Chapter 9-
A Wolf and Two Fools
It was strange.
Looking at Loki the Persona felt just like looking at Loki the Goddess. Finding a new Persona in his compendium wasn't anything special in itself. Its happened a few times in the past, as a result of his bonds with the different members of SEES, according to Igor anyway. Was Loki the Persona a result of his relationship with the Goddess?
Did he subconsciously already consider Loki to be a friend? He had only known her for a little over two weeks, was he truly that starved for companionship? He had been alone for years before SEES, and now after only a few weeks of isolation, he had already grown attached to a crazy goddess of all people?
Minato thought about Loki, and the first thing that came to mind was that she was a nuisance if anything.
She was annoying and clingy. Her antics were always over-the-top and… He couldn't help but think that he had all but gotten used to everything at this point. If he were to suddenly leave Orario and return back to the Iwatodai Dormitory with SEES, he might actually find himself missing her antics of all things.
It was a chilling thought and one that he didn't want to dwell on any longer.
So he did what he always did and shoved it into the back of his mind, locking it away for good. There was no point in thinking about those things now, he was going to clear the damn Dungeon for Loki and then return back to SEES to help them with the Shadows. Anything else that happened afterward could wait until then. He wasn't going to think about why Loki had appeared in his compendium, only that the Persona was powerful and how it was going to be able to help him with his goal. The integration of Loki the Persona into his soul gave him access to some powerful new spells that he didn't possess in the past.
Megido and Megidola.
Almighty spells, magic that far surpassed the power of the elementals that he had been relying on in the past. He would need to practice, of course, to get a good feel for the magic and its costs. Nonetheless, Loki the Persona and the Almighty magic that it came with definitely made him stronger.
The Persona only stared back at him, a smirk on its face.
Minato called it back into his soul and the Persona disappeared in a shower of light. He stepped out of the alleyway, back into the streets of Orario, and looked up at the sky. The sun was setting soon, he would need to hurry before Goibniu's forge closed for the day. He had planned on stopping by right after his trip to the Dungeon, but the discovery of the Velvet room and of the Loki Persona had taken up a good chunk of his time, screwing up his time table.
Luckily, he had made it in time.
Most of the smiths were starting to clean up, getting ready to close up shop for the night. He walked past all of them to the backroom, to where Goibniu's personal forge was. The God didn't look up from his anvil, choosing to continue to hammer away at a piece of metal instead of acknowledging his presence. Minato found a chair nearby and took a seat, watching Goibniu work in the meantime. It seemed like it would be rude to interrupt an artist and his work.
After a few minutes, seeming satisfied with himself, Goibniu put his hammer away and turned his attention towards him.
"You here for the sword?" Goibniu asked as he wiped some sweat from his forehead.
Minato simply nodded in response.
The God stood up to his full height and walked over towards one of the many chests in the back of the room. He popped one of them open and pulled out a simple-looking short-sword still inside of its sheath. Goibniu tossed it over towards him and took a step back.
"Give it a few test swings." The God all but ordered. "Let me know how it feels."
Minato didn't see a reason to object, so he pulled out the sword and gave it a few swings.
It felt good in his hands, almost as light as Aroundight was. The question now was would the blade hold up against those monsters with the corrosive liquids within the deeper floors.
Goibniu, almost as if he had read his mind just scoffed. "That blade won't be breaking any time soon, lad. I used Durandal to forge that one, it'll do its job just fine." Goibniu then reached into a drawer and pulled out a piece of paper before handing it to him. "Here's the bill after subtracting the down payment you gave me."
Minato took a look at the receipt and his eyes widened a bit before he looked over towards Goibniu again.
"What? Did you think that crafting an unbreakable weapon was going to be cheap?" Goibniu just laughed in response. "Relax lad, I don't expect you to pay it all off at once."
He supposed that Goibniu had a point about that, but that was still a lot of zeroes. He would have to spend some more time farming for crystals and perhaps even look into doing some quests to pay it off. It didn't really change anything though, since he was spending all of his time in the Dungeon anyway. He would just have to hold off on upgrading his armor for now, until he finished paying off the sword.
There was no point in being cheap when it came to equipment, not when his life was on the line.
If Loki had noticed anything different about him, she didn't show it.
It was an irrational thought, if anything, there was no way that the goddess would be able to know that he had a copy of her residing in his soul after all. She was just being her usual annoying self, so he simply paid her no mind as he continued packing for his next trip into the Dungeon. He planned on going further than he had before, now that he had a new weapon and his full arsenal of Persona's available to him once more with the compendium.
Loki hopped off the desk she was sitting on and walked over towards him with her hands behind her head.
"You sure are packing a lot of stuff, Minato-kun." The Goddess pointed out. "You planning on hitting the deeper floors this time?"
Loki, being the observant goddess that she was, had of course already figured out his plans already. She only liked to play the part of the fool for laughs after all. He simply responded to her question with a nod of his head as he continued to pack.
"You know, I'm fine with you playing around on the upper floors. Even the middle tier floors, but things are different once you start hitting the deeper floors, Minato-kun." Loki said as she took a seat on the floor next to him. "It's not something that you can do alone."
He stuffed a couple of high-quality potions that he had purchased into his bag. Loki probably had a point about that, but he felt like he couldn't afford to just wait around for the Loki Familia's next big expedition either. The next full moon was coming around soon, and that meant that SEES was going to have to deal with the next Arcana Shadow without him.
"Annnnnnnnd, you're not listening to me." The Goddess sighed. "You know, you're surprisingly really stubborn." Loki remarked as she poked him in the cheek. "I talked to Finn-kun about our next expedition. He said that we should be able to move up the date for our next one."
He blinked at that and stopped packing. He turned his attention towards Loki and raised an eyebrow.
"What? Surprised?" The Goddess asked with a smirk. "I'm quite the benevolent Goddess, aren't I?"
Minato couldn't help but narrow his eyes at the red-head. "For some reason, I find that hard to believe. What's the catch, Loki?"
"G-guh." Loki almost comically stagged back. "Do you really think that I have an ulterior motive here?!"
He just gave her a dry look.
"Alright fine, you numbskull." She waved off with a pout. "I just don't want you to get hurt. You're a part of my Familia now, alright? So you're mine." She pointed a finger at his chest. "It's not healthy to spend all of your time pushing yourself to the limit in the Dungeon. You and Ais have that problem. So why don't you take some time off, get to know everyone in the Familia for once, and then get your fill of the Dungeon once the expedition starts."
Even if she had a point, he couldn't help but be reminded of Yukari. She had always been the one to pull him aside and remind him to take a break from Tartarus. Loki had done him a favor, however, by talking Finn into moving up the next expedition date, so he felt somewhat compelled to listen to her.
"When's the new expedition date?" He eventually found himself asking.
"In two weeks." The red-headed immediately replied. "And if you want to tag along, you're going to have to get familiar with everyone else in the Familia. Going on an expedition is a lot different from Dungeon diving solo, after all."
Two weeks. The next full moon was going to be in two weeks, so SEES was going to have to deal with the next Arcana Shadow without him. If he were being realistic, however, it wasn't as if he was going to be able to clear the Dungeon by himself within those two weeks anyway. He had a good chance of returning to the 51st floor in the next expedition though, and perhaps even reaching the end of the Dungeon if things went well.
In the end, it was an easy decision to make.
Even though he had said that why was it that he was still stuck hanging around Loki the whole time instead of getting to know the other members of the Familia that would be participating in the expedition?
"Well, it can't be helped." The red-haired goddess shrugged. "Ais-chan and everyone else left on an adventure earlier to make some money to pay off their weapons."
He gave Loki a look.
The red-head just grinned in response. "Hey don't be like that. You get to help me out with something in the meantime, and don't worry, not everyone left with Ais-chan."
Minato just sighed in response.
He had a feeling that Loki had planned this all out from the start, but didn't bother to mention it. In the end, he supposed that it didn't matter anyway, he was still going to be in the expedition and that would take him further into the Dungeon than he would've been able to go himself. So, he just followed after the red-head down the streets of Orario. He wasn't sure where they were going, but knowing Loki, it was probably going to lead to trouble in one way or another.
"Ah, there he is!" Loki pointed out. "Come on, let's go before he decides to ditch us."
The subject of Loki's interest was a gray-haired man with a rather nasty looking scowl resting on his face. He was one of Loki's higher-ranked adventures, Bete Loga, from what he could recall. They had never spoken with one another before though, so he didn't know much else about the man.
Bete's ears twitched, and he looked over towards them.
"Tch… You're late." Bete grumbled. "How long were you going to have me waiting here for, Loki?"
"Sorry, I had to convince Minato-kun to tag along." Loki apologized with a sheepish grin. "I'll make it up to you Bete."
"Yeah, right." The werewolf rolled his eyes. "Knowing you, it's just going to be with some wine."
"Yup!" Loki happily replied before leading the way. "Now come on, let's go!"
Bete looked over towards Minato with an expression on his face that seemed to ask, 'what the fuck's going on?' Minato just shrugged and followed after the red-head instead. The only person that knew what was going through Loki's mind was Loki herself after all. The werewolf just mumbled something to himself before he followed along not too far behind.
"So what the hell do you need me for, Loki?" Bete asked as he walked alongside her. "You already got the new guy for your escort."
"Yeah, but I thought it'd be a good time for you two to get to know each other." Loki replied with her hands behind her head. "Minato-kun's going to be coming with us on the next expedition after all."
"Huh? Him?" The werewolf glanced over towards him with a sneer. "He looks weak as fuck."
"Don't take what he says too literally Minato-kun." Loki explained with a knowing look in her eyes. "Bete's a total tsundere."
He raised an eyebrow at that, but he supposed that it made sense. The werewolf did seem to have some unwarranted hostility towards him for no reason.
"Huh!? What the fuck do you mean by that?!"
Loki just laughed at the fuming werewolf and ignored him. Bete glared at him, almost as if daring him to say something. Minato didn't see any reason to antagonize the guy any further though and just followed after Loki instead. At the very least, he could say that he was pretty good at dealing with people with that kind of personality. He was pretty good friends Shinjirou after all and they seemed to be quite similar.
Loki suddenly stopped in front of a door deep inside of an alleyway.
"Ah, there we go." The red-head said, "We're here."
The werewolf looked around, sniffing the air. "Smells like the sewers. The fuck are we doing here?"
"Well, let's just say that it has something to do with the monster attacks during the carnival." Loki answered as she stepped through the door and walked down the stairs. "I've been looking into it the last couple of days, and this is the last place I haven't checked out yet."
Minato followed after the red-head while Bete didn't lag too far behind. The spiraling staircase went on for a while before they finally made it to the bottom. It was just a standard sewage system from what he could see, and nothing looked too out of the ordinary. They all looked around for a bit before Loki found a sealed-off entrance.
Loki didn't care of course and ripped off the sign before opening the door herself.
The inside of the room was flooded with murky ankle-deep water. It was pretty dark, so Loki lit up a lantern and held up into the air. It seemed that she had come prepared if anything. Now that the room was lit up, they could all see that there was a massive hole in the wall in the back of the room, where the water was flowing in.
"Oh? That looks interesting. Let's go check it out." The red-head said as she was about to step into the water before pausing. "Actually… Bete, give me a piggyback ride!"
"Huh?!"
"I don't want to get my shoes wet, so carry me!"
"Fuck off!" Bete scowled. "Go get the new guy to carry you."
"Nope! It's got to be you! Carry me, Bete!" Loki all but pouted. "Piggyback ride! Piggyback ride!"
Minato watched the ongoing exchange with a raised eyebrow. Loki actually tried to climb onto Bete's back while the guy was trying to pry the goddess off him. The werewolf was surprisingly a lot more restrained about it than the Sword Princess was. If Loki had tried that on Ais, she would have probably punted the goddess across the room by now. Loki even ended up winning out in the end with a smug grin on her face as she pointed forward from atop the werewolf's back.
Minato couldn't help but chuckle at the sight. The guy really did remind him of Shinjirou, of how he always tried to portray this rough outer exterior only to actually be a nice guy inside.
"Hey… Something funny there, asshole?!" Bete growled out. He was probably trying to sound intimidating, but only so much could be done when a smug goddess was riding on your back the whole time.
"Sorry, it's nothing." He waved off. "You just remind me of someone I know."
"Huh? What's that supposed to mean?!"
"Oho? What's this now?" The smug grin on Loki's face grew wider. "Is this the beginnings of a wonderful friendship between my children that I see?"
"As if!"
"Haha, your tsundere tendencies are showing, Bete!"
"I don't even know what the fuck that means!"
Minato just followed behind the two as they continued to bicker with one another. He'd be lying if he said it wasn't a little bit entertaining. Maybe Loki was on to something with her whole playing the fool schtick. It reminded him of the arguments Yukari and Junpei used to always get into.
He couldn't help but smile a little at the memory.
They kept walking for a while, following the water upstream. The air got thicker, and the smell of sewage only got stronger the deeper they went. Bete sniffed at the air for a moment, before he stopped moving completely.
"Loki, get off me." The werewolf ordered. "There's something up ahead."
The red-head, to her credit, actually took his warning seriously and hopped off his back and landed into the water with a small splash. Bete took the lead and stepped forward while he trailed a little behind with Loki next to him. It was still a little hard to see, even with the torch in Loki's hands, but he could make out a strange shape in the darkness up ahead.
And then the figure in the dark suddenly lashed out.
It was a monster that looked like a man-eating plant. Its fangs were bared as it charged at Bete, but the werewolf easily kicked it away, sending it flying a good fifteen feet or so backward. And then, as if on cue, more of the creatures began to emerge from the shadows, surrounding them.
"Tch, hey new guy. Watch over Loki." Bete commanded before he charged forward. "I'll handle these bastards!"
The werewolf was fast, far faster than anyone he had seen so far. Bete almost looked like a blur to him, as he dashed around kicking at whatever monster that dared to stand in his way. As fast as he was, however, the plant-like monsters didn't seem to be taking too much damage from his kicks. From what Minato could see, they seemed to possess quite hard skin, tough enough that even a high-level adventurer's boots couldn't penetrate.
"Hmm… These were the same monsters that attacked Lefiya-chan and Ais-chan during the monster carnival." Loki remarked as she looked on at the battle in front of her. "I'm guessing this is where they were hiding the monsters at. Now we just need some clues on who was the one responsible for this mess."
"Wasn't Freya-sama the one responsible for the attack?" Minato asked the goddess, his curiosity getting the better of him. "That was why you wanted to meet with her, am I wrong?"
"Yeah, she admitted to releasing some of the monsters from their cages." Loki replied with a frown. "She wasn't the one behind all of this though." The red-head held her hands out. "These plant monsters weren't a part of the show that was planned for the carnival. I think that there's a third party involved."
Loki held the lantern in front of her and squinted her eyes.
"Bete's moving too fast, so I can't really tell what's going on, but the monsters ain't dying." She pointed out, as another one of those plant monsters got back up. "You want to give him a hand?"
Minato just nodded in response and stepped forward.
From what he had seen so far of his personality, the werewolf probably wouldn't be all too happy with him interfering. He could help in another way, however, and cycled through some of the Personas in his soul until he found one with the correct arsenal of spells that he wanted.
Tarukaja.
It was a spell that was meant to help one's allies. It would strengthen Bete's attacks, hopefully enough that the werewolf would be able to pierce through the monster's thick hides. The magic flowed from his hands and made its way towards the werewolf, regardless of the speeds he was moving at. The werewolf's next kick smashed through the plant's jaws with ease. Bete's eyes widened in response as he stopped moving and took a quick glance over towards him. He simply gave the werewolf a small nod in return.
Bete only grinned ferally in response before he turned his attention back towards the monsters.
"Ooh, that's a new one." Loki casually remarked as she looked over towards him with a sly grin. "So you can play the role of the support mage too?"
He wasn't great at it, since Yukari typically handled most of the 'supporting', but he had a couple of spells of the supportive nature. It didn't long for Bete to make quick work of the rest of the monsters with his speed and Tarukaja amplifying his power. Loki knelt down at one of the destroyed corpses from the plant monsters and dug out a magic crystal from inside of it.
"Hmm… Now that's a strange-looking monster crystal." The red-haired goddess observed. "You ever seen anything like this before, Bete?"
The werewolf took a closer look at it and frowned. "It looks like one of the monster crystals we found on the 50th floor. From those new species, the caterpillar looking things."
"Ya don't say?" Loki mused to herself as she tossed the crystal back and forth between her hands. "Hmm… I wonder…" She trailed off before pocketing the crystal and shaking her head. "Well, let's worry about that later. Great job boys, let's get out here now, it smells like crap!"
The red-haired goddess began to make her way towards the hole in the wall they had come from. "Ugh… And my shoes are all wet..."
Minato looked over towards the werewolf standing next to him. Bete just rolled his eyes and scoffed before following after the red-head. He decided to follow along as well, not trailing too far behind.
"Hey, new guy." The werewolf eventually began, "That magic of yours was pretty useful. Maybe you won't be completely worthless on the next expedition after all."
Minato couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at the back-handed compliment. At least, he thought it was a compliment.
"Tsundere~" Loki called out from in front of them, cackling all the while. "That's his way of saying thanks for the help, Minato-kun."
"Like hell it was, you damn idiot! And what the fuck does that even mean?!"
"Wouldn't you want to know!" Loki laughed as she ran ahead, the werewolf chasing after her from behind.
Minato just shook his head at the pair, a small smile on his face, before he ran after them as well.
Author's Notes- Sorry if I seemed to imply that I was done with this story or anything like that in my last note. That's not the case at all, the last chapter was just a struggle to write. I'm still not happy with it, but sometimes the words just won't flow out, so I decided to just upload what I had, even if it wasn't to my liking.
Anyway, I just wanted to thank everyone that took the time to leave a review. Definitely helps me with the motivation part of writing. Hope you all enjoy this chapter!