A loud THUD emanated from the sniper rifle and an angel-shaped Shadow screamed and dissolved. Hifumi Togo smirked as she lowered the weapon. Why her great-grandfather's old WWII sniper rifle worked even without ammo in the presence of Shadows was beyond her, but if it meant keeping the streets of her local neighborhoods a little safer, she would gladly make use of it.
Hifumi had been practicing with the rifle since the day after the Outbreak. She had no experience using a gun before, and at first she could barely hold it without unbalancing herself. But she had to be able to fight back. The Phantom Thieves were great, they had saved her after all, but she couldn't always rely on them. There were only so many of them, and they couldn't be everywhere at once. It would take people like her to take care of the smaller threats so that the Phantom Thieves could handle larger, more dangerous Shadows. In Shogi, every piece had a purpose. So she would make one for herself.
The Angel she'd just shot had been her first ever Shadow kill, and Hifumi couldn't help but feel a glow of pride as she reset the sniper rifle for its next shot. The Angel had been fairly close and completely unaware of her presence, but it was the first time Hifumi had managed to hit a Shadow with the rifle from the vantage point of her second-floor terrace, and with that kill, she knew her practice was beginning to pay off.
"That was a nice shot," came a smooth baritone voice from above her. Hifumi whirled around. Looking down at her from the roof of her house was a dark figure in a familiar white mask.
"Am-! I mean, Joker! What are you doing here?"
Joker smirked. "I noticed the barrel of your rifle as I was patrolling and wondered who was using it and what they were planning on doing with it. Seems like you're not half-bad with it."
Hifumi raised the gun and planted its butt on the ground next to her. "It was my great-grandfather's rifle from the war. I figured if I could use it to help out with the Shadows I should, though I'm not very good at using it just yet. That shot you saw just now was my first ever Shadow kill."
"Well, it was a good shot either way," Joker complimented her, rising to his full height as his coattails fluttered in the wind. His gaze unfocused as he looked around to a section of the sky a little off to the right. Hifumi followed his gaze and saw a triangular glowing UFO. Oracle.
Joker turned back to her. "Interesting. Oracle says to tell you you're pretty close to being able to awaken to a Persona."
Hifumi almost dropped her rifle. "What!? Me?"
Joker nodded. "She's been keeping an eye on anyone in the town who has an inkling of potential, and it turns out several of my old confidants are on the verge of awakening themselves, yourself included. She's calling it 'the Joker effect' or something, but that's not important. Just thought you should know."
Hifumi was silent for a moment, laying a hand over her heart. She could have the same kind of power as the Phantom Thieves? Did that mean she could possibly…?
Joker's head suddenly shot up, his gaze snapping to a point on the horizon. Hifumi also looked around. A hint of blue light was visible over the rooftops of her neighborhood, far away in a different district of the city. Joker looked at her. "Someone's awakening. Oracle and I have to get going. New Persona-users are nothing unusual, but chances are, whoever it is will need help. See you around."
"Be safe, Joker," she bade him. He nodded to her and was gone.
Hifumi cocked her rifle and directed it back down the street, searching for more Shadows. If she was going to awaken a Persona, she might as well keep practicing.
Quasimodo roared and swung his bell, scattering the lesser Shadows with a single ringing blow. The larger Greater Shadows arched their backs and cast off their generic shells and swarmed, flying demons and green-skinned horse things darting forward and retreating, trying to test this new foe.
Almost unconsciously, I raised my hand. "Burn them."
Quasimodo raised his bell onto his shoulder, directing the open bottom at the Shadows and lowering the edge like he was pouring molten lead out of a cauldron. Gouts of red flame blazed forth from the bell, splashing across every Shadow in the alley directly before them. Most of the Shadows who felt that liquid blaze immediately caught on fire and began to burn. But while most of the Shadows had taken damage from the attack, none of them appeared to be weak to fire and buzzed and howled angrily as they surged forward.
"Magarula!" cried a boyish voice. A gust of wind suddenly blew past me and Quasimodo, cutting across the Shadows. The flames that stuck to the ones Quasimodo had set aflame suddenly blazed up, and the Shadows they fed off of screamed in pain before dissolving into ink. A bulbous-headed cat creature leapt over my head and slashed its silver cutlass through the remaining Shadows, splitting them into pieces and scattering their dissolving remains across the alleyway.
The cat creature turned to look back at me. I looked back at it as the adrenaline I was running on suddenly wore off. Quasimodo dissolved in a flash of blue fire that was then absorbed into the back of my now-scarred right hand. The cat creature was...talking? I couldn't hear what it was saying. My vision blurred and my knees buckled, and then the darkness claimed me.
Skull had seen the flash of fire and Shadows being blown back and dissolving from down the street, and he was over at the alley in a flash. He found Mona standing in front of a high schooler a little younger than Futaba passed out on the pavement.
"Hey!" Mona was saying. "Wake up! You need to get up!" The cat turned and saw Skull.
"Mona? What's going on?" Skull demanded.
"Skull! Good timing. This guy just awakened to a Persona, but he passed out after I finished fighting off the Shadows he was fighting. We need to get him out of here, somewhere safe."
Skull leaned down and picked up the kid. He was fairly scrawny and easy to lift. "Takemi's probably best. She's trustworthy and knows about Personas."
"Just what I was about to suggest," Mona replied. "Come on, get him out of here. I'll cover you from behind so you can focus on getting him to Yongen."
Tae Takemi jotted down some notes and glanced at the back of the kid's right hand again. The gold feather was jammed deeply into his skin, and judging from the partially-healed scars on his palm, the feather had somehow been pushed all the way through his hand from the palm to the back. She had no idea why, but it had to have been excruciatingly painful. The feather glimmered ominously as she studied it, somehow looking almost evil in the bright lights of her clinic.
"Will he be okay, doc?" Amamiya asked. He'd taken over once Skull had brought the kid in, being more knowledgeable about the sort of Metaverse stuff his group regularly dealt with. Takemi pried her eyes away from the feather and looked at Amamiya.
"Well, he could hardly be more exhausted than if he were an asthmatic who'd just run a marathon without an inhaler," Takemi reported. "Other than that and his hand, he doesn't seem to have any problems. Do you have any idea at all who this kid is?"
Amamiya shook his head. "All I can tell you is that Oracle recognized him from her class at Shujin, but beyond that, I have no clue."
"Well, that's something at least," Takemi told him. "You'd better get back to patrolling. I'll call you if anything happens."
"Sure." Amamiya bowed his head in thanks, then slipped out the door and was gone.
Takemi turned back toward her patient. He was hardly what she would think of as remarkable. Scrawny, close-cropped brown hair, regular Shujin uniform. His features were slightly angular, not very Japanese, which was unusual she supposed, but hardly that uncommon. And yet somehow…
Takemi's gaze traced back down to the back of the boy's right hand, where the gold feather glittered dully. What on earth could have caused this object to leave such a scar? How on earth had it been forced all the way through his hand until it ripped open the back just to display itself there, flush with his skin save for the scarring that surrounded its edges? Leaning forward, Takemi reached out with one hand and brushed the edge of the golden feather with a finger.
A jolt as if of lightning raced up her arm into her head before she could even blink. Instantly her surroundings turned black.
"Who-!? Wha-!?" Takemi was startled and confused, but before she could regain her composure, a voice suddenly sounded in her head.
"Interesting. That Vane seems to have a fair amount of power left. Enough that I could finally see you."
"What?" Takemi demanded. "Who's there!?"
"Don't tell me you don't recognize me." A pair of glowing yellow eyes emerged from the darkness. "I am thou. Thou art I."
Takemi gave a gasp and her surroundings were suddenly restored. She jerked her hand away from the gold feather, which glimmered as though laughing at her shock. Takemi couldn't help but feel that whatever that thing was, it was malicious.
The doctor spun around in her seat and yanked out her pen and notepad. She didn't know what that whole 'I am thou' thing was about, but she was going to find out.
Joker vanished in a flash of blue flame and returned to his identity as Ren Amamiya. Ren left the alley where he'd changed back and walked up to his apartment building. The entire walk to his apartment, he could hardly stop thinking about that kid Skull and Mona had brought to Takemi's clinic. Something about that feather lodged in the back of his hand...it somehow felt like Yaldabaoth.
Ren changed out of his day clothes and into his sleep clothes. He was feeling a little hungry after having been up for so long after dinner, but a piece of toast would get him through until morning. Ren had barely hit his pillow when sleep suddenly claimed him.
His subconscious sensed a glow of blue first. Before him was a door, and despite it looking nothing like the barred cell door he'd always seen it as before, he knew where it led. The door instead was perfectly normal, albeit still blue and adorned with an ornate V surrounded by a laurel wreath.
Ren stepped into the Velvet Room and was greeted by a change in the scenery. Gone was the round room filled with chained-up cells, replaced instead with a space more akin to a banquet hall. Ornate pillars lined the room and a series of long stone tables ran down the center. The seats were almost throne-like, intricately carved and cushioned in blue velvet. At the head of the room, Igor sat at a table set higher above the rest, running perpendicular to the length of the room instead of parallel like the rest.
Standing behind Igor at that table was Lavenza, who smiled at him as he entered, as well as two figures he'd not seen before. The first was a somewhat older woman with blonde hair the same shade as Lavenza's, though shorter and more wavy. She was surrounded with an aura of calm and refinement. The other was a man, and while he did seem about as old as the woman, his aura was more of innocence and curiosity as he observed Ren's appearance.
"Welcome to the Velvet Room once more, Trickster," Lavenza greeted him.
"Please, have a seat," Igor bade him in that slightly eerie high-pitched voice of his. "We have much to discuss."
"You kept us waiting, Joker," came a girl's voice. Minako, Aigis, and Yu were all present and seated at one of the tables close to the head of the room. Ren grinned and joined them, plopping himself down on a seat next to Yu and leaning back.
"Apologies for my tardiness," Ren remarked, crossing one leg over the other and folding his hands in his lap. "Tonight's patrol was rather eventful."
"Some introductions are in order for tonight," Igor began. "As you all know, my name is Igor, and I am master of the Velvet Room. Beside me are your attendants. Margaret is attendant to Yu Narukami and Lavenza to Ren Amamiya." The two women bowed to them. "Elizabeth, had she not left the Velvet Room after her guest's sacrifice, would have continued to serve as attendant to Aigis, who inherited her guest's power as a Wild Card, but as it stands, that will fall to Theodore, who shall also serve as attendant to our most recent guest, Minako Arisato." Theodore also bowed to the Wild Cards.
"Been quite a while since I was last brought to the Velvet Room," Yu noted, leaning forward and resting his elbows on the table. "And I think we all know that some major stuff is happening what with the cognitive world colliding with the real world."
"Precisely why you all have been called here," Margaret spoke. "Even we did not expect this to happen, but given how many disturbances there have been in recent years, I don't know why we expected any less."
Ren sat up straight and focused his mind. "Then we can assume that Morgana's explanation for why this is happening is accurate?"
"Indeed, young Trickster," Igor replied. "Too many times in recent years has the boundary between the real and the cognitive worlds been breached, and now it is beginning to fall apart. Those of us who are of the Velvet room are doing what they can to mitigate the damage, but even we do not possess the power to force the two realities to separate once more."
"Is there really nothing we can do?" Aigis asked.
"Not so," Theodore replied. "All is not lost."
Igor continued. "Indeed, Persona-users are the key to the survival of this realm. Wild Cards like yourselves especially. Shadows, as you know, are monsters born of the negative emotions in human hearts. Therefore, it stands to reason that if they are defeated and overcome, and their intrusion from the cognitive world is stemmed, it will be easier for the barrier between the worlds to be repaired, and the separation of the worlds hastened."
All four of the Wild Cards now had their full attention fixed on Igor. "So we can do it?" Minako demanded. "We can really force the Metaverse to separate from the real world if we just keep fighting Shadows?"
"It is not simply fighting Shadows that will cause the worlds to separate," Margaret stated.
"As you say, sister," Lavenza concurred. "Your purpose is not merely to fight a war for our sake, but to inspire, in the people of the world, hope. That is your true objective."
"I get it," Yu said, his brain already piecing together what they were trying to explain. "If Shadows are born from negative human emotions and desires, hope will counteract them and make them weaker."
Aigis continued, "And with the cognition of the masses stemming the flow of Shadows to the real world, it will be easier for the Metaverse to separate from the real world."
"Precisely," Igor concluded, clapping his hands. "Truly excellent."
"I must say, this is the first time I've come to the Velvet Room and had the answer just handed to me with no cryptic riddles or quests I barely understand," Ren commented.
"That, Trickster, is because your previous journeys were closed events with singular perpetrators and singular solutions," Igor explained. "This event has no singular perpetrator and no clean answer for its resolution. There are infinite possibilities for its solution, and also infinite scenarios where you are unable to inspire the world enough and the Metaverse is able to fuse with the real world permanently. All we can do is fight and hope for the betterment of humanity through this apocalypse."
"That being said," Lavenza picked up, "you will not be asked to undertake this task alone."
"Well, we do have our friends and confidants with us," Aigis reasoned.
"That is not what Lavenza refers to," Igor told her. "Already, across the world, new Wild Cards are beginning to awaken to their true selves. They shall in turn create new bands of Persona-users under their banners and inspire the people in their areas to rise up and fight back against the Shadow Outbreaks. Indeed, we have a new Wild Card coming in this very night who just now awakened to his powers."
Ren's eyebrows shot up. "You don't mean-!"
He was interrupted by the main door opening at the end of the hall. The boy who walked in was all too familiar to Ren, though he was new to the other Wild Cards already seated there. Scrawny frame, close-cropped brown hair, slightly angular non-Japanese features, and now that his eyes were open, they were focused and wary, with a color neither gray nor blue nor green, yet somehow all three.
"Kenzo Okuda," Igor said merrily, "Welcome to the Velvet Room."