.hack/Persona

Chapter 2: Enter the Investigation Team

Innocent Shadow Bear

Remembering the events earlier that day, Teddie gathered that he'd landed himself in The World.
"But if I'm in here, then…where is here?" he thought to himself. A voice broke the monotonous silence.
"Hey! Ted!" Yosuke's voice rang through the area. Teddie looked around, confused.
"Yosuke? Where are you?"
"I'm still at home! Geez, I turn around for 5 minutes to go to the bathroom, and you go missing. How did you end up in the game?"
"I remember putting on the goggles, and then everything went white…almost like entering my world."
"Wait, did you say entering your world? So you mean to say we can also enter the game the same as the TV?"
"I don't know, I'm still trying to make heads or tails of this place." Teddie whined.
"Just stay put, I'm gonna call Yu and see what we can do." Yosuke ordered.
"Roger that!" Teddie replied. Yosuke took off the FMD and grabbed his phone. As Teddie sat around, he noticed that looked like a spinning yellow circle in midair. He waddled over to it, wondering what it was, when it suddenly expanded. A monster appeared in the circle's place, and roared at Teddie. Without hesitation, Teddie reached for his claws as he took a fighting stance. The monster looked like a headless knight, who happened to be holding it in one arm.
"I've never seen shadows like this before…I'll have to be careful." Teddie thought to himself. The monster approached Teddie and swung it's sword down hard. In response, Teddie ducked and rolled under the monster, as he slashed at it from behind. The blade clanged against the ground with a deafening crash as it struck nothing but air. The creature stumbled forward moments later as Teddie's claws drove it forward. Before it had a chance to turn around, Teddie started to spin rapidly, like a drill as he shouted.

"Teddiescrew!" he exclaimed as he passed through the monster, leaving a gaping hole in it. As he turned around to face his enemy once more, he saw what looked like numbers appear above the creature's head, and a colored bar turn grey. He took an offensive stance, readying himself to strike once more, but the monster crouched down and vanished, apparently defeated. Upon doing so, it left a treasure chest in it's place. Teddie waddled over to it, and kicked it open. What he saw next, he could never have prepared for. What looked like a stone slab appeared from the chest. It glowed with a soft, golden aura, and called out to Teddie.
"Come, take this tablet and realize your true power…" A woman's voice spoke.
"True power? If that means I can finally score with ALL the ladies, I'll bite. Rawr!" He shouted as he touched the tablet. A brilliant flash erupted and Teddie vanished.

Aqua Capital Mac Anu

Akatori returned back to the root town with her new friends, as they parted ways for the day. As she looked at her HUD on screen, the progress bar toward leveling up just felt like more and more work than she cared to do. Tsubame yawned at the thought, lazily leaning back in her chair.

"So, what do you plan on doing next?" Azure asked.

"I dunno yet. Levelling up seems like a pain. I forgot this was an MMO till I looked at the exp bar." She replied. Azure laughed.

"Yeah, being lazy is sorta what we do best."

The two stood around town for a few minutes, as Tsubame went afk for a few minutes. When she came back, she noticed Azure talking with another player. He looked like an orange samurai, with an eyepatch over one eye.

"Hey, who's this?" she asked him.

"Huh? Oh, I just met him for a trade. Dude's really into katanas, I can get behind that." Azure replied as he nudged his head.

"I'm Sanjuro, nice to meet you. I'm on a personal mission to collect every equippable katana in the game, you wouldn't happen to have any would you?" Sanjuro asked. Akatori took note of his rather stiff way of speaking. It was almost like this guy didn't grow up speaking Japanese or something.

"O-Oh, I see. Sorry, I don't have any. I just started, you see." Akatori replied apologetically.

"No need to apologize, it was a simple question." Sanjuro nodded.

"Can I ask why you want every katana, specifically? I mean...if you're that big into swords, I'm pretty sure that there's another game that is almost nothing but sword fighting." Akatori asked curiously.

"Well you see, I really like Mifune-san's works. You know, like Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, Rashomon. I'm a big fan, and as you can see, I'm a samurai. It wouldn't make any sense for me to use anything but a katana!" Sanjuro spoke with passion.

"But she said there was that other sword game. How'd you end up here, dude?" Azure asked him.

"Well, truth be told I was just trying out any game I could at the time. This was the first one I'd played, and I met some really great players because of it." Sanjuro reminisced.

"It sounds like a worthwhile request. I'd like to help you out with that." Akatori exclaimed, with a certain fire in her eyes.

"Thanks! Here's my member address, both of you. I'll contact you once I get a lead on a new sword." and with that, Sanjuro walked off.

"You never know what kinda people you'll meet online." Azure said in a dazed astonishment.

"You're right. The World is a pretty intense place." Akatori nodded.
"Well, I'm heading off for now. Gotta go do something offline. See ya tomorrow?" Azure asked.

"Yeah. I'll probably wander around a bit more before I log off." she replied as Azure logged off.

Afterwards, she found herself simply wandering about the root town. There wasn't anywhere specific she wanted to go, but it was calming to just listen to the ambient noises of the town's theme, with the river flowing gently. It wasn't long before she found herself just laying on the ground, as if ready to nap. It didn't occur to her that in the real world, she was leaning back in her chair pretty far. It was like she could truly immerse herself in this world without a care. Not like those other games that got so much odd attention, like the one where some odd 30000 japanese players alone vanished into thin air, or the one fantasy game where a player got famous for shouting about chicken. That one never made any sense to her, but it managed to get a laugh or two out of it. But when it came to The World, she felt different. At least she could be sure of herself here. She closed her eyes as she dozed off, in game and in reality.

Bursting Passed Over Aqua Field

"Back to where it all began…" Kite muttered to himself as he stood in the dungeon's second floor. This was the place where his friend Orca had been attacked by the first phase, Skeith. Of course, that was quite a while ago, and since then the field had returned to normal. Or so they thought. About an hour ago, Kite received a flash mail from Helba, cryptic as usual. She reported a strange data anomaly, which was causing a surge of power in the network. Kite took these words with caution as his party entered the field.

"This is where Orca was data drained, wasn't it?" Blackrose asked. She sighed heavily, knowing it was still a touchy subject.

"Yeah, but why were we sent here? I mean...the field data doesn't even look corrupted." Kite replied.

A mysterious PC warped in just as Kite finished his thought, standing uncomfortably close to him from behind. Before he could react, there were already a pair of twin blades crossed against his throat.

"Oh, don't you worry about that at all. I'd be more concerned with what will happen to you." The enemy whispered. Kite spun around, trying to push the enemy off of him and get a better look. As he turned, his opponent retracted his blades and leapt back.

"You! Why do you look like-" Blackrose asked, confused. The enemy looked almost exactly like Kite, though his eyes were glowing yellow, and his body and clothing were covered head to toe in stitches. In fact, many of the stitched clothes had off-colors, with dark blues and light greens surfacing in a sea of orange. Before long, a supportive voice echoed as a man wearing a red military uniform leapt forward from the shadows. He appeared as quickly as he spoke, the dim light shimmering against his spiked silver hair.

"What is the meaning of this? Speak quickly or I will cleave you in two!" the man declared as he brandished a colossal blade at the enemy. "There is nothing my sword cannot cut!" He added on. His presence certainly eased Kite and Blackrose's tension, since it seemed like he'd gotten a bit lost on the way here.

"Oho, it seems as though you've brought some friends. It's a shame that won't be enough." he replied. The other "Kite" taunted as he brandished his twin blades once more. The blades extended from the handles in a wicked shape, with three blades on each sword. They almost resembled jagged T's, and had curved, dark red tri-pronged edges. With a few moments of silence his face twisted into a distorted smile as he dashed at the party. Blackrose and Sanger managed to block the strikes the enemy lashed out with, although they were sent staggering backward into the walls. Kite himself was caught off guard. It looked briefly like he'd deflected the attack, when a second later a jagged red triangle shape appeared in the air. Kite fell backward on the ground, his HP having taken a massive blow.

"Kite!" Blackrose shouted as she ran toward him. The .hacker's leader was hit before he could even react. Blackrose reached into her inventory and smashed a health drink on his face or two. Immediately afterward, Sanger threw his Colossal Blade forward with a frightening strength. Somehow, the enemy Kite managed to block, but not before the ground beneath him was indented into a mini crater. Upon recovery, the enemy Kite's yellow eyes flashed brightly before he vanished into a burst of blue flames. Sanger fell forward from his momentum, though he managed to catch himself using his sword. Seconds later, he was struck by a spinning kick, and sent the commander flying into the dungeon wall. He then took a pose Kite and Blackrose knew all too well. Hexagonal lines appeared around his right arm, as he cuffed it with his left, and a massive surge of data began to swell up. Kite stood up, in hopes of rushing over to stop him, but Blackrose was quicker. She leapt in the way, brandishing her heavy blade as it too started to surge with the same hexagonal patterns.
"Data Drain!" he called out, as several lines of code shot from the hexagonal bracelet.

"Twilight Tempest!" Blackrose yelled as she spun around, striking back at the enemy's attack as her sword formed it's own Twilight Bracelet, albeit using heavy blade shapes, blocking the effects of Data Drain. The codes and the hexagons clashed in mid air, each side trying their hardest to break through their enemy. A brilliant flash erupted as the force of these attacks sent them both staggering backward a bit.

The other Kite gasped for air. "Never did I imagine you too would wield the power of salvation and destruction. I'll have to keep that in mind."

"Why are you here? What exactly did you want from us?" Blackrose asked.

"Why? What? No, no, no. It is a question of "who"." he replied, as he pointed at Kite. "I'm here for him."
"Me?" Kite asked, confused. "Tell me why, or I'll have no choice." Kite took the pose for Data Drain.

"I see you don't give up. That's probably why you were able to beat Morganna…"

"And defeating you will be no different. As long as I have my friends, you can't stop me!" Blackrose stood next to Kite, and Sanger managed to leap back up on his feet.

"This may require a bit more pushing, but for now, I'll let you live another day." He said as he vanished into azure flames.

"Just who was that?" Kite asked.

"I caught a glimpse of his name when we had that clash…" Blackrose said.

"Well? Tell us. Why does he resemble Kite so much?" Sanger asked.

"His name is...Azure Kite."

Dojima Residence - Inaba, Japan

"Teddie's fallen into The World? How so?" Yu asked Yosuke, who called him at least five times while he was in the shower.

"Seems to me he entered the same way we do the tv world. Maybe we can do the same." Yosuke replied.

Yu pondered the idea for a moment, then suddenly he hit a snag.
"Even if we went in the same way, there's no guarantee we can get out the same way." Yu explained.

"Huh? Oh...I guess you're right. Well what do we do? We can't leave Ted in there."

"Try having him return to the root town. We can meet him there with our characters, and go from there."
"All right, I'm starting up my computer now."

This roller coaster just wouldn't let Yu off. As if having to fight with his friends during Golden Week wasn't bad enough, now there's another mystery to solve, and its sweeping them off their feet too quickly. Yu stared blankly at his laptop, as he put on the FMD without hesitation.

Aqua Capital Mac Anu

Yu opened his visual eyes as he set foot into The World for the first time. He'd made himself a heavy blade with silver hair, similar to his. For the most part, his character more resembled Izanagi, or at least as best as it could. For simplicity's sake he'd named himself Izanagi so that he'd be identifiable by his teammates. Shortly after he got to town, a brown haired Twin Blade warped in. He was dressed in mostly tight-fitted white clothing, with a name just as easy to identify: Jiraiya. Yu waved to Yosuke, knowing his partner would be here first. It would be a while before the others joined, but they'd agreed that they would name themselves after their personas to make things easier.

"All right, did you get the area words from where Teddie was?" Yu asked Yosuke.

"Yeah...it was pretty weird. The words were ∆ Innocent Shadow Bear. Creepy, right? I mean...how coincidental." Yosuke laughed off, still somewhat disturbed that The World would have an area combination like that. Yu nodded as he put in the keywords. The two formed a party and set off to find Teddie.

Innocent Shadow Bear

Izanagi and Jiraiya warped into the field, unknowing of what to expect. Around them stood dark, leafless trees, and a generally violet-textured plains kind of field. Torches were lit aflame in the distance, though the fires burned a deep purple. That wasn't the only thing strange about this place though. What appeared to be graphical bugs surfaced along the grounds as holes, filled with a red background and flowing green codes. Strings of numbers and characters fluttered and vanished in the air all around them, and even the sky looked cracked and fuzzy like a broken TV.

"Is this supposed to be part of the game?" Jiraiya asked.

"I don't think so. I hope Teddie didn't find himself in more trouble than we thought though." Izanagi replied.

The two wandered around until they found what looked like a dungeon entrance, and walked in. As they entered, they found what looked like a merchant npc standing in the center of the square room.

"Hello!" it said. "Thank you for playing The World. This area will be shut down for maintenance. Please return to the field and gate out back to town."

Jiraiya tilted his head in confusion, and was about to try to ask the npc what he meant, but Izanagi spoke.

"I guess this way is no good. But if we return now, who knows what could happen to Teddie? We have to keep going." he said. Jiraiya noded in agreement, and the two brushed past the npc onward.

[Reccommended song: Reach out to the truth - P4 ost]

It wasn't long until they encountered their first battle, and the two found themselves facing what appeared to be a rather ugly elephant statue. The game called them "Stone Mehnir". Jiraiya leapt at one, brandishing his twin blades as he made some flashy teleporting strikes, as he shouted out "Tiger Claws!". The enemy took some light damage, although it seemed like Jiraiya had his enemy covered pretty easily. Meanwhile, Izanagi leapt up with his katana, as he made what looked like a cross slash down the enemy's body. He roared with a ferocity that was beyond a normal player, as he shouted "Rai Smash!". The enemy fell to the floor as its' color drained, leaving behind an empty husk that faded away into GP and a treasure chest. Jiraiya then spun and dug both of his twin blades into the monster, dragging them with him as he ran up its body. The monster faded and crumbled away as well. The two then turned to face one more together, although it seemed different. It looked more like an armored knight, coated in a dark purple. On screen it read: Axe Armor - Level 8 Dark. Jiraiya reeled back, ready to leap.

"Let's do this, partner!" He shouted as he ran up to the armor, jumping over it as he called out, "Tiger Claws!". The monster flinched from the hits, albeit it remained in place. Izanagi followed up with a sliding dash, driving the thunder blade into the monster's chest before activating his skill. The blade remained impaled in the monster, waiting for Izanagi to follow up with a thunder attack. Just then, Yu moved to use Rai Smash once more to finish the monster off but instead, his hand moved in a different motion on screen, perhaps out of habit, or out of fate. Instead of calling out his sword's attack, he uttered a word all too familiar to him and Yosuke.
"Persona!" Yu's persona Izanagi materialized with the sound of glass shattering and data code streams, appearing as it crossed both arms and thunder crossed the ground around them. Yosuke reeled back and took a double take, unsure of whether or not he was seeing the real thing. Izanagi - Yu only nodded to his persona, and Izanagi - Persona leapt forward, bringing down a powerful Zio elemental slash. The monster faded like the rest, and the game's battle track had stopped. Jiraiya turned to Izanagi - Yu, whose persona vanished once more.

"Why didn't you tell me you could summon personas in this world?" he stammered, frustrated that Yu was always at least one step ahead of him.
"I didn't know… I just did it." Izanagi replied.
"Huh. Well, I guess this'll make summoning our personas a bit weird now." Jiraiya muttered.

"Should we just use their upgraded forms for emergencies only then? That way we don't have to deal with our avatars having the same names as our personas." Izanagi suggested.

"Yeah, I think that might be our best option. For now, try not to summon your persona if you can help it." Jiraiya glared at Izanagi, who took a step back in surprise.
"What's that look for?" he asked as he regained his composure.
"Oh, just thinking about how you were the first one to use your persona here in this world too." Jiraiya clarified. Izanagi rolled his eyes.
"Come on, Teddie's waiting." he said, and the two moved on to the next room.

Several floors went by, as the two cleared out several monsters and collecting chests and the like, until finally they came to what must have been the last room, containing either treasure, or a boss. Before the doorway burned violet flames, similar to those found among the rest of the field. "Hopefully Teddie's there", Izanagi thought to himself.

The moment they stepped in, a gate slammed down behind them, locking the two in. They turned to look, but when Jiraiya reached out for it, it vanished. It wasn't just the gate though, the entire room shook, shifted, and the entire layout changed into something completely different. What was once a dimly lit dungeon room now was open, green tinted skies. What had been clearly a constructed stone floor was now just a flat rock. Chunks of structures and buildings floated in the air, as a fearsome enemy descended down upon them.

"What...is that?" Jiraiya asked.

"I dunno, but we should treat it like a shadow...that's what my gut tells me." Izanagi replied.

[Recommended Song: Shadow - Persona 3 OST]

The creature finally came into full view; It bore long, black wings, an expressionless face, a strange crown appendage on it's head, and a long, 6 foot tall sword. It certainly didn't look like any monster they'd encountered in this game, but more like a major shadow. Yu checked his target data on-screen, and his eyes widened. Where there should have been a name was scrambled symbols. Where should have been an HP meter was garbled numbers, letters, and what looked like the infinity symbol. What perhaps, was most frightening of all was that it appeared to resemble a person, as if it were imitating somebody.

"Holy shit, I don't remember reading any posts about something like this!" Jiraiya shouted. Izanagi turned to face this new foe, and drew his sword before him.

"We're gonna have to fight! Let's go, partner!" Izanagi yelled as he ran forward at the enemy. Jiraiya gripped his twin blades as tightly as he could, then dashed forward as well, shouting his lungs out. The figure responded to their assault by raising his longsword and making one horizontal slash towards them. Quickly, the two changed to a defensive position as they barely managed to guard in time. The long sword clashed against their blades, and both were pushed back immensely far, nearly toward the edge of the platform they stood on. As they finally skid to a halt, they heard the creature speak.

"The arcana is the means by which all is revealed." The enemy spoke calmly, as if it were unconcerned with the presence of Izanagi and Jiraiya. Seconds later, a tarot card spiraled before it, only to be briefly shattered. When the card broke apart, a powerful gust of wind blew the two off their feet, and into a tornado of sorts. Izanagi and Jiraiya tried to regain their balance, but they too were sent spiraling out of control. The windstorm carried them several meters in the air, rendered helpless as their enemy raised another card. The sound of shattering rang through the field, piercing the heavy winds as they died down quickly. Jiraiya spun to see himself falling to the ground as he sighed a breath of relief.
"Whew...that was close-" he thought, only to be interrupted by the sight of a fireball, growing ever larger as it rapidly burned away the texture data of the space it touched.
"Brace yourself!" Izanagi cried out, throwing his arms forward to block the flame blast as it exploded outward like a burst. The flames enveloped the two as their HP dropped rapidly, dancing on the edges between 1 and 0. The two landed roughly on the ground, before the monster raised it's blade directly upward. Jirayia quickly jumped back up to his feet, and in an act of desperation he too called out.
"Persona!" he shouted as a figure resembling a man in a blue tracksuit, with gravity defying red hair appeared, spinning the bladed circle floating around it quickly as it readied a skill. "Don't worry. partner! I got you!" he shouted as the bladed circle flew upwards, shining with a healing light. He looked to Izanagi, but something wasn't right. Izanagi was at 1 hp, using his sword to support himself, but he looked and sounded like he was feeling the pain outside of the game too. It was then that Yosuke realized that he had blood trickling down his face, as his vision of the game blacked out. He awoke once more in the real world, surprised to find his body wracked in pain. It only took him seconds to deduce what was going to befall Yu.

[Recommended Song: Battle for Everyone's Souls - Persona 3]

"Yo-yosuke…." Izanagi struggled to mutter, as he watched his friend vanish into thin air. Whatever had happened, at least he was safe. Knowing this, he stood up once more against this monster, pointing his sword at it. The enemy brought its blade down on him, to deliver the final blow. Izanagi shouted in a fierce war cry as he called out "Izanagi-no-Okami!"

His persona appeared just in time to draw its own sword and parry, as the sparks flew. White chips flew from various directions as the two blades remained in lock, as if they were cleaving away at existence. In doing so, the monster reeled back as it stumbled, and Izanagi-no-Okami flew upward to make a diving strike.
"I've got you!" Izanagi shouted as Izanagi-no-Okami dove sword first for the monster's heart, the blade glimmered with a brilliant flash as it surged with a white lightning as it flew. The monster seemed to pay no heed, however. As Izanagi-no-Okami drew closer, another card appeared and shattered. The change came too fast for Izanagi to stop, as his eyes widened. In an instant, the monster blocked Izanagi-no-Okami's sword, and his persona was rendered unable to move. Ice formed at the blade clash, and quickly travelled up the sword before freezing the rest of Izanagi-no-Okami. Within two seconds, his persona was completely frozen. The monster rose its blade and wound up for a devastating swing, Izanagi feeling paralyzed in place.

"This can't be the end. The mystery...the truth...I can't let it end here!" he thought to himself, as a blue lightning surged through Izanagi-no-Okami, cracking and shattering the ice apart. He quickly ducked underneath the monster's sword as he ran forward, his own sword in hand. Izanagi-no-Okami followed him, sword drawn and at the ready as they leapt forward in a cross shaped attack. Just as they brought their blades together, the monster changed and shattered cards once more. Their attacks were met by a sudden barrier, although it was strange looking. The blades clanged on stone as they found a statue of a boy and a girl, both bound together by chains as if they had some tragic past. As he tried to regain his balance, Izanagi felt a familiar energy radiating from the statue. Izanagi and his persona leapt back, stunned by the image before him. Who were these people? What was this energy he felt? Something about them felt akin to how he did when he awakened his persona for the first time, though he couldn't figure out why. Before he could react, the sound of chains rattling shook his ears as he flinched for just a second. From the ground, chains that he could have otherwise avoided shot out, wrapping themselves around his limbs, as well as his persona's. Each second he was bound he felt like he was slipping away from consciousness. In a surge of what strength he had left, he called out to his persona.

"Izanagi-no-Okami!" he cried out, as his persona broke free of its chains, only to be caught and pulled back by more. What he saw next surprised him, as he saw his persona slowly turn to stone. He looked down at his own feet, and saw his virtual body petrifying. It was then he felt like he was barely in control of himself, and two voices, a male and a female voice rang in his mind.
"You musn't endure our fate… You musn't fight Nyx." They said.
"Who are you? Is Nyx what I was just fighting?" he tried to ask.

"You don't have much time, we'll try to keep you from being drawn in with us…" The voices replied. The chains that were petrifying Izanagi tried to drag him toward the statue, when a wave of energy pulsed it. Izanagi was flung back, and the chains could not drag him any closer. It was all that could be done, however. Izanagi began to sink into the ground as the chains dragged him and his persona in, the final petrification enclosing him. The last thought Yu had before he lost consciousness wasn't of his friends, but of the statue of the two people before him. He was barely able to retain his thoughts as he saw a black void, empty save for the images of the two. A boy, with blue hair that covered half of his face, and a girl, with auburn hair pinned up with the roman numerals for 22 in plain view.
"I'd hoped you would never have met us under these circumstances…" The boy said.

Yu lost all consciousness, and he slumped out of his chair, unable to awaken. It wasn't long before Dojima and Nanako, his uncle and kid cousin, found him. Yu Narukami was rushed to the Inaba Municipal hospital, and his avatar Izanagi remained petrified and bound by chains, suspended in midair in the strange field he was last in. His friends were of course, contacted immediately, though none of their voices could reach him.

A/N: Sorry I take forever to update, but my creativity has been running rather dry. To top it off, I realized that P4 Arena - Ultra Suplex Hold was coming out soon, and I needed to learn what story it had to offer. I will do my best to write taking into account the new information, and will try to fix up a few elements that I feel could have been handled better. As far as the P3 protags go, this story is set in a timeline in which they existed simultaneously, and met the same end simultaneously. More on that will be elaborated in future chapters. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and although the hint drops were blatantly obvious, I hope that I've given you all something to look forward to. Happy Holidays, and all that stuff. Thanks for reading, and I will get chapter 3 up as soon as I can, I promise.

-LeonaKK