Shi groaned as she began to return to consciousness. She sat up, holding her head. As her vision cleared, she realised she was no longer in Inaba. She looked around, trying to work out where she was. It appeared to be a circus big top. Distorted, muffled sounds echoed around her as she looked around.
"Where am I?" She spoke aloud, getting to her feet. She staggered momentarily, her head throbbing briefly. She frowned and stood up straight. The sounds grew louder as she walked around the big top. She couldn't understand what was going on. There were sounds but no source of the noise. But what was worse was the feeling of utter despair that seemed to follow her. She paused as she heard movement.
"Hello? Who's there?" She asked. She looked around, trying to locate the source of the movement. But she couldn't see anything, it was too dark. It was just then that bright lights switched on. She covered her eyes, temporarily blinded by the lights. Laughter echoed through the tent, distorted and inhuman. Shi narrowed her eyes and lowered her arm, her eyes growing used to the light.
"Well, our star attraction finally awoke huh? You better be prepared because you're going to be centre stage..." The voice said. The figure it belonged to stepped forward, grinning at her. Its left eye glowed yellow, its right was more green in colour. Shi's own eyes widened in shock at the future. The figure before her, was her exact double.
It grinned before speaking again. "Tawakemono-sensei." She stared in horror.
"What...What are you? What's going on?" Shi said. She forced herself to calm down, despite the overwhelming sense of panic threatening her. There had to be an explanation for this.
"Oh that's easy. I'm you. We're the same." The other her said, placing its hands on its hips. It was then Shi noticed that the noise grew louder. She looked around. She turned back to the other who shrugged, their arms folded under their chest. She looked away, not liking how it acted whilst wearing her face.
"So you say. What's the noise? Where is it coming from?" Shi asked. She looked as the other who grinned. It walked towards her chuckling.
"Why? Are you loving the attention? You do don't you? " It said. Shi turned to face the other, staring in shock. "You may act like you want to stay in the shadows but you really want to be the centre of attention." It said. Shi went to retaliate when she heard footsteps running towards her.
"Tawakemono-sensei!" She turned to Yu and his friends running towards them. "Tawakemono-sensei, are you OK?!" Yu asked her.
"I'm fine. Just trying to make sense of this place. And the hallucination I appear to be suffering." She said calmly, trying to keep control of the situation. The thing behind her chuckled.
"Oh, you're loving this aren't you? Poor little Shi, always living in the shadows and friends with the dead." The thing said. Shi's eyes narrowed. "Always the freak, the monster, the murder child, the dead girl. Never acknowledged for your own successes."
"Stop it."
"No matter what you do, you are always reminded of what your parents did. Everyone talks behind your back and you hear every word."
"Shut up."
"I just want to be the centre of attention. I love hearing people talk about it. It means I am in control of their lives. I don't care if this spree never ends. I don't want it to, I'm having too much fun! I'm just as monstrous as they were! "
"STOP IT!" Shi yelled. "You're..." The others froze and tried to run towards her.
"Tawakemono-sensei, don't!" Yu yelled, trying to stop her.
"You're not me!" Shi yelled at the stranger. The other began to laugh, the sound growing more manic. Darkness swirled around it before exploding outwards. Shi yelled as she was thrown backwards into a wall. In the stranger's place stood a monster. A large, dark blue fox with a human mask hovering in front of where the face would be. It had nine tails, each with a demonic mask on it raised in the air.
"I am a shadow, the true self." It said at them. The group immediately took on defensive stands. The creature chuckled darkly, its tails lashing into the ground.
"You ready partner?" Yosuke asked Yu. Yu nodded firmly. The others are stood ready before shouting in unison.
"Persona!"They yelled. The air seemed to erupt with energy as more creatures appeared, each standing alongside Yu and the others. The personas charged towards the shadow, ready to attack. One struck it with fire, another froze it but nothing seemed to work. Instead, a tail with a unique mask would move forward and blocked their attacks. The creature chuckled, its tails wagging slightly.
"How are we supposed to beat it?" Yukiko asked. The others looked at one another.
"If we can't use elemental attacks, we'll try physical." Yu said. But before he could change his persona, the shadow laughed. It stood on its front legs and aimed its tails at them. The masks changed, shifting tails. They stared in shock as the masks jaws opened and struck each of them with the element to counter what they had just used.
"That was brutal." Yosuke groaned as he stood up after being knocked down. "We can't take another attack like that." They all nodded. Yu quickly changed personas, keeping a close eye on the shadow.
"Oh? You can change? How fun! " The shadow laughed. Yu glanced at Chie and Kanji who nodded. The three of them sent their personas forward, charging the shadow. Shi struggled to sit up, feeling her energy drain as she watched them battle. She couldn't believe what she was seeing. These teens were saving her. She couldn't understand it. Her mind couldn't make sense of it. Then it struck her. Maybe, this place didn't abide to the rules she lived by. Shi nodded to herself and pushed herself to her feet. As she did, the fox monster let out a pained yell before reverting back to its other form.
"Stop this!" Shi yelled at them. "This is madness." The shadow chuckled and moved in front of her.
"No. This is what you truly want! Listen to your audience pay attention to you! " The weird noise from before started again, echoing around the tent. "You don't want this to end. As long as murders and kidnappings keep happening, you don't have to go back to being the weird freak who hangs around with dead bodies. The one that never gets to live in the light. The child trapped behind the mask." The shadow said.
"You're wrong!" Shi snapped. Her legs trembled with the effort.
"I'm right! I don't want to go back to the shadows. I don't want to be trapped behind the mask. I want the world to know me! I want to yell out that I exist!" The shadow insisted. Shi growled and slapped the shadow across the face. It rang out through the air, echoing off the walls. Shi lowered her arm, breathing heavily. The shadow looked back at her.
"Tawakemono-sensei!" Yukiko cried as they ran over to her. "Are you OK?"
"I will be. Thank you, for saving me." Shi said, looking back at them momentarily. She looked back at the other her, her legs trembling. "As for you, if you truly are me then you can take a slap to the face. But it's true. I never wanted to admit it but I am tired of living in my parents shadows. I thought I wanted to be acknowledged by everyone. But now I see that only those who matter are the ones that need to acknowledge me." She said. The shadow nodded before fading. In its place floated a blue card with a moon on it.
Before that appeared a kitsune demon with a fox mask. It was black and white with nine tails but the mask was purple. It was surrounded by orbs with different characters on them. Both faded as the card seem to merge with her heart. Immediately, Shi's legs gave out and she collapsed.
"Tawakemono-sensei!" Yu said, helping her up.
"Guess I'm not as good as I thought." Shi said.
"I guess because you're slightly older, the shadows have a taken more of a toll." A voice said. Shi looked up to see some blue bear thing looking at her.
"What the hell is that?" She asked. The thing waved at her.
"I'm Teddy!" It said happily. "What's wrong with your eyes, pretty lady?"
"Teddy, huh? Oh, I have heterochromia iridum. Odd eyes." She said. She reached out and petted Teddy. "Wow, you're really soft." She murmured. She felt her legs go again. Yu helped her before she fell.
"We better get her out of here." Yu said. They all nodded before Yosuke took her other arm and led her away. The next thing Shi knew, she was sitting on the floor in Junes electronic department. Chie stood, ringing the police whilst Shi tried to catch her breath. Immediately after Chie hung her phone up, Shi's own phone began ringing. She looked at the caller display before answering.
"Hello?" She said weakly.
"Shi-chan! Thank God! You're OK right!? I am on my way with Dojima-san." Adachi's voice sounded overwhelmed with relief.
"Right. I managed to make my way to the electronic department. Can you ask Dojima-san to request an ambulance? I wanna make sure I have no lasting injuries from my fight with the assailant." Shi said weakly. Adachi relayed her message to Dojima before he hung up. Shi put her phone away and sighed. Before long, sirens indicated the arrival of Dojima and Adachi. Both ran to the electronic department. Adachi crouched in front of her.
"Shi-chan! You're ok!" He exclaimed. "Here, I'll help you up." He wrapped her arms around him before slowly helping her to her feet. He went to move away but Shi kept hold of him. Her hands gripped his jacket, her face hidden by his shoulder. "Shi-chan?"
"I was so worried about what might happen. Worried that I would never get to see you again. I couldn't cope with that." She said. She heard Adachi sighed softly.
"You and me both." He murmured. He looked as the paramedics arrived. "I'll go with you to the hospital." He said. Shi nodded. The paramedics helped her to the ambulance, Adachi following. Shi glanced back at Yu and the others momentarily. Once she was out of the hospital, she was going to clear up what happened to her and try to solve the mysteries surrounding the case.