Chapter 4: Heart of Madness.
(Incoming boss battle music Go!( www youtube com / watch ?v=iFIQXB91xUg&f eature = related) and take out them bloody spaces!)
After the battle with the shadow Alex was exhausted and Mori might have needed some time to mentally recuperate what happened to him just then.
"I don't think I can keep going at this rate." He then drops down and sits on the floor.
"Wait!" he then puts his Evoker to his temple unsure of himself he says "Persona?" with doubt in his voice and pulls the trigger. His eyes flash for a split second and Pan then materializes again in front of him. The persona showers a healing glittery light upon Alex and he soon feels rejuvenated. "It's some kind of healing type, not as exciting as yours though."
Alex then jumps up and stretches a bit. "Well I think I'm ready for more then, we really can't let that guy keep Maiko for one more minute."
"Okay! I'm with you, and Pan too!" The two friends' hearts are fuelled with determination. In witnessing Mori's shadow Alex felt closer to understanding his new friend. Then a voice rings inside his mind.
Thou art I , I am thou,
Thou hast established a new bond
It brings thee closer to the heart
I bestow thee Pixie of the Lovers arcana
Mori looks over to his friend under some kind of trance.
"Yo Aniki? You still need a break?" Alex shakes his head and regains himself. It seems he has obtained a second persona from his battle. Mori speaks again as the ascend to the next and last floor.
" Aniki? My Japanese isn't perfect, I don't know the word."
Mori rubs his neck." You know, it's like your my brother dude, Sounds lame I know, but heck it's easier than saying that American name." He chuckles like his old self again.
Alex couldn't help but smile at the affection, it had been a long time since he had a true friend who he could call his brother.
The two step into the final room where an eagerly waiting Magician sits on a sofa with his captive guest watching TV. The room looked like a giant living room unlike the stages before.
"Maiko!" They screamed, her body made some movement and she didn't appear to be held up by strings like before.
"Welly, welly, well there looks like we've got two new brats who think they can use Persona. I've been trying to get her shadow to come out for hours now, I mean with a girl this sweet and normal she'd just have to have something fucked up in her head." He cackles like a wild hyena.
"You've been murdering people you psychopath!" Alex shouted .
"No, I never so often get to do that, most of those who I find able to obtain persona never make it past the first test. But there's a certain magic to seeing someone with their masks removed. Though I have to say your's was pretty pathetic. ~Ooooh I'm having a bad day I think I'll kill myself! Oh no that didn't work what a loser Boo-hoo~"
"Oh yea? Why are wearing that then?" Mori retorted.
"What this? I'm not wearing a mask this is an expression of my true self. Everyone wears a mask of lies, an image of what they think they are, and they tell that lie so well, and so often they believe it entirely themselves."
"Then why are you doing this, is it all really just some sick thrill?"
"Yes that be pretty much it, well on my side at least. But if it really matters, which I know it won't after killing you I'm with a group of 'people' with some like-minded ideas about humanity. They found me one day in the Ol' Houscow, busted me out, even gave me some cool powers. They talked about some cult stuff it was all ridiculous but It was interesting still, plus if that meant I could go back to this world again why not huh?"
"Enough! You can take off that stupid thing and show your face Tohru Adachi!" It was only a hunch but he took the name out in his suspicions and hoped to breakthrough. The masked man unmasked was indeed Adachi.
"Way to go kid you figured it out what do you want a cookie? I'm getting bored of all this anyway if this bitch's shadow won't come out then I'll just have to kill you all right now!" Then the structure of the room shakes and a powerful wind begins to dissolve the walls and ceiling revealing the same red and black striped pattern of the portal entrance a barrier of police tape walls the perimeter.
Adachi clutches his head "Persona! Lyssa!" and the persona appears as a white robed woman with a television for a head, the screen is cracked and bloody.
"Mazio!" Lyssa appears in front of the two and blasts them with shocks of electricity. Alex is not phased when then looks forward and sees that Raiden shielded much of the blow. But then looks over to Mori and Pan and sees him on the ground in pain, electricity must not agree with his persona. He concluded in thought.
"Wait!" He grabs his evoker and with a flash of his eyes the blank card in his mind's eye changes to Pixie. With a shout of it's name he calls out to it and she casts a spell to heal their wounds.
"Ughh, thanks." Mori stands up straight and turns his expression to a smile. "Aniki tag me!" *high-five* "Alright It's moshin' time! Garu!" Mori's attack has some effect on Adachi hitting him hard and even wiping the smile off his face.
"Gah! Your starting to piss me off!" Adachi seemed like he was about to use some finishing blow. Sparks fly off the bloody screen of his persona. Alex summons both persona's to shield his friend from harm, at the cost of his own strength.
Lyssa charges energy again, Alex couldn't pull off another double summon to save him.
"Persona!" All three men turn attention to Maiko calling out a half visual Persona, she breaks free and strikes the unsuspecting madman.
"You bitch! You can't even use that stupid thing!" With Adachi distracted and Alex weakened Mori takes his chance to charge at the lunatic.
"Hey Adachi! Show's over!" The bat breaks across his head but the force was strong enough to knock him unconscious, Lyssa disappears and the shape of the room regains form.
Adachi with his face on the ground knocked out cold the two friends finally run to the aid of Maiko shaking heavily, she begins to fall but Alex catches her. He followed up with a long drawn sigh. Finally over he thought. He pushes Maiko's limp body to Mori.
"You take her."
"What?" Mori's jaw hits the floor. His mind computes being offered to carry Maiko and have her wake up to see him as a hero.
"Leave the girl alone Mori I think she's been through enough" Mori tries to wipe the perverted look on his face. "I think I can bring in Adachi on my own, this place or maybe this power has given us some crazy strength."
Mori hoists Maiko on his back to lift her up "Welp, we've seen, we've fought, we've conquered, maybe now Sanada-sensei can actually give us those answers he promised."
"Yea." Alex grabs Adachi by the shoulder and pulls him up dragging him forward in pace with Mori. "Speaking of which Akihiko was pretty silent that whole fight just now."
Mori shrugs, "Had to go to the bathroom?" They laugh and smile with lighter hearts now. All their worries were gone, They thought it was over.
~Back in the real world.~
The first one to come out of the locker portal was Adachi, thrown on the floor he awakens groaning.
"Damn brats..." His sentence cut short as he sees Akihiko pointing a real gun to his head along with several other armed men who looked like SWAT.
Alex, Mori and Maiko return soon after Maiko's eyes flutter open upon returning to the real world Mori sets her down, she leans her weight on the wall to gain balance.
The armed men cuffed and dragged Adachi away without much resistance. Akihiko shuts the locker portal and locks it once more. The red light glowing from the inside fades away turning back into a normal locker once more. Alex's focus dwindles the feeling of strength and energy from the Shadow world taken away he began to sleep.
*April 15th*
The light of the room stings his eyes. Blinking slowly he finds himself in his room.
"Afternoon sleepyhead." Alex jumps up and covers himself with the blanket. His reaction was unnecessary however as he found out he was still in his clothes from last night. He tries to stand but his body aches like he just got hit by an eighteen-wheeler.
"Don't get up right away, your still in some rough shape." Maiko helps him back up to his bed.
"What time is it?" And why were you watching me sleep?
"6:00 Pm. And I was just checking up on you hoping you'd wake up. Akihiko told me how you and Mori-kun saved me from that freak." Alex remembered that night in the shadow world all too clearly, as much as his rational mind wanted to dismiss it as a dream it was all too clear, too detailed.
"Also... I wanted to say I'm sorry."
"Why? You were a victim in this, Mori and I went in that place to save our friend. 'Sides I've slept for 18 hours before."
"42 hours, its been 42 hours." Alex gasps.
"But what I mean to say sorry for is that I haven't been completely honest before. I've known about Personas, Shadows, these weird cultists, and SEES before you arrived, and how The Director had you come here on that exchange program just to be here. It didn't seem right to have you come all the way to Japan to get involved with something you knew nothing about, at least when I joined I had the choice." Alex passes over a tissue box to Maiko.
"Hey if it's any consolation I'd still say yes, not even because of this scholarship thing they made up if we're the only people who can stop these occult freaks then how could I say no? Not another person is gonna die from these masked psychos." Maiko wipes her nose and eyes and makes a faint smile.
"Thanks, Hey do you wanna wake up Mori he's in his new room in the dorm, then come upstairs Akihiko's been holding out on your answers."
"Why can't you do it" Maiko only turned and glared. Alex just shrugged it off. Guess I can walk now.
He makes for the hallway and walks 2 doors down to the open room. The sleeping scene kid looked so tranquil. Alex smacks the wall with his fist to get his attention.
"Who'da? Aniki!" He rubs his eyes and wipes the bangs off his face. "The hell man?"
"Your back at the dorm, Maiko's fine, come upstairs, it's been 42 hours. "
~Later~
Mori finally steps into the meeting room. Akihiko taps the arms of his leather chair impatiently.
"Well it's about time you got up." Alex smirked.
" I had to fix my hair, got all staticy from that fight in ...that locker dimension thing, can you tell us what that place is finally?"
Akihiko sets down his cup of coffee on the table. "The dimension is known as the realm of Tartarus, it's a section of a place we call the Shadow world. All we know is it has a connection to this world as that world contains the suppressed emotions of every person on Earth."
"Wait so when I killed those black sludge monsters I killed someone's suppressed feelings?"
"Actually those lesser shadows aren't connected to anyone in the real world. Shadow's like Mori's only appear like that when they try to force their original to accept them. What I think those creature shadows are the unaccepted dark sides of dead humans, no longer seeking entrance to our world. That's only a theory however."
"Now I've told you that SEES or the Special Extracurricular Execution Squad are Persona users who's goals are to slay shadows, and now put an end to this mysterious cult who we've determined to be responsible for the deaths of a number of unawakened Persona users."
"How does someone get Persona anyway? Mori got his from accepting his shadow, but mine just sort of appeared when I was in a bind."
"You see a Persona is acquired when a human's ego overcomes it's shadow. Basically its the same feelings as a shadow but tamed. Obtaining it usually requires someone to face their shadow however there are special cases. The first squad of SEES back in it's original formation over ten years ago each had their powers evoked from a strange phenomenon that broke the boundary between the realm of Tartarus and ours. Now it seems that these cultists want to finish the work of their predecessors from over a decade ago."
"You mean destroying the world?" Akihiko nods. "So the exchange program, the scholarship, all of this was a guise just to have me come to Japan to save the world? What's with the special treatment"
Akihiko moved closer to Alex and whispered something in his ear. "Go to Paulownia Mall, make way to the Karaoke bar. Then you'll know."
Returning to his red armchair. "Now Mori, I also extend the offer I gave to Maiko and Alex, join SEES, and you'll have one of the best scholarship opportunities money can buy."
Mori took a moment in silence, he looks at his friend Alex who looked like he was in, then Maiko equally determined. Then he nodded to his sensei. "Just one condition, I'm gonna need my room soundproofed" He flashes his bright smile and along with the devil horns hand gesture.
"Done, now with that taken care of there is one last matter to be tended to. Follow me to the Basement."
~The Basement.~
The basement level looked like a high tech facility like they show in the movies. The floors and walls were glowing with florescent light and everything looked sterile. Some rooms were labelled storage, then there was a large server room, after that a built in state-of-the-art medical bay. Akihiko led the group past some armed guards as seen the night before to a one way mirror screen.
"It's good how you managed to bring him by yourselves, If you feel uncomfortable I won't force you to stay for the interrogation." Inside the padded cell Adachi kept in a straight jacket and a muzzle he sat in the corner laughing to himself and muttering inaudible words.
"That guy has really lost his marbles." Alex quipped.
"Actually this behaviour of his is rather strange. During his incarceration Adachi had hardly caused any trouble, even kept 30 yards away from a television as the court demanded. But then one day not long before he escaped, he just snapped. Killed a guard, tore his neck open. He was immediately sent to solitary confinement. And like just like that he was gone. Kirijo group silenced his escape, not to alert the country that a murderer had just been set loose, sadly the bodies started piling up."
Alex reminds himself of the news report from three nights hence, how there was no evidence, or cause of death found, and how Adachi claims to have never actually killed any of his victims. "What happens when someone dies in Tartarus?"
"The body is sent back to the real world, those deaths you hear about with the coins on the eyes. It seems to follow some sort of ritual, the coins on the eyes represents paying the ferryman in Greek mythos. Why? How? We only can speculate. Now I'm going in, If you don't want to stay just wait for me in the lounge." He enters the padded room, Alex stands in front of the mirrored glass reading the lips of the aggravated Akihiko, and the delusional Adachi.
"Don't think I can be here right now." Maiko steps away. "Are you two staying?"
"Nah looking at him just makes by head ache, Aniki what about you." Alex follows the two silently in thought. Just the three of us for now against the world, it's all so much but it feels like I can do anything when they're with me. A voice rings in his mind.
Thou art I, I am thou,
Thou hast established a new bond
It brings thee closer to the heart.
I bestow thee Fujin of the Fool arcana.
~Inside the Interrogation Room~
"Why are you trying to free Nyx!"
"Hey now Aki-baby, I wasn't part of the whole secret society to destroy the world, they just let me do what I want so I help them out."
"Then who are you working for?"
"You know Nyx had mothered many children, Dreams, Fate, Misery, Deceit, Death, Madness." He laughs uncontrollably. Akihiko grabs hold of him and puts a gun to his head, shows him the bullets to prove he's serious.
"You have three seconds."
"Hey, hey ,hey! You need me right here in your hands."
"Two"
"Listen you retard! You have three angsty brats versus some seriously loco and mad powerful persona users, They're gonna kill me if I get out of here! I'm ready to make a deal." He sung like a canary.
"What could you give use that would even be considered a deal."
"Like how I can sense when there's a Persona user, If give me what I want I may be able to tell you who's being targeted next."
Akihiko couldn't trust Adachi to hold up to his deal, or not try to escape but it was true he would need Adachi's help if SEES was ever going to get a lead on the Nyx Cult. "I can't let you go free Adachi."
"That's not what I want, like I said if I leave here they're gonna kill me, so if I'm gonna be a prisoner like this its gonna be on my own terms. Get me a nice big flat screen, 4 colour, with 3D. The whole shebang." Akihiko grits his teeth, having to follow the whims of a madman like this was degrading, not to mention morally questionable.
~Paulownia mall~
Alex left the dorm alone to Paulownia mall as Akihiko requested. He didn't expect to find anything but walked toward the end of the mall to the Karaoke bar. He was about to walk the stairs up to the bar but then he caught from the corner of his eye a familiar blue light.
Past the stairs there was a dead end, but the blue light emitted again as the blank wall transformed into train tracks and the blue caboose of the Velvet room pulled up in front of him. Alex rubs his eyes in disbelief and turns his head to see if anyone else was seeing this.
He carefully steps forward and steps inside the Velvet Room, to meet for the third time Igor and Beatrice.
"Welcome again. I sense the power you have awakened to, and it seems that it was the Persona Raiden who answered your call."
Beatrice opens up the book on her lap. Alex sees on the first page a moving picture of himself and Mori working together to rescue Maiko, on the other side the tarot card The Lovers. Then after that it was all three of them at the dorm with Akihiko, the Tarot next to it was The Fool.
"You've already tapped into the Wild cards source of power. The bonds you make with people become your social links, and as these bonds strengthen so will your Personae."
"The Wild card is like the number zero, it is empty, yet it is also the beginning of all possibility. Develop your social links and return here when you need to unlock the new Personas from theses bonds."
The Caboose stops just as Alex had the feeling of wanting to leave, and returned to the waking world. Social links with others... what a waste. To understand Alex's doubt in lasting friendship is to tell the story of him and his once best friend Terry Reid.
Flashback 2013 :Canada
It was an indoor recess on a rainy day. An eight year old Alex sits by himself in the corner away from the games of Lego and tag and draws with his crayons on the first of many sketchbooks.
Never venturing far from his zone of comfort he sat alone drawing like this every recess of school since his mother died, and every day after school he would be the last child picked up by his widower father. Most kids either picked on him and how his Mom was a "Crazy" person, and exiled him thinking he was crazy too. His Mother was diagnosed as a paranoid-schizophrenic, she tried to kill herself but was left comatose, she died by the time Alex was 5 years old.
But on that rainy day a new kid moved to town, and started his first day in the third grade, his name was Terry Reid. Reid was on his way to becoming a cool kid. He spent the whole day talking to everyone in class and making friends.
"What'cha doing?" Alex didn't hear him, no one talked to him before he hadn't expected it now.
"Hey come on I'm just saying hi." Alex lifts his head up to the crimson haired boy.
"Oh, Hi."
"What are you drawing?" He sits next to the quiet boy.
"Stuff."
"Cool."
"Do you think I'm crazy?"
"What, why?"
"Because everyone says I'm crazy because my Mom was."
"That's stupid, they don't even know you, I'm gonna tell everyone to quit that right now."
"Why?"
"Because we're friends, I and I can't let someone bully my friend."
'Friends' he thought. He liked that.
6 years later.
"You know you don't have to come over every anime night. "
"Nah, man this is cool I think I'm getting the gist of what their saying."
"Anata wa, haitte kuru mae ni nokku ga dekiru" (you can knock before coming in). Alex would always break out into using his step-mothers Japanese whenever he wanted to say something aloud to his friends they didn't need to hear. Reid also began studying his Japanese with Alex for Anime night on the two had every Thursday, it was a running event they've had every week since Anime and Manga began breaking out again in the west.
"Watashi wa sotchoku ni yorokobi o kanjiru koto ga dekiru " (I frankly can feel the joy). His fluency in Japanese wasn't as strong as his friend's.
The next Thursday however Reid did not show up for Anime night, while he didn't mind the privacy it was pretty much tradition that they'd do this together.
On the Friday at school he wanted to speak with him. Reid was huddled in with one of the many clichés of friends he was a part of in. "Reid, can we have a sec?" Reid steps out of the huddle to hear Alex.
"Anime night On Thursday? I mean if you had something important going on I get it just..."
"Hey A.J can we not talk about this right now? I'm sort of in the middle of something." Then he just turned right around back to his other friends.
From that point on they just stopped hanging out, a friendship that lasted for years just gone. No fight, or words said it was just as if they both drifted away from each other. They grew up. Every friend he made since the day they met in the third grade it was because of Reid, and each one of those friendships disappeared with him. From then on he kept away from people, he believed he wasn't meant to have friends if they would go away after giving so much.
The power of bonds? A joke, they'll just fade away. Even I won't be here for more than a year.
Author's note:
Q: why did Adachi's Persona change?
A: Because he's like a Mid-boss now, Mangetsu-Izanagi would have trashed those guys. Plus he had to get his powers back from the Shadow Cult.
Fun fact:
The orginal concept I had for the Magician in this fanfic's development was Cicero from Skyrim, Nyx= Night Mother, Erebus= Sithus, (see what I did there hurr hurr.)