Akihiko slowly opened one eye, amazed to see he wasn't dead. Takaya was equally surprised to see his bullet had been intercepted, but his surprise quickly turned to fear when he saw just what had intercepted the shot. There was Aigis, standing between the two with Takaya's bullet being crushed in her fist. Steam was billowing from the glowing red headphones that covered her ears, showing she had gone into Orgia Mode.
It was incredible, as soon as Aigis spotted Takaya looming over her downed ally she pumped herself up with Orgia mode. The world moved in slow motion by comparison to her then, she managed to catch the bullet the split second it came out of the barrel.
Aigis smirked when she noted Takaya's look of terror, savouring it for a split second before she launched Takaya into the air with an enhanced punch. Seeing that he was free from the robot's presence Jin scrambled to his feet. "Takaya! Don't worry, I'm coming to he-" Jin was cut short by two of Yukari's electrified arrows nailing him in the shoulders, leaving him a convulsing, electrified mess on the ground. "Yeah, that's not happening" Yukari remarked wryly, nocking another arrow.
Aigis was having a hell of a time smashing Takaya around. *ZOOM* *PUNCH* *ZOOM* *PUNCH* *ZOOM* *PUNCH* it went on like this for a while. Aigis was laughing her head off in-between hits, as this was the most fun she had ever had. Eventually she started playing a game of volleyball with herself, using Takaya as the volleyball in question. But, all good things came to an end and, Aigis knew full well that Orgia Mode only lasted a short while and very soon she'd be left overheated. So she decided to take some initiative to end this quickly "MINATO-SAN! TAKE HIM OUT!". Minato nodded, seeing Takaya was recovering from Aigis' brutal assault.
"Souji, you ever hear of a fusion raid?" Minato asked, summoning the silver form of Messiah. Souji raised an eyebrow, jogging over to the other leader "A what now?". Minato grinned slyly "Both our Persona's attacking at the same time. Megidolaon, since we both have it". Souji nodded in understanding, summoning the pale sharply-dressed form of Izanagi-No-Okami. The two ultimate Personae raised their mechanical hands upward, forming a massive ball of purple Almighty magic between them.
As Takaya was falling back to Earth, he caught a glimpse of the giant ball of energy being launched toward him. Takaya seethed with rage, summong Hypnos and pouring his energy into a Ziodyne spell. While the massive lightning bolt managed to slow the fusion spell slightly, it was ultimately a futile effort as the giant ball of energy still managed to engulf him with a powerful explosion. The blast was so damn powerful that the green night sky was briefly illuminated purple by the blast. Amazingly though, Takaya hadn't been killed by this. His smoking, battered body fell from the sky and landed with a powerful thud, well and truly unconscious from this.
"That was pretty easy, all things considered..." Junpei spoke, scratching the back of his neck. "I mean, for our arch-enemies we always take 'em down pretty quickly...So what do we do with 'em?". Akihiko forced himself up, his ears still ringing slightly "Lock them up and interrogate them? I'm pretty sure Kasumi-san has something that can hold them". Yosuke and several other of the Investigation Team members regrouped around the defeated Strega members "Yes, that sounds good. We couldn't just kill them..." Yukiko spoke. Yosuke and Kanji both looked down at their feet, remembering that they very neatly jumped off the slippery slope in Namatame's hospital room.
"Wait!" Fuuka called out, gathering the attention of the others "I sense the same malicious energy from earlier!". Almost as soon as Fuuka said this, Takaya and Jin were engulfed in a sphere of black and red energy, and when the sphere vanished so too did Takaya and Jin. "Well, that's certainly problematic" Naoto commented in an annoyed tone. "And so is all this" Mitsuru replied, gesturing to all the destruction their battle had caused. Craters, scorch marks, bullet holes...Things sure were alot easier when they didn't have to worry about the destruction they could cause.
"I'm on it" Minato called over his shouler, raising his hands up. He grunted and strained, his eyes and hands glowing white. First, the bullets and the shell cases dispensed by Aigis and Takaya rose from the ground before being totally disintegrated. Following that the various craters that had been formed during the battle began to fill up with fresh concrete, which soon fully repaired the streets. And finally, the ash and smoke produced by the various spells were lifted from the ground and scattered to the winds. Minato slumped down, taking a deep breath "Man...Having to focus on so many tiny molecules hurts man...". Mitsuru placed a well-groomed hand on the field-leaders shoulder "Don't overexert yourself Minato, last thing we want is you going on us again".
Mitsuru let out a small yawn "I apologise, but I think we'll have to leave a debriefing 'til tomorrow evening. We'll all meet up at the Kirijo Tower at 8:00 PM tomorrow, so until then goodnight". The rest of the group reluctantly agreed, it had been so long since they did this that they became fatigued easier. Thus, they split up for the night.
When Kanji awoke, he stretched himself slowly and forced himself out of the hotel bed "Shit...How the hell'd those SEES guys do that midnight stuff so often?". Hearing no response from his girlfriend, Kanji looked around only now realising her petit frame wasn't asleep beside me "Eh? Naoto?". While Kanji was looking around, the bathroom door opened, and Naoto stepped out fully dressed in her normal attire "Were you saying something Kanji?". Kanji had almost forgot how Naoto loved to get up early, in direct contrast for his desire to sleep late. It was funny how even fighting Shadows in the dead of night didn't slow Naoto's morning routine in the slightest.
"Agh. Never mind..." Kanji replied, forcing himself up out of bed. Naoto's face turned red "Er...Kanji? Pants?" Kanji stopped and raised an eyebrow "Wha-? Pfft, 'snot a big deal. Nothing you haven't seen already, right?". Naoto's face only seemed to go redder "And what if someone else comes in and sees your 'morning glory'?". Kanji grunted "Fine" and made his way into the bathroom, shutting the door behind him. "So what're we doin' today?" Kanji asked, his voice barely audible over the sound of running water. "Rise-san is organising a get-together of the girls from both groups, so I'm afraid you and the other men will have to make your own plans". Naoto pretended not to hear Kanji's low groan of dissapointment from her side of the door.
The men had decided that the only real place to have a manly meeting was at a manly eatery, like Hagakure. Well, that's how Teddie put it when he made the suggestion. But, seeing as it was the best suggestion they had recieved the guys just went along with it, and fairly quickly they were all seated around the counter. Souji had arrived late, and Yosuke was still on the way. "Yosuke said something about grabbing some coffee..." Souji said, hoisting himself onto the counter. Seemed like only yesterday he had come here on that school trip.
"Can you believe this?" Teddie whined, only attracting the attention of the SEES men. The Investigation Team were quite used to his theatrics at this point. "The girls ditched us! This suuuuucks, it's a total sandwich fest!". "Sausage fest" Souji corrected, not even looking up from his freshly arrived Hagakure-bowl.
"Calm down Teddie. Not even Junpei is whining about it, and he's the guy who once had the 'brilliant' idea to pick up girls on the beach" Akihiko chimed in, prodding at his noodles. Junpei twitched slightly in annoyance "Hey, screw you Akihiko-san! I actually have a girlfriend, which is more than I can say for you!". The two seemed to jump from their stools simultaenously, and promptly started butting heads "What'd you just say?" "Yeah, you heard me! All those fangirls over the years, and you're still single!" "Pfft, I'd rather be single than dating an ex-psycho!".
Ken laughed nervously moving in between the two and pushing them apart "Ahaha, okay you two let's not kill each other here...". Minato just burst out laughing "Ah man...I missed you idiots...". Before Akihiko and Junpei could direct their anger toward Minato, Souji cut in "Uh, there's something I wanted to run by you Minato...".
Minato turned to Souji with an eyebrow raised. Teddie nudged Kanji with his elbow and whispered "Sensei's got an idea! This is gonna' be so cool!". Souji rubbed his glasses with his lappel, a nervous habit, and started speaking "Well, I might be off base with this theory but, I have to ask...Minato, have you ever had any sib- ". Souji was cut short by Yosuke suddenly bursting into Hagakure, panting for breath with a newspaper crumpled up in one hand. "Guys" Yosuke wheezed "You're not gonna' believe this...I was buying coffee at a convenience, and I saw this newspaper on sale near the counter, and- and, damnit just look!".
Yosuke flipped through several of the paper's pages, smoothing them out as he went through them. Finally, he found the article he was looking for, which shocked the other Investigation Team members. The headline read:
Inaba's Copy-Cat Killer; On The Loose!
The female Persona users had decided they'd be meeting up at Changall Cafe at Paulownia Mall. None of them had stopped for a moment to pick up a newspapers, and as such the news of Mitsuo Kubo's escape hadn't reached their ears.
"Ha, and so there's Yosuke clutching his nuts and he squeeks out 'I think mine's broken too, Critical hit to the nads'!" Chie said, struggling to breath from laughing so hard, as were the others gathered at the table. "Ha, Yosuke-kun always had the worst luck, maybe it was karma for his jerkass moments?" Rise mused, taking a drink of her coffee. After awhile, the laughter stopped and Mitsuru chimed in "Awhile back, we all thought Arisato was one of a kind. A paragon who performed miracles and befriended almost everyone he met. Hard to believe Seta has the same qualities".
Yukiko sighed slightly, reminiscing "Yeah, I think we all loved Souji. Though Teddie's probably the only guy that would admit to it. Kanji kind've saw him as an older brother mentor figure, and despite all his homophobic remarks Yosuke was borderline lusting after him". A small burst of laughter went through the group "Guess he just wasn't fast enough" Rise added, twirling a pigtail around her finger. Yukari smiled slightly "Wasn't quite that way with Minato. Alot of people liked him, and he even had a little fanclub at one point. But, Junpei borderline hated him. He got on well enough with Akihiko, Ken and Shinji but they were far from 'best friends' like Souji was with your team".
Fuuka nodded "Yeah, but still they're quite a pair. I wonder what it is that lets them get on with people so well?". Aigis spoke up next "I'd say it's the Wild Card". The girls from the Investigation Team were curious "Er, what's the Wild Card?" Yukiko asked. "The thing that allows them to switch Personae. Back when I had it, I found that everytime I changed my Arcana I could understand and relate to anyone with the same Arcana. Shame I lost it when my systems were fried". "Huh" Chie said, her eyes looking up toward the ceiling "Souji got empowered by a goddess, Minato had the spirit of death inside him, Aigis inherited it" Chie listed the examples off on her fingers
"From old research on the matter, the Kirijo Group concluded that it takes exceptional circumstancesto become a true Wild Card. Only a tiny percentage of test subjects had a potential Wild Card ability, but nothing we did could activate those abilities" Mitsuru replied, polishing off her coffee. Before the conversation on the matter could continue further, Rise's phone rang, which she promptly answered "Hey Senpai, what's up?" Rise asked, Souji was evidently her caller.
Rise sighed "Aw come ooon, what else kind of pet name can I give you?" awaiting a response, Rise raised an eyebrow "Okay, fine I'll take this seriously...Er, wait what? Did I just hear that right?". Rise reclined in her seat, her expression changing from playful to serious "No way that can't be...It's just...But he never accepted his Shadow!..Okay...Yeah. Yeah, alright Souji. I'll tell the others and we can all discuss it at the Kirijo Tower this evening. Love ya'. Bye".
Rise put her phone back in her jean pocket, and there was an awkward silence as she tried to find the right words "Um...Well, this is a difficult thing to say. Mitsuo Kubo has escaped".
"So, run this by me again" Kasumi began "The real killer back in Inaba was Adachi who was being controlled by Izanami. Adachi was in turn manipulating Taro Namatame into kidnapping people. But Kubo was just some sad weird kid who murdered some asshole school teacher because he wanted to be famous?". Kasumi looked over the gathered Persona-users, who had arrived for the evening meeting on schedule.
"That's the gist of it" Souji replied, a look of worry marking his face. "Yeah, he was a messed up bastard" Yosuke added "To be honest, we all kind of forgot about him when it turned out he wasn't the real killer" Yosuke continued "But him showing up the same time as your old enemies? That can't be a coincidence. That article I read said that "His cell was wide open, and several interns and patients had been brutally killed. And only a Persona-user could operate in the Dark Hour, cause so much carnage and not be caught".
"That's something I don't get" Kasumi replied "From your stories, somebody needs to accept their Shadow in order to use their Persona. But from what you said, this Kubo kid didn't accept his Shadow. So how could he have a Persona?". Souji folded his arms "Well, a being of sufficient power can jumpstart somebody's Persona without that person needing to face their Shadow. Izanami did it to me, I gave Nanako her Persona the same way. Somebody must've done the same for him".
"Most likely the same person who brought Takaya and Jin back, and teleported them away last night" Minato added, piecing the information together with Souji. "Yeah but, who and why?" Junpei asked. "Erebus?" Fuuka asked, to which the whole group seemed to dwell on.
"It does seem likely..." Mitsuru added, her eyes narrowed while focusing on the ground. Akihiko nodded "Yeah,that thing was crazy powerful when we fought it. If it could raise the dead, or bestow power onto others, I wouldn't be all that surprised".Minato rubbed his chin in thought "Well, there's one place I know we can get our answers from. Wouldn't you agree Souji?". Souji chuckled slightly "Velvet Room?" he asked, to which Minato merely smirked in confirmation.
"We'll be back in a minute or two" Souji said, he and Minato leaving the Armory at the same time, much to the confusion of several people present
"So where's the Velvet Room entrance in this city?" Souji asked, Minato walking about two steps with his hands jammed into his pockets as usual. "There's two around here. One in Tartarus, and the one in Paulownia Mall we're heading to now". Souji nodded, seeing the well lit building coming up on the horizon.
The two were busy contemplating just what the Velvet Room would be like now, as it appearantly changed depending on the number of guests and their personalities. Or something like that, Minato didn't know how his personality was an elevator and Souji wondered just how the fuck his personality was supposed to be a limo.
But, that was irrelevant. Minato led Souji into the mall, several shops closing up for the night, going into a small little alcove under the Mandragora Karaoke Bar. There, the two laid eyes on the familiar etheral blue door just floating there at the back of the passage. The two leaders looked at each other and nodded, and Souji took the liberty of opening the door for them. And then, as the door opened they were engulfed by a bright light.
When the white flash finally dissapeared, both Souji and Minato found themselves standing on some sort of balcony. From what they could see, Igor was sitting hunched over with his back to the two enthralled by the spectacle below the balcony. Elizabeth and Margaret were stranding on opposite sides of the long-nosed man, each holding a different Compendium.
Minato, curious as to what Igor was looking at, took a few steps forward and was surprised to see the new Velvet Room in all its beauty. It seemed to be a giant Opera house, just about everything coloured a deep blue. Looking down at the illuminated stage below, he saw an elegant dark-haired woman singing beautifully, accompanied by a blind man playing the piano with surprising skill for a man without the use of his eyes. Come to think of it, the music the two were playing sounded alot like the music Minato and Souji normally heard when they entered the Velvet Room...
The two were snapped from their thoughts by Igor's whimsical voice "Welcome back...". He glanced back at the two with a creepy toothy grin "It's so nice to see you once again...".
A/N: There we are, back in the velvet-lined comfort of the Velvet Room. The next chapter, we can expect what's best known from Igor: Creepiness and exposition!