Damnit, he was tired. All he really wanted to do was to avoid the questioning eyes of the three researchers in front of him and crash on the cheap hotel room a block away. But his pillow would have to wait, as this might be the only time he'd be able to get some actual answers.
Right now, the Shadow Operatives group was still in Inaba, coordinating information with every detective assigned to the Seitou case, looking for some possible lead on how to enter the criminal's supernatural hideout or at least a way to lure him out into the open.
Well, almost every detective.
Someone had decided that Ryotaro Dojima didn't need to be in Inaba today, instead sending him three towns over on the flimsy excuse of coordinating canvassing efforts. The blatant attempt to hide the detective almost worked, too, if not for a gang of Seitou's lackeys fortuitously putting the Persona wielding detective in the same fight as the anti-shadow unit Aigis.
The Shadow Operatives had offered their help, and his nephew had managed to twist his arm into accepting it. Both parties had agreed it was better not to tip their cooperation to whomever had an interest in the detective just yet.
Which is now why he was sitting uneasily in the garage of a nondescript office building, hoping that he hadn't walked out of the frying pan only to land into the fire, instead.
One of the labcoats, a kid who didn't look much older than Yu, stopped taking notes and nodded at Dojima. "Dojima-san, my name is Kujo Aramaki, I'm one of the lead engineers at the Kirijo Shadow research laboratories. My boss gave me the basic rundown of what you've been experiencing since contact with the so called 'Sea of Souls'. Now, I don't want to get your hopes up, but we may be able to jury rig a temporary surge protector of sorts, if my theories prove correct. However, if you wouldn't mind a small demonstration in person, it would go a long way for us to see what we're dealing with."
This Aramaki character led the wary older man to a device that looked a bit like a backhoe, with a reinforced steel plate instead of shovel adjusted to about shoulder height. "Now, sir, I just want you to hit this as hard as you can. Don't hold back; this bad boy can take 3 tonnes psi. If you'd like, we've got padded gloves you can wear-"
Dojima smirked as he punched his right fist into left hand, relaxing his shoulders. "Nah. I got this."
CRUNCH.
The engineer from the Kirijo winced as he spoke into the video phone. "That's the third force plate he's destroyed so far."
Mitsuru shook her head in unconcerned interest. She had tried to warn them not to underestimate the man they were dealing with. "So I take it you still have no leads on how we can help him?" The young leader of the Shadow Operatives worried she'd overstated their abilities when she'd convinced Ryotaro Dojima to let them examine him at one of their satellite offices.
Aramaki blinked at his boss, as if the mere suggestion was a personal insult. "Oh, no! The faraday cage wearable device is proving remarkably effective. The trick was to divert and disperse the excess energy output safely to keep it from building past levels that the subject has trouble controlling. The detective is just putting it through the paces so we can see what the upper limits of his abilities are while testing the failure rate."
The young research engineer angled the webcam over to allow the head of the Kirijo group a view of the laboratory floor. Sure enough, Dojima, clad in what appeared to be a black t shirt laced with wires and LEDs, was looking at a severely twisted hydraulic arm of the force meter they'd been using to test the effectiveness of the equipment on his performance.
Armakai adjusted his glasses as he always did when bragging about his latest development. "Really, the biggest issue was hitting the right materials to withstand the heat output this man can generate. The first prototype sadly melted at an output of 4 metric tonnes of force, since we saw a spike in temperature of 100 degrees celsius. This version has currently held up at 8 metric tonnes, and a spike of 150 degrees, which seems to be the current upper limit he can output. The biggest obstacle has been regulating his waste energy output to less than 100 celsius. It seems the faster he moves or higher force he outputs, the more waste energy is expended as heat. Stress can also create a fluctuation in waste energy, but those outputs are usually easily diverted."
"That...I...my goodness. That is incredible. I knew he was remarkable, but this beyond what I could have predicted. Any idea what the source might be?"
That seemed to deflate Aramaki a bit. "Well, yes, and no." The look his employer gave him told the engineer that was not an acceptable answer. "I mean it's fairly easy to see how he's able to do it; his body is able to generate and channel the energy seen with Persona use at incredible levels that by all means would kill anyone else. You know that during that in previous documentation that in the manifestation of the Persona generates energy along the spinal cortex, correct? Well, he's generating this energy constantly, and throughout his entire nervous system; the closest comparison I can make is to the theories on chi. However, …we can't figure out what is generating it, or how he's adapted to use it over such extended periods. Most people find themselves suffer a sort of 'burn out' from maintaining a Persona for more than a few hours, but he's replicating the process constantly with no visible ill effects. If I was able to spend more time studying him at our main research facility, I might-"
Mitsuru held up her hand. "Don't even go down that road. Lest you forget, Aramaki, this 'test subject' of yours is a human being, with a life and family. The Kirijo Group has made it our mission not to repeat the mistakes of the past."
"Yeah, yeah, I know. You've mentioned this is a particularly delicate situation. Still, perhaps when whatever going on dies down, we can offer a more thorough analysis, if he's up for it. I mean, if we could figure out how he's developed these abilities, who knows what other secrets we might learn? This could possibly be a new form of Persona evolution. We might be looking at the basis of heroes of myth!"
The young CEO didn't look amused. "Keep the mythology analysis for another time, please. Have you made any additional progress on the FES portal activation device? Dojima-san gave some promising information on what form the portals are taking during this incident."
The young researcher nodded. "He's been quite forthcoming with his observations from several crime scenes they've investigated. Even without the full knowledge of Shadow and Tartarus science, he's got a good eye for hypothesis. If you don't mind me saying, Ma'am, have you considered offering him a job?"
Shaking his hand lightly, Dojima couldn't help but feel a little bit of pride at the damage he'd been able to inflict on the supposedly 'indestructible' plate he'd been punching for the last hour. He'd stop really listening to the labcoats as they rattled off random numbers. They just told him to hit it, he did, and then waited while they tried to adjust it again. Most of what they were chattering at him went a mile over his head, anyways.
He tried not to fiddle with the black cloth wrapped around him for the thousandth time. He had no idea what it was, or what it was meant to be doing; just that it felt slightly awkward as he raised his arms over his head, like an over starched dress shirt. It weighed a good deal more than anything he was used to wearing. Vaguely, he could feel where certain parts stuck to his skin were doing something to the energy inside him.
Whatever the piece of clothing was supposed to do, he could feel a change in the way the fire sat in his core. No longer was he forced to spend most his concentration keeping the energy in his blood under control; the energy and heat was still there, but steadier, more consistent and predictable. It didn't pound in his ears when he pushed himself out of 'normal' range, but almost a pleasant hum. He felt a bit more grounded, and that was worth the additional unpleasant feelings of being a human guinea pig whenever he did something the labcoats didn't expect.
One thing did stick in his mind, said by the little upstart kid when they had seen success with keeping him 'grounded'. "It's holding... Which is great, but your levels still fluctuate, like we're not seeing your full potential just yet. Almost as if there's a piece missing from all this. But, as you said, these abilities are still relatively new. Perhaps over time you'll grow into these developments, and they'll stabilize without outside help. That's a big 'if', however…."
Ryujin had shifted in the back of his mind at the statement. It is true, you are not yet complete as you once were. Something still holds you back. What do you fear more, what others want of you, or what you will become?
The detective groused at that. His persona didn't pull any punches when it came to pointing out his innermost fears. Guess that's what you got, having your other self as a fighting partner. He was scared of how much more he could change, but more and more the fear of what could happen to others if he didn't come to terms was growing. If he let his fear paralyze him and someone took advantage of that, who knows what might happen. What if someone like Adachi ended up like this? What if it was someone like Seitou?
Thoughts of those murderers and the hell they'd put him through stoked the fire through his limbs, making the hum rise in pitch and volume. Only the scream of metal buckling against his fist cut through it. One. Two. Three. The entire force plate clanged against the cement floor, now nothing more than a pile of twisted scrap. Then, and only then, did a shaky sigh rattle in his chest and his arms drop.
His mind was still a murky swamp of emotion and half formed would be catastrophes as he walked the two blocks back to the cheap hotel the precinct had chucked him in for the night. There had to be a clue, somewhere, on how to get where ever Seitou was hiding out. That TV World, or whatever the Kirijo group called it - "Sea of Souls" - was supposed all be interconnected. If Seitou was there, why couldn't they find him?
The lock clicked open and he shucked off his jacket and shoes in the entrance. Right now all he wanted to do was sleep, and hope that tomorrow someone had answers for him.
He...
He stared. There, in the center of the bed, balanced perfectly, was a glass bottle.
The glass bottle.
The one that should be locked away, three towns over. Not in a cheap hotel room, staring back at him like a piece of the forbidden fruit.
Even in the darkness, the liquid inside seemed to glow, sloshing gently from his heavy footfalls. The whole room seemed to dance a bit in its light.
He hadn't even realized he'd retreated from the sight until his heels painfully bounced off the wall behind him. Why….
You said you were ready to take the last step. Or was that all bluster?
Let go of your fear and embrace it.
He pressed his palm to his forehead, trying to mentally will the subconscious dragon silent. Dojima Ryotaro had just said he'd wanted answers, and he didn't an enigmatic persona to tell him that some of them were only going to come when he finished the bottle.
There was no fire. No burn. Just a sweetness, like a ripe peach.
For the first time since this all started, he just felt…
Normal.
Was that it? Was that the answer to all of this? Finish the bottle, and in turn, everything reset?
He wanted to laugh.
All that worry, for it to end like this.
Any mirth shattered as cold metal pressed against the base of his skull.
A strange, sicky voice behind him answered his unasked question.
"Detective Dojima, Seitou Noburo would like to see you now."
Notes: What would Dojima be, if not a cop? Can he be anything other than a cop? It's not a question he'd want to answer anytime soon, if he could have a say. The bottle, if you're wondering, isn't really a physical thing. It's made of the same stuff that makes up most of the TV World, so it's not really bound to the laws of physics. It knows where it's needed. Hope this lives up to everyone's expectations. I live for everyone's comments, really.