This story is a work of fiction. Any similarities to events or persons living or dead in your world is purely coincidental.

4/19 Friday

Evening

The worst of the Land's destruction didn't start until they were well clear. While Mira was naturally startled to see Pelagio transform into a ship that would carry them away from her Land, more troubling to her was seeing the way the gleaming towers behind them were collapsing. They were too far away to hear much of the noise, but it was all too easy to imagine.

"What was that?", Mira asked once they were clear.

"It's because the Land's ruler- you- have discarded it, miss Sorano", Pelagio explained flatly, no doubt just as perturbed as they were but hiding it better by virtue of being a silver ship without an actual face. "That Land was created in response to your own dreams and desires, to fulfil them all. Because you have rejected it, it loses a huge amount of its power, and all the Shadows who secretly resented the role they were forced into will be freed from your control."

"All in all, a job well done", Aiko placed a comforting hand on her friend's shoulder. "I know it looks bad... but the cognitions there aren't real people. That place could only exist in that form while you were holding onto your spite."

Digesting the terms and matching them with everything she had already intuited, Mira nodded. "Just a great big shiny pit of self-gratification. They always said they loved me because I wanted so badly to be loved... but it was just empty words. And meanwhile, my deranged needs enslaved Shadows who didn't want to be there at all. That horrible machine... that was my Shadow, right?"

"Correct", Pelagio said as they changed course for the gate. "Though I doubt that the Land will be completely lost with her demise and your departure."

"As strange as it may sound, I'm not sorry to hear that", Aiko noted, glancing back at the gleaming futuristic spires and lights. "It's actually a nice place to visit once in a while. Too bad it's so dangerous. Like a resort island surrounded by sharks."

Mira made a face. "I don't think I ever want to go back there ever again. It reminds me of everything that I was thinking... everything that she was saying, even..." Further downcast, she turned to Aiko. "I guess what I wanted, deep down, was to make Kujou and Mattora and all of them feel the same pain I felt. And... I was jealous of the way you didn't let them get to you, even though you're only a first-year."

"The Shadow lacks the mask which humans don to hide their true feelings", Pelagio provided neutrally. "However, acknowledging those feelings is the first step to coming to terms with them."

Still, Aiko felt he sounded a bit too smug there. "Oh? And you think because you're not human, you don't have any hidden feelings of your own, Pela-tori?"

Mira blinked. "Wait, so he's not human? Well, I guess he did just turn into this ship... What is he, then?"

The huff emanating from the deck and railings around them sounded offended, but only slightly. "I am Sir Pelagio, young lady. And my feelings are fully honest. How else would I be able to summon a Persona? I can assure you that I never once had to deal with such a horrendous creature as my own Shadow."

"Maybe", Aiko teased, inwardly wondering what such a Shadow would appear as. "But you didn't have Galahad when we met, riiiight? What were you hiding from yourself before then, Pela-tori?"

Was it actually possible for a boat to blush? "Erm... I... that is to say, I..."

An explosion of water drew everyone's attention then, precluding the emergence of a Leviathan Shadow. "Saved by the bell", Aiko murmured before dashing down the stairs to the lower deck, nearly tripping as she did. "This would be one of the sharks I was talking about, Senpai."

Peering out the cannon hatch beside her, Mira boggled. "That's a Shadow?! It's huge!"

She wasn't wrong. Aiko saw that the masked creature was the same type they'd seen on the journey to Mira's Land today- comparatively smaller and slower, shaped like a massive trout with a mask of pure white teeth that repeatedly leaped out of the water. It might have even been the same one from before, waiting for them to return.

It didn't matter. At the apex of one such leap, Aiko touched the cannon as Pelagio had shown her, calling upon Gu Huo Niao's magic and unleashing a blast of fire out into the sea that, while puny compared to the fire the Reaper's vessel had produced, still burned into the Shadow's dour scales and elicited a beastly wail in response.

"An excellent shot", their ship's voice commented her. "Try aiming for the back fins to cripple its movements."

Obligingly, the ship veered around to line up her sight. She waited until the massive but sluggish fish was turning back to chase them, then put two more blazing shots into its rear. Though suitably slowed, it then sprang up into a leap over the final distance.

Eyes tracking it past her opening into a wall, she cursed. "The other side! Bring us around! Before it-"

What might have been the start of a maneuver turned into a shudder running through the entire vessel as the Shadow rammed the unprotected side.

Its teeth were nearly upon Pelagio's rear deck when a blast of lightning struck it square in the mouth, leaving it to sink lifelessly back into the dark waves.

Tracking that blast back to its source, Aiko found herself staring at Mira stationed at an identical cannon positioned next to the same kind of open hatch along the starboard side. In the rush to reach her own cannon and start firing, she'd completely missed its twin.

Mira stood up from her own cannon without a hint of boast in her poise. She was staring at her hands. "So this... is the power of Persona? Like you two were using?"

There was no visible sign of the electricity left in those hands, but when Aiko took Mira's wrists into her hands, she swore she could feel the lingering power. "It is. Oya, right? Looks like you really gave that one a shock."

Mira smiled back despite how lame the joke was. "Oya is the Orisha, or spirit, of winds and lightning, and death and rebirth. I just felt her power building up inside me and I... let it go. Come to think of it, I've never been afraid of lightning and storms like others my age."

Aiko chuckled, glad to have her friend back and better than ever. "Well that puts you one up on me. I would just hide under the covers and wait for it to go away. I might like the water, but lightning just makes things too dangerous, y'know?"

"How fortunate then, that Faraway Lands never has lightning", Pelagio's voice rang down to them. "The occasional hurricane or thundercloud perhaps, which we would do well to avoid."

"I think we're more fortunate to have Mira-senpai with us now", Aiko beamed. "Two cannons are better than one. So... why didn't I see the other one before?"

For once, Pelagio had no ready answer, uncertainly clouding his usual chipper voice. "I... cannot say, my lady. In all of my travels across this sea as a ship, I have only possessed the one cannon, and I was unable to use it to defend myself until finding you, since I had no one else on board to operate it. This... I cannot explain."

Aiko shrugged. "We shouldn't spit on a gift, I guess."

"No... I suppose not. We are nearly arrived at the gate, my lady. Please brace yourself."

Mira was looking back at her now, faintly amused by the guardian's formality now that they weren't in danger. "'My lady', huh? So, what is he, really?"

Bright light engulfed them then, of a type Aiko knew they would never see in Faraway Lands. It was the light of their own world, reaching out to welcome them home as Pelagio passed through the gate back to Yume Bay.

"Senpai, I think you're about to find out..."

4/19 Friday

The storm had gone silent outside, the noise no longer crashing against the windows or blinding them with flashes of white. In its place was a soulful hymn sung by an unseen woman, which sounded both melancholy and hopeful at the same time her ears.

Igor looked merrier than usual to Aiko as she stepped once more into the unknowable room where he seemed to always reside. Of course, this only made him look more unnerving when coupled with his strange voice, but she didn't let her reaction to that show.

Bartholomew was similar, stepping aside and pulling out a chair for her. "Well done, dream voyager. That girl's soul has rejected the false world and willingly returned to the real one, and even should she return to Faraway Lands, there is no further danger of her becoming trapped."

Aiko knew she own happiness was shining through, and she let it. Whatever, I've earned it. "That's good news. I just hope the police don't treat her too bad and let her go back to school soon."

"You have done more than merely save one innocent life from the final oblivion", Igor provided. "You have gained a new comrade. One who will gladly serve at your side in both your world and while sailing the sea of human consciousness. The Dancer... and her Persona of the Priestess Arcana."

Aiko nodded when she saw the new card that had been added to the table along with the rest, depicting a slender, blue robed and hooded woman seated upon an elegant chair with a red rose upon her head cover. Somehow, she could already feel the warmth and support of Mira's essence from it.

"I know. They say the first friend you make at school is your best one, right?" She'd made some friends in middle school of course, but none of them had really stuck out as the number one for all time. If they had gone through the experience Mira had, they might have.

"Of course, we have not been idle while you risked your own consciousness", Igor continued, his gesture drawing her attention to a new addition to the room. A pair of round hatches had been installed on opposite sides towards the back of the ship. "As promised, the Ritual of Persona Fusion is now prepared for you to use."

Aiko stared, not understanding. A round iron cage dangled on thick knotted ropes above both the hatches, their rusty-hinged doors already hanging limply open. It looked like an execution device. For a moment she thought Bartholomew might demonstrate it personally, but to her relief he merely beckoned her over.

"Using this, the power of two of your Personas can be merged into one. I need only place them within these cages, and then pull this lever."

She still stared, trying to comprehend what he meant. "Wait... so I give up two of my Personas for one? That doesn't sound like a good trade!"

Igor chuckled behind her. "Ah, but the resulting Persona shall be far stronger, so long as you possess the proper inner strength needed to wield it. Perhaps a demonstration is in order. Which two shall you give up?"

That was a choice that took a moment, though she suspected that either Igor or Bartholomew or both could already tell which ones she had acquired and which she was considering giving up. Anne Bonny was out of the question, but the image of the others flashed up in her mind's eye... Fomor, Onkot, and Gu Huo Niao... which ones do I give up? Not like I'll need them now.

"Fomor and Gu Huo Niao", she announced after a minute, and to her relief neither of the masks within her rose in rebellion. Either they couldn't, or the sacrifice wasn't as extreme as it sounded. Either way, she felt guilty, like she was betraying them.

"Fear not", Bartolomew said quickly, as if sensing her quandary. "The memory of a fused Persona is the sum total of both, and they shall also inherit battle skills."

The assistant snapped his fingers, and in the next instant both the Personas mentioned were inside the hanging cages, the curved bar doors creaking loudly as they slammed shut on both. Neither Fomor or Gu Huo Niao seemed to mind much.

Before she could look either one in the eye, Bartolomew pulled the lever. The hatches flew open, and both cages dropped into darkness. Finally recognising the technique, Aiko turned on him in anger.

"That device... the cages. You're keelhauling them?!"

"Well spotted", Bartholomew said calmly, not understanding her distress. "Yes, those two hatches lead outside of the hull, where the captives are left to drift in the waters of the sea of souls. This exposure quickly reduces them to their primary essence, which then instinctively combines together into a new one."

"But... they'll die!"

Bartholomew didn't seem bothered by this either. He shook his head. "A human would die from it, or at least their body would be gradually reduced to base atoms while their soul drifted aimlessly until it fell down to the bottom of the sea. Personas are different. Their essences are naturally compatible with one another. It's not death. It's rebirth. You should ask your friend about the concept if you are so concerned."

Aiko said nothing. She could only stare helplessly at the two ropes, and feel the gap in her consciousness where two Persona had been moments before. "They... they were a part of me."

"They volunteered to become a part of your mind", the attendant corrected her. His face had grown colder and paler than before, an aspect of him that she had not seen until now, all his usual courtesies dropped. "I did warn you about too much compassion, dream voyager. You overflow with it and freely share it with many, but sympathy without the power to act upon it is meaningless. Your first Persona ought to have taught you that much."

Anne Bonny would indeed have agreed with the concept of sacrifice to bring about needed change, she knew. It was just the rest of her that was distressed, but it was obviously too late now to save either of them. The ropes were shifting about wildly on the pulleys as the sea toyed with the cages down below. It was worse that she couldn't see what was actually happening to them.

"If you're truly so concerned", Bartholomew told her, prying her chin up with his free hand, "then take a moment to consider the history of those whom you are sacrificing. Neither one is exactly innocent. Gu Huo Niao is a winged demon of folklore which is known for abducting young girls from their beds, and then raising them as her own children. Worse; a girl who is raised by a Gu Huo Niao is said to become one herself. Knowing that, do you still feel any guilt for her loss?"

With the memory of Kogaya so fresh in her mind, naturally it conjured a ghastly mental image to accompany the boy's harsh words. A sharp taloned, green-skinned fiend swooping in to carry a crying young Aiko away from her bed in the dead of night to some far off nest where no one could find them, ignoring the infant child's desperate wails, forcing her into a demon's diet of human flesh. 'I'm your mother now! And you will grow wings and transform into my daughter!'

"I... I hadn't considered that."

Letting go of the lever, the assistant made a dismissive noise towards her. "Then what of your first Persona, Anne Bonny? Humans do so love to romanticise the golden age of piracy. But in all truth, Captain Bonny was much like the other famous pirate captains of that era; she was a vicious murderess who robbed and pillaged the world at will, only giving regards to her own material gain. Why are you so proud to bear her aesthetics and name?"

It was Igor that saved her then. Not with his words, which remained infuriatingly cryptic as ever, but with the curious expression readable in those large round eyes and grin, so interested in seeing her reaction to Bartholomew's challenge. It wasn't a coincidence that this was the most confrontational his assistant had ever been since her first arrival in the Velvet Room. This was a test.

She smiled back at grimly, her fists clenched. "Maybe she did kill and steal. But... There's so much more to her than just that, Bart-kun. A person who does those things can still have admirable qualities. That's what my Persona is. It's her strength, her defiant will, her loyalty to her crew. It's an idealized version of her, and of me. Because... those feelings are a part of me too."

Had she failed? Bartolomew's coy smile told her the opposite, one golden eye glimmering aside his butterfly eye patch. "I see. So you believe that murder doesn't lay a curse upon a person, or all their achievements? What if it was done not for practicality, but for the sheer pleasure of ending another's life? What then?"

"Attendant", Igor called, though not unkindly. "Enough. The fusion should be complete now."

Falling silent, Bartholomew pulled the simple wooden lever back down, causing the twin cages to slowly rise back up on their squeaking pulleys before their doors swung back open. The moment they did, two collections of distorted energy flew out, both changing colours too quickly for any eye to pin down until they had both spun around together several times, until one could not be discerned from the other.

With one final clap of power, the resulting merger resolved into a physical shape, descending before them all in the middle of the room, becoming a black-haired, winged demon girl clad in a stark white leotard. Smaller than either of the Personas which had gone into the creation, she nonetheless radiated greater power than they had.

"Hiiii!", she called in a low, sultry tone, winking dark blue eyes at them both. "I'm Lilim! As your new mask, I'll be the source of your strength!"

Aiko could only laugh as the new Persona returned to an energy state and flowed back into her head, becoming her mask once more. Unlike the previous Shadow, she knew the folklore behind this one all too well. "Oh, I'm so glad that we got rid of that evil Gu Huo Niao, Bart-kun!", she chortled. "A daughter of Lilith is so much nicer to have along with me. Thanks."

"Only you can be the judge of that", the assistant acknowledged without laughing despite being well aware of the irony here. "As you said yourself, their history doesn't matter. What matters is your use for them."

"I know", Aiko agreed, serious once more. She hadn't forgotten the confidence and defiance that Anne Bonny had awakened in her, and never would... Just as Galahad and Oya had changed Pelagio and Mira for the better. "Only my first Persona awakening really affected my mind, but I know that I can affect the others. Maybe with me, learning through me, they can find their own redemption."

"Redemption?", Bartholomew asked thoughtfully, placing one hand on a pale chin as if the concept were new to him. "Redemption, hm? Redemption... is a rare and special thing. It's not for everyone. But if that is what you wish to attempt, then I won't stop you."

"All I can do is try", she told him, prying that hand away so he didn't look so morose. "There's no harm in trying, Bart-kun." Heaving a sigh, she looked back around the Velvet room.

"Not that it matters right now. I appreciate the new powers and everything, but I'm not sure if I'll be using them much. It's over. It's finished. Right, Mr. Igor? Mira-senpai is safe now. I'll find a way to stop other people from venturing into Faraway Lands like she did, even if the police don't."

The amused chuckle this drew from her host made her hair stand on end and filled her nerves with pins and needles. It was the forbearance of a being who had witnessed events like the disappearance of Mirambela, the unlocking of Personas, and her subsequent rescue many, many times. For far longer than Aiko had been alive, this strange long-nosed man had hopefully watched humans of every possible type struggle endlessly against the darkest, most self-destructive aspects of their own collective psyche. The struggle against the monster called 'oneself'.

And whatever it was that Igor truly saw in the newly determined, yet still inexperienced green eyes and the mind of this young, fair-haired girl standing before him now, he must have found most amusing and curious to behold for himself.

"Over?", he asked in mock surprise. "Finished? Oh, but you delude yourself, bearer of the wild card. You would do well to heed my words..."

His grin widened further somehow, and when he spoke next, it sounded as though her fate was being proclaimed by some far-off deity, unseen even by his large eyes:

"It's only just begun."

"So", the castaway who called himself Manan commented, one gnarled hand stroking a beard that seemed healthier than the rest of him put together, "that is how you came to be here, then?"

The tale thus far had been a difficult one to explain, and the girl from the sea had been required to take several breaks to set her memories in order. Despite this, many of them remained disjointed, an infuriating muddle of sounds and images that made her head hurt to focus on.

During those breaks, Manan had gone to gather materials for a fire, the warmth of which they now partook of together upon the eternal shore.

"It was a lot to take in", she acknowledged wearily. "More than once, I questioned if I really had gone nuts. But it wasn't going away either. Personas, Shadows, the gate at the Yume Bay... they're all completely real. They all happened, and only Mira-senpai and I knew about them."

"Her, and your winged companion", Manan corrected politely.

"Yes, of course", she agreed, angry at having forgotten the being who had introduced her to Faraway Lands. How could she forget the sound of that overly dignified harumph he was fond of, or the way his round bird chest puffed out when he did it? "Pela-chan, my loyal Guardian. The title that he chose for himself, as we all did."

"Then, others must have come to that dimension, lured in by the promise of a paradise specifically made for them. And you chose to interfere with them as well?"

Her hands gripped the sand, leaving behind shallow claw marks. "They were brought there by despair. They didn't know what they were signing up for."

Manan stared out at the water and lay back on a pack of ferns he had arranged into an improvised cushion, doing the same for her. "How do you know that? The voice which brought them to the other world never whispered in your ear as it did so many others."

"No", she admitted, gazing glumly into the fire, its light filled her eyes until she was dazzled. "I was never promised a Land. Back then, I was intent on making Koashimizu academy my home, no matter who or what tried to stop me."

Inclining his head, the castaway raised a handful of sand as if in offering. "What do you believe your Land would have looked like, had you given in to despair and followed the voice into the gate?"

"I hadn't thought about that much", she shrugged uneasily. "I'll never know for sure, because I never let myself wish I was somewhere else that badly. Sure, I had my own problems, and they almost stopped me from continuing on sometimes... I guess it would be something like Koashimizu without all the mean people. My mom would be there, and she would act like she loved me."

Act like she loved me. The words came back to her almost instantly, and she realized what she had just said. "I mean, she would actually love me. No acting. That's what the cognitions do. I mean, uh..."

"It's all hypothetical anyway, lass", Manan assured her placatingly. "I was only asking to see if you truly understood what these other people were being offered, and what you took away from them."

She became dimly aware then that her hat was missing, but straightened her drenched captain's coat in a parody of impugned dignity. Weak and threadbare as it was, it was still better than going exposed, even if Manan didn't seem like the sort to care about such a thing in this place.

"Hey... where are we, anyway?"

Manan shrugged innocently. "Perhaps this is your Land after all? A person's desires can change over time. What you desired then is not what you seek now. You've changed."

"I changed", Aiko agreed softly. She was remembering more now, just how much things changed across the following months after her first encounters with the hidden ocean of human consciousness, the endless sea of stars that no adult could reach or know. "My friends changed too. I found more of them."

"Because you felt their despair", Manan extrapolated, taking a moment to toss another bit of tree upon the fire. "You knew they would be lured in by the attraction of the Yume Bay, and refused to let any of them have what they desired."

Remembering the tone of voice that had irked her a moment before, she shook her head. "I don't need to justify it. If they'd stayed and I'd done nothing, their bodies would have washed up on the shore. Mr. Igor said that would accelerate the 'world regression', but it would also make a lot of people sad. And dead."

Manan, she had begun to realize now, was much like Bartholomew. He was argumentative, and seeking admissions of truths from her that only he knew. The fact that he had saved her life earlier mitigated her suspicion, but only for now. At least, he didn't seem convinced at all by her reasoning.

"'Mr. Igor'", he repeated as if testing the sound of the name on his tongue. "What do you know of Igor, lass? How do you know that he truly has humanity's best interests at heart? Do you even know what a world regression embodies?"

"I... don't", she had to confess. "Not really. I can't picture it right now. All I knew was that I wanted to save the life of anyone who was lured in there."

"Another mistake in logic", Manan lamented, tapping the tip of his beard. "You said 'dead', but they would live on in a different form, wouldn't they? You visited the Furusato girl?"

"Eventually", she recalled. "Not for a while, but we did. It wasn't pretty to look at." She trembled. "No, it was worse. Even more of a nightmare than the other Lands were. A lot of other things happened before then. If we'd sailed to Ayano-san's Land right after I saved Mira-senpai, just the three of us, then we definitely would have died."

The castaway gave an exasperated sigh. "Not 'died'. Simply become a part of that dimension, and then eventually repurposed into a different form of consciousness."

The campfire flared up in sync with Aiko's own anger, but she got it uner control quickly. "It sounds like the same thing. Maybe all this has made me rethink what the afterlife is, but Death is still Death. Nothing you say is going to make me stop avoiding the Reaper for as long as I can."

Manan relented, knowing without needing to dwell on the automatic human instinct to flee the Reaper.

"It wasn't just me", she told him, feeling more confident that she'd regained control of things. "It was a decision all of us made. This wasn't just about 'Saber' deciding to save people against their will."

She laid back in a parody of the castaway's own relaxed pose. Even if she was feeling far from relaxed, remembering the others who had willingly joined her crew got her going in that direction.

"Not just Saber. It's about Guardian, and Dancer too. It's about Mender, Witch, Gunslinger, Countess, and even Watcher. Together, the eight of us chose to break the chains that held us down, and pillage a dawn of illusions before it could engulf everyone's souls with the promise of immortality."

"Let me explain, now that I can remember more clearly..."

A/N: So there's the 'intro arc' done. Hope everyone enjoyed it and is interested in seeing more after all that foreshadowing. I haven't seen much in the way of feedback yet, but while I do have a big 'buffer' built up now, I'll certainly take any suggestions into consideration while planning the rest.

I'll probably take an extra week or two before starting the next 'arc', but that may depend on certain other circumstances IRL. While you're waiting, I would recommend trying out Crimson by Dowdz and Destiny of Death by World Balance if you haven't already, as those are the two stories that together inspired me to try this.