Hiya, people! Thank you for your supports again and they really pushed me to the limits into making this story. And sorry for being late in updating since I got exams upon me. Please read and review.

0-0-0 PROJECT SHADOW: PERSONA 0-0-0

OP Theme: "Filth in the Beauty" by the GazettE

Project #3: "Awakened 2"

It has been 3 minutes since the Shadow Gene was injected into Michiru's blood flow and the blond man has been unconscious since then. Mikito looked at Ikutsuki and said, "This is it? I don't see any signs of rejection towards the Shadow Gene." Ikutsuki put down his coffee cup on the nearest desk and sighed.

"Hey hey, it's only been 3 minutes. Let's just wait a little, the fun has just begun, Captain Sakurai." Ikutsuki grinned at Mikito which creep him out a little. This wasn't supposed to be the time to grin like that, wasn't it? The red-ish caramel haired man thought to himself. But when suddenly Michiru's eyes bursted open, the entire people in the room's attentions drove to Michiru.

"AAAAAAAAAHHHH!" Michiru screamed painfully as if he was stabbed from every direction at one point. The soldiers aimed their firearms right at Michiru, just to be cautious in case he turned into Shadow. Michiru continued screaming endlessly while his hands and legs are trembling and trying to free themselves from the tight chain. Mikito swear he could hear Ikutsuki giggling like a mad scientist behind him. Well, it couldn't be helped. Ikutsuki IS a scientist and IS crazy.

Through Michiru's eye sockets, nose, mouth, and ears, the black liquid known as Shadow Gene started to overflow. Hearing the sound of Michiru's pain and vomiting made Miya closed her eyes and ears outside of the room. Miya herself has ever done it and believe it or not, even the most badass hero will be frightened during the PERSONA gaining process.

Michiru's movements started to get chaotic and unstable. His pupils are rolled back and he kind of trying to say something. Mikito approached Michiru and tried to listen to what he's saying, trying to keep his distance of course. "H….AKH! It's… Who… is… THAAAAT?! Uorgh!" Michiru yelled and puked out some black liquid simultaneously.

"Here we go." Mikito said in a deep and low voice.

Michiru slowly opened his eyes and groaned in pain. Then he stood up and examined his surroundings. "What the… hell?" he gasped as he realized that he's in a destroyed Mikura city, well he's also well aware that he's inside his own unconsciousness. As the man started to walk out of the rust-filled room, he remembered that he had to find his own Shadow before his body got corrupted by the virus itself, thus, increased his pace. But, the problem is how can he find the Shadow in this city?

Michiru ran around the city through alleys, streets, and he even checked the content of a building. It ate him 35 minutes before he decided to take a rest due to exhaustion. "My lungs are killing me…" he said as he panted heavily. He looked upwards towards the red colored sky, thinking of a way to look for his Shadow. "Argh… I can't think of anything! Why am I so distracted?" he groaned. But just when he was about to had another step, he heard a sound, a music to be exact. The melodies of 90s Romance Pop filled the ominous air, which caught Michiru's attention so he turned to the direction the song sourced from and rushed towards it. The song seemed familiar to him but he just can't think when he first heard it.

The melodies led him to the white bridge near the river. The bridge had classic designs and had some broken lamp poles and lanterns near it. Michiru sighed as he saw the place; he'd always liked this place because of the fresh air and the clear water flow. But now, it's like a nest of the homeless; it's dirty, rusty colored and stuff. He suddenly felt some humid mist started to fell on the place and he could see a figure in the mist. "Hello? Somebody there?" Michiru called out only to receive no respond. So, he decided to approach the person and see it by himself. When he's finally close enough, he's surprised by the sight of someone very familiar to him.

"Midori?!" Michiru exclaimed with mouth agape. Yes, it's Midori alright. Michiru could never imagined meeting her here. He quickly shook his head a few times to make sure he wasn't dreaming. "Is that really you? No… it can't be! You're dead! This must be the Shadow playing tricks with my mind." He put a palm up his forehead. Then, Midori took his hand into hers and said,

"What are you talking about? I'm right here with you." Well, Michiru did feel her warmth but it can't be. He's in his subconscious! This must be an image made by his mind. But still, Michiru DID miss her much… His confused face slowly turned into a smile. The long, green haired maiden pulled Michiru closer to her body, embracing him and Michiru gave the same reaction. 'This feeling… Yes, no doubt that this is Midori… Mii-chan…' Michiru thought to himself and closed his eyes in bliss.

"Hey, did you remember this place?" Midori asked Michiru
"Why of course. This is the place I proposed to you, right?" the blonde said
"Yes… You really remembered, huh… "
"Of course I'll remember it. It's the happiest moment of my life after all." Michiru released his embrace and looked at Midori right in the eyes. Something really caught his attention. Something's not right.

"Midori, what's wrong with your eyes? Are you wearing yellow lenses-" before Michiru finished his sentence, he felt a cold steel impaled his chest. Surprised, he looked down and witnessed a bladed chain through his abdomen. As the blood started to spurt out of his mouth, he whispered, "You bastard… how dare you take Midori's form! Show yourself!"

Suddenly, the Midori in front of his crimson eyes covered itself in black mist and revealed its true form. "Ahh, I screwed up. I forgot that she has green eyes. But it couldn't be helped, eh?"

"Y…you!" Michiru exclaimed. He's surprised that the being in front of him is… his own self; in other words, the infiltrating Shadow gene mimicked into him. 'But how does it know about Midori?' thought Michiru. But this is not the time to think, Michiru quickly pulled the blade chain and jumped back, attempted to make some distances between him and the Shadow.

"What's wrong? Surprised? Or perhaps you're afraid of your own memories?" the Shadow started to laugh like a maniac and rushed to Michiru in lightning speed with the blade chain in its hand. Michiru instinctively dodged to the side but unfortunately, he forgot about the chain. The Shadow threw the chain and it coiled around Michiru's left arm. He grunted as the edges of the chain's blades started to dig deep in his flesh. As a finishing, the Shadow threw Michiru's whole body to a nearby wall with a great impact.

"Shit!" Michiru cursed as his body felt the impact. It's undoubtedly hurt so much. Quickly, he reached to his chained arm and tried to uncoil the chain but the process took long enough since he had to pull the tiny blades little by little. Gritting his teeth, Michiru tried to hold his tears caused by the pain of the hooked tiny blades which made it hard to pull. The period gave the Shadow to approach Michiru and punched him in the stomach. "Ack!" he vomited out some blood.

The Shadow looked at the blonde and scoffed, "Hmph! You fool! Trying to beat me without any proper preparation, huh? Forget it! I'll kill you and take over your body." The Shadow raised its hand and created blue colored aura-like flames. Just when it's about to hit Michiru, he rolled to the side and elbowed the Shadow right in the face and force pulled the chain coiled in his arm, letting the blades ripping through his flesh and punched the Shadow hard in the face again, making it flew back a few meters.

Michiru wiped off some blood from his mouth with his unwounded hand and exclaimed, "Screw that! I can't die yet! I have to get a PERSONA and avenge Midori's death and I'll start with you, son of a bitch!" he bent down and picked up an iron pole.

"PERSONA, huh? Well it's questionable whether you can beat me or not. Come and hit me with all you got!" the Shadow threw the chain towards Michiru but he dashed forward and avoided the damage and swung the pole to the Shadow, hitting its stomach. The Shadow coughed out some black substance and grunted.

"You underestimated me. Trying to mimic me, huh? Not a chance!" Michiru continued with a roundhouse kick and shook the Shadow's balance resulting it to fell on the ground. "That's for mimicking me!" The Shadow quickly rolled to the side and got on its feet but was tackled by Michiru and a few thrusts from the iron pole to its torso, finally, Michiru jumped high and hit the Shadow's skull, cracking it. "That's for mimicking Midori!" Michiru exclaimed.

As Michiru attempted a final blow to the Shadow, it counterattacked by kicking Michiru's face, which made him fell a few steps back. "Hahaha! That's it! That's what I'm waiting to see! Bring out your true potential!" the Shadow's eyes widened as its mouth curved into a maniac smile. It stood up and gave Michiru multiple jabs and a drop kick. Michiru fell flat on his face and reacted quickly when he realized another attack's approaching. He blocked the second drop kick with his arm and countered with an uppercut, sending his opponent to the air.

Just as the Shadow hit the ground, Michiru made a run for it, noticing something strange. "FUCK!" the Shadow banged its fists on the ground when he noticed that Michiru was lost from his sight.

Michiru ran into a random building and locked himself inside a room and barricaded the door. Finally, he let out a sigh and sat on the floor. He's breathing heavily and he felt really weak all of the sudden. "What the hell's going on? My head's throbbing all of the sudden." Then he looked around the room and found something really awesome. A break-action double barrel Shotgun. He approached it and picked it up. He also found a box of the bullets, containing 10 Buckshots. He thought that it might be a great help in fighting the Shadow. He can feel that it's loaded.

Suddenly, he heard footsteps and he knew who it is. Knowing that he's fully prepared, he aimed the Shotgun at the door and without wasting any time, when he felt it right behind the door, Michiru pulled the trigger, releasing the spreadshot bullet. Soon enough, he saw black liquid coming through the small space under the door. Michiru slowly pushed the barricade away and opened the door. Surprisingly, he didn't see his Shadow but instead, he saw Midori, bleeding on the floor.

"Midori!" Michiru knelt down. But he remembered that he's in his subconscious. She's probably just an image created by his mind or maybe…

The Midori strangled Michiru and looked at him with two bright yellow eyes. "Ha! You're really fragile regarding this woman." Michiru grunted and smiled, "Not falling for this again" he pulled the trigger at point blank range, destroying its entire abdomen but the force pushed Michiru back a few feet away. Michiru stayed silent for about 3 seconds, he felt partly guilty shooting Midori although he knew it's not her. Then Michiru shook his head and said, "I can think about that later after I kill this mimicking fucker!" he stood up and pointed the gun at the Shadow in his girlfriend's form. The blonde gasped as he realized that the Shadow's still alive through its breathing.

"You really think that it will kill me?! C'mon, you're better than that! I'm a Shadow for fuck's sake!" The Shadow exclaimed and lunged the bladed chain at Michiru and was able to thrust through his shoulder. Michiru grunted as he's pushed back and fell to his knees. "Sorry, Midori doesn't curse that loud." Michiru gave the Shadow another shot and this time, to its chest.

*BANG!*

The Shadow screamed in agony. Then Michiru saw a bulging red orb from the Shadow's opened chest. 'To kill the Shadow, I have to destroy the core!' Michiru thought to himself and extracted the buckshot and filled gun with another round. He pulled the trigger again.

*BANG!*

Michiru thought it's all over. But…

"That's a close one." The Shadow giggled. Unfortunately, the bullets weren't able to pierce the hard plate of exoskeleton growing on the Shadow's chest. Then, the Shadow started to transfigure into something… horrible. The skin hardened and turned into exoskeleton armors. Then, the final touch, the blade chain united with its body.

"Tch. So this is your true form." Michiru spitted on the floor, aiming the gun again at the now scorpion-like Shadow.

"This is not as easy as you thought. It's not like I'm going to let myself killed by a scum like you. I also want to consume your body, too bro!" the Shadow laughed sinisterly and pointed the dagger at the end of the chain at Michiru. Without wasting another second, Michiru gave the Shadow another barrage of bullets, wanting to finish this fight as fast as possible since his head started to throb ferociously.

Right after 2 or 3 shots later, Michiru fell on his knees, unable to bear the pain currently targeting his head; it felt as if his skull's going to split into two. "Oh, you finally gave in to the pain, huh. It seems that you haven't known the time limit you have here." The Shadow said in a gleeful tune, seemed unaffected by Michiru's attacks.

"T-time limit? Ugh!" Michiru grunted painfully
"Yes, time limit! It seems that you haven't known about it, huh? A'ight I'll probably tell ya about it before YOU die. This place is created by the elements in your mind, and as you can see, it reflects what you see or hear or whatever. However, you are not supposed to interfere with it. You know why? It's because you'll lose balance of what is reality and dream! You'll get stuck in this place until you die if your time runs out. The pain in your head, it's the thing that'll drag your consciousness away." the Shadow picked Michiru by the collar and looked straight in his eyes.

"So your question has been answered perfectly, now I'll rip you to pieces and eat you alive!" the Shadow opened its mouth in an inhuman gap. It's as if the mouth's had been slit for extra width. Looking at the sharp teeth of the Shadow, Michiru can imagine his body being crushed by those teeth. So, preventing that imagination to coming true, he put the gun barrels into its throat and said,

"Eat the appetizers beforehand!" Michiru pulled the trigger, releasing the last stock of buckshots into the Shadow's throat, resulting its head to explode to pieces. The grip loosened and Michiru kicked himself back a few meters. Half of his face was covered in black blood of the creature in front of him.

Michiru gathered all his strength and stepped on the Shadow's chest armor hard, breaking it to pieces. As he finally saw the red orb he's targeting to destroy, he reloaded the shotgun and prepared it. Unfortunately, the Shadow's head regenerated, and gripped Michiru's leg strongly that it broke. Michiru grunted and fell on the floor. "Fuck! My leg! Agh!" the Shadow's certainly pissed now.

"You… you just pissed me off so badly. Shooting me in the throat?!" the Shadow exclaimed and threw the dagger edge of the chain, thrusting Michiru's chest; the force was too tremendous that Michiru flew a few blocks away and ended up hitting a wall at a construction site. Michiru coughed out some blood before sitting back up against a wall behind him.

"Goddammit! My leg's broken… Ukh!" Michiru pressed the wound on the chest as the hole made by the dagger's flooding with blood. "I gotta finish this fast." The Ahoge man pushed himself up and limped hurriedly to a nearby shovel and picked it up. He looked around for awhile and saw the Shadow flying to his direction lightning fast. Michiru panicked at first, considering that he can't move around too much with a broken leg so, he planned to hit the Shadow with the shovel as it came crushing down near him; he positioned himself like holding a baseball bat.

*BOOM!*

"Yo, ready to die?" the Shadow, just as predicted by Michiru came straight at him. Taking the opening as a chance, he swung the shovel horizontally, hitting the Shadow's head hard but no avail. The shovel broke. "Shit!" Michiru cursed under his breath and received a punch to the stomach. Coughing out some blood, Michiru tried his hardest to stay on his feet but the punch hadn't quenched the blood thirst of the Shadow. It continued with a knee kick to the same spot. As Michiru's body bent down due to the impact, the Shadow grabbed Michiru's golden hair and picked him up. "Say, wouldn't it be a lot more dramatic if I did… THIS?" The Shadow changed its face into Midori again.

"You… bastard!"
"What? Did I hear something? Hahaha!"
"No matter what kind of monster you are, YOU COULD NEVER TURN INTO HUMAN!"

After Michiru's exclamation, the Shadow went silent for a while. There's no signature of expression in its face either. Then, Michiru could hear a deep and… dark laughter coming from the Shadow. "DON'T FUCK AROUND WITH ME! You think that just because you're human and you can simply look down on us likely?! We are Shadows! The one that will devour the entire living race in the world! You human can't stop us from doing it! YOU HUMANS ARE WEAK AND PATHETIC! Just so you know, when my genetic cells are injected to your body, I hi-jacked your memory and I can see how much of a loser you are!"

"So that's how you can mimic Midori, huh? Well, I get it now…" Michiru take a grip on the hand that's strangling his neck, "… You are just a monster without any personality and face." Michiru said while smiling to himself.

"WHAT DO YOU SAY?!" swinging its arm, it threw Michiru away and hit a steel column behind him. "I-I am not a nobody! I am the Shadow of Michiru Nagase, his true self!"

As Michiru stood back up with one foot, he spit out some blood to the floor and exclaimed yet again, "No, you're wrong! You are just copying my negative emotions. I know myself better than anyone. You're just a parasite who needs an empty shell to live in."Michiru stared at the Shadow sharp as dagger.

Gasping in shock, the Shadow tripped and fell on the ground. "Y-you…!" it stammered. Michiru frowned while looking at it. Michiru can finally know a way… a way to beat the crap out of this monster. If he's up against his negative side, he'll just have to overwhelm it by accepting his weakness. But before that, he needed to destroy its core.

The Shadow boosted at Michiru in split seconds and coiled the blade chain around his wrist. Even though he might be able to get over the negative emotions, he's just a normal human and he's no match in term of physical power with the Shadow. "You've really done it this time." The Shadow swung Michiru's body around with the chain like a toy. It raised Michiru's body up to the air and pulled the chain down, crashing Michiru's body to the ground. "ACK!"

"You're not as good as you say. You are just a loser… I'll finish you off right now!" the Shadow stepped on the blonde's body, preventing him from escaping and covered its hand in blue colored flames. "These flames will kill you instantly and your body shall be mine!" the Shadow exclaimed in ecstasy and crashed its hand down to Michiru's head.

But…

Michiru had the devil's luck on his side. He blocked the flames covered hand with his chained arm, avoiding a direct instant kill but the cost is not at minimum. He felt the ultimate burning heat covered his arm as if melting it down. Even the chains that hooked his flesh turned into ashes. "IT BURNS!" Michiru exclaimed and kicked the Shadow back. He stood up while holding the pain from his burning arm. "Why are you so persistent to win against me?! You are a loser and you know you could never win!"

"It's because losers have the most potential to win over everything…" Michiru stated and rushed to the Shadow's direction, and punched its chest hard resulting its armor to crack open revealing the red core of the Shadow. "That's what Midori said though. I don't have the right to say these kinds of things." Michiru scoffed.

"Shit… I guess I let my guard down for a bit." The Shadow sighed while looking up at the bright red sky which gets redder every moment. Then Michiru stepped on the Shadow's torso, preventing it from getting up from lying position. "I won't let you die in vain, Midori. I will save the world for… you…" Michiru slammed his burning hand to the core of the Shadow, cracking the orb.

"Fuck… you'd better not let my power to a waste,… loser…"

With that last statement, the Shadow's body turned into ashes. Then, the ashes glowed blue-ish color when it floated to the sky, reforming to a humanoid in a long white coat with reversed cross embarked on it. The humanoid's head was covered under a one-horned steel mask with two holes for the glowing red eyes which made it looked more malevolent. As Michiru had noticed that the unknown being's legs are connected to his shadow, he can't help but cracked a smile upon his achievement. "I did it… I obtained a PERSONA." He looked at the PERSONA in front of him standing tall and with its sharp and prideful roar which split the sky open. Then, the PERSONA looked down to meet Michiru's eyes as it simply nodded and vanished.

Michiru closed his eyes, feeling satisfied. But he knew that this was only the beginning of his war with the Shadows. He swore his life upon his hands to vanquish the Shadows from the earth with revenge as a reason to go on. Then, in the middle of the red sky, appeared a black vortex which swallowed everything around him. As he looked around, he witnessed that the parallel Mikura city crumbled down and knowing he didn't have the energy to stand back up, he just laid on the floor, waiting something to happen as his body was also getting swallowed by the vortex…

The blonde felt a gentle touch to his cheek which woke him up. He opened his eyes and saw Midori sitting beside him in a flowery garden. "Midori? Wh-where is this?" Michiru rubbed his eyes lazily and looked at his girlfriend. Midori instead of answering with words, she replied with a gentle smile and a warm hug. Michiru returned the hug and asked, "You're not gonna stab me in the stomach, aren't you?"

Midori giggled as a response and looked Michiru closely in the eyes and handed him a silver colored ring to his hand. Michiru stared at it for awhile and quickly recognized it as the ring he was going to use to propose Midori.

"You dropped it…" Midori smiled again and kissed Michiru in the cheek. "I hope that we can meet again. I love you…" Midori said before slowly fading into thin air.

"I love you too, Midori." Michiru muttered as tears started to roll on his face. He stayed like that for a moment before he heard someone's familiar voice calling him out.

"WAKE UP DAMMIT!" Mikito who's shouting like a crazy person grabbed the tied Michiru by the collar and shook him around, attempting to wake him up. Miya approached the eyepatch wearing person and asked him with a bit teary eyes, "M-Michiru-san's going to be alright, yeah?"

"Well, he's still inside his subconscious right now and it's passed 2 hours since the 'rejection' ended. So, we need to wake him up somehow before he got stuck in his own paradiso." Mikito turned from Miya back to Michiru. Mikito decided to hit Michiru with his knuckle and as he launched the punch toward Michiru, the blonde reacted by breaking the chain holding his arms and blocked the punch.

"Yo, I'm back." Michiru said as he slowly opened his eyes. Mikito pulled back his arm and crossed it and grinned. Miya suddenly jumped to Michiru and outburst her tears on his chest.

"UWAAAHH! Miya is so worried!" cried the ravenette
"Well, I'm sorry for that, Kamijou-san." Michiru smiled and then looked at the chain tangled around his arms.

"You know, when you got a PERSONA, it will grant you extra powers needed to slay these Shadows. Good job, Michiru Nagase." Mikito gave Michiru a thumb up. "Now, let's get you some rest. It's been like 5 hours since you went to utopia."

"W-wait, what? 5 hours?! But it felt that time slipped so quickly back there…" Michiru rubbed his messy hair looked at the black stain and blood on the floor. "Are those… mine?" Mikito didn't respond and Michiru simply took it as a 'yes'.

Michiru and Mikito walked through the hallway of the S.H.D building. They are currently headed to the dormitory area. Miya has already gone back to her home.

"You will have to just use the room until we move your stuff to a new apartment at Ikebukuro." Mikito said as he took a long drag on his cigar.

"Well, well, first you destroyed my entire life, injected me with this crazy substance, and you are forcefully moved me to a place out of nowhere…" Michiru sighed.

"But I got you a new job! And Ikebukuro is a good place to be in fact." Mikito scowled at Michiru's statements.

The blonde Ahoge thought of the things he saw back then in that flowery garden with Midori. That ring… what was she trying to tell? Unfocused, Michiru accidentally bumped on someone and made the paper files the man had to scattered all over the floor.

"I-I'm sorry!" Michiru apologized and quickly bent down and picked the papers. The man had a silver colored hair with a few spiky strokes on it followed by matching storm gray eyes. He was quite tall with a fair skin and wore a blue colored hoodie with a pair of headphones hanging around his neck.

"No, I wasn't focused so it's partly my fault too" the man answered. When he took a glance at Michiru, he quickly realized that he's not from around here. Annoyed by his curiosity, he decided to succumb to ask a question the blonde, "You're not from around here, aren't you?" he stood up and took the rest of the collected papers from Michiru's hands. "Those black stains… You're a new recruit?"

"Errr… probably yes?" Michiru replied.

The man offered a handshake which Michiru accepted, "Welcome to Shadow Hunting Department. I'm Soujirou Seta, it's nice to be acquainted with you… err…?"

"Michiru Nagase. It's nice to meet you too, Seta-san." Michiru replied. Then, Mikito interrupted, "Getting all buddy-buddy already, huh? Welcome back, Souji."

"Yeah. Thing's gotten a bit hard lately, Miki. Especially with those two as my underlings." Soujirou pointed his thumb over his shoulder. Michiru looked at the direction he's pointing and his eyes met a navy haired boy with this weird looking headphones quarrelling with an emo blonde girl in the hallway.

"But you can always ask Rise-chan or Hanamura to help ya." Mikito suggested.

"Hmph… yeah, right… they're busy filing the reports to the higher-ups so I won't bother asking them for too much help." Soujirou shrugged and scratched his hair. Then the two who Soujirou mentioned earlier came toward their direction.

"Taicho, Shinn's supposed to treat us meals for today right?" the girl asked Soujirou but the navy haired male quickly replied with an annoyed look, "What? I never promised you! I killed that Mk.4 Cyclops so it's my win, Asuka."

"Whaaaaat? Oh, come on! But you said-" as the girl, Asuka, pouted to the 'Shinn' boy, mister captain Soujirou patted both their heads and suggested, "rather than going on and on with your bickering, why don't you introduce yourselves to our new recruit, hmm?"

Then Asuka looked at Michiru and took his hands and exclaimed, "My name's Asuka Aozora from the Garm team. It's nice to meet you! And that unfriendly looking guy there is my fiancée, Shinn Masakado. I hope you can forgive his rude attitudes."

Hearing the word 'fiancee' really hit Michiru. He just can't help but remembering about Midori. "I'm Michiru Nagase. Looking forward to work with you guys." Michiru forced a smile upon his face. Asuka smiled and then walked to Shinn's side who's playfully stroking his bang.

"Let's see how long you'll survive. The weak doesn't belong here…" Shinn walked toward Michiru and had this challenging eyes looking daggers at Michiru. Soujirou cleared his throat and patted Shinn by his shoulder, "Don't get too cocky, Shinn. You may be talented but arrogance may be your downfall." Shinn harshly took Soujirou's hand from him and implied,

"But it will be better for him to know how harsh our reality is. Being a Shadow Hunter isn't something you wish for and you get it. It's something you fight for. Don't you act like my father, Soujirou." Shinn shifted his gaze toward Soujirou. Asuka then came between them and pulled Shinn away before something bad happened. Michiru stayed mute for a moment.

"Show some respect to your captain, Masakado!" Mikito scolded Shinn who's a few meters apart from him. But Shinn just simply ignored him.

"Taicho, please forgive him. He… didn't mean it." Asuka spoke with a low voice. And, Soujirou seemed to understand the implicitly stated words and decided to lighten the mood, "Ahaha… there's no need for that, Asuka. Why don't you instead, wear that cute gothic Lolita clothes?" the statement resulted Asuka to blush. Hearing that joke, Shinn spoke up, "Well, 'captain' Soujirou, you know that I'm her fiancée. And that joke's ain't funny at all, you goddamned lolicon."

"What?! What's with that 'lolicon'?! I got a girlfriend and she's a grown-up!" Soujirou protested
"Yeah, yeah, say it to Nanako-chan." Shinn scoffed. And the bickering continued for a several minutes and knowing that it's not going to end so quickly, Michiru and Mikito walked passed through them and headed to their original destination.

"Who's that Soujirou Seta?" Michiru threw a question at Mikito.

"Oh, him? Yeah, he's my old friend. Some called him the 'white demon' or 'the demon from the east'." Mikito said before puffing out some smokes from the gap of his mouth and continued, "to put it straight, he's the strongest Shadow Hunter ever lived so far."

To Be Continued...

Next Issue: "New Life to Live in"

ED Theme: "Regret" by UNLIMITS

So, how's chapter 3? Again, I'm sorry that this update took so long. Please spare me if you found some mistakes and I promise I'll be better. And also, that Soujirou Seta, I hope you guys know him pretty well, too right? YES! He's THE Yu Narukami. I decided to change his name 'cuz this is an AU and we can also decide his name in the game right? Well, see ya guys in the next chap!

Masaru down and out!

Ciao!