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
Evening
"He is gone", Lady Scorpio announced starkly, her mirrored mask hiding any aggravation that she might have held over the development. "I sensed his demise. It was in a dream world of sand, sun and wood."
Ryuken began to school his handsome features into a feigned expression of sorrow, then immediately realized there was no need for it. There was no fooling her at any rate.
It wasn't the Shadow's passing that they regretted, but the loss of their best weapon to deal with their current problem- the extremely rare Shadow who could actually pass for a human if they so wished. They had others at their disposal, certainly, but not a single one with that useful ability.
"Good riddance to bad rubbish", he remarked brusquely, staring up into the ceiling lights. "Still, I don't want to risk everything on King Leo if we can help it."
"No", Scorpio agreed calmly. "Not yet. Of greater interest to me is how that Shadow met its demise. I did not quite see everything... but it was enough. We are no longer alone, Prince Taurus."
That peaked his interest anew, and he stood out of the dressing room chair, instinctively touching his single earring for luck. "You're saying that he didn't die to another Shadow?"
"No." Turning, she faced one of her various mirrors. "He did not. There are other Persona users out there. Other users of the power, who slew that Shadow."
"Well", he considered breathlessly after a moment of silence. "That certainly complicates things, doesn't it?"
"I have seen them before", Scorpio confessed, actually sounding a bit guilty for not bringing it up with him beforehand. "In my visions, when I sleep. They are young. Untrained. I doubt they have held the power for long."
"Who are they?", Ryuken asked her before remembering something else. "Wait. Hold on... I remember, that Shadow was talking earlier about someone. A 'Tsuruga-chan' who was threatening to expose him, just like Queen Aquarius was. You don't think...?"
She remained tight-lipped. The mask's lips were always that way, but the way she was tilting it made them seem particularly short, twisting the reflection of his face off it. "That could be. Though, it would be impossible for anyone of that age to have gained her Persona in the same way that we did."
"That doesn't matter", he continued more eagerly, rubbing his hands together. "What matters is that we might have a potential replacement for Queen Aquarius on our hands here. If her Persona's really strong enough to beat that Shadow..."
"Don't be so hasty, Taurus", Scorpio cautioned him. "She did not defeat that Shadow alone. I saw that much in my visions already. Remember that she is quite young. I doubt that she would be likely to join our cause, even if we explained to her why our Salvation is necessary. You know perfectly well the nonsense that Japan fills the heads of its children with these days."
Ryuken made a disgusted face at that reminder, but he refused to back down so easily. "I'm sure that we can do it. You can just 'persuade' her like you did the others. You're good at that."
The motionless mask gave back no hint of annoyance. "Thank you. But once again, you flatter me. You wrongly assume that my talents will be effective on anyone that I wish to persuade. It is... not so simple."
She pointed one thin finger to him. "You, for example, possess a strong will, and a powerful Persona already. I could not persuade you to act against your desires even if I tried to."
That analogy silenced him again, getting him back down in his seat. Beginning to slowly pick the various scattered books and back up to replace them on the shelf, she paused after a minute, placing a gloved hand on his shoulder. "Taurus. You really do miss Aquarius, don't you?"
Remembering how futile it was to lie to her, he nodded. "Yeah. I think about her a lot. We're about the same age. Without her around, I have to be the public face of our club all by myself, and the main recruiter. It's kind of tiring sometimes, y'know?"
He wasn't complaining. Or least, didn't want to sound like it. She knew that without needing to ask. But while Scorpio was the one most seriously devoted to their goals, she wasn't entirely without a heart either.
"The Kochi fishermen... have they been delivering what they promised us?"
"Yeah", he nodded. "Near as I can tell, none of them have been asking questions about it either. Just keep the money coming, and they'll give us what we need."
"Very well", she conceded, back straightening. "Perhaps this is what I have been waiting for as well."
He frowned. "What you've been waiting for?"
She began slowly running a hand along the smooth curve of the mask, as if in pain.
"My visions are incomplete. I cannot behold the truth of the world in its entirety. However, it would be remiss of me not to notice the similarity of events here. I believe that these other Persona-users I saw have been created by the Servant."
Ryuken glanced at the room's broken mirror, not sure what to say to that, or how to react to the sudden shade of anger clouding her words at the end. This was the sole part of their plan that he couldn't express any real enthusiasm for. How could he, when he'd never even met this 'Servant' that Lady Scorpio so despised?
"Your real enemy", he managed. "Right?"
"The enemy of all of humanity", Scorpio emphasized fiercely, her shroud of emotional cold finally pierced. "I always believed that destroying the Servant would be our final goal, but if these children I have seen in my visions are truly connected to him, then perhaps..."
"We'll do it", he promised. No matter who these kids were, or who this 'Servant' was, it was too late to go back. He'd chosen his side long ago.
Distantly, he could sense Mithras' approval of his resolve.
"Find this 'Tsuruga'", the hostess ordered, returning to her muffled calm. "Find out how much she knows. If she has learned about us already, then I promise to put in my very best efforts to persuade her to join us, and become our new Queen Aquarius."
The happiness on his face could be detected even without her special abilities. Her voice darkened in response, preparing to give him the bad news.
"However, if she refuses our offer after that, then we will have no choice in the matter... We will have to silence her, and all of her friends. Anyone else who has acquired the power from the Servant, and might try to interfere with our plans."
Better start training up Nayuta-san just in case. Keeping that doubt suppressed, he gave a respectful bow to her, so over the top he hoped it might make her smile beneath her mirrored geisha mask, a secret to all but the two of them.
Just as so many other things were. The secrets they had to keep, until the time came that humanity could truly become as Gods. "As you wish it... my lady."
5/25 Saturday
Afternoon
The temple's lights did not beckon Aiko to enter through the dusty wooden door. They seemed to be as diminished as the one within, perhaps running on a lower power setting to conserve.
Still, she didn't hesitate to pry it open and walk through. Officer Nijima wouldn't have lied to her. Not about this situation. Sure enough, at the end of the rows of benches was father Shigetsu with a broom.
That was what made her pause for the first time since setting out from the bus stop. While Shigetsu was clearly intent on cleaning the place up, the impediment of having only one leg meant that he had to use the broom as his cane. Whenever he wanted to dust an area, he would reach out with one arm to grip a bench and balance himself while the other moved the broom around.
Naturally, this pace was terribly slow. More than that: It was the most pathetic sight she could remember seeing in her life, including the time she'd seen a crippled cat in an animal hospital. He even looked older than she remembered, his face withered by recent events and their repercussions.
The only thing she could have imagined making it worse was if he were blind as well, but his eyes turned to face her amicably. "Miss Tsuruga. I'm afraid you've found in some difficult circumstances, but you are welcome to pray here."
It almost felt like it would be an insult for her to sit, and for a moment she wanted to run back the other way. Too late for that now. Think of what kind of message that would send.
She decided to stand, moving in closer in case he started to fall. "I...I heard about what happened, father."
He answered with a polite smile. "Did you? I suppose that the police were free with that information?"
"Something like that", she agreed, not wanting to point fingers at Nijima.
That elicited the first real sign of weakness from him, an admission of his own worry as he took a seat, dropping the broom as if it no longer mattered.
"You are the first one to come here since that time. All of my usual flock have departed. I cannot blame them, seeing what they have. They must believe me possessed." He made a sad chuckle. "Perhaps I am. Perhaps that is the reason."
"Last Tuesday", she noted. "Right? Sorry I wasn't here."
"Don't", he scoffed. "If you had been there to see me, you might not have come now. But I know the truth. I know what I felt. It was a monster coming to our world. Just like the ones from six years ago."
She considered that for a moment. Only for a moment. "Yes. He was a monster. But he's gone now, father. We're safe."
The priest shook his head, gesturing with his broom hand to the windows of his temple, each one adorned with a mythological figure now caked with dust. "There are other monsters here. They remain sealed away throughout Kochi, but I can sense them now. Locked up in metal bonds, waiting for the day that they shall be freed."
"What?"
Facing her, Shigetsu gently tapped the part of his robe that covered the damage from six years ago. "My injury. It reacts whenever one of the monsters is close. I receive no signals here, but when I am out and about, they become stronger. I know that they are nearby, if not exactly where."
She peered around the vacant temple, trying to understand as he shrugged.
"I thank you for your courtesy, miss Tsuruga, but I know what you must truly be thinking about me now, just as all the rest do. You must believe that there are no monsters. You believe that I am senile, that I have gone mad and belong in a place where I can be taken care of by others."
"N-no", she blurted in protest, standing again. "I believe you, father. Really."
He looked troubled, scarcely able to accept what he was hearing... and then smiled back. A genuine one this time, unmarred by bitter cynicism.
"That's... That's good to hear. It's so strange. I told myself that it didn't matter if no one ever believed me about the monsters, so long as I believed myself. Yet... Now that there's one other person who believes my words, I find my heart lightened. Thank you, and God bless you."
Being treated as some kind of savior for something that was so easy had pangs of guilt creeping back, and she looked around the room instead of staring into such an honest, happy face. While most of the cleaning job was done, she saw several reusable plastic bags in the corner of the altar to answer her next question.
"Father... are you eating alright?"
He hesitated, coughing once. "For now. If you have truly been honest with me child, then I owe it to be fully honest with you. This place is my home. My only home. Without a congregation, my days of being able to feed myself are now numbered."
He's right, she mused as the weight of that revelation settled down onto her. Some truths aren't easy to hear.
Signs of poverty were easy to spot in Tokyo these days. This was just the first time that someone she knew had been affected.
"God provides", he piped up, easily able to detect the funk that his words had plunged her into. "There is a free public shower in Motomachi that I use for cleansing, and my bed here isn't going anywhere. My only true concern is food."
"There's got to be someone", she protested, desperate to lose this weight pressing her down harder than the Shadow's burning claws had yesterday. "There's homeless shelters that you can use."
"There is a shelter in Asahimachi", he acknowledged, his thin-haired head down as he stifled another cough. "Unfortunately, word has spread to it about my... condition. There are a few others in the prefecture of course, but they are lengthy journeys."
"Not if you don't-" Aiko stopped, realizing in shock what she had been suggesting.
Shigetsu, by contrast, remained easygoing as ever, merely closing his eyes and leaning back into the ceiling's reflected lighting. "This place is my home. It's all I have left. I can't abandon it. If I must die here, then so be it. Until that time, I will endure, and look to the Lord for providence."
Revulsion rose in her. Not of Shigetsu, but of her mental image of the fate he was resigning himself to. Dying all alone, in a quiet place like this, without anyone even knowing, or even caring... It's just like the Lands. Worse.
I can't leave him like this. I can't. He can't take care of himself this way. I should call someone, ask them to take him. But if they do, then...
Burning tears began to force her eyes shut as well, though she became acutely aware that he was watching her now. "You... you idiot. How do you expect me to walk out of here after hearing you say that? Is keeping this place really worth your life?"
"It is", he said calmly. "To me."
Images swam before her eyes. The people she'd seen on the streets of Tokyo when she was younger. The debris of broken bottles and pipes. Disheveled, stained clothes and desperate stares. Though she had been too young to really understand what that meant at the time, what had stuck in her memory was the way that everyone else tried not to look for too long. Parents would cover their children's eyes until they were gone.
Letting loose a frustrated grunt that rattled the rafters, she turned to him.
"Here's two thousand yen. Take it. Don't argue, don't feel guilty; I have a part-time job at the Starlight diner and my mom sends me some money every month. Just take it. Please."
Against her demands, he looked extremely reluctant to take the offering. The same pride that prevented him from surrendering the temple was also slowing him down to a crawl now.
"'Don't feel guilty'", he joked. "There is perhaps no command more difficult to follow. All that I can promise is that I will try, miss Tsuruga. As well as promise anything else that you wish of me in return for this blessing."
Feeling the weight falling loose, she nodded gratefully. "There are a few things. First, I want you to make a promise right now that if you're really in danger of starving, you'll report to a shelter. I don't care what you say about that, a freaking building isn't worth your life."
Slowly and grudgingly, the pact was made. "...Very well. In return, let me say that I will do everything I can within the law to avoid such a dire situation."
"Of course", she agreed. "Second, I need your help."
The priest blinked in confusion. "My help? With what, child? Name it. I will do whatever I can."
Something had changed in the temple then, she realized. Even with all that dust coating the windows that Shigetsu couldn't reach without aid, the orange afternoon sunlight was beginning to slant through. The gate would be opening about now. But now, no one's trapped there. The tides have gone back to normal.
"Practice", she explained. "Once I'm done helping you clean up this place a bit better, I need to practice for a confession."
5/26 Sunday
Afternoon
Cresting the latest in a series of grassy hills, Julian Rosea turned back to survey the long path he'd walked. Aiko and Mira were a ways behind, but so long as he could see them he didn't need to worry that he'd accidentally lost them. While both of them were in decent shape- a state that had likely improved considerably over the last two months- he was the only one who worked out regularly.
Perhaps not so long ago, he might have rocketed ahead and left his 'project partners' in the dust behind him, only stopping at each shrine on the road to let them catch up to him, perhaps greeting them with a derogatory remark about their poor speed. It wasn't just the occasional glimpse of Pelagio soaring through the sky above them that had made him shy away from this typical approach.
For the last three days, it felt like he'd been breathing the air of an entirely different world. New eyes had beheld everything around him and seen things he never would have before.
His parents, for two. He'd never seen his father act the way he did when he finally, truly, returned to them, and his mother had welcomed him back with an energy he thought wasn't possible for people their age, preparing his favorite meals day after day until he'd started to feel guilty again.
He hadn't been able to tell them everything, of course. Luckily, they hadn't really asked. They were just happy to have him back, and back to normal. The excuse that he had 'run away' was close enough to the truth.
He'd tried his best in turn to be worthy of that forgiveness. A father as uncaring as he'd once believed Akusa Rosea of being would have simply thrown him out... and Jiachi would have understood that course of action entirely. He no longer felt his blood curdle when the other name was used.
Because both of those names are mine. Neither one of them represents anything except me.
Earning Mr. Umaeda's clemency had been more difficult, and he wasn't even surprised to be removed from the club. Not merely for his absences, the teacher had explained, but the demonstration of a lack of discipline. For the same reason that a credible martial arts instructor might refuse to teach someone who obviously had some issues of their own to work out before applying themselves to the disciplinary aspects of the craft.
School was still there, waiting for him. And once again here, he had found a surprise, finding himself much more popular than he had been. People were interested in what he'd seen on his trip, and what had prompted it.
Giving him some much-needed practice for today.
They hadn't come all this way just so he could make a confession, of course. This was a school assignment just as much as it was a brief nature retreat, a project that all of them had completely forgotten about during recent events.
This Sunday was 'Exploration Day'. For it, they had to travel to a place they hadn't ever been before, and then write up a report for their homeroom teacher on what they saw and did on their trip. While Julian knew that Tokyo's students had a lot more colorful and varied options to choose from for this country-wide assignment, Tosashimizu city had a number of 'natural' locations around, and much less of a hassle to reach in one day.
Groups were not required, but encouraged. He couldn't have asked for a better chance to get everything weighing his chest down off of it, out here in the wilderness of the Ashizuri Sunny pilgrimage trail.
Seeing the roads and hills stretch on through the trees towards the sun for what seemed like forever, he smiled, deliberately inhaling as much fresh air as he could as if to purge the toxins still inside him. Having only the single day, they'd only been able to use a small fraction of a pilgrimage trail that had been designed for multi-week excursions to as many as 25 different shrines, and even that was a formidable hike for students unused to it.
Aiko and Mirambela didn't seem too winded yet though, the latter easily bounding up the hills towards him at a measured pace as if her bag weighed nothing at all. "You've been hiking before", he observed in approval from his spot on the hill.
"Many times", she smiled back at him. Like everyone else, she was more forgiving of what she had seen in his Land than he had dared to believe. "My brothers would lead me down the wilderness trails back home, showing me the safest ones."
"Still probably way more scenic than this", he observed. "Don't get me wrong, it's nice, but..."
"-But you were hoping to see some more wildlife? A 'nature retreat'?"
"Yeah."
Mira shrugged. "I don't mind. I think we've all had our fill of animals for... I'm sorry."
He shrugged, casting it off easily. No matter what they tried, avoiding conversation paths that led back to memories of his time in Faraway Lands seemed impossible sometimes. Instead of letting it get him down, he raised a hand.
"Hey hey, don't be sad. After what happened, I feel like I could spend the rest of my life atoning and it wouldn't be enough. So let's keep this practical; for the next hundred times you feel like you need to apologize to me for something, don't bother."
Mira blinked, trying to work out his logic. "Uh. That... doesn't really make any sense, but okay."
"Life doesn't make sense", he said more wistfully, glancing out over the field. "Why would that other world make sense either, if it's what the angry bird says it is?"
For once, Pelagio was too far away to hear him and pompously correct him, always claiming that he wasn't a mere bird. That had been just one of the many new experiences since he'd gotten back, and easily one of the most bizarre; a saker falcon actually talking to him. And understanding him when he talked back to it.
"Yes. It was weird for me too", Mira told him, guessing his thoughts without having to be told. He was surprised that it was her, not Aiko, who had been able to anticipate his moods and thoughts so accurately before and after their return, even visiting him in class between periods to make sure he wasn't feeling too guilty.
"My Land was different", she continued, drawing even with him as they continued jogging along the trail. "A technological forest. But the reason that drove me there was the same. I felt like I couldn't stand this world any more. I had to escape it, no matter what. Then..."
"Then there was that voice", Julian remembered, understanding. "'Vow to me'?"
"Yes. My own voice", Mira echoed nervously. "It said 'Vow to me, and I'll deliver you from your troubles, and create a whole new world you will never want to leave'."
"Huh. Good memory."
She shuddered in fear beside him. "It's not an easy thing to forget."
"Yeah." He would never forget that voice either. The voice which had called out to him from within his own mind, which promised him a paradise beyond the gate of emerald green light that had opened up. Many of his recent memories remained fuzzy and incomplete, but not of that part.
It had promised him freedom. Freedom? Is being trapped in an endless dream world you never want to leave really freedom? Maybe. But that freedom's got a cost too... and it's too high for me.
It hurt his head to think about things like this too much. Especially when he had another major ordeal looming ahead of him. Not the next shrine coming up, but what he was planning to do when he got there.
The red-painted shrine was smaller than most, but it would serve his purpose. When Mirambela went off to refill their water bottles, it left him and Aiko alone on the bench beneath the overhang of the shrine's sloping roof.
"So", he blurted, all of his carefully-memorized speeches for this exact moment suddenly useless.
"So", Aiko repeated, looking not at him but at the copse of trees covering the shrine's wall carvings.
"Sorano-san", he tried again. "Told me what my Shadow did. What he did... to you."
Her head dropped in retreat. It seemed like she'd been anticipating something like this. "No. Please, don't think that. It wasn't you. It wasn't your hands."
"No", he said delicately. "It wasn't my hands. It was my thoughts that did it."
She shook her head, eyes shut tight. "You... You're just like Mira-chan. Wanting to take all the blame for all the bad things your Shadow did. Do you really think that you two are the only ones with suppressed thoughts? Things that you wanted to say or do, but you didn't?"
"...No", he conceded gratefully. "Of course not. Everybody's got some nasty shit in their heads that they keep hidden away. I know that. But they aren't the ones who did that to you. I did. Me. And all because..."
Now the difficult part. He had hoped it would be the other way around, that earning forgiveness would be the height of his emotional strain. Only now were his eyes cinching up, his muddled brain having to take a moment to plot out each individual word, always fearful that they might create the wrong image entirely and she would never want to see him again.
Perhaps that was the punishment that had been waiting for him to return.
In the end, all he could fall back on was the honest truth. "He went after you because of me. Because ever since we met, I spent some time... thinking about you. About us. About how impressed everyone would be."
Her reply was not cruel or sharp-tongued at all. It was flat. Matter of fact, as if like him, she had already worked it out long in advance.
"You were thinking. Thinking about how all the other students would think you're cool. Because boys who get girlfriends are cool. And being seen as 'cool' is the most important thing in the world. Right?"
This isn't fair. That was what he almost wanted to leap up and say. They'd been inside his Land. Inside his heart. They knew almost as much about him as he did.
Maybe that's the point.
"...Yeah. Okay. You've got me pegged. You saw me back there. I wanted to be 'mature'. I wanted to be 'cool'. That was my only real goal. And uh, guys who get girlfriends and go on dates with them and buy gifts for them are... 'cool'."
She looked across the bench then, spotting the small wrapped box in his hands with a pleasant surprise on her face. "Oh... um... well... thanks."
He waited until she was done awkwardly unwrapping the small box before continuing. The hairpin inside was tiny and lacking any jewelry, but he had been told that its light painted shell design was a popular fashion in her home town, back in Tokyo. Given their current situation, he wasn't expecting a noise of joy to fly out of her mouth like he might have normally. It was enough for now that she didn't reject it entirely.
Would she reject him?
"I bought it for you before all this crazy stuff started happening", he admitted staring straight ahead. "I wanted to give it to you sooner, but then you found out that I was lying about being on the soccer team, so..."
"I know. I get it. You were afraid", she acknowledged, idly toying with the gift. "You were afraid I'd be mad because you lied. So you stayed away. You even stopped going to the fencing club, just so you wouldn't see me."
"Yeah. That's exactly right. But I kept on... dreaming. I still wanted us to be together. Because..."
His throat was his enemy now, locking up to prevent further words until he swallowed and forced it back into line.
"Because... I think... that you're 'cool', Tsuruga-chan. Seriously. The fact that you did all of this, just to help a bastard like me? To help Sorano-san earlier? That just makes you even more cool."
She took in a deep breath, no doubt brushing her own private fears and insecurities aside as she did so, all of her earlier practice gone with the wind.
"I appreciate that, Rosea-kun. Really, I do. Even if you liking me caused some... bad stuff... to happen."
He grimaced. His memory of that confrontation was still just as clouded as the rest of what his Shadow had done while he was gone, but he'd heard and seen enough from the others. His Shadow had transformed his innocent boyish affection into a deadly obsession. A burning need to make her submit to him and be his loyal partner.
It looked like she had come to the same conclusion on her own, a hardness in her words now.
"What you really wanted, what you daydreamed about... was a pretty girl who constantly sung your praises. Who would walk down the school halls together with you, holding your hand and smiling. Who would kiss you in public. Who would cling to you, and threaten any other girl who looked at you."
Pause. "Am I on the mark so far?"
He gulped, expecting the worst to come. "Y-yeah. That sounds about right."
Leaning back on the bench, she smiled wearily at him instead. Even several days of rest hadn't quite restored her from the battle on Friday.
"I won't lie to you and say that type of girl doesn't exist. They do. I know they do. I've seen the way that Takeba-chan acts around Otoba-kun, and they're hardly the only ones who are like that around each other. But... that's not me. I don't like being so clingy. I'm not that person. Sorry."
"Yeah. I know", he admitted. Despite her words, she had left a small hand exposed on the bench, all but inviting him to reach out and touch it. "That's part of why I liked you. You're like me. No... you're like the person that I want to be seen as. You don't take shit from anyone."
She snorted faint amusement back. "Oh please. It's not like I'm some kind of super-independent rogue. I still follow the rules and do my homework and stuff. I just don't like bullies."
He didn't feel like now was the right time to point out that he did still remember the clothes she had been wearing in the other world, quite vividly. A dark loose-fitting captain's jacket straight out of a swashbuckling fantasy. A weapons belt containing multiple antique foil swords along with a dusty flintlock pistol, and a large, floppy-brimmed hat which completely masked her eyes until the time came to pull the brim up and unleash a 'Persona'.
At least, that was the way he understood it. There hadn't been time to get all the details just yet.
Now that they were back in reality, she didn't have any of those things on her. She wore a simple white dress shirt and long black athletic shorts in lieu of the more restrictive Koashimizu skirt uniform. The passionate determination to win that she had shown to his Shadow was no longer on display. If anything, she looked just as guilty as he felt inside.
"I like boys", she announced after a minute as if that were some kind of grand revelation to the world. "I don't know exactly when it was that I started feeling that way, but I do like them. The ones who are strong...", and here she reached over to cusp his right arm fondly. "...and the ones actually focus on the important stuff. Like... Tatsunoko-kun."
He winced, torn between blushing and something else rushing in his head that had started with her touching his hand. "Uh. Sorry to burst your bubble, but I think that Tatsunoko-san has other plans. Depending on who you ask, he's either in a relationship with his job as student council president, or with Kujou. Or both. Also, you're a first year and he's a third."
"I said like Tatsunoko-kun", she corrected in mild irritation. "Although I have a hard time believing that he'd stay with her if he knew what she was really like."
Julian chuckled back. Even more than his disappearance and 'triumphant' return from the ether, the grudge between Aiko Tsuruga and Benihime Kujou was rapidly becoming the stuff of school legends. According to rumors, it was the number one thing that Kujou talked to all her friends about. In turn, he'd already seen that mentioning Kujou was one of the only things that was guaranteed to set Aiko off.
She didn't dwell on it overlong though, returning to a more serious expression. "Rosea-kun. This is my fault, really. I still like you. Really, I do, but... there's a problem. Every time that I look at you now, I can't help but flash back to what happened. What your Shadow did, what he was like... It's been in my nightmares for days now. I don't know when it will stop."
Eyes closing, picturing the anguish she had been put through in both worlds, he sighed. "I know. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I just... I wanted to have you with me, so bad... you're so... pretty, Tsuruga-chan." Like a fairy, he hesitated to add.
"You wanted a certain version of me", she reminded him softly, head down in penance. "I saw her. You wanted a 'me' that doesn't actually exist."
"Yes. I did."
The touch became a full grip then, and he was surprised to feel just how incredibly warm that hand was.
"Like I said, it's partly my fault. Just like you, part of the reason that I wanted to be with you... was for the status. To feel 'mature'. So that everyone would see us together, and think 'hey, maybe she's not so weird after all if she can get together with a cute boy'."
She shook her head at her own absurdity.
"It's obvious. We're both way too new at this relationship stuff to make it work out right. Or at least, the way we want it to." Turning to face him head on for once, she paused.
"We're still young, Rosea-kun. We're entitled to make a few mistakes, right? You said that you were serious about changing yourself, about controlling your ego, becoming a better person?"
"Y-yeah..."
"Then", she offered, "maybe, in a few years from now, when it's time for me to choose if I want to share the rest of my life with someone, and be with them forever... maybe by then... you'll be that person."
Releasing his hand, she raised her new hairpin, jingling it around, and smiled sweetly at the gift. "I'd like that. But you shouldn't focus only on me, and I won't focus only on you. There's loads of other girls out there who might learn to like you, if you're honest with them."
"I... guess so." It still sounded like an admission of defeat to him, like it was something final.
Maybe that's necessary. Even the white hat loses the quick draw sometimes... and I can't exactly think of myself as a hero. Not any more. All I can do is try to become a hero.
"It's funny", she continued in a tone suggesting the opposite of levity. "We go out to a restaurant together to try and impress people and it feels so weird. And now, I guess we can tell people we've 'broken up', right? That's another 'mature' student thing, right?"
When he said nothing back, she returned her hand to his, forcing his attention back out of his turmoil. "Friends?"
Slowly, he brightened, returning to life. "Friends. Yeah. Of course. And, about your earlier question, my answer's still yes."
He rose from the bench, some of his old fire back in him. "I'm totally on board to help you find out what happened to Furusato-san too. I mean, why else did I get that Persona if I wasn't going to use it for anything?"
"I'm glad", she grinned back, as giddy to see his usual energy returned to him as he was. "Four is better than three. We'll have to introduce you to Nijima-san when we can, see if she can find a way to get you a weapon too."
He arched an eyebrow. "Huh? Nijima-san? Wait, isn't she a police off-"
He nearly fell over. Aiko had first thought it was due to the unseasonal heat, but he recovered quickly, merely clutching at his head with one hand. "What's wrong? You need some water?"
"No", he shook, his expression suddenly more frightened than he had been when staring down his own Shadow. "No. I just remembered... I remembered something that my Shadow did. Before he went back to my Land to fight you."
Alarmed, she helped him back up onto the bench. Her touch calmed him, helped him think more clearly. "Yes, Pela-tori saw it. He went to the Karma nightclub. That was when we saw our opportunity to save you while the Shadow was busy."
"Yeah", Julian confirmed, mind whirling with new images and sensations. Lady Scorpio. Prince Taurus. Leo. Aquarius. Masks. Salvation.
The intense fear his Shadow had felt after being completely thrashed by a Persona even more powerful. Mithras.
"T-they know", he managed to stammer out at last. "They know everything. About Personas. Shadows. The other world. And... they're planning something. Something big. They call it 'Salvation'."
The lack of shock on her face was a welcome sight. It meant that they might not be as in the dark as he had first feared.
"I thought that something was up", she mused out loud. "How could they tell that you'd been replaced by your Shadow, and reach out to him? They knew something had happened to the real you, but they weren't interested in the real you. They wanted a 'you' that wasn't even supposed to exist in this world. They wanted your Shadow, right?"
"Yeah", he confirmed in growing alarm. "Yeah, that's right. They wanted to recruit him. And that club manager, the dandy, the guy they called Prince Taurus... he can summon his Persona in this world! It owned the crap out of my Shadow too!"
His friend- ex-girlfriend, but still a friend- remained unfazed by this news. Or at least she didn't let it show. That, more than anything else he'd seen in the human world, was what impressed him. Seeing the way she had fought his Shadow, refusing to give up even when she'd been forced to take on the brutal beast solo... That memory was what he held onto now, giving him confidence.
So this Prince Taurus guy is really strong. So what? So is Saber. They both took on my Shadow and made him cry uncle.
And I'll have to get that strong too, if I want to help them. I can't be a burden. Not to Saber. Not to Tsuruga-chan. Not now. Not if they're going up against Mithras and the other ones.
"I think", he suggested, beginning to twirl his fingers out of reflex, as if they already had his twin revolvers wrapped around them, "that we should go take a closer look at that Karma club. It's showdown time."
Lips firm, she nodded. "I think you're right. Oh, and Rosea-kun? Welcome to the crew of the Dream Voyager."
Once I was young. Once I was frightened.
But now, I stand here enlightened.
Manan had prepared a feast meat skewers cooking on a campfire along the beach of his island. She didn't bother to ask where he'd gotten it from. Not in this world.
"And so three became four", he observed once she was done talking. "And you were truly able to forgive that lad after everything?"
Leaning back and feeling hair that had grown longer than her usual choice length pressing against the rock, Aiko stared back. "I told you. There was nothing to forgive. I was using him to feel and look mature, just like he was using me."
"The bond between two partners", the hermit considered as he ran one hand idly through his beard. "There is no bond more cherished than coming to completely understand another. Yet, upholding it as the ultimate goal makes people seek it out before they are ready. Before they understand what it means."
"We sure didn't understand", she agreed. "I still don't. There's tons of guys out there who are fun to be around, both on my crew and off of it... But I don't want to rush into things. Maybe I'm just scared of what it'll be like. Being together with someone like that."
"A thousand years ago", he noted in amusement, "you would be considered to be at the proper age for it already."
"Then I'm glad I wasn't born back then."
"Human society changes with time. It shifts about just as much as this place, for they are reflections of each other. But the ability to bond remains its single constant."
"There's another constant", she pointed out, the memories of what came next already infusing her words with bitter anger. "No matter what year it is, no matter where you are, some people just can't play by the rules. They do evil stuff in secret, disguising themselves so that no one can see the truth."
"The Karma Club's Masked Circle", Manan nodded in empathy, sharing in her disdain for them as well. "A group of incomplete humans seeking to attach a greater meaning to their suffering, who waged war against the wayward voyagers of dreams. You hate them, don't you?"
The sea of stars continued lapping at the shore, eating away at the colorless sand as she considered.
"No", she announced simply. "No, I don't. The Persona-users of the Masked Circle were definitely our enemies, and they were way, way smarter and tougher than any Shadow. But I don't hate them. Not after what we learned about them. It wasn't their mistake that caused the disaster that hit us next... It was my mistake."
A/N: 2nd arc done. Going to be a bit of hiatus before I begin again. Been having to work a lot lately, and more importantly, we're far enough along now that I want to build up a big buffer and have a good idea of the final acts before continuing.
In the meantime, I want to hear from YOU. I feel like this story's been getting way too depressing lately and will move to rectify that and show the characters having some fun as well as doing their missions, but I'm sure there's other problems that could be addressed. I've honestly never done much in the way of romance scenes until now, and I hope the talk between Ai and Julian/Jiachi didn't seem too stilted or unrealistic.
Less critically, which of the other Phantom Thieves besides Akira/Ren would you like to have a cameo role the most? I will be considerate of suggestions.
Finally, a note that one of my main ideas for Julian/Jiachi's situation was born from Lisa Silverman/Ginko of Persona 2, who also had a Japanophile father who tries to pressure her to become a 'proper Japanese woman', and she never gets along with him partly because of that.