THREE – EPISODE SHADOW PUPPETS
"So run that by me again," said Mitsuru tersely, as Tetsuya drove them away from the hotel and into the night.
"Um, you know what Juno is, right? Especially you, Yamagishi-sensei."
"Um... the patron goddess of Rome," replied Fuuka nervously. "'She who warns.'"
Tetsuya nodded. "A powerful, protective deity- much like your role ten years ago, according to our records. Our company has a saying- there's a hundred ways to end the world, and a thousand ways to preserve it. We've tried mostly to be on the latter side of that equation- but the difference between damnation and salvation has always been a matter of subjectivity. Mostly, we fight against the Nanjo Group's machinations."
Mitsuru nodded. "I remember something about that. The first time I heard about the Juno Group was during a conflict about thirty years ago- the Kirijo family officially declared independence during the fallout."
Tetsuya laughed. "We put Gorbachev in power. The idiots in Nanjo never expected that. Decades of Soviet research into the arcane, wiped out in one ludicrously simple political ploy. My brother and I have been doing our best to outdo our parents since then, and mostly ending up short. Either way, our entire mission's pretty much been to prevent humanity from blowing itself up- either through conventional means or through the esoteric. My apologies about the nuke comment earlier- naturally, it is not in my actual agenda."
"But that doesn't explain the current situation," pressed Mitsuru. "Why the split? Why the current mess?"
Tetsuya shifted uncomfortably. "Crap, out of cigarettes. Look, I said it once already: the difference between damnation and salvation is a matter of subjectivity. There is no true good and evil in the world, merely a matter of opinion of rights and wrong. The Janus Group- our defectors- have a point: humanity can be downright stupid sometimes. Self-destructive. Just take a look at how Middle Eastern politics have played out- even World War One wasn't as big a mess."
"Wha- that's bullshit!" protested Junpei. "They're willing to kill off the entire world just because they have a big enough ego to think they know better than anybody else?!"
"You're a physical education teacher, yeah?"
"Er, yeah. So?"
Tetsuya nodded. "Teachers tend to understand their fallacy better- well, teachers that haven't been jaded by the system yet. Killing every idiot in the world depends on how you define idiocy- and if you can't spot your own mental shortcomings, all you've really done is emphasize one brand of idiocy over another. Besides, individuals and nations eventually grow up- America doesn't hold slaves anymore, Japan intellectually understands that Koreans aren't subhuman, and even the Middle East is getting tired of constant bloodshed. It doesn't make sense to kill a child because it doesn't act like how you'd expect an adult to act."
Fuuka's brow furrowed. "...why did they name themselves after the God of Doorways?"
"Janus guards both the past and future," replied Tetsuya as the car screeched to a halt in front of Gekkoukan High. "It is, like all things in life, metaphorical. Shadow puppets on the wall."
"My children..." breathed the wheelchair-bound man. "I... welcome you. Tonight is a night of miracles. Tonight... believe."
His face was hidden by the great glare of light behind him, shining forth like a halo. It wasn't until one squinted hard enough that, to one's shock, it was apparent that the source of light appeared to be another person.
"The Messiah hath come... once a traitor, now a willing servant to the Great Mother. In Death, he had realized his folly. And in his resurrection, he brings the wisdom of the dead."
The light dimmed. His eyes slowly opened, gray as storms, but a smile as gentle as a lover's whisper. A faint trickle of light and dust reached out from his hand and onto the speaker. The speaker stood, his voice infinitely stronger, infinitely more assured.
"You can see before you! All around you! Though suspended by the forces of the cowardly, of the ignorant, the Great Mother's embrace surrounds us yet again!" roared the speaker, his long, beraggled hair flying in wake of his sudden and angry gestures. "Nyx is inevitable! Nyx is absolute! Ten years ago, on the verge of death, she granted me my role to you now- as the messenger, as the shepherd to her flock. She granted me power over her enemies, and granted me the message of hope that I preach!
"In two week's time, when the Mother's face looms down upon Her children, where shall you stand? By the craven lot who call themselves Humankind? By those that dare debase the ideals, the glorious vision we have worked on for so long? Or shall you be reborn, by Mother's side?"
The echoes of "Nyx" poured from the walls, from the vaulted ceiling. He had the crowd, had control. Now for stage two...
"That's mighty fine rhetoric, you bastard, but anybody that actually had a couple of brain cells to rub together can tear through it like a plasma blade through butter."
...as planned.
He literally kicked the door open. Literally. Kicked the door. Open. Like some bad b-movie action star, all saunter and no brains.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" hissed Akihiko as the SEES members flanked him, Evokers at the ready.
"Playing the crowd," said Tetsuya confidently. "Listen, you schmucks. For those of you that know me, you know my brother doesn't approve of this mess. You know what happened to me ten years ago. You want a better world? You want power to change things for the better? The Juno Group's been doing just that since our founding. We're willing to give amnesty, and only 10 docked pay for one fiscal quarter, if you come back. Takaya, you tried this ten years ago, and you failed. Dismiss your zombie, and we'll even forgive you for your mental handicap."
Takaya sneered down at him, and motioned at Minato. "Offering money? Political amnesty? How the mighty hath fallen, Juno. Your organization has become nothing more than a farce- from paramount of the golden ideal, to nothing more than yet another common stain. You have wallowed with swine, eaten refuse with demons, and now you shall reap the whirlwind."
"I feel no wind," said Tetsuya nonchalantly. "Besides, Arisato-san's true body still lies in his grave. What you've got there's nothing more than a doppleganger- hardly the true thing at all."
"Oh? The Messiah isn't bound by a mundane body- and his powers are no parlor trick. Arisato-sama, please remove these blasphemers."
"Minato!" yelled Mitsuru. "Minato, is that you? Snap out of this! We're your friends- don't you remember us?"
"Kirijo-san, stand back," said Tetsuya, a fixed and tight grin on his face. "He's not the real deal. Just look at his eyes."
Stormy gray, and shifting. The smile metamorphosized into a leer as the still air of the assembly stirred and grew.
"Reaping the whirlwind, eh?" snickered Tetsuya. "Alright, then. Let's catch the updraft. PHOENIX!"
He remembered little.
There was a light. A sudden rush of liquid. That first, painful breath upon the sterile floor of the laboratory. The painful tearing of wires and conductors from his bald head. The eerie whispers of those around him. He understood little- he was a corpse with a heartbeat, the product of science and genetics, but empty. A carbon copy, literally printed out cell layer by cell layer, until something that looked like somebody long dead took form and substance.
The first three weeks were in spiritual silence as they pulled him, listlessly, through a barrage of tests and trials. It wasn't until he was given a picture- a group of students and a man with an eyepatch- that the first synaptic spark occurred.
He didn't know why he was crying. He just was. Something alien in him had stirred, and suddenly the world was upside down.
"Armageddon," whispered gentle lips. And the world shook with his might.
"Tetsuya's down- Yukari, take care of him. Ken!" yelled Mitsuru.
"I've got it! Minato, if you don't wake up, I'll fry you ali- ARGH!" Shards of ice slammed into Ken, pinning him against the wall.
"Awake? He's never been more awake!" cackled Takaya. "This is truth! This is the face of despair! You have merely forestalled judgment for ten years- now you shall know the truth. This world is to end, and you with it!"
"SHUT UP!" spat Junpei. "Shut the hell up, Takaya! You arrogant asshole, you'll pay for what you did to him!"
The next spark was of a wholly different nature. A spasm of anger, uncontrollable, when they handed him a picture.
A looming red eye, baleful over the black-green sky. Superimposed were seven hauntingly familiar faces.
He never did ask himself- was "he" angry at what the picture represented, or with more subtlety: at what the pictures meant.
He only truly knew what they told him he knew.
"Fall back!" yelled Akihiko through the deafening winds. "Fall back, he's way too powerful to take on right now!"
"Yeah?" yelled back Tetsuya. "The way I figure it, he'll only be more powerful come the full moon. It won't be like last time, where you had a full year to prep!"
"Look, I'm not sure if we could kill him even if that wasn't the case!"
Tetsuya narrowed his eyes at Akihiko. "I know you guys are smart enough to know better than to think he's actually Minato-"
"I'm talking about how strong he is, you arrogant twerp! Aigis is already down, Mitsuru and Yukari can't take much more, and neither can I! Argh!"
The assembly were cowering in the corner, away from the wreckage, away from the devastation that were being inflicted upon the intruders. Takaya smiled, content. If anything, these upstarts would only solidify his movement, give them a cause to rally behind- and an enemy to collectively fear.
"Fine!" spat Tetsuya. "Fine. No choice. Takaya, you sonovabitch, I will have your head! We both seem to have underestimated each other."
"Don't compare me at your level," sneered Takaya.
"Oh? I'm not the one suddenly clutching for his wheelchair," said Tetsuya, suddenly grinning again. "I guess even miracles have an expiration date." He flourished his Evoker. "You! Minato, or whatever you really are. This was a rescue mission on your behalf. I don't know what brainwashing they did on you, but there should be enough of a brain in that skull of yours to think through the implications of that!"
Click- bam. A circle of fire roared out around SEES, and encapsulated them in a fiery, throbbing maelstrom of incandescent light.
Nothing was left but ashes.
"...an interesting man," said Takaya as he unsteadily sat back down. "But no matter. He is no... threat."
"He- he actually tracked us down," quavered one of the congregates- a middle-aged woman, shaking in fear of what she had seen. Takaya frowned at her reaction.
"So?" he snapped. "He is but one man- and when you lot came over, you brought along the grand majority of the Juno's wealth, yes?"
"He wasn't supposed to find us until it was too late! The Juno family- they're- they-"
"Are of no consequence," said Takaya waspishly. "The Dark Hour's been revived- the Twelve will congregate in two weeks, and the world will be reborn. Do you doubt, woman? Do you fear? Only those that believe will be saved."
"F-forgive me... no! No! Forgive me!"
Tartarus- a nest of shadows, as once described. Minato wheeled Takaya out of the great tower as the hour trickled away. The congregation followed, stunned to silence but resolute in their solidarity.
Behind them, viscous darkness oozed over a corpse.