Chapter 3: Truth, Old Friends, Visions, and Bucket of Fuck No
By: Alex T. Wallman
Disclaimer: Still owning nothing, Dood
Author's Note: So, this is kind of a filler chapter but it's because I'm working on the next chapter not only for LFWW, but for Fate/HiME, Tales of Fate, and for a few plot bunnies that I have rattling around inside my head.
Another thing is that when I write I am similar to a method actor so this does conflict with the story that I already have planned out; this even when I'm writing in third person so the character's dialogue may get a bit hammy.
Also, I do know that you guys have your own opinions and suggestions and I welcome them. And I know that I sound a bit rude when I'm responding and I do try and tone it down because I know that at times I can be insufferable. If you guys have anything you want to say regarding any of my other stories please PM me with your thoughts and suggestions.
This chapter is rife with shot outs, you have been warned.
This next bit will be about some of the plot bunnies I've had and I would like to get your opinions on them.
For The Love of God!: This is a crossover between Fate/Stay Night and Battle Girls ~Time Paradox~, which while being incredibly lighthearted and fan service based has real capabilities for being serious and dark due to the time period and political situation. This will most likely end up as a ShirouxMulti because there are NO men in the universe in which Battle Girls ~Time Paradox~ takes place unless you count the talking dog, Shiro.
Fate/Stay Always + Vampire: So I know that people have attempted this before and most likely gave up when they realized how difficult reconciling the two universes would be but I think that I've found a way to do it. Shirou taking Tsukune's place of course. This will involve a lot of Character Death because, let's face it, you screw with Shirou's friends and he ends you. Pairings will be pretty open due to how Shirou acts in comparison to Tsukune, but I think that Inner Moka would actually warm up to him due to his ability to chose a path and follow it rather then Tsukune's indecision. A note for this one is that if I do it I will finish Tales of Fate first so that BARINADE can be a character.
Viewing the Hill of Swords While In Flight: Let's face it, a number of us loved Hill of Swords, and a number of us love In Flight. How to combine them? Noodle Incident that involves tripping. It should be noted that it will be a 'Louise summons Shirou, but everyone else somehow tags along' scenario. If this gets votes then I'll need to get in contact with Gabriel Blessing to get his approval for it.
Dorm Life: Fate/Stay Night AU megacrossover with a number of the main cast from a number of series living in a dorm owned and run by Kirei. Yes, that Kirei. Extreme Shenanigans all up in this one
Personae and Paeksis: That's right. Persona and Vandread crossover. This would be out of control.
No Need For Shirou!: A Fate/Stay Night and Tenchi Muyo! crossover where certain things are revealed and painful news is delivered.
It Got Worse: A Drakengard and Familiar of Zero crossover where Caim and Angelus from the fifth ending of Drakengard are summoned by Louise as her familiars, or rather Caim is. Angelus claims that dragons of her breed are too smart to fall for FoZ's wizards'/magic users'/mages'/whatever's brand of bullshit magic summoning. I'm also going to use the Dark Id's character interpretations because they are so much more fun.
Wake up, Protect a Small Girl: A Familiar of Zero and NieR crossover. Brother!Nier and Weiss wake up in Halkeginia after erasing themselves from existence. They don't know how it happened, or its implications, but they don't care. They want to get back and see their friends. But their new existence isn't the only thing that has changed for Nier. Tyrann appears as a talking shadow blob that bugs Nier.Please vote for your favorite and if I can figure out how to put a poll on my profile, I will!
Also, Higa or Minaka for the Devil Social Link?
As for previous reviews:
Realm of Emptiness: the thing that I hated about Sekirei is that Minato just came off as a real everyman with no defining features when he has such an interesting family, he probably has the capability to be a genius, and due to his genealogy, I would expect that he would be quite susceptible to becoming a sociopath. These are some of the things that I'm trying to show and when I play Persona 3, I turn Minato into a high functioning sociopath. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.
jhonathon arisato: I cannot see Tsukiumi as the Justice. I just can't.
SPOILERIFIC TIME!
About Tsumi Batsu, that is the name that I gave the main character of Shin Megami Tensei Strange Journey based on his role in LFWW. If any of you know what those two names mean then you've probably guessed about his mistake, if you don't then look up Persona 2.
ZELRETCH IN DA HOUSE! Although he really is just a plot device/placeholder in the story.
For those of you who don't know Labrys, she is a character in the Persona universe first mentioned in the Persona 3 Audio Drama and she appears as a playable character in Persona 4: Arena after completing story mode and defeating her Shadow.
Also, a cliffhanger because I'm going to write the battle later.
End of Spoilers!
Read, Review and Enjoy!
ED: When I first planned this chapter, I had planned on it being only a thousand or so words plus the Author's Note, somehow it became a full fledged chapter.
ED2: Damn. This is hands down my longest chapter yet, and I'm not sure as to when I'm going to have a good finishing point. Hell, thirteen pages of writing and I still haven't even gotten back to the main plot!
ED3: This chapter is going to end up being longer then all of the fic prior to it. Holy Fuck.
ED4: It should be noted that the shit cannon has been loaded and aimed at the fan. This was originally going to be called Meanwhile and would focus on the people left behind when the main character(s) of their series had gone to another universe/reality.
ED5: I don't understand why so many people whine about the friendzone, it's not that bad, I know because I was just sent there. Much Bacon, Ice Cream, and Hickory Sticks were ingested. Just Kidding, I was a man about it and decided to work on bringing this fuckload of a chapter to you. Also, happy Easter to those who celebrate it.
ED6: I had originally planned to get this chapter out so long ago… 18 pages and counting.
~}{~
A group of seven people and a dog stood in front of a grave marker, they were the first ones there, but they definitely wouldn't be the last. They all gazed at the grave forlornly; knowing that mourning now was pointless and that there were more proactive things that they could be doing to bring the one they missed back. The silence was only broken by the occasional whisper of the cool March air until the eldest female spoke, "Yamagishi and I, we… we've been looking into his family, and we believe that we have found something, but it's complicated.
"Although… this whole idea of meeting people and separation is interesting. Up until my father died, I didn't really understand how lucky I was to have met so many people and how easy it was for those connections to be severed so cleanly and then he made his sacrifice without telling us. Sometimes I wonder, just how much he planned ahead or knew when we climbed Tartarus on the thirty-first."
"There's no way to know Mitsuru." The silver haired young man next to her answered and then asked, "You mentioned his family, didn't he say that he only had distant relatives?"
"Regarding that, Akihiko-sempai, we thought that it would be best to discuss that later at the old dorm." The young woman with green tinted hair answered but didn't look away from the grave. The blonde beside her then spoke up, "I, I have been in contact with someone who believes that they may be able to help with our goal of reviving Minato-san. I will be meeting them in a few days; the information they gave me named them Mister K. Z. Schwenger but I haven't been able to uncover any data on them. I believe that his may be an existence similar to Igor-san's."
"Great another supernatural being that's all for manipulating people to increase someone's power!" The young brunette woman growled as she ground her teeth together. The blonde shook her head and said, "Yukari-san, I know that you feel that Minato-san used us and a number of other people to gain more power but I know that with all of the bonds he created between himself ad others, he came to cherish every single bond and every moment he spent with us and them."
"I know that! It's just…he was too kind and too willing to go with what others suggested, I mean he didn't even argue or even ask why when I asked him to be more intimate with me. He only asked if I was ready for it! He was too easy a target for people." The young woman shot back only to be refuted by the eldest female, "That's part of why you, Aigis, Yamagishi, a number of others, and myself came to feel for him the way we did. He cared about us in such a manner that he didn't care if he didn't feel ready or not, it was about us and what we wanted. Also, I would have you recall that he managed to outfox Tanaka so I think that you're selling him a little short."
"I wonder… was he actually that kind? I mean it could be that he was apathetic to the whole thing…" The youngest of the group remarked as he frowned slightly at the grave. The only one wearing a hat chuckled, "There's one thing I know 'bout Minato for sure and that is that he was always finding something entertaining for him to watch or do. He would do whatever it took and he didn't care how anyone felt if it got in the way of his entertainment. No way he would fake that attitude."
"You do know that you basically called Arisato a sociopath, right?" The eldest female remarked with a quirked eyebrow. The hat adorned man quickly waved his hands in front of him, "Not what I meant! Not what I meant!"
"Oh? First time that I've seen the kid's grave so crowded." A voice rasped from the groups' side, and as they turned, they saw an elderly man, his face jowly, and the hair on his head gray. Most of the group looked at the old man with questioning looks while the blonde said, "Ah, hello Mutatsu-san, it has been a while."
"It has, but it's good to see you and it's nice to see that the kid still gets visitors." The elderly man remarked as he looked at the grave of Arisato Minato. The group of young people slowly turned away and left the man, piling into and onto their respective vehicles upon reaching the parking lot, and departing towards the now shut down Iwatodai Dorm.
~}{~
An elderly man sat in the back of a limousine on its way to an address in Iwatodai where he, his granddaughter, and his granddaughter's friends, who had forced their way onto this trip, would confront those who had drudged up some memories best left buried. The man may have aged a good deal since he had left the military and started working as a consulting detective but he was still stronger then your average person and his last mission had left him with some rather… interesting gifts.
In the man's inner pocket, three things stirred.
Something vile screamed its superiority to the nothingness around it, and called for his worthy equal to call him into the world once more and rain fire and death down upon those who stood in their way.
Something zealous merely sat, patiently waiting for the time to strike down the enemies of his old friend.
Something furious stewed, his arms crossed as he waited for the time to come when more things would be destroyed and then recreated by he and his counterpart.
~}{~
Mitsuru had taken the liberty of ordering a large variety of food be delivered to the Iwatodai Dorm in preparation for their guests, of course this meant that Akihiko, Junpei, and Ken were forced to carry everything to the fourth floor lounge. The trio was rather surprised to see that the computer bank that they had used to record happenings in the dorm, as well as the nightly incursions into Tartarus and the Full Moon Shadow missions, was still present. Aigis noted their surprise and explained, "Mitsuru-san deemed it prudent that there be evidence for Minato-san's family to see, as such the computer bank was reinstalled temporarily and had all of its data uploaded onto it temporarily."
"So that's why there was no dust even though the Dorm's been closed for three years?"
"Only you would care about that Junpei-san, but yes, a cleaning crew did come through here a few days ago." Aigis answered as she turned and headed downstairs to watch for the arrival of their guests, she was surprised to see Mitsuru opening the door for the elderly man that she had seen in the file about Minato's family. She was less surprised to see that he was accompanied by a number of high school age students but then noticed something that she felt would help their case. The students remarked about how nice the Dorm looked but were quickly ushered upstairs by Mitsuru and the elderly gentleman.
In the fourth floor lounge, the students were confused by the computer bank but chose to ignore it for the spread of food on the table. Akihiko then declared, "We're all here, then? Good, wouldn't want the food to get cold."
"Yes, please everyone take a seat." Mitsuru suggested as she motioned to the couches surrounding the table and then seated herself. Once everyone had been seated, SEES taking up half the couches while the elderly man, his granddaughter and his granddaughter's friends took up the other half, Mitsuru began the introductions, "Although Akihiko, Aigis, and myself are acquainted with most of you, I believe it would be prudent that we all introduce ourselves. My name is Kirijo Mitsuru, please feel free to eat while we discuss the reason that we contacted Tsumi-san for."
"I'm Sanada Akihiko, it's a pleasure to meet you all."
"Iori Junpei's my name, don't wear it out."
"I'm Takeba Yukari, it's nice to meet you."
"Hello, My name is Yamagishi Fuuka and the furry one here is Koromaru."
"Amada Ken, it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance."
"My name is Aigis."
With SEES all introduced, the others began their introductions, starting with the elderly gentleman, "Tsumi Batsu."
"Shirogane Naoto, pleased to meet you."
"Seta Souji, nice to meet you all."
"Hanamura Yosuke, nice to meet ya!"
"Satonaka Chie, nice to meet you."
"I'm Amagi Yukiko, It's wonderful to meet you all."
"Tatsumi Kanji, s'nice ta meet you."
"I'm Kujikawa Rise! Nice to meet you all!"
"I'm Teddie! It's beary nice to meet you all!"
"I am Labrys."
"Thank you. Now then, Tsumi-san we would like to know why you abandoned your grandson while taking in your granddaughter thirteen years ago." Mitsuru said abruptly, shocking most everyone there with the exceptions of Batsu, Aigis, and Koromaru. Naoto immediately shot back, "Onii-chan died on the way to the hospital! There's no way that you can blame Ojii-sama for not taking him in!"
Her friends rallied with her but they were shot down by one statement from Batsu, "Natsumi, your brother didn't die thirteen years ago, he died three years ago."
"B-but Ojii-sama you told me that he had died thirteen years ago. What do you mean he died three years ago?" Naoto, now revealed to be called Natsumi, stuttered. Tsumi lowered his head and sighed, "Back when your mother was a teenager there was an incredible storm down in Antarctica and there were four research teams sent in while only one was retrieved after the storm abated. That was the cover story at least.
~}{~
In truth, the storm was in fact some form of space-time anomaly, previously theorized by some German scientist whose name I can never remember, called the Schwarzwelt. Anyway, what we found in there was far from a good situation. As it turned out, the Schwarzwelt was created by demons who wished to return the world to a primal state of dog eat dog, while a group of beings that revealed themselves to be angels stood against them, attempting to usher in a world singing the Lord's praise. Upon entering the Schwarzwelt, the four research vessels were separated by the intense amount of energies being released. The Red Sprite, the vessel that I was placed on, and the Blue Jet, a military support vessel, both crashed down in what would later become known as Sector Antlia, a snow and ice laden cavern above and a war torn countryside below. As soon as we touched down and had secured the ship, Commander Gore had us out and searching for the Blue Jet. We discovered the Blue Jet and a demon attempting to kill its last surviving member, a man named Jimenez, and after a lengthy battle, Commander Gore was killed by the demon that I subsequently ended. The demon's inhabiting Antlia could have been considered adapters, because they and their leader Morax sought to destroy humanity with war tactics like our own.
"After destroying Morax and finding a way to a new area of the Schwarzwelt that would be labeled Sector Bootes, we discovered that a number of the crew of the mainly scientific vessel, the Elve, had been captured by the demon in control of Bootes, Mitra. If Morax had been a general then Mitra was a scientist, I say that because of the various experiments that I saw records of when I scaled Mitra's palace. I was eventually captured by one of Mitra's minions but this led to my recovering the team's head scientist, Zelenin, and finding a way to speak with Mitra. Mitra offered us a choice, we could side with him and live in the paradise that he envisioned or die, we took the third option, scaled his palace, and offed the wanker. This led us to Sector Carina, a land based off modern shopping malls and meat processing plants, inhabited by demons that acted as factory workers, and ruled by the eternally ravenous Horkos. We found Horkos attempting to assimilate the Elve but we managed to fend him off with a gun we created with the help of the angel Mastema. We eventually tracked Horkos down and in the ensuing battle killed him as well, leading us to the fourth sector, Sector Delphinus.
"Delphinus was a massive garbage dump that held a form of psychic virus that induced madness in its victims. After a lot of scouring and the discovery of a foreboding statue, it was revealed that our current foe was the demon Asura, who sought to turn all humans into violence-starved savages and in his definition, perfect. I tracked Asura down, with the demons that I had rallied to my cause, defeated Asura, and found our ticket to the fifth sector. Sector Eridanus was unlike any of the previous sectors in that it was beautiful, a beautiful hedge maze filled to the brim with powerful demons, debilitating traps, and annoying warp traps hidden in random places. After finding our way into the towering white pillar that dominated Eridanus' center, we found ourselves stymied by a doorway that we couldn't unlock. We ended up getting help from a group of mercenaries called Jack's Squad, who had been hired to infiltrated the Schwarzwelt and make off with a boatload of Forma, the Schwarzwelt equivalent to resources, and demons for combat drones. At the time we were unaware of their plans but I'll get to that later, with the help of Jack's Squad we were able to plunge further into the pillar and squared off with a being called 'Mother' Ouroboros. This battle ended with Ouroboros' death but it decided to show us that not all things die when they're killed but luckily, we found a way to get past the Mother's circumstantial immortality and kill her. We believed that by exiting through a singularity present in Eridanus that we could bust out of the Schwarzwelt and return home, this turned out to be a mistake and we were launched into Sector Fornax.
"Fornax had discarded all pretenses of any human presence and instead gave us a labyrinth of gold while light was provided by hexagons hewn from the walls. In Fornax, I discovered that a number of hugely powerful demons had gathered there and were waiting to bring all of us of the Red Sprite, but mostly me, death. The first demon I encountered, after Alice but she's a whole other story, was Morax and he revealed that he, alongside Mitra, Horkos, and Asura, had been revived and granted access to their true power. Morax proved this by shedding his weak form and revealing himself to be the Tyrant Moloch, we fought again and I managed to kill him a second time, but then we received a notice from the ship's AI, Arthur, that something strange had happened to the makeup of the Schwarzwelt's structure. We followed the disturbance to its cause and discovered that Jack's Squad had managed to create their own headquarters in the Schwarzwelt, complete with a breathable atmosphere. Arthur allowed Jimenez to stay with a small contingent of members from the strike team to keep an eye on them while we returned to Fornax. I found myself at a crossroads and chose the left most path, this path, after leading me through various switchbacks and traps, led me to Mitra who shed his scientist mask to become Mithras, a being governed by rage. Luckily, Mithras' rage blinded him allowing me to get rid of him and continue on my way. I tried the center path but was blocked by a demon I assumed to be Asura based off previous happenings, I turned back and trekked down the path to the right and found Horkos on the bottom floor. Horkos revealed himself to be the Hell gate-like demon Orcus who tried to suck me and my team of demons into the abyss that it called its stomach. We remedied our situation by giving Orcus a rather strong stomachache and then returned to the Red sprite in order to get my DEMONICA's demon revealing capabilities increased so that I could fight Asura.
"Things got awkward when I faced Asura again because Asura, well, Asura revealed that he wasn't really a he by revealing her true form, the goddess Asherah. After the minute of eye twitching that my demons and I shared, we dove right into battle and came out with a victory. We trekked down the last few levels of Fornax and found the Mother demon that was respawning the stronger demons that I had fought up until that point, Tiamat. We killed Tiamat and gained access to the next sector of the Schwarzwelt, Grus. Grus was a land of illusions and was created to look like sectors that we had previously visited, more specifically Antlia, Bootes, Carina, and Delphinus. We ended up discovering the hideout of the angels in the Schwarzwelt and I had an audience with heir leader, Mastema. Mastema shared his goals with Zelenin and I and asked us if either of us was willing to join the angels and their cause, I declined while Zelenin agreed and became an angel. It was then that Arthur sent an urgent message to everyone on the Strike team to return to the Red Sprite, when I arrived we were briefed on an incident at Jack's Squad's pocket dimension during which Jimenez was captured and being held hostage by Jack's Squad. We broke into Jack's Squad's dimension in short order and after some hell raising I tracked down Jimenez. He and one of his demons, Bugaboo, had been horribly tortured and both were dying as a result, at that point I had a choice, I could attempt to free them both and get them back to the ship and try and save them, or I could fuse them together, make Jimenez a half-demon, and save their lives then and there. I fused the two of them and then went to confront Jack while Jimenez got accustomed to his body by ripping open their ship. I killed Jack, left the squad in the hands of his second in command, and headed back to report to Arthur.
"We traveled back to Grus and encountered a group of demons aligned with no Mother or faction who just wanted peace, and they said they would let us pass through their domain on one condition, we destroy Jack's Squad. The angels appealed through Zelenin that we let her use her song to pacify the squad and show them the path of the Lord, but I had promised those demons the blood of Jack's Squad and I don't go back on my promises. After the Strike Team and I had buried Jack's Squad and ransacked their ship for materials, we encountered Zelenin and Mastema, both of whom were displeased with our course of action but accepted it. We returned to Grus and the demons let us pass into the land beyond their home and we plunged into a land of illusion. The ground would shift underneath us and there were walls that were merely illusions or sometimes there were walls that looked like passages. Based off my experience with past areas of the Schwarzwelt, I trekked down further and further until I came upon a powerful demon that, rather then be a Mother, was known as the Demiurge. My demons and I fought the Demiurge and, by defeating it, gained a powerful ally, but it turned out that Grus' resident Mother lived on the first level so we had to navigate there. Maya was incredibly frustrating to locate with all her illusionary scenery and decoys, but we eventually tracked down the real one and killed her. After returning to the Red Sprite, we took off for the last sector.
"Unfortunately the Red Sprite was hijacked by three spirits while we were in flight who tried to sway us towards their path, the world the angels desired, a world with no free will, a world where only songs praising the Lord were sung, a world that they had made Zelenin their tool to create. You see, back in the olden days when YHVH was battling against Bel, and no I didn't know about this before I went into the Schwarzwelt, for supremacy YHVH created the angels and gave them the ability to sing in ways that made people follow it. It wasn't a voluntary following either, the songs stripped people of their free will and made them follow YHVH, after Bel had been defeated or destroyed, YHVH took away the angels' singing abilities because it wanted to appear as a kind and benevolent ruler. This decision has proven itself a shot in the foot, but YHVH hasn't returned that ability to the angels so it seems that it still has an ace up its sleeve. Anyway, when Zelenin became an angel she gained the ability to sing like that and was then made the angels' glorified tool. However, halfway through the spirits' spiel a blonde woman appeared on the bridge and started arguing with the spirits, claiming that a free world of dog eat dog, where the weak are trampled under foot, is the sort of world humanity needs. At that time, speaking for the 'Evil' demons we had Louisa Ferre, a not so difficult pseudonym for Lucifer. We touched down in the last sector, Horologium, and a number of the crew splintered off, to follow Jimenez and the 'Evil' demons, or to follow Zelenin, the 'Good' demons, and the angels.
"Horologium itself was a mess of molten rock, invisible ground, huge cliff faces, and dangerous demons, but there was one other factor. When we began our preliminary investigation I found an elevator at the far end of the first floor that went all the way to the bottom floor, just outside the door to the room where I had a reading for a powerful demon I met Commander Gore, or rather the Gore that had been revived by the Mothers and initially used as their puppet. I had encountered Gore before but this time he had returned to his own identity and was intent on showing me what the Mother of Horologium, Mem Aleph, looked like and as such led me through the door to see her then slumbering form. We didn't dare stay too long, lest she wake and destroy us then, we returned to the Red Sprite and Gore proved that he had returned to his senses to the remaining crew and told us of the Mothers' plans. Gore gave us three choices, host demons inside of us and make the world survival of the fittest, become hosts for the Holy Spirit and make the world a sphere of silence, or stay true to our mission and protect humanity. We chose to protect humanity and Gore informed us of the path we would need to take, we would need to retrieve four Cosmic Eggs, a nuclear warhead from the last ship, the Gigantic, defeat Mem Aleph, the angels, anyone else in our way, we would then need to blow up the eggs at the top of Eridanus, allowing us to escape and destroy the Schwarzwelt.
"We tracked down the Cosmic Eggs and the Gigantic in the first four sectors of the Schwarzwelt and set about exploring the rest of Horologium, the exploration was interesting for me because I recruited two last demons to my cause, Masakado who wished to protect Tokyo, and Shiva who was apathetic to the whole situation. On our way to the bottom of Horologium, we encountered Jimenez who we had to fight to the death, and then I found my way down to the bottom of the sector and Mem Aleph's chamber. Mem Aleph tried to get me to join her but I refused and we fought, I killed her once, but she got better and we had to kill her again to make sure she died. After ensuring Mem Aleph's destruction, we fled Horologium with almost all of the demons in the Schwarzwelt on our asses and made our escape to Eridanus. On our way to the center of Eridanus, we encountered Zelenin and I dealt with her while everyone else went on ahead, after destroying the angels' plan Mastema confronted me and told me that he still had plans for the human world but they were on hold at that time. I caught up to the ship and, one long and complicated explanation short, nuked the Cosmic Eggs, and escaped back into Antarctica where our rescue was waiting."
~}{~
"As for how this applies to why I abandoned Minato, it was because of these three," Batsu explained as he pulled out three test tubes and showed them to everyone gathered, and, although they didn't know what was in them, they recognized that they were powerful. Batsu shook the test tubes, "The Demiurge, Masakado, and Shiva stay in these test tubes, and they warned me about Minato, they told me that he smelled like Death and that his presence was inviting danger. I just wanted to at least keep Natsumi safe so I separated the two of them."
"I see…we can explain as to why Minato-san made your demons think that in our own explanation." Aigis said as she glanced out the window, noting that the sun had set during Batus's story. Mitsuru nodded and then asked Batsu, Natsumi, and Natsumi's friends a single question, "What if I told you that there was more then twenty four hours in a day? These days we would be lying to you, but three years ago, it was a different story.
~}{~
"Five years ago, we of SEES, the Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad, were but two people, Akihiko and myself. Takeba joined us four years ago, and Arisato joined us three years ago, but his presence caused things to change. On his first night here at the dorm he experienced the Dark Hour, what we called the hour between the two days, and suffered no ill effects. We continued to observe him for a few days, until a huge Shadow, what the monsters that inhabited the Dark Hour were called, attacked the dorm and we had to wake him. He and Takeba fled to the roof but they were headed off by the Shadow and I will never forget what I saw that night. Arisato took Takeba's Evoker and summoned his Persona, a facet of his soul, Orpheus, and then Orpheus started to spasm. A pair of arms ripped out from Orpheus' neck and a monstrous Persona burst from within Orpheus, the then unidentified Persona ripped into the Shadow and attempted to devour it. Arisato collapsed at that point and we had to wait for a week until he woke up and returned to school, during that time we discovered another Persona user in Arisato and Takeba's class, Iori. After formally accepting Arisato and Iori into SEES, we took them to where Tartarus manifested itself during the Dark Hour, Gekkoukan High school. We had Arisato take point on their first foray into Tartarus and watched as they began to grow adept at using their Personae and we saw Arisato acquire more Personae.
"Arisato was a very special type of Persona user you see, he was a Wild Card and, based on what Aigis has told us of what the residents of the Velvet Room say, trying to compare a normal Wild Card to Arisato was like comparing the sea to the starry sky above. Over the course of the year we were attacked by numerous other super powered Shadows that only appeared on the night of the Full Moon and Arisato lead us into battle against them, the Personae he had gathered leading the charge. After the Empress and Emperor Full Moon battle, we recruited Yamagishi who replaced me as our communications specialist, we then recruited Aigis shortly before the Justice and Chariot Full Moon battle, and we recruited Koromaru shortly after that. During summer vacation, we recruited Amada and prepared for the next Full Moon battle.
"During September Arisato and Akihiko managed to convince one of the original three members of SEES, Aragaki Shinjiro, to return to SEES. You, Kujikawa, although you weren't conscious for it you should know the effects of the Hermit Full Moon battle because it ruined your concert. After that, on October 4th, the night of the Strength and Fortune Full Moon battle, Aragaki was killed protecting Amada. They had left the battle so that Amada could confront Aragaki, whom he blamed for his mother's death. Amada had planned to kill Aragaki and then himself but they were interrupted by Takaya Sakaki, the leader of a group of Persona users called Strega. Takaya attempted to kill the both of them but Aragaki took the bullets meant for himself and for Amada, this led to a bit of a crisis between those of us here at SEES as to whether we should go out and find Amada or leave him be. He eventually came back and both he and Akihiko managed to raise their Personae to what is referred to as 'perfect' state Persona.
"I had yet to mention this but during our confrontation with the Hermit Full Moon Shadow, Iori was captured by a member of Strega, Yoshino Chidori. We apprehended Yoshino, managed to keep her confined to a hospital while we investigated any information we got out of her, and Iori nursed her back to mental stability. Unfortunately, towards the end of October, the other two members of Strega broke into the hospital and kidnapped Yoshino. We tracked them to the entrance of Tartarus and battled Yoshino but after the battle Takaya attempted to kill Yoshino and Iori took the bullet for her. Yoshino displayed a strange power then and traded her life for his, causing their Personae to merge and become a perfect state Persona.
"We didn't have very much time to recover from the backlash of that night before we had to face off against the last Full Moon shadow, the Hanged Man. Takaya and Shirato tried to head us off but they jumped off the bridge after we dealt with them. The Full Moon battle was far more of an ordeal compared to what little resistance Strega's remnants provided. We nearly lost Takeba and Amada during that battle but we vanquished the brute and decided to hold a party for destroying the last Full Moon Shadow and ending the Dark Hour. The next night, after the party, the Dark Hour took hold again and we raced to Tartarus upon hearing its bells tolling only to discover the school chairman and SEES' supervisor, Ikutsuki Shuji and a brainwashed Aigis. Ikutsuki ordered Aigis to capture us as well as my father, who had joined us for the festivities, and imprisoned us atop the observatory. Ikutsuki revealed his true intentions to us that night, the truth behind the Full Moon Shadows and Tartarus.
"Ikutsuki was of the belief that humanity had stagnated and become an empty void that covered the planet, thus needed to be wiped out by Nyx. He believed that by using us to lure out and exterminate the Full Moon Shadows, that he could then use us as sacrifices to summon Nyx and bring about the Fall. We were saved by Koromaru distracting Ikutsuki long enough for my father to draw his own pistol and for Arisato to do whatever he did to snap Aigis out of Ikutsuki's control. Aigis freed us but… my father and Ikutsuki… they… they shot each other down. After that, I explained the Dark Hour's origins.
"Originally, Tartarus and the Dark Hour were created by an experiment by the Kirijo group that was originally meant to research Shadows but was twisted by my grandfather's nihilism. My grandfather and his research team amassed a huge amount of Shadows and attempted to force them into one form, but the head researcher, Takeba's father, saw what my grandfather was attempting to do and tried to abort the experiment. The resulting explosion created the Dark Hour, Tartarus, and caused the massive Shadow to fracture into thirteen different pieces, the Full Moon Shadows and one other Shadow, the Arcana that should not have been, Death. How the deaths of my father and Ikutsuki were covered up were rather public, so there is no need to elaborate on that but suffice to say that we all had our own problems to deal with, and Takeba raised her Persona to its perfect state. Then came November and along with it, Mochizuki Ryoji bulldozed into our lives.
"Mochizuki was an exuberant young man who, while charming, quickly became famous throughout the school as a womanizer. He also approached those of us in SEES and began socializing with us, with the exception of Aigis who viewed him as a threat and Arisato who was usually out helping people or working to buy better equipment for our forays into Tartarus. Mochizuki disappeared towards the end of November but returned during the first few days of December and faced off against Aigis, both having remembered why Aigis saw him as a threat. When we discovered that Aigis was missing from the dorm we immediately began our search and found them on the Rainbow Bridge, Mochizuki standing over Aigis' damaged chassis and apologizing for having to hurt her in such away. We quickly ferried the two back to the dorm and, after ensuring that Aigis was in the proper hands, we began interrogating Mochizuki. Mochizuki had been born into our world thirteen years ago as an incomplete being, he was born on the night you abandoned Arisato, and Mochizuki was the Appriser, Death. The truth of the matter was that thirteen years ago when Death fled the ruins of the lab, it collided with a car that carried a family returning home from a party, the impact killed the parents and when the eldest child awoke to find his parents unmoving and a coffin in the place of his sister, he charged Death and Aigis, having been given the order to destroy or seal Death, used this chance to seal Death in the closest compatible vessel, the boy. Arisato was the first of us in SEES to encounter the Dark Hour and Shadows because on that night, Aigis sealed Death inside him. Death subtly influenced Arisato to return to Iwatodai and hunt down the Full Moon Shadows, it also was the thing that ripped out of Orpheus and slaughtered the Magician Full Moon Shadow. After recounting his tale Mochizuki gave us a choice, kill him and remain oblivious to the Dark Hour until the Fall, or attempt to fight Nyx at the end of January. Mochizuki gave us until the end of December to make up our minds on whether or not to fight Nyx. The month itself was a whirlwind of decisions and second-guessing but ultimately, the choice rested with Arisato and he chose to fight Nyx.
"January saw the rise of the cult of Nyx as well as a number of expeditions towards the top of Tartarus, where Nyx would arrive, and into the Monad, a special area in Tartarus that Arisato discovered. We faced off against numerous powerful Shadows as we explored and grew in strength. On January thirty-first, we entered Tartarus at midnight and, while ascending to where we would battle Nyx, encountered Shirato and Takaya separately, both of them attempting to waylay us long enough for the Fall to take place. When we reached the top of Tartarus, we found that Mochizuki had become Nyx's Avatar to initiate the Fall and engaged it in combat. Throughout the battle, the Avatar would change its Arcana and its attributes in the same sequence as the Major Arcana until it reached the Death, its true Arcana. At that point, it began reflecting our attacks back at as and ruthlessly trying to kill us, but we still defeated it. Even then, Nyx wasn't done, it revealed that its true self was within the Moon and began dropping towards Tartarus, raining pressure down upon us all. We're unsure as to what happened but Arisato passed out, and then slowly got to his feet and drifted up to Nyx's core, we weren't present to see what had happened but we found ourselves at Tartarus' base while the tower reformed into the high school and Arisato floated down in front of the school.
After that, we forgot. Our minds blocked off all reminders of the Dark Hour, Tartarus, and Nyx, and we forgot the friendships and bonds we had forged. It wasn't until our graduation day that we remembered the truth and our promise to meet on the school roof. When we arrived, we found Aigis with Arisato's head in her lap; he smiled at us, said, "love through all eternity, until my life is exhausted. I will never leave you." Then he closed his eyes. We wished that he had just fallen asleep because he hadn't been looking well for a few days prior, but he didn't wake up. When the doctors examined him they could find nothing wrong with him, according to them he just stopped and didn't start again. We didn't discover the truth until March thirty-first when we had all gathered at the dorm to say goodbye but were trapped in an infinite loop, constantly repeating March thirty-first.
"It wasn't until another anti-Shadow weapon, Metis, claiming to be Aigis' sister burst from the basement and attempted to kill us, but was stopped by Aigis unleashing the Wild Card ability. We ventured into the basement and discovered a desert filled with doors called the Abyss of Time where we recounted memories and faced our pasts. While traveling through the doors, we would constantly see Arisato's silhouette moving through the Abyss and eventually we confronted it. It was a simulacrum of Arisato created from our grief and our wishing to see him again, it challenged us to a battle and we defeated it, each of us gaining a key that, when joined with the others, would allow us to travel through time. Various factions formed based on what we wished to do with the keys, Takeba and I wished to go back and keep Arisato from dying, Akihiko and Amada believed that we should move forward and leave the past as it was, Junpei and Koromaru were undecided, while Aigis and Metis wished to go back and see why Arisato died but not interfere.
"We held a tournament to see who would get the keys and Aigis and Metis won. We traveled back in time and watched Arisato's clash with Nyx, and its resolution. In the end, Arisato gave his life in order to become a barrier between Nyx and Erebus, the manifestation of humanity's wish for death. Although Arisato should have died on January thirty-first, he managed to drag almost five weeks more out of life through sheer determination. We had to battle Erebus ourselves due to Arisato being indisposed, and after defeating Erebus, we had to race out of the Abyss and use the key to unlock the front door because the Abyss' corruption was spreading. Upon opening the door, rather then finding ourselves outside, we found ourselves in a large, old-fashioned elevator; or rather, we were in the Velvet Room, a place where Wild Card Persona users go to fuse new Personae. The proprietor, Igor, and his assistant, Elizabeth, explained to us their own role in the development of Wild Card Persona users as well as how they believed that Arisato could return, and Elizabeth's… unusual declaration. Metis also revealed herself to be the human part of Aigis that Aigis had attempted to throw away because of the pain that Arisato's death caused her."
~}{~
Mitsuru breathed deeply as she finished recollecting SEES' escapades, and her thoughts turned to Minato, wondering if they really did have a chance to revive him with the world in its current state. Souji hummed and tapped his chin, "The seal at the end of the universe… right?"
"Yes, that is correct, how do you know that?" Aigis asked as she gave Souji a measuring look, to which he responded, "Margaret, Elizabeth's sister, explained to me why Elizabeth left the Velvet Room after we fought her at Heaven's End. She said that her sister went off to rescue the boy who made the seal at the end of the universe."
The rest of the Investigation Team nodded at that remark but quickly began looking from left to right as the majority of the lights went out. Aigis bolted over to the windows and then charged out of the lounge and out onto the roof to stare in disbelief at the pale green full Moon hanging in the sky. The others joined her on the roof some staring at the moon in disbelief, others in horror, while Batsu spun around at the sound of a chuckle, pulling the vials containing the Demiurge, Masakado, and Shiva from his coat, and asking, "Who are you?"
On the roof of the stairwell, a young man was sitting with his right leg supporting his arm and behind him a tall, silver haired man in red with a giant sword on his back was standing with his hands in his pockets. The young man lazily got to his feet and jumped down, his yellow eyes betraying his demonic side, and said, "I'm Kashima Naoki and the guy behind me is Dante, as for why we're here, we heard about a really interesting guy from some demons and we decided to check it out. When we found out that he sealed a goddess to protect humanity we had to give him props, and what we found out made it hard to even meet the guy. Then we found out that he did something that we didn't expect. He either broke off two pieces of his psyche or cloned his soul twice and dropped them into two neighboring universes where they were reborn and grew up. We managed to make contact with someone who could operate in those worlds but he refused to interfere beyond sending one person because he thought it would ruin how amusing it could be. So, we decided that those people who fought at his side should see the people that he became and the things they're doing but we ran into a snag ya see. In order to show you guys those worlds a huge amount of power would be necessary, so I took the liberty of having these four join us and provide some power."
Naoki gestured and four more beings dropped down onto the roof, Metatron and Zelenin of the angels, and Lucifer and Jimenez from the demons. It should be noted that on each of their wrists they wore a gem bangle and all of them looked rather uncomfortable. Jimenez chuckled, "It's good to see you Batsu, but I gotta say that you look old."
"Of course you didn't. In another universe, there's a guy at his computer railroading this entire encounter and trying to make things awkward. He's usually better at nonsense and absurdity if you ask me." A dapper looking gentleman smirked as he appeared in a flash of rainbow light and looked over those gathered, all ready thinking about who he was going to send. Aigis beat everyone to their questions when she asked, "Schwenger-san? Is this the assistance that you mentioned?"
"In a way, but you seem to have gotten my name wrong. There's nothing wrong with that I assure you, but please remember in the future that my name is Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg. In truth, I was only passing through when those two told me about Arisato and, after doing some research of my own, I decided that it would be interesting to watch." Zelretch corrected as he nodded at Aigis and then to the group at large, "Now then, I'm finished collecting prana which you can probably tell by my bringing over the phenomenon that you call the Dark Hour. Based on the fact that the Moon is a large catalyst in this phenomenon we will be using it to look at the two worlds."
"In the first world we see a completely new person born from the cast off fragment or clone, someone who is continuously smiling and helping his friends." As Zelretch gestured at the Moon, an image of a young man smiling and walking with his friends down the street appeared. The young man had blue tinted hair, headphones on his ears and was walking with a group of people, to his immediate right another young man wearing a beanie, and a redheaded girl to his left. Zelretch then continued, "But, even there, trouble just seems to find some people."
The image on the Moon shifted to a laboratory where a silver haired man studied a computer before nodding to a woman in a recording booth. The woman began to sing, causing the world to distort, demons to appear and the silver haired man to smile, this continued for a number of minutes until the woman was devoured by the distortion, which promptly snapped closed. The other scientists with the man began to freak out but he waved them off as he gestured to a computer screen and causing them to calm down. The view shifted again to a man with a look of fanatical fervor on his face as he stared into a mirror, a face that was not his own in the mirror while his daughter merely shook her head. The view changed to an alley where a grey skinned man was holding another man's neck in his mouth, some blood leaking from the demon's lips the only indication of something sinister.
Zelretch waved his hand causing the Moon to fade back to its green tinged hue and then turned to those gathered, "I will be sending Kashima to that universe due to his own familiarity with demons and their ilk, but moving on. In the second world the situation is much more similar to this world's own situation three years ago."
The Moon showed a young man, short sword in hand, walking through a city that was also entrapped in the Dark Hour. A Maya Shadow charged him and he brought his hand in front of him, crushing the blue card floating just above his palm. A robotic figure with a lyre on its back rose up behind him and then strummed its lyre, causing a ball of flame to incinerate the Shadow. The young man approached the Shadow's remains and began rooting through them, pulling out a small wad of yen notes.
Zelretch smiled at those gathered and asked, "So, who will go to this world?"
"I will, I owe him this much."
"I will go, I promised that I would never leave his side."
"I will also volunteer, I cannot allow myself to just stand by and watch."
"Heh, sounds like some good training. Count me in."
"I'm also throwing my name onto the volunteer list, after all, I just can't leave my former wingman stranded."
"I want to go as well, but I don't think the others would let me…"
"I'm in, but he is going to have a lot of explaining to do to me."
"I also want to reconnect with Minato-kun."
A howl of determination rang out through the night.
"I need to go, I…I need to see him again and find out what sort of person he's become."
The Investigation Team and Labrys shared a look and nodded, "Each of us volunteer as well."
"Ah, wonderful, a number of volunteers to choose from. Although I should warn you that he has, by the standards of their culture, married an alien and a half and has number of possible wives that could join him, though they would be most willing to share him." Zelretch chortled as he looked at the dumbstruck faces that met his statement. Aigis frowned and inquired, "Why are you so sure of this?"
"My apprentice's apprentice in a different world was Sahashi Minato, the same identity that the fragment or clone of the second world took. So far, he has 'married' seven of the aliens and is in a relationship with both my apprentice and a Heroic Spirit, a manifestation of a hero so legendary that they became a pseudo-deity. Never a dull moment there." Zelretch chuckled as he looked at those gathered on the roof, and pointed a finger, "Have a fun time…"
~}{~
I pocketed the yen that I had managed to scrounge from the Shadows so far, but at the rate I'm going it'll take a week to make next month's rent. Maybe I should look at some of the jobs out there…
Hmm? The sound of the wind parting? Oh, Shit!
I jumped forwards and rolled, catching sight of my attacker as I stood up. Ash blonde hair, tall, normal sized bust, short skirt, black clothes, Zettai Ryouiki grade A, and, of course, a sword. Greeting her would be in my best interest, it might stop her from attacking me, "Hello! Can you please stop with the sword swinging? I really do like having my head attached."
"Oh, and here I thought that everything out here was trying to kill me…" This strange, beautiful woman muttered as she watched, no, observed me. "Fool, shouldn't you be running?" I'm sure it's all a misunderstanding, Orpheus. "+I don't-hee think so-ho!+" Frost old boy, I can talk my way out of most situations and charm my way into a woman's pants, surely I can talk and charm my way out of this situation. Now I feel like a slime ball, have a lovely mental image that will make you uncomfortable! "F-Fool! I never!" "+Hee-HO!+" Ah Digimon, how we love thou. Especially you, Xros Wars. Now back to reality! And I asked the mystery woman, "So… having a nice night?"
"You could say that, I do find cutting down those blobs rather therapeutic." Score! She answered; hopefully they won't find my body missing its head tomorrow. Best introduce myself, "Nice to meet you, I'm Sahashi Minato. I am currently hunting my rent."
"Karasuba, I'm trying to relax by killing these things but they really aren't that great for letting loose on." Karasuba answered, eyeing the disintegrating remains of my most recent hunt with disgust. I couldn't help but chuckle, "I'm just glad that there are no Full Moon Shadows about, all though they could probably give you the challenge that you're looking for."
Oh shit.
I just said that didn't I?
Fuck. I just fucked us over.
Sure enough, I can here it now, the sound of suckers ripping themselves off pavement, the grinding of fingernails against coffins, and a low moan from my right. I stood up quickly, my short sword in my right hand, and Orpheus' card in my left as I called to the woman, "Your wish has come true."