Disclaimer: I do not own Persona or Fate or anything in the nasuverse, any resemblance to any other Persona 4/Fate fan fiction is coincidental and plagiarism is not intended. No flames please, constructive criticism only.
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[07/02 Friday, South Shopping District, Inaba]
Night had finally fallen over the no longer so, sleepy town of Inaba. Yu had spent the past week showing Rise the ropes as their Superhero alter egos. It seemed like she was relaxing and having fun as a hero.
She'd practiced a move that her Persona had taught her called the 'Castration Fist'. Her first use of it came on a street punk who was vandalising someone's car. Yu felt distinctly sorry for any man on the receiving end of that move if it came from an ordinary woman, but from Rise who had installed and was thus many times stronger than a normal human…..well let's just say there may be a drop in the number of males able to have children by the time the year is out.
Yu had managed to persuade Dojima to let him go out at night, he had done so by fibbing to Dojima about getting a part time job at night. He carried a backpack with leftovers from dinner to make it more convincing.
He felt the need to just take a stroll in the cool air of the approaching summer night. When he walked by Moel, he spotted Adachi standing just near it and decided to approach him.
"What are you doing out so late?" Adachi asked Yu as he approached. "It's dangerous, you know. Go home."
"I'm out because I needed a breather." Yu told him. "I've been juggling so many people and listening to their problems that I just needed a break and night time is perfect for that. So what are you doing here?"
"Me?" Adachi blinked. "I was on my way home from work…and then you came along."
"Do you mind if I hang out with you?" Yu asked
"You must have a lot of time on your hands." Adachi smiled mischievously at Yu. "Dojima will be on your ass, you know."
"I may have fibbed to Dojima about getting a part time job at night so I could stay out late." Yu said to Adachi with a smirk.
"Heheh, you're rather sneaky, aren't you?" Adachi said with amusement "Alright, sure you can stay if you want."
Yu found himself following Adachi to Souzai Daigaku. Adachi wanted to get something to eat before he headed home and the small place fell with Adachi's budget for this month. Unfortunately, Souzai Daigaku had already closed up by the time they arrived.
"I knew it!" Adachi sighed. "Stores out here close too soon. You know, I was meaning to make something since I got off work early, but then I got lazy. Ugh, what should I do? I have tons of nimono at home…"
"Quick into the alley, old lady incoming." Yu warned Adachi when he saw the old lady coming down the street, luckily it seemed she hadn't seen Adachi yet.
So he quickly ducked into a small alley between Souzai and another store. Yu stood in front of him, blocking sight of him. The old woman walked past, with a confused look on her face, apparently she'd caught a glimpse of Adachi but not where he'd gone.
"She's gone; you can come out now." Yu said when she walked down the street and rounded the corner.
"She really sucks away my will to live." Adachi rubbed the back of his head with annoyance. "Thanks for saving my ass, you were a big help."
"Why don't you come over have dinner with us one of these days" Yu offered.
"At Dojima's?" Adachi asked with surprise over his face. "Well, isn't that a generous offer. But Dojima-san's still at work, right? Does that mean it'll be just us? Isn't that weird?"
"I'm a good cook… here I'll prove it." Yu reached into the backpack and pulled out a lunchbox with three beef burgers inside and opened it, holding it out to Adachi. "Here try them, they're cold because I made them for dinner a few hours ago, but they're still good enough to eat and its better than going to bed hungry."
Adachi was looked at Yu for moment before taking the open lunch box and trying one of the burgers.
"….you're right, even though it's cold, it's still pretty good." Adachi said his face brightening up a bit and quickly eating the rest of the burger "You made this yourself?"
"Yup, I learned to cook myself, neither of my parents can cook worth a damn so it was usually take out some microwave meals." Yu told him Adachi as he started on the second burger.
"Say, I heard something about Kanji Tatsumi and that Hanamura kid." Adachi said part way through the second burger. "Something about hitting on women in Okina city a couple of weeks back."
"Oh yeah." Yu remembered Yosuke's 'babe hunt' plan after getting their driving licences. "Yeah I declined, I had better things to do than make moron out of myself hitting on girls in the city."
"So your friends made asses of themselves?"
"More Yosuke than Kanji, Ai Ebihara saw the whole thing and recorded it." Yu sighed "It was embarrassing to watch, Yosuke even squealed like a pig to try and get these two girls phone numbers, and another number got him screamed at by the woman's boyfriend, and then the third number wound up with his motorbike being sat and on and crushed."
"What a dunce." Adachi chuckled finishing the second burger and starting on the third.
"Romance seems so complicated, I'd rather wait and see if it comes to me, you know if the right girl is there I'll try but I don't think I'll go out of my way to seek out some random girl I see whose pretty."
"It's for the best." Adachi agreed, "I thought I was in love once, this girl I met when I fresh out of the academy found out I was a cop, she thought I had a huge pay check, we had a few meals together but she dumped me the instant she saw my apartment."
"Ouch, what a bitch." Yu commented feeling sorry for Adachi.
"Yeah, I but got over it, shallow women like that aren't worth it." Adachi sighed before changing the subject as he finished the third burger. "Well, that filled a hole. I am interested in having your cooking again…Maybe next time. I'll just stop by on my way back from work."
Yu and Adachi promptly parted ways, although Yu felt he understood Adachi and bit more as he made his way back home after putting the empty lunchbox back in his bag.
As Yu went from sight a shadowy spiritual figure appeared next to Adachi.
"Aren't you getting too close to him?" The figure asked shaking it head.
"It'll be fine as long as you can keep from making a scene." Adachi replied with a disturbing smile.
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[07/03 Saturday, Velvet Room]
The next day after the half school day had finished Yu decided to go and see Marie again and take her to see more of the town. So he had walked to the shopping district and entered the door way. As usual his Persona's fell silent, but Marie was nowhere in sight for some reason.
Just as Yu was about inquire as to her whereabouts, a piece of paper on the ground near the tablr caught his eye. Picking up the piece of paper Yu saw words and couldn't help but read.
"Sea Foam"
Listen…
To my voice..
My shouting, bellowing voice…
Here I am
Pouring my blood into my words
Yelling at the very edge of the world…
I am the little mermaid…
Unable to return, the little mermaid...
Fated to foam, the little mermaid…
Her sense of poetry was difficult to comment on.
"Waaaaaaah!" Marie suddenly burst into the Velvet Room and and snatched the paper out of Yu's hands. "D-Did you read it? You read it, didn't you!? N-No, it's not like that! It's uh... It's not a poem! Yeah!" She stuttered as she buries the paper in her bag.
"I'm yelling at the edge of the world that this is not a poem! I-I don't know what I'm saying... Words are just coming out... I...Agh! StupidIhateyoujerkIcan'tbelievethis! Don't read my things!" Marie yelled blushing furiously. "But why was it on the floor? I don't get it."
Concluding that Marie was indeed the author of the poem he'd read, Yu decided to change the subject before Marie completely closed off.
"I was actually looking for you, I have a free afternoon, how about I show you around some more?" Yu offered.
"Fine, but you're also buying some more beefsteak!" Marie commanded apparently wanting compensation for her embarrassment.
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After leaving the Velvet Room Yu immediately went with Marie to Souzai Daigaku for some beefsteak.
"Hey, can I see a 'school'?" Marie requested putting emphasis on the word school as she clearly didn't know what it was. "You're going to one, right? I wanna go see what that's like."
"Sure, the school should still be open." Yu said as he and Marie finished their steak skewers.
Yu decided to take Marie to see his school and so took her through the Samegawa Flood Plain that lead to the school to show her around the small campus.
"You go to 'school' everyday, right?" Marie asked as they strolled along the plain in the direction of Yasogami "You don't get tired of it?"
"It's fun." Yu replied simply.
"Fun...?" Marie parroted "Oh, do they have a TV there? Can you watch "StarScandalz?"
Marie clearly misunderstood what Yu had meant but she seemed to be enjoying it regardless. Yu supposed he'd have to elaborate what school was for later. Personally he thought school was fun not only because of his friends but the looks the faces of people like Yosuke and King Moron when they saw that he'd gotten top scores on his exams beating everyone else in his year group once again.
As if on que Yosuke came strolling along from the opposite direction and walked up to the pair when he spotted them.
"Yo, partner! Whatcha do-Oh Hey Marie, it's been a while." Yosuke greeted the hat wearing girl "I heard that you'd been with Chie and Yukiko. So what are you guys doing? Out on a stroll?"
"I'm showing her the school." Yu answered simply
"Huh? You are?"
"Yeah she wanted to see what it was like" Yu elaborated with a shrug.
"Oh, I get it. Marie goes to a different school, after all, huh. Er, still...What could be special about our school?" Yosuke asked "Oh, well. All right, I'll join ya. Allow me to welcome you to Yasogami High!"
"Can I go inside?" Marie asked staring at the building
"No problem! There's some committee meeting today, so the gate should be open. I mean, we can always say that we're showing you around the school!" Yosuke nodded
After going through the school gate Yu and Yosuke showed Marie around the ground floor, they went to the Nurse's office, the staffroom as well as couple the hallway that lead to the gym. After this they made their way up the stairs to the hall of the second floor and stood out classroom 2-2.
"And here's our classroom" Yosuke said motioning towards the classroom where the majority of their school time was spent "Pretty retro, huh? I guess you could call it cozy."
"It's so big." Marie said looked at the school with wonder.
"Huh? It is...?" Yosuke said confused at Marie's surprise "Well, there's a lot of empty land here...I guess the school's pretty big if you count the fields and yards and stuff. What about where you are from Marie? Is it cramped, since it's in the city?"
"Me?" Marie was caught off guard by the question "It's tiny. I mean, it's a single room."
"One room!?...Seriously?" Yosuke exclaimed "Is it, uh...some kind of advanced placement class or something?"
Yu remembered that he had neglected to tell his friends about the Velvet Room. Frankly it had never come up in conversation and it didn't seem to be too important enough to tell them about it.
"I don't know. It's small, it's dark, and The Nose never says anything." Marie said clearly referring to Igor "Nobody ever says anything. It's boring."
"The Nose...? Is that, uh, what you call your teacher?" Yosuke asked curiously "A teacher who doesn't talk...Isn't that neglecting your job?"
Frankly Yu wasn't that surprised to hear that neither Igor nor Margaret said much. Igor came across to Yu as silent yet cryptic and Margaret came across as dignified yet mysterious.
"Hey, I want to see more" Marie demanded "There's still more to see, right?" It seemed that Marie was very interested in the school.
"She's as strange as she was last time" Yosuke commented "Then again, everybody I've gotten to know recently has been pretty much on the odd side, so I'm used to it. Haha..."
Yosuke and Yu decided to take Marie to the rooftop of Yasogami high where the gang usually spent their time.
"…And this is where we hang out" Yosuke told her "What do you think? Isn't this a great place to spend your youth?"
"Youth?" Marie questioned "How does someone spend youth? Give me an example."
"An e-example!? Well, you know, um...building friendships, sharing your concerns, confiding in each other...stuff like that?" Yosuke stumbled to find an example to elaborate to Marie his meaning "It's kinda awkward to have to put it into words..."
"...I don't get it. Do Green and Red do that, too?" Marie asked still confused.
"Of course." Yu confirmed.
"Why do you need to spend youth? Don't you have anything better to do?" Marie asked
"Y-You want me to say more?" Yosuke asked surprised "Er, well...I mean, it's fun. Not being in superficial relationships...Being with people who know the real you."
"...The real you?" Marie pondered on this.
"Being with people like that helps keep me from losing sight of who I am. Y'know, so I can face myself..." Yosuke explained before screwing up his face which went red with embarrassment "...Arrrrrgh! This is embarrassing! I can't say anymore! Sorry!"
"Face yourself..." Marie muttered.
"Wondering about your "true self?" Yu asked
"No. I said it before, there's...no truth." Marie replied thoughtfully.
"Let's just...end this here. Please, forget I said anything." Yosuke half pleaded embarrassed "So, um...I know! You haven't seen the library yet, right!? We don't have all day, so let's get going!"
"Wait!" Marie looked at Yu apparently having discarded what Yosuke had said. "Margaret said you got a new Persona, one under the Star right? Can I see it?"
The request caught Yu off guard, Marie changed from completive about Yosuke's words to curious about a Persona in matter of seconds. He wondered if there was something deeper wrong but decided to wait and oblige her.
"I'll keep a lookout." Yosuke said going over to the door and peering down in case anyone came to the roof.
"Ok, here goes." Yu held out his hand focused, the card descended. On it was 'A beautiful woman of holy garb, with an edgeless sword in one hand and a scales/balance on the other with XVII. RULER written on it. However, before he could crush it and summon the Persona within something odd happened, the card shifted to resemble the Star Arcana tarot card. "What the…." Yu was cut off as the tarot card turned itself upside down and morphed into the image of a man bound in chains. On it was written 'XVII. AVENGER'
The Card suddenly burst into flames as if Yu had crushed it. When the swirl dissipated what was standing there shocked Yu.
A woman with blond hair and golden eyes that reminded him of a shadow. Her skin was rather pale and her body was covered in a wicked looking black armour, she even had an annoyed scowl on her face and gave Yu and hostile look.
"This is her…..she's kinda creepy looking." Marie commented bluntly.
"Yeah, tell me about it." Yosuke said from the door.
"This is different, Jeanne D'Arc is the Saber of the Star Arcana." Yu said trying to figure out what was going on. "The colour scheme is all wrong, it was silver and blue, not black and red."
Indeed, her sword, her armour, her flag, even that had a dark look to it. Her presence was distinctly different as well, whereas Jeanne was an undeniable Saint, right now it felt like Yu was in the presence of an evil witch.
"Tch, summoning me not even for battle but for something so mundane." The Jeanne copy clicked her tongue with annoyance and drew her sword form its sheath. "I'm not some toy for you to show off, I'll take a pound of flesh for this."
She was fast, before either Marie or Yosuke could react her sword was held of Yu's head. They both closed their eyes unable to look at their friend demise. They were surprised when instead of hearing steel meet flesh they heard a clang, the sound of steel meeting steel.
Opening their eyes, they saw a duplicate of the Persona Yu had summoned. The differences were in the eye colour which was a gentle amethyst and the colour scheme of the clothing. Where the Avenger had a harsh and violent red and black scheme to her armour and weapons, this new one had a gentle silver and blue colour scheme.
The Avenger narrowed her eyes on the duplicate before her.
"It's you, the weak me." The Avenger growled trying to push against her counterpart but unable to gain ground as she was met with equal force. "Why do you shield him? He should py for his insolence, no should be allowed to treat me this way, especially after how we died."
"I'm Jeanne D'arc, the Maiden of Orleans and under the class of Ruler I will let no one take a life on a whim, do you have such thin skin that a mere being summoned for such a mundane reason sends you into a murderous rage, then you are truly a witch wearing my SKIN!" Jeanne promptly kicked Avenger in the gut sending her skidding back a small way.
Yu felt exhaustion creeping in, despite reserve of Prana increasing greater than they were when he first started out keeping two Heroic Spirits in the real world was very taxing, and so he cut off the supply quickly forcing the two back into Spirit Form.
However now that the flames of conflict had been ignited between the two Jeanne's it didn't seem to be deterred by something like not having solid bodies.
"You disgust me." Jeanne Alter said trembling with rage "I regret that I was ever a weakling like you! We should have taken the throne of France for our own and dominated the people. Maybe then we wouldn't have been abandoned by the God we devoted ourselves too instead of being called and witch and burnt alive! They called us Witch, well I have risen from the grave I am the witch they wanted I will avenge myself upon the France that abandoned me-"
Jeanne Alter's rant was cut off by Ruler slapping her across the face.
"Be silent, you sound like a child throwing a tantrum." Ruler stated as Avenger placed a hand on the red mark now adorning her face. "No part of me was ever you, I don't know where you came from but you were never me, you are something that should not exist."
"You…..you….YOU BITCH!" Avenger screamed slapping Ruler in retaliation.
Ruler was quick to slap back letting out an indignant cry as Avenger suddenly began pulling her hair, causing Ruler to do the same.
The three humans present, sweat dropped at the scene only they could see, as two spirit form Personas of Jeanne D'arc began a cat fight.
"The one you got from me…..it isn't as weird as these two right?" Marie asked looking at Yu.
"No, she's the calm, quiet type." Yu answered.
"I kinda expected this from a Persona from Teddie." Yosuke sighed.
The three decided to just let the pair sort their differences on their own. After taking Marie back to the Velvet Room, Yu felt as though his bond with her had strengthened. He had also decided to stick with the Class names for the pair of Jeanne's in order to distinguish between the two.
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[07/03 Saturday, Velvet Room]
Following Marie through the doorway Yu found himself in the Limousine once again. Margret had a small smile on her lips while Igor had his ever present wide grin.
"I have a question." Yu stated taking a seat near Marie "When I summoned Jeanne earlier something went wrong, the card turned into the Tarot card version and then upside done before becoming an Avenger Class Card. The Persona looked like Jeanne, but it definitely didn't feel like her, and she didn't act like the Maiden of Orleans either. So does it have something to do with Teddie?"
"The Arcana reversed itself." Margaret was the one to answer. "Under normal circumstances this would be dangerous to a Persona user, however your circumstances are different from those of regular Persona users."
"I would recommend speaking to your friend under The Star when you next get the chance." Igor suggested "His Persona is quite unusual, perhaps it is best if it answers your questions. 'But remember, young master, that some stories can't be unheard once you have heard them...that persona's story is not nice in ANY sense of the word.."
Yu had an ominous feeling when Igor said that, he decided to let it be and get answers when he could. Deciding that was enough he said goodbye to Marie and Margaret and left heading home.
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The Velvet Club was livelier than ever, and also more spacious. This was because more Personas had joined the ranks of the Wild Card and thus more room was needed to accommodate their downtime. Everyone was chilling out by talking to someone else, drinking, playing a game or just being by themselves.
However as with most situations like this, the peace was not to last. This was because a certain unseen King of Heroes who stood on the second floor overlooking the cheerful scene was bored. He saw however a way to liven up his night, two Heroic Spirits sat a mere table away from each. One was the Ruler Class (which rightfully belonged to him) and the second was an Avenger.
What made these two amusing was the fact that despite looking like each other (albeit with some differences in clothing colour and choice) they hated each other's guts. So using his supreme voice acting skills, he imitated the Avenger and began throwing his voice.
"Ugly tramp"
"What did you say?!" Jeanne demanded glaring at Avenger who returned it with just as much contempt.
"What's your problem now?" Avenger sighed disgusted at having to talk to her counterpart.
"Where do you get off calling me a tramp you face stealing bitch!" Ruler yelled causing Avenger to stand up angrily.
"Well how about I take your face properly then." Avenger yelled lunging at Ruler and grabbing her cheek harshly.
"OW-Let me go you filthy witch!" Ruler screamed grabbing a large tuft of Avenger's hair and pulling on it eliciting a scream of pain from her.
The cat fight became more and more vicious, as the hair and cheek pulling devolved into shoving. Sadly, when Avenger shoved Ruler he went backwards into Astolfo who was dressed up as a waiter and was bring peoples drinks to them on a silver platter. The impact combined with his clumsiness sent a mug of beer flying and splashing all over Gawain.
"Oops." Astolfo dropped the remaining drinks and covered his mouth in shock.
Standing up to get a towel to dry himself off Gawain paused when he heard a chuckling from nearby. Turning his head slowly he saw Lancelot laughing from under his helmet which was moving slightly from the chuckling. The Berserker suddenly paused as with an explosion of pain and a crash he found himself on the floor. Standing above him was Gawain wielding a barstool with an angry glare.
"Laugh at me will you? Bring it on you tin can!" Gawain yelled clearly drunk.
Lancelot stood up and roared at the challenge. He took a bar stood and ripped off two of the legs and began dual wielding them in both hands. Even drunk and mad the two were still knights of great skill and tested each other with probing blows. They were about to get serious when Lancelot overextending one such blow and lost grip of one of the legs which flew and knocked over the table which Semiramis, Medea, Medusa and Atalanta where playing cards on.
The shock caused the foursome to raise their arms in shock, out of their sleeves poured extra cards. Seeing that they had all been cheating a four-way brawl quickly ensued, with Atalanta head-butting Semiramis and Medusa pile driving Medea through a table.
Meanwhile near a wall, Nursery Rhyme sat with Jackie reading Alice in Wonderland. They ignored the chaos, even as glasses smashed on the walls just nearly missing their heads along with bits of wood and metal, while Astolfo clumsily dodged things that flew at him.
Gilgamesh enjoyed the incredible fight he had created, however things were starting to slow down and some were being rendered unconscious such as Medea and Semiramis. Not one to let his amusement end quickly he saw Nero sitting on a table sketching something in a small notepad, at her back was Cu Chulainn drinking and trying to mind his own business. Seeing another potential avenue to extend his amusement he called upon his voice acting skills again.
"What is that supposed to be a pig with its face in a cheese grater?" Nero whipped around furiously hearing the voice on the dog behind her.
"Mangy dog! How dare you." Nero growled as Lancer whipped around at the insult he hated the most.
"What's your problem shorty?!" Cu Chulainn demanded.
"How dare you insult my sketches..." Nero promptly grabbed the Lancer by the crotch and began lifting him off the ground, he squealed in pain as she did so. "A BRUTE LIKE YOU KNOWS NOTHING!" After he was above her head Nero promptly threw the unfortunate dog like a javelin and quickly pursued him intent on inflicting more pain.
As he flew and screamed Lancer's suddenly found himself between the two Jeanne's who had remembered that they had weapons and had drawn them on each other. They went to stab just as Lancer flew between them, promptly skewering him. Shocked, they dropped their weapons and the poor dog's body to the ground.
"Lancer died." Ruler said covering he mouth in shock.
"You're not human…..bitch." Avenger said receiving a punch to the face causing the cat fight to resume Lancer's fate quickly forgotten.
Gilgamesh watched the chaos, amused as Nero used Avenger as springboard to flying clothesline Gawain and Lancelot turning the fight into a three-way brawl.
Space Samurai Y, ever the dutiful bartender caught any and all glasses that flew at him and set them down cleaning them one by one.
