Landing upright onto the TV backlot was getting easier. Bend the knees just so...
When Nanako straightened, the key Igor had given her glowed through her jacket's pocket and resonated with a semi-transparent glowing blue door in the corner of the backlot. She took the key out of her pocket and stepped through the door.
"All right, Igor, what else do you have to tell me?" she said upon opening her eyes. She'd had a hunch it'd be the Velvet Room, and sure enough, it was. "And who's that?"
To Igor's right was a girl who looked to be about her own age. She wore a white blouse, a black tie, striped stockings, and a plaid pleated skirt. Her eyes were a vibrant green, complementing, in a way, Margaret's yellow. She was nicely accessorized with a blue bag and matching cap, but she wore a necklace that unfortunately looked like a dog collar.
"Just leave me alone!" the girl said, clutching the strap to her bag and turning her head away with a troubled look. It reminded Nanako of Souji when she'd made him wear a seatbelt.
"Marie." Margaret even sounded like she was scolding a dog.
"This's got nothing to do with me," the girl claimed.
"Your name's Marie? I'm Nanako." Nanako held out her hand. "I can tell we're going to be friends already."
Marie scowled at her hand and didn't take it. "What's with you...?"
Nanako stuck her tongue out at her.
"Marie will like it if you show her around your world when you have the time," Margaret said, slowly and deliberately. "Won't you...? Marie."
Marie's fist curled around the strap to her bag. She looked like she might be about to throw a temper tantrum.
"Well, I can't right now," Nanako said. "TV World." She spread her hands in a shrug.
"TV... World...?" Marie repeated. She shook her head. "Never heard of it."
"Ahem," said Igor. "As you are our very special guest," – Nanako glowed at his words, Marie all but forgotten – "it behooves me to inform you of the services available here..."
Nanako blinked back into reality. Or rather, the TV World. The yellow fog almost looked green after saturating her eyes on all that velvety blue.
Well. That had been interesting. Now back to business.
She dumped the backpack full of supplies she'd brought in from Junes onto the floor of the TV backlot and began to sort through it. Stuff she expected to need—a pen and paper, a small water bottle, a roll of toilet paper (hey, she wasn't about to pull a Yosuke, but just in case!)—she put back into the backpack to bring with her. Everything else she placed in the plastic crate for future consideration. Thankfully the crate had survived its fall into the TV World. With plastic you never really knew how strong it would be.
While she was doing that, Chie conversed with Teddie; focused on her own task, Nanako hardly listened until she was suddenly addressed.
"Sensei! You'll need these, too!"
Teddie waddled over and handed her a pair of glasses. They were black-framed and had ribbon decorations on the edges, along with some crystal studs embedded into the frame.
They looked pretty rad.
Nanako put them on and the weird yellow fog was suddenly absent. She lifted them up and the fog was back. Down again and it was gone again. "Wow. Scientifically speaking, this makes no sense."
"Nothing much makes sense here," Chie pointed out. She was now wearing her own set of yellow-framed glasses.
"Yeah, I just felt the need to point it out." Nanako looked at the bear. "Thanks, Teddie. These are perfect."
"Uh, uh, actually, Sensei..." he began.
"Just call me... Boss," she told him with a shark-like grin.
"B-boss?" he repeated. "Okay... Boss, those glasses were a joke! I have another pair meant for you..."
"They do look pretty gaudy," Chie admitted. "But at the same time, they kind of say 'you.'"
Nanako flipped her hair and smiled at her in what she was sure was a dazzling way. "I said they were perfect, Teddie. I'll stick with them, thankyouverymuch." She stood up and hefted the backpack over one shoulder. "All right. You two figured out where Yukiko is...?"
Before following Teddie, Nanako tied some string to the plastic crate. "We won't get lost if we feed this out behind us," she explained, carrying the spool with her. Man, what was that Greek myth she was stealing, no, borrowing, ideas from, anyway...? It was starting to bother her.
Teddie led them on a long, long trek through the fog. Eventually they reached the courtyard of a massive medieval-style castle. The tiny windows high on the walls glowed red, making it look, well, hellish. She imagined satanic demons torturing people inside. Teddie said that Yukiko's mind had created the place. Nanako looked at a statue of a rearing horse and noted that it was definitely a stallion and not a mare.
"It's huge..." Chie said, and for a moment Nanako's mind was in the gutter, thinking of the horse statue, but her friend was looking up at the castle. Yeah, it might have been even larger than the Junes they'd encountered in the replica shopping district. "But it's definitely the one I saw Yukiko go into on the Midnight Channel!"
"What's with the sky?" Nanako wondered. Red and black lines trawled across it like a spiraling vortex. It did nothing to change her opinion of it being Hell's Castle.
"The sky is like that everywhere here!" said Teddie. "What's it like in your world...?"
Everywhere? Hell's TV World, then.
"You're sure Yukiko is in there?" Nanako asked. Teddie assured her that his sniffer was never wrong.
You could stand me up at the gates of hell... she thought. She shook her head to clear it and hefted up her naginata. "Let's do this!"
The inside of the castle was as expansive as the outside indicated. The floors were tiled like a chess board and covered with an expensive-looking red carpet lined with gold trimming. Tall glass windows were set in the walls, but there wasn't anything visible outside of them. Upon closer inspection, the red carpet had a leopard print pattern. Rawr.
They encountered their first hostile Shadow in the very first hallway they ran down. It floated in the air and looked like an artist's rendition of a dolphin made of paper mache. Nanako wished she could take a picture to show her mom, but cell phones didn't work in the TV World. Its body was segmented and it wore an adorable pink mask that Nanako wanted for herself.
The fish gave them some trouble mainly because they were unused to fighting, and the enemy was surprisingly agile in the air. Nanako tried to swing up her naginata, and her target just floated out of her way. On the bright side, its dodge brought it right next to Chie, whose Persona shredded the enemy to pieces with her double-sided naginata as if it really was made of paper mache.
"Guess I'm no match for Tomoe," Nanako observed, only a mite jealous.
Chie grinned. "That was fun!"
Feeling pumped now, they strode down the hall, on the lookout for both Shadows and a staircase. Teddie had told him the castle had several floors, and Yukiko was likely at the top. The layout was a maze and there seemed to be no rhyme or reason to the placement of the intersecting hallways. They had a long trek ahead of them, so Nanako set a power-walking pace so they they wouldn't get winded too soon.
She opened a door along the hall and was almost ambushed by a trio of familiar foes behind it: the zebra-striped ball-tongues they'd encountered in the replica central shopping district. Nanako was about to summon Izanami to blast them away with water, but the one she had been aiming at was suddenly brought down by a block of ice. "What," she said.
Chie laughed sheepishly. "Tomoe learned a new skill! I guess I can summon ice!"
"Well, cool," Nanako said while she skewered the next ball-tongue with her naginata. 'Hablerie,' Teddie informed them of its proper name.
Yes, that was interesting—Teddie was apparently a telepath. He was walking a fair distance behind them—Nanako had put him on navigation-string-lying duty since she couldn't fight while carrying the spool—and he was speaking to them in their minds. He had some insight into the various types of Shadows, but in all honesty his help wasn't all that helpful. Still, he was trying, and he kept track of what worked and what didn't so that Nanako didn't have to.
After this battle, Nanako earned her first new Persona. It came into her mind and she wasn't sure how it got there. Igor had warned her this could happen after defeating Shadows.
You have welcomed Pixie into your heart.
She concentrated and summoned it. It was, indeed, the textbook definition of a pixie. It was a tiny woman in a blue dress with fairy wings, and she only seemed to be able to heal, which was fine because Chie had been licked by the last hablerie while Nanako was figuring out how she could manage more than one Persona.
Upon seeing the new Persona, Chie asked her what it was and Nanako just shrugged and said, "Pixie."
Soon after she earned another Persona. It was a water nymph of some sort: a blue-skinned female with a very short skirt. Like Pixie, she was only able to heal.
Nanako was somewhat frustrated. Where are my badass other selves? she wondered. She'd never been the cleric in any MMORPG she'd played. Healing is for chumps.
She showed the Apsaras to Chie, anyway, who told her it was pretty.
The very next Persona worried her. It was called Angel, and it was a woman with white wings and... uh, her neck had a collar with a long chain attached, and instead of clothes it seemed to have duct tape covering only the naughty bits.
At least it had an attack skill! The next Shadow was a disembodied hand that stood on the tips of its fingers and had a small head where the wrist would be. Nanako blew it away with a gust of wind coming apparently from Angel's wings.
"Uh, Nanako," said Chie when she saw that one. "What exactly is going on with you...?"
Nanako informed her that she was special and could wield many different Personas.
"Y-yeah, that one was rather special," Chie admitted slowly. "I might not be able to sleep tonight."
"Yeah, I don't get it either!" Nanako grumbled. "Why are all my Personas scantily-clad girls?" She tilted her head and paused, blushing faintly. "Eh, I kind of answered my own question, didn't I?"
Chie didn't comment, but she was definitely hiding a smile behind her hand.
I'm going to have some Words with Igor later, Nanako thought. But she was aware she'd probably forgive him if he said she was special again...
A few floors later, they found a very large door, and Teddie told them he sensed someone behind it. They waited for him to catch up to them before opening it.
In the center of the room was a woman wearing a pretty pink princess dress with a rose right in the middle of her cleavage. It was Yukiko... except it wasn't. The yellow eyes were a dead giveaway. But that tiara is really cute, Nanako thought. And damn, even her dark side has nice hair!
"Yukiko!" Chie shouted, apparently so desperate to see her friend that she didn't catch the signs.
The fake Yukiko laughed evilly. Nanako approved of the laugh. It was a pretty good one, especially with the added distortion that being a Shadow provided. It made Nanako vow to become Yukiko's friend if they succeeded in getting her out of this mess.
Yukiko's Shadow carried a microphone and announced its desire to find a Prince Charming. It even formed an illusionary cartoonish sign over her head, like it was all a game show or something. With garish overacting, it declared, "Ready or not, here I come!" and ran into the door behind her. It was out of sight in seconds.
"What is going on? Yukiko!" Chie shouted after her. She ran forward, but stopped after a few steps, scratching her head. "That wasn't her."
"I know," said Nanako. "It was her suppressed self being let free. Or whatever." She... hadn't quite been paying attention to Teddie's explanations of the TV World. She figured imagination had a lot to do with everything.
"The real Yukiko wants to show us something," Teddie added. "I can feel it."
"Yeah, her lacy underwear," Nanako joked. "Heh heh." Chie shot her a very dark look, which she ignored.
"Lazy... under-bear?" Teddie seemed confused by his own bear pun. Nanako led them forward before she had to explain what she'd meant.
They ran into a new type of Shadows: ravens carrying lanterns. To Nanako's surprise, Angel's wind attack had absolutely no effect. It should have knocked them out of the air, or ruffled their feathers at the very least! She complained to Teddie who just told her that's how this world always was. Basically, physics had taken a vacation.
She supposed she should get used to it. Izanami could summon water out of nowhere, after all, and Tomoe big chunks of ice. Yeah, this wasn't the real world at all.
As they continued through the castle, they heard Yukiko's voice intermingled with her Shadow's.
"She said... red looks good on me..."
"My prince... I'm waiting..."
"Welcome to the Amagi Inn..."
"Are you... my princes? I'm locked up here... Please save me! Hehehe..."
"Your room is right this way..."
Chie growled every time she heard either voice, but said nothing.
After a fight with a bunch of giant beetles that were on fire, Nanako earned another new Persona: a floating brain with eyes and tentacles. She wondered if it was male or female. She wanted some masculine Personas, dammit! Besides, getting a tentacle- based one right after the bondage angel was...
Well, at least the Omoikane could summon lightning. It made Nanako feel pretty badass to blast the stupid ravens right out of the air. "Fried chicken!" she shouted after one such attack, enjoying the birds' dying squawks. If only. The Shadows always seemed to dissipate right after they were defeated. Sometimes they left behind strange materials, which she put in her backpack at Chie's urging. Daidara-san was apparently always looking for new things to work with, so why not bring him some Shadow bits?
They stopped for a break since Nanako was obviously getting hungry. In fact, she was starving. The trip with Adachi to the police station had forced her to skip lunch. She'd planned to have something at Junes, but after all that hullabaloo, they were pressed for time, and Chie, lucky for her, had already eaten. She felt bad for Yosuke, stuck back at the electronics department. She couldn't share her granola bars with him.
"You want one?" Nanako offered.
"Nah," said Chie. "I've got this!" She tossed a packet of something to Nanako, who caught it and stared at the label. It said 'MEAT' in all caps and next to that was a stylized drawing of a chunk of meat on a bone.
"Meat... gum? Sounds... umm..." Nanako couldn't think of a nice way to say absolutely disgusting.
"Better than beef jerky!" Chie said cheerfully. "Well, maybe not..."
"Bear jerky?" Teddie said, catching up to them. "Oh, wait..."
"Yeah, don't give me any ideas!" Nanako said. She ferociously tore a large chunk out of the granola bar, purposely showing off her canine teeth. Teddie backed away a few steps and she laughed.
What felt like hours later, they finally made it to the top of the castle, or so Teddie said. Nanako was exhausted, and so was Chie. The meat gum hadn't been that rejuvenating, apparently. Neither had the granola bar, to be honest...
Noting their exhaustion, Teddie suggested they stop for the day. "This world is tiring to humans, isn't it? She should be safe for a few more days. You can come back another time and finish this then. This is bear-ly your first time fighting so much, after all!"
Nanako caught Chie's gaze, and they looked at the massive door in front of them together. "We're already here. I mean, I'm tired, but I'm not tired enough not to finish this. Chie?" She couldn't imagine leaving when she knew Yukiko was so close to them. That would be like... giving up. I won't back down.
"Y-yeah. I think we should finish this, too."
"Besides, tomorrow's school," Nanako said. "We'll be just as tired after school as we are now."
"Well, I wouldn't go that far. I don't think school is as tiring as fighting these Shadows," Chie said.
"Are you sure we're in the same class? I'd rather fight demons than learn trigonometry any day!"
Chie laughed with her, somewhat weakly, and then Nanako pushed open the door.
The room was a spacious chamber, and the red carpet led to a raised dais that contained a golden throne. Behind the throne was a red and gold banner depicting a heart with wings.
A human figure stood by the throne, facing away from them. "Yukiko!" Chie shouted as she ran towards her.
It was the real Yukiko—Nanako knew because she was wearing a pink kimono as opposed to the Shadow's frilly princess dress. Yukiko didn't seem to hear them.
"W-wait," Nanako said, sensing a trap. The Shadow was nowhere in sight.
"Chie..." Yukiko murmured. Nanako grabbed Chie's wrist to stop her from running up to her friend. Chie almost broke away from her grip.
Yukiko turned her head up, and a pink-clad figure with beautiful, flower-like fans appeared before her. "Konohana Sakuya," she murmured. Yukiko fell to her knees, and this time Nanako didn't stop Chie from supporting her.
Nanako turned her back on the tearful reunion and mulled it over. Yukiko had accepted her Shadow... She must have a strong heart.
"So who threw you in here?" Teddie asked, ruining the moment. Nanako glared at him.
"My memory is a blur," Yukiko said quietly. She was leaning heavily against Chie. "I think I heard my name, but I don't know whose voice it was... I'm sorry."
"It's okay," Nanako told her. "What matters right now is that you're safe. We should get you home. You must be exhausted."
"I am, yes," Yukiko whispered. "This fog hurts my eyes."
"W-well, I haven't had time to make glasses for you, but these were meant for Boss!" Teddie said. "You can use them instead." He handed her a pair of pink-framed glasses. By pure coincidence, they matched her kimono rather well.
Yukiko put them on and her eyes widened at how clear her sight was. "Oh, thank you... But who are you...?"
"I'm Teddie! I live in this world!"
"And now you have a castle to live in, I guess," said Nanako. "Yukiko, are you aware that you made this place with your mind?" Hell's Castle. You made it. It's all yours.
"I did...?" Yukiko frowned. "I really can't remember much... I'm sorry."
"I guess you didn't really need a prince after all," Chie said. "Nanako had me all ready for a fight, but you went and accepted your Shadow."
"I did," Yukiko said. She looked up into her friend's face. "It was all because of you, Chie. When you told me how important I was to you the other day, I... I understood." She was blushing now, but there was a smile on her face as well.
"That's awesome," Nanako said. "It really is."
They spoke with Yukiko, explaining more about their power of Persona and the TV World, when suddenly they were interrupted.
"Hey... Hey! Nanako-san! Chie! Are you there?"
"What, Yosuke?" Chie exclaimed.
Yosuke was holding Nanako's navigation string tightly, and by the way he turned his head, it was obvious that he couldn't see them even though they were only a few feet in front of him. He didn't have anti-fog glasses.
"What are you doing here, Yosuke? You're supposed to be holding the rope!" Nanako chided. "Well, I guess it's okay, because we have Teddie to get us out, but still!"
"The rope snapped!" Yosuke said. He was still trying to locate them by sight and failing. "A customer was about to come by, and I pulled the rope and it broke. I panicked and tried to grab the end in the TV before it fell all the way in, but then I ended up falling in myself. Then, since I was here, and you said you were fighting monsters and all, I thought I could help."
"Well, we already took care of—" Nanako began.
"Thought you could help? What a load of crap!" From the corner of the room strode a figure that made Nanako sigh.
"Wh-what?" Yosuke squawked. "Why does it look like me?"
It was, of course, Yosuke's Shadow. The detail on these Shadows, Nanako thought, is pretty impressive. It even has the same set of headphones.
"Don't delude yourself!" the Shadow yelled. "All you wanted was to have fun! You were glad when the rope broke because it gave you an excuse to come in. Because you're so afraid of being left behind. Of being alone, of being forgotten, of being... useless!"
"That's... that's not true!" Yosuke shouted back. "What are you!? Who are you!?"
"I'm you! There's nothing I don't know about you! Like how sweet you are on Saki-senpai. Her brother's death is the perfect excuse to get closer to her!"
"NO! Y-you're not..." Yosuke's whole body was shaking in denial.
"It's okay, Yosuke!" Nanako said quickly. "It's—"
"Don't interrupt, bitch!"
Even the Shadow seemed surprised at its own words as a pregnant hush fell over the room. The atmosphere seemed to drop by ten degrees.
"In that case," Nanako murmured. "Yosuke! That's not you!" She lifted her naginata into the air and brought it down on the Shadow, which tried to skate away, but she caught its leg with a backhand swing and it tripped. It growled at her from the floor.
"Yeah! You're not me!"
As Yosuke denied his Shadow, it transformed into a monster. It seemed to be a giant frog with camouflage-patterned skin and a big yellow mustache. A dark figure with a long red scarf and large yellow gloves was riding its back. Yosuke himself fell down, unconscious.
"All right, girls," Nanako said. "Let's kick its ass!"
Green blades of wind swept up from the ground under her, stinging her eyes and cutting into her skin, but it didn't stop her from summoning Izanami to douse the Shadow with water. All the water seemed to do, however, was make it wet. Well, it was a frog, after all...
Chie tried an ice attack, but the Shadow seemed to shrug it off. It then swatted her with its oversized hand, knocking her back.
"Konohana Sakuya!"
Yukiko's Persona was as graceful as a dancing swan, or perhaps flamingo—it was rather pink after all. It swept up its wing- like fans and flames shot out at the Shadow. The fire grew in intensity like a bonfire around it. The Shadow cowered and screamed.
"Awesome, Yukiko!" Nanako said. But even though the flames had dissipated, she didn't think Izanami's water would be a good follow up. Nanako switched to one of her new Personas, Ukobach. The little green gremlin-like demon sent a fireball at the Shadow, but its fire was pitifully small compared to Yukiko's. Hmm, she'd have to ask Igor what was up with that.
The Shadow charged up, and then swept wind under them again. Really, was it trying to look up their skirts...? Well, it was Yosuke, after all... He definitely seemed the type.
Nanako hissed as the attack stung. Then light covered her body, and Nanako saw a flash of pink and felt much better. Ah, it seemed Yukiko's Persona could also heal. That's great, she thought. Now she could focus on raw power herself!
She switched to Omoikane, the brain with tentacles. The lightning it produced knocked the frog flat on its back. She cheered as it squealed and then Chie attacked with her.
Yosuke's Shadow didn't survive the assault. Upon defeat, it turned back into its humanoid form, a calm, yellow-eyed Yosuke staring blankly at nothing.
The real Yosuke groaned as he pulled himself to his feet. "Did anyone get the number of that truck...?"
"Yosuke," Nanako said. "I lied. That really is a part of you. I just wanted to beat it up."
"Huh...?" the boy said, then he spotted his Shadow. "Oh... Nanako-san, I... That's not me..."
"It's okay," she told him with as real a smile as she could manage. "Look, I understand you're worried about being left behind. And that you want your life to be a little more exciting. Hell, that's pretty much my life's idiom! But I'll tell you this." She walked over to the Shadow and slapped its back in a friendly manner. "If you accept your evil dark side, I guarantee you'll be on my team."
"My evil dark side...?" he repeated. Then he sighed and walked towards his Shadow. "All right. You win. I was bored and upset about being left behind. Chie and Nanako-san were going to have all the fun without me..."
The Shadow nodded and flashed into its new form. It looked similar to the monster they'd defeated, only without the frog, although its face seemed vaguely frog-like. It even sported the same red scarf. "Jiraiya," Yosuke whispered. "This is my Persona..."
"Okay," said Nanako briskly. "Now that that's over with, let's get the hell out of here, okay? We'll talk about this tomorrow or something. I need sleep!"
Souji didn't say a word, but Nanako saw him watching her with quiet concern from over his takeout box at the dinner table that evening. "Yeah, I might be getting sick again!" she told him in an overly chipper voice. "It must be the fresh air out here. I'm used to Tokyo's skanky pollution, you know!"
"Is there enough medicine...?" he asked quietly, seeing right through her feigned cheerfulness.
She told him she'd be fine as long as she went to bed early, which she did, although she felt a little sad that she was leaving him out there in the living room all alone. He was a self-sufficient kid, though... She predicted he probably went to bed on time every night like clockwork. If she was him and lived without supervision like that, she'd totally stay up late every night watching bad television, the stuff her dad didn't want her to see. But she'd never been 'scarred for life' or whatever. If anything, her worldview had been expanded.
But she was aware that she was 'special,' so...
And she was also not only six years old. She wondered if Aunt Seta had any parental controls set in place on the TV before she drifted off...
[AN: In hindsight, I probably shouldn't have introduced Marie here since we're not going to do anything with her for quite a long time. Readers should note that with her around, we are indeed following Golden's events (the game, not the anime). Well, to a point... Not everything it added was worth anything, hehe.
Next Chapter: Roll Call
Nanako begins to investigate the circumstances surrounding Yukiko's kidnapping. There is also fun with social links, and the team gets named! (PS: it's not the 'Investigation Team,' heh heh)]