This story is a work of fiction. Any similarities to events or persons living or dead in your world is purely coincidental.
Drain You Of Your Sanity
Face The Thing That Should Not Be
8/12 Tuesday
Afternoon
Surveying the enormous Shogi board he had created from his own mind, Shukiji found himself possessed of a strange sense of giddiness. Something that he was quick to stamp down on before it got too far out of hand and made him careless.
He didn't play Shogi to have fun. In fact, it had been quite some time since he had played the game at all. Ever since Chisao Nanjo, ever since he had quit the club... the game inevitably brought back unpleasant memories of that time they had spent together.
I should have anticipated this, he reprimanded himself silently. I should have constructed a different kind of test, one that wouldn't distract me with unnecessary feelings this way.
And yet, he also couldn't deny that a part of him wanted the game to continue. Just to see what Mirambela Sorano- the Dream Voyagers' chosen commander for this test- would try next. Already, her very first move had surprised him. Another sensation it felt like he hadn't experienced in a very long time.
Not that it would stop him from triumphing over the Dream Voyagers in the end, of course. As undeniably clever as Sorano was- something he considered particularly impressive given her gender- in the end she would prove no match for him.
His own moves were not quite instantaneous, but they were clearly close enough to create the worry in Mira's mind that he had already planned for them to use their Persona's abilities against his pieces in new ways that didn't follow the established rules of the game. In this case, the ability to put pieces 'to sleep' and impede their movement and actions created the growing danger that large sections of his front wall of pawns could become stuck, imprisoning the more powerful ones behind them.
The counter to her play was obvious enough. By moving the other pawns forward, he exposed Noel to attacks from the stronger pieces behind the front line. Before long, Mira had moved her own Rook piece into a similar spot along the line, invoking some kind of charm or seduction skill in her Persona. It was Oya, the very Orisha they had been discussing earlier.
A circular haze of pink miasma covered that pawn's red-skinned Shadow, infatuating it. Not only could he no longer give that one orders, but it would instead act as an enemy piece, as though Sorano had already captured and dropped it back onto the board as her own. Recapturing it would be easy, but she would then simply repeat the process with whatever piece he used to accomplish that.
When he instead continued to slide the other pawns he still controlled out into a staggered line to entrap them, she reacted calmly, like she had expected nothing else. "Back now, Mender."
Obligingly, Noel's piece quickly flew back to relative safety at the Voyagers' end of the board, her own following on the next move. Still, she'd clearly accomplished what she wanted, stopping the movement of four pawns instead of capturing them and slowing the advance of the pieces behind them. His reply sent a lance piece across the board directly into Pelagio's spot. Despite being faced with a raised shield, the green serpentine Shadow inhabiting the piece slashed out with fierce laws and fangs, dislodging one of the stacked pieces he had been perched on.
"The hell?!", Jiachi cried out, breaking silence silence at last after seeing their first loss of the game. "That one gets to just come at you from all the way back there? That's OP bullshit!"
"That is the rule", Mira told him tersely. "Lances can advance as far as they want to, so long as they only move forward. Luckily, we're not eliminated unless we lose all the pieces in our stacks. That was just a pawn that he captured. The piece beneath that one is more powerful... It's a knight."
"Fitting for Guardian", Aiko agreed from her own piece, which had yet to move. "What now, Dancer?"
"Now he moves to get out of danger", Mira commanded. "Two spaces up, one left."
This was even more of a startling sight than the other pieces' movement had been, since Pelagio's piece actually moved vertically until it was far above the offending lance, smoothly gliding across and coming down behind it. "You would leave that one alive?", he questioned the move.
"I would", Mira explained patiently. "That piece is almost useless now. As long as we stay behind a lance, it can't hurt us any more. The only thing he can do with it now is promote it."
It wasn't the optimal move, but Shukiji decided to demonstrate for them anyway. The piece flipped itself over, revealing a red kanji symbol on the reverse instead of black. "It's become a golden lance. Now it can move backwards or to the side", she noted. "Any piece that gets to the other side's promotion zone can do that, become more powerful... assuming we let it." Finished with the example, she returned her focus to the others. "Gunslinger, it's your time. You have a bishop piece. Please move diagonally to capture that lance."
"With pleasure!", Julian crowed, calling out Wild Bill's fire to incinerate the 'promoted' Shadow before it could cause them any more harm. The creature had been changed into a more powerful one as well, but that couldn't prevent its destruction, the piece sliding off the board into a a large trough on the far right side. Idly checking the left side, Aiko confirmed that the pawn piece they had lost was over in the left-side trough now.
The demonstration had sated their worries for the moment, the others merely watching and following as Shukiji and Mira calmly shifted more pieces around the board, both of them clearly working towards some kind of master plan none of the others completely understood.
"He's aiming for more promotions", Noel spoke up after a while longer after seeing an aggressive rook's movement. "We are still only six pieces. We can't prevent his entire group from getting to that zone."
"Maybe", Julian sneered. "But all we gotta do is kill any piece that he promotes before it can do anything, like before."
"If it were that easy", Aiko quieted them down, her own eyes studying the shifting pieces with suspicion if not complete comprehension, "he wouldn't bother with it. This... looks like it might get rough. Just watch, and do what Dancer says."
"Like we have a choice", Julian muttered.
The woman who had been born a human but now only identified as Lady Scorpio surveyed the warped dreamscape of the mind she had projected herself into. It was, unsurprisingly, a featureless global darkness akin to much of Faraway Lands. It took longer than expected to reach its epicenter and locate the one she was looking for.
Benihime Kujou lay huddled in the epicenter of her own mind, arms clasped around her in-bent knees the white spotlight on her fading in and out. Her heavy-lidded eyes were shut, and her thin mouth seemed ready to scream at any moment.
"You've slept long. Far past time for you to wake", Scorpio spoke, the noise automatically rousing the young girl from her torpor. "I almost wish I could see it. What are your nightmares? You who care for nothing and no one but yourself. What is it that you fear?"
Benihime wasn't interested in answering the question. She stared into the mirrored mask that was Scorpio's face with an anger that seemed too intense to contain. "You... You... You did that to me!"
"That is your punishment, Queen Aquarius", Scorpio explained simply, long robed arms folded across each other defensively. "While you are needed to achieve our goals, your actions have managed to endanger them. I cannot permit that. I am the leader of this group."
"Why?", Kujou managed to limit her reply to a mere growl of hatred. "You're a used-up old hag who can't even go outside of her own nightclub. Why do you get to lead?"
"A banally predictable response", Scorpio observed without rancor. "A young, attractive girl who has only just begun to grow into her sexual maturity views all those older than her as 'used-up hags'. Masking your own fear that you may never find a true romantic partner to call your own. Perhaps that was your nightmare? Or perhaps the fear of reaching such an age yourself?"
Her infuriatingly calm tone only aggravated Kujou further, but she said nothing. The memory of Tatsunoko was still too fresh.
"As for your question", Scorpio continued, "it was I who saw the visions of the coming future. I saw the golden shrines buried deep beneath the sea of souls, and I understood what had been hidden away from humanity's collective mind for so long. A city, and two gods imprisoned within."
"A city", Kujou scoffed. "Really. You really think that there's an entire city out there in Faraway Lands, just waiting for us to find it?"
"The power of the four shrines will bring forth the forbidden city", Scorpio prophesied. "The once forsaken shall be awakened, the hidden past laid bare... and humanity will finally know Salvation. I've seen it all."
"Nice. Do you also see what I'm going to do to your ugly face as soon as I wake up?"
"I can only see what lies in Faraway Lands." Dropping all pretension, she refocused on Kujou. "But I don't need Cleopatra's sight to know that you won't hurt me. Not unless you desire a repeat of your first punishment. Or worse."
The threat actually managed to make her stop and think, and briefly take her mind off vengeance. Vengeance against Lady Scorpio, at least.
"I am not your enemy, Benihime Kujou", the leader of the Masked Circle emphasized. "I am the one who allowed you to Awaken to your true self. The power of Rusalka."
"Only because you need a fourth Persona-user to activate the shrines", she snarled. "What if I say no, then? What if I don't give a shit about all this Salvation stuff?"
Scorpio's gentle mocking laugh wafted in the deathly air around them and she spread her arms. "Why, then you are welcome to continue your life elsewhere. Perhaps the Yakuza branch here could make use of you. You certainly can't return to your father. Not after the lies you have told about him. Not now that he is destined to be stuck in a criminal trial for 'abusing' you."
Once again, the harsh truths quieted her impudent tongue, a welcome reprieve until she came up with a new threat. "Then... I'll tell the cops about you!"
"And they will believe you?"
"I'll make them believe me."
Her tone became disappointed. "The previous Queen Aquarius once attempted the same. As you can see, we are still here." Turning back, the mask tilted slightly, distorting the colors of the face reflected in it.
"As you know, I possess the ability to enter the sleeping, dreaming minds of humans. If I so desire, I can plague their sleep with all manner of horrid nightmares, as I have done to you. If I continue to do so repeatedly, night after night... it's only a matter of time before that person goes mad from it."
"Sort of like the psychotic breakdown incidents six years ago", Kujou realized suddenly.
"Please", Scorpio scoffed, refolding her arms regally. "I am not nearly so brutish as they. They merely demonstrate erratic behavior, most often fear or guilt. That is why your father is in his current difficulty. Because his otherwise reliable lawyer, Mr. Tomodo, has suddenly found himself acting highly irrationally. So irrational, in fact, that his colleagues deemed him unable to make the trip from Tokyo to Tosashimizu city. One more thing you owe us for."
"You drove him crazy", Kujou realized, remembering what Ryuken Samesaji had told her. "Just like you did to the Yakuza lieutenant here."
"Indeed. He was attempting to take control of our business by force. Instilling a great fear of us in him was the most elegant solution to the problem."
"That's a handy power to have", Kujou remarked. "But if you can really do that, then why not go big? Dive into the dreams of the prime minister, Abe Tamagami, and twist up his mind beyond all recovery. It'd be fun."
"And what precisely-", Scorpio's scorn was palpable, "-would that accomplish? Even if his subordinates failed to cover for him, he would merely be thrown out of office and replaced by another. Terrorism is not our goal, Queen Aquarius. Our goal is Salvation. Not merely for Japan, but for the entire world."
"Yadda, yadda, I heard you the first time."
Annoyance failed to stop her from continuing. "Additionally, my power isn't effective against all targets. A strong mind can repel the nightmares. Such as Akira Kurusu. I had hoped to convince him to join our cause, yet he rejected me."
Kujou frowned. "Who's Akira Kurusu?"
Scorpio paused in surprise. "Oh? Taurus never told you? Akira Kurusu is- was- the leader of the Phantom Thieves six years ago." Studying the forever undulating skies of the formless world, she nodded. "He is an admirable young man, truly. Such a shame that he had to remain our enemy."
"Yeah. I'm sure you would've loved having him around to help you with those shrine things."
"As a matter of fact", Scorpio considered. "-I would have. After all, Kurusu is far more powerful than you. And better behaved as well."
The insult was obvious, but Kujou almost seemed satisfied by it. It was actually reassuring to know that the revulsion was mutual. Just like Tsuruga...
The mottled darkness around them seemed to pulsate as if in physical pain, and Scorpio peered around in curiosity. "Surely, you're not so angered by this simple truth?"
"I decide the truth", she hissed, focusing on other things that she didn't loathe until the fog around them stabilized again. "Until I actually get a chance to meet Kurusu, you can't know for sure which of us is better. And like you said, he's not interested in helping." Her face shifted into mock confusion. "Hm, I wonder why that is?"
"Still a child", Scorpio sighed, shaking her head. "Akira Kurusu saved the world once. There is no denying that truth. I had hoped that he would be willing to join an endeavor to make it permanent. But I don't believe it's he who has agitated you into such a state."
The instant she mentioned it, the passive mists ballooned out in rage once more, flashes of blood red flickering through the black like firelight. "You can't hide it", the older woman gloated at the result. "Not in here, at least. It's the Tsuruga girl, isn't it?"
The darkness mottled into stormclouds. "She has to pay. That's what I'm here for. Not crazy talk about 'saving' the world."
"Oh?" Once again, Scorpio was grateful for the mask concealing her face; she was enjoying this far too much. "Does your father not seek to 'save the world' as well? Or rather, to save Japan by banishing all foreigners and foreign influence from it? However will he accomplish that sacred mission now? Now that he is under arrest for abusing his own daughter so much that she ran away from home?"
For once, she had no answer. She froze. That was a consequence she hadn't considered when they'd decided that Daisuke Kujou's constant interference and badgering of the police had to stop.
But it only lasted for a moment, and then she regained her usual composure. "...He's just one spokesman. JCAP will be fine without him." She gaze turned back on the motionless mirror mask, mustering more excuses.
"Besides, he deserves it. If he really cared, he would've been able to keep me at Koashimizu. I've seen him make speeches. He could talk a snake into eating itself. He just chose not to. He wanted me to go with him back to Tokyo, just because it would be more convenient for him to have his work and home in the same place."
"I see", Scorpio observed courteously. "And for this transgression, he deserves punishment?"
"Absolutely."
Disappointed, the masked woman shrugged her limp sleeves. "I see. His punishment will last a fair bit longer than yours, I'm afraid."
Losing patience, Queen Aquarius stood, the darkness around them temporarily ballooning into red highlights once more. "...Good. Then get me out of here already."
But it wasn't Scorpio she was shouting at, she realized. Scorpio was gone. As was the shrouded world. She was back in the dressing room, lying down. A concerned human face studying her instead of a frozen mask. Samesaji. Prince Taurus.
"You okay?" Seeing the anger in her eyes, he relented. "Okay, dumb question. Can you stand?"
She could. She felt wobbly, but refused to let that slow her. Samesaji's arm went to support hers anyway... and quickly found itself cast away. "...I don't need your help."
"The hell you don't", Taurus gave his most irritating smile. "You were just sleeping for two days straight. Anyone would be a bit off after going through that."
"Help me, then", she offered. "Let's both go find Scorpio and rip her disgusting face off for what she did to me."
His muted amusement only grew with the suggestion. "Yeah, that's not happening. I know you don't like her, but Lady Scorpio is the one with the big plan here. None of this would even exist without her." Checking himself in the room's mirror by habit, he chuckled. "I wouldn't have my powers without her. And neither would you. Ever hear of this thing called 'gratitude'?"
Kujou studied his face as well, disappointed in what she found. Samesaji might have been an attractive guy, and he had helped her to develop Rusalka's growing powers... but in the end he was completely content with being Scorpio's loyal dog. He would never turn on her.
She was all alone here. King Leo was no better. And any attempt to get back at Scorpio could earn her another two days of being tormented by endless nightmares.
Nightmares about Aiko Tsuruga.
Which meant that for now, justice would have to wait. Instinctively, she reached down to touch the handle of the stolen flintlock in her pocket.
"...I suppose I owe her that much. I was just frustrated that I couldn't kill her, that's all."
"I did warn you, Kujou-chan", Taurus admonished her gently. "I told you that you weren't ready to fight yet. Not against all of them at once. Even if those kids are still amateurs, they're pretty good as a team. They put up a good enough fight against me earlier, and that was a while ago."
Taking a moment to work the circulation back into her arms, Aquarius threw them around his shoulder like she knew he wanted. Seducing young ladies was old hat for Prince Taurus by now, but this was different. This one, he actually cared about.
"Then train me", she implored. "Help me get even stronger. Strong enough to crush Aiko Tsuruga and all her idiot friends."
Strong enough to crush Lady Scorpio, and make her pay for every single insult. No matter how long it takes.
Justice will be served.
It got rough.
Not that any of them had expected the test to be easy. However, the initial exuberance they'd felt seeing Shukiji's surprise at Mira's moves was faded now, replaced by a thick tension in the air that only grew as the tide began to turn in his favor.
Several of his pieces had made it through to be promoted now, flipped over to become more powerful Shadows, and the reason for that was obvious enough even to Julian; Shukiji now had enough pieces in play to cover the ones advancing. To strike at a newly promoted piece would invite a damaging counterattack that would- and had- cost them numerous pieces of their own. Pelagio showed the worst of it, the last move knocking him down to a single piece that he could now safely stand on.
Finally, Mira broke her silence and stared up at the golden head. "You... you already blocked the path taking out your general."
"I hope you weren't hoping I would forget which order you stacked those pieces in, Dancer", he replied snidely. "Pelagio is on a bishop piece now, so I needed to block that approach for a counterattack. I'll give you credit for not being stupid enough to try to checkmate me and end the game right away, but that just means I need to develop other ways of trapping you."
"I see." Mira surveyed the board, feeling pangs of doubt creep back in for the first time. What if I can't do it? He's already planned for every single attack plan I could throw at him so far, and soon enough we'll run out of pieces. He's too good. And if I lose, it's all been a failure. My fault.
Her desperate scan stopped at the far end of the board, and she briefly lifted the golden mask to make sure she wasn't seeing things. Unless... I use the plan I tried to to deny him. Turn it around and use it for myself.
"Guardian", she declared swiftly, "please move 5 spaces upward left."
"Left?", the avian knight questioned even as his last piece rose and drifted to the appointed spot. "Not upper right?"
"The general... no. The general is too well defended", she shook her head. "He's making a wall, safely escorting him to the promotion zone. Even if he has to lose some other pieces to do it, the gold general is the most powerful piece in the game, even more than a gold rook."
The gold rook, which had also cost Reiha two of her pieces before they'd managed to put it down. At least he had no rooks left of his own now.
"And now you are in your own promotion zone", Shukiji told Pelagio. "Of course, I can't allow you to promote your piece either, my feathered friend." His general shifted spaces, managing to move closer to his promotion zone while also endangering Pelagio with its huge move range. "But go ahead. Maybe I'm bluffing. Try me."
Mira hid a triumphant smile. "I think I will. Promote bishop."
The piece beneath Pelagio flipped over, the motion briefly dislodging him until he could make his way back onto it- their first promotion of the game. Just as quickly, Shukiji's general piece slid in to take him out before he could move, a large Sphinx-like Shadow emerging from it, fangs ready to maul him.
"Guardian!", Aiko yelled in horror.
The beast's claws flashed, there was a brief sound like a bullet ricochet... and then the Shadow howled, disintegrating. Its corresponding piece was much less dramatic, merely gliding off to the large trough on the right-side of the room.
And Shu stared, struggling to comprehend what had just happened. "What... how? That's not possible!"
"Correct", Mira regarded Pelagio with thankful eyes. "If this was a normal game of Shogi, you'd be absolutely correct, Niyoga-kun. But you see... it's not. We figured that out from the first move. I had Guardian use one of his skills when he was moving around the center of the board, about twenty moves ago. It's called 'Tetrakarn'. It's a very useful skill, as you can see."
"Tetrakarn...?" Regaining his composure, Shu checked his own position carefully now. "I see. It blocks one physical strike, returning it to sender."
"And now your big bad general is frickin' toast!", Julian announced eagerly. "And Guardian's last piece is more powerful too!"
"Hmph. A clever play", Pelagio congratulated her, any hint of the accolade in his formal voice hidden by his helmet. "Well done, Dancer."
"Thanks!", Mira's face flushed. "But don't celebrate yet. I think I know what he's going to do next, and you won't like it."
Shukiji didn't even speak. The piece in the left-side trough simply flew back up into the air and blasted over to a space a few spots south from Pelagio. Checking it, everyone could see that it was a rook piece.
"Hey! No fair!", Jiachi complained. "You can't just bring back a powerful piece like that!"
"Actually, he can", Mira explained, the worry easily returning to her voice. "It's called dropping. Instead of moving, you can return any piece you've captured to the board under your control, on any open space besides the promotion zones. That's not one of his rooks. It's one of ours."
"One of mine", Noel clarified, speaking up. He was down to just two pieces now, and the bottom one was only a pawn. "My first piece."
"Shit. Can anyone kill it before it takes out Guardian?", Reiha asked fearfully.
"No", Mira declared in momentary defeat. "None of us can reach it. That's why he placed it there. And even if I move Guardian out of the way, block for him or use Tetrakarn again... that piece can also attack Gunslinger from there. It's one or the other. Someone is losing a tile."
"Then move him!", Julian demanded. "I've still got one piece left after this, it's fine! I can take it!"
"My, my, this is getting a bit rowdy", Shukiji observed in amusement. Remembering their previous agreement, they all fell silent. "What's your move then, Dancer?"
Mira heaved a sigh, turned. "...I'm sorry, Guardian. This is the best way to ensure we win. He made it clear; you won't be hurt. You'll just be sent to the bottom of this tower."
Their armored ally merely nodded, accepting his fate. "Do what you must, Dancer. Though our opponent controls more pieces at the moment, I have faith that we will triumph in the end."
All the same, she couldn't quite look directly at him while proclaiming the move. "...I drop your general."
"A wise move", Shukiji observed as the piece he'd just lost returned to the board, pointed in the opposite direction to show its change of allegiance. "Pity for your friend though."
The rook advanced, revealing a humanoid Shadow clad in armor just as high-quality as Pelagio's own. With a battle cry, the warrior swung a dual-ended spear down, taking the gold bishop piece out from beneath heavily mailed feet.
Feet which suddenly poised, bent, running and leaping to the general piece. The move earned a cry of surprise from nearly everyone, then there was a violent clang as he came down on the edge of it, nearly falling before pulling himself onto it.
Another move that rendered their host momentarily silent. "I suppose it doesn't matter. A general is a general, whether there's a bird sitting on it or not."
"And easily promoted on my next turn", Mira pointed out. "That's why I put it there. With two generals on our side and none on yours, you're done."
"One general", Shu corrected her calmly, refusing to crack. "You placed your own general as Tsuruga's final piece, at the bottom of her stack. I simply have to save attacking her for last. A common novice mistake, holding back the general in reserve instead of letting his power threaten the enemy pieces."
"Better than getting too aggressive and losing it like you did", Mira countered, her tone almost teasing. "And it's captain, or Saber."
Shukiji rolled his giant's eyes at her insistence. His next few moves were answer enough to her new confidence, bringing his newly-promoted pieces down on them without mercy until everyone but Aiko had lost all but one piece. While the four pawns they'd immobilized earlier continued to be so, he still had all he needed to keep her Pelagio at bay while the others were hunted down.
Then, just when it felt like they were losing all control once again, Julian nodded at Mira, and she nodded back, moving him all the way forward into the promotion zone too.
"Promoting a lance now?", Shu observed casually. "You might just regret that."
His own promoted piece, a gold bishop, pounced... and suddenly was careening out of control, sliding past the motionless pawn pieces and Julian as well to fall into the side trough.
Slowly and reservedly, the avatar raised a single tree branch-sized eyebrow. "Oh, you must be joking. This is just turning into farce now."
Julian laughed recklessly, looking tremendously pleased with himself. "Hydrocaras, bro. Oil. Dropped it on the space while I was movin' up the board towards the far end. We were just waitin' for you to try moving a piece through that spot."
"How far are you willing to take this, I wonder?", Shu asked Mira.
"As far as it takes to beat you, Niyoga-kun", she spread her arms up at him. "We have to take every advantage we can. You knew that. If you didn't want us to use our Persona skills to even the odds, then you should've said so from the start."
"Point", he yielded. "This has been engaging... but I think it's time we wrapped it up."
His following moves had no delay at all, powerful pieces quickly sacrificing themselves to capture others. Before long, his bishop moved to strike out the gold lance piece beneath Julian, leaving him with nothing. The board opened up beneath its feet just as it had on their first visit to this Land, letting him fall through with a cry of surprise.
"Gunslinger!"
They all followed his descent, watching him land on the floor below unharmed. He stared up at them all through the transparency, raising hands to his mouth and saying something that none of them could hear.
Within thirty seconds of each other, both Reiha and even Pelagio lost their final pieces as well, both of them swept into the left-side trough to fall down to the bottom. The transparency allowed Aiko to see that none of them were able to return to the floor above now that the lift had stopped working. The three looked more annoyed than anything else.
"And I suppose you'll be capable of the same barrier skill as our feathered friend then?", he considered out loud at her. "As the Wild Card, you have access to many more skills than the others. In fact, didn't I see you try to use Dormina on Kujou last time you were here?"
"Want to find out?"
"I suppose I'll have to, in the end", Shu agreed resignedly. "I set the condition that all your pieces need to be be eliminated for me to win. But if you're really going to try and win on technicalities..."
Mira blinked, hastily turning to her friend. "Baiba. In other words, he's going to focus on eliminating me next. I always kept myself covered before so he couldn't without losing pieces, but now we only have three left."
Realization dawned, and her face fell. "What?! But... but Dancer, we need you to decide the strategy! We can't win this without you!"
"Yes you can", she stared back serenely, no longer afraid of what was coming. "He's down to just a few pieces left now too. And you have a stack of three. Either way, this is going to be close." Bowing, she smiled, eyes twinkling. "I know you can do it, captain. I believe in you."
Dancer didn't move, didn't even flinch as the knight jumped at her. She didn't even shout as her piece was taken out, and she fell down to join the others with considerably more grace.
Which left just her and Noel, who currently stood on a pawn and nothing else. "Just us two", their chief healer commented, his voice growing tight. "Just like last time we confronted Niyoga-san, no?"
"It's a little bit different this time", Aiko protested, studying the remaining pieces around them with new intensity. Discounting the pawns, Shu had now organized his remaining pieces into a formation designed to protect his king piece from harm. And I'm the only one who can do that.
"Don't panic, captain. We have this won. I can already see it."
"I'm sure glad someone can. I can't."
Refusing to catch her unease, he glanced across the board himself. "Then just listen, and let me be the one to guide you to victory. You have a knight piece right now. Move two spaces up and one to the right. That will place his king piece in check, and force a response."
Doing as she was asked placed her within spitting distance of Shu's formation, and one of them immediately moved to strike her, dislodging the knight piece and blasting it into the trough that was now full nearly to the brim of captured pieces.
"Now you have a lance piece", Noel's soothing words reached her. "Go straight to the enemy's gold knight before you and attack."
The knight in question was more than just a piece. Within it lay a Shadow resembling a headless horseman, the armor and angry mount both a resplendent blue color. A strike from her blade easily destroyed it, but then another piece pounced; a bishop piece containing a living skeleton clad in muted yellow and greens, empty sockets glowing with unlife as it unleashed a curse skill to attack.
One piece left now, and I'm finished, she knew.
The next words to reach her ears were Shukiji's instead of Noel's but they were encouraging all the same. "That can't... You mean...?"
She stared as well. The board had suddenly fallen silent as some kind of revelation was giving Shukiji pause. The bishop piece was unharmed, leaving her with just the general piece left.
And the short path leading directly to the king piece.
"You didn't use that barrier skill", Shu pronounced flatly, all emotion suddenly drained from him. "Even though you had the chance to?"
It felt like someone was accusing her of a heinous crime, and Aiko studied the spaces as well, trying to comprehend it herelf. It wasn't easy to understand these kinds of strategies when you yourself were a piece on the board instead of looking at it from above as usual.
"Because that's what I knew you would expect her to do", Noel explained calmly. "You wanted to sacrifice that bishop to knock down her barrier. As a lance, the only move left to her would be to head into the promotion zone... but that's why you had that rook ready to strike there, no?"
"And now the path is wide open", the avatar gaped, disbelieving. "I... I've placed myself into checkmate. I can hardly believe... Because you knew... You knew that I would expect...!"
"I never learned any Shogi until now", Noel confessed, blue eyes never wavering. "But I did learn Chess. Many of the same rules and concepts apply, no? More importantly, once you learned that we could employ barrier skills you would be expecting them from Saber and Pelagio. You would try to incorporate that expectation into your plan going forward, adapting as all good players do."
"And you anticipated that I would do that", Shu finished, his voice sounding more like the last gasp of air leaving a deflating balloon now. Finally, the giant golden head hung loose in shame. "I... I must be out of practice at this game, to fall for such a thing. But... a deal is a deal. The trade is fair. It seems like at least two of your crew are not imbeciles after all, Tsuruga. Congratulations."
She didn't know what to feel. Elation, maybe? She could blame exhaustion for not celebrating more. Seeing the remaining enemy pieces rise up and fly into the right-side trough helped a little. Her own piece departed as well, rushing out from beneath her boots and leaving the board completely clear.
We did it, she tried to remind herself. We won. It's over.
What helped more was when the lift at the rear rose up again, bringing with it all the rest of her crew. They were all too eager to celebrate more than enough for her as well, running to her, shouting cheers of victory and accolades for them both, nearly indiscernible. Her attention only returned with a few crucial words from Mira:
"And you'll keep your word?"
"I will", the avatar practically whispered. "It was always either one gamble or another. Choosing to believe in what you said, or in my own intuition. But apparently, that intuition isn't as good as I always believed either. So I will have... faith you all, this time. I might regret that faith later, but for now... Never mind. What's done is done. Take the lift up, and we can finish this."
The avatar sputtered like a broken feed, shrunk down into a 2-dimensional golden pane that crackled before vanishing entirely.
"Always with the melodrama", Julian grumped, covering his head as if to thwart a migraine. "He can't even come down to meet us when we win. He has to make us hike up the tower to him. Yeesh."
"No complaining", Reiha scolded, immediately brightening up. "It's enough that we won, aight? Compared to what we just pulled off, a little walk is nothing."
"Compared to what she pulled off, you mean", Aiko reached over and ruffled the feathers on Mira's headdress proudly. "Dada Yangyu, if you ever find yourself thinking even for a moment that you're not pulling your weight on this team... just remember what you did today, okay?"
"Whoever said that Dancer wasn't pulling her weight?", Noel sounded genuinely confused.
"I did", Mira told him, lowering her head in shame. "Or, I thought it. A few times. We have such strong fighters with us now. Witch, Gunslinger, and of course our captain. Not that I mind being a support, but still..."
"A valid concern", Pelagio remarked, pulling up alongside her as they boarded the new lift. "However, as an impartial observer, I can guarantee you have been a reliable ally for this entire venture, Dancer. Even if you are not the best for striking down Shadows any longer, I have never seen such an agile human before." Glancing back at the giant board and wondering how long they'd actually spent on it, his large eyes narrowed. "Humans have very strange ways of passing the time."
"The actual board is way smaller", Aiko explained, giggling. "Too bad there aren't any parks in Tosashimizu with Shogi boards. You could watch people play."
"Like he'd want to", Jiachi cracked. "After today, I want to forget this damn game even exists. Why couldn't he have chosen Go instead? Or Checkers? Or Go Fish?"
The lift brought them up to an interior corridor lined with lenses. It felt like the top level, but without any windows it was impossible to tell for sure.
Concerned, Reiha was first to step off the lift, arms at the ready. "What now? I swear, if he goes all 'Muwahaha, just kidding imbeciles, that was only the first test, time for the real test!' I'm done."
"Your test is complete", a new voice answered her. The familiar sight of Shukiji's Shadow stepped from behind a corner, elf ears lowered as if in penance, any trace of his earlier joviality gone. "The only question remaining now is what you will do with your victory."
Aiko reached for her blade's handle but kept her hand there, unsure if it would be needed just yet. The Shadow that stood before them hardly looked like he was about to attack, but that meant nothing. They had already seen what happened when Shadows went berserk.
Beside her, Jiachi had his pistols ready, both spinning. "So you're gonna try to stop us now? You think you can take us?"
"Actually", the elfin creature replied meekly, "I don't believe I can. Certainly, I could transform now, and try to destroy you all before you are able to bear Lord Oberon away from here... but I have seen your combat prowess many times before. I calculate there is literally no chance for my victory on this day."
"Then why-?"
"All I can do", the creature's borrowed eyes closed as if in prayer, "is ask you to stop what you're doing. You know that if my Lord Oberon leaves this world, I, his servant, will no longer exist."
Their captain relaxed slightly. Of course his would be the only Shadow smart enough to figure out from the start they can't beat us. Still, better stay sharp.
"We know", she answered for them. "We all know. That's how this thing works. Ruler Shadows are produced when a person's dream Land is created. When they give up whatever's keeping them there, then the Shadow vanishes."
"I will vanish", the creature echoed, Shukiji's voice tinged with the usual unnerving reverb. "To bring our Lord Oberon back to the mortal world would be my undoing. Along with his kingdom. Doing that... would kill me. And you six... are you murderers, then?"
"That's the idea", Reiha argued dismissively. "You know how this works. You're a Shadow. We've destroyed hundreds of them already. The others prolly more than me since I joined up later."
The acrid yellow eyes flashed dangerously and his earlier rage returned, the spite that he'd threatened Noel with corrupting his formerly rational voice into an animal's dying snarl. "Hath not a Shadow eyes? Hath not a Shadow hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you poison us... do we not die?"
Aiko forced herself to gaze back into the hellish yellow pupils, a feature that, before she knew it, had become completely associated with enemies. She had spoken with the Phantom Thieves about this, too. Every Ruler Shadow had the same eyes, the same unholy-sounding distortion in their voice, a voice that was always the copied from a person in the real world.
This was just the first time she had seen seen this much fear in those kinds of eyes. A creature that sensed its death coming and knew their only way to avoid it was to cast themselves on the mercy of humans... and even if no one had said anything yet, she could already feel Mira and Noel's resolve starting to waver, or at least the faint stirrings of pity in their hearts.
Reiha's cold words interrupted the spell he'd cast on them. "You're a Shadow. You're not a complete being. You're just the suppressed part of Niyoga; everything that he hides from the world. Whimsy and humor mixed with resentment and anger. That's all you are."
"All I am?", the creature gritted its stolen teeth, sucking them dry. "Were I but a hundredth of a human being, a thousandth, a millionth, would it not still be murder? Where is the line drawn, oh maiden of darkness? Or have you even thought about that?"
"It's not", Julian spoke up, looking grave but also not backing down from the accusations. "It's like your master said. This place is uncharted territory for us. In more ways than one. But you won't die, bro. You'll just return to existing as a part of Shukiji's mind. Don't worry, he's got a nice big brain with plenty of room for ya."
"No longer a flesh and blood being", the elfin creature growled. "Existing as nothing but mere thoughts in the mind of another. Tell me that is not death. Tell me."
When even Julian fell silent, Aiko knew that despite her wishes, she would have to speak up as well. "No one's saying that this is easy for us. You sure made it harder than most Shadows do, and so did your master. But..." Trying not to falter, she shook her head. "He's not just your master. He is you. And you are him. You becoming separate beings at all wasn't supposed to happen."
"An accidental birth", the Shadow glared into her. "No less valid than any of yours. Thousands of humans are born that way."
"The choice is clear", Pelagio cut him off. "The decision must be made between your life, and the life of the Niyoga lad. And I'm sorry to say, Shadow, that his life is of more value than yours. You... You are nothing but a parasite."
"Parasite", Aiko repeated, eagerly latching onto that terminology to make it easier. "Exactly. Just like when the fishermen clean their catches. They have to make sure there's nothing nasty attached to them that people don't want to eat. Something that could spoil the entire fish if you leave it."
Under other circumstances, the revulsion on his face suggested he was allergic to fish. Much like them, the Shadow fell silent for a moment before turning to Noel. "And you? You, the Mender, the marital pacifist, will stand here and allow these wretches to murder me?"
Noel looked like he was going to speak in his defense, but Reiha cut that off, stepping before him. "You can't take this out on blondie. Besides, the way I hear it, you've been threatening to kill him a fair bit as well. Because you knew he was Niyoga's big weakness. The only person he ever considered a friend."
"He has", Noel spoke quietly. "But my faith in mein freunde was rewarded again. He would not allow that to happen, even when I was all alone in this place."
"You see?", Aiko spread her arms imploringly. "You would have killed Mender the instant you thought you could get away with it. You might be smarter than most other Shadows. Smarter than most of the Rulers, even- but your first fix for any problem is still to kill it. That's you. That's your nature. So don't go acting like-"
The crashing noise interrupted her, and she refocused on the sight of the Shadow's arm plunged into one of the lenses, covered in broken glass but hardly damaged himself. The light inside of it flickered and faded, casting the suppressed fury on his face into red highlights.
"...I curse you. By air and earth and fire, I curse you all. You can go on pretending that this is not a murder, but we know the truth. And you will always know it too."
Aiko couldn't deny that those threatening words would be remembered. But once again, any lingering doubts that might have crept back into their consideration were dashed when Reiha waved a hand to clear them away like poisonous gas. "Moron. That's not how you curse." She let loose few of the common modern-day curses to demonstrate before fixing the Shadow with a dangerous glare of her own. "Look, either transform and attack us now, or don't. But don't keep yacking either. We have an appointment to keep with your boss."
With that, she spun around on heel and continued down the corridor, the others coming after. The increasingly frantic words of the Shadow continued to follow them. Pleas, bargaining, demands, threats...
But none of them looked back at him.
The real thing was thankfully much simpler. Once the crew came out on the rooftop where the long banks of lenses had been, he stood before them, idly gazing out at the water, his hair stirring in the wind, arms folded behind his back.
Shukiji Niyoga. The real one, Aiko reminded herself. For so long, they had only been interacting with the enormous golden avatar that she'd nearly forgotten what the rest of him even looked like. Against the backdrop of the dark ocean he only looked even shorter, his black hair long and messy after such a long period spent in the chamber above linked to the harness that granted him absolute control over his Land. No wonder he was interested in 'transcending'. He hates everything about his body. He can't deny it, and he wouldn't. Not any more.
"We will find out more about this world, Niyoga-kun", she promised him solemnly. "What you started, we'll finish. It's pretty clear that all this... won't be going away. So the only way to get rid of it all is to take out the source of the trouble."
"Yes. I suppose that would be for the best", Shu admitted slowly, still refusing to turn completely around and look at them, as though he were ashamed of his face as well as his stature. "If this 'Faraway Lands' can't provide the answers that I seek from it, then it's really nothing more than a death trap with bait. I only ask that you search this world thoroughly before doing anything permanent."
"We will, mein freunde", Noel vowed, blissfully happy with their success. "We will. And you are more than welcome to aid us in our journey, if you wish."
But Shukiji scoffed at the idea. "'Aid you in your journey'? How exactly would I do that, pray tell? I can't wield a Persona like the rest of you do. My powers are limited to this tower, this 'Land' as you call it. Outside of my tower, I'm helpless. Easy meat for the Shadows. A liability, nothing more."
"Sounds like you've already figured it out", Aiko remarked apologetically. There was the brief urge to reach down and hug him, to try to soothe his resentments, but she doubted that would go over very well. "I had a feeling you would. Your advice would be totally great to have though, even if you can't join us directly."
"Of course it would", he tried to inject more of a sneer into his words, but they came out shaky and frightened instead. Whatever else he was, he was still seventeen years old. "I suppose that is the best way to proceed."
His moves remained slow and reluctant, but they did eventually take him all the way from the roof's edge back to the corridor entrance.
Where the elfin Shadow waited for them.
He stood blocking their path, looking much the way Aiko imagined his true self felt inside. Desperate, ruined, emotionally exhausted. Being forced into something they had tried for so long to avoid. Lanky arms hung at his sides, hunched over as though he was already about to collapse.
For once, they weren't intimidated. "Ah. Here we go", Julian smartly spun his gun out of its holster. "I was hoping we could keep to the pattern. All we have to do is kick this one's ass, and then you can talk some sense into it and make it turn into a Persona. See? Easy peasy."
Shu raised an eyebrow, still as curious as ever about the strange aspects of Faraway Lands. "Oh really? Is that how it works?"
"Worked the first three times!", Julian assured him confidently. "Don't see any reason why it wouldn't work for ya here, yeah?"
"Hm. Interesting."
"NO...!"
The blaring denial drew them back to the Shadow. His hair overreached his gaze now, but his body spoke for them, racked by uncontrolled spasms until he was on his knees, long pale hands wildly clutching his face, his voice now choked with the kind of mortal fear Aiko had never thought a Shadow capable of until now.
"No. No, no, no, NO, NO, NO. It's wrong, it's wrong, it's wrong, it's WRONG... You... You cannot...!"
"Sorry", Aiko repeated, unable to look the poor creature in the eye any longer. "But just like we said, our choice is between the two of you. Like in a game of Shogi, we have to choose which one of you is more valuable to save."
"Ah. So you are starting to understand the nature of the game now", Shukiji observed approvingly. The growing screams of denial from his Shadow were too distracting to keep his facade of a good mood though, and he paced forward to confront it, his earlier contempt returning.
"I told you before, when we spoke earlier. You are nothing to me. Begone now, and leave us in peace."
"-NONONONONONONO-"
Just when it got loud enough for their ears to start to hurt, Reiha ran forward, knotted left fist rushing into a ferocious uppercut sending the Shadow flying up, up and over the rail of the roof into the emptiness beyond it. Everyone else was equally vacant for a moment, slowly processing what had just happened, the only remaining sound the whispers of the wind.
"Hot damn, that felt good", she exulted, turning back to the others and making a victory sign with her fingers and smiling.
"Hmph. Not quite what any of us expected", Pelagio recovered first. "An effective solution to the problem, I suppose."
"Yeah", Jiachi pouted, "but now he can't turn it into a Persona. Sorry about that, dude."
Shukiji looked like he was going to answer him, but he barely got half a syllable out before something in the air shifted, a silent peal sent across the ocean that sent everyone's hairs on end-
"AaaaaaaAAHHHHHHHHH!"
Before anyone else could speak, the chorus of anguished screams was renewed. It was Shukiji now, bucking, violently clutching his head as though it might burst, his vocal chords straining then failing to express an agony that defied all description, one that took little time to drive the young man onto the ground, curling up into a fetal position even as his wild screams continued.
"Shit! Witch, what did you just do?!", Jiachi accused, shouting make himself heard over the din.
"I-I didn't do anything!", she protested, her pale face suddenly panicked. "Shadows can survive in that water, right? Like the Leviathans! Even if he fell all the way down I didn't think it would do this!"
"I don't think it's anything to do with that", Pelagio seconded, his armor mail glove stretching a segmented finger forward. "Look."
As one, the Dream Voyagers studied the rail and the black horizon beyond it. There, the air pulsed and a small face popped up. The face of Shukiji's Shadow, now frozen into an expression of pure terror. Despite that, it seemed harmless until one looked beneath it, and saw that it was connected to a serpentine black appendage as it snaked up from below. Flexibly and visibly ribbed, it seemed to wave back and forth for a moment before making a flicking motion, easily casting the frozen mask away into the winds... to reveal yet another beneath it.
The new mask lacked any recognizable characteristics whatsoever, a mere white oval with deep black slits denoting a motionless mouth and eyes. Another face, forever in stasis, its expression open to interpretation but impossible to discern as anything remotely positive.
"-Makeitstopmakeitstopmakeitstop-"
The air twisted, and five more identically masked tendrils arose from below. And Aiko, despite Shu's mad screams, despite her own growing terror assailing her with the need to just shut everything out until it stopped, managed to find her voice again.
"Guardian... What is this? It can't just be the Shadow! It feels too... off!"
'Off' was the most applicable term to use here. Just looking at the thing set off mental warning bells she didn't know she had. Beneath the collection of tendrils lay their rising source; a smooth, well-detailed golden sculpture the size of a house that was obviously designed to appear as a living brain. Yet even as they watched, the sculpture's every nerve, neuron and synapse was being gradually overtaken by a patch of pitch-black growth, a mound at the top resembling nothing so much as aggressive fungus, the writhing appendages growing up out of it, feeding off it.
"I don't believe so either!", Pelagio shouted back. "This is... Something else corrupting the Shadow from within!"
The air around them surged, and the ruthless pressure nearly drove them all to their knees in fright. They only just begun to recover when something else struck. A voice, but not sound as they had come to understand it. It only existed in their minds, and its very presence felt unwholesome, a thousand tiny spiders crawling around on the inside of their skulls. A powerful male voice, but so distorted by clouds of noisy television static that even deducing that was a task. To Aiko, it felt closer to some brutal predator who had learned to speak, and cared nothing for any attempt to keep the instinctual hunger or loathing out of its tone as it began:
"You have slept a long while. Far past time for you to wake."
Fighting back against the verbal onslaught, Aiko stood, checking Shukiji's position first. Whatever this being was, its presence seemed to be affecting him the worst of them all, but at least he was being left out of the line of fire for now.
However, it was also Shukiji that the amalgamated atrocity focused its words upon, the heavy intonations seeming to crumble the air around them.
"My dear boy. Shukiji Niyoga. Did we not discuss this matter earlier? Do you not understand yet? These beings cannot be trusted. They are fools. They only seek your downfall, driven by petty jealousies of your intellect to drag you down to their level."
Shukiji was in no shape to respond. The best he could manage was to open his eyes through the agony, see the enormous floating brain for the first time, and clearly wish that he hadn't. The rest was only noise to him, an assault on the senses and sanity.
"A savage from savage lands, who desperately pretends not to be what she is. One who displays pride in his American blood, ignorant of the callous destruction wrought upon your people by his unstable kin. One who hails from a people who once embraced my guidance, yet foolishly rejected the magnificence they could have become, his proclaimed pacifism merely another mask for the truth."
"It... HURTS!", Julian managed to grit out. The voice of this... whatever it was had hit the rest of them just as badly. The insults felt like they weren't even a factor, barely acknowledged background noise, but a noise too loud to drown out completely, every syllable an invisible punch. It hurt to hear it, and blocking her ears did nothing.
"And the worst of all, their leader. A bovine creature with delusions of intelligence when the only thing she thinks with is her hormonal glands. An atrocity, born from nothing. A living rejection."
"Where...", she panted, refocusing her voice into a desperate shout. "What... What... What the hell are you?!"
Her terrified words echoed in the thick air, quickly dissipating into the bleak skies above before being swallowed up.
"I?" The impossibly disturbing chuckle reverberated across them all. "Dear children of man... I Am Thou, and Thou Art I. I am hate, and chaos, and entropy. I am the forbidden name, the strangled word. I am Truth, the true essence of humanity given form, and function."
"But you may call me... Great Father."
A/N: I am not familiar with Shogi. I did some research but never played it myself, so apologies if I made any errors.