April 18, 2011

Forecast… Sunny

"Called you for what!?" Yu, Yosuke and I were near my desk (CLAUSTORPHOBIA!) just talking about random stuff that was going on. When Yu suddenly said the King Moron had called into the shopping district… AT NIGHT!

"Just to give me my school jersey…" Yu had a look of slight fear as he recalled the events that had happened last night. "I still don't know why…"

"That," Yosuke also seemed scared for the moment. "Is just scary!"

"Agreed," I sighed as my mind wondered to a subject that had been on my mind all night. "I wonder if Chie is okay…"

"Yeah," given the events of yesterday we all felt bad. "Too much stuff happened yesterday. I hope she's back to her usual self… Well if she's not, I'm sure King Whack-a-mole can cheer her up."

I glared at Yosuke, if looks could kill, Yosuke would have just disintegrated at that exact moment. "You know… I know ten different ways to kill someone without, I will have to wait for winter, after though… that's the coolest one!"

Yosuke looked like he was about to run for his life when the door slid open. Revealing a calm looking Chie, she looked over at us and calmly walked over to us. "Oh, mornin'."

"Yo," I smiled as I put my hand up to my head like I was about to do a military salute, only with two fingers, and then I extended my hand doing the piece sign. "Sup?"

Chie just smiled. "Nothing really…. Actually, um… Thanks for everything yesterday. It's kinda embarrassing ya know… You three were right there to see my hidden feelings and…"

I was still smiling at her, man she matured fast. "Not like it was anything bad."

"They were still 'hidden' for a reason," Chie sighed looking at the ground. "I didn't want anyone to know I felt that way…"

"I can sympathize, still," I turned to Yosuke with an evil grin. "What'd it say!?"

"Will you drop it!?" Yosuke started to pinch his forehead, I was annoying him to no end… MISSION ACCOMPLISED. "Oh, I nearly forgot! None of that happened when Yu's Persona awakened, huh?"

"I remember this story!" I had to give it to Yosuke; he knew how to deflect a conversation to his advantage. "Nice save by the way…"

Chie just seemed so surprised by this new revelation that Yu never faced his Shadow… I don't know why it didn't surprise me the first time I heard the story. It just seemed like he had nothing to hide, like all of his cards were already on the table. "Oh? So nothing happened for you? I gotta agree that you seem like a pretty open guy. There's a funny air about you…"

"What do you mean funny?" I raised an eyebrow, he was the new kid, of course there was something weird about him!

"I dunno," Chie just shrugged at me then turned back to Yu, I, for some odd reason felt a little angry that Yu was getting the attention and not me. "I guess that's what draws people to you, or something like that."

Yu smiled, it looked like he was trying to pick his words carefully… "You falli-Want me to bare it all?"

Amazing save by Yu Narukami! S- wait! What!? I went into a coughing fit at that moment. Chie flinched back about five steps. "GOD NO! I don't need to go even blinder than I already am!"

"Wha-Hey, wh-what're you talking about?"

"Don't do it! You'll get arrested again!" With Yosuke comment, the heavy atmosphere disappeared as was replaced with all of us laughing to our hearts content. A smile was still present on my face as things died down after a few minutes.

"Anyways," Chie suddenly got determined again, she knew what had to be done now. There was no way she wanted to wait either. "What's most important right now is to rescue Yukiko."

"I hear that!" I pointed a finger toward the ceiling. "If another body shows up, I can tell you now that it will be the killers! I'm not letting someone innocent take a fall like that!"

With that the bell rang and Yosuke seemed scared of the bell at that moment. "Oh crap, I still haven't gone to the bathroom!"

"Dude," I smacked my forehead. "You held it in for like… five hours and you're complaining about it now!?"

Yu walked over to his desk leaving me and Chie near our desk. I grabbed my sketch pad and slapped it dead center in the middle of my desk. "Hey, um…"

"What's up?" I looked up at Chie, to this day, I could have sworn that she was blushing slightly. No matter what she says. "Something wrong?"

"N-no, just," Chie took a deep breath so that she could continue talking. "Th-thanks for saving me… more than once yesterday… Yosuke's cool and all, Yu still has the air about him, but… There really is something different about you."

"Is it that the hat," I was playing it off as a joke, and to get attention away from my cheeks, as they were starting to feel hot. "Or the way I act… I got it! It's because I'm insane!"

Chie started to laugh, I was glad to see her happy again, too much stuff had happened since the day I got here to Inaba, I was surprised none of us were in a mental institute yet! "No, it's not that hat, I just feel like you won't let me down"

"W-well," I was now pulling my uniform up to hide my cheeks. "At least you feel that way. Still we'll save Yukiko soon…"

"Yeah!"

Time Change: Early Morning to Afternoon

"This should be good!" I whispered to Chie as the P.E. teacher stood in front of the class. "He is really gonna try and do a lecture?"

"Yeah," Chie sighed, she knew what was about to happen. This was now English class, not like the school even had an English teacher, no one ever applied for the post, so they just asked Mr. Kondo to teach the class. "It's a lecture about English…"

"Oh, this is gonna be good!" I smirked a most evil grin as Mr. Kondo introduced himself.

"Helloooo and good afternooooon, all! My name is Mr. Kondo, you P.E. teacher!" Like we didn't already know that! "But since no one at this school teaches English, I'll be doubling up my roles!" I was trying not to laugh as Mr. Kondo pretty much made an ass out of himself. "Don't be so disappointed. In fact, I've spent some time overseas!"

Not like it would help the students much! "One week of vacation time, to be exact!" I face palmed so hard, I'm pretty sure that the class down the hall heard me do it, yet Mr. Kondo just kept talking. "But that's more than enough teach a class! Hahaha!" Once again, DOWN. THE. HALL! "We'll start with the basics of the basics: the English alphabet!"

I groaned the moment those words exited his mouth… "This is gonna be a long year…"

"Richards!" Mr. Kondo startled me so much that I literally fell out of my seat! The rest of the class, except Chie, Yu, and Yosuke laughed (Yosuke giggled! There is a difference!). "The word alphabet comes from the words alpha and what other word?"

"Beta," I said the word so fast that the rest of the class that had no idea how to speak English just stared at me, A.K.A., everyone in the whole damn room except Yu was looking at me. "Is it wrong?"

"No, no, you got it right." With that I nodded as Mr. Kondo continued his lecture, I sat down, Chie still looking at me.

"I'm going to need your help in this class." She gave me puppy dog eyes. I smirked at her; this was my main language so I would end up being asked by everyone.

"Well," I turned back to the front of the class to Mr. Kondo writing on the board. I quickly put in my i-pod. "I don't need to pay attention in this class to pass after all!"

Time Change: Afternoon to After School

Yukiko's Castle: Floor 5

"Hmhmhm…" Yukiko's voice filled the floor as we continued to ascend the castle, getting ever closer to the top and hopefully Yukiko. Yet every freaking time we heard her say something, I was getting more and more depressed over what had happened to me in my past. Yet I just put on my smile and continued on, until we got the fifth fucking floor! "Ohoooho!"

"I. HATE. THIS. CASTLE!" We had managed to make it three floors higher than the last time we were here. We even found Yukiko's Shadow, which proved my theory; it was the Shadow's we saw on the Midnight Channel. Though I will spare you the details, god I just about went blind when that damned title card came up… I also don't wanna be a "special guest" to something that will transform into some messed up monster! Yet, after all that, the thing that pissed me off the most was none of that stuff! It was this floor that was pissing me off! Every goddamned time we tried to pass a door going to the right of the goddamned square, it would fucking TELAPORT us! It was complete and utter BULLSHIT!

"Shadows incoming!" Teddie warned us from some magic fucking demotion that didn't fucking exist! "Their weak to ice!"

"I got this!" Chie ran in front of everybody as she adjusted her glasses and her tarot card appeared before her. "Tomoe!"

Chie's Persona, Tomoe appeared before everyone and shot ice out of the tip of her double ended ninjinta before slicing the other Shadow in half! "Ha, that was easy!"

"Nice moves Chie!" Yosuke cheered her on as Chie dismissed her Persona, none of us had even been so much as scratched this day, and we all had the energy to keep fighting for a while. "Alright, so now where to?"

"Well," I held out a key with a crown design on the end of it. "We have a master key for the castle! So, basically… Anywhere that will get us to the top of this god forsaken castle!"

"Guys!" Yu was pushing on a door that just wouldn't budge. "This door is locked."

"There's someone in there…." Teddie sounded a little scared at that moment. I quickly ran to the damned door and slammed the key into the slot and turned it, successfully unlocking to door.

"I'VE HAD IT WITH THIS PLACE!" I kicked the door open, much to everyone's surprise and Yosuke's fear, yeah, when I'm pissed, even my poking you can fucking hurt like a bitch! Now imagine if I kicked Yosuke. Unlike like with Chie, there would be nothing left to be cracked! "FUCK THE WORLD, I HATE YOUR DAMNED CASTLE YOU SHADOW BI- HOLY SHIT! That is a big ass, flying suit of armor with a javelin!"

"Kreed are you- WHAT THE FUCK!?" Yosuke ran into the room to freak out just as much as I did when he saw the big shadow. I mean, it was a goddamned KNIGHT ON A FUCKING HORSE! Yet we finally noticed a figure that was standing next to the knight… A Yukiko in a ball gown with yellow eyes and a dark aura around her and a wicked smile, the Shadow bitch just seemed over joyed by our entrance as she FREAKING CHUCKLED AT US! "My Prince wouldn't lose to guards such as this, correct?"

"Gyaaaaaaaah!" Teddie started to freak out on us at this point, yet I figured he would do that at some point in time, still. "I've never seen such a strong one before! I-it's attacking!"

The shadow did some sort of war cry before charging of the four of us, we all jumped out of the way just in time, and the shadow kept on charging, yet it seemed like it couldn't stop in time, as the fact that it just kinda… got stuck in the wall. I started to laugh at it. "H-how… d-does th-that eve-even hap-happen!?"

"Does it even matter!?" Chie quickly summoned Tomoe. "Persona!" Tomoe quickly went to stab the shadow… only for the blade to pass harmlessly under the shadow's helmet. "Wh-what!?"

"Hit the armor!" I yelled out as I ran for the shadow and smacked the side of the thing… only after I swung and my bat when right under the cape of the horse armor. The shadow looked down at me and broke the wall with a single motion. "Um… Hi, t-that's a nice horse ya got there… Guys… please knock him out…"

With that I ran from the shadow, and it started to chase me around the room. "Shit, shit, shit, SHIT!"

With that, Chie, Yosuke, and Yu had their Personas shoot the shadow with three different spells as lightning, ice, and wind blasted the armor, which only made it turn and look at the three Persona users and charge them, only for Yu's Persona, Izangai to start fighting it with its spear. This was kinda like watching a sword fight until Izangai got a good hit in, knocking the shadow to the ground. Yosuke smiled as he turned to Yu. "Let's go partner!"

Yu just nodded his head as the three of them charged at the shadow creating a huge smoke cloud again. "Good answer!" As they were attacking the shadow, I noticed the shadow's helmet on the ground was starting to move toward the smoke cloud. I raised an eyebrow at the helmet, until it started to fly at the shadow's body, to which I stepped in front of it and simply swung my bat at the helmet, sending across the room and out the hole in the wall. With that smoke cloud disappeared and so did the shadow, leaving a key on the ground. "Man… That took forever."

"Yosuke," I glared at him. "Just fuck you. Now, let's grab that key and continue with storming this castle!"

"Hey Kreed," Chie jogged over to my side and talked quietly in my ear. "You okay… you seem a little upset."

My eyes widened, she had brought up a question I really didn't want to answer at the moment. Everything that the castle was having us hear about Yukiko made me feel about my past and how much I hated it. I wanted nothing to do with anything or anyone that I met or did before I came Inaba. "Y-yeah, I'm fine, just thinking how close we are. I mean if you look out the windows, you can see the top of the castle is nearby."

Chie looked at me like she wasn't buying my bullshit; I could lie like a pro as long as you didn't look me in the eyes. "If you need to talk-"

"I said I'm fine Chie!" I didn't want to yell at her, yet I did. "I'm sorry I didn't me-"

"Dude!" Yosuke clearly heard my outburst and was not pleased with it. "What is your problem!?"

"I-I…" I looked at the ground, I really didn't know what was wrong. "I didn't mean to, I'm sorry guys…"

"It's fine," Yu walked by and as he put a hand on my shoulder. "Let's get going, Yukiko is waiting."

"Y-yeah." With that we all left the room and soon the floor, yet we didn't notice that something was no sitting down by the door where we fought the knight.

"I don't wanna die, I don't wanna die… So you're gonna have to!" It smiled with a sad grin on it's face as it slowly walked after us. "Show time!"

Yukiko's Castle: Floor 6

"In other words, she's a manager who's still in high school. Now that has a nice ring to it…" The voices just kept showing how much Yukiko really didn't like the inn that she was going it inherited. "Let's see if we can interview her. Excuse me!"

"Shut up!" Man Yukiko had some real anger management issues. Better than being a pycho! Then the rumor kid's voice came up, man she really had some grudges.

"H-hey, Yukiko-san. Mind if I ask you something…? Is it true that announcer's staying at your family's inn?"

"Shut up, shut up!"

"Well," I rubbed the back of my neck. "That is kinda scary for the fact that she wanted to explode in anger!"

"L-let's just get her out of here…" Chie looked at the ground, I put my hand on her shoulder and smiled.

"Nothing to worry about!" She smiled back at me as we walked through the floor.

"G-guys," Teddie suddenly appeared out of god fuck nowhere. "Something's wrong… I can't smell any shadows on this floor…"

"W-what!?" All of us turned to him with a confused look on all of our faces. Yet I continued to talk. "Where the hell did they go? Wait… were they even here to begin with…?"

"I don't know…" Teddie shook his body, which for him is… I guess shaking his head. "Still, be on guard."

We started to walk through the halls of the castle with great caution. The fact that something might have scared shadows away… "H-hold on there are some shadows near the stairs!"

"Oh thank god!" I sighed in relief actually; it was a huge relief for us. That meant that they weren't trying to murder Yukiko yet. Even more to Chie's relief that her friend was safe, still though, we all were actually happy to know there were shadows. "Let's bag em and break em guys!"

We found a few of the hands, the mouths, and some… well, um tables… yeah… I don't even know… Yet we took them out way to easily, all it took was a few well-placed spells and the shadows were history. "So… next floor?" I smiled as I peeked out a window nearby, we were almost there. "It looks like it might be the second to last one!"

"Awesome," Yosuke and Yu high fived, while Chie looked concerned up the next flight of stairs. "We're so close now!"

I started thinking about something though… those shadows looked like they were trying to hide, did we really scare them that much. I didn't think so, because they just attacked us, still… It wasn't really that important unless we ran into whatever scared them that much. So I just shrugged and turned to see everyone climbing up the stairs to the next floor. Just as I started to climb the stairs, I swore I heard someone singing. I shook my head; I must have actually been going crazy! I mean, who in their right god damned minds would follow people into a TV… it just sounded wrong, even being that person, I thought that it was insane! Once I made it to the next I heard Yukiko's voice… again, where the hell was the PA system in this castle, I swear I'm gonna smash it! "Hasn't my Prince come yet? My dear Prince… Please hurry and take me away! Somewhere. To a world where no one knows me…"

Teddie suddenly spoke up from his magic PA system, having vanished again, I guessed he smelt shadows on this floor. "It's close. She's just beyond here!"

"Good," Yosuke smiled as he peeked into a door, and a shadow's hand started to reach for him as he attempted to close it again. "HELP!"

I was still a little pissed at the maze, so… I walked over the door and kicked it open, trapping the shadow behind the door and having Yosuke be dragged along it. "Ow…"

"Now kill it!" I smiled as I smashed the shadow's face in multiple times until it disappeared. "Now then, shall we finally kick the shit out of Yukiko's Shadow!?"

With that we again destroyed every last shadow on the floor easily, like the only ones left were weak and scared ones… which was weird still, we only encountered one tough one, that was a giant beetle… We finally found the stairs and found a door… again not that far from the stairs, and the door was huge. "This is it! It has to be! I mean just look at the damn door!"

Teddie appeared out of nowhere again, scaring the shit out of me. "Huh? This smell… It must be her! She's right behind this door!"

"Woop there it is!" I fist pumped as everyone looked at the door and started to push it open.

"Kreed!" Yu called out to me, snapping me back into reality.

"Oh, right!" With all four of us pushing the door open, we easily entered the room to see Yukiko on her knees in front of stairs that lead to a throne with Yukiko's shadow standing just in front of the throne. "Bingo! Target locked!"

Chie ran right past all of us to see if her friend was still alive. Thank god she was… or Chie might have lost it. "Yukiko!"

"I knew it…" Yosuke and me seemed to have been on the same track after seeing her shadow, but god really! Like we didn't already know this. "There's two of her!"

"Thank you captain obvious," I rolled my eyes as we all took a step closer to the stairs. "So, um… anyone got a damn clue on what to do now… Cause, um he is right…"

Chie rolled her eyes, yet kept her focus on the shadow standing before us. "We crush the fake and save Yukiko, that's what!"

"Oh? Oooooh," Yukiko's shadow grinned as we entered the room, that creepy ass smile that made it seem like we were about to victims of- well anyway! "What's this?"

"The cavalry!" I pointed a finger in the air. "We just finished storming the damn place; now… give back Yukiko so we can LEAVE THIS GOD FORESAKEN CASTLE!"

"Why would I do that?" He shadow started to sway about as though it wanted to dance as well as sing. "When you four princes are here to see me!? My my! Are you the surprise guest who came in late?"

"Kill me now!" I lightly tapped my baseball bat against my forehead as Yukiko's shadow continued down a path of making me gag! "I can't take this anymore!"

"Awwwww…" The shadow started to make a fucking POUTY FACE, WHAT THE FUCK! This is not freaking drama class, plus yellow eyes do not make good puppy dog eyes! "I wish I'd gotten a better look at you!"

"I'm going to vomit…" I gripped my mouth like I was actually about the puke until Chie smacked the back of my head. "Sorry…"

"Why are you sorry little prince?"

"That's it!" with that I walked over to the nearest pillar and started to repeatedly bash my head into it. Yukiko's shadow just continued on with its bitch fest!

"My, it's getting crowded here. Why don't you and I go somewhere else…? A land far, far away…"

"In a time long ago!" I pointed at the shadow grinning evilly. "Star Wars!"

"Where no one knows me, if you're my Prince, you'd take me there, won't you? " The shadow did the finger beckoning thing where you curl the finger back at you so that someone will came closer… I could see that Teddie was getting the wrong idea about all of this. "C'mon… Pretty Please?"

"Oooh." Teddie looked like he had fallen in love, dear god it was creepy. "Is this 'scoring a hot stud!?'"

"You wish…" I pinched the bridge of my nose. God that just sounded stupid, thank god Chie was able to redirect the conversation…

"Four princes…?" Chie was in an offensive position, ready to attack on immediate need. "Wait, does that include me too…?"

This very clearly ticked our dumbass bear off. "Duh! The fourth one's gotta be me!"

Me and Yosuke both just rolled our eyes and in complete sync said… "I seriously doubt that…"

"That never happened," My eyes widened when I realized what just happened. "Okay good, now again, Shadow, shut the hell u-"

"Chie…" The shadow interrupted me mid-sentence and chuckled, god it was like the only thing that it lived for was pi… ss… ing… off… Yukiko… God I was slow! "Yes, she's my Prince… She always leads the way… Chie's a strong prince…"

"Well," I rubbed the back of my head. "This just took a turn for the weird and fucked up."

That got me a quick kick to the balls, straight to the ground I went… Yep, I knew it Chie's kicks fucking HURT! "Or at least, she WAS."

Now the shadow started to sound and look pissed off, like the fact that we even mentioned Chie's existence just pissed it off to no end. Like all it cared about was just trying to get Chie to leave crying. Well, maybe not, but still! Chie was only just confused by the statement dropping her guard for a moment. "Was…?"

"When it comes down to it, Chie's just not good enough!" The shadow was no very clear expressing it's anger at Chie, yet Yukiko hadn't said a word this whole time, I was getting worried; still I was getting more pissed at the shadow insulting Chie more than anything… "She can't take me away from here! She can't save me!"

Chie was about to say something when everyone heard the snap of my bat smacking something, and to see it smash right into the shadow's face, the damn thing didn't even flinch! "DON'T EVER INSULT MY FRIENDS!"

At this moment Yukiko finally decided to try and stand up. "S-stop…"

"Historic inn? Manager training!? I'm sick of all these things chaining me down!" This is what the shadow was waiting for, Yukiko just telling it to stop was partly denying it, she was giving it strength. "I never asked to be born here! Everything's decided for me! From how I live, to where I die! I'm so sick of it! To hell with it all!"

The shadow was getting incredibly anger at this point, you could tell it wanted nothing to do with us anymore, all it wanted was Yukiko. "That's not true…"

"I just want to go somewhere far away…" It had gotten just a little more strength and was just insulting Yukiko by mocking her at this point. "Anywhere but here… Someone, please take me away… I can't leave here on my own… I'm completely useless…"

"Stop… Please stop…" We all knew what was coming, there was no way to stop it, all we could do now was wait and hope for the best.

"I have no hope if I stay, and no courage to leave… So I sit on my ass hoping that someday my Prince will come!" The shadow was making way to many home runs with Yukiko, you could just tell, because of the way it was acting, it knew what to say. "I don't care where we go! Anywhere's fine! As long as it's not here, I don't give a damn! Historical tradition? Pride of the town? What a bunch of bull shit!"

Yukiko was so close to breaking that I could just hear it in her voice. "How dare you…?"

"That's how I really feel. Isn't that right… me!?"

"N-no!" There it was, we had to try and stop her, but we also knew it was too late to do anything, yet Yosuke tried to stop all hell from breaking loose!

"Stop! Don't say it!"

God, it was like no one could hear him when he said that. "No! You're not me!"

"Sooooo," I rubbed the back of my head and sighed. "Who what's to start taking wagers on if people don't listen to Yosuke when facing their shadow… because, he's done zero to two…"

"Is now really the time!?" Yu shook his head as he drew is fake katana, Yosuke grabbed his kunai, and Chie started bouncing from foot to foot. I gripped my bat and swung it a few times, then stood there like I was waiting for a turn at hitting a bat, and the thing I hit earlier finally fell down the stairs, yeah I hit a shadow's helmet. So anyway… Oh yeah! So Yukiko's shadow started to get a dark aura around it as it started to laugh like… like, well like a freaking PYCHOPATH!

"Aaaah!" This is where I again about vomited, god her shadow sounded like it was hav- never mind… "This feels wonderful! It's building… more and more… If this keeps up… I'll… I'll…!"

Then the usual explosion of power happened and a chandelier fell from the ceiling with a… "HOLY CRAP! It's a bird!?"

Yukiko fell to the ground in exhaustion, like the shadow had just drained her of all her strength. Chie noticed this of course and just about ran to Yukiko. I held out my hand to stop her. "If you try, there's a very good chance you'll get smashed!"

"But, Yukiko!"

"Focus on the shadow first!" I was waiting for the shadow to make its first move, that's when I heard Yu say something that just didn't really make sense at the time.

"Change!"

"Change!?" I just raised my eyebrow. "Change what!?"

"I am a shadow…" Of course shadow Yukiko just had to interrupt us at this important moment! "The true self… Now, my Prince… Why don't we dance and make merry together?"

Yukiko's shadow emitted a power the physically generated a new shadow! It was a little blonde doll of a prince. While Yukiko's shadow was now a giant red bird with Yukiko's face and hair… needless to say, creepy as fuck! Chie called out to Yukiko, hopefully, Yukiko could hear her. "Hang in there, Yukiko… I'm right here for you!"

"Oh really…?" The shadow was really getting on my nerves now. "Then I'll make sure to give you plenty to deal with!"

"Shut up!" I picked up the helmet. "Unless you want another helmet to the face!"

With my comment, the rest of the guys summoned their Persona's only this time, Yu, instead of Izanagai had a little Persona, that wore a purple cape and old like witches hat, it had a lantern in its hand and pumpkin head. "Pryo Jack!"

Chie started to send ice spells at the shadow, which just hide in its cage, the guys were waiting until it came out of its cage, I ran up to the little shadow, which tried a few times to stab me, which failed, it was a hell of a lot slower than I was. I successfully smashed its face in; it was such a weak shadow that I killed it after smashing its face two more times. Yukiko's Shadow noticed this, and just smiled, like it didn't even care. Yet, that's when Yosuke got his Persona to knock the cage door open! "Chie go for it now!"

Chie noticed her opening and sent five ice spells into the cage, knocked the shadow to the ground. The guys ran into another white smoke cloud, kicking to shit out of the shadow. Yet when it finished taking that beating it simply just stood back up and seemed a little scared now though, like we were close to beating it! "My prince! My dear prince!"

It emitted the same power as before; only this time… no extra shadow appeared. "Why… Why won't he come…?"

"Because…" I gripped my bat as the shadow started to bitch about its lost prince. "The prince usually saves the girl from the monster, not helping the monster!"

The shadow seemed to take my comment a little too close to heart, as it suddenly turned to me with death in its eyes. It shot off a large wave of flames, I thought I was a goner, until Yu's new Persona flew right in front of me and started to suck all the flames into its lantern!

"Hmph!" The shadow started to growl at all of us. "Looks like I had the wrong idea… You're no princes… Die, you worthless commoners!"

"Not in your life time!" I started to growled at the shadow, trying to keep its attention, still behind Pryo Jack. It was a good thing too, because of that it didn't notice Tomoe near the chain of its cage. "Just because you don't like, doesn't mean that you can just ignore it or, hell even want to get the heck out. It just doesn't work! You can't just wait for your 'prince' to come and save you! You have to work for it! Unless of course you cage collapses on you!"

"What?" With that Chie had Tomoe cut the chain, dropping the cage straight to the floor. The shadow was trapped for the moment, until black clouds shot out from its, um… lifeless corpse, until it reverted back to its human form at which it was standing in front of the cage, how? I don't even have a fucking clue! Chie noticed that against a pillar, Yukiko had started getting up off of the floor. "Yukiko! Yukiko! Are you hurt!?"

"No…" Yukiko had noticed her shadow now, and like Chie, still didn't want to accept it as how she felt. "I'm not-"

"We understand." Yosuke had come to play the role of advisor to those who were trying to accept their shadows, so how it worked. "You're not the only one like that, Yukiko-san. Everyone has something they can't show to other people, or don't want to admit to themselves…"

"Yukiko…" Chie turned back to Yukiko. "I'm sorry. I was so self-centered that… I never understood what you were going through… I'm your friend, and I still… I'm so sorry…"

If we are hoping that I come in and comfort Chie, then you're gonna be disappointed… I was trying not to cry myself, I was thinking about what happened to me earlier in my life… I hated it, I hated my past, and Chie would be the only person I ever told it to. Yukiko seemed to take everything a lot better than Chie had. "Chie…"

"I was always jealous of you, Yukiko." Chie was actually rubbing the tears out of her eyes at this point in time. "You had everything that I didn't… That jealousy was like a wall, and I was so lonely…! I wanted you to need me… But it was me who needed you."

This point, I didn't want anyone of the group to see me, so I walked behind a pillar out of their view, tears were actually streaming down my face. It sucked! Everyone here had what I wanted, and most likely needed… a friend. "I can't do anything right on my own… I've caused so much trouble for Yosuke and the others. If you weren't by my side, I… I wouldn't know what to do…"

"Chie…" Yukiko sounded like she cheered up, which made me realize what was gonna happen soon, so I looked around the side of the pillar to watch Yukiko's Shadow become a Persona. "I never saw the real you either… I was too busy trying to find an easy way out. 'I want to run away'… 'I want someone to save me'… You're right, those feelings are part of me, too. I understand now… You're me."

With the magic words, Yukiko's shadow nodded her head and was enveloped with a bright and beautiful blue light. It quickly transformed into a large figure, it was female and wore a small dress that was white near the bottom and pink from the chest up. It had black legs with pink boots, and it held two large pink flowers that were connected by pink petals. Then as quickly as it appeared, Yukiko's Persona vanished into a tarot card that also vanished, only this time, into Yukiko… who quickly clasped from the exhaustion that Chie had.

"Yukiko!" Chie was the first to run to her side, I looked away for a moment, not wanting to have the others see that I was crying. Yosuke was second to show his worry.

"Are you okay?" Yukiko slowly looked up Yosuke.

"Yes," She tried her best to smile, but it didn't really seem like it to the others. "I'm just a little tired… You all came to rescue me…?"

I could hear Chie's voice cracking as she tried not to cry again. "Of course!"

"Thank you… all four of you…" Yukiko whispered the last part, but I could still hear it. I just shook my head, yeah, not like I cared anyway.

"Four?" Yu looked around for me; I knew he was so I peeked out from the pillar. Yu smiled at me, I guess he thought I was crying cause I was happy for Chie. "No five, Kreed-san helped to."

"Don't even mention it." I could hear Chie start to cry again. "I'm just so glad you're safe…"

Then I heard Yosuke laugh a little. "Right on." As if on cue, Teddie asked the one question, that we all wanted to know.

"So, who threw you in here?" Yukiko sounded more surprised by Teddie that she did scared.

"Huh…? Who are you?" Yep definite confusion in her voice. "Rather… What are you?"

"I'm Teddie!" He seemed way too happy to be introducing himself. "So, who threw you in?"

"I don't know…" Yukiko looked back at the ground, the guys sounded disappointed, while Chie was just happy that her friend was safe. "I think… someone called my name… But my memory's a blur. I can't remember who it was… I'm sorry, um… Teddie."

"No new clues…" Ted was the only persona to voice his disappointment, I'm sure everyone else would have too, if not for being interrupted by someone clapping.

"Good show!" The voice was distorted, but it sounded so familiar that my head shot up to see someone leaning against the door frame. "Next time, someone needs to die though! That way there's one less human in those retarded ass universe!"

The person had on a Yasogami uniform and a grey beanie upon his head, that's when I knew what it was. The dark aura flowed out of the body of the person, it was a shadow, yet I knew who's it was. Standing in the door of the throne room stood a carbon copy of me, my shadow. "W-what!?"

"Oh, don't look so surprised!" It shook it's head, the yellow eyes shown clearly through its glasses. "After all, you were denying me all of today! So what else was I gonna do!? You really are a stupid prick ya know that!?"

Everyone was so surprised as my shadow stood there insulting me. Yet the Persona users got into their fighting stance. "Another one!? Teddie, protect Yukiko!"

Teddie stepped in front of Yukiko, my shadow rolled his eyes. "Yeah, not who you need to protect her form. After all, me over there just wants everyone to DIE!"

"Wh-what!?" Chie's voice showed how surprised she was, her eyes showed concern for me, she looked at me as I was backing up towards the group. "No, he doesn't want that!"

"The fuck do you know about us!?" The shadow grinned evilly. "He never told you, did he!?"

"Sh-shut up!" I was getting scared; I didn't want them to know anything about her! Not the girl that fell trying to save me… the girl I-I killed. "Don't say anything else!"

"Why?" the shadow started to take steps closer to me. "Not like a little bitch like you can do anything to stop me! After all, you never fought back, you let the 'cool kids' beat the ever-loving SHIT out of you! Yet you never said anything, you're just the annoying little rich kid to them, to everybody! There is no one in this world who gives a DAMN about you! That's why you tried to kill yourself… FIVE TIMES!?"

"SHUT THE FUCK UP!" I grabbed my head and dropped to my knees, he was saying everything I told myself, every time before I attempted to take my life. "You don't know anything!"

"Kreed…" Chie tried to put her hand on my shoulder, I smacked it away.

"Get the fuck away from me!" I wanted to run and hide, Chie knew about my suicide attempts, the others didn't… Yosuke and Yu were surprised.

"H-he, tried to what!?" Yosuke said as he dropped his guard. "No way, d-dude…"

"Shut the fuck up you annoying piece of shit," My shadow just started to laugh at my desperate attempts to hide from the world. "This pathetic excuse for a human being has done nothing hate all five of you, and the world! After all 'you can't see a forest for the tree!' 'No one cares about me! Who could ever care!?' 'I want to whole world to burn in hell, if I don't deserves to live no one else does!' 'Oh, god I killed her…'"

"You don't know a DAMN THING ABOUT ME!" I yelled, I could no longer control myself. "Fuck off, YOU ARE NOT ME YOU FUCKER!"

"That was a little early don't yeah think…" My shadow shrugged as the black smoke came off of him. Yet he started to move his arms over each other and he did, his arms were stripped away until a weird graffiti pattern was left for his arms. "After all, I am the one thing that can never change… No matter how hard you try to run from me, I will always haunt you!"

Then he collected the dark aura in his hand and placed it on his face, it turned his face into a mask that only had the eye holes, after a moment, blood slowly ran out of the eyes. "I am a shadow… The true self… How the fuck can care for the people who never cared for me!"

"Kreed!" Chie, Yosuke, and Yu stepped in front of me to block my shadow from me. "I'm not letting you hurt him!" Chie yelled at my shadow, to which it started laughing.

"Oh, that's rich!" the pattern on its arm changed from that of a claw, to a scythe. "Trying to protect the person whose biggest threat is himself! Still, if I can kill you three first, then there are less people to bother me once I kill him!"

"Shut up!" Yosuke shook his head at my shadow. "Like you know how other people feel!"

"Kreed is out friend," Yu's voice was layered with anger and rage as he summoned his tarot card. "I will NOT let you hurt him! IZANGAI!"

"Jiyaria!"

"Help me Tomoe!" All three of their Persona's appeared and rushed the small shadow, that still stood as tall as me, it just shook its head as Yosuke's Persona was within attacking range, it jumped over the Persona and changed it scythe hand into a mace and slammed it onto the head of the Persona, crumpling it to the ground, Yosuke also hit the ground. "Yosuke! Skull Cracker!"

Tomoe rushed the Shadow, only to be grabbed by its throat, by a large claw that was a mace only a moment ago. "You call this protecting someone!? HA! You couldn't even protect a snail with like this!"

Izanagai slammed its spear into the back of my shadow only for it to vanish in a bit of static and five more to appear around it tying it to the ground. One more appeared in front of it and slammed a sword into its face. Yu started to scream as he held his in pain; Izangai disappeared as Yu fell to the ground. "You people are PATHETIC! Not one of you can stop me! Give me a freaking challenge at least. Oh wait!" It turned to Tomoe and its hands went back to being normal. Chie turned to me dropped to her knees and hugged me, she knew what was going to happen.

"I care for you Kreed." Chie smiled as she held me, I was trembling, my shadow had just defeated two out of three of my friends right in front of me. My shadow held out its hand and shot spikes off of its hand the stabbed Tomoe in so many places that Chie just fell unconscious for the moment. I set her on the ground and looked up at my shadow, I guess that's when I knew I wasn't alone, and I had people who cared.

"If you're me then you're a coward!" I said as I grabbed my bat and walked towards it. "You're right, I do hate the world! I hate myself, I hate people!"

"W-why the sudden change in heart!?" My shadow said as it started to back up, sure Persona's where no problem, but the one person that could end your existence, yep scared shitless. "Doesn't matter though!"

It shot the spikes at me and I just smacked them away from me. Yu started to get up and watch what was happening, he gave Chie and Yosuke some healing items, they all could barely move at the moment, but they watched as I walked to my shadow. "Yeah, I wanted to die because I thought no one cared! Yes, she fell with me, but they never found her, so she's alive, so am I. That's all that matters, yes I'm scared shitless right now! But I still have to beat you myself… After all, you're my past aren't you? The one thing that will never change in anyone's life is their past!"

My shadow was laughing now but I was in swing distance and it was leaning against a wall, only now it was flickering with static, like it was in a weakened state at the moment. "So, you came to me to die!?"

"No," I punched my shadow in the face so hard that it cracked the mask like face it had. It grabbed the right eye where the crack ended and looked at me, it went to cut me down with a scythe as I got into a baseball stance and swung my bat. "I WANNA LIVE!"

There was a sickly crunch under my bat as my shadow's head literally exploded with the force of the blow, it slide down the wall as it started to revert to its human state. Everyone was watching me as I looked at my shadow lying on the floor. "Kreed… we had no idea…"

"It's fine Yosuke…" I smiled sadly at five people looking back at me. "So, you guys say what my past did to me, but it also lead me here, where I met all five of you. I'm not alone any more. Can't believe it took me this long to figure it out though." I rubbed the back of my neck in embarrassment. I turned back to my shadow. "You really didn't last that long ya know… then again, neither did I. You are the reason I hate myself, but you also gave me the five best friends I could ever wish for… Even Teddie and Yosuke are my friends surprisingly."

"HEY!"

"Shut it Yosuke!" I smiled brightly as I looked at my shadow, it was looking right back at me. "I'm just a broken puppet of society, I always did what people wanted me to, until now, I can finally get over it all and live my life. Thanks for being a part of me…"

My shadow smiled and said something before it vanished and became a Persona. "That's why I killed those other shadows." With that it was enveloped into the blue light and it changed shape into a very scary looking puppet, it had the left side of its face smashed in revealing a red eye in the blackness, it wore a cloak that was purple and was badly turn at the bottom to reveal legs that had been stitched together. Its right arm was all ball jointed, even the fingers. Its left arm was cut off just after where it connected to the shoulder. And was replaced with a giant clawed hand holding onto a scythe, there was also a coffin on the Shadow's back. It vanished into a tarot card the vanished into me, I heard its name as it did so. "Puppeteer…"

I smiled as I turned to my friends only to feel like I was falling and then I blacked out. What away to prove how tuff you are… right?

HOLY CRAP FREAKING SNOW! Sorry, but I'm back now! and with an UPDATE; YEAH! Sorry if the dungeon seems rushed, and Kreed's shadow... so sorry if it was rushed, but KREED GOT HIS PERSONA! Now, I bet you guys can't tell me what arcana he is! Well hope you guys enjoyed feed back is welcome and until next Chapter.