder and louder as he approached.
It didn't take long for him to find the person making all the noise. The little girl was just sitting there against the wall, clutching a wound on her stomach as she slowly bled to death.
She had raven hair and green eyes—Aimi, he believed her name was.
Her breath quickened as he approached, forcing him to lower his hood and crouch down next to her and whisper, "It's all right, it's all right. I'm not going to hurt you."
Her breathing didn't slow, but now her eyes were beginning to fill up with tears. Her skin was as white as a ghost and he could swear, he could almost feel life leaving her body as he placed his own hands over her wound.
She was too far gone to be healed. The best he could do was comfort her before she passed on.
"It's going to be alright," he kept whispering to her, keeping an ear out for any shadows that may be approaching.
Aimi tried speaking, but the pain mixed with the weakness in her voice made it all come out as an unintelligible whisper.
"What?" Minato leaned in closer, close enough that he could feel the chill of death's embrace wrapping around her.
Aimi continued to struggle to speak, "S-S-Sa…ki…"
"Saki?" He repeated and pulled back. "Did you see her?"
Aimi didn't answer with words, merely directing her gaze elsewhere for him to follow. It would seem that as she was bleeding, she was trying to follow her friend.
"I'll find her," he promised, swearing the he was going to save one of them from all of these.
"S-So… cold…." She croaked, prompting the man wrap his arms around her tightly. "I-It… hurts…"
"Shh, it'll be okay," he whispered, cradling the young girl as she drew further and further away.
The girl's crying slowly began to grow weaker and weaker as she was slowly rocked by the man she had only briefly met a few days ago. The wound didn't even hurt anymore, but she felt so… tired. She just wanted to go to sleep and then wake up to find out it was all one big nightmare.
That sounded nice. She'll wake up and find Ms. Akane waiting for her with the others and maybe she'll even get to pick her favorite book for story time too.
Later, she'll play with Koku and try making a snowman outside. If they're good enough, maybe they'll even get adopted by someone…
"It'll all be over soon," he comforted her as best he could. "Just close your eyes…"
Minato kept rocking her as the whimpers and whines grew quieter and quieter until they ended with one last silent breath. He had to bite his lip, choking back tears as he slowly put the girl's cold lifeless body down on the ground.
The bluenette leaned back, supporting himself with his hands as he struggled to prevent himself from breaking down. He's seen death certainly, but this—this was different. These were just kids sent to die, and now he's here to find what's left.
"No, not now," he thought to himself, picking up his sword. There's still one left and he had to hurry.
Suddenly a scream pierced the air, disrupting his thoughts. This one didn't belong to a shadow, it was… human!
"I'm coming!" Minato dashed towards the origin of the voice, running faster and faster as the screams grew louder, either by him getting closer or the child getting more and more scarred.
They were loud, but not too loud to be the sickening wails he heard just a few moments ago. She was terrified and possibly being chased, but she wasn't hurt yet.
Minato forced his legs to stop, causing his feet to drag on the floor for the friction to cease his movements when he saw something heading towards him. The figure was small, he could see shades of blue coming from it at a distance… there she was!
He couldn't see her clearly, but could tell she was running, presumably from something in the darkness behind them.
Not knowing how far behind her the shadows were, Minato put away his sword in favor of a bow with a single arrow. He had to take care of them now while he still could.
"Get down!" Minato knocked the arrow and aimed as best he could in the darkness.
The child continued running for a few moments, likely looking ahead to see the man aiming in their direction. Taking his words to heart, she ran a few more steps before diving towards the floor, exposing the creatures behind.
The bluenette let the arrow loose, using his personas' magic to use the air to amplify its speed and the force behind it before setting the area around it ablaze. The halls became filled with shrieks, from those pierced by the arrows and by the ones burning from the inferno around it.
All that stopped once the arrow found itself stuck in one particularly large shadow, possessing a larger, more brawny, and humanoid frame rather than being another large blob with appendages.
Minato was already rushing forward with it, sword in hand.
The shadow struck high, shifting its right arm into a crude blade with the intent on cleaving him in two.
The Blue-Oni ducked, barely avoiding the attack and returning it with one of his own. He struck low, severing the creature's disproportionately tiny legs, causing it to excrete large amounts of dark ichor from the wounds as it feel onto the floor.
Knowing that wasn't going to be enough to take it down, thrust his blade into the side of its abdomen, stabbing it with the tip of his blade before dashing forward towards the creatures face, dragging the blade with him and slicing the abomination open.
When his sword was about to meet the creature's arm, he retracted the blade and instead ran directly in front of shadow's face that was shaped like a mask.
He didn't take any time to marvel at the sight he'd seen a hundred times before, instead shoving his sword straight through the center of the monster's head, shattering its mask and causing it to fully collapse onto the floor, prompting to begin fading away in a black mist like the rest of its brethren.
Minato's attention quickly shifted back to the girl who was still on the ground, trembling and whimpering as she kept her hand over her head.
"Hey," he put a hand on the girl, but she was too terrified. The moment she felt his hand on her she screamed again and prepared to take off running, forcing him to grab her by the arm and turn her around.
"Hey, hey, hey," he continued calling out to the young girl, fighting through her feeble attempts to fight him until he cupped her hands to force her to look at him, "it's okay, it's okay…"
The girl's closed eyes finally opened, revealing light blue eyes that contrasted with his more grey-ish shade. Fear was replaced with recognition, and the poor girl quickly threw her arms around the man, clutching onto him with trembling arms.
"I… I… I…" she tried to speak, but all that came out were more tears.
"It's fine," he said, pushing her back slightly so that they were face-to-face, "listen, did they hurt you?"
Saki shook her head. "T-They never caught me, b-but… but the others…"
"Shh," he shushed the child, "listen, I'm here to get you out of this, okay?"
The girl slowly nodded, wiping away the tears from her face. "O-Okay…"
Another shriek echoed throughout the warren, causing the minor to jump and turn back where she heard the creatures approaching.
"Stay close to me," Minato ordered and the girl did as she was told as he pulled out the half of the object he broke before entering.
Suddenly, they were encapsulated in a bright yellow-ish light.
The next thing Saki knew was the sudden chill in the air and the feeling of snow on her face.
"Huh?" The girl looked around confused.
"A little trick I had." Minato tossed the remnants of the now worthless object aside. "The nickname for these objects are Goho-Ms," he explained, pointing what looked like two pieces of a broken twig, "normally, the people that can afford them keep one half home to transport them there if they're in danger—hence the name—but it can take you anywhere you keep the first half."
"Oh," she said, brushing the hair out of her eyes as she diverting her gaze back at the man who saved her. "Where are you taking me now?"
"First," Minato balled his fists and his eyes must've flashed since the girl seemed ready to jump out of her skin for a moment, "I need to make sure this never happens to anyone else again."
Saki nodded agreeing before she turned towards the steps. She was about to ascend upwards, content with following her rescuer for now, until she felt his hand on his shoulder stopping her as he shook his head.
"There's something up there," he explained, withholding as much detail as he could, "something you don't need to see. Not now after all of that."
Before she could respond, she felt herself suddenly become soporific when he uttered the words, "Dormina."
"Burn," he whispered, tossing an Agi gem at the orphanage while holding onto the sleeping girl in his arms. This place has claimed the lives of too many—no longer.
It didn't take long for the townspeople to take notice and gather around behind him. The blizzard and the fog that came with it both had waned now, instead just becoming a clear light flurry that was bond to fade into a clear sky soon.
They sounded angry at first, but silence quickly spread as they each remembered exactly who he was. Who he was, and what he was holding.
"How many?" Minato turned the townspeople, his expression empty—devoid of anger, fear, sorrow, anything. "How many did you give up?"
The people looked upon themselves, but their silence continued. They were all afraid—afraid that they've been caught, and what he could do to them.
"You don't know the answer, do you?" He shook his head, "Of course you don't. You probably did your best to keep away."
The man that he had talked to at the restaurant stepped up, "We… we were just trying to survive."
"Survive?" he let out a short empty laugh, his expression still unchanged. "What's survival worth when it's built on the bodies of innocents?"
Another man stood up, "You ain't got no right to judge us!" Did he actually just say that, really? "Before we made that deal, we were all starving to death! Starving, sick, ready to murder each other—"
"Murder?" he repeated, tilting his head. "And this isn't murder? Sending innocent kids to die?"
"Not kids, just orphans," another one of them reasoned, "I mean… no one wanted them anyway."
"Funny," another cold laugh left his lips. "It's funny how people do that. Where once a child's life was precious and invaluable, it is now rendered moot if they're one of—what was it again? The Unwanted, I believe they were called?"
"We just…" this one was a woman, trying to defend herself and her friends, "we didn't want to. But we had to survive, and—"
"But it was a unanimous decision," his words made more than a few of their faces pale as they wondered just how much he learned in such a short span of time. "Voting was mandatory if I recall. Yet, all of you agreed. No town has a unanimous voting on something they 'didn't want' to do."
He turned his head, looking left to right at the crowd and noting each and every one of them, "all of you knew, and all of you agreed. You agreed, because you wanted a comfortable life."
"What do you know?!" Another woman, this one much more angry than the last. "We're not persona-users! We're just ordinary people who want to live! If it costs a few bastard children, so be it! We'll just replace them with our own!"
The crowd releases a plethora of shocked gasps at the woman's outburst, but none say anything. In their hearts, they were thinking the same thing. The Unwanted can be replaced by the Wanted, and no one would care. What's a few children to a town, a potential city that can house dozens upon dozens of people eventually?
"Izumi," Minato called out the name of the woman he met at the store during his first visit, "there was a child who liked your gloves… what was their name?"
"I-I…" Izumi's words were scrambling and the townspeople each took a step back, knowing she was failing the test.
"Chie," he answered, thinking she needed a refresher.
"Oh yes!" The woman's eyes widened, as if it all came back that instance. "I remember sweet, little Chie. She always loved trying on—"
"No she didn't." Minato shook his head, "because none of them were named Chie. I just made her up. There was a boy named Koku who loved your scarves though, but wouldn't remember that."
He took a step forward, slowly shaking his head with the same empty look on his face. "I could tell you how they all loved dangos, but you wouldn't remember."
Everyone began murmuring amongst themselves and some even screaming in horror as they saw the large, black silhouette hover above him, sword in hand with coffins on its back.
"I could tell you all about how they trusted all of you, and you wouldn't remember."
Walking through the snow was another figure, dressed in dark cloak that stuck up in the pure white snow.
On his hip was a sword in its sheath, as he was unable to summon a weapon at a moment's notice; an unfortunate disadvantage he was left with given his circumstances.
He continued wandering, until he came across the remains of a town—both the building and its residents.
The man titled his head, ignoring the bits and pieces of the previous residents as he wandered the streets. Most of the buildings were mostly intact, all save for one.
Down the street, there was smoke coming from where once must have stood a large building. Most of it was reduced to ashes in a fire, but a few pieces of the building's main frame remained just enough to make it identifiable.
This must have been the orphanage that was being used. He can't say that he'll miss it.
The man turned his head and saw his reflection in the broken glass on one of the buildings—having been shattered by something (presumably a part of a previous resident) being thrown though it—revealing the blank, featureless porcelain colored mask he wore beneath his hood.
The mask wasn't a requirement for one of Nyarlathotep's favored as it was made to be more symbolic than anything… except in his case. He wore it for a different reason.
The man reached into his cloak and pulled out a journal, flipping through the pages until he came across a set of blank pages that he began drawing a rough sketch of the area so that he knew exactly what he saw.
Just when he was about finished drawing, he felt a hand place itself on his leg. Looking downwards, he saw a man struggling to breath, having left a trail of his own blood crawling towards him.
"I-It was him…" the man coughed out. "H-He was here…. the one in blue… he—"
His words were silenced when his blade was driven through his heart. He was dead anyway, and he certainly wasn't losing sleep over the death of one as repugnant as him.
Still, Minato was definitely here. There still smoke, so he couldn't be too far now. He was going to come soon, and he was going to want to see the Blue-Oni in action himself in action, so for now all he could do was track and then stalk.
Pulling down his hood lower, the Champion's 'Little Wolf' continued to track his prey.
Bloody fucking hell, I think I just gave Minato MASSIVE amounts of PTSD there. Jesus Christ almighty, he's already earned his Iron Woobie status…
Oh yeah, if you needed a demonstration on just how shitty of a place Nyarlathotep world is? There you go. It's pretty goddamn bad. I'm going back to the PT who live under the oppressive government now (and internet, no. You know what I mean when I say that).
Hope you enjoyed seeing Minato snap at the end there. Not saying the town didn't have it coming, but… yeah, there's nothing left there.