III

It is through living and experiencing things that we gain pleasure, it is through living and experiencing that we gain misery, it is by stalling and procrastination that we gain apathy and stagnate. One must be willing to give up their happiness, even if that sacrifice ends in defeat and regret.

Life had been normal with normal splashes of excitement, just like anyone else; and then he was lost.

The room had been colored in blue as far as the eye could see; and then there was nothing.

He'd dreamt of many things: anger, happiness, life, death, giving, taking; and then, he woke up.

[0]

The room he found himself in was plain. Not in the sense he was used to, but plain all the same. Instead of the expected beige or white, it was gray, like a pencil or a cinder block. Kyou stood from his place on the floor, dusting himself off to busy his hands as he wondered what he should do.

Weird as it was, he felt something pulling at him, drawing him to continue on, rather than brush it off and try to wake up, since there was no way this was anything but a dream. He supposed he would just take it a step at a time. Not really any way to guess what was going to happen. The door opened smoothly and quietly, to such an extent it didn't seem like it could really exist, being much too light for how it looked and felt. He walked through the hallway silently, a touch unnerved as he heard his own footsteps.

As a few minutes passed, he found that each hallway was the same as the one before it, mind-numbing in just how plain and uneventful they were. This became less of a complaint when he stepped into a room about the size of the dorm lounge. It wasn't so much the room that was the problem as its occupant. A large wolf, or something similar enough to not really matter in this case, sniffed about the room. It was gray and mangy, a stench wafting off it in waves and while normally padding might be the word used to describe one moving, this one's claws were far too long to be described as such, seeming more like steak knives than something that belonged on an animal. Kyou swallowed nervously, not moving for fear that he would alert the beast.

He needn't have worried, as his mere presence did the job well enough. Shortly after looking it over, the thing turned to Kyou, his stomach dropping as it did so. Rather than a snout, its face seemed to be a large ball of droopy flesh, the forefront of which had a golden mask with the number IX crudely carved into it. The fact it didn't have a mouth did nothing to stop the drool he saw oozing through the cracks in the mask as it started to prowl towards him. Kyou's heartbeat was rapidly picking up as he stared it down.

As soon it was a dozen or so feet away, the thing leapt at him, its claws moving to tear him apart. Kyou dodged to the side, kicking out at it. The blow landed but didn't really seem to do much as the beast shook it off, leaping at him again, forced to claw at him due to its lack of a mouth. Kyou leapt back, stomping at its mask in hopes of breaking it since he assumed – or hoped, really – that it would act like any normal animal and die without its head, even if the mask was only a part of it. The blow landed and he saw a tiny crack appear, hoping for a second that would be enough, but having to quickly retreat when it swiped at him. Pain jolted through him as the claws glanced his arm. Having his attention drawn away for a second was enough for the thing to jump him again, pinning him down and somehow rumbling at him through its mask. Terror rolled through Kyou for a second, the fact this was most likely a dream irrelevant at the sight of this thing's face moving towards him, especially when he saw teeth unfurling from the hole in the center, like a guillotine, except that it was actually drawing closer. His body shook and as his pulse spiked he felt something rising in his soul, a feeling of desperation drawing up something other, his perception speeding up as it did.

Oh dear, it appears you are in a bit of a sore state, allow me to help with that.

His eyes widened, the feeling from earlier strengthening, it was a bit chilly, but in a way that was…invigorating. Kyou shoved his hands forward, hoping to get the monster off of him.

It worked far better than he'd been expecting, the thing went flying, a terrible grating sound heard as it tried to hold its ground by digging its claws into the floor. It growled at him, a bit wary now that he'd shown to not be as much of a pushover as it had been expecting.

Kyou growled right back, the frigid feeling circulating through his body and making everything slightly hazy.

Good, very good. However, you will need more to finish it off. Take all your feelings; your fear, your apprehension, and twist it to your whim. Add it to your power and let us show this beast its place!

He felt power exponentially rising in the span of a couple seconds before it suddenly condensed into one spot and looked down as he felt something settle on his body.

A disk had settled onto his torso, it was pristine and pale, like someone had attached a slab of marble onto his body, right where his heart was. Despite his confusion at seeing the thing on his person he reached up to the small rung at the end of the thing and pulled. A phrase slipping through as he did.

Per. So. Na.

The moment the disk was free of his person, some of the power he'd felt blasted through, swirling wildly as it started to take shape.

It was pale and flawless, like a porcelain doll, golden hair waving in the winds of its creation, on top of which rested a crown of soft, downy feathers. Curling around most of its body was a single, white, cloth, almost as pale as the figure. Six light golden wings stretched as if recovering from a long time asleep. In stark contrast to the bright, almost holy feeling the figure gave off, there were two black marks along its right wrist and ankle.

Despite most of the power he felt going into this thing, Kyou still felt ready to take on the wolf by himself, even if he knew he didn't need to as he saw the thing he'd summoned raise a hand, shortly after which the wolf's body had been frozen solid, shattering as it was tackled.

Without anything to fight, the being he'd summoned dissipated, a light tittering heard as it did.

Kyou could still feel most of the energy from before, which was just as well since he had no idea how much longer he had until he could get out of this place. Or wake up. He was still kind of holding out hope that that would happen.

He made his way out of the room, feeling lighter than before. As he did, a sound reminiscent of sloshing muck could be heard. Kyou turned his head around, looking for what could be making the noise and saw a stain on the ceiling drop down, splatting noisily on the floor in front of him. The goop collected itself, a blue diamond mask starting to rise out of its body. Without a second thought, Kyou stepped down on the mask, not giving it a chance to fully form.

After the seventh or eighth hit, the mask shattered, less than half a second from fully forming. The blob lost its cohesion and quickly dissipated, some wisps of light going into him as it did. This was only the second of the monsters he'd seen but he was already tired of them. Looking at where the thing had come from revealed a pipe in disrepair, which Kyou quickly jumped towards, grabbing at it to wrench it out of the ceiling and use it to protect himself. After struggling with it for a few seconds he almost fell as he finally managed to pull it out of place. He sighed and resigned himself to wandering around for a bit longer. If this wasn't a dream, he would be quite tired tomorrow.

[0]

An undetermined amount of time had passed with Kyou looking through different rooms, deeply wishing he would find the way out and sighing when he saw that he hadn't. He'd come across a few more of the monsters from before, which he'd taken to calling Shadows, in reference to the thing he'd summoned and how they almost seemed to be hunting for him after he'd awakened to it.

After finishing off another of the blobs he found himself in front of a door, the lock just as plain as the rest of the place he'd seen so far. He crouched down to look at it more closely, even if his plan was just to hit it until it broke, but his brows rose when he heard a click and watched the padlock drop to the floor, dissipating just like the Shadows had.

The door opened before he had a chance to touch it, almost as if it was welcoming him in. Kyou obliged, if only because he didn't know what else to do, getting a bit suspicious when the room was revealed to be the largest of any he'd come across, somewhere around the size of a few classes pushed together. His suspicion became caution when he laid his eyes upon a sword and large set of armor at the end of the room. It stood around seven feet tall, made of metal just a touch darker than everything else he'd seen before. Simple as it seemed, he thought this time it was a matter of functionality over aesthetic.

As the door was behind it, Kyou didn't see any way past walking to it, confidently making his way towards it. Less than ten feet away, the armor came to life, its head rising and visor lighting up with a dim yellow glow. Slowly it stood, metal joints creaking as Kyou's eyes drifted to its stomach and the white light just above it. When it stood to its full height, the armor raised its hand and planted it on the sword, not making to draw the weapon out of the floor. The other hand raised, pointing to Kyou and beckoning to him.

For a second, he considered what to do, determined to get past it but not wanting to get close to the giant slab of steel that it held in its left hand. He nodded his head and reached for the disk on his chest, pulling at it. The angelic figure rose into the air, measuring up the enemy before it. His hand rose just as it had the first time, calling for chunks of ice to encase the armor, following up with a small blue blast when the ice was ignored, even as it still clung to it. Kyou dashed around the imposing figure, hoping it would follow him so his Persona could launch attacks without fear of retaliation. Even if Kyou got hit, it would take quite the hit to dispel his Persona, whereas any solid blow directly to the angel would tear it apart. He internally sighed in relief when the enemy turned to him, shortly followed by panic when it flung a fireball at him. He raised the pipe he'd picked up, swinging at it to dissipate the projectile. He looked at the armor, seeing an opening into the empty innards when it cast its spell. He flicked his eyes to Helel, directing it to conserve energy and attack when an opening presented itself. His eyes widened when another ball of fire slammed into the angel and canceled it out, shortly after feeling the slight backlash in his mind and a hand slamming into his body as the armor used the distraction to charge him, being launched into the wall a second later. For the first time, the enemy raised its sword, the large blade gleaming in the light. The sword came crashing down a second later, barely held back from crushing Kyou by the pipe in his hands and the quick summoning of Helel, even as it dissipated again from the force of the blow. Kyou slipped under the armor, sliding under its legs and sloppily rolling to his feet, ripping off the disk again and lashing out at the one in front of him. He threw himself to the side again as its right gauntlet swung wildly, Helel having flown back to get some room and launching small spears of light at the moment of attack. The armor suddenly jerked, the blades of light having gone clean through the whole thing, not to mention the handful of others peppering its body. Kyou took advantage of its pause and dashed in, gripping its arm and tearing it out from the shoulder down. He weathered the swing of the sword as best he could, stumbling as he was shoved back a few feet. His arms and stomach were rebelling against him, aching at being forced to accept such heavy blows. He ran away again, turning to instruct Helel. Having not used him that long was really adding to a list of problems that were much too long already. Kyou looked behind him, getting ready to face the armor again and pivoting when he saw it heading for his Persona. Even if it could outrun the armor, it needed to focus to attack and Kyou would much rather that since he wasn't capable of the damage Helel was.

It was because of this that Kyou found himself running to his summon's rescue, swinging at the armor again, if only to distract it. Even with more than half of its arm gone, the armor still made do, leaning more into the blow, causing Kyou to duck under than the attack rather than just ignoring it. He swung at the chest, moving past the pain in his arms as it did little more than draw his enemy's attention. He turned to Helel, telling it to do what he hoped would be enough to finish this. His head whipped back upon hearing a loud series of cracks from behind to see that the armor was being pelted by blasts of ice, each one being funneled through the hole in its arm. While frost formed throughout the torso, Kyou wound up, praying under his breath that this would be enough.

The pipe went clean through, the rest of the body collapsing due to the chunk suddenly missing from it. Even as it did, Kyou still saw the light in the visor and moved to the side, calling his Persona to run one last attack through it. Helel complied, sending a barb of light through the helm, falling apart before the attack had made contact.

Kyou raised the pipe slowly, bringing it down as hard as his tired body could, dropping it and unceremoniously plopping himself down on the ground afterward. The teen was panting heavily and waiting to see if the enemy would rise again. A few minutes passed and he caught his breath, slowly picking himself up and making his way to the door. Now he needed this to be the way out, being on his last legs as he was.

A few steps in and the area around started to fade, something which Kyou hoped was a good sign.

[0]

Kyou hadn't expected to find himself standing in the Velvet Room again, having walked out the door to what he hoped would be his bed. "So, we meet again." Igor grinned, seemingly pleased by the turn of events, he waved his hand, a small object appearing and slowly floating to Kyou. "Hold on to this." Kyou blinked, seeing that the object was a key as it landed in his hand, at which point it sunk into him. "Henceforth, you are our guest in this Velvet Room."

Kyou stared at them, confused. "I thought you said only those who signed the contract could enter here. I don't remember doing anything like that."

Igor continued smiling at him, some unknown signal passing between him and Agda since she replied in his place. "In the place you fought, you awakened to your power, your Persona. This is all that was needed."

"Indeed, and as such, we of the Velvet Room will help to hone your power and seek out your destiny. In exchange, I only ask that you abide by the contract and assume responsibility for the choices made."

Kyou nodded, not happy with the circumstances, but willing to see them through regardless. Igor chuckled again, smile widening "I look forward to seeing how your future unfolds. Until the next time we meet, farewell."

His vision faded again, this time, he hoped, it would be to find himself in his own bed. He needed rest, especially after this.