This story is a work of fiction. Any similarities to events or persons living or dead in your world is purely coincidental.
5/24 Friday
Afternoon
The next few minutes were strange.
Aiko had thought that would be a given in a dream world created by someone's subconscious mind, but there was no other phrase she could think of that fit it as well.
Strange.
It would have felt like a betrayal to call it 'uncomfortable', since this was exactly what they had been working towards for days. Grasping the meaning of her earlier words without the need for any further clarification of the issue, Julian Rosea had withdrawn to his seat on the campfire log.
The cognition of his grandfather remained at his side, quietly speaking words that were meant for the two of them and no one else. There was no further need for Aiko, Mirambela and Pelagio to do anything else for the time being.
There had been nothing around to sharpen her sword on. Testing out the powers of her other new Personas would not only waste energy she knew they would need later on but feel insensitive considering what her friend was going through mere meters away from her. After all the action they had seen today, the hardest thing now was to sit still and do nothing.
So she talked instead. Quietly, as George was doing. "Good catch", she congratulated Mira from a new perch, one of rock. "How'd you know?"
Seeing that Pelagio was actually interested in her answer as well, Mira shrugged in defeat. "Because it's true. I knew back then, if I chose to come back to the real world, I'd have to apologize and make it up to a lot of people there. I knew that some of them probably wouldn't accept that apology. And I knew that for Julian-kun, whose parents live so close by... It would be worse."
"That's what he was really running away from", she realized. "You must understand him better than I do, now."
Mira's footwraps kicked up some sand as if she'd been insulted. "I wouldn't go that far, Saber. Look around you. Our minds are as different as our Lands. But we're both human. Both the same age. Still, it didn't completely click for me until you showed me his last text to you."
Instinct had her arm halfway down to her pocket before she remembered that she had left her phone behind. There was no point it bringing it to a world where it didn't work.
The memory was still there, of course. "'I'm not the man you deserve'", Mira quoted. "He was just like I was, back then. If being afraid to return to the real world and make amends is cowardly, then he was ready to consider himself a coward. He was going to a world where none of that mattered."
"This is starting to make my head hurt", Aiko confessed, jerking a gloved finger back at the man in question. "I think it still matters to him though. Even if everyone in this place always told him that he wasn't, he'd still know the truth."
If the sun over their heads was moving, it was barely perceptible. It was impossible to tell how much time passed until Julian suddenly raised up his revolver once more, taking a fitful breath as he aimed at nothing before rapidly shifting his sights across Pelagio, then Mira and Aiko, past a frightened old man George...
The BANG was even louder than usual out in the desert without anything to buffer the noise. When everyone was done flinching away from the pain in their ears, they saw that he had shot the rope holding his captives. While the cognition with Akusa's face wasted little time in escaping, the one of Hirata took time to give Julian a long, slow nod before following after.
"Damn it", he whispered into the breeze, his voice bled of the anger usually associated with such words, and likewise for his repetition. "Damn it, damn it, damn it, damn it...!"
His next shot went straight down into the sand, leaving behind a geyser of disturbed earth that failed to draw everyone's attention away from his face. It was a different face, changed in some imperceptible way from the Sheriff they'd met mere hours before. The shots continued to rock the area, continued to create sprays of dust until his barrel clicked empty.
"Well", he managed finally, regaining some of his composure after the prior collapse but still looking limp and ragged. "We sure can't have this. If that kid is raised up by my old man without me, he'll end up as nothing but a mindless drone. Somebody has to be there to teach him the concept of 'fun' and 'free will'."
Carefully reloading and holstering his weapon, he turned back to the old man, pulling his hat back down to hide his tears. "And without you around, that's gonna have to be me. Even if I am an asshole."
The elderly cognition of a dead man would not cry. His own sorrow was evident enough in his reply, sounding too genuine to have been produced by anything other than the heart of a real human being. "'Fraid that's just how it is, son. That's life. Lordy knows I'll miss ya. But a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do."
The two of them hugged tightly, Julian wrapping his powerful arms around George's dusty black dress coat. Pelagio looked like he was going to say something about the cognition not being Julian's real grandfather until Mira elbowed him hard in the chest.
When they were done, Julian finally acknowledged the others around him again, as though grief had temporarily blinded him to the existence of anyone else except him and George, and only now were those blinders falling off.
"So. I guess there's no way for me to say this without sounding stupid", he said anxiously. "Believe me, I just tried about thirty different ways to do it in my head, each one lamer than the last. Guess I don't have much of a way with words. Whatever. Here goes... I'm really sorry for being an asshole."
Aiko blinked in surprise, as if noticing for the first time that these words were mainly directed at her, and unable to think of a response in time before he spoke again.
"What? I was.", Julian said it plainly, as if stating an incontestable fact. Like he was saying the sun was hot or fish swam. "Even before I met you, Tsuruga-chan. You know what the number one thing going through my head was pretty much the whole time I've been at Koashimizu academy?"
"Resenting your father?", Mira guessed. "The freedom to leave Japan?"
Julian laughed for the first time in weeks. "Hey, good guess. Nothing so noble, Sorano-san. No, the number one thing on my mind was being 'cool'. Practicing my moves so I could look 'cool'. Going over my words in my head so I would sound 'cool'. Watching my movie collection so I would know what 'cool' was. It was like my whole life was devoted to impressing other people, so that they would notice me. So that they would see me as a 'special' person."
Making sure to chuckle lightly at his joke so that he wouldn't think their friendship was completely buried just yet, Aiko nodded back at him somberly. "I understand. Really, I do. But remember that Benihime Kujou is 'special' too. So was Masayoshi Shido. Being someone 'special', or 'cool'... doesn't always mean you're a good person."
A different, shorter bark of a laugh this time. One far more melancholy. "I told you already, I'm not a good person. I'm an asshole."
"And that", Mira told him firmly. "Is your first step towards changing that. You have the power to change, Rosea-kun. When I woke up... I knew that I had to change some things. I knew that I didn't want to be the person I was being any more."
"We are who we choose to be, boy", George offered amiably. "I won't say it'll be easy for ya. Nothin' like this ever is."
Julian snorted, nostrils flaring. "Of course not. I've got like sixteen years of asshole training to un-learn now." Shaking his head to clear away the sweat, he stopped and put two fingers to his mouth, letting loose a short, sharp whistle that somehow echoed across the plains for miles.
"First things first though. We gotta get out of this dump, right?"
Aiko bit back a curse hearing that. In all of their careful planning, they hadn't considered how long it would take them to get back to the Breach, never mind finding it again.
Maybe if one of us takes Julian's horse back to Freedom city, they can pick up some others and ride back with them. Then ride out to the Breach and then-
The piercing wail of a horn cut into those rapid thoughts, jarring her back to reality and the sight to go with the sound.
As the five of them watched, a pair of solid steel rail lines were extending themselves along the sand next to the forgotten campfire. They wound around rocks and mesas and rivers, but anything else that got in their way simply vanished, until the tracks had been laid down all the way into the horizon. A series of dusty wooden ties followed, materializing out of nothing to support the rails above them.
The source of the horn appeared then, moving just as fast as the rail line bearing it had been. The train pulling up to their campfire looked bulkier and shorter than the last one they had seen, but she felt a chill at the sight of it all the same.
Sensing that chill, Julian tried to give her a cocky smile like the kind that had once been his standard expression. "Hey hey, don't worry. It's just like you said. This world is a dream that bends to my will. It's a much nicer ride than going on horses, right?"
"Just as long as you're sure it's not a giant snake in disguise", Mira pointed out.
Julian boggled for a moment at that, hsi hat drooping down. "Whoa, seriously? Geez! No wonder you were upset. Sorry about that, Sorano-san."
"That's fine", she smiled back nervously. "It wasn't your intention. Oh, and I am the Dancer while we're in this world, got it?"
Sizing up her colorful outfit without lingering too long on any particular part, Julian palmed his chin, genuine boyish excitement on his features now. "Dancer, huh? And who's the grumpy bird dude?"
"Hmph!" The avian knight sounded extra stiff for some reason. "I am sir Pelagio to you, boy. In this place however, I am known by my comrades as the Guardian."
"Saber", Aiko offered without being asked, tapping the bronze handle of her cutlass for emphasis. "And for some reason, Dancer and Guardian think that I'm qualified to lead them."
As the door to the passenger car swung open, Julian chuckled, rolled his eyes at her- another gesture that he hadn't done since the day that George Rosea had lost his life.
"Yeah, that's quite the puzzler alright. All aboard!"
Excellent, Aiko felt a pang of relief at the sight of everyone walking up the stairway and into the spacious comforts of the train's passenger car.
Now the easy part is out of the way.
5/24 Friday
Afternoon
The next few minutes were quiet.
Prince Taurus preferred it that way. While he couldn't deny it had been a rare treat to watch the Shadow violently squirm before them, the creature's misplaced arrogance clearly battering against his new-found terror of the Persona-user who had wiped the floor with him in four strikes, after the initial moments of panic there honestly wasn't much that he hadn't seen already.
They were all the same, Shadows. Always so eager to prey on hapless humans with the misfortune to stumble into their realm, no matter what part of it or what form it might take. With their inborn pack mentality, they inevitably rallied around the strongest of their number, the ones who lay at the heart of cognitive distortions. Leaders which would be only too happy to assign roles and matching disguises to their new minions.
But whether they were leaders or minions, whether they were strong or weak, they inevitably folded like wet cardboard, pleading for their lives when they were faced with a Persona-user that exceeded their own strength. Mithras, the horned apparition who still hovered beside him now waiting eagerly for this particular Shadow to make another stupid move, had protected him for several years now. His faithful partner, whose power had grown together with Ryuken's own until no Shadow could threaten them any longer.
Well, he hastily amended, not quite true. There were still a few he knew of which he might hesitate to take on alone. The ones that the Karma club had taken in however, had no real spine to them, and he could sense Mithras' strong distaste for such craven behavior. He understood. He felt the same way as his 'other self'.
They are worthless trash, their value only as fodder. But for now, we have no other choice but to use them.
He moved back slightly and Mithras followed suit, giving the creature some room to stand up and recover. If he tried attacking them again, he wouldn't live to regret it.
"Salvation?", the terrified Shadow whispered, still not comprehending Lady Scorpio's earlier words to him. "What the hell are you- AAAGH!"
Without warning he fell, madly clutching at his head as if it had been infiltrated by live drills, his body curled up in feral pain.
"Taurus?", Scorpio asked in concern.
"It's not me! I didn't hit him again!", he protested mock-innocently, not quite sure what was going on now. They could only wait and see, listening closed as the Shadow became a fetal ball of raw agony, thrashing around in abandon until he managed to speak properly again.
"No... no way! His heart is starting to change... NO! It can't be! Those bitches! I'll... I'll tear them apart!"
Ryuken raised his hand and Mithras followed suit, ready to prevent a sudden attack... but the piercing yellow light that suddenly engulfed their rude guest did not seem directly harmful. It merely expanded out into a sphere, brightening more and more until the Shadow could no longer be seen.
When the sphere was gone, so was the Shadow it had hidden.
Lady Scorpio didn't seem thrown by the dramatic exit, being the first to speak again. "...Unexpected. I wonder if it would have been able to do that outside of the club?"
Taurus shrugged, more annoyed by the development than anything. If the hostess wasn't going to make fuss, neither would he. "A waste of our time. Shadow trash."
"That one was certainly too unstable to suit our current needs", her muffled voice agreed. "What interests me more is what caused him to return home in such a hurry."
They felt the danger approaching long before hearing it. It was something in the wind, something that couldn't be explained to someone who had never visited Faraway Lands before.
Just as Pelagio had sensed the Reaper's approach, now Aiko's own danger senses had become attuned to the shifts and moods and flows of this other world, and right now, they were all lit up like a holiday fireworks display.
They had talked for a while on the train ride back. Having come to terms with the truth of his situation, Julian had been surprisingly eager to continue to talk with a man that he now knew was merely his own cognition of his grandfather. With Pelagio standing at a silent vigil and Mira content to merely listen to their chats, it felt like the saloon in the city that they had taken over was reaching some semblance of security. Grateful for the relaxation time, she had been content to slouch down in a chair and rest, casually watching the clouds pass overhead through a window.
Then came the noise.
It started with a ringing gunshot report, faint enough to be far away but unmistakable still. More shots followed after, and with them came the sound of perfectly human-sounding cries of pain, the unbearable agony of bodies being violated by tough pellets of metal, prompting her to run up the clattering wooden stairs and see what was happening. She was halfway there when the voice hit them all full force, an invisible wave front halting Julian and George's conversation as well.
"TSURUGA!" The voice blared across the entire main street of Freedom city, so choked up with smoldering fury that it could scarcely even be recognized as a copy of Julian's.
To her ears, it sounded more like a vicious animal's howl than a human.
"I KNOW YOU'RE HERE, TSURUGA! YOU CAN'T CHANGE MY HEART! I'M CALLING YOU OUT!"
There were more gunshots. There were more screams. She was about to run to the second floor window when Pelagio grabbed her by the arm in a stronger grip than normal, the incline of his sharp-beaked helmet all the warning she needed to stay away from the balcony rail.
"It's Rosea-kun's Shadow!", Mira called up to them unnecessarily. "He's gone crazy! He's just shooting people in the street!"
"Damn", she heard Julian's voice as well, sounding as if he were in pain again. Woozy. "Right... he's... me. I've gotta... stop him. Stop the other me."
As another, closer-sounding shot made her instinctively duck, Aiko turned back in time to see George grab his grandson's arm with the same urgency as Pelagio had grabbed hers. "You can't, boy! He's too strong for yeh!"
Sensing the start of a fresh argument and knowing that they had absolutely no time for it, Aiko stomped once with her boots to grab the old man's attention.
"No, I think he's right. He's the only one who can do it. Anyone else who came out, he would just shoot right away, but Julian-kun... I think he has a chance."
"TSURUGA! Come out NOW! Or more will die! COME OUT SO I CAN FILL YOUR GUTS WITH LEAD!"
Sensing the truth of her words, the elderly cognition nodded, releasing his grip. Julian was almost to the door when her gaze halted him again. "No suicide missions now", she warned him cautiously. "I know how you must be feeling... but you can overcome this, Rosea-kun. Just... tell him what you really feel. Say what you need to say."
Julian stared back at her, the tears from his earlier breakdown still staining his face. For the first time, he was looking completely, absolutely serious, and she had to admit it wasn't a bad look for a guy with his kind of jaw.
"Taking my life for granted was what got us into this mess in the first place, Tsuru- sorry, you're Saber here, right? I won't make the same mistake again. It's probably too much now to ask you to believe in me, but... Watch me. Please."
She did. From the rear window, it was possible to stay out of the enemy's sight while also having a decent view of the main street as Julian, once more dressed up in his full sheriff's garb, strode out onto it, boot spurs clanking as he went.
His top deputy, the Shadow, was waiting for him, standing directly across without a single other person daring to remain on the street. A trail of motionless bodies lay behind him, and there was a thin smoke trail rising from the pistols held upright in his hide gloves, both the black and the white one. Close enough now that Aiko could hear his own jangling spurs.
"Sheriff", the Shadow acknowledged without the mad rage that had coated his voice moments before. "Seems like we got trouble with some more outlaws. I'm hoping you've seen that Aiko Tsuruga 'round here?"
Julian was quiet for a long time. He did not seem to be looking back at his 'deputy', or at anywhere in particular. "D'you mean that piano player? She is pretty cute, isn't she?"
"I'm talkin' 'bout the other one!", the deputy growled, idly twirling both of his weapons with natural ease before re-holstering them. "The one what calls herself 'Saber'. Comin' 'round here, causin' trouble for us! I swear, I can smell her... I've got a nice bullet here just for her."
From here, she could still see Julian's mouth twitch spasmodically as he adjusted his hat's thin brim, vacantly staring into the ground before pausing.
Letting out a soft, sad laugh that sidled through the streets.
"My God. I'm looking right at the proof, and I still can't quite believe it. That this really is the other side of me. That I'm really this much of an asshole."
"Rosea-kun!", she heard Mira calling from a spot on the ground floor of the building, and for a moment Aiko felt ashamed that her fear had made her hesitate in doing the same. "NO! You're not! You can still change! Like I did!"
The sound annoyed the Shadow, of course. His face twisted back into fury and he raised one of his weapons. "You shut up, bitch!"
Another gunshot rang out, far closer than the others. For a moment she feared the worst, but then realized that the shot hadn't been the Shadow's gun.
It was Julian's. His revolver was still in his hand from when he'd drawn it, still smoking from the shot that had blasted his double's weapon cleanly out of his hands onto the ground behind him.
"Maybe I don't deserve to leave here. I could just end it, right here, right now. Just press this thing up against my head, and... bang. No more worries. No more guilt. But these people came all the here to save me. They still believe in me. And you know what, Shadow dude? Right now, I trust their judgment a hell of a lot more than I do mine."
"Then you're weak", his double accused, already reaching for his second gun but not drawing it. "Letting them decide for you, just like always! Here, we can be free! Here, everyone knows that we're the coolest!"
Julian laughed sadly again, staring into those acid yellow eyes directly for the first time, now that he was able to bear the sight of it, tightening the grip on his own revolver. "What is freedom, Shadow dude? Sure, I can be 'free' in this dream world. I can do whatever I want... but it's not real. And I can't do that when there are still people in the real world who love me. And... I love them."
His double seethed, teeth flashing in the bright sun of the Land's midday. "Fuck 'em! They're just chains! Chains that hold you down and stop you from being free! They keep you in a place where you don't want to be! Just you sit back and watch, and I'll break all those chains!"
"Yeah. And that's why", Julian nodded knowingly, returning his weapon to the holster with a quick flash. "That's why you've gotta go. Sorry, Shadow dude... you're just no good for me, y'know?"
Then, just as Mira's Shadow had, the deputy abandoned all pretense, speaking again in the cold, hate-filled voice that he'd used with Aiko back when she'd refused him at the school fountain.
"You don't even know. I'm the very best parts of you. I will have freedom, even if I have to break those useless chains myself. You're just the leftovers, the weakness. You may as well call yourself Jiachi, because I'm the real Julian Rosea. And you're right. One of us has gotta go. It's high noon."
Finally able to step out a bit further onto the balcony, Aiko was amazed to see that despite all of the curdling hostility between Julian and his Shadow, neither one was firing just yet. They kept their hands at their holsters, each holding onto their single remaining revolver.
Instead they had both, as if on some silent agreement, turned around, always keeping their hands close to their holsters. Her instincts screamed to step in, but it was easy to see that the Shadow would be watching and waiting for just such an opportunity; he still hated her far more than he hated his 'weak' self.
The next stretch of time could not be determined either. Was it a minute? Two minutes? More?
All she knew was that she finally understood why it was that western filmmakers loved this sort of scene so much. The rising tension felt like it was a physical thing clouding up the air and cooking in the sun, the high winds screaming for a resolution. Time stretching on and on. Until it felt like everything that ever was, everything that ever mattered, lay suspended in the infinite now.
And when both figures finally moved as a blur of lightning-fast motion, it was a surprise for everyone watching except for the two of them. There was the rustle of metal rapidly clearing leather, a crashing shot heard from one end of the vast Land to the other... and then she saw Julian scream and fall down on one hide-clad knee, the dusty summer winds suddenly picking up further, as if mourning his loss.
"Julian-kun! NO!"
Coming back to reality, she realized that she'd leaped off of the balcony at some point, her flintlock pistol already drawn and cocked on instinct.
Julian had fallen, wincing from the pain of a shot to the knee even as Mira deployed her Persona's healing powers to try to mend the damage.
His Shadow didn't turn to shoot her. He was smiling, a twisted, crazed, broken grin... but his smile could do nothing to stop the blood that was beginning to spread outwards from the bullet that had landed directly in the center of his heart from where Julian had fired it.
And as he clutched one hand uselessly to the crimson stain growing across that heart, the Shadow laughed.
"Heh... Heheh. It's wrong."
With Pelagio landing beside her, Aiko switched back to her sword, once again sensing the danger before it was apparent. Julian did his job. Now we do ours, and beat this Shadow down.
The blood spread further and further, all the way across the Shadow's muscled chest before it suddenly ignited into flame as if struck by a spark. The conflagration continued to spread upwards as he spoke, engulfing one entire half of his face with fire that was somehow a mixture of black and white instead of the usual scarlet of campfires or cooking.
"Heheh. HeheheHAHAHAHA! It's wrong! It's wrong, it's wrong, it's wrong, it's wrong, it's wrong... Here, I'm free! Free to do whatever I want! Nothing and no one to hold me down any more! I won't leave! Never! You won't take me away from the world of my dreams!"
By the time that this mad rant was over, the flames had covered nearly all of his body, consuming even the hat. They had only left behind one half of the face that continued screaming out the words at the top of lungs that by all logic should have been burned to ash by now.
One burning hand reached up towards that single lingering scrap of flesh. As it let out its loudest howl yet, more excruciating pain than anger, the half-skin mask was cast free... and the pyre of endless clashing black and white surged, becoming three times its original human size, igniting the wood of some of the nearby buildings in the process.
Pelagio acted first, not even waiting for the Shadow's transformation to finish. Aiko felt the thickening sensation caused by the Rakukaja spell covering her, followed shortly by the feeling of her weight being magically reduced to feathers by Mira's Sukukaja.
By the time that was done with, the blaze had formed itself into a distinctive shape. Though none of them were familiar with many mammal predators, this one's lean limbs and sharp ears suggested a coyote most of all, or perhaps a jackal. White flames burned through black flames to form a mouth, eyes and nostrils constantly shifting about. Each of the limbs ended with claws of glowing phosphorous that would have looked lethal even without being composed entirely of living fire.
Of course, she was fairly certain that real coyotes also didn't grow up to be twelve feet tall and wide. Oh my...
The infinite fanged maw that had formed on the Shadow's animal face spread wide, releasing not the flaming breath that they expected, but one more booming, snarling threat; a promise.
"You can't beat me! I AM YOUR SUPERBEAST!"
She had to admit, no matter how she looked at it the display was frightening. Especially when the Shadow's clawed arms extended out to their full length, making it apparent just how big and angry it really was. If they hadn't spent so much time expecting this fight, imagining it, preparing for it, she would definitely have been scared enough to be slowed down. Perhaps fatally so.
Instead, Aiko simply reached up to her hat to tilt the brim ever so slightly and reveal the green flash in her eyes, calling upon another of the new masks which had been born in the secrecy of the Velvet room.
"Arise... Tam Lin!"
The figure that appeared before her bore a more distinctly humanoid appearance than any of her other masks so far. An elfin-looking warrior clad in emerald armor bearing an opulent, hooked gray spear, the same shade as his cape. A mane of snow white hair framed handsome but stern features with a single lock spilling down all the way down to the shining chest plate.
"And now...Tarukaja!" The power-boosting skill wasn't meant for her, but aimed at Pelagio's broadsword, which was already inbound on the Shadow's large belly. The left-handed claw swipe intended to keep him away was just as fast and sudden as it had been when the creature was drawing his pistols, but was met with the rising blade. Aiko followed suit, slashing her thinner sword into the right arm.
Then, in the space of a breath, those nightmare claws of black and white fire surged and twitched, and the two of them were sent sprawling for five painful meters across the stretch of dirt, bestial mocking laughter echoing through the dust cloud that Pelagio's heavier form had kicked up from the street.
"Is that all you got? Hah! Try again!"
Ow, ow, ow, ow, owww...! Okay, new plan. Do NOT get near him until we've worn him down first. I'm already feeling the heat coming off him, and those claws are no joke either.
Aiko drew her pistol instead, shooting the offending arm at the same time that Mira's smaller darts sprayed into the beast's leering coyote face. Much safer for us to fight at a distance until he's weakened, like we did with that snake.
The Shadow wouldn't sit there and accept a barrage of bullets and spells however. Gathering and springing off on its predatory hind legs, the creature leaped all the way up on top of the roof of the bank, ignoring how the building was immediately igniting with his touch to make an horrible retching noise and spew something dark and viscous from his mouth.
She saw the gooey black fluid cover an unsuspecting Mira. Winced at the cloying smell and her wails of disgust. "Oil... Dancer, be careful! If he touches you, you're toast! Literally! Get that crud off you first!"
The fanged maw of their enemy slid into a wider, even more hideous grin hearing that, the harsh crackle of flames present even in his speech. "Aw, but what's a party without a campfire? Burn to the ground!"
A massive blast of magical fire followed after the oil, bearing the more traditional crimson colors but no less dangerous. It flew out of his maw directly at Mira as she tried to shake the goop off in time, only spared when the transparent shield of Praesi blocked it.
Not stopping to comment or accept thanks, Pelagio went right into into his next move, tiny dome-shape explosions peppering the Shadow like blue warts until it lost its grip on the smoking ruins of the bank and fell snout-first back into the dirt.
"Aqua!"
The very first skill she had ever used flew out, a geyser of water from below that was joined by Mira's lightning from above, synthesizing into something far more dangerous than either separate spell. Rising out of the electrified flood, the beast's forever blazing eyes narrowed dangerously.
"Heh. That... stings."
"Have another then!", she hollered back. "Again! Aqua!"
The wide jaw of their enemy shouted too, focusing his own spell into being.
"You can't touch this! Makarakarn!"
As had been the case with the earlier pistol duel, what happened next was so sudden that Aiko would only be able to piece together the events several seconds after the fact. The geyser of water began to rise up around the Shadow, Mira's lightning descending from the cloudless sky to meet it, and then there was a sharp pinging sound, a brief flash of an enormous hexagonal shell, and then she was being cast away herself, forcefully born upwards by the flood that had failed to even scratch her target.
Meanwhile, Mira's lightning had arced back towards her. Aiko wasn't too dizzy after the impact, but she was stunned. "How did he...?"
"Makarakarn is a reflective magical barrier skill!", Pelagio spoke rapidly, passing on his spells now to charge at the beast head on, but still kept at bay by the blazing claws. "It is similar to my Praesi, but it only deflects the first-AGH!"
Too late, he'd seen the slick of oil the enemy had left for him and slipped up. A claw strike sent him flying back, but Aiko saw clearly the deep mark that his weapon had left on the enemy before it reformed, and contributed her pistol shot to that cause instead. "Then let's space it out! You cast first, then me, then Dancer! Keep up the pressure! He can't block all of it!"
"Nice plan", the Shadow crowed. "But I'm in the mood for some roast turkey first! AGILAO!"
The invoked fire skill was much greater than the last one, easily tall enough to catch a jumping target with the way it sprang up from below, like an opposite version of Aiko's water geyser. A second too late to deploy his own barrier in response, Pelagio was caught off guard, the oil covering him igniting into much more painful and long-lasting flames. Mira's healing Media spell failed to extinguish them, and Pelagio frantically rolled around on the dirt to eradicate them before being further burned.
Eight shots and three narrowly-dodged streams of oil later, Aiko heard her pistol's hammer clink down on emptiness. "Damn... I'm empty!"
She tried Jack Frost's Bufu skill anyway, the result being predictable as the Shadow used its barrier magic once more to fire the spikes of ice back to its caster. He's always careful to block the water and ice skills, even if it means he has to accept taking damage from Dancer and Guardian in the meantime. That has to be his weakness.
Not that the knowledge would be of use to them any time soon. Another round of spells later, Mira was firing rapidly to prevent the Shadow charging her when that gun clicked empty too. The beast's hungry jaws lunged wide, only prevented from sinking into Mira's body by a combination of her natural agility and the sweep of a dagger across the muzzle.
Feral eyes glowing, it spat a drop of oil into the sand like it was blood, soaking up both wind and nuclear assaults with sheer determined grit. "Fine! Play hard to get. I can finish Tsuruga first, then get around to punishing you and the turkey!" Spinning, he zeroed in on the team's leader next. "AGILAO!"
Far from quavering at the sound of their enemy's strongest skill, she brightened seeing the attack finally directed at her.
"YES!"
Switching out of Jack Frost, she sprinted into the new flame geyser... and out the other side of it just as fast, showing little signs of injury beyond numerous trails of ashen smoke. She was actually inside the aura of the enemy's overpowering heat now, and even Lilim's resistance couldn't block out the sensation of stifling pressure closing in her from all around.
While the Persona in question wasn't as physically strong or agile as Tam Lin had been, the Tarukaja effect on her blade remained, helping it to cut into the other arm as Pelagio's weapon had. The Shadow's counter was just as brutal as before and she had to retreat, but Pelagio had chosen that perfect moment to strike from behind, leaping down from a house balcony with a keening battle cry to cut into the unprotected snout.
For a moment the Shadow froze up, its howl of pain faint but unmistakable, and she thought that they'd finally done it... Then the enemy's eyes and flames flared up brighter than ever before, a thin wave of blue fire spreading out to blast them all back into the main square and ignite the drips of lingering oil on Pelagio's armor once more.
"All... right", she was able to grunt out once Mira had spent the next ten seconds healing them all to the best of her ability. Some of the burns couldn't be dealt with that way; it rather felt like the pain was being temporarily numbed. "This got ugly fast, in more ways than one."
"I fear I cannot continue using Praesi many more times, captain", Pelagio said in shame over even that small confession of his limits. Looking closer, she saw that even with Mira's healing, the metal of his armor was actually partly melted in numerous places after repeated exposure to oil-fueled flames. As usual, Guardian was hiding just how much agony he had to be in. "If this Shadow continues his current strategy of combining the oil and his fire skills, I doubt that we can survive for much longer."
He's right. I might manage to last longer with Lilim's protection, but the others...
"How do we take this creep down?!", she shouted aloud in frustration as the Shadow turned back to them, preparing to rush them again.
There were some signs of him slowing down after all the damage they'd done, but not nearly enough. As Pelagio had said, he was clearly going to outlast them at this rate. "He's too tough for any of us to take on directly, he's got a magic reflector, and now we're completely out of bullets. Dancer can't keep healing us forever. I knew he was going to be tough, but..."
Hearing her name, Mira frowned for a moment, studying the smoldering wreck that their fighting had made out of so much of the town, then nodded. Grinned savagely. "No. No, it's fine. We can take him down."
Pelagio seemed surprised by her uncharacteristic confidence, then froze as he saw Mira digging into the kit of supplies they'd packed for the mission. "I see. So we shall resort to that. Very well, but we will need time. Time, and a place that he cannot easily escape from."
"I can provide both", Aiko declared. She wasn't quite sure what Mira had in mind, only that she rarely ever saw such a strong confidence in her friend's face, especially in this dimension.
"I'll distract him then. Don't stop to help me if it starts getting bad. I can take it. Just finish what you need to do, and kick his butt. Promise."
This had been mainly addressed to Pelagio, the one who was most at risk of ruining the plan if he sensed that she was being hurt in any way. As with Mira's Shadow, he would have to temporarily leave her side if they were going to win. To her relief, he didn't protest; they had no time for that now. Instead his beak stiffened, his raptor eyes anxiously shifting to the sight of the ravenous beast loping down the street at the them... and then back to her.
"As you order, my captain. We will act as soon as possible. May you have the best of luck in your own goal."
"Yeah. May I do that", she agreed, trying to hide her own doubts with humor as usual. Then they were done, all of her focus back to the task at hand... and how satisfying such a dangerous plan might be if it went well. That notion gave her the courage to begin it.
A new sensation bolstered that courage then, something that looked like magically-created flowers with long vines. She happened to be looking at one of the gashes on her wrist that hadn't yet been healed when the torn flesh began to knit itself back together, unprompted. It was an alarming sight at first, but then she looked over at Mira and relaxed a notch.
"Rejesho", the taller girl explained to her, looking almost apologetic for using her Persona's newest skill without permission. "Gradual healing over time, instead of all at once. I figure you'll need it now."
"If we live through this", Aiko promised her gratefully, "I'm buying you a new dress."
"Tsuruga-chan!" The voice was Julian's, but unlike his Shadow his presence was a welcome sight. He'd remained in hiding for the fight's opening, only now emerging onto another balcony to wave to her. "Catch this!"
A small object fell towards her, gleaming in the sun enough to spot and grab out of the air with her boosted reflexes. She saw that it was Julian's own classical revolver, still loaded with a good number of bullets, and smiled back. "Thanks! I'll take care of it from here!"
Alright, you creep. Time to see what you're really made of other than fire and bad insults.
Her confidence renewed, she was striding back into the enemy's path of wreckage with a new energy, as if Julian's swagger had passed into onto her as well as his weapon. She deliberately waited until the Shadow was nearly upon her before readying her borrowed gun and calling upon Tam Lin's inherited power. "Aqua!"
Just as predicted, the enemy stopped his reckless charge to deploy the Makarakarn barrier again. With all momentum lost, he staggered under a fresh barrage of shots from Julian's weapon even she dodged away from the redirected water attack, what little damage she did take quickly being erased by Dancer's contribution. She continued to retreat further into the city while firing, putting more distance between her and her team, drawing the Shadow's ire away from them.
Just to make absolutely sure, she spoke as well, in a tone as insulting as she could make it while concentrating on so many other things. "Hey! Come on! Can't you do any better than that old trick, Jiachi-kun?"
The beast's reaction was almost amusing with the way its eyes jarred and narrowed into pinpricks of burning coal the very instant she uttered the last word. "YOU... I thought you'd learned by now! My name is NOT Jiachi! I'm Julian!"
"Well that's funny." The Shadow continued spitting oil and fire, but couldn't hit her while she was using the remaining nearby buildings for cover. "You sure act like a Jiachi. Just barking out the same old threats and attacks like every other Shadow I've seen. Missing every time. There's nothing special about you at all, is there Jiachi?"
"Stop it..." The stable crumbled then, the wood bursting apart from the impact of the spells before they had time to properly burn. "STOP THAT!"
"Jiachi, Jiachi, Jiachi. I bet you can't even catch up to me, can you? Hahahaha! You're useless, Jiachi!"
Abject mockery was not her strong suit, she knew. While she'd seen it practiced sometimes, going out of the way to insult someone, to belittle and mock their most sensitive beliefs with the sole goal of hurting their feelings and making them angry or sad, had never really occurred to her before now. She tried her best to make her laugh sound derisive and cruel, punctuating every taunt with gunshots, but to her own ears it sounded almost comical.
Still, it was enough in this case.
The creature's claws were tearing into the buildings now instead of the flames, pure rage powering through the walls and support beams until each one collapsed, usually on him. She figured that was more than enough of a diversion to finally head for her true goal; the Freedom city train station.
It wasn't much to look at, at least compared to how she'd imagined it being. Merely an upraised wooden platform bisected by two sets of parallel rails, a large wooden awning providing some needed shade for the occupants. After experiencing how crowded Tokyo's train stations could get, seeing one like it completely empty almost felt sacrilegious.
She didn't have much time to dwell on it before the enemy arrived. He had smashed through the stables in his rage, through the gallows and the saloon and the bank along with dozens of smaller cabins where cognitions had once lived. Though the effort hadn't left much in the way of a sign on his roiling, blazing flesh, the exhaustion could be seen in his stance, the maimed front claws dragging along the ground and leaving furrows of cooked dirt behind them. If he hadn't been worked up into such a fury by her words, he might have been even slower.
"Come on, Jiachi!", she waved to him as if she was welcoming a friend. "Just a little bit further, Jiachi!"
The beast didn't blindly charge into the station the way she'd hoped however, instead halting to unleash his strongest fire skill once more. Aiko countered with a cast of Aqua that resulted in the enemy raising his barrier spell again, only to realize too late that his prey's spell had been aimed not at him, but at the fire pillar, quenching enough of it that all she felt was a mild surge of hot summer air.
"You're still pretty", the Shadow grunted at her, sounding a bit calmer than before, at least at first. "I'll give you that much. I think what I'll do is burn your body into ashes, and then take your pretty fairy face off so that I can look at it whenever I want. So make sure you scream REAL loud, got it? It'll be funny! HehehAHAHA!"
"Whatever you say... Jiachi."
Then she was running. Sprinting towards the beast for the first time in many minutes, cutlass out and ready. The front claws rose up to shred her as she entered the 'heat zone', but they lacked the strength they'd possessed at the start of the fight. Breaking her sprint into a slide aided by Tam Lin's natural agility and Mira's speed boost, she flew beneath them and jabbed the blade upwards into the exposed chest area.
Tam Lin, as she had quickly learned when testing, was also rather strong when it came to physical offense. Stronger than Onkot or Fomor had been. Stronger than any Persona she had ever felt, and the self-application of Tarukaja only amplified that difference further.
Her cutlass felt almost too dangerous to be in her own hands now, vibrating the very air around it. Like it could cut through the very ground itself if she was careless with it.
It could cut through chiaroscuro fire too, leaving a formidable scar along the creature's belly that did not fade. The claws pulled back, but every time one drew too near to her it was blasted backwards by a revolver shot while the blade in her other hand continued to hack deeper into the Shadow's main body with every swing, its frustration growing each time.
Finally, it had enough. The heat briefly abated, gathering up for the Maragi spell from before, impossible for her to evade at this distance. Bracing herself for that was only the diversion as a rear claw reached in to grab her sword, the spell's brunt knocking her loose of it no matter how she held on.
By the time she could stand again, the beast had already shoved the blade into its jaws and begun chewing on it with zeal. "No more of that", he remarked eagerly. "And I reckon your new piece is almost outta lead as well. Remember; make a scared face, and I'll turn you to ash quickly!"
Without waiting for a response, the Shadow leaped, the force of its unharmed rear legs propelling it up before coming down directly on top of her, front arms pinning her legs as the mouth prepared to yawn up more oil and fire. "Goodnight, pretty little fair-AHK!"
From her prone position, she couldn't see if the swords had gone all the way through and out the other side. She hoped they had, but the pain and shock they caused the Shadow when they were jabbed upwards into his stomach was enough. Both of the cutlasses she gripped in her hands looked brand new, a bit shorter than her old one but a bit thicker as well.
She certainly wasn't going to criticize officer Nijima's choice for her, especially now that having two backup swords hidden away in the inner pockets of her captain's vest had proven to be such an effective surprise tactic. The beast heaved a sick moan before nearly collapsing on top of her, the pressure on her legs weakening enough to kick free and roll away.
She rolled not out of some desire to look fancy, but because getting up and running hurt too much now. Direct contact with an entity made entirely of dark flames had left her legs only partly responsive, every inch of movement sending a fresh stab of pain through those scorched nerves. Mira's Rejesho was helping to soothe the burns, but not enough.
People always said that pain of the heart was the greatest pain, but she must have gotten accustomed to that type. Because all she wanted to do just then was lie down, stop moving her legs, and sleep until it stopped.
By sheer luck, she was looking in the right direction when the Shadow lurched back to life, his heat aura returning along with jerky movement and badly slurred words.
"Nice...ugh... try. That spark in you... Time to... Extinguish!"
The Shadow stared.
Aiko stared.
The front claw came down like another gunshot, far too fast to avoid and far, far too strong to resist. As with the legs, it was like touching an actively cooking pan to her skin, instinctively flinching around, screaming, doing absolutely anything to escape from the claw pinning her to the ground.
But her body's instincts didn't know about Personas. Eyes shut against the crushing anguish, she didn't need to see to aim. "Aqua!"
Either the Shadow was too close up to react in time, or he was finally too worn out by the long battle to call upon his barrier. The result was the same- a geyser of water covering the enemy, nullifying the heat as it washed over both Shadow and human in equal turn. For her it was actually refreshing, but it diminished the enemy's cloak of flame, transforming it into endless clouds of steam until she swore that she could almost make out an animal's skeleton lying beneath it.
Only for a moment though. Like the Shadow, her mental reserves for magic use had been expended with that cast, and now both claws were closing on her, crushing her until all she could do was close her eyes and pray.
Even that reflexive action seemed to incense the Shadow further, claws tightening further along with his voice now fully depleted of composure and sanity and anything else but hissing grit and fury and hate.
And screaming into her face.
"Look at me! LOOK AT ME! Look into my EYES! I wanna FEEL you die!"
Her voice was an equally strained whisper, the only thing she had left. "Go... To... Hell..."
The beast laughed. A triumphant laugh tinged with madness. "Where do you think I came fro- huh?!"
Then the pressure was gone. The sensation of searing heat likewise. For a moment wondering if she had died after all, she cracked one eye open. A great white bridge lay before her, blocking the noon sun.
No, that wasn't quite right...
She'd been looking at it wrong. It wasn't a bridge. It was a tower. A tower jutting up out of the burning city for nearly half a mile. It wasn't composed of wood, but the material looked familiar, jarring loose old memories that the pain had nearly burned away.
It was exactly the same as the silver ship which had brought them here.
The Shadow's reaction to the sight was far more pronounced. He stood up on his hind legs, squinting, not quite able to determine what he was seeing. "Huh? What the heck is that?!"
Her vision and senses gradually returning, she smiled gently as a row of hatches at the top of the tower swung open as one to reveal a quartet of freshly-polished cannons, all pointing down in an arc. "Hah... hahah... It's Guardian. He... did it. He really... now... you're done."
The beast was gathering more heat again, preparing to launch a fireball against the new structure, when the first cannon rang out, deafeningly loud even at this range. The lightning-infused projectile crashed headlong into its jaw, sending it reeling and solving the mystery in Aiko's head of just who was firing those cannons.
The second shell struck home as well, propelled by a coruscating green trail of bone-breaking winds. Each shot struck within a second of the previous one, a nonstop barrage, driving the enemy back, giving him no time to retch up any more flames or oil. As he tried to leap away, two more shots caught him mid-jump and blasted him back to the ground, helpless.
"You will not harm Saber any longer", Pelagio's stern voice blared out like a megaphone from the top of the turret once the Shadow had stopped moving. "You will not harm anyone any longer. You are finished, wretch!"
Their earlier positions were reversed now. Aiko had mustered up enough lingering energy to stand and move if not much more than that, Rejesho alleviating the worst of the burns, but the Shadow couldn't do anything except suffer and burn and mutter through his limp-hanging jaw.
"Damn it... damn it, damn it, damn it! It's wrong! It's wrong! IT'S WRONG! I shouldn't lose! I can't lose! Not to you! Not to anyone ever! Who are you people?!"
Emboldened by the quivering fear in those words, she stood up with the added boost of Tam Lin's own healing magic instead of Mira's fading spell, facing the beast head on with the same eyes that had made it obsess over her to no end.
"Us? You really want to know who we are, Shadow?"
She couldn't even answer that for herself for a moment, merely waiting for the answer to come to her.
"We're travelers, I guess. Explorers of the world of dreams. We chase away all of the phantoms that haunt your sleep. We rescue people in need from their living nightmares, from their doubt, from their faithlessness... from their despair."
She paused then, blinking in surprise. The words had come so naturally to her that it seemed impossible to provide any other explanation that wouldn't be a lie somehow. She could certainly sense the approval of the long-haired Persona hovering at her side. Maybe Tam Lin had been the source.
It didn't matter now. "But for you? All that you really need to know is... We're the ones who destroy nasty Shadows like you."
The tower behind her began to fade then, shifting itself back into the bipedal shape of Pelagio's knight form, Mira walking alongside him. As they had expected, the transformation had lasted for only a minute, but it had been enough.
Or...? While she initially feared a resurgence from the enemy now that their mightiest weapon was out of commission, it made no aggressive movements. Instead, Julian walked out into the station area with the others, eyes focused on the blazing wreck of the Shadow, not speaking.
His Shadow's beaten eyes sized up the situation, looking at all four of them in turn before bursting out into more crazed laughter. Laughter that seemed to be fueled by whatever combustion energy remained to it, the black and white flames shrinking back inwards, eating themselves out until everyone could see the ruined animal skeleton that lay beneath.
"Heheh... HAHAHA! This is hilarious... two losses in a row! Guess this really wasn't my day after all. Don't think it's yours either, fuckers! 'Cause pretty soon? You'll get the chance to meet some real nightmares! Look forward to it! Checkmate!"
When the fire was completely gone, the force that animated the coyote skeleton went along with it, finally collapsing into an unrecognizable heap of dry bones. All that was left standing was one of the claw bones, which remained upright with its jagged middle finger thrust into a universally rude hand gesture a moment longer before disassembling as well.
Julian Rosea stood in the middle of the graveyard of bones, watching the city of his dreams slowly burn down around him. He felt the curious gazes of his saviors and a few cognitions who had lived through the battle on him, but for a long time he couldn't decide what to say except more blind apologies.
And those weren't enough. Not for this. Not for him.
"It's my fault", he said wearily. "I know that now. I always made excuses. I told myself that they never let me play soccer because they didn't like that I was a 'hafu'... but the truth is, they didn't care. They just wanted someone who wasn't stuck up their own ass. I made it all up. Thought it made me 'cool' and 'special'."
Staring back at him, truly seeing him for the first time, Aiko at last remembered to sheathe her swords, nodding. "Julian-kun..."
"Am I? Am I Julian?", he asked of the sunlight sky. "Or, am I Jiachi? No. No. Both are a lie. More lies I told myself. There's no Jiachi. And there's no Julian. There's only me. Both of those names are mine... just like that... thing was mine too. Because I brought him in here with me. He's a part of me, too."
Unlike with Mira, she knew better than to argue with him about that. Not when she knew he was speaking the truth, as he saw it. All she could think of was a way to comfort him, to try and soften the awful reality he'd chosen to face.
"I was always so damn angry with my old man... I thought that he was holding me back, stopping me from going to a place where I'd be free. Only gramps really understood me, told me tales about what America was like."
Snorting at the idea now, he shook his head. "But, what is freedom? What's it mean to be 'free'? Is it really just being able to do whatever you want? No. It's impossible for that to happen. Not without taking away other people's freedom. People who deserve that freedom, just as much as I do. More, even."
She saw Mira pointing then, following her gaze back to the pile of bones that had began to glow and rise up, stars whirling around Julian as though in orbit, the glow becoming gradually brighter as they drifted about like fireflies.
When no trace of the bones they had once been remained, and they were more akin to tiny shooting stars, comets, their collective voice rang out around Julian. An older, masculine voice, but bearing a gravelly note of reservation in it that bespoke a life of tragedy and violence.
"In all the world, from east to west, freedom's the heaviest weight of all for a man to bear. It means that you provide for yourself, make decisions for yourself, and the toughest of all... you got to live with yourself. Only men I ever did see in complete freedom are in the ground. From the day you're born to the day you die, you gotta carry that weight. The weight of livin'. Else, you're just passin' it off."
The stars were rising then, gathering together overhead as Julian watched them spin and spin.
"Ain't no place that can make that weight any lighter, kid. Only thing that can do that is your family, and friends."
Sniffing lightly, Julian nodded. "Yeah. I get it now. They were just trying to help me. They're not chains. My old man isn't a chain. My mom isn't a chain. My baby brother, when he's born... he's not a chain."
"There's only one chain you need concern y'self with now, kid. The chains on your heart. The chains that stop your spark from reachin' out to ignite the hearts of others."
The stars were gone. Vanished. In their place was a man with a enormous coal-black cloak wreathed about him, a simple, standard cowboy hat, and eyes beneath that overcast hat brim so intensely bright that Aiko couldn't bear to look at them for long. Despite this initial fright, this man shared the same easygoing, brash grin she remembered from her first interactions with Julian, tipping his hat politely to everyone as he touched the ground.
"Howdy there, folks. Name's Wild Bill. I am Thou. And Thou Art I. It's time for this kid here, who's always carried my spirit in his heart, to let it all out now."
"Yeah", Julian agreed, clutching one hand to his head but refusing to yield to the pain, knowing that it wold only last until he'd truly expelled the darkest part, the part that had created the savage coyote Shadow, from his own heart.
"Yeah. It's time I stopped fooling myself. Damn, I've sure got a lot of people I need to make up with. Lots of sins I need to balance."
"Then we got ourselves a bindin' contract", the cloaked Persona looked at him eagerly. "Break them chains of egotism, kid! Unleash my power, and pillage this dismal dawn of illusions!"
The voice was gone. Time resumed unhindered. The spirit had vanished, invisible chains cast aside in useless fragments of thought, his golden sheriff badge dropping into the dirt with a ceremonious clang.
And Julian stood before them a new man.
In more ways than one.
His sheriff's cloak, which had been torn up and burned in several places by the battle, had been transformed into a red trench coat, zipper hanging open at the center of the chest with an arched collar and black pants, a simple white tunic underneath. It bore a glossy black gun belt with two full holsters, two gray handles jutting out in front of him, ready to be grabbed and pulled loose. His hat was gone. Instead, a sash lay wrapped about his head the same bright color as his jacket, obscuring half of the left eye as if bandaging an ancient injury.
Pelagio surprised everyone by being the one to speak to him first.
"To be completely free is to be completely, and utterly, alone. Forever. Perhaps a rare handful of humans might indeed desire that fate for themselves, but I have seen your past actions, boy, and I do not believe you are truly one of those humans."
His eyes focusing again, Julian shook his head. "No. I'm not. Not any more. That desire doesn't make me special. It just..."
"I am glad to hear it", Pelagio said sharply. "Because such was my life for as long as I can remember, my only company being the feral Shadows who sought to devour me for my crime of existing. These two months that I have spent living in the human world... have been far more enjoyable for me than all of those years alone."
"The feather bag knows what he's talking 'bout, boy", old man George's voice came to him then as he stepped out from the station's wreckage, still smoking his pipe somehow. "Maybe I can't be with you any more over there, but I don't have to be. Looks like you've finally figured out what I was really tryin' to teach ya."
"Yeah", Julian sniffed. "I have."
He hugged the man again, this time so strongly that he began to cough.
"I'll miss you", he whispered, no longer caring if the others heard his voice crack. "Every day."
"When things get tough", the cognition advised him, "think about me. And not just me. Your father, and your mother. And your brother. And your wonderful friends. That charming feller who came out from within your heart. Think of their courage, and act."
"Thanks, gramps. I will. I promise."
The embrace only stopped when a new noise caught everyone's ear, the loud gushing drawing their attention to a geyser that had erupted from somewhere just outside of the town. By the time they had realized exactly what it was, the water had already begun to pour in between the welcome archway's posts.
"The Breach", Pelagio realized out loud. "Now that he no longer desires this world of dreams to be his home, it shall collapse, just as Dancer's did."
But that wasn't quite right, Aiko realized as she peered closer, too curious to be slowed by her fatigue or healed injuries. The gush that was now streaming into the town from multiple erupting geysers wasn't actually doing much damage to it. Just the opposite, in fact- it was quenching all of the rampant fires the Shadow had created at a much faster rate than her water spells could have.
The streams curved through Freedom city as if they were purposeful, drawn to the pestilent flames until they were all gone, then gradually reforming into trenches that hugged the middle of each street, Mira and a few of the citizens moving quickly to get out of the way. Despite this, the trenches were content to remain at their current size, no longer threatening to wash over anyone.
"It's safe, Saber", Pelagio confirmed after dipping a curved talon into it. "Normal water. Not like the waters of Faraway Lands."
"Good thing", Mira joked beside him. "Or you would have transformed again. I have to say, I wasn't expecting that transformation!"
"I don't believe that anyone was", Pelagio agreed, happily watching as the people of the town came to grips with the newest feature of their home. "I've never taken on that shape before. Normally, those cursed waters only ever cause me to change into a boat. Still, I will gladly transform into anything I must to aid my captain. That was a clever idea, Dancer. Bringing that bottle of Faraway Lands water for emergencies. I am ashamed I did not think of it sooner."
"I was so worried it might not work", she confessed, grabbing and showing a small oval hip flask, a flask that was now empty. "Worried that maybe you had to be completely immersed in it to transform or something. I'm glad to be wrong about that."
"Gotta agree with you there", Julian chimed in, stepping closer until he could see his reflection in the fresh water. "You've got a lot of cool tricks. For a grumpy bird, anyway."
"Hmph!"
"I've said my goodbyes", he explained further. "The people of this city are going to have to rebuild... and find a new sheriff now." Looking around at the ruins and feeling drops of water begin to pelt his brand new coat, he snickered. "They were pretty happy when they found out I'd shot my deputy though. They must've really hated him."
"They are all cognitions", Pelagio reminded him, reverting back to his usual demeanor. "Fabrications. Imaginary versions of people you know in the real world."
"Yeah, I know that." Julian admitted, refusing to drop his grin after everything that had been done to retrieve it from despair. "But I still hope they get by okay in this place."
The four of them departed together. Behind them, the towering geysers continued to pour down the life-giving water, seeming to clean away all the dirt and debris that had choked the town even before the battle had rocked its foundations.
Leaving behind newly-made rivers in the desert.
Enemy Profile #8: Shadow Julian/Jiachi
Arcana: Hanged Man
Strength: Fire (Absorb), Curse, Earth
Weakness: Water, Ice
Abilities: Rampage, Flying Stomp, Maragi, Agilao, Crude Stream, Makarakarn
A/N: