Fate: Reach Out

Chapter 14: Shadow of the Conceited Self


Hanamura gaped at Shirou yet again and then shook his head to clear it. "So, let me get this straight: you're not only a wizard-"

"Magus," Shirou corrected automatically.

"-magician, but you're some kind of avatar to a GOD now?"

"Uh, no, nothing like that," Shirou denied, confused. If he had some kind of divine ancestor, he was pretty sure he or Kiritsugu would have figured it out long ago. From the man's lessons, people with divine ancestry would often display an inhuman mindset, ingrained knowledge or have a specific talent tied to their divine nature that exceeded human ability.

Shirou had considered himself as talentless and mostly ordinary, and Kiritsugu had found nothing truly amazing about him during their training.

"I'm not sure of the details, since my Persona is new even to me," Shirou admitted, wincing as he clutched his bleeding arm. It seemed that whatever high his powers had given him was wearing off, and the pain was starting to remind him that he had been almost literally chewed up and spit out not two minutes ago. "Can one of you get the First Aid kit?"

"Per…sona?" Yosuke repeated the foreign word slowly. Unfortunately, in their awe and excitement, neither Hanamura nor Satonaka made any move to patch up his arm until he gestured to the bag slung over Hanamura's back.

"Ack, sorry Emiya!" The taller teen quickly popped open the kit and fiddled for the bandages, never looking away from Emiya for long, like he was trying to figure his power out just from looking long enough.

"Well, whatever it was… that Persona thing was awesome! Do you think you could teach me?" the tomboy on the other hand was almost vibrating with excitement –or more likely from the adrenaline from nearly getting killed, it was hard to tell with her right now.

Emiya glanced back between them nervously even as Hanamura started patching up his arm. "Uh, w-well…"

"Yosuke, Chie-chan, calm down! You're troubling Sensei!" Teddie suddenly toddled over to them, his face scrunched up in a scolding frown. It looked rather silly, actually.

The Yasogami students all stopped what they were doing and turned to the bear in confusion. "Sensei?" they all echoed.

Teddie ignored their confusion and looked up to Emiya with stars in his huge eyes. "Gosh almighty, you were amazing, Sensei! You had me worried for a minute when fighting those Shadows, but that power! You sent them packing in a flash!"

Emiya rubbed his head shyly with his good arm, the start of a blush on his face. "I-it was nothing, really. I just reacted, is all."

"But you were a natural at fighting!" Teddie insisted. "Even before summoning your power like that, you were holding them off all on your own!" The bear gasped in sudden realization. "No wonder you three managed to get here; you're able to bring other people into this world!"

"Wait, able?" Emiya blinked.

"How did you know that?" Satonaka asked.

Teddie's arms flailed in his excitement. "It has to be the case! It's like… he has a part of himself that allows this world to open to him: that Persona! Man, this is really something!"

"I'll say," the magus nodded, idly finishing wrapping his arm in medical tape. Tensing his arm, he deemed it usable, ignoring the pain with ease. "If you're right, then maybe the culprit has the power of Persona, too."

Satonaka tilted her head slightly. "So the culprit would be a wizard like you?"

"Magus," he corrected her with a sigh. "And maybe… To be honest, I'm not sure how it all fits together. The last time anything like this happened was in a dream earlier this week." With an uncertain frown, Shirou stared at the ground. "I'm… well, all I know is that my Persona is a part of me. Not like my Magic Circuits, but it's definitely bound to my soul, so it's kinda similar, I guess."

Teddie blinked. "Circuits?"

"We can discuss your hidden talents later," Yosuke reminded them. "Now that the Shadows are gone, let's hurry and check out Saki-senpai's liquor store."

Satonaka turned to him with the most enraged look on her face, stomping over and screaming in front of his own. "Are you out of your mind?! We all nearly died just now, and Emiya was even bitten by one of those slippy-whatevers! He lost his club and can't even lift his arm right now!"

"Satonaka, I'm fine," Emiya said, waving his bandaged arm for emphasis.

"See?" Yosuke gestured casually to him. "He says he's fine."

"And I've got Sensei's sword!" Teddie called, having put his nose to use in finding the club where it had landed. 'Sensei' accepted it gratefully, and was once again with a weapon. Honestly, Shirou's body was stiff and already throbbing with pain, but he stubbornly ignored the aches and examined the club closely.

The haft was a bit pockmarked by the Hableries' molars and the Reinforcement was broken, but it was still serviceable once he re-applied the mystery. "Now that you mention it though, would you mind waiting for a few minutes? My Magic Circuit broke down and I need to reset it."

"Say what?" Yosuke barked, his temper starting to flare a little at the seeming constant delays.

"My Magic Circuit, the channel that lets me use magecraft, stopped working in the middle of the battle there, which was why the Shadows caught me. It shouldn't take long to reset, and every little edge we can get will help." Shirou explained.

Satonaka raised an eyebrow. Honestly, she just wanted to get out of here, but the boys were too stubborn; best let them see what they came for quickly and get out. Just being in this creepy place made her uneasy, fog-filtering glasses or not. "What about just using your Persona? That guy kicked those Shadows around like nobody's business."

"It's… tough to explain, but neither my Persona nor my magecraft is an infinite resource. I don't exactly have a fuel gauge on them either, so I'm trying to maximize my resources in case I run out of one power source or we get in too many fights."

"Do you have to?" Yosuke needled, tapping his foot agitatedly. "We don't have time to sit here and do nothing! We should keep going."

Satonaka huffed. "What is wrong with you? Do you honestly expect to find Konishi-senpai's ghost here or something? What if we meet more Shadows? At least let Emiya get his magic thingy up and running before we get moving; it's only fair."

Teddie stood beside Satonaka and clasped his hands behind his back. "If Sensei says it's smart to recharge, let him do it. I don't know about you, but I'd feel much better with Sensei's Persona backing us up at full power."

"I'm sorry, Hanamura. Really. If I was a better magus I'd happily Reinforce your clothes before we moved on, but if I mess up, they'll just break instead. I can at least do a little boost to your wrenches, though."

Hanamura fought down the urge to curse, noting that Emiya was already sitting cross-legged on the floor, taking slow breaths. "Fine," he bit out angrily. "At least we'll be better armed."

"Thanks, I mean it. Keep an eye out for Shadows, and don't hesitate to run if it comes down to it," Shirou nodded to them with a slight smile before closing his eyes and furrowing his brow as he muttered his Aria. "Trace On."

Immediately, there was a change in the air. Shirou wasn't glowing or chanting like the teens half-expected, but they could see the air ripple around him like a heat haze… in fact, they couldfeel heat rolling from him after only a minute.

"Emiya?" Concerned, Chie almost reached out to her classmate, but stopped when she felt the heat surrounding him intensify. He was sweating now, too.

Yosuke stood with his arms crossed, antsy to move on, but unable to bring himself to so much as leave the building while he watched the windows and wrecked door. "Hey, Satonaka, we might as well do something useful. Help me put some stuff over this hole."

Taking one last look at Emiya, Satonaka slapped her cheeks and squared her shoulders. "Good idea. Let's try to keep it quiet if we can. Last thing we need is for more Shadows to show up because we made a racket."

There was plenty of debris for them to use thanks to the battle, and even a few rugs were draped over the small front windows to hide them from prying eyes. All the while, Hanamura continued to fume.

Damn it, I came here for a reason! This sucks… here we are waiting on the hero. The real hero should be… Hanamura's train of thought was derailed when he noticed the strangely intense stare Teddie was giving Emiya, who occasionally flinched as heat continued to radiate from him.

The empty costume's face was not the adoring gaze from minutes ago, but one that was a mix of confusion and a touch of horror. "Something wrong, Teddie?"

"Sensei's doing this bear-y wrong," the suit mumbled with as much fear as when the Shadows were stalking them.

That got the teens' attention. "What do you mean?" Hanamura asked immediately, turning back to the magician.

"I don't know why, but I can tell Sensei's hurting himself to make this work," the mascot shook its head with a frown. "But we can't stop him right now or it would kill him."

"How do you know that?" Satonaka asked worriedly, her eyes darting between the bear and the sweating magus.

Teddie opened his mouth, froze, and then slowly scratched his domed head. "I… dunno. I just know."

"That doesn't make any sense," Yosuke groaned.

"Does anything make sense in here?" Chie countered flatly with a frustrated stomp of her foot.

The three fell into silence after that, twitching towards every sound while Emiya continued his meditations silently. Occasionally they heard the slopping of Shadows crawling nearby and even the rattle of a chain at one point, but nothing came close to the door and faded from hearing. Both teens almost felt ill from the helpless tension the dark atmosphere exuded, even if their glasses cut away the fog and shielded them from that unearthly weakness from last time.

Teddie continued to watch the magus with worry, only relaxing when Shirou slumped forward, exhaling one last breath. "Sensei! Are you okay?" The mascot toddled over and tried to help Shirou stand, but his empty body had no real strength. "You're burning up!"

Shirou forced a smile, wiped his brow and pulled at his shirt, which was sticky with sweat. "It's fine; I'm all right. It'll pass in a minute." Forcing himself to his feet stiffly, the magus plucked his golf club from the floor and held it before him. "Trace On," he incanted again, moving a trickle of prana into the club carefully. Magecraft might work more easily in this world, but that did not mean he couldn't screw up. It didn't help that there wasn't a way to tell when he was about to go over an object's limit. Still, the fact that he could Reinforce his weapon so easily was a blessing he was happy to take.

"That was bear-y dangerous, sensei! You almost died there!" Teddie admonished.

Shirou levered the re-Reinforced club to his shoulder. "'A magus walks with death' is the first rule of magecraft. I appreciate your concern, but I've had plenty of practice with this." Completely shrugging off Teddie's concern, he turned towards Hanamura. "Do you mind letting me see those wrenches? I should be able to make them at least a little stronger."

"You sure, partner? You look like hell right now," Hanamura pointed out. "These things are pretty tough anyway." While he appreciated the offer, Hanamura couldn't afford to put the entire burden on Shirou's shoulders, especially if it was as dangerous as it sounded. "And what's this about walking with death?"

Shirou completely ignored the last part. "I'll be good for a while. The Magic Circuits I make tend to last at least a full day during training. I think I'm finally getting better at it. That last one almost made it a full week."

The tomboy fidgeted nervously at the sight of the magus's slightly shaky hands. "Emiya... if this is really as dangerous as it's starting to sound, maybe you should hang back and regain your strength."

"If you're that concerned," Hanamura interjected. "Then you should have brought something to fight with, like Emiya and I did."

"I didn't bring anything because I was dragged in here, remember?!" The school girl snapped. Hanamura huffed annoyed, but Emiya had the decency to look guilty again.

"B-but I still want to help!" she quickly amended with a softer tone. "I normally use martial arts anyway, so you can buff my shoes and then hang back if you want."

"I'll Reinforce your shoes if that's what you want, but stay behind me if a fight breaks out. Even this Reinforced club barely phased those Shadows."

"And why should I? I've got good reflexes, and Hanamura's armed, too." Satonaka growled again, her face falling back to a dark scowl she had from her last outburst.

"It's not that you're weak or anything, but this isn't a simple case of strength against strength here. When I hit those Shadows with the Reinforced club, the most I did was annoy them. But when my Persona awakened, it felt like I could actually hurt them. There must be a connection between this power, this world and the Shadows, like what Teddie said about being able to bring people here."

"That's right, Sensei!" Teddie nodded proudly, his entire body wobbling with the motion.

The other two students exchanged shocked and confused glances. Satonaka seemed to shrink into her coat slightly as the facts sank in. "Bu-but… there's got to be something we can do to help. Otherwise you could… die…"

For some reason, Yosuke saw the wizard (magus?) blink in honest confusion at the girl's concern. Was he really that surprised that they wanted to help? Nobody here wanted to see the others get hurt, after all.

Before Emiya could formulate a response, Teddie interrupted him. "U-uh… I could help next time," he offered.

The other students turned to the bear, silently urging him to continue.

"I-I got no muscles to show, sadly, so I'm afraid Sensei will still do most of the fighting. BUT! I can offer moral support from a safe distance!"

"Peachy," Satonaka groaned and rolled her eyes. "And what does that even mean?"

"I can scan Shadows for their weaknesses and strengths and let you know what I find! You'd be surprised how often Shadow battles end when they get hit by something they really don't like. Like that Zio spell Sensei hit that Slipping Halberie with!"

Hanamura nearly dropped his wrenches at that. "Why didn't you say anything before?!" he shouted.

"I-I was scared," Teddie admitted and cowered from the angry teens. "It all happened so fast, and Sensei said to hide in the back, so…"

Sensing the impending tirades from his classmates, Emiya lifted his hand and tried to talk them down. "It's alright, Satonaka, Hanamura. He was just as scared as we were, probably more. It all worked out in the end, too." He turned to Teddie with a smile. "Of course, as long as you stay out of danger, I'd greatly appreciate your help."

Teddie nodded enthusiastically. "Can do, Sensei!"

Emiya's smile faltered a bit. "One quick thing though; could you call me Shirou instead? I'm too much of a student to be called a teacher in anything as I am."

The bear nodded again. "Can do, Shirou-Sensei!"

At that, Shirou's smile faded and a rather large bead of sweat rolled down his head. From the heat of his Magic Circuit or exasperation he couldn't say, but he shrugged it off with a sigh. "Close enough, I guess."

"Well then," Yosuke smiled. "Now we have a plan; Emiya fights, Teddie supports, I investigate, and Satonaka…" he paused as he stared at the lone girl of their party. "Well, try not to get kidnapped, alright?"

"Ha-ha, very funny," said lone girl deadpanned.

"Anyway, as long as we're this good, we should be able to handle the rest of the place no problem." He turned heroically towards the door and pointed outward, ready to march. "To the liquor store!"

Chie still wasn't convinced. "B-but Emiya really should-!"

"Hanamura, we're going as far as the liquor store tonight, right?"

It was an odd but fair question from Emiya. "Well, it's our first and only lead so far. We'll see how it goes from there when we get there."

He nodded, squaring his shoulders. "Sounds good."

"Don't be stupid, Emiya!" Satonaka cried. "Do it tomorrow if you have too! You need-!"

"Don't worry; Hanamura will be fine as long as I'm around. You and Teddie, too. I promise you'll be alright."

Damn showoff. The thought popped into Yosuke's mind before he realized it, but seeing how easily he calmed Chie down with, the words didn't feel quite right to him.

Teddie was also moved, it seemed. "M-me too, Shirou-sensei?"

'Shirou-sensei' nodded. "Of course. I said I would help your problem with the culprit after all, and that's what I plan to do."

"R-really? You promise?"

"Of course I promise. You have my word."

Yosuke coughed slightly and hurried out, hoping his action would distract them from Teddie's little happy dance and cheer. They had a murder case to solve, damn it!

Stop hogging the spotlight already, Emiya!


The hike back to the store was luckily less dangerous than the first attempt, but the group still moved slowly and cautiously, jumping at every (mundane) shadow. Emiya took the lead by several paces so his Persona Izanagi could fight off whatever Shadow came their way without involving the others, with Teddie behind Yosuke and Satonaka in the rear. The taller boy tried to get as close to the lead as possible, but Emiya would always stop him so the others could catch up before charging ahead. Such a damn boy scout.

When they reached the door to the Konishi liquor store, they noticed it was wide open. Instead of the inside of the store though, the doorway was filled by a spiraling red and black portal similar to the sky above. It was nothing like the abandoned store they took refuge in. This one had "Shadow territory" written all over it.

"Well, that doesn't look ominous at all," Satonaka sarcastically remarked.

"So Saki-Senpai disappeared in here..." Yosuke said. "Okay, let's-!"

Before he even took a single step through the portal, voices suddenly echoed from all around them. Emiya immediately stepped in front of the others, holding his club out and the other hand raised, a spark of blue flame flickering over his palm. The others fell into battle positions facing out in every direction. Even Teddie brought his hands up in an attempt at a karate stance.

Yosuke didn't like what the voices had to say at all…

"I wish Junes would go under…"

"It's all because of that store…"

"Are these… memories?" Emiya guessed as the voices ebbed and flowed like a tide.

"Oh, I heard that Konishi-san's daughter is working there."

"Oh my… How could she, with her family's business suffering like it is…?"

"I heard their sales have gone downhill because of Junes."

Satonaka was just as confused. "I-I always knew the people at the shopping district were bitter, but…"

"That poor father… to have his own daughter working for the enemy."

"What a troublesome child…"

Wh-what the hell is this?! Yosuke mentally screamed. "Ted," he called to the mascot bear between gritted teeth. "You said that this place is reality for those that are here, right!? So... does that mean this was Senpai's reality when she wandered in here…?"

Teddie looked around, and shook its head. "I… only know what goes on over here, not there."

Yosuke snorted. "Fine then, we'll figure out what's going on inside then!" Not daring to hesitate, Yosuke bulled through the gateway, vanishing into the portal with barely a ripple.

The portal took Yosuke into the liquor store, but the dimensions were off. The front of the store was normal for such a place, with cold fridges lining one wall and a check-out counter to the right of the doorway. Beyond that though, the building expanded into an impossibly huge warehouse packed with liquor. Kegs of beer and spirits formed towers stretching higher than most houses, and crates of drinks were stacked into veritable fortress walls further back. It was chilly in the expansive room; mist from the coolers had fogged over every glass panel in sight and wreathed the floor in places.

Just after Yosuke had taken in the sight, he could hear the rest of his group enter the room behind him. They didn't have time to scold him for running ahead or take more than a passing glance at the scenery before the voices started again. "Dammit, not this again-!"

The first was an older man, his tone frustrated and angry. "Saki, how many times do I have to tell you!?"

Yosuke gasped. "Is that…?"

"Konishi-senpai's father?" Satonaka finished.

"You know what the neighbors say about you, right!?" the voice continued. "Aren't you ashamed of yourself? You're the eldest daughter of a family who's owned this store for generations! Is it the money? Or did you meet some guy there? Just tell me why you have to work THERE, of all places!"

"I never imagined that tensions between Junes and the Shopping District were this bad…" Emiya muttered, looking around the store as the voice faded. Was Fuyuki like this at some point as Shinto was built up?

"I… I can't believe this," Yosuke whispered, his fists clenching and trembling slightly. "She always looked tired and distant, yeah, but she seemed like she was having fun at least. She never even told me about any of this…"

"Hanamura…" Satonaka frowned, looking as if she felt sorry for him. Yeah right.

"Are you trying to tell me," he began, his voice growing into an anguished cry. "Was that THIS was how Saki-senpai saw things?!"

"Hanamura." The others saw Emiya standing by a table of assorted photos, all of them cut up in small pieces. "There's a photo of you here," he said slowly, his expression a mix of confusion and wariness.

"Huh?" Walking over to the collection of photos, it was easy for Yosuke to find the pictures of himself amidst the other familiar faces. "These… are all copies of the photo we took the other day with all the part-timers at Junes. But… wh-why are they all cut up like this?"

The table almost looked like it had been a part of an arts and crafts class for preschoolers learning to use scissors. Each picture was cut a different way, a different angle, cutting edges or corners of the copies. Only the center of the photos, where Saki stood, appeared undamaged in all of them.

He was really fond of the photo when it was taken; everyone was smiling, even Saki-senpai. He happened to be standing close to her, just being friendly. He had hoped at some point he would offer her a date at a movie, but…

"I… never had the chance to say it…"

Yosuke's head snapped up to the ceiling, recognizing the voice echoing all around them. "S-saki-senpai?"

"I always wanted to tell Hana-chan…"

"H-huh? Me?" He suddenly felt hopeful. If his Senpai admitted he had feelings for him as well, then maybe he could move on and accept her death more easily-

"…that he was a real pain in the ass."

And just like that, that little flare of hope died like a candle flame …wha-?

"I was nice to him just because he was the store manager's son, that's all," Saki's voice reasoned bitterly. "But he takes it completely the wrong way and gets all enthusiastic. I can't even remember the number of times I wanted to tell him to fuck off or slap that stupid grin off his face."

Yosuke had long since dropped the photo fragment in his hands, slipping through his slightly numbed fingers. His eyes were wide with horror and confusion, and his mouth had parted since he heard the four words uttered. "Pa-pain in the ass…?"

No one said anything as they glanced at the auburn-haired teen, noting how painfully cracked his voice was just now. Yosuke was barely aware of their sympathetic gazes of pity on him at this point, to drawn in to the voice above him.

"Who cares about Junes, anyway? Because of that store, our business is ruined, my parents hate me, the neighbors talk behind my back… Nothing's going to make it better, especially not some loser lovesick boy. I wish everything would just disappear."

A long moment passed, and the voice was gone. A tense silence followed as the gravity of the words settled in. "Hanamura…" Chie finally said, as if in concern. Yeah, right.

"It-it's a lie…"

Yosuke felt Emiya's hand on his shoulder. "Come on, Hanamura. There's nothing left here-"

"It's a lie!" he snapped brushing his hand off, before falling to the ground and holding his ears. "It's all a lie! It has to be some… some sort of Shadow trick! Saki-senpai would neversay things like that!"

A sharp laugh broke off within the store, mocking and eerily familiar in spite of carrying a warped echo behind every word. "HAHAHAHAHAHA! It's so sad… I feel so sorry for myself! Actually, I'm the one who thinks everything is a pain in the ass!"

From the shadows cast by the towers of barrels, a figure sauntered into view, staring directly at the headphone wearing student with a wide, malicious smile. Yosuke felt like he was staring at a mirror… and for all intents and purposes he was. The figure was an exact copy of himself, from the school uniform to the headphones, with golden eyes and a sinister looking blue aura around him as the main differences. The others recoiled, gasping at the doppelganger's appearance, who just smirked back at them.

"Isn't that right… 'me'?" it asked rhetorically. The tone and voice it carried sounded like Yosuke, but had a dark, resonating echo and a touch of cynicism that the same timecouldn'tsound like Yosuke.

"Wh-what the?" Satonaka gawked.

"Two Yosukes?!" Teddie cried.

Emiya's eyes shifted between the two Yosukes, his club held in a defensive posture, but he said nothing. This was still completely out of his depth.

Yosuke gulped and tried asking in a trembling voice; "Wh-who are you…?"

"I'm you, of course," The other Yosuke replied, his tone still oozing dark amusement. "I'm all your frustrations, all your thoughts, all your dirty, little, S-E-C-R-E-T-S." It stressed each point made through his fingers like making a list, while tapping the air in front of him spelling the last word. The smirk was still there. "And I know you don't give a damn about Junes and the shopping district, let alone this stupid hick town."

Yosuke felt his blood run cold. Those were… "Wh-what are you…? That's not true, I-!"

The other Yosuke started pacing around the room, circling around the tense travelers. "You put on a good show of being carefree and happy-go-lucky 'cause you're so terrified of being alone. You surround yourself with people to block out the pain of isolation." The lookalike stopped and pointed to Emiya. "That's why you started hanging out with this loser here!"

"Huh?" Emiya was honestly confused. Yosuke didn't like where this was going. Every word felt like a knife to the gut, and the clone was only just getting warmed up.

"He may be a hotshot city boy, but he's such a chump! An all-around nice guy, doing favors for others with no strings attached because he believes in helping others like a good little boy scout. Who else would take the time to fix someone's bike like that? Seriously! You had him pegged for a sucker the moment he helped you. And if that wasn't good enough, you found out he was a friggin' wizard! Not some poser birthday magician, but the real deal! You latched onto him like a leech after that!"

Yosuke glanced between Emiya and the lookalike, having the awful feeling of being cornered. "Stop it! Shut up!"

"I know the real reason why you came snooping here. You wanted a little excitement in your life! A whole new world inside a TV-that's only the kind of stuff you see in anime, but now you could live it! Not like there was anything else to do in this shithole. You had no real reason coming here other than you were bored!"

"Sh-shut up!" Yosuke cried again, his legs shaking and his vision seeming to tunnel until it was just him and… him. "I… I came here because I wanted to know what happened to Saki-senpai!"

"Ah, the girl you were so sweet on," the other Yosuke cooed, giving an exaggerated shrug. The Shadow-Yosuke stepped forward, unhurried and never once taking his eerie eyes off of the original Yosuke. "Her death was the perfect excuse of coming here, really. You saw the parallels of what happened with the announcer, and thought that maybe this was all connected." Slowly, he picked up the photo that had fallen from Yosuke's limp fingers and smiled wickedly, waving the fragment in his counterpart's face.

From his position in front of Satonaka, Emiya involuntarily flinched when the photo fragments started jumping off the counter of their own accord. The copies of Yosuke and Saki Konishi's faces danced about like they were caught in a windstorm, carried to circle over the two Yosukes.

"But you heard her just now. That's how she really thinks of you. You're such an annoying brat you blew any chance you had of anything meaningful! You've always been that way!" With deliberate slowness, the Shadow tore the small portrait of Saki down the middle and tossed the fragments behind him, his expression still the same sadistic sneer. The cavernous room was filled with the sound of harshly tearing paper as the whirling photo fragments overhead also split in similar fashion, bisecting every face and raining down on the people like confetti.

"In the end, you didn't give a damn about the murder cases," it continued, turning around and leering at the other students. "You just needed some believable excuse so Mr. Magic Hero could be strung along to bring you back. If all went well, maybe you'd save his loser ass once or twice just to feel awesome." It then leered at Chie, who recoiled at its gaze. "Having Satonaka dragged along as a damsel in distress is always a plus, too!"

"Stop it!" he clapped his hands over his ears in an attempt to drown out his mocking voice. "That's not true! None of that's true!"

The other Yosuke's smirk grew, staring back the real one. "Of course it is. It's just like I told ya; I'm you… your Shadow… I know everything about you, 'Yosuke Hanamura'."

That revelation surprised everyone in the room. "Th-that's a Shadow?!" Satonaka cried. "What's going on here?!"

Yosuke, having snapped his eyes open at the word "Shadow", glared at the glowing gold eyes of his fake twin as he felt something of an epiphany come to him. That was it. It was a Shadow. It was only a fake, a ploy meant to confuse him and divide the group. The words hurt, but there were nothing but BS mind games from a Shadow. He wasn't going to fall for it, and would make the thing pay for mocking him and pissing him off. "No… you're… not me…!"

Emiya and Satonaka flinched again at the sudden murderous tone of their classmate. "H-Hanamura…?" Satonaka timidly asked.

The Shadow tilted his head with a raised eyebrow, as if not believing him. It leaned closer and held a hand to its ear. "Ooooh? Speak up, 'Hana-chaaaan'! Can't quite heaaaar yoooou!" Yosuke barely noticed the sudden spike of its surrounding aura, but honestly didn't care.

Emiya's eyes widened at the sight, his senses assailed by the gathering dark surrounding the clone. Every instinct at him screamed that something horrible was about to happen. "Hanamura!"

Hearing Saki-senpai's nickname in that mocking tone was too much; how dare this thing say all that with his face, and try to mimic Saki-senpai's voice no less! Yosuke snapped and reached for the monkey wrenches in his back pockets, holding them as weapons. "You're not me… you're nothing like me!"

"Yosuke, get back!" Teddie shouted.

He charged at the Shadow, ready to beat the thing to a pulp. "YOU CAN'T BE ME, YOU SON OF A BITCH!" With a leap, Yosuke held both magic wrenches over his head, ready to smash the Shadow's teeth down his throat.

And he did. The sound of reinforced metal smacking against the skin echoed throughout the store, and the lookalike's face snapped away from the hit.

Yet there was a strong sense of foreboding. One that Yosuke realized something was very wrong with him…

"Heh… hehehehe…" The Shadow started to chuckle, turning its head back to stare at his mirror. A slight bruise was marked on its cheek, but it didn't seem to notice or care. The manic eyes and still smug smile strongly hinted on the latter, and made Yosuke step back in worry.

"Hehehehehe!"
Soon the Shadow stood back upright, the insane sounding giggle growing in volume as the aura around it grew darker.

"Oh no…" Teddie squeaked. "Not again!"

The magus didn't like what the bear was implying, but had no time to question or ponder the meaning of its words.

"HAHAHAHAHAHA!" Shadow Yosuke spread his arms and laughed in earnest, the darkness erupting around him and throwing the stupefied original to the ground with a wave of power."Damn right I'm not you. And now I'm my own person!"

Light surged from within the blackness, blinding the four explorers. Satonaka and Emiya could barely see the streams of blackness twining together into a new shape, but they couldn't see any details until it faded away, leaving them gaping all in shock. Yosuke could only stare in dim horror and numbing heartbeat, despite his senses screaming at him to run.

Where a human once stood, a towering… creature was in its place. Its lower body was like a giant camo-patterned frog with black feet, a golden V-shaped blade in place of a mouth, jagged lines carved in the plate to resemble teeth and a pair of malicious red eyes on black stalks peering over it. Jutting up from the center of its back was a largely featureless elongated humanoid figure that moved like it was made of black rubber, easily as tall as an entire person by itself. A long red scarf wrapped around its neck, and large yellow gloves covered its massive hands. The 'eyes' were simply four-starred shuriken embedded on the blackened face, appearing to double as ears.

Yosuke stared at the towering frog-riding monster raising one of the frog's front legs to stomp him into paste. A single thought crossed his mind:

I'm going to die.

"Hanamura!" In a burst of speed that left Emiya lagging behind, Satonaka suddenly tackled him out of the monster's path.

Emiya was right behind her, putting himself in front the others quickly. "Stand back, all of you!" he lunged at the monster, jumping and swiping at the rubbery torso, only for it to bend out of the way easily.

The Shadow's body shot back upright and glared at the red-haired teen despite its nigh-blank face. "You're not going anywhere either, Emiya!"

"Wasn't planning on it," he countered as he landed, holding his golf club steady. "Now, who are you really?"

"I am a Shadow: the true self! I'll crush everything that bores me… starting with you, Hero!" The Shadow swung its frog-like arms down on him, and the magus dove to the side.

Shirou winced as the power of the blow made the ground tremble slightly under his feet. Even as he pulled himself upright from his roll, he raised his bandaged arm and reached for the fire burning just beneath the surface. The familiar tarot card appeared over his palm, and he crushed it without hesitation. He felt the strength of his Persona suffuse the atmosphere in a wave of blue fire. "Izanagi!"

This time the masked warrior erupted forwards from the flames, his charge blindsiding the Shadow and making it backpedal away from the teens. Izanagi spun his body under the Shadow's startled jab and kicked at the Shadow's face with its bladed foot, carving a gash into its hastily raised arm. With a tremendous heave of its four legs, the Shadow opened the distance and landed further back in the cavernous building, Izanagi rocketing after him.

With the giant Shadow distracted, Emiya backpedaled himself several steps to keep guarding his classmates. Chie draped Yosuke's arm over her shoulder and hauled him to the back corner of the store, behind Teddie and Emiya.

"Satonaka, stay back and watch Hanamura," Shirou quickly ordered. "Teddie, I'll need your support."

"Y-yes, Shirou-sensei!"

"Alright, what's this Shadow's weak point? Anything I should watch out for aside from its raw strength?" The redhead could see through his Persona's eyes even in spite of the distance between them, the strangely helpful nature of the powers he was using allowing him to comprehend the twin viewpoints with unnatural ease. He could see the frog move with unbelievable agility, and one strike from either its fists or feet all but disintegrated the crates and barrels it struck.

Teddie sheepishly rubbed its head. "Uh… to be honest Shirou-sensei, it's not quite that easy. Until I see it get hit by something, I can't tell what it's weak to. On top of that, that big Shadow is made of a lot of little Shadows fused together by Yosuke's Shadow. It's not normal, so I haven't seen any like it before. At least it isn't super tough against physical attacks."

Emiya couldn't keep his frustration off of his face at that. Satonaka obviously shared his sentiments. "You wait until now to tell me this?!" he snapped.

"I'm sorry, Shirou-sensei! I really am!"

Yosuke barely kept track of that conversation, knowing that he was lucky to be alive and saved by Shirou Emiya… again. He should feel glad, amazed, or even a tiny bit bitter about that but… surprisingly he felt nothing but a big black hole inside him. Everything felt muted, like his emotions were drained out of him, leaving him listless and numb to the world. It was like the moment the Shadow had changed shape that his heart was plucked from his chest. What's wrong with me…?

"Hanamura, Hanamura!" Yosuke barely felt any desire to respond when Satonaka shook his shoulder. "Come on, stay with us!"

Shirou suddenly clutched his stomach and several crates exploded from the battle deeper in the store. The Shadow had gotten a clean hit in, swatting the Persona into some Konishi storage boxes, and he felt it quite acutely. "Everyone, take cover! The Shadow's coming back this way!"

Izanagi suddenly skid to a halt at the edge of the storage space before them, his foot blades carving trenches and making sparks in the floor. He just managed to ready his pole-arm when the Shadow pounced towards him, its arms shooting forwards far beyond their natural length in a flurry of powerful punches. Izanagi parried the blows and forced himself between Shadow Yosuke's arms, slicing another gouge in its green hide as it did so. All that seemed to do was make the creature more determined to kill him.

As his friends moved behind the protection of the sales counter, the magus took a single breath and raised his golf club overhead, recalling the powers of his Persona. "Tarukaja!" The Persona invoked his master's will with a snap of his fingers. With a shout, Emiya charged into the fray himself while Izanagi continued to exchange blows with the Shadow's many limbs, smashing the golf club into the Shadow's flank with all of his might. Stumbling, the Shadow howled in pain as Izanagi took the opening to cleave his blade across the Shadow's chest.

Despite its injuries, the Shadow wasn't slowing down at all. It powered its body straight up with all four legs, nearly taking it to the ceiling. Its gloved hands clapped together into a position reminiscent of a ninja hand sign at the apex of its jump. "Not bad, 'hero,' but how long can you survive THIS?!"

The air around Shadow Yosuke's body took on a pale green tinge, howling like a tornado as it descended. Izanagi and Emiya scattered, but it wasn't enough: the moment the frog-ninja hit the ground, the green winds roared outward in a shockwave, upending everything it touched and shredding furrows in every direction. Even the sales counter was smashed to pieces, the trio behind it blown into the wall behind them from the force.

Izanagi and Emiya fared far worse. The winds powered through Izanagi's guard like it wasn't even there, sending it spinning into the corner and imbedding it, there while the feedback nearly paralyzed Emiya with pain midflight. It felt like he was hit by a sandblaster! Even after all of that, he forced himself to look towards his friends. "Is everyone alright?"

"I've been better," Satonaka winced. Yosuke coughed, too weak to say anything else.

"Be careful, Shirou-sensei!" Teddie cried as it rolled to its feet. "This one is much stronger than the Slipping Halberies, and it knows a wind-element spell! Your Persona is bear-y weak to wind!"

"I noticed," he grunted, climbing to his feet around the same time Izanagi plucked himself out of the wall. "Well then, you want to try magecraft?"

"Zio!" Izanagi invoked in reply with an outstretched hand, the blue bolt streaking down between the Persona and the charging Shadow, sending it straight to the floor like it was hit by the fist of God. Arcs of electricity sizzled across its body, and every limb twitched painfully. Even the rubbery black body looked like it was having trouble moving after that blast.

"There!" Teddie pointed. "Right there! That's its weakness!"

"Perfect!" Emiya exclaimed and held his hand out. "Again!"

Shadow Yosuke screamed in agony as another blue bolt smote it from above.

"Again!"

Before another bolt crashed down it, the Shadow forced its legs under it and tensed. "You…

Pushing off the ground hard enough to crack the floor, the Shadow flipped aside a split second before the third Zio bolt could connect. "-are such a…"

Shadow Yosuke jumped again, spinning in midair to face Emiya's back, the golden blade on its front looking like nothing more than a fiendish smile behind him. The magus turned with wide, shocked eyes just as the frog body's massive paw lifted to crush him into a pancake. "-pain in the ASS!"

STOMP!

"EMIYA!"

"SHIROU-SENSEI!"

Even through the haze plaguing him, horror managed to well up in Yosuke when saw that Shadow thing slam its leg down like crushing a particularly irritating bug. Nothing could be seen because of the cloud of dust that kicked up around the force of its attack. The implication was clearly there but… "No… please be alright…"

The dust cleared and the others were relieved to see Emiya bracing the golf club against the Shadow's foot, forced down to one knee and visibly straining.

"I never expected you to be so interesting," Shadow Yosuke taunted. "But the fact is you're too interesting, having all this power and playing the hero. It pisses me off, so do me a huge favor and JUST DI-AAGH!"

It was at that moment that Izanagi returned with another brutal haymaker to the Shadow's head, forcing the frog to stagger away from Emiya. The magus winced as his injured arm throbbed, blood starting to leak through the bandages. His wounds were bleeding again from the strain he was putting his body through.

For an instant, the black body looked limp and dazed, but it quickly clenched its fists and faced them. It then slapped its hands together like before, but this time instead of green magic wind, raw magical power gathered around the Shadow, suffusing it with crackling energy. "That's it! I'm seriously pissed now, Emiya! If you just won't lay down and die, I'm gonna crush you with everything I got!"

Shadow Yosuke once more jumped straight up, a nimbus of green light roaring to life around him. This time the storm was powerful to rattle the windows just from its formation. The Shadow's descent, made even faster as it started spinning, was marked by what sounded like a jet engine. "GET OUT OF MY SIGHT!"

Teddie's eyes shrank to comically small dots as it panicked. "SHIROU-SENSEI!"

Shirou saw it coming too, and turned to Chie and Yosuke. "TAKE COVER!"

"WINDS OF OBLIVION!"

BOOOOOOOM!

Charged by far more magical energy, the shockwave Shadow Yosuke created on impact was an order of magnitude greater than the previous, tearing the entire Konishi liquor store building apart from the inside. The hurricane-gales sent debris flying in every direction and blowing a few of the surrounding buildings apart, caving in walls and folding the houses over. Every window within a block in the mock-district shattered from the force. All anyone could see was a blinding green-white light from the force of the hurricane.

And then there was silence.


A/N: Life is truth, and never a dream. All souls know this from birth. The truth is something that is chosen and grasped, something discovered with one's vision and will. Only by gaining that does the seeker become truth himself, a cord that connects past and future.

But now, our hero's destiny has been severed, and the truth languishes within the hollow, fog-filled forest...


TRUE A/N: HA! Like you'd all SERIOUSLY think I would end the story like that! True, it's quite a cliffhanger, and my only regret for doing this is that I haven't set this chapter up on April 1st. It would have made quite the April Fools joke.

Anyway, Shadow Yosuke. Got quite a beef up this chapter, mostly due to Yosuke's constantly agitated feelings making it stronger. Shirou's partly at fault himself not knowing to guard in time, but between his mentality and the chaos of the non-turn-based fighting, that can be excused.

I'm sure you all have a lot of questions after how this chapter ended, but rest assured they'll be answered in time. Finals and classes have ended for me so this summer should be a boon to all my writing, including in other fanfics I've neglected over the years.