Mercenaries of Fortune Chapter 11

Over the next few days, Yu Narukami was busy with Social Links, which worked out well considering that he could not ignore his wild card ability. On a few occasions he was able to talk with Fuuka and Mitsuru and found out from them that Mitsuru would have to leave with Akihiko on the 5th of May while Fuuka would remain in Inaba.

May 3rd, a Tuesday, was the day that a new moon would be in the sky at night. Yu took note of that when he went to the Junes Department Store with Nanako that day and after he had established the Justice Social Link with her, he received a message from Enforcer telling him to bring the members to the Investigation Team to the field base immediately. He did so and when everyone was at the base, Enforcer said that they would need to conserve their strength for tonight.

Later, near midnight. . .

Enforcer, Yu, the other members of the Investigation Team, Fuuka, and Dmitri were inside the command center, discussing the importance of tonight's mission.

Enforcer said, "We believe that a powerful Shadow will appear tonight. There's a New Moon in the sky, which means that one of 'those Shadows' is going to appear."

Minato then inquired, "What do you exactly mean by 'those Shadows' because for all we know, you could be talking about any group of Shadows?"

"Specifically, I refer to the New Moon Shadows. Unlike normal Shadows, the New Moon Shadows do not fall into any of the 12 categories that normal ones are grouped in."

The PA turned on and announced, "Warning: the Dark Hour is approaching! Warning: the Dark Hour is approaching!" and then the power went off, only for the back-up supply to activate.

Once the back-up power was on, Enforcer then heard Wellington say from his radio, "Commander, we have a problem."

The mercenary then said, "What is it?"

"A Shadow just entered the Inaba area, but this one's behavior is. . . different."

"In what way is the Shadow's behavior different?"

"It. . . It's using a tank. Schematics reveal that the model came from a heavily-militarized era of Japan's history. Wellington out."

Enforcer then said, "Well, let's neutralize the Shadow. Judging by its movement, well be able to intercept it in the Central Shopping District."

Yosuke, looking puzzled, asked, "Seriously, a tank?! A Shadow took over a tank?!"

Fuuka then said, "Correct. In a previous mission two years ago, two Shadows had also taken control of a tank and used it in their battle against my allies in the Special Extracurricular Execution Squad. The tank involved in that mission ended up being destroyed in order to defeat the Shadows that had taken it over."

Inaba, Central Shopping District South, Dark Hour local time.

The tank rolled along the street silently, aware that it would find its target soon. It scanned the area and determined that its target was not in any of the buildings in the southern part of the Shopping District. It moved to the edge of the northern part and then stopped before it began scanning the area again. This time it found its target in the Konishi Liquor Store and prepared a Canister Shell, a tank round that packs multiple explosives into a single shot, in case it needed to flush its target out into the open.

The Shadow controlling the tank then spoke through the tank's speaker systems, "TARGET ACQUIRED. PROCEEDING TO ATTACK." as it rolled along the road and stopped in front of the Liquor Store.

"SEARCHING FOR TARGET." the Shadow said as it scanned for its prey. It eventually found it and said, "TARGET FOUND. TARGET IDENTIFIED AS NAOKI KONISHI. CANISTER SHELL READY TO FIRE." as it adjusted its aim, unaware that Minato, Yu, Yukiko, and Minako were nearby and out of the Shadow's sight.

A middle-aged man came out of the store and yelled, "What the hell's going on?! Why has all the water turned to blood and what's with this green color?!" unaware that the Shadow was scanning him. When the scan completed, it then said, "YOU ARE NOT NAOKI KONISHI. NEVERTHELESS, YOU SHALL NOT INTERFERE." and fired past the man and into the Liquor Store. The subsequent explosions caused fires inside and Naoki rushed out of the store.

The Shadow then scanned Naoki and said, "TARGET LOCKED-ON. HARVESTING AMMUNITION LOADED." as it aimed at the younger brother of Saki Konishi.

Yu, Minato, Minako, and Yukiko moved close to the Shadow but before they could attack, the Shadow fired and hit Naoki in the chest with what appeared to be a purple sphere of energy. Naoki's eyes closed, but his mouth opened and a blue ethereal sphere came out as he fell onto his back and it was pulled to the Shadow, which absorbed it. The Shadow then noticed that it had a mini-gun above its main cannon. It turned around and saw Yu and said "ENEMIES DETECTED. SYSTEMS SWITCHED TO BATTLE MODE." as its eyes turned from their normal yellow color to red.

Yu summoned Izanagi and fired off Zionga, but the spell hardly dealt any damage. The tank was knocked down though, which allowed the four Persona-users to unleash an all-out attack which dealt some damage to the Shadow.

Fuuka then contacted them and said, "[I've gotten an analysis on the Shadow. Its statistics are as follows:]"*

HP: 4500

SP: 6750

Strength: 15 | Magic: 12 | Endurance: 44 | Agility: 06 | Luck: 14

Abilities: Beast Eye, Fog Breath, War Cry, Power Charge, Single Shot, Torrent Shot, Marakunda, Null Dizzy, Diarama, Needle Rush.

Elemental Properties: Weak to Electric, Resist Physical, Null Light and Dark.

Arcana: Unknown.

Minato then said, "[Something's not right. The Shadow's Arcana is unknown. I presume it's going to take more time.]"

Fuuka replied, "[Hold on. Another Shadow similar to it has just appeared in the area. Neutralize the tank first, then we can focus on the other one.]"

Minato had Neo Orpheus focus while Minako summoned Eurydice and had her use Tarunda on the Shadow. Yukiko followed up with an Agilao that hardly dealt any damage. The Shadow immediately used Beast Eye and followed up with Marakunda and Focus. Yu had Izanagi fire another Zionga at the Shadow, which knocked it down again and allowed for another all-out attack that dealt a bit of damage. Minato then used a Power Slash that criticaled and another AOA was unleashed. Minako simply defended herself with the Imitation Naginata that she had been given and Yukiko did the same with her fan. The Shadow used Beast Eye again and this time it power charged before it unleashed a critical hit Needle Rush on Yukiko that exhausted her. It then unleashed a War Cry on Minato.

Yu used yet another Zionga on the Shadow and knocked it down, allowing for another All-Out Attack to commence. Minato had Neo Orpheus use War Cry on the Shadow. Minako then used a Fatal End that hit the Shadow for negligible damage while Yukiko used an Agilao on the Shadow. The Shadow simply decided to use Fog Breath and lowered everyone's agility. Yu had to use a Purifying Salt to get rid of the effect and then Minato unleashed a Megido attack that, due to having been affected by War Cry, hardly dealt any damage. Minako also decided to use Megido, but she was able to deal a quite large amount of damage to the Shadow. Yukiko then healed herself as her Exhaustion took its toll. The Shadow decided to use Beast Eye again and followed up with both Power Charge and Focus. Yu fired off Zionga for the fourth time, initiated the All-Out Attack, and was greeted by the Shadow asking him, "WHAT IS GOING ON? ALL SYSTEMS REPORT DAMAGE. DO YOU HUMANS HAVE NO LIMITS?"

Yu responded, "Indeed not, for we are ever improving."

Feeling bolder, Yu felt his attack, defense, and hit/evasion rise by 40% and he smirked. Minato used the opportunity to use another War Cry to negate the Power Charge and Minako used Nervundi on Yukiko, who proceeded to defend. The Shadow used Beast Eye and healed with Diarama before it tried to hit Yu with Torrent Shot, but the attack missed. Yu then decided to use Zionga for the fifth time and hit the Shadow hard, setting up for the sixth All-Out Attack. It went through, and the Shadow was barely able to stand. Minato used Megido again and the Shadow took serious damage, and it flat-out could not hold itself together when Minako hit it with another Megido attack.

Yu then remembered that Fuuka had mentioned that a second Shadow was on its way and after seeing the Shadow abandon its tank as it exploded, the other Shadow fused with the former tank controller.

Persona Abilities introduced in this chapter: Beast Eye, Fog Breath, Needle Rush, Mega-Debilitate.

Beast Eye: gives the caster two 'One More' turns. Cost: 1 SP

Fog Breath: lowers the hit/evasion of all enemies by 80% for three turns. Cost: 30 SP

Needle Rush: deals light Physical damage to an enemy once or twice, has a chance to inflict Exhaustion. Cost: 5% HP

Mega-Debilitate: Lowers the attack, defense, and hit/evasion of all enemies by 40% for three turns. Cost: 48 SP

Now it's time to show the stats of Eurydice, Minako's persona.

Eurydice

Description: The wife of Orpheus, she was the inspiration behind his music. Not much is known about her other than that.

Arcana: Fool XXII

Current level: 22

Abilities: Tarunda, Nervundi, Megido, Fatal End, Matarunda (LV 25), Fog Breath (LV 30), Invigorate 2 (LV 35), Megidola (LV 45), Amrita (LV 50), Unshaken Will (LV 55), Megidolaon (LV 65), Mega-Debilitate (LV 77), Spell Master (LV 85), Pierce (LV 97).

Resistances and Weaknesses: Resists Physical, Fire, Ice, Electric, Wind, Light, and Dark.

A/N: Smirking and the Shadow-controlled tank asking Yu a question are mechanics taken from SMT IV. Smirking grants maxed out attack and loss of weakness for one turn. Bosses in SMT IV will ask the protagonist questions when their health reaches a certain amount. Here, the Shadow controlled tank had only a third of its health left when it asked Yu if humans had no limits.