Mercenaries of Fortune Chapter 13
Yasoinaba Station, May 5th, Afternoon, 26 days until New Moon.
Minato had just seen Mitsuru and Akihiko leave and so far Aegis and Koromaru had not yet arrived. Saki Konishi had managed to resume attending Yasogami High, but she had a lot to catch up on due to having been unable to attend for about two or three weeks. Minato waited for a few more minutes before he heard the PA announce, "This is Yasoinaba Station. I repeat, this is Yasoinaba Station. May all passengers on the train please grab their belongings before disembarking."
A train whistle blew as it entered the station. Aegis got off her train and made sure to grab her belongings, which there weren't many of, and Koromaru's pet carrier from the small amount of luggage that could not be taken onto the train and made her way outside. Once at the entrance, Minato noticed her and gestured to follow him. She did so and followed the blue-haired fool into the command center of the Field Base.
"So you pretty much know that you're staying here at the base, right, Aegis?" Minato asked.
"Yes." the Anti-Shadow Weapon said before releasing Koromaru from the pet carrier.
"Oh, hi, Koro-chan." the blue-haired fool said to the dog as he wagged his tail.
"I would recommend that you take him in."
"Sure, Aegis."
As they chatted, Aegis suddenly hugged Minato and then Minato felt power surge into him as a voice said, Thou art I and I am thou. Thou hast rediscovered old bonds. Thou shalt have our blessing when thou choosest to create a Persona of the Aeon Arcana."
"Um, Aegis, did anything happen when I was in the coma?" Minato asked when the mechanical girl ended the hug.
"While you were unconscious, I received your 'Wild Card' power to store and use multiple Personae. That power is now yours once again." she replied.
Dojima Residence, May 13th, Evening, 18 days until New Moon.
A news special was playing on the TV in the living room. Yu Narukami and Nanako Dojima were watching it while Detective Dojima was reading the newspaper and Enforcer was standing around nearby.
"Young men recklessly riding their motorcycles, disturbing the peace of a quiet rural town. . . our special report took a turn for the violent when one of their apparent leaders attacked the camera crew!" the narrator of the special said.
A young man whose eyes were blurred out yelled, "The hell are you punks doing here!?" before he threw a punch.
Ryotaro lowered the newspaper that he was reading and said, "That voice. . ." before the young man said, "This ain't a show! Get bent!" and Dojima remarked, "Still up to the same old tricks?"
"Do you know him, Dad?" Nanako asked her father. His reply was, "Well, I know him through work. His name's Kanji Tatsumi. He's quite a handful. He's been crushing biker gangs in this area ever since middle school. But I thought he got into a high school and started attending class. . ."
"Huh."
Enforcer then spoke up, "I'm surprised that it was him. We'll let him off the hook considering that he's been doing this because said bikers had been keeping his mother up at night. That blur is completely pointless unless some psycho wants him dead and that's unlikely."
Detective Ryotaro then explained, "His family runs a historic textile shop. I think what happened was, he crushed the local bikers all by himself because the noise kept his mother up at night like Enforcer said. It's a nice gesture, but he's way too violent. At this rate, his mother will have to apologize again."
"Typical." Enforcer scoffed.
"You sound like this is normal to you." Ryotaro said to the Mercenary.
"That because it is. For three years I was deployed to Los Angeles over in the United States and by Izanagi's spear there were a whole bunch of them. One of the older groups, the Hell's Angels, have been helping us tame the other ones and I think we had to shut down a protest held by a church led by some weird idiot who hates the LGBT community. I need to get back to the base. See you guys some other time."
Over the next few days, the Investigation Team attempted to warn Kanji about what was going on, but they were unable to do so because true to Ryotaro's word, the guy was too violent. Yu saw him on the Midnight Channel when he tuned in on the 17th of May and knew that a rescue operation would have to commence. Another thing that would also need attention was that Saki Konishi wasn't a member of the Investigation Team yet as she didn't face her Shadow Self yet. On the 18th, Enforcer gave them Kanji's bios after school was over and it proved to be useful since it had very detailed information on him and it mentioned that he had some sort of complex. It didn't go into further detail about the complex though, but Yu decided that the information was enough for Teddie to sniff out. After entering the studio area and chatting with him, the Steamy Bathhouse had been located within the TV world. Enforcer accompanied the team as usual, but Saki also tagged along. Teddie even gave her a pair of glasses to help her see through the fog. The Steamy Bathhouse had Shadows that were a step up from the ones in the Castle but so far they were weak considering that it was only the first two floors that the trash bothered them on before the Investigation Team encountered a door on the third floor that had a suspicious presence behind it. Saki didn't have a weapon with her and she had no Persona, so she wisely stayed out of the battles.
"[I'm detecting a suspicious presence behind the door. You want to head in?]" Enforcer asked Yu.
"Yes." Yu replied.
When the Investigation Team went in the room behind the door, they found what appeared to be Kanji wearing only a towel. Chie remarked, "There he is!" only for Enforcer to remark, "Wait, something's not right about Kanji. . ."
Kanji? turned around and said, "Ooooh, my my! Thank you for your undivided attention! At last, I've penetrated the facility! These images are coming to you live from inside this steamy paradise! But I've yet to have any charming encounters. Could it be because of this hot fog? It's like steam rising from sweat!"
"[Aw shit, I'm detecting another presence inside the room, and it's not another fake Kanji. I suspect that it is Saki Konishi's Shadow, so stay alert.]" Enforcer warned everyone.
As the team talked amongst themselves, the fake Kanji continued to narrate his tale before he took off. Yukiko tried to pursue, but Yu stopped her. "We can't purse the fake yet, there's still a suspicious Shadow in the area."
A/N: The battle against Shadow Saki is going to be in the next chapter, so be aware of that. In any case, I've decided to make Saki Konishi a member of the team. Read and review because Ahriman is not going to give a shit if the Conception occurs before the next chapter is released. I also decided ahead of time that her initial Persona, which Saki will get after her Shadow is beaten, will be Tsunade, which keeps things in with Japanese Mythology since in Japanese Mythology, Jiraiya falls in love with a young maiden known as Tsunade.