Mercenaries of Fortune Chapter Twelve
Shortly before the former tank controller fused with the second Shadow, Yu and Enforcer managed to get a good look at the second one. It was a scorpion-like Shadow.
After the two separate Shadows fused together, the result was a Shadow that looked like an armored spider. Its mask was on its small head while its body and legs were a rather dark brown color. Its two front legs had scorpion stingers at the end and looked sharp.
"[Those Shadows have fused together! I'll analyze it.]" Fuuka said as Yukiko switched with Yosuke so he could fight the new Shadow.
The members of the Investigation Team all guarded and because of this a Deathbound unleashed by the Shadow didn't cause much damage.
"[Enemy Shadow analyzed! Here's the details:]"*
HP: 5000
SP: 6850
Strength: 16 | Magic: 18 | Endurance: 20 | Agility: 10 | Luck: 18
Abilities: Dragon Eye, Dekunda, Deathbound, Power Charge, Matarunda, Fog Breath, Revolution, Power Slash.
Elemental Properties: Weak to Ailments, Null Light and Dark.
Arcana: Devil
Minato then said to Yu, "This Shadow apparently has the Devil as its Arcana. It's detached itself from other life forms so much that its components act on pure instinct instead of being drawn to the influence of other Shadows. It must have been gathering human souls to increase it own power."
Fuuka then said, "[This enemy's Arcana is the Devil! Stay on your guard!]"
Minato acted first and used War Cry on the Shadow. Yu was next and fired off Zionga, which damaged the Shadow. Minako had Eurydice use Fatal End, which dealt some good damage and then Yosuke applied Sukukaja to himself. The Shadow immediately used Dragon Eye and then used Matarunda, Fog Breath, Dekunda, and Revolution. Minato landed a normal attack that criticaled and set up an All-Out Attack that seriously hurt the Shadow despite the lowered accuracy and attack down in effect. Yu guarded as did Minako and Yosuke immediately canceled out the hit/evasion penalty on Yu with a Sukukaja. The Shadow then used Deathbound, which would have criticaled on Yosuke if he didn't dodge the attack completely. Minato used another War Cry which was followed by Yu switching his Persona to Slime and used Evil Touch to inflict Fear on Arcana Devil. Minako then used a Purifying Salt to get rid of Fog Breath's effect along with the attack down and Yosuke applied a Sukukaja on Minato.
The Shadow decided to use Dragon Eye again and followed up with two Power Slashes on Yu that weren't effective, a normal attack on Minato, and then it Power Charged itself. Minato had Neo Orpheus slap another War Cry on the armored spider Shadow as Yu switched his Persona to Oberon and used an Arm Chopper attack that criticaled, allowing for an All-Out Attack to commence. It dealt major damage to the Shadow and Minako attacked it normally while Yosuke unleashed a Sonic Punch. The Shadow used Deathbound for the second time and it nearly knocked Yosuke unconscious due to a critical hit while seriously hurting everyone else. It then used its extra turn to cast Dekunda. Minato used War Cry again and Yu used another Arm Chopper on the Shadow. Minako decided to have Eurydice use Megido, which hurt the Shadow while Yosuke healed everyone. The Shadow tried to attack Yu, but it missed and it fell down, allowing for another All-Out Attack to seriously hurt the Shadow. Minato decided to Focus as Yu attacked normally and Minako used Fatal End while Yosuke healed.
The Shadow used Revolution again. Minato then unleashed a Power Slash that criticaled and set up another All-Out Attack that hurt the Shadow. Yu used another Arm Chopper that criticaled and one last All-Out Attack was unleashed. The Shadow was already starting to show signs of exhaustion that meant it was nearly dead, but now it was obvious. A Fatal End unleashed by Minako's Persona still wasn't enough to kill the Shadow, but a Sonic Punch from Yosuke was. The Shadow collapsed and it disintegrated into a mass of black spheres that left behind a metal lump that glowed a pale white color. Enforcer walked to it and picked it up.
"This thing is a Core Essence. If a Shadow is powerful enough, it can generate one of these things and it strengthens them considerably. Core Essences can only be harvested by killing these powerful Shadows." Enforcer said.
Naoki Konishi stirred before he woke up. When he did, he asked, "What happened? I know that it had to do with those weird things, those. . . Shadows, if I remember correctly."
Enforcer noticed that Naoki was back up and said to him, "Follow us and we'll explain."
"Us?" the young man inquired.
Minato said to Naoki, "He specifically meant me and a few others."
A few minutes later at the field base, Enforcer and Minato explained to Naoki what had happened. Meanwhile, Yosuke and Yu were waiting around when a mercenary came by and said, "You guys know someone named Saki Konishi?"
Yosuke replied, "Yeah, why?"
The mercenary said, "She recovered from her Apathy Syndrome affliction earlier and she had some sort of flashback. We've put her to sleep just to be on the safe side. We don't know what sort of flashback she had, but from what I know, it was probably some event that was extremely traumatic to her."
"Talk to Enforcer about this."
"Sure." the unnamed mercenary then left.
After hanging out with Chie on May 4th, Yu decided to accompany Yosuke to the field base. Once there, Enforcer said to them, "Alright, we've managed to piece together some information and now we know what happened to Saki Konishi that was very traumatic to her."
Yu then asked, "What was it?"
"You guys know who Tohru Adachi is?"
Yosuke then answered, "Somewhat."
"Well, apparently he tried to seduce Saki, but she slapped the guy and he tried to force himself on her. In other words, Adachi tried to rape Saki. We're not sure if it was deliberate, but Saki got thrown into a TV before Adachi could have his way with her."
"Damn, no wonder she had that flashback."
"No shit. It's a really nasty symptom of a mental problem called Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. And that's not even the worst part."
Yu then asked, "What is the worst part of PTSD?"
"It's completely incurable. Those who suffer from the symptoms have to learn to live with PTSD. Sometimes though, a trigger such as a social situation or a startle will ratchet up a sufferer to an insanely high, unmitigated, unbearable, and undefusable level of PTSD symptoms in an instant. Those ravages will never go away. Which means that Saki is going to have recurring nightmares, recollections, and flashbacks."
Meanwhile, Minato had been spending time with Akihiko when he found out from Mitsuru that Ken Amada had enrolled into Gekkoukan High as a first-year student. Junpei had managed to become a baseball coach, and Yukari had decided to head into college. Chidori had vanished after March 7th, 2010 for some reason and there was no trail to tip anyone off while Koromaru would soon be moved to Inaba.
"So when will Koromaru arrive?" Minato asked.
"He arrives tomorrow, the same day that Mitsuru and I leave. I'm not exactly sure what Aegis is doing, but she'll be accompanying Koromaru."
The rest of the day was uneventful, so Minato decided to study before going to bed after he said goodbye to Akihiko.
*Under normal circumstances, it's impossible to read the statistics of boss enemies.
Persona ability introduced in this chapter: Dragon Eye
Dragon Eye: gives the caster four 'One More' turns. Cost: 1 SP