A/N: Quick note most of this will be based off of Persona 4, not the Golden variant. I'm not going to throw out money for a game system I would only play 3 games on. Watching the LPs takes too damn long, so I ain't doing that either.
Narukami got his Persona without the horrible embarrassment of having all his secrets and hidden emotions exposed to the people he desperately wanted to hide them from. But that guy has that awkward charismatic aura about him, that shows you exactly the kind of person he is. For the most part he's a down to earth guy who specialises in bad jokes told with a straight face. It's unfortunate that such a handsome face was wasted on someone with the emotional freedom of a brick wall.
Yosuke's Shadow never appeared on the Midnight Channel, or rather it never had the chance to since he wandered into the TV willingly with their leader. Whatever happened when they entered the TV world a second time, they've kept a tight lid on it. Even Teddie kept a tight lid on what happened and he became obsessed with the idea of "scoring" after Yukiko's castle so it must have been pretty big.
heh, that's what she said.
Chie and Yukiko had reached somewhat of an understanding after the events of awakening their Personas. They still had their moments where past incidents made things a bit tense, but they've been able to work past it every time. A better understanding of each other's problems, and that slight feelings of relief that no one is perfect or better than them. They would always have their differences but that's what they liked about each other.
Unified by the desire to catch the murderer and prevent them from throwing anymore victims into the TV, they formed the Investigation Team. A name so innocuous you can hear the importance in it and can easily infer what they are investigating. There aren't too many mysteries in their sleepy town besides the only major incident to happen in years is literally the only thing that matters.
Now let it be known that before going off to save their first client, our first 4 heroes spent 3 days a week training to become Pokemon Maste- proficient Persona users. Card summoning was now comfortable, instinctual even. The minor goof ups of slipping and falling still happen from missing after the occasional overextension. They were new at the job, and a few mistakes were to be expected. By the time Client K (We already know who it is, it's Kanji. Why the discretion?) from Tatsumi Textiles had gone missing, their attacks landed when it mattered. Larger targets were stiff unyielding but still bent under their combined pressure.
Then they fought Shadow Kanji. It was horribly embarrassing for all of them. Chie and Yukiko immediately flew into a rage attacking the first Shadow in their line of sight. Elemental weaknesses meant nothing to them and Teddie's "bear"-ious problem with punning about it didn't exactly make them see reason.
The boys weren't much better, breaking down in trauma the moment they were touched. Taking critical damage in the first 3 hits nearly dying if not from the Emergency Healing from Teddie. While the girls were off whaling away uselessly at one of the supporting shadows, Teddie was running support for both parties frantically running back and forth between the split party doing his best to support each of them.
Until the hand of Roxas was thrust upon the situation and he said, "Let there be bullshit."
And there was.
Chie in typical angry Chie fashion was swing her legs with reckless abandon. Knocking around her target until the Nice Guy's face dispersed from the pressure. It's not that she was incapable of learning, she just got too frustrated watching that disgusting masochist Tough Guy moan in pleasure from getting hit.
There was a bit of concern when she landed a [Polygamist's Castration Kick™] and he crumpled to his knees in a smile but we don't wanna get into that. This is a "T" rated story dammit. I can't afford to get kicked off the platform for turning this into an er-
ahem
It could not be emphasized how badly the fight started out. With more than a bit of support from Teddie, the boys were able to pull themselves together and direct the girls anger towards a better target that wasn't Shadow Kanji or his physical resistant friend Tough Guy running buffs with the Nice Guy. Chie running front and center with physical attacks as often as she could. When she earned more than a bit of knockback she would summon Tomoe to act in her place until she caught back up.
Yukiko had already calmed down, but that didn't mean she wasn't taking potshots when she could, she just had the rationality like her role was supposed to be. SP/Support skills were her strength as much as Chie's was Strength/HP.
When Nice Guy and Tough Guy were down and out for the count, Chie did feel a lot better. Maybe her anger had been temporarily sated, maybe she was stressed but seeing Shadow Kanji, the one who put her in this horrible situation, she felt a bit of dark pleasure knowing she was going to beat the shit out of him.
Launching herself at him she...
Missed.
Badly.
She missed so badly her Dynamic Entry caused her to hit her head on the edge of the bench behind Kanji's Shadow temporarily knocking her out, and knocking her out of the fight.
It's a good thing no one can watch Shadow fights on the Midnight Channel. The Large Shadow burst into laughter dropping his two Symbols of Mars to point and laugh, occasionally wiping away a stray tear or two. Yosuke and Yukiko 'unwillingly' joined in and even Kanji himself, mildly comatose as he was could be heard chuckling.
Chie had single handedly brought an end to the fight. "By forcing everyone into a state of comedic relief they could all bond and learn to grasp and better understand each others failings. That sometimes we have weird quirks and that we can mess up and look like idiots too. She really is smarter than she looks." thought Narukami, completely misunderstanding what just happened.
No one would ever bother explaining what really happened that day. Narukami in his usual bullheaded ways would continue the misunderstanding till the day he died (He would forget about it in 7 years time when he would be investigating a certain incident regarding the Phantom Thieves but that's a story for another time.)
The fight ended with Kanji and his Shadow getting all their true feelings out in the open. Kanji admitting to his inner fears not only to his Shadow, but to the Team who were (conscious) willing to help out a guy who looked like he was going to kick the shit out of them at any moment.
Truly an inspiration to us all.
She knew this talk was coming. When Narukami accepted her offer to train with her she didn't think she'd ever end up being so fearful of his opinion considering how horribly she failed in their last mission. She flew off the handle and get rekt because of her temper, and now Narukami was going to hate her, and call her an idiot just like everyone else did.
"Your plan was flawless." What.
"I know that we have to fight through a person's dungeon of choice to get to the Shadow, but I never thought of trying to empathize and pacify the situation with not just saying things to make people feel better but getting them to act happy as well. Shadows are the dark parts of a person's personality and sometimes that may result in a fight. But not everything needed to be solved with simply lashing out at it expecting things to work themselves out."
He put his hand on her shoulder smiling malevolently (kindly). "You helped me realize that saving a person doesn't always mean beating up the bad thing, but showing them it's okay to have darker, embarassing or even clumsy parts of ourselves. That everyone has them, and we should work to display not only our feats but our faults as well. We're only human after all."
He wouldn't know why his social link with Chie would be reversed and broken for the rest of his life. Yosuke used this incident to needle her somehow and it could be inferred he messed up by complimenting her for her ingenious.
Maybe she just liked being referred to as the idiot?
A/N: Hey.
So... I noticed some people like this.
That's cool.
Might do more. Maybe expand character screw ups into parts.
Until then...
NEXT TIME: SHIROGANE NAOTO, because Kanji's weapon is impractical already and you can't possibly make it even worse than it already is.