"Chidori…"

"Why didn't you call of the mission?" Chidori looked at Junpei with cold glare. "Is it worth your life?"

Junpei let out a bitter smile.

"Well…I've never actually given anyone orders before…They wouldn't listen to me anyway…" That's obvious, right? They had Minato and Hamuko, the both capable leaders…who else would listen to him? "I'm not really the one in charge…"

"So…you were lying before?" The emotionless face of Chidori twisted a little. "Why…?"

Junpei stared at her beautiful face for a while and finally he said.

"Tell me Chidori…was it all just an act? Our meeting, your wound, the picture…were you just setting me up?" His voice was trembling. "Now that I think about it…that cut healed pretty quickly…answer me, Chidori!"

Chidori was a persona user with super sensory ability. Even she refused to receive the feelings from the others, she could never do it. So, she felt a cut on her heart right now by receiving Junpei's feeling.

The only thing considered lucky to her was, she didn't know what this feeling was. If not, she might collapse right away.

"That was…"

Suddenly, she felt something on the way. This feeling was so familiar, like the one she had sensed before.

"Who's there?"

That day, Junpei went out alone. He didn't know what to do during summer break, and decided to wave his times by wondering in the town.

He went to Port Island Station. Film Festival was on going and many people gathered at the cinema. However, Junpei was not in the mood of watching movie.

"Man, it's scorching hot out here."

He's sweating, gosh! He looked at his handphone, and noticed the summer break was almost over. Now he's thinking, he did nothing during the break. All he did was playing game for whole day, or wondering the town without destination, or exploring Tartarus and fought shadows during Dark Hour. If someone asked him what he had done or gained during these times…he could only say, nothing.

"…It's so boring here…hmm?"

There was a girl sitting on the chair next to the flower bed. She had long red hair, but dressed in white long sleeve Lolita skirt. It was such a hot weather, Junpei couldn't believe someone would dress in this way. Wasn't she hot?

The girl seemed to notice him as well, shooting him a cold glare.

"…Get out of my way."

"H-Huh?"

"I can't see…Move."

"Uh…sorry."

He quickly moved away from the spot he stood.

What was she doing? Sketching…? He walked to the flower bed and peeped the sketch on the girl's hand.

"OMG…is that considered drawing?"

He couldn't describe what he saw on the sketch. It shouldn't consider as art at all. Just what the hell was she drawing?

"…What do you want?" The girl turned her head to him, glaring him as if she heard him.

"Uh…nothing. M-My bad."

Did she hear him? That glare…was terrible.

Not dare to stand in her way, he quickly left Port Island Station. However, he felt curious about the girl.

Few days later, he met her again at the same place. Like that day, she was holding the sketch book on hand and drawing. She was so concentrated, but she was quick to notice Junpei.

"You again…"

"Uh…you remember me, huh?" He inwardly felt surprised and excited.

The girl took a glance at him before she resuming the work on hand.

"Uh…what are you drawing?"

"Nothing…why?"

"Uh-uh, no…I was just thinking, it must be nice to have something you're really into."

"Nothing…I draw because I like it, and someone just bought me ten new sketch books." She kept urging Jin to buy new sketch book for her. That day, she went to buy sketch book, while Jin went to Hagakure to return the bowl to Izumi. For her easy life, Jin bought her ten sketch books so she wouldn't interrupt him again.

"Oh yeah?" Junpei wondered who bought for her. Was it her boyfriend? "Uh…I-I would like to see it when you're done, okay?"

"… …"

She watched him left Port Island Station. It was a coincidence to meet the member of SEES out here. She was planning to do sketching at first, but too bad she happened to bump into him. And what's wrong with him? Why was he kept talking to her?

She felt his curious to her. But she didn't understand. Would people felt interested to the others by just merely a coincidence meet? She didn't feel interested with the others for her whole life. But strange…she started to build interest into this guy. No one dare to talk to her. They're simply watching from far, and treating her as weirdo. He is the first person to approach her.

"Hello, Chidori."

A sudden voice caught her off guard. She turned her head to her back, found the light orange haired girl with a headphone behind.

"…Tomoyo."

"It's rare to see you alone. What are you doing here?" Tomoyo smiled innocently. But Chidori knew her, and she wouldn't get cheated by her smile.

"…None of your business." Chidori closed the sketch book and stood up, prepared to leave.

"Well, never mind. By the way…the guy just now…isn't he the member of SEES?" Tomoyo looked the direction Junpei left. "Do you know him?"

"…No, I only see him twice."

"I see…he is a good bait, I think." Tomoyo widened her smile.

Chidori furrowed her brows. "…What do you mean?"

She had a bad feeling. When Tomoyo started to plan something evil, she would bear that smile, and that made Chidori sick.

"No, I just wonder is he the leader of the team. If he is, isn't that perfect?" Tomoyo covered her mouth using a hand. "Self-talking, it's nothing."

Leader? Was he the leader of SEES? She didn't really pay attention to the members of SEES, so she didn't know exactly who was the leader.

But if he was the leader…

"Well Chidori, I need to go now. See you later." Tomoyo gave her a wave and left the place. She took a close glance on Chidori before leaving, and smiled. She knew exactly what Chidori was thinking.

Chidori stared at the direction Junpei left for quite a long time. She decided to do something about this.

Today was a bad day, Chidori thought.

"It can't be helped…Chidori, just go to the bathhouse and get it done." Jin held the broken water heater on hand, growling.

"Make it work, Jin." Chidori said with long face.

"Don't be silly…It's dead, accept the fact." He sighed. Takaya also looked quite upset by the fact.

"…I can't bath without the water heater." Chidori was yet to give up.

"…It's dead, I told you. Stop grumbling with me."

He had tried his best to fix it. But the water heater was too old, and one of the parts was seriously damaged. It's impossible to fix it.

It was so hot today. The air condition they had was too old, and didn't seem to function well enough. So, the air was so hot here. Honestly, Jin wanted to get a comfortable shower as well.

"…I don't care. I am sweaty doing sketching outside. I don't feel comfortable at all."

"Chidori, give up on having hot bath today. I will get a new water heater during Dark Hour."

"…I don't take cold bath."

"I told you the water heater is dead. No matter what you say, the water won't get hot."

"… …"

Chidori slowly took out the evoker from the pocket and aimed to her temper. Jin was shocked, widened his eyes.

"W-What are you doing, Chidori!?"

"…Get out from my way, Jin. I want to burn the water heater with Media's fire. I think that should do…"

"S-Stop that silly!" Jin almost fainted from shock. Takaya remained silence on this matter. He was hot too, but he would rather choose cold bath. There's nothing they could do if the water heater went down.

"…I am not silly. Get away, Jin, or else I will burn you together with the heater."

"Calm down. Who knows what will happen if you cast fire spell here." Seeing the girl was about to pull the trigger, Jin got more panic.

"…Nothing will happen. I can absorb fire." Chidori glanced at him and Takaya.

Jin sighed. His persona Morus reflected fire spell. He was safe in case Chidori really did that. However…Jin looked at Takaya.

"…It seems I am the only one might get burnt, huh?" Takaya smiled bitterly. Takaya's persona Hypnos was strong against Dark and Light elements, but had no resistance to other elements spell. "Sorry Jin, can you do something about this?"

"Even you say so…" Jin looked at Chidori with helpless face. "Chidori, just go to the bathhouse."

"…No way. I don't want to let anyone see the brand on my body." Chidori rejected his suggested immediately.

The brand, was the scar that marked them as the failure subject during the experiment ten years ago. Jin and Takaya were having the same scar somewhere on their bodies. The tattoos on Takaya's hands were designed to cover the brand.

Jin understood her feeling. He felt the same way too.

But he really had no idea what he could do to this damn situation!

"…Wait me a moment." He turned around, taking the handphone and pressed on the numbers. "…Hello, Izumi? Actually, I need to you help me with…Yes…Umm…okay okay…"

He took a glance at Takaya but said nothing. Takaya was clever though, he understood what's the meaning with the glance.

"Sorry Takaya, would you please stay home? Izumi is waiting for us, but there's little child at home, so…"

"Alright, I prefer to stay back in that case." Takaya shrugged. It didn't matter if some people scared because of his look. But he knew full well if Chidori couldn't get shower right now, they wouldn't hear the end of it.

"Sorry about that. So, Chidori…"

"Hurry up, Jin." Chidori was ready everything and waited Jin in front of the door.

"Jin, be careful. I have a strange feeling." Before they went out, Takaya added behind Jin.

"Strange feeling…? Now is not Dark Hour. There's nothing to be afraid, right?" Jin furrowed his brows.

"…I hope so."

Chidori and Jin went to the apartment of Izumi living now. Izumi welcomed them and invited them into the house while his house owner was not at home. From what Jin knew, Izumi's house owner was a nurse. She always late from work.

She had a daughter named Saya, a cute little child. She treated Izumi as her father, and used to call him this way.

"You can use the bathroom now." Izumi leaded them to the end of the house and showed to Chidori.

Meanwhile, a little girl popped out from a room and rushed to Chidori.

"Wow…princess!" She suddenly hugged Chidori.

"…Let go. I am not princess." Chidori frowned. What happened to this kid?

"No, you are princess! You dressed like a princess!"

"…It has nothing to do with the dress. Let go, I want to bath." Her voice was cold. She thought that should scared the kid away.

However, Saya didn't back down. She tackled her dress, begging to bath with her together.

Chidori looked at Izumi and hoped he could do something about this. But Izumi begged her to take Saya together instead of helping her. That made Chidori almost went crazy.

"I'm sorry…Chidori, she insists I and can do nothing, so…"

"…Stop apologizing." She sighed.

She wanted to bath. But she didn't know how to handle a kid. She didn't want anyone found the brand on her body. She hated all these.

However, compared to the points up there, she's more annoyed by the sweat.

"…I am not going to help you to bath. Is that okay?" She talked to Saya, a bit annoyed by the kid.

"Yeah!"

"She knows how to bath. Please watch over her." Izumi smiled bitterly. "Thanks, Chidori. I'll be waiting outside."

Chidori watched him left the bathroom, timidly said.

"Although he is not a bad person…but he is annoying. He doesn't change at all."

Saya was tackling her dress, urging her to hurry. Having no other choice, Chidori turned and walked to the bathroom together with Saya.

Meanwhile, Izumi went out with Jin. The two of them laying on the fence behind them.

"You seem to have a good relationship with your house owner. I can't imagine the kid call you father." Jin chuckled.

"Don't laugh…well, Maya-san is busy. I just can't leave Saya alone at home." Izumi was not good in handling kid either. But he realized it wasn't difficult when he really put effort to try it. Fortunately, Saya was a good girl. "It's not easy to deal with kid, but that fills my life."

Watching at Izumi's smiling face, Jin suddenly felt the worlds they belonged were different. Although they were victim of Kirijo experiment, but after separating for ten years, everything seemed changed.

"You…you've changed. You changed a lot."

Hearing that, Izumi's smile disappeared. Making a serious face, he remained silence for a while, and then he looked away from Jin.

"Living in this world, we will - we have to change. I will do everything…for I can continue living."

Jin could see his determination, and somehow, he felt that was quite dangerous to Izumi.

"If you live so hard, one day you will fall down. Well, we can't live without suppressant. So, we already know we don't have future." He tried to convince Izumi.

That's the fate of artificial persona user.

Death was their ends.

Izumi should have known this. However-

"No, I am not gonna die so easily. Maya-san and Saya are here…how can I simply die like that?"

Jin could see his persistence of life.

"Hey…you seem dangerous. No matter what we do, our fate will not change. That's the cost of the power we gained. Come on, we already knew that."

"Yes, I know." Izumi continued impatiently. "If Kirijo Group didn't pick me up, I should be an orphan on the street. Because of the power, I managed to escape from them, and I finally gained the freedom I have now. I know that. Of course, I know that. But I…"

I…I don't want to die.

Izumi spoke with a vague voice.

It's impossible. You can wish for anything, except this.

Jin almost blurted out, but he pressed it down abruptly.

Ignoring the wordless Jin, Izumi continued.

"…If possible, I will discard this power…so then I can continue living in this world." He is more to talking to himself rather than talking to Jin.

"…What are you saying?" Jin felt heat raised from his stomach. He couldn't treat it like he heard nothing. His voice mixed with a hint of furious. "You don't mean that, right?"

Izumi looked straight into his eyes.

"I do mean that."

With anger, Jin grabbed his collar.

"The only things we can believe is the power of persona. I don't allow anyone to deny this, even it is you!"

He thought Izumi would fight back, but Izumi only remained silence. Izumi lowered his head, shifting his gaze away.

"…Sorry, I shouldn't say that."

"…Tch. Whatever. I don't care at all." Jin cursed, letting go of Izumi.

Both became quite awkward now. None of them want to speak a word. Later, Izumi broke the silence by asking what kind of drink Jin wanted. Jin hesitated for a while before answered him, and watched Izumi went off.

He growled inwardly, feeling frustrated by his childish behaviour.

Inside the bathroom, Chidori and Saya sat in the bathtub and enjoyed the wonderful moment. She had long dreamt to bath like this. Unlike the hideout, she could only bath using the shower. She wanted a bathtub like this.

Maybe she could ask Jin to get one for her…

Slightly raising a smile, she stood up from the bathtub.

"Are you done?"

"…I just want to wash my hair."

Saya nodded and continued sat in the bathtub. She watched Chidori pressed the shampoo and applied on her hair.

"You're beautiful, princess." Saya suddenly said out of the blue, and making Chidori almost choked.

"…What are you talking about…" When Chidori wanted to turn her head to the girl, she felt a hand touched her back.

Trembling, she quickly distanced herself from the little girl.

"…What are you doing?"

"I wonder will it hurt…" Saya tilted her head, asked with sad expression.

The one she looked at, was the scar on her back.

The brand as the artificial persona user.

"…No, it doesn't hurt."

Chidori turned her head away, pretended nothing and continued washing her hair. But the little girl questioned her again.

"I know it is hurt! Father told me those bad people plucked your wings, right!?"

Chidori furrowed her brows.

What did Izumi tell her before?

"Father told me you are an angel. But those bad guys plucked you wings and this is the scar. He also told me not to be scared."

So Izumi told the girl this way intentionally? Now she understood why the girl called her princess at the first meeting.

"What an annoying guy…"

She didn't really feel annoying with Izumi, but in the same time, she didn't appreciate his well-intentioned.

But the girl was cute. She liked her, somehow.

"…It's pretty hurt that time. But I am fine now." Chidori waved to the girl. "Come here, I'll help you to wash your hair."

Saya immediately jumped up from the bathtub and rushed to Chidori.

"Yeah!"

"…He's slow. What's wrong with him?"

It had been ten minutes Izumi went off. What took him so long? Jin decided to wait for few more minutes, but Izumi was nowhere to be found. He felt something was wrong, so he quickly chased after him.

He remembered there was a convenience store nearby when he brought Chidori here. It was a few minutes' distance. If Izumi bought the drinks from there, it shouldn't take him so long. But if he was not going to the store, where he should be? Perhaps the vending machine behind the apartment?

Suddenly he recalled Takaya's words. Takaya told him to be careful. Having that in mind, Jin felt chill rose underneath his body.

Biting his bottom lip, Jin quickly made his way to the back of the apartment.

The small alley was dark and narrow. There were only dim lights from the street lights helped Jin to see clearer.

He couldn't find Izumi here.

"He's not here…perhaps the store?"

And then, he turned to the other path. He carefully checked whenever he reached the bifurcation. He didn't know the reason, but he had a very bad feeling, as if Morus was trying to tell him something.

Finally, he found someone was lying at a dark small alley. He knew that was Izumi, he must be Izumi.

"Izumi…"

Jin was intended to rush to Izumi's side. However, for a moment, he stopped his pace. His body was trembling, without knowing the reason.

What was he afraid of?

There was nothing to be scared…right?

Pressing the feeling down, he quickly ran to Izumi.

Izumi moaned on the floor, trembling hardly.

"Izumi!" Jin put his hand on Izumi's shoulder, but quickly pulled back.

What the heck? His body was hot!

"Hey Izumi!" Was his persona going berserk?

In front of Jin, something slowly appeared. It was a dark and sticky figure with human shape. Jin swore he saw it before. It looked like the Shadow Eater that attacked them before. The thought made Jin shivered.

"That's…impossible."

That's no way they were the same thing! Jin yelled inwardly. He kept winking his eyes as he thought so. And then, suddenly, the black figure disappeared. For a moment, Jin felt it was merely an illusion.

However, that was not illusion. The fear had deeply carved in his heart.

"My head…my head is dry…!"

Jin looked down to Izumi, still not recovering from such a shock. Few seconds later, Jin jerked, and finally he pulled out the phone from his pocket.

"Wait…I-I will call the ambulance now…!"

Jin completely lost idea what he should do. The only thing he could thought of was calling 119. This time, Izumi grabbed his ankle.

"…Stop…don't do that…or else I have to kill…" He slightly lifted his head and glared at Jin. Jin could see the murderous in side those eyes.

"Hey, it's hurt!"

Jin knew the reason he refused to look for doctor. But he didn't know what else he could do beside calling ambulance.

And then, Izumi started to cough. He coughed harder and harder, until Jin saw some red liquid dropping down from his mouth.

That was blood.

"Izumi…!" The phone dropped down to the floor. Jin watched Izumi in deep shock.

Once coughing out blood, they were going to die soon. That's the common sense of the people who taking suppressant. The chance to survive was zero up to this state.

After a while, Izumi stopped coughing. But the amount of blood he had coughed out was almost the same to the 500ml water, or even more.

Izumi slowly got up from the floor. He leaned against the wall, trying to maintain his posture.

"…Sorry. This is…embarrassed." Izumi smiled, but his smile only made Jin felt terrified. Not because of the blood, but the madness within his eyes.

Staggering, Izumi slowly moved his pace to Jin. But Jin took a step back when he moved further to him.

Izumi suddenly remembered his face was full with blood. Taking out a pack of tissue, he wiped his face. The blood stained the tissue, but the more he wiped, more blood stained the tissue. At last, he threw the tissue with furious.

"Damn!"

Something was wrong. Really wrong.

Why am I so scaring? I…I scare Izumi.

He just couldn't let go the image of the Shadow Eater with Izumi's persona. Somehow, deep inside his heart, he was sure that they were the same thing.

He gulped, not knowing what to say to Izumi.

"…Jin, what are you doing? We should be going now." Izumi picked up the things on floor naturally, like nothing happened a moment ago. That made Jin more frightening.

Are you Shadow Eater?

Voice died in the throat. He knew he couldn't simply blurted out.

Once Jin said that, the relationship between him and Izumi would have gone.

The reason was, his persona Morus had treat Izumi as an enemy.

Jin tried to stay calm, picking up the phone and put back to the pocket.

"No…It shocked me to see you coughed out so many bloods."

"…I'm sorry." Izumi looked away. "Well you see…this is not blood. I was so busy recently, so I bought some tomato juice to refresh my body. May be…it was too much, so it ended up like this."

Watching his friend's smile, Jin could only accept the lie. He knew it wasn't true, but this was the least he could do for a friend who would die soon.

"…Alright, don't scare me. I think Chidori is almost done. Let's go back." Jin turned to his back, unable to look at Izumi.

He had to convince himself, that the one behind him was Izumi, his friend, not a monster.

It was a few minutes' road back to the apartment, but Jin felt it was few hours' journey. When they got back to the apartment, Chidori and Saya were waiting for them.

Chidori frowned immediately she looked at Izumi.

"…What happened to you? Is that…blood?"

"Father, are you coughing again?" Saya also saw the red marks on Izumi's face and asked worriedly.

As Saya said 'again', meaning it was not the first-time Izumi faced such a problem.

"I bought a tomato juice and perhaps the juice was expired, so I vomited. Don't worry." Izumi said with a grin.

After saying goodbye to Izumi and Saya, the two of them went back.

On the way, Chidori tried her best to chase after Jin. But Jin was too fast, and finally she gave up on that.

"…What happened to him? He is weird…"

Izumi would die soon. Jin still couldn't accept the fact.

He didn't have chance to meet Izumi's house owner. He doubted what kind of person she was. But he could see Izumi loved Saya. No doubt Izumi would do anything for that little kid.

"Jin, look at the revenge website." Takaya came by with the laptop on his hand.

"Sorry Takaya, I'm not in that mood. Can I read it tomorrow?"

"No, you must read it now."

Strangely, Takaya didn't use to sound so tough. He didn't usually do that to Jin.

Feeling curious, Jin took the laptop and read the content.

As usual, he didn't know the client. But after he read through the mail, his face slowly paled up.

"…Takaya."

The client requested to kill a man named Izumi. He was working at Hagakure. The reason was because the client suspected Izumi had done something to her boyfriend and her boyfriend turned into The Lost soon after the meeting of her boyfriend with Izumi. The doctors couldn't find anything wrong with it, and police refused to investigate deep into the matter. With no choice leaving, she decided to request the help from the website.

For a moment, Jin felt difficult to breath.

"…So, what are you going to do?" Sighing, Takaya looked down at Jin.

"W-What to do…this is probably a joke right? Why we have to bother about it?" Jin rudely threw his laptop to the sofa beside him, and turned away from Takaya.

"Are you serious?" Takaya only watched him calmly.

Jin failed to refute. He couldn't refute Takaya's words. Takaya already looked through him.

Although Jin kept denying, the fact that Izumi was Shadow Eater remained there.

Izumi's persona was way too similar with the Shadow Eater. Jin recalled the determined expression when Izumi told him he wanted to live. Jin could have assumed that Izumi hunted down shadow to extend his life. But shadow was not enough, so he chose to hunt the big shadow instead. And then he found out that, persona could be one of the choice as well.

This was the only reasonable explanation of everything.

He cursed under his breath.

"…Have you aware the changes of Izumi? The changes of his persona…and his life."

"…I know."

It seemed Takaya had the same conclusion. Takaya usually stayed back at home but his speculation was faster and precise. Jin had been affected by his inner emotion. He couldn't make the same conclusion as Takaya.

"Full moon is few days after this. We can wait until then. I think Izumi will show up for the big shadow." Takaya sat down on the sofa, picking up the laptop.

"…Alright."

But they didn't know Chidori had another plan in her mind. And she completely had no idea about the discussion of Jin and Takaya.

Ken joined SEES, and Shinjiro followed soon after Ken joined.

Feeling disturbing, Hamuko and Minato felt they couldn't let the two be, and tried to be friendly to them. During free time, they would invite the two of them to have dinner outside. Although Shinjiro protested few times, but he couldn't reject Hamuko's annoying begging. Too bad the film festival was ended, or else Hamuko would dragged them to the cinema for sure.

Today's operation, Junpei was nowhere to be found. He looked quite excited recently, but he refused to tell Hamuko and Minato. So, they just shrugged it off, thinking it would be good if Junpei had something to focus on.

With Shinjiro and Akihiko's help, they managed to defeat Hermit. This time, the operation was smooth, unlike the previous battles. However, the smoothness of the operation made Hamuko felt uneasy. She could see Minato felt the same way, as he kept looking around with frown.

But she kept it for herself. It would be great if nothing happened.

"Everyone, please hurry up back to the dorm! I found Junpei, and the Shadow Eater is there!"

"Shadow Eater?"

"Why Stupei is at the dorm!?" Yukari snapped, but she quickly caught her breathe and ran back to the dorm.

"We will save that for later! Let's get back to the dorm." Following Yukari, Mitsuru commanded.

With that, Hamuko knew today was a difficult day.

"…What a pain." Recalling the bad experience he had with the Shadow Eater, Minato groaned.

"I think it's time to deal with it properly. It still owed me the pain on my head." Hamuko raised a grin. "Come up, we have to hurry."

… …

Chidori glared at the new comer. She didn't realize he was there until he came closer.

"…Why are you here, Izumi?"

That's weird. She definitely sensed the presence of Shadow Eater around, but now she couldn't sense it anymore. However, the appearance of Izumi was weirder than the Shadow Eater.

"C-Chidori, do you know him…?" Still having his hands tied, Junpei asked uncertainly. That's her friend?

"…Yo Chidori." Izumi scratched his head. "I'm…actually looking for the big shadow, but…the cute little couple and their team was heading there, so I changed my mind."

"…What brought you here, then?"

"…Chidori, I want to live…not just survive. Surviving means nothing to me. I want to live." He pulled out a small knife with feather decoration. Chidori narrowed her eyes. The feather named Feather of Twilight, a special substance used on the evoker. All the evokers had this feather decoration. "That boy is persona user as well, right? I'll let you go…if you hand him to me."

"W-What!?"

Chidori looked at Junpei for a while before shifting her gaze back to Izumi. Media sensed something wrong with him. His life…had almost met the end. Now she understood the blood on his face previously.

But there's no way she would hand out Junpei like that. Although he was not the leader of SEES, killing him wouldn't bring any good to her. Besides, part of her didn't want Junpei died.

"…No."

Izumi sighed. "That's too bad." He took off his shirt, revealing the black scars on his body. The scars and brand wrapped his body like thorns, imploded on his left chest – where the heart was.

It shocked her indeed.

She quickly summoned Media. Shadow Eater – Izumi's persona attacked her upon being summoned. Ikutsuki and Haruka heard the noise outside, quickly came out and checked.

"What happened here? Since when they are here…Junpei!?" Ikutsuki was shocked as well. He never thought he would see Chidori and Junpei here. Though Fuuka was unable to locate him earlier, he thought Junpei probably had other business to take care of, or just simply didn't want to join the operation.

"…Shadow Eater is here as well." This was out of her expected. But Haruka knew, one day, they would have to face Izumi. In her role, she wouldn't leave him stay alive. "I think SEES is on the way back. We should wait for them."

"Yes…I think so."

But before that, she should untie Junpei first.

She sneaked out carefully to the side of Junpei, helping him to untie the robe on hands.

"Argh!" Covering her arm, Chidori was having difficult time to deal with Izumi.

Media's fire didn't work on him. His persona was strong against all the elements attacks. What should she do?

"Chidoriiiiiiiiiii!" Junpei summoned Hermes to help Chidori. He was angry with her lies…but he couldn't let her be killed by this monster!

"…Not bad, but it's too far from good!"

Shadow Eater punched down Hermes, while Izumi leaped forward and aimed his evoker to Junpei. Unlike the gun type evoker, knife evoker could be used as kind of weapon. Junpei didn't expect that to come to him, and unable to react to it.

Suddenly, an axe flew to Izumi's direction, but Izumi was fast and dodge it immediately.

"…You are annoying, Junpei." Chidori shot Junpei a cold glare.

"I-I was trying to help…!"

Chisori ignored Junpei, focused on Izumi.

This was too bad. Could she fight against Izumi all by herself? She hoped Jin and Takaya were here.

She looked at Ikutsuki and the poker face girl, knowing she couldn't rely on them. she hated the idea to rely on Junpei, but she had no choice…

"Chidori!"

"Junpei!"

Voices jerked them up.

Chidori found Jin and Takaya were coming to her way.

Junpei found his friends were coming back.

"…Looks like today is tough." Izumi let out a bitterly smile. He had no turning back. But he was not backing down.

The fight start.

...I know I have leave this story for a long time…please forgive me! (slap my face)

I have dropped my pen for two years, and I thought I might not take it up for a while…and the times flew. Two years! I dropped my pen for two years! Time sure was fast.

Well, since it has been two years, my English is still bad (please forgive me T_T). I will try to update as soon as I can, but I have another story on hand, so I might focus on that for now.

Well, as you can see in this chapter, I focus more on Strega and Izumi. Next chapter, they are going to deal with Shadow Eater. And finally, the story of Shadow Eater should come to an end. I just feel Shadow Eater has take most of the story up until now.

Then, see you later!