There's 3k words of nothing in this chapter. I apologise for that. If you want to skip this entire chapter, you will really miss out on nothing at all. I wrote it more as a writing exercise for myself than anything, and, frankly, if this were a longer fic, I wouldn't include it at all.
For those of you who enjoy filler...well, enjoy! For those of you who don't...sorry. No hard feelings if you skip it. XD
Shirogane left, and not two minutes later, someone else was rattling at the van door. Ryuji yanked it open, revealing the smiling face of Amagi Yukiko.
"Hi there!" the friendly young woman said.
"Hi Amagi-san!" Ann greeted. "What brings you here?"
"Souji thought it would be a good idea for all of us to come personally introduce ourselves. Mind if I come in?"
"Sure, come on up," Haru invited, waving her in.
Akira watched her settle in with a small frown. He was still wary of these virtual strangers, but looking at his friends happily accepting Amagi, he could hardly complain.
He made up his mind, then. He would give them the benefit of the doubt, and set aside his own worries for the time being. With his mind made up, he tuned the conversation back in.
"—yes, that's right. The same one," Amagi was saying.
"Wow! We even talk about the Amagi Inn here! It's so cool you own it," Ann was saying.
"I don't own it. My parents do, though I suppose I'll inherit it someday."
"My father and I visited there, once last year," Haru said softly. "We were supposed to stay for a few days, but father got called away because of work. It was...nice, though. There was some sort of party going on while we were there..." She looked up, clearly thinking. "It was...a lot of fun."
Amagi snickered at that. "Seriously? My friends all came to visit last year—we always use the inn when they do. I bet that was us."
"Now that would be a coincidence," Yusuke said.
"When was it?" Ann asked.
"March."
Amagi laughed. "Y-y-yeah, that was u-us!" That was all she managed before breaking out in a fit of giggles.
"Uh...was it really that funny?" Ryuji muttered.
A rap on the door prompted them to open it, revealing a tall, muscular woman. "Sorry. She gets like this. I'll take her. C'mon, Yukiko."
"Bahahah, but Chie~!"
The girl called Chie rolled her eyes. "Let's go. Nice to meet you all, by the way, Satonaka Chie."
"It's lovely to meet you, Satonaka-san," Haru said.
"Please, Chie's fine." She smiled. "I work at the Inaba Police Department, with Souji and his uncle. Also, I babysit Yukiko in my spare time."
"You certainly seem to have your hands full..." Makoto said slowly.
Yukiko snerked. "Hear that, Chie? I'm the handful."
Chie rolled her eyes. "Okay, let's go. You need to calm down."
Akira watched in silent confusion as the two women left.
"Well, that was...weird," Ryuji muttered.
"You get used to it! Yukari-chan and Chie-chan are always doing things like that."
"It's the bear!" Haru said excitedly.
"Oh, a most exquisite example of costume making!" Yuskue said excitedly. "What incredible craftsmanship. Tell me, who was the seamstress?" He reached for the costume.
"H-hey now! Don't go messing up my perfect fur with your uncouth hands!"
"U-uncouth?" Yusuke barked, clearly offended. "I'll have you know I was trained in art all my life!"
"Sheesh, is he always like that?"
"Pretty much...um, Teddie-san was it?"
"Just Teddie is fine, Haru-chan!" the bear all but sang.
"So, Teddie," Ryuji said, "why the costume?"
"It's not a costume! This is my fur!" Did this bear always get annoyed so easily?
"Oookay, so why the...fur?" Ann tried.
"I'm a shadow!"
That brought silence to the van.
"I'm...sorry?" Makoto prompted. "You're...a shadow?"
"Yes, please explain that bit," Akira continued firmly.
"I was un-bear-ably lonely in the world of shadows. When Sensei and Yosuke fell into the T.V. world, they became my friends. Then we met everyone else."
"...I'm sorry, T.V. world?" Makoto asked.
"Is that like the metaverse?" Yusuke asked almost on top of her.
"You mean like this world?" Teddie asked.
"Yeah," Ryuji said. "Like...where we fight shadows?"
"That's right! There was a goddess harassing—"
"Yo, Teddie, stop hoggin' the van."
Akira glanced over at the intruder, a well-muscled man with bleached hair.
"But Kaaaaanji—!"
"Enough. Out. Souji says you're probably just confusing them more."
If a costume could pout, the bear was pouting. "Sensei said that?"
"Oh, no Teddie, you don't have to leave," Haru said.
"Ignore him," Kanji said, climbing in and pushing the bear towards the door. "He's fine."
"Well, maybe you can explain what he means in telling us he's a shadow," Akira said.
"Huh? Oh, sure. That's because he is. He helped us out, though, so that makes him pretty cool in my book."
"And the...T.V. world?" Makoto asked.
"There's a story there. We had a killer in Inaba five years ago, who operated by throwing people into the television at midnight. It turns out it was a portal to the world of shadows. People would then be killed by their shadows if they couldn't accept them. Most...couldn't. At least, not without some help," he said, looking down.
"I guess that's not so much weirder than our own story," Ann said.
"But you guys were tackling the shadows of criminals...?" Kanji asked.
Yusuke nodded. "That is...correct. Most of the targets helped one or more of us out of bad situations."
"How about the rest of you guys?" Akira asked.
Kanji shrugged. "You means Arisato's team, right? S.E.E.S? I dunno, really. While we all awoke by ending up in the T.V. world, I think all of theirs were different? Some were forced into it, others wound up awakening due to tough situations. If you want more, ask them."
"I wouldn't, though," a friendly voice said from the door.
"Dude! Risette!" Ryuji yelped.
"Your turn?" Kanji asked. "Fine by me. Later."
Risette squeezed in as Kanji left, smiling politely. "Kujikawai Rise is my name, but please, just call me Rise."
"Okay, Rise," Ann said. "What were you saying...?"
She shrugged. "I just think you shouldn't ask anyone from S.E.E.S about their awakenings. I mean...they haven't even told most of us."
Makoto smiled warmly. "Of course, Rise-san. It's none of our business. I'm sorry for poking into your business."
She smiled. "Don't worry about it. Honestly, it's kind of nice to have even more people we can be honest with."
Ann chuckled. "That's true. For so long, I thought it was just us."
"So did we," Kujikawa agreed. "Then we met S.E.E.S, and it...changed a lot. I'm so glad we did, though. We...got lucky, too, meeting them the way we did. If we hadn't met them until after our awakenings, we never would have gotten to meet Aragaki and Minato-san."
"...Minato? Was he...?"
Rise nodded sadly. "He was a good leader. It's really too bad, what happened to him."
"...I'm so sorry," Haru said softly.
"It's okay. Just...don't mention him to any of them, okay? Not unless they bring him up first. Aigis and Yukari, especially. They...really miss him."
Akira nodded once. "I'll see to it they don't."
Kujikawa smiled. "Thank you. I think Fuuka's coming in next," she said, slipping to the door. "I'll let her know."
That left them a few minutes alone with their thoughts. Akira turned to Makoto.
"...it's a lot to take in, isn't it?" she asked softly. "If...we ever lost you."
"You won't," he said calmly. "We're all going to be fine."
The door opened, and a pretty young woman with light blue hair entered.
"H-hello. My name is Yamagishi Fuuka. I'm the navigator for S.E.E.S."
"Hello, Fuuka! Can I call you Fuuka? You can call me Oracle! I'm the navigator for our group."
"Yes, I noticed. Your persona is quite unique."
"Who, Prometheus? Yeah. He gets the job done."
Makoto smiled at Akira. "They're hitting it off."
"Good. They'll need to work together," he replied.
"Hm? Oh, yes, it's Rise," Yamagishi was saying as Akira returned his attention to her. "Yes, she's an excellent navigator. She usually handles the mapping, while I focus on combat."
"That's a really good system. It would be so much easier if I could focus on one thing..."
"You wanna come out and try it?"
"Do I! Hey, Joker, I'm going navigating with Rise and Fuuka!"
Akira sighed as the door slammed. She could have at least pretended to ask.
"...they have got to stop doing that!" Morgana complained.
A moment later, it was wrenched open again. "Heeey!" The ball cap wearing man shoved his way inside. "Call me Junpei."
"Hey Junpei! You can call me Skull."
"Oh great," Morgana complained. "Two of them."
"That mask is freakin' awesome!" Junpei said. "All of them are, actually."
"We use them to summon our personas," Ann said.
"Actually, I noticed the other group uses cards," Makoto chimed in. "How do you guys do it?"
Junpei grinned at that. "By shooting ourselves in the head."
Silence. Eventually, Yusuke ventured. "I...am sorry. Did you say you shoot yourselves in the head?"
"Is that the guns you all carry?" Haru asked.
"That's right," Junpei said drawing it. "It's not a real gun."
To Akira's great dismay, he proceeded to pull the trigger. A loud pop sounded, but no bullet was fired. After a moment, he settled back from the half-lunge he'd shifted into.
"How does it work?" Haru asked, clearly curious.
"I don't really know. It's really helpful, though. We just gotta think our lives are in danger, and bam! Persona! Mitsuru's company made them just for us."
"Excuse me, Junpei," Makoto said. "But you said they were made in...our world? Does that mean...could they possibly work there?"
Junpei actually hesitated at that. "...shadows don't only appear in their own world, or this one."
That brought a sobering silence to the van. The implications of what Junpei had just told them were a lot to consider, and Akira was no exception. If their enemies got their hands on that sort of power, could they cause mental shutdowns without accessing the metaverse? With Akechi gone, they had lost a lot of clout, but there was still so much he and his friends didn't properly understand. What could they do, even without him?
"How many people are aware of this power?" he finally asked.
"Not many, and fewer have access to it. Mitsuru's group has kept a pretty tight lid on the technology and research."
"You're sure of that?" Akira pressed.
"Yeah. We barely got to keep our own Evokers after Tartarus fell."
Tartarus? He made a point to come back to that later. "So—"
The door opened. "Stop hogging all the time, Junpei!" A young, brunet man muttered, shoving inside. "My turn."
"Yeah, yeah. Just lemme out, Ken! Good t'meetcha, Skull!"
"See ya, Junpei! We gotta talk more later!"
"Right!"
The door closed, and Ken sat down. He looked to only be about their age, and by far the youngest member of the newcomers.
"I'm sorry to bombard you with questions, Ken, but Junpei was just busy telling us about your...Evokers?" Makoto prompted gently.
"Oh, sure. What did you want to know?"
"I wanted to know who knows about this technology. It could be dangerous in the wrong hands," Akira said.
"You think we don't know that? The Kirijo Group keeps a very tight grip on all of its research. We're the only people you'll find with them. My friends and Souji's group, I mean. We gave them some, after we started really working together."
"Do you have some for us?" Ryuji asked excitedly.
"Uh, no. We weren't really expecting to meet anyone else in here, honestly."
"Can we have some?" Ryuji pressed. "It would be really cool to be able to summon our personas in the real world!"
Ken frowned. "That's up to Mitsuru, I guess. But like...don't count on it. She barely let us keep ours, and she doesn't know you..."
Akira frowned. So, he wasn't the only one with concerns. He supposed that that was reasonable. They weren't even giving out their real names.
"If you keep that attitude up, Skull, I wouldn't give you a pair of chopsticks!" Morgana grumbled. "And I don't even have thumbs to use them."
"Shut it, Mona!"
"Uh...yeah. Oh! Akihiko's here!" Ken all but jumped out of the van, nodding politely to his friend as he did so. The grey-haired, muscular man who was coming just raised a brow and sighed, climbing in.
"Sanada Akihiko," he said politely.
"Can we see your Evoker?" Ryuji asked.
"Drop it, Skull," Akira said firmly.
"You suck, Joker."
Akira sighed. "Just leave it. We have no right to ask that of them."
"No, really, it's okay," Sanada ventured, drawing it and handing it to Ryuji. "Here."
"Sweet. So I just—like this?"
"Skull!" Ann yelled, alarmed, as Ryuji raised the nozzle to his head and pulled the trigger.
Nothing happened.
"What the—? It doesn't work?" Ryuji muttered, staring at the gun.
"Skull, that was a stupid thing to do," Akira grumbled.
"Oh, lay off, Joker. You wanted to try it, too."
"We are inside the van right now. If you had actually summoned your persona, what then? You could have seriously harmed Mona, or any of the rest of us! Think before you act!" he snapped right back.
"...sorry, Joker," Ryuji finally muttered.
Sanada reached out, plucking the Evoker from Ryuji's hands. "There's more to it than that. Mitsuru can teach you if she wants."
It always came back to that Mitsuru woman... Akira had a lot of questions for her. As if reading his mind, Sanada leaned out the window and hollered, "Mitsuru! You're up."
It was the tall, redheaded woman that fell back to join them.
"You're Kirijo?" Akira asked as she climbed into the van, squeezing in beside Sanada.
"I am. It's a pleasure to meet you...Joker." Clearly she didn't care for the alias. Or perhaps she just didn't like not knowing his real name. She did seem the sort to not want to relinquish control.
Then again, neither did he.
"Likewise," he said politely. "I had a few questions for you, actually."
"I imagine you do. I may be able to help, but I make no promises."
"Can you teach us to use an Evoker?" Ryuji asked.
"I could, yes, but for the moment I see no reason to. You've all proven perfectly capable of summoning your personas on your own."
The disappointment in Ryuji was almost palpable. "Aww, man..."
"Perhaps you can tell me what this place is?" Akira asked, ignoring him. "I heard it called Tartarus, but it seems to stem from Mementos..."
"Tartarus? Yes, I suppose that would be a fitting name. Tartarus was the tower that came to be with the summoning of Nyx. It's where we fought most of our battles seven years ago."
"...that's right," Sanada said. "They do...have a similar feeling to them, don't they?"
"Is that so surprising? If he really is involved..." Kirijo said softly.
"Is that really in doubt, now? I mean, we all saw Orpheus."
"Orpheus is just a shadow that was a persona. I don't think that seeing it proves anything."
"Doesn't it? Shouldn't it have faded from being when he died?" Sanada pressed.
"Perhaps. There is still too much we don't know," Kirijo finally consented.
"Then we'll just have to keep going," Sanada said, nodding firmly.
Kirijo smiled weakly. "Indeed."
"Is that really why you're all here?" Makoto asked slowly, a small frown on her lips that Akira knew was uncertain disapproval. "Chasing a...ghost?"
Oh, that explained the disapproval.
"Perhaps," Kirijo agreed. "Perhaps it's a fool's errand. Perhaps it's just a dream...but one way or another, we have to know."
"Yeah, we do," Sanada agreed. "We lived through hell together, but not all of us made it back. We just...have to know. And if this is a fake using his name? Well, we'll put that shit down." The words were soft, but somehow Akira knew they were spoken with unwavering conviction.
"If that's all, I should go speak to Seta about our course," Kirijo said.
"Yes, I suppose so. Thank you, Kirijo-san, Sanada-san," Akira said.
After they'd left, no one came for a few minutes, until the door opened revealing the android. Surprised, Akira blinked at her—it?
"Hello, Phantom Thieves," it said. "My name is Aigis, and this is—"
"Takeba Yukari," another voice said, leading his gaze to the brunette woman from the earlier battle.
"Come on in," Ann said, motioning them inside. "We saw you fighting earlier, Takeba-san. You were amazing!"
"Not really," the woman said modestly. "In fact, I was sort of a fool."
"Hardly, Yukari-chan. You are emotional. I think that is to be forgiven."
"Thanks, Aigis, but Souji was right. I need to calm down." The woman sighed, running a hand through her hair. "Anyway, we just came because I wanted to thank you for helping us on this mission. It's...going to be hard. When we find him, though...please leave it up to us. Whatever happens...this is our battle."
"...you guys don't have to do it all by yourselves," Haru said softly. "That's...so lonely."
"No, we do. You can't understand, but we do."
"I agree," Aigis said. "This was our biggest failure. Let us right it."
"Dude, if we can help you fight, you should let us. This is a team effort," Ryuji pressed.
"Leave it." Though Akira spoke only two words, his team's protests stopped immediately. "This is their battle."
"Thank you," Takeba said, sending him a weak smile. "I hope that we can all get to know one another better when this is all over."
"...me too," Ann said softly.
Once Aigis and Takeba had left, Akira let out a soft chuckle. "So...twelve people and a robot? And that's not even all of them." There was the leader, Seta, and the guy who was always following him around.
"Our group got quite a bit larger. I fail to see how that can be anything but beneficial," Yusuke said.
"Unless their only goal is to prosecute us," Akira countered.
"C'mon, you can't really think that true," Ryuji muttered.
"No, I don't," he admitted. "But be careful nonetheless. Stick to code names only."
"No shit, Joker," Ryuji said, snorting a laugh. "That's what we always do."
A rap at the door drew his attention. Ann pulled it open, revealing Seta and his friend.
"Just came to check up on you guys. That and Yosuke," he gestured to his friend, "wanted to meet you."
"Famous Phantom Thieves, huh?" Yosuke said, grinning. "You're all over the 'net."
"Thanks," Ryuji said. "Those are some...pretty sick glasses."
Akira snorted.
"So, Joker, how is everything? You guys feeling any better?" Seta asked.
His teammates were quick to insist that they were feeling much better. They had been resting for well over an hour at this point, having descended three more floors.
"You heard them. We're a lot better," Akira replied.
"Good, glad to hear it. Take your time resting for now; you guys already did a lot."
Seta was turning to go when Akira stopped him. "Hold up, I'm coming with you." He'd had enough sitting around while others fought the battles. "Queen, take over in here."
"Right, Joker," she agreed. "Be careful."
"Aren't I always?" he asked, grinning. Hopping out of the car, he followed Seta back to the front lines.