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

Close Your Eyes, Sing A Lullabye

I Can't Defend, Don't Want This Night To End

6/20 Friday

Afternoon

The tough steel cables had wrapped all the way around Reiha Hayato's body tightly enough to dig hard into her ribs as a tough-looking Shadow roughly pulled her along the corridor to their destination. The armor that she had once been prepared to wear for the rest of her life itched uncomfortably, and her head still rang from the sudden change of air pressure.

Despite all of this discomfort, she found herself laughing- actually laughing for the first time she could remember as the bondage-wrapped guard brought her out onto the strangely well-lit bridge of the zeppelin where others of its type were working, keeping the ship stable in the air over the city she'd christened.

That laughter stopped only when she saw the woman in the black dress turn away from her spot at the curved glass window at the front of the bridge to face her.

To face herself.

"Hello, commissioner", she called out whimsically. "I'd like to request a vacation. You took one, so it's only fair."

Seeing the most recent addition to the Shadow ruler's getup nearly made her cut off, but she still managed to get the sentence out before gaping. The arms of the Shadow were exactly as lean and muscular as her own of course, but a large gray spike of a nail had now been jammed into the curve of both her shoulders just above the cuffs of the black opera gloves, deep enough to emerge out the other side of the arm. There was no sign of blood there, but both the openings were surrounded by patches of repulsive gray flesh suggesting severe infection. She understood enough about this world now to know that it had to be causing just as much pain as anyone would expect, if not more.

"I'm glad that you're finding this fun", her other self's heavy-lidded eyes fluttered heedlessly. "You might need to stay here for a while, until you remember your true duty to your people."

"Duty?" Reiha laughed anew, no longer caring how offended the guard holding her or how the crew or anyone else there seemed to radiate shame at her seeming lack of self-control. I suppose that is the ultimate freedom, really. No longer caring if I embarrass myself, if I earn the dislike of all of these Shadows.

A freedom I'll have to give up once I'm back among real humans. That is to say, humans whose opinions I actually care about. So, better enjoy it while I can.

"Y-you... don't know the meaning of the word", she coughed out, ignoring the way the guard tugged at the cable to make her shut up. "Neither did I. Because... you're me."

The ends of the ruler's dark lips drooped slightly, but her peaceful seeming eyes sharpened up, the inhuman reverb haunting the copy of her own voice becoming more pronounced. "Yes. I am part of you. The sense of duty, the one who worked all this time to built a perfect playground for you to enjoy for the rest of your days. Fortunately, I enjoy it just as much."

"A playground I never..." She caught herself. Lying was beyond pointless, and she'd lied to herself far too much already.

The Shadow beamed in triumph, spreading her impaled arms to encompass the enclosed bridge and the grim city beyond it. "They don't understand. None of them understand. For a world to have true justice, for its people to properly understand their duty... everyone in it has to suffer equally. The only way to prosper through it, to enjoy life, is to embrace the pain. To learn to breathe it as regularly as air. You learned that six years ago, didn't you?"

Fury lurched her forward, nearly tripping over her boots. "I... don't...! I don't wish that on anyone! I want other people to have happy lives, because I can't any more!"

"Such noble self-sacrifice", her tormentor smirked viciously. "But you do remember when you first discovered it? Discovered the raw beauty of pain? That knife we found was small, only a kitchen knife really, but..."

"Shut up!"

She did remember it.

That was the problem.

She knew now. Everything this city was had sprung up from that, and it was the loss before that had led to it. Cleaning the blood up afterwards had been a simple affair- she did not want to worry Dr. Spica, who was still so overbearingly concerned for her back then, almost like an adoptive father at times- but the pain remained long afterwards, daily teasing the nerves in her arms with tongues of flickering flame.

But it was also the first time in those first two years since the incident that she had felt truly alive. Like she wasn't just a discarded prop in someone else's movie. A movie that had been abandoned before completion due to Yakuza interference. The incomplete movie of Ruri Kanehsiro's life, never coming to a theater near you.

"Blaming the Phantom Thieves for it", she admitted, regaining her composure, "even on a subconscious level, was childish. They aren't the ones who took her away. Who destroyed my life."

"Exactly!", the Shadow nodded her eager approval of the revelation. "Yet, you kept on clinging desperately to that cognition, attacking the Phantom Thieves, because you knew it was impossible to ever revenge on the real culprit. The Dragon Syndicate, who are indestructible. Who get away with anything they wish, because justice is dead in that other world; it's rotten to the core! The only world clean of the rot, the only one where true justice can be served, is this Shirubashiti that we made! Together!"

"No."

The Shadow hid her anger at being contradicted well, merely giving her a sideways glance, batting thin black lashes but unable to say anything before Reiha continued.

"You're wrong. This? Except for me and Tsuruga's team, all of the humans here are fake! Just cognitions! And all these Shadows? You abuse and torture them until they submit to you! You tried to do the same thing to poor Tsuruga! This isn't justice!"

"Oh, but it is", her twisted copy emphasized, dropping the tone of amusement. "This is your justice. Our justice. What else can be done with corrupt Shadows, except redeem them through the miracle of pain? You can't pretend that you haven't wanted to do this to those wretched criminals in the other world too, because I am you!"

Fury rose in her again, staining the world red once more. The Shadow was just like Aiko had been, easily pressing the buttons to get her to dance to a tune of her choice, and far more skillfully since it knew her inside and out, every memory, every thought or feeling. Her fists clenched up inside the restraining cable... but then relaxed themselves. She forced herself to smile back at her doppelganger with equal savagery, to believe everything was going to turn out alright in the end.

"...It doesn't matter. Pretty soon, you're gonna regret kidnapping me like this. Tsuruga and her pals are on their way. And they're not gonna be happy with you."

The Shadow smiled too, clutching her gloves tightly so that the tiny thorns inside pressed deep into her skin. Nothing she'd said had come as a surprise. "Criminals deserve no mercy. They'll try. But they've never known pain like the kind that we have. Once they're properly restrained, then I will teach them to behave. And they will love me for it."

The threat curdled Reiha's blood, and she shook it off. "You're dreaming."

"So are you."

They didn't bother making any kind of plan this time.

Last time had been a complicated one that had, against all odds, gone as they had hoped, but there was no longer any subtlety required once they'd managed to sneak on board the gargantuan zeppelin floating over Shirubashiti. Fighting in the narrow corridors would be a tricky affair, and so any patrols had to be struck down with all their combined might before they could sound an alarm, and the belly was small enough that it was easy to navigate and determine the path up to the bridge. Over a dozen Shadows felt the impact of bullets or the sting of piercing blades, not even seeing who would destroy them before the end. The others had enough time to attempt one attack before being swarmed and annihilated.

None of the Voyagers spoke much. Even the usually hyper-verbal Jiachi seemed absent his usual cheer, completely focused on what was waiting for them instead of the next taunt or joke.

So focused in fact, that he didn't see the imposing metal door at the top of the next flight of the stairs until he'd slammed into it, cursing only after he'd recovered:

"...Damn it. This shit won't stop us! Stand back, I'll blast it down with all I've got! Ignite the heart, Wild Bill!"

But Pelagio was quick to stop him, forcing his arm down. "Would you please at least try to think before you act, you stupid boy! Remember where we are! Too much fire, and this entire ship and all of us could face a messy end on the ground."

Less apprehensively, Aiko pressed one hand to the door, wondering if one of the various other elemental skills at their disposal could do the job of breaking the door down without risking setting off an alarm or worse, plunging the zeppelin into a fatal crash. "It's thick", she realized out loud after a moment. "But maybe ice... or maybe fire and ice alternating like we learned in school. What's it called, the thing that cracks roads in the winter? Temperature shock?"

"No need to risk that", Mira tapped her shoulder and pointed. "There's an open door right over there."

Spotting it as well, she sighed. "Annnnd now I feel stupid. I suppose this one is probably a trap too, right?"

"Maybe", Noel piped up, recovered for his earlier sickness now that they were indoors again. "But we have no time to wait and see, and neither does Hayato. It's your choice."

"Through there", she only needed a moment to choose. "But Guardian, please watch out for any seams that might be trick floors or trap doors; Shadows we can fight, but not gravity."

"Of course, captain."

With Pelagio's raptor eyes carefully scanning every inch of the path, she felt a little safer, even when they came to a darkly furnished room similar to the one she'd been kept in at city hall. Likewise, the room contained a number of complex-looking devices, contraptions of metal and rope that she was the first to recognize were designed only to hold someone captive and hurt them in various ways.

"Disgusting", Pelagio remarked as he understood the intent as well. "Bad enough to use such vile devices on Shadows, but on humans as well?"

"We already know how seriously screwed up Hayato's Shadow is", Jiachi chipped in, his anger returned at remembering the state their leader had been in when they'd rescued her. That had been a bleak time, but now there were five of them. Even the scythe-wielding Shadow from before wouldn't be able to halt their progress for very long. "Shadow? More like sado, am I right?"

"Ours weren't much better", Mira reminded him gently. "What's important is that we save the real Hayato from her."

"What if she's a hostage?", Noel worried, gawking at a particularly sinister-looking bit of equipment designed to slowly drive curved metal thorns into bound flesh. "What if the Shadow tries to use her to make us stand down?"

"Then we call her bluff", Aiko reassured him calmly. "She can't kill Reiha. That's the one person that she can't risk killing, no matter what. Just like back when Gunslinger had a duel with his Shadow; sure, he talked big, but he only aimed for the leg."

"Correct", Pelagio nodded, acutely remembering how that sunlit battle had gone. It was almost nostalgic, remembering a Land which had an actual sun instead of eternal night. "The 'Other' cannot exist without the original self... and the opposite is also true. Perhaps if Hayato was in danger of leaving this Land anyway she might attempt something reckless, but until the final moment she cannot take that chance. It's more likely she will attempt to forcefully convince her to remain here."

"So it's actually more likely she'll try using us as hostages against her", Aiko realized in annoyance. "Too bad she has to beat us first for that to happen."

The passage eventually led up a long stretch of stairs, bypassing the bridge and emerging atop the massive balloon shape. Here, the top was covered by an upraised metal deck unfolding out to the size of a large house, surrounded by safety rails. While the chilly wind renewed its assault against them once they were out of the passage, Noel showed little sign of his earlier sickness. "So long as I don't look down, I'll be fine", he promised them.

At the top of the stairs lay a hatch flush with the deck, and atop that hatch lay Reiha's motionless body, still trapped by the cables wound around her, others actually entering into tiny holes in the deck to ensure she couldn't break free.

The black-dressed figure of her Shadow loomed up before them like an angry ghost, and the team were shocked to see a pair of gray metal spikes driven into the flesh of her shoulders, sharp tips emerging from the other side of the muscle, a riding crop delicately folded in her hands.

"Why are you here?", she asked the empty air half-rhetorically, her head tilted at a quizzical angle as if the spikes were nothing more than an interesting fashion accessory. "Does my life really mean that much to you all, risking yourselves like this? Or do you blindly follow your leader's wishes? Is she your mistress?"

Instinctively drawing her cutlass at the sight, Aiko waited as the others took up positions around platform, ready to support. "Hayato-senpai is my friend. Sure, there was a lot we didn't know about her, but that doesn't change who she is. And even if she were my very worst enemy, I'd still try to save her from this."

"Save her?", the Shadow tutted, wagging the crop tauntingly. "You really have no clue at all, do you? This dimension is humanity's salvation. It gives poor lost souls the worlds they've always desired for themselves, where everything is exactly how they want it to be. For the first time in six years, she was completely, totally happy... And you still insist on ruining that happiness for her?"

Sensing their leader was for once at a loss for how to respond, Mira stepped forward, her gaze as stern and determined as it had been when she had accepted the falsehood of her own Land. "We ruin nothing, Skaudee. All we did was force her to accept the truth. The truth that this entire city is nothing more than her waking dream."

"Nothin' but a coward's paradise", Julian followed up just as energetically. "Just running away from the reality. Sure, we get low sometimes. We wish the world was different, so that we could enjoy it more. But... creatin' these fake worlds just to satisfy individual people ain't the way to go! I know that now!"

"Hiding away in these manufactured Lands", Noel remarked heavily, "stifles a person's spark, what I believe to be their soul. What reason do they have to grow and develop, if everything they desire is provided for them? What you are proposing would only create a dimension full of spoiled children!"

It was the last verbal jab that finally made the Shadow show them real anger, fixing Noel with a venomous stare, snapping her crop in half. "The only spoiled children that I see are right in front of me", she whispered sinuously. "Still so woefully uneducated in the depths of the suffering that life in that other world can bring! If you only knew... If you had experienced the anguish Ruri Kaneshiro has... That I have..."

Too late, she realized the words had merely been a diversion to get her focused on Noel's slender face, unable to react in time to Aiko suddenly pulling her flintlock pistol loose and firing a bullet straight into the Shadow's chest, the smoke from the shot still lingering in the air.

"No", their young leader remarked callously. "But I can imagine it. And you'll notice that she's overcome her pain now. Because Hayato-senpai's not just a noble person... She's strong too. Unlike you."

"Heh. Kill stealer", Julian remarked with a sly wink to let her know he wasn't serious. "We should prolly buff up now, right?"

"Yeah. Do it!", Aiko nodded in agreement. Even Noel knew better than to think that would be the end of it, and sure enough they'd only just begun to prepare when the mad laughter came, nearly deafening despite being carried on the breeze.

"Hahaha... It's wrong. It's wrong, it's wrong, it's wrong, it's wrong, it's WRONG! Here, justice is served! Hail, horrors! Hail, infernal world! Show me your greatest, most beautiful agony... but you won't take me away from the world of my dreams!"

The Shadow's entire spine had bent back nearly double after the gunshot, they saw, the lips peeling back, screaming at them and promising them beautiful agony unseen by any other soul until something ripped through the hole in her gut in a shower of unidentifiable black fluid that obscured what exactly it was for a moment, the revolting sound of crunching bones, flesh ripping and tearing apart, melting and merging anew, drowning out the woman's deranged laughter as the structure of her body curled back on itself into a grotesque knot, the long glove-clad arms hanging dead limp- an abandoned puppet without strings.

The fluid-covered thing emerging from the hole in her chest looked vaguely head-shaped, but it could not possibly be a human's head. Dusky gray bat ears fanned out behind it for half a meter, pointed ends trembling with every shift of the wind. The eyes, too, were larger than normal, glowing with an unearthly violet light as shaggy furred lids released them. Beneath the hideous squashed snout of a nose, Reiha's normally attractive lips had been stretched wide across the replica of her face into a crazed glasgow grim, parting to reveal behind them nightmarish rows of curved fangs.

The rest of the Shadow's twisting body followed the same motif as it transformed, dark leathery wings stretching out from both sides to cover the platform at both ends heedless of the triangles of metal spikes driven through the skin stretched between the wing bones, the original human arms at the tips now falling off uselessly before disintegrating into blackness. Talons the size of swords ground into the metal, driven by dense musculature greater than any the true Reiha Hayato had or would ever know.

Without preamble, the legs sprang, vaulting the enormous creature up into the air where it could take flight. "Come to me!", the monstrosity shrieked, now so bestial and high-pitched that it was barely recognizable as a duplicate of Reiha's. "I need your pain!"

"Permanent flight", Pelagio observed with an aggravated snarl from his beak. "I cannot reach her at this distance."

"Then we shoot her down", Aiko claimed, keeping her eyes on the Shadow while the others called up their Personas to strike at a distance. "If she tries for a dive on us..."

"I shall be ready", the falcon knight promised as the light Mira's speed-boosting skill covered him. At his direction, his Galahad Persona unleashed a chain of small blue flares across the enemy's hide, briefly illuminating the night but scarcely harming their target. The following spray of bullets from Mirambela and Jiachi seemed marginally more effective, but not enough to stop its winged from folding in preparation for a counterattack:

"Taste the justice of the eternal night! Maeiha!"

Oily black tendrils of curse energy stained with red struck them all in turn, eliciting a howl of injury from Noel, who seemed to be affected by it worse than normal. He was able to reverse the damage just as quickly with Dellingr's healing light, but the worry on his face was unmistakable.

"Spread out!", Aiko called. "We can hit her from anywhere on the platform; we don't need to stay close together! That's just what she wants! And, Mender... I know this sounds cowardly, but get over near Hayato. She'll be more reluctant to attack you then, and you can protect her."

No one protested the plan, each of their attackers taking up a spot at each of the corners of the platform. At the same time, Aiko reached for the brim of her captain's hat and concentrated, eyes flashing with green flame. "Follow the wind, Simurgh!"

The rest of the team stopped attacking for a moment to stare- the Persona she'd replaced Lorelei with was easily the largest one she had ever summoned, a colorful orange and white wingspan encompassing much of the platform before they folded aside to reveal a majestic shape perhaps closest to an enormous flame-tailed peacock sailing overhead, a golden glow emanating from its round eyes and granting light to a dour gray beak.

"That's a new one!", Mira called out in awe. "It's kinda... cute! Can it really...?"

"Sorry", Aiko cut her off. "It can't carry us. But it can do something else that you might like."

Spinning around, she took aim on the giant bat-creature as it swooped closer. As the flintlock fired, so did the Persona, its beak opening and unleashing a hail of dart-shaped pellets into the enemy hard enough to make her flinch away, if only for a moment.

"Enhances your gun's power", Julian approved, grinning brightly. "Awesome!"

"Actually, this is just a gun-related skill", Aiko confessed as she lowered her aim for a moment. "Like that triple shot thing you use sometimes. Focus on targeting the bones of the wings now, please."

They did, creating a renewed barrage of gunfire that only intensified as Julian began bolstering them all with the Tarukaja skill... yet just like the previous Shadow, this one seemed to be able to soak up their attacks without any sign of slowing down.

In fact, it sounded just the opposite.

"Yes!", the Shadow shrieked in unnerving ecstasy as soared around the zeppelin's bulk, gathering momentum for a power dive at him. "Yes, yes, yes! That's it! Hurt me more! MORE!"

"Creepy", Noel muttered as he watched the battle unfold from his new position, guarding Reiha. "Wait... Gunslinger, watch out!"

Too late, Julian realized the Shadow was singling him out, bladed talons the size of cars flashing out to grab him by the torso and pinning his arms. It didn't stop Wild Bill from lashing out at her with a renewed blaze of fire, but that in turn was shrugged off, the monstrosity's jaws opening up to release what looked like concentrated spray of brackish red fluid directly into his face until he passed out from it.

"Don't move!", Aiko warned Noel just as he was about to rush over to try and help. "You're safe. Just heal him from there, okay?"

Pelagio had taken advantage of the opening to finally swing his broadsword down, slashing into grisly fur before a wing bone rose to block his follow up. A more powerful single-target curse skill assaulted him, allowing the Shadow to escape with minimal damage even as it was peppered with retaliatory nuclear blasts, Mira's tranquilizing darts following after but failing to cause any kind of drowsiness in the creature.

"Saber", Noel announced warily. "Listen. I've healed him, but I think there's something else wrong with him. This isn't an ailment that I've seen before."

"What is it?", she asked, just as worried as she abandoned firing to check Julian out herself. "Sleep? Poison? Disease again?"

She was halfway across the platform to him when she realized what their devoted medic was talking about. Julian was still passed out on the floor, lightly trembling. His skin had taken on a shade too pale to exist in nature, too pale for life. None of the healing skills had brought any color back to his flesh.

In the next instant, she saw his eyes suddenly pop open, now tinged thick with a tarry red border the same color as the spray. A childish, gleeful, cruel grin carved itself across his face like it was made of sculptor's clay, and within that grin she saw fangs the length of fingers.

"I need your pain", he demanded, his voice a low bestial animal's growl as he was rising, discarding his weapons, his Persona, to raise his arms. "Give me your pain!"

Taking a brief, parting moment to sincerely regret the one time that she had been foolish enough to be tricked into watching a vampire movie- even if it had been a low-budget one- Aiko darted back, far away from his reach. "Mender, please tell me there's a way to fix this!"

"I will try!", he vowed, releasing Dellingr's soothing beams of light anew, not only on Julian but the wounded Pelagio as well. Noticing their predicament, the falcon knight leaped into action as well, positioning his shield to guard against the new attacker.

"That Shadow only exposes herself to my sword briefly", he reasoned out loud. "In the meantime, I can protect you all from this!"

"Whatever you do, don't let him bite you!", she warned, turning her attention back to the source of all their trouble. Reiha's Shadow had kept her distance since the previous encounter, but was clearly just waiting for the next opening to repeat the grisly process with another one of her teammates. Mira had come to the same conclusion, and as soon as the creature's wings folded into position for a dive at Aiko, Oya's fiercest winds gathered around her, throwing her off course, nearly causing a crash and forcing a complete miss of her target.

Still, this is very bad, she mused in a fevered mix of adrenaline and horror at what the Shadow had done to their friend. She just soaks up all the damage we dish out like it doesn't even matter. Melee seems to be the only thing that makes a real dent, but she's keeping her distance now. If she can just keep gliding around, wearing us down from afar, we'll tire out before she does. We need to change that up. Maybe if Guardian could change into a ballista or something?

But even if he could, Pelagio was clearly busy shoving Julian back whenever he tried to go after one of them. Other healing skills from Noel struck him, but nothing he used seemed able to undo whatever the Shadow had done to him. Is it really... actual vampirism? No... It can't be. He's not trying to bite us and suck our blood. He's just trying to hurt us. Just like...

Her heart skipped. Just like Reiha was.

"Guardian!", she called, careful not to break his concentration at a critical moment. "Take this!"

Pelagio caught the thrown item easily, but looked confused when he saw the colorless pill. "Hm? Relax gel? Why?"

"Just trust me! Force it down his throat!"

She couldn't wait any longer to see if he was successful in that goal, as their true enemy had launched another attack, rising up above the platform before flapping both wings madly, generating a shockwave of disturbed air that swept across to knock Noel and Mira down, wide open to another dive.

Mira must have known she wouldn't be able to escape then, because the instant the Shadow grabbed her two silver daggers sank into her legs, furthering the damage Pelagio's sword had started. Gritting through it, the creature's jaws opened to release the same blood red spray into her face.

"Saber! Switch over to Lorelei!", Mira shouted to her. "Until we figure out how to cure this, put me to sleep! Put me to- urghh..."

She was overwhelmed then, dropping limp in the Shadow's grip and gone just as snow pale as Jiachi as she fell. Moments later, she rose up again in the same condition, the predatory fanged smile even more unnerving on her round face than his. "Your... pain! Give me it! GIVE IT TO MEEE!"

Aiko was already prepared, releasing Lorelei's Dormina skill to cast her friend into a peaceful slumber on the deck. A temporary solution, she recognized with a sinking heart, and one that won't matter if she manages to do that to any more of us.

The Shadow seemed content to let her dwell on that gnawing fear for a moment, making a retching noise before spewing out purple spray in an arc that encompassed the entire platform, inflicting fast-acting poison on Pelagio and Aiko at once. Seeing the way Noel quickly acted to remove the toxin with Dellingr's power, it focused the Eiga skill against him. "Hiding back there?", the horrid bat screech taunted their devoted medic. "Do you really have no talents other than healing? Or...?"

"I... do have other skills", Noel replied wearily as Dellingr's light healed him, more than satisfied to be able to create a momentary break in the Shadow's assault through simple conversation. "But have taken a vow, before almighty God... that I shall never harm another."

The Shadow laughed in mockery. "So you're a coward then! Healing others is completely meaningless! Your skills cannot erase the memory of the pain! It remains with them always! That is God's gift to us! We are all of us the sum of our scars!"

"I'm a pacifist", he protested mildly.

More laughter, loud enough to reach every part of the city. "A coward patting himself on the back! I think that you should be the next to know my loving embrace! That will make you see the truth!"

The creature released the dizzying squall from its wings before diving towards him, heedless of the risk that she might hit her 'other' by mistake. Desperate to stop her, Aiko unleashed Matador's winds, but they were weaker than Oya's and this time the Shadow held to its course, zeroing in on Noel, jaws opening to release the deadly spray-

Until a rising punch smashed into the opening fanged jaw, knocking it reeling back. "W-what? But...!"

Reiha Hayato smirked at her Shadow's flash of confusion, spinning around to deliver a kick squarely to its furred chest, forcing a hasty retreat back into the air, all the while pursued by Aiko's vengeful shots, once again powered by Simurgh.

"I said I was a pacifist", Noel clarified, sounding almost smug about it, twirling the broken steel cables in his arms. "Nothing about my vow stops me from undoing another's bonds, particularly one so badly abused by you. Right, Hayato-san?"

Completely awake, Reiha chuckled darkly beside him, pounding her fists together threateningly. "Hell yeah. Thanks for getting me loose, Vitienne."

"Mender", he reminded her smoothly, blue eyes veiled as he smiled back. "Here, I'm Mender. And it was no trouble at all. Vow or no, I despise feeling so useless in this kind of situation."

"Whoever said that you were?", Aiko asked, aghast. "Every good team needs a medic! Sure, Dancer was in that role before you joined us, and I always make sure to keep a Persona on hand with healing powers just in case... but neither one of us are as good at it as you are. Plus, you're the only one here who can revive people. If you hadn't been here, we might never have made it this far."

The happiness on his face seemed completely at odds with their surroundings, and only lingered long enough for her to see the gratitude in it. "Then you should take this. Your throwing arm is better than mine."

Catching the severed remains of the cables, she paused before catching on. "Ohhh, right! That's the key, isn't it? We need to bring her down here in a way she can't get away from. Good thinking!"

"Unlike you", he noted apologetically, "I've had time to watch this fight unfold, and come up with a solution to her powers of flight."

"Maybe", another voice intruded. "But I should be the one to take that cable. My throwing arm's better."

Turning, she stared into the determined glare of Julian, his complexion, eyes and mouth returned to normal. "You're okay?"

His stare had turned threatening and angry, actually more intimidating than it had been before. "Damn cheap OP blood-sucking BS. Good thing you figured out how to cure it. You should do the same for Dancer now, yeah?"

She didn't bother to correct him that the attack wasn't actually sucking out anyone's blood. That had been the crucial hint, the idea that it wasn't anything like all the movies and TV shows would consider 'traditional' vampirism. There was no time yet.

They still had a Shadow ruler to deal with.

Dashing over, she quickly slipped another one of the teal gel pills into Mira's pliant mouth as well. Without waiting for her to wake up, she stood, swapping Personas once more back to Simurgh to resume firing. "Running away now?", she wondered, seeing the creature's flight speed increasing as it veered around. "No... Everyone, grab onto something!"

She saw the Shadow's speed ramp up even further once it had lined up with its true target- the squat bulk of the zeppelin lying beneath the platform, passing out of their sight just before ramming directly into the center.

The entire world seemed to shake and topple over at a sharp angle, gravity pressing down on them all equally, challenging whatever grip they'd gotten their hands on and seeking to cast them all into a sixty-plus-floor drop to the ground below. Undeniably fatal, as she'd predicted earlier.

She saw Mira and Noel flying past her into that abyss, the former too groggy from the earlier sleep skill to prevent her fall and the latter unable to keep his grip tight on the rail. Before Mira could pass out of sight however, Oya's green winds gathered in full force and a miniature typhoon blasted her back the opposite way until she'd managed to grab onto a rail.

Noel had no such powers, and a terrified panic dominated his face until a black cable lashed out, wrapping itself around a desperately outstretched arm to catch him. "Hold on tight, 'Good Boy'", Jiachi remarked, tying the other end of it to a rail so that he could climb up. "Pretty sure you won't be able to patch yourself up from that kind of fall!"

The terror in the other boy's eyes remained undiminished though, and he squeezed them tightly shut, his body and mind freezing in the open air. "P-please... please, don't let go!"

"Ugh, fine. Leaves us wide open, though."

"You just had to say it", Aiko grunted; the next attack struck even before the zeppelin had finished tilting back to a safe position. Instead, it began to periodically shake, suggesting a heavy weight moving about on the ship's exterior, creating drag but not enough to bowl it over completely. "Maybe one of us should get down to the bridge and take control?"

"No time!", Mira cautioned. "We need everyone up here to deal with this Shadow!"

"I'll go", Reiha offered, relaxing her arms now they no longer had to grip the rails for dear life. "I don't have those crazy powers like the rest of you do. All I've got is my fists and feet."

Aiko blinked momentarily, looking back at her in confusion. She looked so much better without the awful helmet, and she hadn't actually factored her in as an ally until now.

"Actually...", she said after a moment of thought, "you should stay. You're actually this Shadow's weakness. It can't risk hurting you too much. It's a part of you. If you died, it would go too."

Reiha's eyes widened. "Oh? Is that how it is? Uh... Sorry, I've still got a lot to catch up on here. I did just wake up like two minutes ago after all."

"I shall go", Pelagio offered. Unlike the others, he had survived the ship's tilt by simply digging his sword into the ground, clinging to it until things were stable again. "This Shadow is cowardly. She has been avoiding direct combat with us thus far, and I lack any ranged attack save for Galahad's skills."

But the next moment suggested just the opposite- as the ship was pulled down by the most severe tremor yet, its source reared up over the platform railing, gripping the hull with its claws and spewing more of the revolting blood red mist.

Directly into their leader's face.

Pelagio felt like he understood an important part of humans much better than he had moments ago. No matter how important it was to keep a level head, no matter how much those years spent fighting Shadows alone hardened his resolve... sometimes the horrifying things happening around you were just too much for anyone think straight, and panic reigned. His body wanted to give in, to scream and blindly charge the enemy with his sword until the fear went away, back down where it belonged.

But he had to think straight now. Now, he was no longer fighting alone. All the lives of his human friends depended on his not giving in to his own panic. Their captain had assigned him as second in command, to take charge if she were ever again captured or incapacitated.

He was fairly certain that this situation qualified. Reiha's hideous Shadow had begun clambering up onto the platform atop the zeppelin unopposed, the added weight still shifting it slightly but not enough to be a danger yet. Noel still hadn't managed to climb back to safe ground, though Julian was trying with limited success to talk him through it; yet another case of humans succumbing to their fear at the worst time.

Aiko had fallen to the floor, blacking out the instant the spray hit her full on. As he watched, the deathly pallor spread unabated over her body and face. The same red tinged her eyes as they slid open once more, the smile of a particularly deranged slasher villain decorating her face as she lunged after an evasive Mirambela. "Haha... Come to me! I need your pain! I NEED YOUR PAIN!"

Which left only Reiha and himself with options. As much as he was tempted to do as he'd suggested and run down to the bridge to take down the Shadow there, he knew it was too much of a gamble. The steel door from before had no reason to be unlocked, and to abandon the fight would be to abandon whatever control they had left.

"I... require your assistance", he said astonished at his own calm more than anyone else. "Dancer, go and cure the captain. Hayato, help Gunslinger", he commanded once he'd taken all this in and made a decision. "Haul Mender in if you have to- we need him back immediately."

The Shadow was close enough to hear his words of course, and its nightmare nest of fangs grimaced as she moved to intercept her 'other self'. "You don't need that soft weakling! Let him fall!"

Pelagio said nothing to that, calmly raking his blade along one exposed leg before driving the boss of his shield into the creature's snout hard enough to break bone and cartilage. That earned an angry shriek and redirected her attention to him, claws descending as her maw opened wide once again to release the red spray, only for it to splash harmlessly against his shield.

Despite her earlier reluctance to go toe to toe with any of them, this was one opponent who didn't flinch when injured. If anything, she seemed to enjoy it, feeding off the pain they caused. That was how she had lasted this long, and why his human friends had looked a bit nauseous for this entire battle even when they weren't being forced to confront zombified allies, that in itself being a terrifying experience for them...

Ironically, he'd never understood them as well as he did now.

Even he had to confess a lack of experience with a much larger opponent who seemed to greatly enjoy being injured. But deep injuries will still stop you, he told himself as he dodged and parried and struck again and again. Learning to feed off your own pain does not make you immune to the other side effects, even in this twisted reality.

When the enemy stopped to focus her own skill into another blast of unwholesome-feeling curse energy, he had the Praesi barrier skill ready to intercept it, sloughing off the majority of the damage. Though it felt much longer at the time, the skirmish couldn't have lasted longer than thirty seconds, at the end of which the Shadow finally let loose a growl of frustration- along with a repeat of the violet poison spray.

"Persistent! I like a man with some endurance! Why don't you take off that stuffy armor so we can have some real fun with each other? The safe word is 'justice'!"

"I must confess I have absolutely no idea what you are suggesting", he remarked, pulling back from a talon swipe. "However, given what I know of you Shadow, I must decline. I rather doubt you'll be around to enjoy it much longer regardless."

"What?!"

Then he saw that his captain was back where she belonged. Beside him, freshly cured and healed, with her cutlass buried up to the hilt in the enemy's flesh and Matador's grinning skull visible behind her. Mira joined them as well, silver daggers stabbing into the backside of the wings and easily dodging the retaliation.

"Bad idea", their leader observed, icy calmness concealing a murderous anger at the one who had controlled her, however brief, "getting in close to us like this. Our guns and skills can't hurt you enough to matter with your thick hide, but this? Even that twisted body of yours has to follow some kind of physical laws."

"You were too impatient", Mira seconded, channeling Oya's lightning through her daggers into the enemy. "So are we, brasha. The sooner we take you down, the sooner we can finally get out of this awful place. Unless you'd care to give up now? That would be nice for a change."

Unleashing the wide-spread curse skill to strike them all anew, the Shadow leaped away from her attackers, noticing only now that the repeated physical strikes had damaged the bones of her wings enough that getting into the air was no longer an effortless move, snapping about uselessly until she got them folded into the correct position. That gave them the time to let loose with another barrage of elemental skills; Matador's billowing wind, followed up by Mira and Pelagio's fused nuclear and lightning spell creating a chain of shocking detonations.

The pristine light of healing skills descended on them next, removing the curse damage. Noel stood tall beneath Dellingr, Reiha deliberately standing close to shield their medic for any incoming counterstrike.

"She won't surrender", Reiha lamented. "I wouldn't, and she is me. Besides, if what you said is right, as soon as I leave Shirubashiti, she'll vanish, and go back into me. Won't be able to enjoy pain any more. Hers, or anyone else's."

"Then we know what we need to do", Julian acknowledged coldly. As the panicked Shadow managed to vault back into the air, another cable- this one tied into a crude lasso- flew out to fall around one of the large metal spikes embedded in the creature's wings.

With a great tug of strength, he hauled the cable down, bringing the Shadow with it to slam hard into the platform. "YEE-haw! Damn, these things are useful! Thanks so much for leaving 'em here for us."

"Tie it to the rail!", Aiko suggested, moving with Matador's speed to grab the one that had saved Noel's life and toss it around one of the other wing spikes on the opposite side. "Don't let her take off again!" The bat-winged atrocity resisted of course, but any attempt to stop them were met with nuclear blasts from Pelagio and darts from Mira. By the time they'd been forced to retreat, a golden halo had formed around it, causing no injury but glowing brightly enough to draw the blood-red eyes to its source in Dellingr.

"Hama... You broke your vow? For me? I'm touched."

Noel stood before her calmly, shaking his head. "Nein. I knew that skill would have no effect on you. You're far too powerful to be expelled that way. That was just a distraction."

A successful distraction, she realized with a start. The others had bought Aiko and Julian the time they'd needed to tie both the cables tight, roping each wing to the rails running along the edge of the platform until neither one could be raised to generate lift. The Shadow groaned and struggled and thrashed, but couldn't break loose. In fact, the effort only left her open to a renewed physical onslaught from Mira and Pelagio.

"Dancer's offer is still open, by the way", Aiko called once she'd secured the cable to the rail and joined the battle herself. "The last Shadow of your type we fought didn't want to go quietly either. He regretted it. But you don't have to do that."

"Surely you know by now that you've lost", Mira concurred. Despite the new confidence in their voices, they made sure to stand a good distance apart so a surprise red or purple spray or a curse skill could only hit one target. "Just return to Hayato-senpai, and let her leave this place. You're a part of her, after all. You won't die. You'll just... return to being inside of her."

"Nice to see everyone's so happy to decide how we handle this", Reiha grumbled from the rear. Sensing worry, she gave a relaxed smile. "Hey, it's okay. I know that she's a part of me. An ugly part that I've tried to hide away for so long, even from myself... but a part."

Her Shadow looked equally uninspired by the idea, growling as she struggled against her bonds. "Hah... Fool. You're confusing ugliness for honesty. A common mistake. What's really ugly is forcing everyone to conceal what they really believe, and go around with fake smiles plastered on their faces. What justice can be found in such a hopelessly deluded world?"

Julian snorted, moving up to a position beside Noel, both weapons ready. "Pff. Now you sound like Prince Taurus. Who, for the record, was way tougher to beat than you."

"We all have that hidden part", Mira said less insultingly. "The selfish part. If we didn't mask that, it would be impossible to live with other people."

The Shadow stopped struggling. Its jaws and the dozens of razor fangs within curled into an awful mocking rictus. "Exactly."

Taking a deep breath gave Pelagio enough time to get his shield up before it released a sonic scream like none they had ever heard before, the noise an impossible assault on the senses that blasted down the auditory before temporarily breaking every other sense as well, leaving all six of them bent over clutching their heads in a desperate attempt to make it stop.

When it became possible to see and think again, Aiko saw the Shadow's wings rising up above them, actually tearing the zeppelin's rails loose from their housings with the effort before vaulting back into the air with a triumphant screech:

"There is no need for masks here! No need to accommodate the will of others here! Here, I can be who I have always wished to be! Mistress Kaneshiro! Now, kneel! KNEEL!"

The spikes they had tied to the ship dropped down to the platform with two heavy thuds, torn free of their enemy's wings. Ascending to a height just out of melee reach, the creature's jaws opened again. Nothing emerged from them this time, instead drawing air inwards like a vacuum.

The vacuum pulled at something deep within her, something unnameable that it nonetheless hurt to lose. She saw the others losing it too, some form of energy being leeched away from them in the form of unstable white light until they all looked a great deal more tired, or as though they'd all been struck at once by the Shadow's strongest curse attacks.

Or maybe this one is the strongest, she considered, forcing herself to stand. All the stolen vitality converged into the Shadow's mouth where it eagerly chowed down, the glow instantly flushing through its skeleton, briefly making it visible while revitalizing its own flagging stamina.

Dellingr's light covered them then, regaining most of what they'd just lost, but it was the sight of their enemy's healing that disheartened her more. If she can keep doing that, draining us every time she gets low...

And the Shadow shrieked its triumph. "Hail, horrors! Hail, infernal world!"

"Enough!", Mira raised her dart gun, unloading on the rising enemy as it rose up out of their reach... until it made a clicking sound and she gave a sigh. "Never mind- I'm out of ammo."

"No you're not", Jiachi insisted, reaching into his jacket, producing a small box and handing it off to her. "I bought spares for both you and Saber. Yeah, I know, me planning ahead? Go ahead and laugh."

"Wasn't thinking it. Wasn't.", Aiko mock-protested, accepting the refill gratefully- her flintlock had also nearly run out without her realizing it. "I'll take any breaks can get now. Back to square one."

"And I doubt she shall fall for the same trick twice", Pelagio groaned. "We should have finished her off back when we had the advantage; Shadows never surrender."

"Ruler Shadows", Aiko corrected him. She'd certainly managed to convince a fair number of weaker Shadows to became her Personas, or even give them gifts in exchange for being spared. But as he said, this one couldn't be forced to give up, not with all the brutal abilities it had. Jiachi's Shadow had been the same way.

"She really is me then", Reiha remarked wearily before shaking off her injuries. "Alright then. I've had enough of this shit. See ya."

In the time it took for them to make sense of those words, she was sprinting to the edge of the platform and swan diving off the ship, quickly passing out of sight. "No!", Aiko was the first to find her own words again.

"Hayato, what the actual hell?!", Julian screamed.

But theirs shouts were drowned out by a far more desperate scream from the Shadow: "NO!"

Too late to throw another cable out, they ran after her to the edge, seeing the way the Shadow suddenly veered, drastically changing her flight path to catch her 'other self'. When the creature failed to pull back up again, Pelagio shook his helmeted head. "We inflicted too much damage to her wings earlier. Gliding may be possible, but a power dive like that may have disabled her completely.

"Then we need to get down there", Ai ordered, trying to block out a bad case of the shudders. "Time to take control."

She wasn't completely successful. It was easy, too easy to slide back into how the Shadow's 'embrace' had felt. Like someone had poured a smelter's contents into her from top to bottom, the searing blocking out all other thought until nothing remained but the voices, the whispers of dark joy and agony... and the only release from it was to find another to share the pain with.

Mira and Julian were both trying to hide it too, but someone who knew them as well as she did could tell just how badly that experience had shaken them up inside.

"Absolutely", Noel continued, clutching both arms to his chest as he shivered not from past fears, but from temperature. "It feels colder... are we...?"

Seeing the way the lights of the city were beginning to gradually shrink, Mira nodded. "Yes, we're ascending. I think she must have told the Shadows in the bridge to do it."

"And if we get too high up into the air...", Julian's eyes widened in horror. "We gotta stop this. Now."

"How?", Mira asked in growing panic. "They still have that door, and blowing this thing up from the inside still ends with us dead."

Trying not to let the same fear paralyze her again, Aiko's eyes scanned the platform for an answer, and found one. "Those spikes", she pointed to the discarded implements. "Guardian, please help me pick them up."

Julian's brow furrowed in confusion. "What? You're seriously gonna pop this balloon?"

"Sort of. If you could carry the other one too, please? We don't have much time to get this done before we all freeze."

Assailed by two chills now- the cold air and the terror of what might happen, Noel stared into her. "Are you sure this is safe, Saber? If we release the trapped air..."

"No", she confessed, not pausing as they lugged the two large implements over to the edge of the ruined platform. "But it's still safer than any other way out of this I can think of right now. Left side please, as far forward as we can go. Push it in deep."

The last of this was meant for Pelagio, who helped her lift the heavy bolt over the edge before shoving it into the drab exterior of the zeppelin.

Noel held his breath for a sudden, explosive release of air pressure followed by their near certain death, but nothing so dramatic occurred. The result was merely a high-pitched hissing emanating from the spot where the spike had been jammed into the front of the ship, air clearly escaping but not at a fast enough rate to disturb the zeppelin's rapid ascent. Already they could all see each other's breath, as well as the way they were all fighting not to succumb to the growing cold and simply lie down.

Then the second spike jabbed down, and the hissing noise doubled. "Of course the air just has to be the one part of Hayato-senpai's Land that's actually realistic", Aiko complained, switching Personas to Jack Frost merely to neutralize the cold. "We're still not losing height fast enough!"

Pelagio was the only one who showed no signs of being affected. Watching the two spikes poking out of the front of the balloon, he stepped between and shoved his sword down the middle, amplifying the hissing even further. When their ascent still failed to stop, Mira stepped forward, and carefully added her ornamental daggers in on either side of Pelagio's weapon like it was some kind of display in a museum like the kind they'd been in moments before.

Aiko cautiously peered back over the side. It was impossible to tell if they were safe, but the lights of Shirubashiti weren't getting any smaller, at least, and it wasn't getting any colder. In fact, the temperature was dropping.

And so were they.

"Glad I didn't donate my weapon", she sighed helplessly. Their survival was in the hands of fate now. "Don't pull yours out yet, please; that'll make us lose air even faster. This is going to be close already."

The entire front end of the balloon was collapsing now, they all realized, the hissing becoming deafening as the hull slowly sagged down like a melting candle, the weight pulling down the rest of it faster than she'd expected. The lights of Shirubashiti had gone from receding pinpricks of stars back into the sweeping white floods they actually were.

"Back inside now", Pelagio commanded without waiting for her. "We shan't be safe out here any longer."

"Good plan, captain", Mira praised her once they were all back inside the stairway passage. "I'm sure that Skaudee intended for us to die from this."

Had she? Aiko honestly had to wonder. Up until now, Reiha's Shadow had focused on bringing the Voyagers pain, whether to try and convert them to her way of thinking or another demonstration of sadism. Even when fighting, she'd aimed to torment and enslave, not to kill. Only now, when they had her on the run, had that plan changed.

She wished that realization could generate some kind of confidence in their landing safely, but the sight of Reiha jumping off the ship was too fresh in her mind to celebrate.

"You can congratulate me", she advised, "if we survive the next few minutes."

The roof they'd landed on- perhaps crashed was the better term- was dusty and featureless, a flat slate of brick and mortar indiscernible from dozens of other buildings around Shirubashiti that seemed to hold no other purpose beyond filling up space, to make the city seem more complete and 'alive'.

Of course, Reiha knew that was the exact truth now. Enough of the threads had been spotted to make the rest clear as day. Just as it was clear that saving her 'other' had cost her Shadow a great deal of her remaining strength.

She didn't punch the bat-winged creature on the way down- that would have been pushing her luck a little too far, she felt. Only once they were back on solid ground again did she lay into the beast with fists and feet.

"Y-you... you knew", the Shadow managed to pant in a mix of exhaustion and awe, blocking most of the attacks but no longer able to get away. "You knew that... I would save..."

"I did", Reiha agreed, a note of genuine sadness touching her voice. "Tsuruga made it pretty clear that we're two sides of the same person. And even if she hadn't explained it that way... I think I knew all along. I just didn't want to accept it. To accept you."

The Shadow attempted to defend against the strikes, but the act of trying only damaged her tattered wings all the more. "Pain exists for a reason", she continued, sensing a fearful silence from her reflection for the first time in memory. "To tell us when to stop. Sure, if you teach yourself to feed off it, you can last a while. Maybe do the things that other humans are scared to... but that doesn't stop the bones in your wings from breaking. That last dive pushed them too far, and even all that vitality you stole from us earlier didn't repair those wounds. You're finished."

"No!", the Shadow's furious shriek suggested otherwise, the force of it casting her away and leaving it room to laugh again, though weakly, as though suffering from a collapsed long as well. "They're the ones who are finished! They can't escape my ship... my servants will make sure of that!"

Momentarily thrown, Reiha searching the dark skies for a sign of the giant zeppelin before regaining her confidence. "Sure about that? 'Cause I'm pretty sure every time you thought you had them before, you were wrong. City hall, for one thing. I was there. I saw when Taurus ambushed them on the way out. Tried to help 'em beat him."

"Defending those in need of help from a criminal", the collapsed Shadow noted with a strange note of admiration among its reverb.

"Yeah", she chuckled back, eyes nearly shut. "One of the only times I've actually really done that. The rest of the time, I was just in it so I could dish out some pain, and feel some in return."

"But there were other times", a voice called to her, one she never thought she would hear again. "Weren't there?"

Both sides of Reiha turned to spot him, both stunned to see the image of Joker- of Akira Kurusu- speaking to them in any words that weren't copied from the legendary Phantom Thieves' broadcast six years ago.

"You worked in secret to protect the Tsuruga girl from Kujou's bullying", Joker continued. For once, the smile on his face didn't look mocking or evil. It shone with approval. "And she wasn't the only one, was she?"

"You're... my cognition?", Reiha remembered, feeling dazed. So much had happened in the last hour. So much had changed.

"Yes", he nodded. "And I must say, I'm glad you finally let go of that old grudge, and accepted that I'm a living, thinking person too. I can finally say things other than that stuff you heard me say on the broadcast when we took down Masayoshi Shido."

The sickly coloration of his face was gone too, she noticed. It had returned to a normal, it overly pale, fleshy tone without any trace of the earlier distortion. The distortion which had made her view him as an evil criminal, nothing more.

"You Phantom Thieves", she considered, returning to her feet. "You had the same weird powers as Tsuruga's team, right? That's how you changed people's hearts?"

The Thief made an innocent shrug, red gloved poking out of his sleeves. "Maybe. Remember, I'm just your conception of the real Joker. I don't know any more about that than you do. What made you guess that?"

"Your confidence", she nodded in affirmation. "The kind of guts that it takes to make that kind of broadcast to all of Japan, against Masayoshi Shido, the most powerful and ruthless man in the country..."

"Good guess", another new arrival chimed in. "And correct, for the most part."

All three of them- Shadow, cognition and human, followed the noise to an upraised section of roof. The Dream Voyagers stood there, none of them showing any sign of the damage they'd taken earlier.

Naturally, the Shadow rose in fury, only prevented from lunging by the mangled mess her wings had become. "What?! No! How did you all survive?!"

"Fuck you", Julian replied, his voice lowered back to the same deadly calm he'd shown when they had broken into the city hall to find their leader bound and tormented, "that's how."

"That was a good trap", Noel admitted beside him, still shivering from the cold air and the after-effects of vertigo. "But once again, you provided us with the tools we needed to escape, even if you weren't consciously aware of it."

"That just proves that deep down, she knows we're right", Mirambela carried on, her face mournful. "Hayato-senpai doesn't belong here. No human does."

"Do not relax your guard just yet, Dancer", Pelagio warned them, his shield at the ready to defend. "We gave this Shadow one chance to surrender already, and she took full advantage of it. She will not listen to anything you say now."

Indeed, the sight of them seemed to have roused whatever reserves of strength the creature had left. Even if it could barely move, it could still speak, and most likely use its deadly attacks. "Why... why... just who are you people, to interfere with my paradise?"

Aiko smiled, knowing their victory was at hand. Just as it had the last two times, the ruler Shadow's defeat had led it to terrified confusion. Until now, it had never known fear. Everything in the Land had been under its firm control. Even for a Shadow, impending death is scary. At least, for one of this level of complexity and power.

And like as then, the answer that came to her lips naturally wasn't something she'd been rehearsing. It simply felt like the right thing to say.

"We're travelers", she stated as if it were obvious. "And our goal is to find a shining beacon of hope for humans in need."

What surprised her far more was that Mirambela took up her litany, stepping past her in confidence despite the loss of her main weapon. "With intellect our torch, and humanity our compass, quill or sword in hand, we sail together through the mysteries of the night."

Far from thinking it lame, Julian actually looked pleased to join in with his own words. "Heh. No matter what nightmares we face, or dark lore we might discover, we always press on!"

"For that is the oath, and the burden of the Dream Voyager", Noel finished with a quiet enthusiasm before lifting his metal mask and punctuating their speech with a self-mocking laugh. "Well, that was fun. Have we all been watching the same shows lately?"

"Just movies", Julian joked back. "Hey, you're the one who dressed up like a damn senshi, dude."

Smiling again, this time without much effort, Reiha stepped back, joining the fake Joker on the sidelines. "You guys..."

Only the Shadow didn't find it amusing on some level, releasing the sonic shriek once again to silence and disorient them. "Fools, all of you. You still don't understand... the one who truly wins a battle in the end... is the one who can endure more agony!"

Knowing that there would be no surrender, the Voyagers charged off the upraised roof as one entity, descending on the Shadow with Personas and weapons ready.

Even in its badly weakened state, the Shadow was still able to fight, releasing the poison cloud, followed up by a wide-spread curse skill stronger than the previous ones, slathering them in voracious living darkness.

Yet, it was clear. More than anything that had happened or was said previously, their reaction to it was a clear message of who would be claiming victory.

They all charged into the purple cloud without hesitation, weapons raised. The curse energy didn't hurt Aiko at all. Quite the opposite- her muscles relaxed the way they tended to do when being healed. The newly-summoned Persona at her side, the demon girl Lillim, smirked and winked mischievously. The tendrils that went after Mira were repelled by a familiar transparent barrier- Pelagio's shield skill, while the actual shield in his hand had blocked most of the damage directed at him, and his armor and natural toughness soaked up the rest. Julian was visibly damaged by the attack, but it had barely finished when healing light from Dellingr covered him and erased every scratch. Behind them all, far enough away not to be hit, Noel waved cheekily before concentrating to remove the poison from Pelagio as well.

The Shadow didn't attack them any more after that. It already knew defeat was imminent. As the team closed in around her, their attacks blitzing from every side, it deliberately left its chest exposed so that Aiko could shove the sharp point of her cutlass in like a stake.

"Beautiful", the creature whispered, letting the blade pass all the way through and out the other end. "A true work of art. I wonder... will this shining bond of yours be able to withstand the pain waiting ahead for you?"

No one answered. They simply watched as the dark red substance she'd been so eager to spray on them bubbled out of both the new openings as though it had been carbonated beyond the ability to contain. The savagely grinning fanged jaw, smashed flat snout and violet eyes melted as the acidic goop enclosed her body, converting within moments into a formless puddle not unlike some weaker Shadows.

As she saw the puddle cease any sign of movement, Reiha stepped forward, knowing what she had to do.

"Justice... it's such a tricky phrase", she observed, unable to take eyes completely away from the melted remains of the beliefs that had dwelt within her mind for so long. Six whole years. "It means many different things for different people. For me, it was just revenge. Maybe true justice really is impossible in the current world we live in... but that doesn't mean that people with good hearts shouldn't always fight for it. Even if they're labeled criminals for it."

Aiko looked like she wanted to say something, but she paused when she saw that Reiha was now reaching up, and pulling the glove on her right hand- her preferred punching hand- free. For the first time ever, they could all see the exposed flesh of her right arm.

From wrist to elbow, from finger to wrist, it was riddled with more scar tissue and blister marks than they had ever seen on any other person. Some of the welts looked freshly made, others were ancient cuts long scabbed over. A second after, she had the other glove loose as well, revealing a similarly experienced left arm.

"Some of this I got in fights", she explained, unsurprised at their shocked silence. "But some of it- a lot of it, actually- I did to myself. Punching brick walls, telephone poles, using knives... The pain... it helped me to forget, so I wouldn't have to think about stuff. Wouldn't have to think about what I'd lost. What I'd left behind in Tokyo."

"You were angry", Mira observed, her voice empathetic, nearly crying. "I don't blame you. But you couldn't direct your anger at the ones you wanted to. So instead of taking it out on people, you took it out on yourself."

"Penance is one thing", Noel told her. "But getting addicted to your own pain helps no one, and it's no good for your body's immune system either. Every time a scar mends, every time you lose some blood, your system works to repair itself. That's less energy to let you go on living."

Reiha snorted. "You really are a medic. But, I thought that was okay. Like my life didn't matter, so I could sacrifice it to let other people be happy."

"People like me", Aiko understood. Not so long ago, she'd felt similar. "But did anyone ever ask you to do that for them?"

"No", Reiha shook her head miserably. "They didn't. It was just something I believed. But now, if I can...", her head rose back up, jaw set firmly, "I... I wanna try to enjoy life again. For myself, too."

"For justice."

For a moment they thought it was the Joker cognition speaking, but he'd vanished once more. Instead, the sound felt like it had come from the large red puddle staining the rooftop, which now shifted, forming itself into something rounder and cocoon-shaped before bursting violently apart in a nimbus of blue brighter than any of the zeppelin's searchlights had been.

When the light had receded, a new figure stood before them in the ruins of the cocoon, bearing no hint of the mad creature it had spawned from. The most present feature was the enormous silver wheel braced around the main bipedal figure, eight equally-spaced spokes occasionally showing signs of independent movement. Their core was a perfectly round sphere enclosed tightly around the entire belly of the figure, rotating independently of it.

Inside of the wheel floated a tall, blue-dressed woman, a sleek gown running down to her exposed feet. A wreath of bushy black hair lay over a serious-looking brow and lips that looked incapable of forming into a properly warm smile any longer. Tiny black thorns coated both feet, but neither that or the spinning wheel caused any visible discomfort. A blindfold of the same cloth covered the abscess where her eyes should have been, but the blind Persona showed no difficulty in carrying a simple cross-hilted sword in one arm, or a delicate-looking red hourglass in the other.

"To exist", the woman's harsh lips opened, releasing a voice hardened with conviction. "To live a happy life in itself is to defy the intent of the wicked ones who have wronged you. That in itself is vengeance. To uphold justice may cost one much, but happiness may yet be reclaimed, and exist alongside this desire in harmony. For how can one understand the need for justice without knowing happiness?"

The wheel spun around her as she spoke, the various engravings in the metal shooting by too quickly for anyone to read.

"I am Thou. Thou Art I. I am Adrestia, loyal handmaiden of Nemesis... and Goddess of righteous vengeance. I am She whom none can escape. Thine wounded heart cries out for due retribution upon the wicked men who thrive on sin. Dost thee still seek to partake of it?"

Clutching one exposed hand to her head, Reiha shook it off, seeing the approving looks of the others and nodding. "...Yes. Yes. Even if my enemy is invincible, that doesn't mean they shouldn't be fought. You never know when that might change, when an opening might come... and when it does, I'll be waiting. We'll be waiting. Ready to take retribution on them. Them, and anyone else who persecutes the innocent." Looking up, a mournful expression passed into her face, yet to those few who knew her it radiated nothing but hope. "I will have justice. I will have my revenge."

The Persona did not smile at her. It knelt down before its new master, the wheel passing over the top of her head, discarding the cross-sword and hourglass to place both arms delicately around her into an embrace.

"Poor thing. How much you have suffered at the hands of wicked men. But now, the wheel of fate turns anew. Our contract is sealed. All you need do now is break your chains of resignation, and embrace our pact to the curse of retribution. Equal repayment of wickedness unto the wicked. No more, and no less. Such is true justice."

The voice was gone. Time resumed unhindered. The Persona had vanished, but everyone there knew it wasn't really gone.

"Impressive power", Pelagio was the first to break the silence as the blue light faded away within Reiha's heart. "I suppose that is to be expected, considering the Shadow it spawned from."

"So that's what happened", Noel considered, aghast at what he'd just witnessed. "Dellingr's morning light showed me the path forward when I was lost... and now she's got a Persona too?"

"Uh-huh", Aiko nodded, inwardly amused at how 'routine' this miraculous sight had become for her after viewing four separate Awakenings, not including her own. "Adrestia, wasn't it?"

"That's right", Reiha rose before them, letting them see all the changes to her own outfit in full, of which there were many.

Her spiked black armor was gone, shredded away in the wind. In its place, an elegant silver ball gown lay draped around her legs, the lower hem decorated with small oval onyx gems positioned at precisely equal distances along it. The long gloves she had discarded had been replaced by shorter ones a darker color than the gown, but fingerless. The rest of it ran upwards to end at a tight enclosure around her bust, a series of small circular wheels acting as a large chain running up from the privacy of the enclosure to join to a lighter silver choker around her neck, the tiny lock on it decorated by another tiny black jewel. Smaller silver rings dangled down from her ears as subdued yet elegant accessories.

Most striking of all however, was her new mask; a light silver crown that stretched up like a rounded cliff for several feet above her head. Down at her eyes, it transitioned into a glossy black wraparound band to cover them. In the areas the high collar of the dress parted to permit her arms to move, Aiko was surprised to see that the outfit even included a series of tattoos running down them; stencils of bright red ink forming lines like veins running down them into the gloves, knitting the exposed scars together like they had always meant to be there.

By the time they'd managed to take it all in, Reiha sounded miffed. "What? Why are you all still staring at me? Oh, come on! Your costumes are cool too. Even those Phantom Thief ones you had earlier."

"I was just thinking", Mira noted defensively, "that even with all we know about you, you still ended up getting an outfit that looks closer to a princess than me or Saber. I'm a bit jealous."

The older girl frowned. "I'm not a princess though. I'm way too old for that."

"A queen, then?", Noel suggested glibly. "Your lack of manners aside, you do have that mature feel about you."

Half laughing, half scowling at the absurdity of the conversation, Reiha threw up her hands in defeat. "Okay, enough. Don't we all have something more important to be doing right now? Like maybe getting out of this depressing dump already?"

"Of course", Aiko grinned back, glad as any of the rest to finally have their victory... and even more glad to see her friend back to normal. No. That wasn't quite accurate, she realized.

No. Now, she's even better. "We were just waiting for you to ask."

Persona Profile #14: Simurgh

Arcana: Lovers

Strength: Electricity (Reflect), Fire

Weakness: Nuclear, Psychokinesis

Abilities: Snipe, Mazio, Charge, Patra

Background: Mythical divine bird from Persian lore. One folktale has a hero rescue Simurgh's offspring by killing a snake that was crawling up the tree to feed upon them. As a reward, the Simurgh granted him three of her golden feathers which the hero can use to call her for help by burning them. In Sufi mysticism she is depicted as a metaphor for God. She also aids Malik Muhammad in his fight against a giant when he saves her eggs from a dragon. Makes her home in the tree Haoma and when she leaves the Haoma its seeds are released from its branches, carried by the winds of Vayu-Vata.

Enemy Profile #16: Shadow Reiha

Arcana: Justice

Strength: Curse

Weakness: Physical

Abilities: Maeiha, Eiga, Anguish's Embrace, Venom Breath, Endless Scream, Wing Blow, Soul Steal

A/N: Naturally, this will be the last big action scene for a while, until the next 'arc'. Still not sure if I'll finish the Reiha arc before the end of the year, as there's still two more chapters to go of mostly dialogue.

Kabuto S. Inferno: Hoping that Adrestia's awakening didn't disappoint you. I suppose that Batman would've been a good one too ;) I did at least make the Shadow a bit like Man-Bat.

'Greed', eh? Seems like a rather vague descriptor, and we saw lots of greed in Persona 5 with guys like Kaneshiro and Okumura. As for the idea of setting it in a Persona-dominated future, I think a big part of the charm of the series is being enmeshed in a modern world extremely close to ours, a bit like the Mother/Earthbound series where familiar things like weather, diet, fitness and of course friendship and family can affect the supernatural dungeon-crawling aspect in different ways. I'll definitely take a look at it later, thanks.