"Due to unprecedented circumstances, we unfortunately must cancel this event. Please begin evacuation immediately."
Sumire could barely contain her frustration as she allowed herself to be led away by Coach Hiraguchi, swept away along with the rest of the competitors that day. Something had happened that unleashed a marauding band of Shadows in the direction of the gym where she was to be competing, and the officiators had been forced to evacuate everyone before they could target the spectators or the athletes. Sumire had been talking with her Coach at the time of the announcement, and the two of them had been forced to quickly evacuate with the others, leaving her with no opportunity to slip away and change into Violet.
But that wasn't the worst part. The worst part was she hadn't even had the chance to compete.
"Damn Shadows," she cursed under her breath. This had been the worst possible time they could've showed up. Anger did not come naturally to Sumire, something that she believed was at least part of the reason why she was not as strong as the rest of her senpai in the Phantom Thieves, but gymnastics was her passion and her calling, as well as her way of honoring Kasumi's memory. So yes, Sumire was mad.
"Sumire?" Coach's startled voice snapped her out of her funk. The older woman was looking down at Sumire's feet, where a few wisps of blue fire were fading back into the asphalt.
Sumire froze. Coach Hiraguchi stared at her before a slight smirk crossed her face. "Oh," she said slowly. "Now I understand why you've seemed so distracted since the Outbreak. I thought it was just the Shadows or your lingering PTSD, but… you have somewhere you want to be, don't you?"
Sumire reluctantly nodded. "Yes. Yes I do."
Coach's smile fully broke out over her face. "Well, I haven't the slightest idea where that might be, but it should be safe for you to go there regardless."
Sumire beamed at her Coach's statement and pumped her fists. "Thank you, Coach! I'll make this up to you, I promise!" Then Sumire was off, sprinting away in the other direction, little bursts of blue flame rising up whenever her foot left the ground.
Coach Hiraguchi smirked at her retreating figure. "That girl is growing up…"
"...and we return to the site of the disturbance, which has only grown more chaotic since the last update. As you can see, the fortress that has appeared where Sandā Arsenal's headquarters once stood appears to be swarming with Shadows that appear to be wearing World War II Japanese military uniforms. Nevertheless, the area has certainly drawn a crowd, despite the best efforts of the police and the local Persona-users to keep the area under control."
The screen showed a brief clip of a girl on a skateboard dodging past the police line and shooting nuclear magic at a pair of Shadows that were starting to converge on the officers. She zoomed off, blasting more Shadows with magic as she went, the officers eventually choosing to ignore her.
"Earlier today, the headquarters was entered by a strike team of officers and Persona-users with the intent of taking its CEO, Yasuo Isobe, into custody for ordering the kidnapping of lesser-known Persona-users as well as several years' worth of accounts of illegal weapon transactions, information of which was leaked to the police by an anonymous source. However, now that the area has become what the hosts of this channel can only assume is some kind of Shadow Dungeon, the entire strike force has been forced to refocus their efforts on the defense of the local area."
A camera from a news helicopter zoomed in on Aigis, who was hovering over the battlefield with her jetpack, letting out the occasional stream of bullets from the guns attached to her forearms and poking out over her shoulders. Whenever she did so, another squad of Shadows broke apart into ash. On another flank of the fortress, any roving Shadows hoping to start marauding on the streets were met with girlish giggles and the chop of an axe as Noir of the Phantom Thieves hacked them apart.
At the very front of the fortress, standing directly between the Shadows and the crowd, was Naoto Shirogane, directing her Persona to continuously blast any Shadows trying to break out of the nest with various elements, though at the same time she was also doing everything she could to keep the reporters from trying to charge in and trample her, at one point having to freeze several reporters' feet to the ground before barking at them to stay back and motioning to two whom she hadn't frozen in place.
The news anchor placed a hand on her earpiece for a moment before saying, "It seems that none other than Naoto Shirogane, famed detective formerly lauded as the "High School Detective Prince" has deigned to answer some questions from the reporters, letting them go two at a time. We will now be moving to live on the scene."
The camera switched to one on the ground, pointing directly at the blue-haired detective while Yamato Sumeragi continued to blast Shadows in the background. "Shirogane-san, I have to ask what we all want to know. Where did this… fortress come from?" the reporter asked.
"It's called a Palace," Naoto explained, firing her gun absently at a lesser Shadow that was trying to sneak away. "The primary specialty of the Phantom Thieves of Hearts, as I understand. I do not know the full details, but what I do know is that a Palace is the manifestation of the distorted desires of its host. In essence, Yasuo Isobe thinks of his headquarters as his fortress, and once he became a Corporeal Shadow, the Palace broke through into the real world."
"So these Palaces are connected to how the Phantom Thieves change hearts?"
Naoto nodded. "At the heart of each Palace is a core called a Treasure. That Treasure takes the shape of an object that marks the source of the host's distortions. Remove the Treasure, and you remove the core of the Palace, effectively removing the host's distorted desires as well and causing the Palace to collapse." Two more shots, two more lesser Shadows disintegrated.
"So that will be the goal of the Persona-users who have already gone in?"
"Naturally."
"Are these Palaces also connected to the mental shutdowns and psychotic breakdown incidents from the time of the Phantom Thieves' debut as well?"
"In a sense, but not as much," Naoto answered, turning for a moment to instruct Yamato Sumeragi to blast a quartet of Greater Shadows shaped like various yokai with a Mamudoon spell, insta-killing half of them and leaving the remainder exposed to further bombardment. "To achieve a mental shutdown, all one has to do is kill the target's Shadow, as I understand. Hence why the Phantom Thieves take such care in their operations concerning Corporeal Shadows. As for the psychotic breakdown incidents, as I understand it, that was a power unique to the assassin that the conspiracy used to inflict them. And before you ask, no, I will not be telling you who it was."
"Do all Palaces look like fortresses?"
"In a sense, all Palaces are fortresses, but this is the first time to my knowledge that one has taken a form that literally is one. (explosion in the background) For example, I am told that the abusive gym teacher who was the Thieves' first target thought of the school as his castle, that he ruled over, while the mafia boss Kaneshiro thought of all of Shibuya to be a bank for him to endlessly withdraw money from. And Masayoshi Shido, the head of the Conspiracy, thought of the Diet Building as a ship, I am told because he saw the entire country as already drowned, and only he and a few worthy individuals being worth steering through the flotsam and wreckage."
"Can anyone have a Palace?"
"Only if they are sufficiently distorted. Anyone can become a Corporeal Shadow if they allow their darkest impulses control them entirely, but a Palace can only spawn if a person's views and desires have become so twisted that they start to view the world as something other than what it is." Naoto paused again to blockade the main entrance to the Palace with an ice barrier, freezing multiple unlucky Shadows within as she did. "That being said, it doesn't necessarily mean that the Palace's host has to be evil. A Palace can still form from other twisted desires, for instance if the host is overcome by depression or trauma." The Shadows broke past the ice wall. Naoto shot three, emptying her revolver, and Yamato Sumeragi made the earth erupt around the remainder, crushing them.
"Aren't you concerned about someone using this information to inflict more mental shutdowns?"
Naoto gave the reporter a flat look. "And why would someone want to do that? It would be much more efficient for a prospective murderer to simply shoot someone they want to kill. Tracking down their Shadow just so they can kill it would be an incredible waste of time, particularly since I don't think there has yet been a case where one has encountered another's Shadow without the Self also being very close by in the vicinity since the Outbreak. Why take the long way around when there's no surefire way of even finding your target's Shadow?"
Another explosion in the background. Naoto flipped the cylinder of her revolver closed and shot another lesser Shadow. "At any rate, you can certainly count on all of our groups to ensure that if something of that nature does happen again, we will not stand for it. The Shadow Operatives didn't stand for it when it was called Apathy Syndrome, the Investigation Team didn't stand for it when it was the Foggy Day Murders, and the Phantom Thieves absolutely didn't stand for it when they learned of the Conspiracy behind the mental shutdowns. Any Shadow-related crimes that we discover will be investigated, and if necessary, they will be dealt with. With extreme prejudice."
The program cut back to the newsroom. "And that's all for now folks. After the commercial break, we will be taking a look at the progress that the infiltrators are making through the Palace."
"Tennōheika Banzai!"
BOOOOOOOOOMMM!
There was an explosion of steam and curse energy as Sho and Minako blasted the kamikaze-charging Shadows to bits. Both of them were crimson-eyed and absolutely fed up with having to constantly deal with the suicide-charging Shadows. Most of them weren't very strong, but as soon as many of them spotted the Persona-users, they just charged in. Even worse, some of them were even Disaster Shadows, forcing the team to pull back sometimes lest they risk letting them self-destruct right in the center of their formation.
"This f***ing sucks!" Sho spat. "Stand still and let me hit you like normal Shadows, you dumb bastards!"
"Normally, I'd hate to agree with Sho, but I'm making an exception right now." Minako leaned on her naginata and beat some of the dust off of her dress. "Are all palaces this fricking annoying!?"
"Try employing a little stealth yourselves, amateurs," came Morgana's voice. The black-masked catboy flipped off of the shoulders of the Greater Shadow he'd ambushed, ripping off its mask in one fluid motion. Joker and Labrys darted in and eviscerated two of the resulting Shadows almost before they'd even fully formed, leaving the last, a frightened Angel, to be targeted by Sho's Curse magic.
Sho advanced forward and raised his sword. "Wait, wait!" the Angel begged. "Please don't kill me!"
Sho sneered. "Why would I do that?"
"To recruit her, duh!" Morgana crowed. "You're a Wild Card now, remember?"
"Recruit me?" the Angel asked. "That doesn't really sound like it would be much fun…"
"Pfft, I'm the funnest guy around," Sho snarked, resting his saber on his shoulder and relaxing his stance.
"No offense, you look like a battle junkie."
"Best kind of junkie as far as I'm concerned!" Sho laughed. "I might be crazy, but I like to think it's a good kind of crazy. So what do you say?"
The Angel giggled. "I can work with that. I am thou, thou art I."
The Angel vanished in a flash of light, turning into a card bearing the Justice Arcana. The card shot forward and was absorbed into Sho's chest with a short flare of blue light.
"Your first new Persona," Joker congratulated him. "How's it feel?"
Sho frowned in concentration. "Weird. Like my mind's been split into different sections that are looking at everything in different ways. I mean, Amatsu-Mikaboshi's mostly just having fun with the fighting right now and living in the moment. That Angel seems to care more about making sure that guy who kidnapped me gets exactly what he deserves." The thought made Sho's mouth split in a sharklike grin. Then he seemed to come back to himself and shook his head as though he were trying to shake off an annoying fly. "Bah, is that what being thoughtful is like? Bleh. More stabbing, please."
"Tennōheika BANZAI!"
BOOOOOOOMMM!
"I MEANT ME, F***ERS!"
When Toru Arima had first given himself the codename "Trench", this was not what he signed up for. He'd expected that Sandā Arsenal would contract him as a mercenary and that he would spend his days using his newfound hydrokinetic powers to clear the streets of roving Shadows, occasionally with an annoying, nuke-spitting skateboarder tagging along. He did not expect his employers' headquarters to turn into a full-scale Shadow Nest.
Toru thrust his weapon, a barbed trident, into the chin of the first lesser Shadow and pivoted with the motion, bringing around the butt end to smash into the nuts of the next one. That one keeled over, giving him ample opportunity to stab it again. His trident was not a flashy weapon, with a black haft and a simple steel head and butt, well-proportioned and forgiving to use thanks to the extra breadth of range granted to his thrusts, but it just didn't quite click with him. Originally, he'd thought it might be cool, but now that he was thinking about it more, he figured he'd probably prefer a blade he would be able to slash with as well on the end, something he could use to mimic the flowing motions of the water he controlled.
Toru shook himself out of his thoughts as he began to approach one of the rear flanks of the hill. He could already think up some explanations for why the headquarters specifically was warped (that kid who'd given him a card for the fricking Kirijo Group hadn't just been blowing smoke) or why the space around it was warped (Metaverse bullshit) but one thing he couldn't understand was why all the stupid Shadows were now dressed like Japanese soldiers from WWII and why they did those absolutely moronic Banzai charges.
At least he'd managed to figure out that they weren't very perceptive. As long as he didn't make a racket or walk right out in front of them, they wouldn't even notice he was there. He'd managed to reach the outer rampart undetected even wearing a shiny, steel-plated diving suit after all. Now if only he could find a way over all that barbed wire without being detected-
"HAHAHAHAHAHA! Can't catch me, dumbasses! Eat my dust! Or maybe a few nukes will be more to your taste!"
A cackling child on a skateboard sped around from the other side of the hill, leading a group of Greater Shadows off on a tear around the fortress, occasionally summoning her Persona, Hippolyta, to pepper them with stray Nuclear spells. Toru immediately groaned. Now that annoyance was going to lead a whole bunch of Shadows right to him. Well, too bad. He wasn't going to dig her out of her hole. He was about to make a leap out over the rampart when the girl, Sakiko he remembered her name was, spotted him, their eyes meeting for a brief second. Her eyes flashed with recognition and alarm, like she hadn't expected to see him there. Quick as lightning, she raised one arm and blasted an area of the rampart near where he'd been about to jump over.
"HAAA! Can't catch me, morons!" Sakiko pulled down one of her lower eyelids with a finger and blew a loud raspberry. In response, another group of Shadows, including two Greaters, jumped over the rampart and joined the chase, charging after her around the curve of the hill and out of sight once more.
For a minute, Toru was shocked. He hadn't expected that kind of thing from her. Whenever he'd met her previously, she'd always been reckless and pushy, barging into his fights when he didn't need nor want her help. Well, he thought, clambering over the rampart into a trench now clear of Shadows, maybe she isn't quite so bad. Doesn't mean I want to team up with her long term. She's still pushy and annoying. But maybe if we work around each other we can at least do some good.
Toru leapt out of the trench at a Greater Shadow and slammed his trident against its mask, smashing it off the Shadow's face and causing it to dissolve into a trio of more defined figures, including a lantern-wielding pumpkin and a pair of demons.
Here, Trench would make a fresh start.
Joker and Morgana were quite surprised at just how varied the Shadows in Isobe's Palace were. On the one hand, there were the Pixies and the Pyrojacks, but at one point they'd also run into a Kumbandha, which definitely wasn't a low-level Shadow. Add in the Banzai charges, the suicidal Disaster Shadows, and the uphill terrain, and what should've been an easy fight for the group, which contained several highly experienced Persona-users and three Wild Cards, had turned into an irritating slog. This was not helped by the fact that there seemed to be only one Safe Room on each level, and they were represented by small canvas tents with hard metal folding chairs, and there weren't even enough to accommodate the entire team. Minako, Ken, and Ayaka had taken the chairs, while Morgana and Sho both sat on the table and Joker, Labrys, and Sophie remained standing, with Koromaru resting his head on Ken's lap. The entire group were crowded together in the Safe Room on the second level of the fortress.
Morgana was speaking, "We've made good progress, but it's not as good when you consider that these Shadows aren't even that strong compared to us for the most part."
"Sorry for slowing you down," Ayaka apologized.
"'S not you," Labrys argued. "I's the damn Shadows. I heard about what the battle of Iwo Jima was like back in the second world war, but I never thought I'd experience it for myself."
"And what the heck is up with the Shadows' power levels?" Joker asked. "They're usually much more consistent than this, but we've been getting everything from bottom-of-the-barrel cannon fodder to genuine monsters."
"Probably representative of how unstable Isobe's mental state is," Morgana theorized. His cat ears twitched as he thoughtfully laid a curled hand on his chin. "This is just me theorizing, but perhaps if we can identify which areas have the lowest security, we can skip across them stealthily and gain more ground that way."
A split second later, a startled yelp cut through the air. There was a sudden fast set of footsteps and the tent flaps burst open, causing everyone to leap to their feet in surprise. Trench was standing there, out of breath and sweaty-faced, his armored diving suit scratched and dented. He bent over, panting hard.
Ken realized, "Hey, aren't you that Trench guy from earlier!?" Koromaru barked in agreement.
Trench looked up at him and removed his helmet. He was brown-haired with a thick jaw, but he was also still young, around college age. He was white-faced and sweating heavily, and he wiped his face with one arm. "Oh. Hey," he finally made out between heavy pants. "Guess I should've expected you to be in here. You're the guys who're aiming to take my old boss down, right?"
Joker stood. "If you're here, I assume you've decided to be a part of that?"
Trench grunted. "Something like that. First thing's first though, are we safe in here?"
"This is a Safe Room," Morgana explained. "It's a weak point in the Palace Ruler's cognition. Shadows can't enter here."
Trench let out a relieved sigh. "Phew, that's good. There's a weird one that's been following me ever since the underground section I first spotted it in."
"Weird-?" Minako wondered, but then Ayaka gave a cry.
"Monty!" Upon spotting the snake, which had slithered into the tent just behind Trench, Ayaka dodged around the table and its occupants to greet the serpent, which somehow managed to look pleased at being recognized.
"Oh, great. The little shit's back," Sho drawled.
Ayaka smacked him. "Don't use foul language next to the baby!"
Trench yelped again and scuttled back. "You mean it was a real snake!?"
"Oh, come on, Monty wouldn't bite you," Ayaka chastised him. She held out a hand for Monty, and the smart snake coiled its tail around her wrist and forearm. Ayaka raised her arm up to bring Monty level with her eyes and the two began mimicking each other's motions again, including shaking of heads, opening mouths, and very intense staring contests. Trench still looked uncomfortable, but he settled down.
"Anyway, you went to the underground section?" Morgana asked.
"Yeah," Trench answered. "Thought I'd head there first to look for anything interesting, cover all my bases. Didn't find anyone else, but I did find this though." He reached into the pack behind his waist and brought out a potato-like object with a glowing green skull face.
Joker and Morgana both inhaled sharply. "A Will Seed!" Morgana exclaimed.
"A what now?" Sho asked, finally taking an interest in the conversation.
"They're sort of like mini-Treasures," Morgana explained, having already gone through the basics of Palace infiltration prior to the beginning of the operation. "Every Palace has three, and they're representative of specific distortions in the Palace Ruler's mind that pushed them to commit the actions they did and where they came from. It's not necessary to collect them in order to clear a Palace, but we do it anyway because if we can get all three of them, it creates a crystal that can then be used to grant various effects or perform special spells."
"Effects like what?" Minako asked. "Is it like some of the accessories that the Shadow Operatives use that block weaknesses to certain elements?"
Joker raised his eyebrows behind his mask. "I didn't know items like that existed."
Minako reached into her red armband and pulled out a small keychain bearing an emblem of a leaping flame. "It's called Blazing Flame. Apparently it's one of a series of items that Minato fused in the Velvet Room right before he… well, yeah. It blocks fire magic. Penelope was weak to fire, and so's Gerda. And, since she doesn't really fight Shadows in the field that much anymore, Mitsuru-san was kind enough to lend it to me."
Joker smirked. "Huh. Guess I shouldn't have worried about showing off this." He pulled off his left glove to display a haunting ring on his index finger, three skulls decorating it equidistant around the circumference, one red-eyed, one blue, one green. "This is the Ring of Wrath, made from the Will Seeds from Futaba's Palace. It boosts my speed at the start of a fight and grants me a spell capable of removing most ailments. Not very flashy, but it helps me end fights quickly, especially when I don't want to draw on my Personas. Gotta maintain the image of the 'mysterious phantom thief' after all." He flashed a smirk.
Minako's smirk was a match for his. "You sly bastard, I knew you lot were holding out on us!"
Joker shrugged and replaced his glove. "You don't get as far as we did without picking some things up."
"Why don't I get something cool like that!?" Sho complained.
"Uh, hello? Didn't you get that necklace with Curse Amp on it from Joker before we walked in?" Ken pointed out.
"There's a difference between a skull ring and a bunch of beads," Sho muttered. He fingered the string of obsidian beads that peeked out from under his camo shirt.
Ayaka leaned across his lap, staring up into his brooding face. "Hey, if you're a Wild Card like they are, eventually you'll get plenty of cool toys just like theirs," she said in a cutesy tone, making doe eyes at him. Sho, clearly uncomfortable, averted his gaze and muttered something under his breath. Ayaka giggled a little and returned to her seat. Labrys looked on with approval at the woman's clear level of control over Sho, while Minako just rolled her eyes and gave up thinking about it.
Trench raised his hand. "Okay, uh, newcomer to the strangeness here. I've still got a potato with a skull face here, and I'm getting that if we get two more, they make a super-accessory that grants magic powers. Great. But we're still in the middle of a big-ass fortress that just popped up in the middle of Osaka. Can we please get back on track to how we're getting rid of all the Shadows?"
The squad gave him the short version: if they could take the Palace Ruler's Treasure, the Palace would fall apart, the Ruler would have a change of heart, and the Shadows would all stop coming. Toru of course insisted on seeing everything through to the end and coming with them, so Joker granted him a Thunder Ring he would be able to use to cast a powerful Electric spell with in case his own Water magic turned out to be insufficient. Unsettlingly, Ayaka had insisted that "Monty" go with them, and the serpent had gladly accepted, coiling around the girl's arm and nuzzling her. Toru was still put-off by the snake, but at least the knowledge that it was intelligent and didn't want to bite him was a help.
As the group worked their way further into the Palace, Toru realized how lucky he'd been to have been able to follow their infiltration route after they'd already slain most of the Shadows. There was certainly the occasional Greater Shadow that was weak enough for him to take down on his own and plenty of Banzai-charging lesser Shadows for him to whet his trident on, but he was still painfully aware of his own inadequacy. The girl in the red dress and the black and white cloak not only had more powerful Water magic than he did, but she, the redhead (whose name seemed to be Sho), and Joker (leader of the fricking PHANTOM THIEVES!?) all had the ability to draw on multiple Personas. Granted, Sho was just starting out and the girl also seemed to be a bit inexperienced, but Toru was still far, far behind by comparison.
Which brings them to their most recent battle, against the Shadow of the Kirijo scientist that Isobe had apparently hired to do research on Shadows and Personas.
"'The good of the many?' Don't make me laugh," the man's Shadow taunted. "Admit it, you wanted the chance to toy with their lives to make up for how everyone else always toyed with yours."
"S-stop it!" the man demanded, his voice shaking.
"All those rich and powerful people looking down on you just because they have more money than brians. Wouldn't it be so nice if you could get back at them? And what better way to do that than to show them just how ugly they are on the inside?"
"STOP IT!"
"You want to rip them apart, sew their feet on their heads, show them how heartless they really are! It doesn't matter if they hurt you or not, anyone powerful will do. After all, if you can open them up, perhaps you can figure out where they got their power so you can have a little yourself! I would know, after all, since I am you."
"YOU'RE NOT ME!"
The Shadow laughed and transformed into a horned demon Joker called a "Baphomet" before knocking his Self aside and attacking the Persona-users. His first punch scattered the team, though Sho managed to cross his sabers and block the attack. The red girl called a Persona called Empusa to decrease the Shadow's attack before Joker and the android with the big axe engaged it physically.
When the Shadow reared back to cast a spell, it suddenly gave a shout of surprise and pain. The black-haired girl who'd been making doe eyes at Sho, whom he now recognized as Ayaka Tani, Isobe's granddaughter, had thrown the snake at the Shadow, which had promptly latched onto the monster's face with its fangs. The Shadow screamed in pain and swung its head, dislodging Monty only for it to smack into one of the Shadow's horns, which the snake instinctively coiled around and started to strike at the Shadow's head again and again. At the same time, Koromaru had pounced on the Shadow's back and started slashing at its neck with a knife in its mouth. Taking advantage of the distraction, the Persona-users fell on the Shadow like a crashing wave and beat it up until it reverted to human form, groaning on the ground.
Its real self was similarly prone a couple meters away. The ex-Kirijo scientist groaned and sat up before saying, "Yeah! That's what you get for spouting all that nonsense!" Then he immediately passed out, and the Shadow vanished in a flash of light a few moments later.
"Well, that's another obstacle out of the way," Sho shrugged, stepping on the unconscious man's chest and making to move on. Red girl grabbed him by the back of the collar. "Hey!"
Ken sighed. "Koromaru and I'll drag this guy out of the Palace. The rest of you go on ahead."
"Are you sure, Ken?" Red girl asked.
"We can keep him safe while maintaining a good awareness of our surroundings," Ken reasoned. "And even if this guy wakes up and tries to run off, Koromaru can track him down easy. You guys got this. Don't worry about me."
Toru's observation of that conversation was interrupted when Ayaka sidled up next to him, petting and cooing at the snake, clearly relishing in the attention. "Trench, right? If you're here I assume that means you don't think the pay is worth working for my grandfather anymore."
Toru gave a sigh. "You did try to warn me before. And after seeing what that man's Shadow was saying, I wish I could say that I was surprised. I had a hunch when he gave me a physical examinatin and kept looking at me like a piece of meat, but…" he sighed again.
"Even Persona-users aren't all-knowing," Ayaka replied, still petting Monty. "But we can make the most of the circumstances we're given."
Toru gave her a long look. A part of him was asking what did she know. Was her only remaining family stuck in a coma in a hospital requiring treatment she could barely afford if she fought for her life constantly every day? But then a more rational part of him countered with what did he know. Her grandfather was apparently deranged enough that he'd spawned a massive Shadow-filled fortress in the middle of town. After a moment longer, he looked away.
"It is… difficult," he finally spoke. "But at least I can get stronger. And once I am… never again."