With darkness, the room lost all sense of depth and size. Perhaps it was just the loss of the giant shadow in the center, but space suddenly felt looming in its emptiness; there were no walls, ceiling, and despite the feeling of something solid beneath Ryotaro's knees, no floor either. The only source of light was the strange blue butterfly just beyond his outstretched fingertips. With each flutter of its iridescent wings, drops of light fell into the inky air, before it too was swallowed up into the nothingness.

The lithe insect danced further into the darkness, circling in a lazy flight path that slowly created a column of light that grew brighter and brighter. The detective blinked against the sudden brightness, before the butterfly was swallowed up by its own light, and the column collapsed into the shape of figure.

At the sight of the figure's mask, Dojima collapsed to the floor, groaning. Another damned shadow…

"Hm. Sometimes, detective, it is best not to take things at face value." The face behind the mask remained passive. "I come from a place beyond this world… a place between the consciousness and unconsciousness."

Dojima rubbed a hand across his face; with the adrenaline draining from him, the exhaustion it'd kept at bay met no resistance as it soaked through his very bones, weighing him down. He was just too tired of this. Shadows, personas, gods and mysteries… he was sick of them all. "So you're…what? A god?"

Heels clicked on unseen floors as the figure moved closer. "Hardly, detective. What are gods, after all, but the dreams and legends of the human experience, given shape? There are sparks of the divine, yes, but even Gods live and die by the wish of human desires; many are nothing more than the shadows of myth given form. Powerful shadows, sometimes, to influence the collective unconsciousness, but shadows nonetheless. Maybe once there were gods as you think of them, but all that exists these days are ghosts and memories."

Questions and confusion swirled through Ryotaro's brain. "But…"

"Ghosts and memories are powerful things, detective. Even if it didn't exist, you tell a story enough and it gains a reality of its own, in a space brought forth by the collective human soul… Sometimes, then, the greater story becomes stronger than the individual. Inazami thought so, so much that her merged self has made every attempt to give the hopeful narrative that people crave. She pulled deep, and found a story that fit, and an actor to become her hero. Humans influence shadows, and shadows, in turn, influence humans…. it's quite a fascinating play to watch."

"And what the hell does that make you?" He didn't have enough energy to be angry, but damned if it was tempting.

"An…observer." With the mask obscuring his - Dojima was sure it was a he, even with the long auburn ponytail - features, it was hard to place the trickle of emotion behind the words. "Once, I might have allowed myself the title as 'guide', but I rarely try to meddle in the worlds on either side these days. Human curiosity seems to need little prodding towards the path of just hope these days. Still, with situations like the events with your nephew, I chance an encounter to let the fool stack the deck against mankind's fears and anxieties."

"What are you…."

"Over the years, I've learned those with bit of that divine spark draw others into their orbit who, too, can fit the roles humanity's stories crave… Lovers, Priestess, Magician, Emperor and more… enough to fight off the darkest despair. I knew a powerful shadow was rising… a felt a spark. A single passing encounter, and…" There was hesitation there, in this stranger's voice. "But even I, who walks between both worlds, makes…errors. I stepped in too early, drawn to a human with great potential; one who could have been a hero, if he was just given a cause. In my error, I made a fool - a man who could change the world around him as it changed him - without a story to follow. No promise to fulfil, he never had his story… until too much time had passed, a new play started, and he'd been recast as the guide and guardian."

Ryotaro's head swam. "Wait… originally, it wasn't Yu… it was….I was going to….This doesn't make any sense…!"

"Even as you filled your role, your original nature fought against your fate; when a new story formed, you let your shadow free…. Did you ever notice, detective, that you never actually rejected your shadow self? You let it free, let it speak, even subdued it… but the process was interrupted when that fool ability, almost gone and dead, found another persona to wield."

"Kohryu… no, Ryūjin…."

There was a nod from the winged mask. "A rare, powerful shadow, looking for someone to wield it. One that suited its temperament much better than the other fool involved. No two fools are alike, after all."

Dojima sat back, trying to piece this all together. "So… instead of my own shadow, Ryujin was another persona altogether? What happen to mine, then?"

"Stuck. Still attached to you, but free of the bounds of your subconscious, it fought to either burn free or return back to being the voice of your subconscious. Fed by the immortal peach, it could affect you in some way, recharging far faster than one would expect. Only when the drink was gone did it know it had to return."

"That entire time, that fire I thought was killing me...was my shadow?!"

"To be fair, no one expected you, of all people, to take your time to finish a drink. As long as it was there, your shadow could continue to feed itself without drawing on the missing bond. Now, with no means to sustain itself, it retreated back to mask of your mind. Of course, with it returned, any other persona would have a much harder time sustaining a bond with you..."

No wonder Ryujin was silent these days.

Slowly, the darkness receded between the masked gentleman and the detective. The marble tile seemed to rise up from the darkness, revealing two weapons placed there. On the floor to the left was the pistol he'd taken from the thug at the entrance. On the right, the kanabo, seemingly glowing from an internal heat.

"There is an imbalance here, and I admit that my interference is partially to blame. So I offer you two paths; which one you will take will be your final story. One is the return to the mundane, the other further into the den of shadows. Take the pistol, I will end you contract, and I will wipe my influence from the story. No more plagues of shadows, you and your shadow will be merged back into one whole, as if you'd never been apart. You'd never again burn, and without its influence, any inquiry - say, from suspicious police officials - would cease its pursuits. Your life, as it were, would be back to the mundane, and the predictable. You'd never deal with the terror of seeing people's true hearts."

"There's a 'but' there you're not mentioning…."

"Ever the detective. You would be still stuck here, in the Sea of Souls, until another force either saved you or killed you. Your presence here would eventually lead the Fool and his compatriots to this hidden enclave, but I do not know how long they would to arrive take."

"So, I'd die, but Yu would take down Seitou. The other path would be?"

"Take the kanabo, and you will have a chance to take back the fire that let you fight before. You would once again be able to attempt to wield it, for better or worse. However," a pale hand silenced the question before Ryotaro knew he even wanted to ask it, "There is still a possibility it will kill you. How it burns is beyond man's control, and this time, you will fight it without any compatriots; to tame it is your fight alone.

"I also cannot tell you if it will be enough to fight the shadows ruling this realm. The man you call Seitou… he has somehow called upon a great enemy even I once thought dead."

"So… I could die either way, and neither one guarantees Seitou is stopped." A thought struck the detective from the year before. "What happens if I die? I mean, if I die here?"

"Your body would reappear in the conscious world, like the others who have lost their fights here. With another body like those of Mayumi Yamato and Saki Konishi, they would no doubt reopen the serial murder case. Tohru Adachi's case would be overturned, and he would be released-" Eyes behind the mask blinked as he realized his speech was falling on deaf ears. "Ah, made your choice already?"

Dojima raised the kanabo over his shoulder, having grabbed it with little hesitation. "Wasn't much of a choice to make. I may not like it, but turning your eyes to unpleasant truth is not something I can do. I'd rather die fighting, and I am sure as hell not letting a murderer walk free for my own piece of mind. However..." He snagged the pistol, "I'll need this, too. You're not taking my evidence just for your little mind games."

"Oh, cut the swagger. So easy to put on a brave front, isn't it?" A familiar voice came from behind him. No matter what he knew what was supposed to happen, seeing your own face staring back at you is always a jarring experience. No longer the well dressed detective, the shadow from his heart looked about as disheveled as he felt. The yellow eyes flashed in anger. "Never can admit we're scared shitless."

It really was so easy to pretend what it was saying wasn't true. "Of course I'm frightened. I've been scared ever since I first found out you - no, this whole world - existed. Nevermind all the times you nearly got us killed these last few months."

Calloused hands grabbed the collar of the Kirijo tech shirt he was still wearing, pushing him back and up. "ME? YOU were the one who wouldn't just let me take over. Had to keep fighting me, pushing me away! So scared about having to change your worldview you couldn't see the gift you'd been given. Instead you closed your eyes and pretend there wasn't more to the world that you couldn't control. I saved your ass, Ryotaro. Made you twice the cop you could ever be by yourself!"

Denial was on the tip of his tongue. He'd tried so hard to keep his mind open; closing yourself off to new ideas made you a lousy cop. But all of this… he'd have to admit he was completely lost here, no matter how much it stung. "Just making me stronger doesn't make me a better cop."

The punch connected solidly with his jaw, sending Dojima staggering back, before the shadow caught him again, keeping him from sinking down to his knees with those burning this throat. "What would you have me do? You needed me to fight! Without me, Adachi would be free and you'd be stuck behind a desk for the rest of your life, miserable, rotting away with nothing to fight for. Without me, you're nothing more than a washed up hick detective from the sticks."

Ryotaro Dojima hung his head. "Yeah."

This was not what his shadow was expecting. "What? You *admit* it?"

It took all his effort to look straight into his own face, and lock with those yellow eyes. "Yeah. This is beyond anything I've ever encountered before. This isn't something I know how to solve. I used to think I knew everything I needed to be a detective, but if the last year taught me anything, I don't know a damn thing." He grabbed the shoulders of his own shadow, not fighting, just connecting with, man to man.

"Look, I need you. You're right, I'm out of my depth, and without your influence, I'd have never gotten cleared back into the field, or hell, killed. But that doesn't matter, unless we bring this monster down and keep everyone safe. You wouldn't have bothered with all of that unless you knew that too. So either we can keep arguing about how much we both suck, or we can get this over with and beat the crap out of the real monster waiting for us. Deal?"

"Deal. Man, you are a straight up pain in the ass, you know that?" The outline of the shadow faded as it seemed to burn itself with a white hot light.

Dojima blinked. There was no dragon, no mythical creature. The persona looked...well, a lot like he did, just dressed in old fashioned armor and hunting gear, a veil masking the lower half of his...its face. A bow and quiver rested on its shoulders, and there was a strength and stubbornness in the stance. The persona stepped forward, and Dojima had to remember not to back away as it kept moving forward, into him. It filled him with a pleasant heat; no longer burning or scouring his core, but energizing him, an armor from skin to bone. I am thou...Thou art I….

Hikohohodemi….

A vague memory of history half remembered surfaced… "Wait...Hikohohodemi... wasn't he also known as Hoori? Is that why I was called that?"

There was a subtle smile from the strange observer, but nothing more. Another voice, however, roared into the air around him. "You have his spirit, that's why. You are Hoori, Hikohohodemi no Mikoto… One who was fire and bow before he sank under the waves to be reborn as the wheat… Groom of Otohime… Son-in-law of the great Sea Dragon Ryūjin. Don't think I've abandoned you, yet." The vague form of Ryūjin, blue scales rustling, began to sharpen into focus as it loomed above him.

"And so the ability of the wildcard takes its shape… unusual." The observer tilted his head, finger tapping the edge of the mask. "Instead of access to the full arcana of the compendium, only two… but the ability to wield both personas at once. How humanity keeps surprising me."

The masked man...god...shadow… whatever began to fade into the same light he'd appeared in. "Take care, detective, and fight. This world depends on it."

And with that, the darkness vanished.

Time seemed to restart with a lurch, or more accurately with a smash. It took a moment to realize the sound was actually the spear of the shadow slicing the marble floor in front of him.

The oni shadow recovered from the miss hit far too quickly. Dojima weighed his options… he still wasn't sure what his persona's abilities were….

Block it!

His forearms caught the blade in a cross arm block, the metal shattering like glass. Before the giant could register why its cutting attack failed to do just that on the puny human, Hikohohodemi had him twisted the metal pole of the spear up and away, grabbing it with an iron hold. The oni kept pulling, confused why it couldn't budge the spear. Dojima smirked.

Electricity arced up the pole from his hands, into the oni, still grasping the spear. Ryūjin roared in his ears as the oni fell, obviously weak to the sudden attack. Now was his chance to end this.

He let the ruined spear fall to the floor with a clatter. In a moment, the kanabo was back in his hand, like an old friend. He wound up, a batter looking for pitch, before letting loose with everything he had.

The full weight of the weapon smashed through the prone shadow, the dark form splitting like a wave against the force; its form already fading away into the marble floor before Dojima had a chance to stand up straight.

He'd never felt more alive in his life than right now.

Notes:

So, Philemon is impossible to write, as his very appearance, let alone characterization changes from title to title. Is he a god? Are there gods in any sense in Persona? Is he a powerful shadow? Is he running the story, or just watching it? Is he a dick? (Yes)... So I threw my hands up and just used him as he was written: a bloody huge Deus Ex Machina. He's here to grant power and access to the heart of man, and exposition us all to death.

Sorry this is such a wordy, unwieldy chapter. I just like to think there are others out there that have the ability of the wildcard that just, due to circumstances, never get their story. I mean, Inazami could have easily shaken Dojima's hand at the gas station (and the animation did a nice job of having a bit of a fakeout there). Sure, Yu, Adachi and Namatame got to enter the TV world because of that handshake, but its only a previous meeting with Philemon and the Velvet Room that allows Yu to become the protagonist int the story. Inazami had been building power for a while... I have no doubt there were backups in place just in case. (Shit, she's only picking adults so far... maybe we were right with the uncle. No, wait, she's going for the kid! Eh, nobody want to play as a grizzled hunk of a detective, right? We're clear.)

So, yeah, the bottle was a basically supposed to be a bit of a red herring/McGuffin. Every time Dojima was drinking from it, he was, ah, reupping his 'HP/SP' so that his broken persona could keep running, even as it was trying to fix their unfinished connection. Now that everything is all connected and booted up, Dojima's all set and ready to roar... ...Right?

Maybe. Hehe.

(hell no, are you kidding? There are 2-3 chapters left!)