A/N: Wheeee! My story rose among the ranks as one of the most reviewed! Thanks to all who reviewed!
Now, here's a relatively short, but action packed chapter. Bite and fun sized for your amusement!
(12/19/10)
Same evening...
Everyone who was active gasped. Rio, Junpei, Pinky, Kenji, Quan, Leah, Akihiko, Lee, Yukari and Fuuka converged with us at the center of the ballroom.
"Junpei, what did you do?!" Yukari cried.
"Why do you instantly blame this on me?!" Junpei cried.
"What the hell is going on!?" Quan said in fear, "What the hell happened?!"
"Ohmygosh! I feel like I'm in Obscure!" Pinky shrieked.
"Holy crap, don't say that!" Kenji said, "That game is scary as shit!"
"What is happening?!" Rio cried.
"Is this some kind of super lunar phenomenon or something?" Leah asked, "I'm glad I came!" She sighed as she squeezed Akihiko's arm.
Akihiko remained grim, "It's back..."
Lee looked drugged, "Man, I'm blown out from that blunt..."
"It's not the blunt this time..." I muttered, "This is the Dark Hour."
"Dark Hour?" Rio said.
"Alright, is this some kind of joke you're all in on?" Kenji said as he smiled, "Alright Japan, I'm an idiot! Where's the secret camera? Is it there?" He said as he danced wildly, "I'll get you back for this, Rio!"
"We're not in a gameshow, idiot." Yukari said, "This is real..."
"Then... what happened to everyone inside the caskets!?" Quan said frantically.
"Don't worry!" I said, "They're just sleeping."
Minako looked wistfully, "I sure do miss Shadow Time... Gives me an extra hour's sleep."
That revelation nearly knocked me out, "You know about the Dark Hour?"
"Huh... Is that what it's called?" Minako said, "Yeah, I know it. But every time I talk about it, people would assume I was making it up."
Yukari cleared her throat, "Why don't we look outside?"
"Go outside?!" Quan cried, "What are you, nuts? Why go there?!"
Yukari shrugged, "Want to be left alone in a room full of coffins?"
Quan jerked up, "C'mon."
We went out. The weather was cold and unforgiving.
We searched everywhere. There was no one within sight. The Astronomy Tower buzzed lightly.
Yukari wouldn't look at me. Whenever she would, it was either a glare or a dagger-look. When I talked to her, she'd reply curtly or rudely, before giving me the cold shoulder.
I had enough, so I tapped her on the shoulder, "Could I have a word?"
"Oh, okay." Yukari said aloofly.
"Will you walk with me?" I asked.
"O...kay..." Yukari purposely slowed down, and so did I.
We left the group for a while. Instead of heading towards the field, we walked toward the Astronomy Tower.
I was a bit scared. An ambush from anything lurking would not be impossible. In fact, it's the harsh reality here. Anything can jump at you at any moment. Since my Persona might be rusty, or would not work at all, and me unarmed, it would be a death sentence if one appeared.
"What are we going here for?" She asked wearily.
"I don't want to be overheard." I nudged Yukari, "Hey, worried that maybe a shadow will appear, huh?"
She looked at me and rolled her eyes.
That took me aback and I stopped her and confront her.
"Do we have a problem?" I asked seriously, "You've been acting cold and distant."
"Yes," Yukari said, "We do."
I cocked an eyebrow, "Really?"
She nodded, "Yes... Um... I have my period today."
That made me uncomfortable. Talking about female anatomy and understanding it would be harder than trying to understand the Event Horizon theory within an hour before a test. I had a strong feeling she was lying, and it was evident with my raised eyebrow.
"What, you want me to grab my tampon and slap it in your face?!" Yukari snarled.
That snapped me back, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, okay, I believe you!" I said sheepishly, then I held her close.
She pushed me, "I want to know," she said, scowling at me, "What exactly is going on between you and Minako."
From Yukari's secretive manner, I expected something more serious, stared at her dumbly.
"Something taking me for a ride..." I said as. Hugged her, "Yukari... We really did have a great history together..." I murmured into her ears.
I half-expected her to push me, but instead, she held me closer, "Minato... Let's stay this way, forever..."
I chuckled, "Come on," I said, breaking the embrace, "Let's go before they freak out."
We ran into Quan and Kenji, "Where were you two?!" Kenji cried, "We were worried about you guys!"
"Sorry..." I said, "There were things we needed to... discuss."
"Riiiiiight..." Quan said with a sly smile.
We returned to the main group, some casting awkward eyes at us.
Suddenly, I saw a cloaked figure exiting the Astronomy Tower.
"Alright, here's how we're gonna roll..." I began, "We're gonna split up. Yukari, Pinky, Rio and Fuuka, you two will check at the entrance."
"On it." Yukari nodded as she left with Fuuka.
"Junpei and Lee? You two will check the halls and rooftop." I said.
"No problem!" Junpei said excitedly, "Lee and I are an unstoppable tag-team at this point!"
"Right on, bro." Lee said and they then went off.
"Kenji, Akihiko-san, check out the lobby."
"Sure." Akihiko said.
"Quan, Leah, Minako... Check out the grounds. I'm going solo." I said.
Without waiting for a reply, I walked off and climbed up the Astronomy Tower. The scenery never changed much... Still the same bloody puddles, green slime oozing from the walls, cold winds and caskets strewn within the civilian populace and gloomy fog.
What really baffled me, though, was that the weather patterns stayed the same. Usually, it would only be cloudy or clear skies. But today, it started raining. And it felt like a weaker, watered down version of the Dark Hour.
That was when I saw the cloaked figure staring at me. When I looked at him, he bowed his head and ran away. Breaking off from my train of thoughts, I decided to observe him.
He was walking slowly and I felt as if he wasn't human. Then, he turned around after a circle of shadows, and I mean shadows like the ones we fought (to my surprise), surrounded him. The shadows really stupefied me to a high degree. But the next thing was a shocker. He faced me and absorbed the shadows with his left hand. He then clenched it into a fist and shot a Shadow FireBall at me. Summoning Deus Xiphos and Lucifer's Blade, which I avoided since it's an evil, cursed blade that whittled the life of its user, but I only summoned it since only the true owner can destroy it. I made an X with the two as I defended myself from the explosion. The blast sent me back seven feet as I braced myself. To my utter astonishment, the cloaked figure ran up the wall coming for me. It was a trick of physics with the Dark Hour that we could defy gravity if we had Personas, meaning he was a user as well. After I decided that offense would be a good defense, I ran down the wall too.
I did a classic trick of throwing Lucifer's Blade right at him, because if it touched him, he would be inflicted by a cursed wound.
Tonight turned out to be a night of surprises, since he caught it with his left hand and hurdled after me, undamaged by the curse.
We passed each other, narrowly colliding, him landing on top of the Astronomy Tower, and me on the grounds.
Suddenly, shadows appeared in great number. My head began to hurt, the very same feeling we feel when we summon Personas.
A shadow jumped at me as I waved Deus Xiphos, destroying it.
The cloaked figure jumped down and landed neatly on the grounds. I waved my sword as he waved his. He stood behind me after somersaulting down as the shadows swarmed us. We fended them off, but they were too many.
The shadows would suddenly be absorbed by him again, using the Blade itself like a vacuum.
I looked at him and he slashed an arc horizontally. I dodged it and attacked. After minutes of fighting, I was knocked down. Again, to my bewilderment, he picked up Deus Xiphos. I could hear his hand sizzling, and it smelled like sulfur, but he didn't seemed fazed. I looked at him as he stabbed the ground beside me with my sword. He snickered beneath his hood. Flying into rage, I picked the blade up and started attacking. He was pushed back as he used another shadow fireball to attack, which I deflected with the Holy Sword.
I knocked him down after stealing back Lucifer's Blade. He stood up again.
"Argh! Give up already!" I cried, but I felt the arm that held Lucifer's Blade get heavy. I dropped the sword.
"What the..." I said as I felt my arm getting cursed.
"Heh." He said with a cold, evil voice, "Look who's getting tired."
I felt as if he was an old friend, "No way! I'm totally winning!"
Raising the Blade of Heaven, I bellowed, "Messiah!"
Instantly, my head exploded with pain. An ivory figure of Messiah behind me appeared.
"Morning Star!"
An explosion of Holy light surrounded the area, breaking the Dark Hour spell for a few seconds before it set back in. To my surprise, the Cloaked figure held a ball of light in his hands and absorbed it.
"What the hell...?!"
"You dare use my own spells against me?" The man said with a rattled voice, "You are every bit as arrogant as he was."
"That's not true!" I said with a strange voice.
I felt him smiling under his hood, "So it's true... You really are his incarnate..."
"What?" I cried, "You don't know anything!" I bellowed as I picked up Lucifer's Blade and charged, but he put out his hand and a giant, muscular and powerful shadow appeared behind him. It grabbed me with two giant arms and squeezed me tight, knocking my breath off my lungs and forcing me to drop the swords. The hooded one picked up the Sword, "The Blade of the Demon Lord..." He said in wonder, "This is too powerful, too precious and too good to be yours."
"Get... a... room..." I wheezed while the Guardian squeezed me tighter.
"When the time is ripe, I'll have this." He said and the blade disappeared.
The giant shadow dropped me to the hooded man's feet. After a coughing fit, I managed to look up.
"Why...?!" I hissed, "Why can you be active at the Dark Hour?! And how can you hold the Cursed Blade?!"
He laughed, "Shut up." He scowled under his hood and punted me in the head, knocking me out instantly.
A/N: Finished. Please review if you liked it! And feel free to ask, but I will not divulge who the cloaked one is. That is up for speculation.