Alright! New chapter... No excuses this time, I just kinda stopped, but I really like writing this story. I really can't wait until story starts to pick up a bit more and I can introduce the Social Links. Also, it's video game season and I've been getting my fill of P4A, Pokemon BW2, and soon enough P4G! That's gonna preoccupy a lot of time... Anyways, I'll just say I've been working on a cover for this story and I was hope that it'll be done by the next chapter (Whenever that is). And I'll also be posting some concept artwork of characters on my DevientArt when I have free time maybe. Let me know if that
Chapter 12 – Persephone
February 20, 2012 – Thursday [CHAS - ?, Afternoon]
Ryo panicked. Everyone else stood there, not knowing what to say. Katsumi knelt and tried to comfort Ryo, "She really did save us, Ryo-kun... Viper, his leg almost got torn off. But Aimi came in at the last second and summoned that thing..."
Ryo reached down towards his sister; he moved her hands to show that along with the device, his precious baseball cap was clutched as well. Ryo jumped and checked his head; all he felt was dirty hair. Somehow he must have lost it, possibly in the battle? He then looked up at Katsumi, her eyes were tender and tears began to form. She was injured in several places including a long gash up her arm. "I couldn't see to well, but I think she got hurt too." Katsumi continued, "I'm so sorry, Ryo-kun."
"No... It's not your fault." Ryo replied. Katsumi still looked apologetic but now was more comforted. Ryo returned his line of sight to his sister. He slowly picked her up and found several cuts and bruises on her face. He rested her on a nearby wall and attempted to clear his mind.
"Bro?" I small voice squeaked. Instantly everyone looked up to see Aimi began to regain consciousness. Ryo became ecstatic and hugged his sister. She returned the hug slowly as she still processed everything. "Y-You're okay? I th-thought you were dead. One of those... Things came up here, and it h-held your stupid hat."
"Man we tuvimos suerte; thanks to you, we're all here." Viper chuckled.
"So Aimi-san can summon another being as well. That is interesting, because I attained that ability myself a few moments ago." Michio said.
Aimi shivered for a moment before breaking the embrace and looking down at the device. "Persephone..."
"Is that you're Persona's name Aimi?" Ryo asked thoughtfully.
"Y-Yeah... The monster they crawled around... Li-Like our own shadows... Persephone... Sh-She let me see them... My... Persona..." Aimi stuttered.
"What the hell is a Persona, Ryo?" Katsumi asked annoyed; everyone now looked at Ryo expecting an answer.
"Those things, they're called Personas," He spoke only loud enough for everyone to hear him. "They're like alternate versions of ourselves."
"Whoa, what's going on?" Isao asked completely confused, "What the hell are ya' talking about?"
"None of us understand it," Michio answered, "All we now is that some of us can summon these 'Personas' to combat monsters we find. But anyways, how do you know so much about this?"
"I should tell them about the Velvet Room. Maybe they've experienced it too-" As that thought crossed Ryo's mind, a loud roar protested from Charon. "I get it! Don't tell anyone, but why?" No reply came from Charon. "Fine, maybe things are better left unsaid."
Ryo cleared his throat, thinking of an excuse, "Something similar happened in this game I played."
"Yeah right-" Viper began but was pushed aside by Takeo.
"Ooh, ooh! What was that game called!?" Takeo asked excitedly.
"The name escapes me now, heh." Ryo nervously answered. Everyone now stared at him with cold, skeptical eyes.
"Right... Well whether or not that is true, we need to begin addressing the things we find." Michio pulled out a small notebook from inside his school uniform along with a pen, "I have a journal in which we can keep records of this world. I figure, this being our second time, that when we return to the normal world, we would at some point come here once again."
"So we're just calling them Personas?" Katsumi asked.
"Well, that is the thing Ryo said when he first summoned that beetle-thing." Viper recalled.
"Correct," Michio began jotting down some notes before continuing, "And if I recall correctly, the word 'Persona' means a façade a person uses when presented with demands of a situation. If what you said is true, then these Personas are who we are when confronted with these beasts."
"Those monsters we all saw... What do we call them?" Isao asked still not understanding fully.
"I think Aimi-san put it best when she said they were shadows. I haven't seen many but they were all dark and fa- fwe- fleh-" Takeo tried to summarize.
"Fleeting?" Corrected Michio.
"Yeah, that word! It means fast right?" Takeo inquired.
Everyone nodded. While Takeo celebrated about his growing vocabulary, the others looked towards the sky when the quite large planet began to glimmer.
"Eh, what's happening now?" Viper asked expecting an answer when the planet Mercury began to shrink in the crimson sky. It rapidly shrunk and passed through the green grid in the sky, dropping to Earth like a comet. The explosion that proceeded it was larger than the moon had made last time. More dust was kicked up, and high-power winds pushed the students into the walls. The entire classroom rattled and little pieces of debris fell off the walls. Everyone was too scared to do anything and waited for the atmosphere to return to normal.
Ryo coughed loudly as everyone gained composure. The dust had finally began to settle and the rocks on the ground stopped rolling. "That impact was worse than before." Isao commented.
Suddenly, the pressure became much more intense, and they all dropped to their knees. Takeo was the first to rise along with Viper, but the punk quickly fell again. Ryo soon followed helping Aimi and Katsumi up as well; the rest soon followed. "D-Do you think it'll be another one of... Those things?" Katsumi asked nervously.
"What things!?" Isao asked back frantically.
"Who knows," Michio answered ignoring the confused Isao. There was an uneasy moment of silence between the students. Isao stealthily took steps backwards.
"Bro," Aimi whispered to Ryo, "Persephone is talking to me, I-I think." There was a pause as she closed her eyes, and then she took out her Persona-summoning device. Her movement was fluid like Michio's; the stream of data moved along in a circular motion in front of her. The circle soon shattered and a blue light formed around Aimi.
Fading into existence was a tall, slender, female figure. It's chest was hallowed out and its body was broken up in fragments barely held together by loose bandages. Behind dirty and worn out hair was a blank face with only one peering green eye that stared into the soul of whatever living being it beheld. The body overall appeared quite doll-like with a disturbing, but perfect shape. Around Aimi were long bandages with a mask loosely hanging from it at eye-level. The mask was a reflective gold mask with the Roman numerals for twenty on its forehead; it's eyes were shaped in a way as if it looked down at you and the mouth was shut tight.
Everyone looked over at the deranged Persona as the blue light finally faded. Aimi's eyes shut firmly as she began to hum a mysterious tune. "There's a presence... Somewhere in the south-west." Aimi said firmly.
"How do you know that?" Michio asked skeptically.
Aimi opened her eyes to look at the scholar. "Persephone told me," She said, "She's always right."
"Of course, this is your Persona..." Michio stated the obvious. He studied Persephone, but stopped when the being redirected it's one eye towards him.
"She doesn't like that." Aimi stated, "Persephone says that the presence is evil. We should be careful." Michio took a few steps backward toward Ryo and began to jot down notes in his notebook.
"Well, can that bruja fea tell us anything about it?" Viper asked.
Persephone's eye redirected toward Viper, "She doesn't like that language, Viper-kun. She does say that it's body's small, but it gives off a lot of energy." Aimi answered, "Isn't Persephone the greatest?"
Viper stood terrified as Persephone soon receded back into nothingness. Aimi smiled and gripped her device tightly. Michio looked up from his journal and put it away before speaking, "Well if the faculty office is towards the north of the school building, then it is a safe assumption that the 'presence' is that way." Michio pointed at the purplish river that led up to the school.
"Man, Aimi-chan, you're Persona sure is scary," Takeo said to Aimi.
"Persephone isn't scary," Aimi sweetly replied, "She's very beautiful!"
"Well, what're we waiting for?" Viper questioned, "We should just get going. It's not like we're gonna go back if we stand around!"
Ryo nodded and looked around thinking of a way to safely guide everyone out of the school building when he noticed something off. "Where's Isao?"
The group looked around and apparently the red-head had taken off at some point. "What a little asshole!" Katsumi growled.
"Doesn't he know it's scary!" Takeo fretted.
"He's fine," Aimi interrupted with a small grin, "Persephone said so."
"Aimi, do you know when he left?" Ryo asked.
"It was probably when Persephone and I were talking..." Aimi answered.
"If he gets killed, than that's his fault," Viper callously said, "Right now I just wanna go home."
"There isn't any way down." Ryo responded.
"Hmph, you can thank ol' Viper for this but when that monster attacked, it left a huge hole in the side here!" Viper grinned as he revealed a chunk of the wall missing.
"Thank you? The thing that attempted to kill us helped more than you." Michio countered. Viper's grin instantly faded at the remark; he shook his head and walked away from the hole. Ryo walked up closer to inspect it and found footholds along the wall, perhaps used by the monster to climb up here.
"This is perfect! All we have to do is climb down one by one and we should be able to reach ground." Ryo thought, but his wishful thinking disappeared when thinking more about the group. "Shit... All the guys and Aimi can probably get down there okay, but Isao's out there somewhere, plus Katsumi's ankle might be hurting still."
"Katsumi," Ryo began, "How's your ankle?"
"Huh?" Katsumi responded.
"Your ankle, does it still hurt?" Ryo asked a bit more impatient now.
"Oh... um... I can walk around fine, but it still hurts at times." Katsumi answered.
"I'm guessing you can't climb down walls than?"
"No... I can't run very fast either."
"Okay... Guys, you see those footholds?" Everyone else gathered around the hole.
"You mean those tiny ones?" Viper pointed out.
"Yes. Those are our ticket out of here." Ryo explained, "All we have to do is just climb down-"
"I-I can't!" Takeo interrupted, backing away from the rest of them. "I'm scared of heights!"
"Ugh... Takeo, please we need to get out of here." Michio reasoned, "Now is not the time to let your fears overcome you! Remember going out into the school? Staying by Isao-kun's side is one of the bravest things I have ever seen you do! If you are not afraid of monsters, than you should be able to climb down this."
Takeo choked up once again. Michio sighed and gazed around to the others, "You can go down. I will stay up here and get Takeo-kun to descend eventually."
Ryo nodded and gave a pleading look at Takeo who only shook his head. Ryo returned his attention to the task, "Okay, who's first?" He asked.
"Right here!" Already Viper was jumping down and grabbing one of the school's ledges.
"You're up sis." Ryo said to Aimi, she simply agreed and did the same, but made sure Viper didn't look up her skirt. Ryo now looked at Katsumi whose face was full of dread; he reluctantly began to speak, "If you don't think you can do this... You can grab onto me."
The female student looked up astonished at the offer. On normal circumstances, she would slap Ryo in the face, but now it looked as if she had no other choice. Ryo began to climb down inserting his foot into the first foothold. He than gestured to Katsumi to join him which she slowly accepted, her arms wrapped around Ryo's neck as he continued downwards. It was difficult now having twice the amount of normal pressure on top of him, but he bared through it making sure that Katsumi was safe.
This was the last thing Ryo wanted to do, especially since Katsumi only showed sympathy when- Suddenly Ryo's foot slipped causing the two dip down. Katsumi screeched and buried her head into Ryo shoulders. At the last second, Ryo stopped the fall by grabbing another foothold leaving them hanging in mid-air. Rubble along with the leader's hat fell down as a result. Now taking his time, Ryo continued to climb down once Katsumi calmed down.
The two got to the bottom and Katsumi quickly let go, blushing madly. Ryo wiped off some of the dust on his jacket and put his hat back on when Aimi came over. "You okay, Bro?" She asked sincerely.
Ryo chuckled, "Yeah, I'm fine. I just slipped that's all. I think Katsumi is the on you should be worried about."
"Hey, what's with the sudden shift in attitude, hombre?" Viper questioned, "You got something to tell us about what happened up there?" Viper grinned mischievously, when Katsumi walked past them all trying to break the conversation.
"Well, let's go!" Her usual tone returned, "We got something we have to kill right?"
"We have to wait for Michio-san and Takeo-kun; they won't take too long." Ryo reminded.
Katsumi cursed under her breath and sat down on a large piece of concrete. Minutes passed before Michio finally led Takeo down very slowly. They leapt off the walls a couple of feet off the ground and stumbled. Takeo quickly ran by shaking while Michio walked over to the group.
"Okay... So the presence is in the south-west?" Michio asked to confirm the situation. Aimi nodded in confirmation, "Good, if we see the garbage dump, than we know we are going the right way. Follow me," Soon enough the entire group began their trek across the barren, apocalyptic wasteland. It was vaguely similar to the normal Chichibu so the group knew somewhat where they were going. They followed the shoreline that Michio that connected many rivers in the area.
The air grew thicker and thicker with dust as they neared the crash site and the gravity was becoming more intense overtime as well. The group panted and was about ready to collapse by the time they found a large concrete bridge connecting an island to the mainland. From the distance, on the island was what seemed to be a large fortress of some kind made up of chain link fences and large structures of scrap metal. Fumes rise out of it while fire spurts from air vents to the side.
"...Is that the... Junk Yard?" Michio asked himself.
"It doesn't look like the Junk Yard I grew up seeing." Katsumi pointed out.
"Can someone tell me about this 'Junk Yard'?" Ryo asked impatiently.
"The Junk Yard is an old abandoned scrap and trash facility that has not been used since the late 60's, when we began to ship our scrap and garbage to a more industrial zone for recycling. The only reason the Junk Yard has stuck around is because the island it was built on is mostly composed of very sensitive sandstone that would be too dangerous to work on top of." Michio explained, "Now the Junk Yard is a major landmark in town, but it is only visible if you are along the coast."
"Yeah, yeah... I heard about this thing," Viper chimed in, "That ecology club is always trying to get us to sign a petition to get rid of it. They say it's hazardous to the environment."
"Yeah right," Katsumi sighed, "The only hazardous thing about it is how much of an eyesore it is. Like Michio said, it hasn't been used in over 50 years, nothing is being done over there, and we took out all the garbage on it."
"Th-Then why is it on fire?" Takeo asked.
"I do not know..." Michio answered and began to rub his chin in thought.
Aimi closes her eyes and opens them once again, "Persephone says the dark being is inside."
The group swallowed hard, the Junk Yard had an ominous presence to it and the fumes clouded the air around it. Takeo shook his head, "Nuh-uh, I'm not gonna go!"
Everyone looked at him with annoyed expressions, except Michio who was more sympathetic. "Stay calm Takeo-kun, you can stay here."
"What?" Katsumi questioned.
Michio turned his attention to the female student, "Well think about it, only those with Personas should enter. If there are any monsters or another on of those aliens in there, we do not want something bad to happen to one of us like..." Michio stopped and looked down.
Ryo nodded, "Good idea, it'll just be me and Michio-san. Aimi, you stay here, got it?"
"Okay, but Persephone is going to keep an eye on you two okay?" Aimi reasoned.
"It can do that?" Viper asked astonished.
"Yes- I mean no- Well, Persephone can't really watch you per say, she just knows what's happening and tells me." She looks around before continuing, "And she tells me that I can actually talk to you too! I just need to focus really hard."
"Well isn't that nifty!" Viper laid back on the ground and looked up at the constantly crimson sky. "Tell me when your done in there. I wanna get outta aquí."
Ryo ignored Viper's attitude and looked at Michio who still had his pipe from school. Ryo still had his as well and they stood on the concrete walkway, staring off into the distance. "You ready?" He asked coolly.
Michio smirked, "Yeah, we should hurry too. Who knows what will happen if we stay in this place for too long."
"Agreed." Ryo replied. And the two set off down the narrow and long walkway expecting anything.
No reviews or new songs...
So I have one question for anyone who cares to answer. I had to reformat my computer, and I switched from Microsoft Office to LibreOffice, but I find LibreOffice has a worse spell check function (Like not telling me about double words), so I've been using 's spell check, and something that keeps popping up is "Passive Voice". I've never heard of that before and it was saying that many perfectly good sentences have it. I was just wondering how to fix it that's all.