Chapter 7: A Sudden Connection
Margaret
Evening - 30/10/2012(9 Days ago) – Velvet Room
"So you saying that, Elizabeth is willing to become the 'Great Seal'?!" Margaret raised her voice in anger, "What if something happen to her?! You never think of anything else other than fulfilling the prophecy, did you?" Igor remained silent, it was completely rare for Margaret to raise her voice to him, yet he showed no sign of arguing back.
"What I do is simply the order of my master." Igor calmly replied, "Besides, even if Elizabeth is unwilling to replace Minato, the seal will eventually break and it will bring more chaos to the world."
Margaret halted herself in confusion. "What do you mean?"
"Ever since the day my master foresee the prophecy, the 'Great Seal' has somehow lost its power due to unknown reason. It is indeed, written in the prophecy that Minato are destined to return, but it will also release Nyx along with him to made interaction with Erebus. Is it a coincidence? No, it has already been written that Nyx WILL made interaction with Erebus."
Margaret stood silent by that realization. "…So Elizabeth wasn't trying to replace Minato, but she's trying to delay the interaction between Nyx and Erebus?" Igor stood silent to Margaret's question, as she still didn't understand the situation. "You may go find your sister now to see if she has succeeded." Igor pointed to the exit door.
Still feeling unsatisfied, Margaret reached for the door without turning back.
Afternoon – 31/10/2012(8 Days ago) – Sea of Soul
Margaret stood in horror to what she saw at the end of the realm, Elizabeth and Ryoji was floating unconscious inside the glass sphere with Erebus guarding the 'gate'. The plan was a failure, as there was still the statue of a boy in the middle of the gate.
"Elizabeth…" Margaret gasped in sadness. It was truly unbearable to see the powerful sister that she knew has fallen at the hands of Erebus. Filled with emotion, Margaret opened her book as she marched toward the two headed monster. "Let my sister go!"
Erebus, detecting her presence, began to attack her and she continued to dodge until she reached to the surface of her sister glass. "Elizabeth, can you hear me? Elizabeth!" But it was meaningless indeed, Elizabeth was still not responding from the inside, which made Margaret almost broke in tears.
"That spell can never be break as easy as you think." A creepy voice was heard behind her, forcing Margaret to turn to the voice.
There, besides the 'gate', a mysterious white silhouette was seen floating with his black eye staring at Margaret. Erebus who was an aggressive shadow, stopped with fearful expression and afraid to approached him.
"Unless… you can find someone as powerful as Nyarlathotep, then there's hope to free her." Although the white silhouette gave no sign of attacking her, his aura was extremely powerful that even Margaret shivered in fear by his presence.
"Who-who are you?" Margaret said in terrified tone. Even though she saw nothing but unclear image of him, she could see the white silhouette turned hishead to the statue by his visible black eye.
"Foolish human, why seek to break the seal even though it will eventually break on its own?" Margaret tried to open her mouth to ask more about the seal, but her fear has overcame her so much that she froze like a statue.
"It is extremely daring of you to even step foot into this realm." The white silhouette spoke, locking his eye upon Margaret, "But since you just want to save your sister, I'll let you pass…" He said in a terrifying tone. "But of course, 'he' won't let you." The white silhouette changed his gaze toward somewhere.
When Margaret looked at the direction of his eye, she was shocked to see a huge shadow appear besides Erebus. Its full appearance was overshadowed by the darkness of the realm, but Margaret can see it has a huge yellow eye, stare at Margaret with deadly intention. It marched toward Margaret like a huge rock.
"Wh-what are you?!" Margaret tried to regain her composure, but it was too late. With a single swipe, the huge shadow managed to throw Margaret distance away from Elizabeth and the 'gate', causing a torn at her cloth and blood from her lips.
"I… I can't die now, not with Elizabeth still trap in there…" Margaret closed her eye when she saw the giant shadow swing another 'hands' of it to finish off Margaret. 'I'm so sorry Elizabeth.'Margaret prepared for her death.
In the midst of the panicking situation, Margaret felt like someone forcefully pulled her backward, evading the blow from the shadow. When she turned to see the face of her savior, she saw Demon Painter, a former residence of Velvet Room before her and her siblings.
"Why need to die so early?" He said with a smiling face. He removed his hand from Margaret's armpit.
"Y-you!" Margaret shouted, but he paid no attention to her word.
"We have to go for now, don't worry about your sister, she'll be fine as long as she's not a threat to them." Demon Painter opened a small portal and quickly jumped inside.
After she was saved by Demon Painter, she was send to Sumaru City, and cleaned her blood at Demon Painter's house. Although advice by him many times, she refused to return to the Velvet Room until she knew how to save her sister. She sometimes repeated to return to the Sea of Soul to free her sister, but it was all in vain by Erebus' attack.
Until a few days later, Demon Painter received news from Igor that Minato's body had been stolen from Tatsumi Port Island, leaving no trace of its crime. She decided to find Tatsuya as she found out that Tatsuya's persona, Apollo has a son that has a connection to Minato. Her search for him ended up in Inaba…
Yu Narukami
Evening – 07/11/2012 – Junes, Inaba
"Margaret, are you alright?" Yu asked Margaret in concern, making her quickly regained her memories after reminiscing the incident. She was currently sitting at the discussion table of Investigation Team with Yu and Tatsuya after recovering from her injury.
"Sorry, I was just thinking of something else." Margaret replied, but Tatsuya suddenly came to her side, impatiently.
"Enough excuse, just tell us what happen." Tatsuya said impatiently, but he was quickly restrained by Yu.
"Just leave her alone for now. She's hurt, and she need some time." Yu turned to him.
"Need time? Look at her, the doctor said the stain has been recovered for a few days and it's already dry." Tatsuya turned to Margaret's guilty face.
Just then, a sound of few footsteps was heard walking toward them, they turned to see all the member of the investigation team was there.
"You said you have something urgent to say and…wait the second, YOU?!" Yosuke shouted when he saw Tatsuya standing next to Yu.
"Don't be so surprise, I told you that I want to see this kid." Tatsuya said as he turned to Yu, "So these are your persona user team?" Yu nodded.
"Who's that girl, senpai~?" Rise smiled sweetly, albeit too sweetly at Yu's face after looking at Margaret, Yu shuddered, but he quickly putted that thought away for now. It will take too much time to explain about Margaret to them.
"…She's Margaret, someone important in our discussion today…. yeah that's it." They all looked slightly surprised and unconvinced, but didn't pay much mind to it.
"Does that mean, she knows about…you know...'inside the TV'?" Chie said slowly.
"Yes, she's a persona user like us, and Mr. Tatsuya here too."
They looked even more shocked. "You too?!" Yosuke shouted. Tatsuya, feeling annoyed after having the same reaction he received from Yu, quickly told them to lower their voice and sat on the long bench before they asked any more questions. Tatsuya stood at the center of the table while facing them.
"Ok, let me repeat myself. I'm Tatsuya Suou, a persona user from Sumaru City. Yu Narukami had told me all about you and your persona to me. So it will be my turn to tell you my story." Tatsuya began.
"A few days ago, my wife, Maya Suou had foresees a new prophecy about the world end. In the prophecy, the most dangerous shadow ever will destroy this world before the end of this year and only four persona users can defeat them. As one of the man of prophecy myself, I am tasked to find the other three to fulfill the prophecy. And you, Narukami-san, are one of the men of prophecy."
Everyone listened in mixed feeling of amusement and terrified. To think that he will once again save the world with a new comrade, Yu was now deep in thought, looking at all his friend and lastly Margaret. But he stopped his thought when he saw Margaret pale face.
"Margaret?" Yu called for her, but she refused to respond until…
"It's useless."
Margaret said, catching the attention of everyone. "I'm sorry, what did you said?" Tatsuya asked as he walked to her.
"I said… it's useless if you miss one person! We need all four to fulfill the prophecy, all four!" Margaret said with a un-lady-like tone, which make Yu and his friend surprised by her action.
"Margaret, please calm down." Yu quickly rushed towards her and now standing between those two, trying to calm Margaret's sudden anger. "I've told you to contact your persona, we can't wait any longer or…" Margaret stopped, zipping her own mouth and refused to talk further. Everyone can felt the tense atmosphere and Tatsuya was now thinking deep about Margaret's word, he then focused his attention on her.
"Do you mean…Minato Arisato?" As Tatsuya mentioned the name, Margaret was struggling to hold back her tears and everyone became more confused.
"That is the reason why I want you to contact your persona, because Minato's persona is actually the son of Apollo in mythology." Margaret said to Tatsuya.
"Who is this Minato Arisato?" Yu asked the confused Tatsuya.
Just then came interruption, a loud ringtone was heard from Tatsuya's pocket, and he excused himself from them to answer the phone. "Who is this?"
Naoya Toudou
Rainy - Evening – 07/11/2012 – COOLEST Company, Sumaru City
From the heavy rain outside, three figures were seen walking to the door to enter the building and making their ways to the meeting room at the middle of the hallway. As Naoya, Maki, Nanjo, Yukino, Baofu, Ulala, Maya and Katsuya waited patiently inside the meeting room, the door swung open as Reiji revealed to them two former persona users from St. Hermelin High: Hidehiko Uesugi(Persona: Tyr) and Eriko Kirishima(Persona: Gabriel).
"NAOYAAA!" Hidehiko screamed like a fan-girl upon seeing Naoya. Eriko was stunned temporary by Naoya's comeback, and then she smiled.
"Glad to have you back, Naoya-kun." Eriko said as she walked to the empty chair at the end of the table and Hidehiko took the opposite chair to her. With the white board and big table ready in the room, they began their discussion about the new prophecy.
"I hope you still know how to summon your persona." Naoya jokingly said, but they took it seriously as they argued that they're stronger with their persona.
"You can have your reunion later, but first, the prophecy." Katsuya said, causing Naoya to chuckle.
"You're just like your brother, Tatsuya, always being so impatient." Katsuya growled slightly by Naoya's word, but decided to ignore it as he took the marker pen and write something on the white board.
"As you can see here, the Four Horsemen, named Conquest, War, Strife and Death, are the shadow that will come to destroy our world on the day of prophecy, so they said. But the big problem is that we do not know when. Furthermore, we found out that one of the men of prophecy, Minato Arisato is dead, two years ago. My brother, Tatsuya is currently searching for Yu Narukami, one of the men of prophecy in a town called Inaba. Which leave us only to this Minato Arisato."
Everyone listened thoughtfully to his skillful speech as he continued.
"After the search for Yu Narukami, my brother will go to Tatsumi Port Island, where Minato Arisato's body was believed to have been buried there."
The word Tatsumi Port Island, however, made Nanjo raised his hand to stop Katsuya's speech. "Hold on a second, Tatsumi Port Island?" Everyone changed their attention to Nanjo.
"Have you heard of it?" This time, Maya asked with curiosity.
"Not only I heard about it, the one who funded the entire Island is actually Kirijo Group, who once a part of Nanjo's company." Everyone widened their eyes at Nanjo's statement, "But the Kirijo was separated from Nanjo Group more than 10 years ago, due to certain reason. From what I heard, the daughter of previous head of the Kirijo Group, Mitsuru Kirijo, have now rebuild the Kirijo's name as the company that secretly work for government. Although we didn't make contact anymore, we still keep in touch to our recent activities."
Another coincidence happened again, or rather, it had already been written for all four men of prophecy to meet each other.
"Then can you call the the Kirijo's head and go there to ask her about the dead person? If this Minato is a powerful persona user, surely she'll recognize him. Then Tatsuya won't have to go there if we settle it first." Maya requested Nanjo with a heartful tone. Nanjo took off his glass and wiped it a few times before he wore it back and eyeing on her.
"And what would I say to her when I finally meet her?" Nanjo explained seriously, "We don't have a close relationship like our past days. Travel to that Island just to ask her about some dead people is beyond embarrassment to Nanjo's-"
"Sure he can manage it, right Nanjo?" Naoya quickly intercepted Nanjo's word before he could finish it. As Nanjo tried to open his mouth to retaliate, but Naoya's rather deadly glare quickly shut him up, forcing him to agree. "You'll do it, right?"
"…Fine, I'll do it." Nanjo said without looking at Maya, "I'll try to contact the Kirijo's head facility to make an arrangement for the meeting." Nanjo took one last look at Naoya while glaring.
'You'll pay for the consequence, Naoya.'
Naoya seems unaffected and smiled innocently back at him, 'Relax, I'll do the talking when the time comes.'
Nanjo stood from his chair and took out his phone before rapidly pressing the number to call someone. "Hello, this is Kei Nanjo. Can you please give me the phone number of Mitsuru Kirijo of Kirijo Group?" After a few moment of waiting, Nanjo requested a paper and pen and Maya quickly gave it to him. He was seen writing down some number before thanking the person on the phone.
"All right, this is it. You better take responsibility for any trouble I'm going to face, Naoya." Nanjo glared again at Naoya who was not slightly bothered by his anger toward him. As everyone waiting for Nanjo to make the call, he slowly read the number on the paper and began to dial.
Aigis
Cloudy – 07/11/2012 – Kirijo main facility, Tatsumi Port Island
"A long platinum-blond hair man with tattoo on both his arm…Hmmm…" Mitsuru said as she recapped her conversation with detective Kurosawa on the phone a while ago. "Why did the description remind me of someone familiar?" She looked to Aigis, Labrys, Yukari, Junpei and Fuuka for any clue.
"Could it be…" Yukari began to speak.
Just then, a loud beep sound was heard from the room's main phone, Mitsuru pressed the speaker button on the phone.
"Miss Kirijo, there is someone who wish to speak with you." A female voice was heard.
"Who is it?" Mitsuru said.
"It's Kei Nanjo of the Nanjo Company, calling from Sumaru City."
Mitsuru was slightly shocked, and everyone else simply looked slightly confused. To have the head of Nanjo calling straight from distant city to talk to Mitsuru was very suspicious.
"Link the caller to me."
"All right, Miss Kirijo." A few beeps occurred before it faded and connected to the caller.
"This is Mitsuru Kirijo speaking."
"It is an honor to speak with you, Mitsuru Kirijo. Forgive me if I may disturb your work. I'm Kei Nanjo, the head of Nanjo Company, and I have a very important request to make." A tough male voice was heard answering the call.
"It is an honor too to speak with the head of Nanjo Company. You are correct, I am busy at this moment, but I'm willing to hear if that's not a bother to me."
"Thank you very much, Kirijo. As the family that funded Tatsumi Port Island, it is a certainly that you keep any important records of its history."
"Yes, I do."
"Then you must have a record of all students at Gekkoukan High school, am I correct?"
The conversation between Mitsuru and Nanjo began to look suspicious. "…Yes, I did." Mitsuru answered calmly.
"Then I want an accurate profile about a student that studied there, named Minato Arisato."
The atmosphere drastically became heavy for every person inside the room, except Labrys.
"Huh? What's wrong with you guys?" Labrys asked in confusion, but everyone remained silent.
"…Yes, I have the record of him, but he's dead two years ago. If I may ask, why do you want a profile about him?"
There is a moment of silence before Nanjo answered. "…I can't explain the detail simply by word, which is why I decide to arranging a meeting for the two of us when I arrive there. I will go to the island and discuss this matter myself. One more thing, I need to bring along a few of my people with me."
"…Please hold on a minute." Mitsuru pressed the hold button and kept on remain silent, like everyone else. Labrys, still confused by the situation, observed closely to everyone's face.
"Who is this Minato Arisato?" But no one was strong enough to answer her question.
Aigis, who sank in deep though with a pale face, awoke from her daydream by Yukari who called for her.
"…Aigis?" Yukari asked worriedly. But the small question was ignored when Junpei broke the long silence.
"What does this guy want with Minato? How did he even know about him?" Junpei asked even though he knew nobody know the reason.
"Yamagishi, what is our schedule for this week?" Mitsuru asked, Fuuka quickly took out a book and search for the date. "Due to our investigation for searching the suspect that stole Labrys and the explosion at Inaba, we are only available on this Saturday morning." Fuuka stated the file. After a wild thought of the case, Mitsuru repressed the hold button to answer Nanjo.
"Made up your mind?"
"Yes, on this Saturday morning. Meet me at Club Escapade, Paulownia Mall at Tatsumi Port Island. You are free to bring your people to our meeting."
"You have my deepest gratitude, Miss Kirijo. I'll be sure to pay a visit to your father's grave when I arrive."
"Thank you Mr. Nanjo, I'll appreciate that." And the line was off, leaving the room once again in total silence.
Many things had started to play on Aigis mind, having someone to call Mitsuru about Minato after giving Elizabeth the Evoker was not a coincidence. While she was busy thinking to herself, Yukari watched her again in warily, thinking back the question that Aigis asked her in the morning.
"Well then, we'll dismiss for now. We better focus on the suspect of the explosion and wait until this Saturday to talk about… Minato with the Nanjo Group…" Mitsuru walked straight to the exit door without looking at any of them, and the silent atmosphere return before everyone began to stand up and walked to the door without saying a word to each other.
"Labrys, let's go." Aigis said as she rose from her chair followed by the still confused Labrys.
"Are you going to talk to me?" Labrys asked.
"No Labrys, not now." Aigis answered in rather cold tone, which made Labrys closed her mouth. They slowly left the room and went straight home.
Tatsuya Suou
Evening – 07/11/2012 – Junes, Inaba
"Who is this?" Tatsuya asked when he saw the unrecognized number.
"It's me, your 'partner'. Maya give me your phone number."
Tatsuya sighed in relieve. "You could just tell Maya to call me, I thought something bad happen. What is it, Naoya-san?"
"I heard from Maya that you will go to Tatsumi Port Island to check on the last person, Minato Arisato. Good news for you, one of my friend, Kei Nanjo, well…you meet him before, has a close 'relationship' with someone from that Island - It's NOT a close relationship, Naoya! - Nanjo, I'm talking to Tatsuya, relax! Anyway, Nanjo has made an arrangement for meeting with Mitsuru Kirijo, a head of a strong group that funded that island. So you don't have to go there."
"Wait, Nanjo has a connection at that Island? Then I won't have to go there myself. I just need to bring Yu Narukami with me back to Sumaru City." Tatsuya took a quick look at Yu who was busy comforting Margaret.
Just then, another ringtone was heard. It belonged to Naoto. "Please excuse me." Naoto walked away from the crowd to a more secluded area and answered the phone.
"What is it, Mitsuru-san?"
"Naoto, I need you to handle the case for me only this Saturday. There is an appointment that I must attend with Kei Nanjo, once an important man for Kirijo Group. So I might be busy that day that I might not have time to handle your case."
"Very well, I will tell all the Investigation Team to handle this case our-self. I'm sure they wouldn't mind."
"Thank you so much, Naoto. If possible, I would like you to investigate something about this man, Kei Nanjo, anything about his recent activities."
"Investigate him? Why the sudden request? Of course I can help but…"
"Please Naoto, I need to know something about this man. It's personal, but I will need your information. If you need to find him, he is currently resides in a city called Sumaru City."
"…Ummm…" Naoto took a peek at Tatsuya who was still talking on the phone. "Can you repeat that city name again?"
"Sumaru City, what is it?"
"…It's nothing. I'll go and check on this Kei Nanjo. I'll call you back when I got some information."
"Glad to hear that." And the conversation was off. Naoto slowly walked back to her friend.
"This Saturday? Which means… 10 November 2012, three days from now? I can't wait that long… But at the same times, I think it's better for Nanjo to meet with such important figure to Tatsumi Port Island. I guess I can go back to Sumaru City tomorrow and bring Yu Narukami with me."
"Ok, so-"
"Or maybe… I could bring him to Tatsumi Port Island this Saturday and meet you guys."
"Great idea! I'll tell the others about our plan. See you in Tatsumi Port Island, 'partner'."
"Call me Tatsuya." And Tatsuya closed his phone and turned to Yu and his friend.
"Who was that?" Yu asked him, and Tatsuya replied.
"Besides me and you, the one who called just now is also a man of prophecy. I would like you to come with me to meet my friends on this Saturday to discuss further about the last man of prophecy, Minato Arisato."
After Tatsuya said this, Yu turned to Naoto. "What about you, Naoto? Who called you?" Naoto suddenly turned quiet without answering Yu's question. "Naoto?" Yu asked again.
"Tatsuya, you want bring Yu-senpai with you to meet your friend, where is it?" Naoto asked, looking directly to Tatsuya face.
"At Tatsumi Port Island, have you ever heard of it?" Tatsuya replied. They all suddenly looked shocked after hearing the name. "…Did I say something wrong?"
Naoto walked slowly toward Tatsuya with suspicious face, "Mr. Tatsuya, we need to talk, a VERY LONG talk."
Dark Hour – ?(Before 07/11/2012) – Graveyard, Tatsumi Port Island
A strange man was seen digging a grave of someone with a big shovel. Another man was wearing hood standing besides the grave. Wiping the mud from his face, it was revealed to be Adachi who's digging the grave of Minato Arisato.
"Screw you! Why you can just stand there while I do the digging?!" Adachi shouted in anger, while the hooded man smirked in joy.
"It was you punishment for being late, 'vessel of Strife'." Unable to hold back his anger, Adachi jumped from inside the grave and tried to swing the shovel at him. Keyword, 'tried'.
"That's enough!" A shout was heard not far from them. The hooded man and Adachi turned to see the masked man, holding a small hammer and looking at both of them with his Arcana mask. "The Dark Hour is about to end, we must not leave any trace of the grave being dug." Adachi quickly resumed his digging while the hooded man stood further away from the grave, not wanting to dirty his cloth.
"So the deal is to find a vessel, a sacrifice and a date for them to arrive. However, it was too easy to be the truth." The hooded man said to the masked man, "Are you sure that's everything?" The masked man remained silent as he gazed upon the eerie green moon.
"Our only obstacle is the date…and those persona users. While we busy for our preparation for their arrival, they're also busy gathering all four man of prophecy." The masked man explained, "But not this time." He suddenly began to laugh hysterically as he looked at the grave.
"Hey you bastard, are you done talking?! Need a hand here!" Adachi shouted from inside the grave.
Both of them walked toward the grave and looked inside to see Adachi holding a body of a blue haired boy wearing a funeral suit. But the most shocking thing was that the body remained…pure, like a boy just having a long sleep inside the grave. His face almost looked the same from the last day he's alive, except his hair had grew longer and looked skinnier.
"Are you sure that this boy has been dead for two year? He looks like he was just buried yesterday!" Adachi shouted. The hooded man jumped inside the grave and helped carry the body outside.
"No wonder lord Death wants his body so badly." The hooded man said as he glanced upon the masked man who remained still by the side of the grave.
"Quickly, shovel back the dirt!" The masked man ordered them as they put down the body. With only a few minutes left of Dark Hour, they quickly reburied the grave as it originally was. "Step aside!" The masked man said as he stood exactly in front of the broken tombstone. He slowly raised his hand with his hammer and shouted, "Hephaestus!"
A large figure emerged from the masked man back and the figure swung his large hammer at the broken tombstone. In a blink of an eye, the broken tombstone turned to boiling red color and like a liquid state, it begin to return to its original state, good as new.
"What a powerful persona." The hooded man clapped his hand in amusement, but the masked man paid no attention to his praise.
"This is nothing compare to our lords power." The masked man said as he lifted the boy's body, "Let's go, the Dark Hour is about to end. That 'man with the scar' will wait for us at the front gate."
With the boy's body successfully retrieved, they walked toward the gate just as the moon turned back to its original size and color.
A/N: This is so far, the most difficult chapter I have written. All persona game is somehow indirectly connected (Since it takes place in the same universe), so the meeting between Nanjo and Kirijo is probably one of the most important events in this story. Stay with me dear readers, since the day of Minato resurrection is getting closer.