CHAPTER 7 – LES DÉMONS DU MINUIT
Sunday, 20th February 2011 – Late Morning – JUNES Department Store
Minako Arisato was walking around the town of Inaba in the desire to get some fresh air. The winter was beginning to end, and snow did no longer cover the streets of the countryside village every day and night. In fact, rain was forecast to fall for the next two days starting tomorrow. Similarly, the spring of her life and a return to an appearance of normality was almost there and she knew it. The locals still knew little about her. The black-haired pale girl from the city never was in the centre of attention due to a lack of notoriety, but even the few people taking notice of the stranger had grown bored of her by now. She found herself enjoying the quiet life of Inaba more than she had expected. Taking up biking as a means of travel due to a lack of public transportation. She zoomed through the hills of the city on a daily basis and regained much of her old stamina, but a return to peak physical form was still way off. She still didn't have the chance to test out the abilities of Eurydice or even have the occasion to talk to the Velvet Room residents beyond Elizabeth since first coming to the town.
Elizabeth was able to convince Tamaki to participate in her proposed ritual, but Minako still stalled by not approaching anyone, friend or stranger in regard to it. She took her time instead to re-deepen bonds with her old friends. Junpei failed in getting the Factory Job he wanted, as his employers hired a person who was able to do the required tasks faster. Chidori worried about Junpei. The many rejections he had gotten had lessened his daily enthusiasm and drive which she loved about her boyfriend, and feared that continuing like this could make that permanent. Yukari, on the other hand, was happy at her job, but felt the working hours becoming somewhat suffocating as hers had become a popular character in the show. Minako hadn't gotten the chance to visit Fuuka in Tokyo yet, but from their online chats she got the impression that her life was quiet but somewhat lonely. Meanwhile, the Kirijo Corporation Trio carried on as usual, in between corporate research and development, marketing, business strategies, international expansions and responding to shadow sightings much in the same way the Kuzunoha Detective Bureau did.
There was still no news about Shinjiro and Ken and Koromaru led presumably normal lives as a middle schooler and Yukari's dog respectively.
Minako headed towards the JUNES Shopping Centre to do some shopping at the electronics store. She had seen the brown-haired boy from the day she reunited with SEES working there, but was too busy with his tasks to talk, so she left him alone.
Something Minako found interesting were the various rumors spread around town. Some of those were of a mundane nature like the impending removal from office and party expulsion of City Councillor Taro Namatame, who was caught in an affair with another local celebrity. The more interesting one was a seemingly random ghost story. It was said that at midnight, your TV will turn on and the person you are destined to marry would be shown on the screen. Several people she heard the rumor from all mentioned a "white-haired beauty in a yukata". Unwilling to dismiss it as a silly rumor due to the convergent statements, Minako took it upon herself to sneak downstairs every night at midnight to watch the TV, but no signs of the rumor being true appeared on screen. Not even the full moon two days before made any difference, and the Dark Hour or Pharos were both absent and not related to the case.
To ensure she could monitor the situation, as well as not frighten Mrs. Hisano to death by sneaking aound her at midnight, she decided it would be best to buy her own TV, as her room lacked one.
In the electronics store, her sight was inexplicably drawn to the big flat screen TV at the centre of the display, but shook the thought off immediately, knowing the price tag would contain too many zeros. She was approached by an employee with long, brown and wavy hair and wearing a JUNES apron.
"Hello, can I help you?" She asked, the nametag Saki Konishi visible on the uniform's apron.
"Actually, yes! I'm looking for the cheapest TVs you have. Are there any others beyond these on display?" Minako asked the employee, who did not seem pleased with having heard an answer other than "No, thanks." or a variation thereof.
"Well, there's this model. It's a few years old by now, but it's got a good color range, pretty lightweight compared to old CRTs and as it says here, it's HD Ready, so that means the picture quality is gonna be pretty good for the price."
Minako listened to the sales pitch and was unconvinced by the price tag of slightly above 10.000 Yen, but knew that getting an old CRT at a second hand goods' store would be cumbersome, so she leaned toward buying it.
"I've never heard of this brand before. Is it European?"
"No, Chinese. I think. But it's a good TV for the price."
A brown-haired boy she knew approached the two in a good mood while Minako stalled for time to make a decision on the purchase.
"Hey Saki, the boss told me you're needed in the office. Mind if I take over here?" he turned to the client who turned out to be a familiar face, and added: "Oh hey, it's you."
Saki replied positively and politely thanked his coworked, leaving Minako to deal with him instead.
She saw his nametag on a very similar uniform to the girl's read "Hanamura Yosuke". "Yup! You're the record store guy, the one who gave me the tissues, right?"
Yosuke looked distressed for a second, hoping none of his coworkers were in hearing distance to what sounded like as if he had a second job as a street advertiser for a music shop of all things. He chuckled nervously, massaging his neck with his hand. "Yeah, that's me. Nice of you to stop by from the city."
"Oh, I actually live here. I moved here back in January."
"Hey, same here actually. Shame you haven't stopped by before."
"I have. I even said 'Hi!' last time..."
Yosuke kept making faux passes every step of the way when faced with this random acquaintance he found increasingly relatable, despite knowing very little about her. Minako didn't mind. She found the JUNES employee to be a nice man who she knew was probably stressed out from his wage slave work conditions from people-watching while eating at the food court.
"Oh, right." Yosuke lied, eager to change the subject. "So, you wanted to buy a TV?"
"Sure. I'll take this one."
Sunday, 20th February 2011 – Midnight – Hisano Kuroda's House
Minako was attempting to repair a pair of headphones she found in one of the shelves of her room while waiting for midnight, just as she had for the last couple of weeks. Investigating the rumor of the mysterious television program had become a sort-of hobby for the Iwatodai Girl; all too similar to the daily anticipation of the dark hour and possibility of the alarm blaring for shadow sightings outside of the hellish tower of Tartarus.
The rain was falling in a soft rhythm just outside the window, relaxing Minako and allowing her to better concentrate on the electrical work at hand.
When the hand of the clock had moved on the 12, joining the shorter one, a sound was heard not too dissimilar from turning on an old CRT Television. Minako was startled, acidentally almost cutting the cable she was trying to fix, and turned her full attention toward the source of the noise.
The rumor she felt was worth investigating had come true. The TV she had brought in and set up earlier today had turned on by itself. The remote laid nowhere near the coffee table Minako was using for her tinkering with old electronics. Less indicating of a random glitch was what was visible on the screen. A silhouette of a person, standing in low lighting in a room full of a greenish fog. They were barely recognizable to the human eye. Minako stood up and approached the screen cautiously. The figure was still impossible to distinguish, almost as if the form of the person kept shifting like one of the main characters from an American science-fiction show she had seen years ago. She extended her hand towards the screen, but retracted it just before touching the display, and stepped back from the device.
She reached for her phone and accessed the camera app. Taking a photo of the screen with the device showed an image too blurry and dark for her phone to identify as anything abnormal. Instead, she decided to call Tamaki or Elizabeth about what had just happened. Attempting to call either yielded no result. Examining the phone screen, it showed a total lack of signal for her provider. Something that had not happened before even in the remote areas of the village which she liked to explore on her bicycle.
Sighing and not wishing to take any unnecessary risk, she waited for the mysterious and as of now unchanging broadcast to end, and at a quarter past midnight, it finally did. Minako approached the power outlet and grabbed the end of the cable to pull it out. Surprisingly, Minako felt the rubbery surface of the plug heavily charged with electricity, which gave her a strong shock, sending the young girl into a state of unconsciousness.
Come sunrise, Hisano Kuroda found the room empty and hoped the girl living under her roof had simply gone out without forgetting to give her any notice.
In a living room in Sumaru City, Elizabeth was doing her morning fortunetelling. Today, the card of the tower arcana was concerningly prevalent.
?
Minako Arisato awoke with a headache and blurry vision. Groaning and lifting herself off the pavement she found herself on, she slowly stood up and saw that she was in a place she had never wanted to set foot in again. A circular room with a checkered marble floor and columns lining walls looking like they belonged in a European royal palace. In the centre of it was a large staircase. She couldn't see far ahead, as a thick fog was spread all across the room, to the point where she could not see what she assumed was a large golden clock at the top of the room.
She knew immediately that she has found herself in Tartarus. Directly defying her comrades' efforts and her own sacrifice, the tower had returned. She had a sinking feeling in her stomach, suspecting that her own resurrection was directly related to what she saw.
She saw that she had been alone and that the door to the Velvet Room or the exit were shut. Attempting to force either open did not yield any results. Having nothing else to do, she took the first step of the staircase and went up. Passing the golden clock and a hundred steps of a spiral staircase later, the first floor of what she recognized as Thebel Block was upon her. The appearance was exactly the same as it had been before. A ghastly version of Gekkoukan school with heavy green lightning, darkness and black goops wandering around aimlessly. She instinctively reached for her evoker, but it was of course no longer with her. Neither was the naginata she used to fight. Beyond her fists, she was totally defenceless.
Sneaking around, avoiding the shadows led to some success. She was able to find a hockey stick in one of the chests strewn across the floor, but quickly made her way out of there once she heard the rattling of chains after opening one of the chests.
Walking up, she expected to see the third floor of the giant tower, but what she saw instead was that the floor-tiles had been of a bright white, with dark geometric shapes on them similar to a rorschach test, and the walls had bcome black and resembled those of a gothic church. It had made no sense that Arqa Bloc would appear just one floor above Thebel, but the Tartarus she knew was not covered in fog either. She ran down the corridors of the labyrinthine floor of the tower, with more confidence and less caution than before, getting into the rhythm she had gotten used to. This turned out to be a mistake, as coming around a corner, a group of five maya shadows had slammed right into her, throwing her to the ground. What came was an onslaught of electrical attacks towards her and most had hit the target. Crying out in pain, as her weapon was knocked out of her hands and thrown onto the wall, an instinct took over. Raising her left hand's open palm to the sky, she cried out "PERSONA! Eurydice!" and a tarot card materialized over her and shattered like glass.
Next to her materialized a very pale woman with black hair, draped in a cape and peplos tunic of the same color and wearing a white mask with a purple butterfly on her face. A crack went from the top of the mask to the middle of the nose, branching out into several smaller ones from there. Adopting a battle stance, the Persona had silently waited for orders to carry out.
Minako had no time to care that she managed to summon a persona without using an evoker. Much like during Orpheus' awakening, the priority was defeating the shadows right in front of her. With the awakening of the persona, all its powers had become uncovered. Repeating the motion to summon her new soul companion, she cried out "Gry!"
Rocks materialized above the blob-like creatures and squashed them from above. One of them had dodged and replied with an electric shock, but the use of the single-enemy spell "Zan" finished it off.
Minako felt a surge of energy from her weakened body, and saw the Persona hadn't retreated back into her consciousness, but faced her directly. It spoke to Minako with a feminine, imposing and reverberant voice. "I am thou, thou art I… You were always by my side, my Orpheus. The time has come to repay thy kindness and lend you my strength."
She had never heard Orpheus speak, but this felt right to her. Reassured of her new companions' power, she rubbed her bruises with a life stone she had found earlier and marched on to the next level, defeating some shadows along the way.
Making her way through single floors that strongly resembled the areas of Tartarus, the blue-hued Yabbashah, the luxurious Tziah, the carpet-patterned Harabah, she had reached the crystalline area of Adamah. She did not know if this was really Tartarus, an illusion she fell victim to or a combination of both. Eurydice had grown a few levels in strength, but not excessively so. The shadows had remained strangely weak and only slightly increased in strength from block to block. It had previously been unthinkable to venture to the higher floors of Tartarus alone, and she was always in awe of those stray people who had wandered into Tartarus and managed to survive to the upper levels unarmed.
What was welcome, yet worrying was the lack of guardians between blocs. Whatever its nature, this place worked by different rules than she was used to and she hoped she'd be ready to face whatever was at the top, despite being without any companions. Another worry was the exhausion she started to feel after fighting one too many shadows. Physically, she was fine and sustained herself with the plentitude of healing items she found in the dungeon. However, she knew that Eurydice would soon be unable to cast even the weakest of spells.
Walking around the Adamah lookalike, she found it oddly empty and quiet compared to the previous floors. It had been a bad sign before, so she ran around to find the exit. What she found was a large door in a chamber with a ceiling double or triple the usual size. Having a bad feeling about it, she gripped her weapon and headed inside.
What she saw shocked her. Steel beams arranged in crosses, mannequins tied to them by the waist and ankles, the open chamber's vision of the night sky, its green hue and large bright moon. At the centre of the room stood a figure with a large black cloak, holding a scythe. Upon hearing the door closing behind her, the figure turned around, lowered their hood and faced Minako.
"Greetings, Messiah."
Everything about them frightened her. That voice, the face, the body, the clothing. What stood in front of her was a perfect copy of her own appearance. The way she had belonged in that cursed tower, over a year ago now.
"Who are you? Why are you…?" The shadow didn't let her finish the question, for the answer was incredibly obvious for me.
"I am you."
Minako stood silently, to which her counterpart chuckled to themselves.
"Tell me, how does it feel to earn the favor of a God that only wishes to use you, only to throw your life away once the deed is done? Could it be... just like the first time?"
Minako felt both anger and fear rising at that insinuation, yet she knew that these words weren't unlike her actual feelings and anxieties on the subject matter.
"Or maybe you came to take advantage of people's lives, while you stumble from place to place, wasting your own 'life'. Something that the many many poor people who are suffering because of a bad roll of the golden man's dice would cry tears of joy over. But you came only to watch those you care for suffer. Your 'comrades'? What a joke, especially that poor fool Shinjiro. You'd intrude on their lives, give them false hope and then poof, you're gone. Again. Like pouring salt on someone's wound that just stopped hurting. Are you too much of a coward to be a slave without dragging others down too?" Minako's expression turned to one of horror. The shadow only had one thing to say: "Pathetic."
The figure started laughing like it was the most amusing thing they ever heard, while Minako fell on her knees, gripped her head with her hands, tears streaming from her eyes. She wanted to cry out, to escape, but found herself unable to. Whoever this person who looked just like her was, they hit every insecurity, every fear she had and used it against her. And it all sounded so true, an absolute certainty like the need for food. Her existence was an abomination and it would have been better if she died on that bridge just like her parents all these years ago, she thought.
The shadow had ceased indulging its laughing fit, and instead summoned Orpheus to its side. It looked more sinister, darker and malevolent, but the presence was unmistakable.
"I'll do what others should have long have done with you, you freak." Orpheus had vanished yet again. "But the time is not right. I want to have my fun with you first. Nobody shall stop us. No Junpei to say no to killing the guilty like last time."
Minako had fallen silent, and the passage of time in her mind had slowed down to a crawl.
In the real world, the elderly woman taking care of Minako was worried over her not coming home all day and forsaking all contact. She decided to wait one more hour before calling Tamaki, and possibly the police.
Five days had passed.