Okay wasn't able to finish two chapters before August's end so LET'S JUST GO, GO, GO!
As Aigis got herself settled in Junpei's couch, Yukari was at her left drinking a glass of coke and Fuuka was at her right munching apathetically away at a bag of potato chips. Mitsuru sat quietly next to Yukari and was texting someone on her iPhone, a business partner; Akihiko merely sat in the armchair next to the couch and tapped his fingers along the arm rest. Ken and Koromaru sat on the floor, the boy stroking the albino Shiba Inu's back as the dog panted patiently.
All the while, Junpei was in his room, having a private conversation with someone on the phone.
Aigis didn't really know what to say to break the awkwardness of the situation. Everyone had agreed to allow Junpei to finish his talk before playing. So the android was left with a controller in her hands she could do nothing with and a menu screen that was playing a very melodic, bittersweet aria she had to admit was one of the most compelling pieces of music she'd ever heard. Whoever had composed the soundtrack was a genius.
She tapped her mechanical fingers on Junpei's couch as she and her friends waited, waited for something to happen.
The glazed look in Yukari's eyes didn't seem to want to go away anytime soon as she blankly gazed upon the menu screen of Persona 3 FES. She wondered, for a little bit, what FES even meant, but stopped caring, as the game would still be pretty much a hellspawn regardless of what FES meant. (Unless FES meant something that involved God or Christianity, and she was willing to open her mind to that weird possibility because why not.)
Fuuka didn't try to think all that much about the game. She didn't want to. And in fact, she was silently hoping that a blackout would suddenly happen to prevent them from playing the game. But then again, even if that were to happen, who was to say that the person calling Junpei's phone over and over again didn't have the power to magically upstart electric appliances?
Akihiko and Mitsuru both sat in their seats, just trying to deconstruct the possibilities of who the caller really was. The caller was definitely supernatural in nature. They knew about Minato Arisato's sacrifice. They knew about the Dark Hour, about alternate realities, about games chronicling their lives created and sold in alternate realities; the happy-go-lucky nature of its messages definitely gave a picture of someone who would find other people's suffering hilarious, to an extent. Or perhaps someone so dissociated from social norms that they would just end up inadvertently acting the way they would without any real intent to hurt their feelings.
The former seemed much more realistic.
Junpei emerged back from his bedroom and shuffled his phone into his pocket.
"Who was that?" asked Fuuka.
"Just a kid from the baseball team. Asked if we had practice tomorrow. It's nothing," he said.
"Mmm."
The fact that they had ordered so much junk food was a sign that they were putting Junpei's talk about taking what you could get out of this miserable situation into account. Junpei worried a bit especially for Yukari (since she was an actress, image and all that), but figured she didn't care about it.
"Junpei-san, I have done extensive research on these 'role-playing' games, and I believe I'm capable of playing through today's round of events."
"What'd you do?"
"There are a fascinating number of videos called 'Let's Play's, on the internet. I've taken the liberty of downloading one thousand and seventy six of them into my internal hard drive."
Junpei wondered why Mitsuru wasn't distributing more androids to the world. She could make a fortune that would last a lifetime. Then again, considering how much Aigis had changed from a mere robot girl into a robot girl with a soul, perhaps selling Anti-Shadow Weapons would end up causing too many questions to occur. "Does this unit have a soul," and all that.
And as Junpei sat down, Aigis clicked the small horizontal triangle labelled Start on the controller, and so began a whole new session of gaming.
Chapter Nine - Alone
Minato and Yukari's avatars entered the command room, and there they saw yet another monster rearing its ugly head at them.
[Shuji Ikutsuki: Ah, there you are. I'm glad that you're okay. The reason I asked you here is because I needed to talk to you. Please, have a seat.] The painful part about it was that he was just so pleasant about the whole affair that the players just wanted to kill him more. Minato and Yukari's avatars sat down on some perfectly comfortable red seats, and Ikutsuki cut in, [Oh, before that. I believe I mentioned him earlier, but this is Akihiko.] gesturing to a silver-haired male in the room.
[Akihiko: How ya doin'?] he asked casually.
[Shuji Ikutsuki: Okay, let me start off by asking you this... Would you believe me if I said that a day consists of more than 24 hours?]
{No.}
{...Excuse me?}
"What'd he say?" Junpei asked Yukari.
She didn't answer for a few seconds, half lost in the taste of her drink and half thinking. "Can't remember."
Ring.
2
Junpei raised his brows. "Figures. Aigis —"
She'd already pressed down and X.
Mitsuru's character chuckled, her cutout smiling amusedly with her eyes closed. [Mitsuru: I'm not surprised by your reaction. However, you've already experienced this truth firsthand.] Her voice turned grave. [Do you remember the night you came here? You had to have noticed the signs... The streetlights went out... Nothing was working... There were coffins everywhere... Didn't it feel like you were in a different time...?]
It was quite apparent to Aigis that the ominous way Mitsuru spoke about the Dark Hour contrasted greatly with Minato's rather...bland reaction to it all during his first night in Iwatodai. She had truly underestimated Minato's capacity to take anything with a straight face. She remembered how her facial scanners were capable of scanning human expressions and calculating their affiliated emotions with ease, only to try it on the resident Wild Card one day and get Error.
Little did she want to admit to anyone that she had gotten Error several times during January mainly because she'd begun just looking in his general direction at a much more frequent rate than usual.
...Moving on.
[Mitsuru: That's the Dark Hour - a time period hidden between one day and the next.]
{Hidden?}
{Between?}
{I don't get it.}
3
Junpei raised his eyebrows.
"Did he really say that?" asked Aigis.
Yukari mused, "Sounds like something he'd say. Can't remember. Then again, doesn't really matter, does it?"
Aigis sighed somberly, "Yes. Sorry."
Ikutsuki chuckled at Minato's response, [Shuji Ikutsuji: I know how you feel. Who would believe such a story? But, the Dark Hour occurs each night, right at midnight. It'll happen tonight, and every night to come.]
Casually, Akihiko's character said, [Akihiko: Normal people don't realize it, since they're all sleeping inside their coffins. But, that's not what makes the Dark Hour so interesting.] And then a mildly eerie grin appeared on his cutout's face. [...You saw those creatures. We call them "Shadows." They only appear during the Dark Hour, and attack anyone not in a coffin. It's our job to defeat them. ...Sounds exciting, huh?]
A part of everyone wondered just how much Akihiko had changed since then, since he had gone around the world training relentlessly to improve his punches (and had the rather large scars on his chest to prove it) before becoming a police officer.
Akihiko just saw a sort of a recklessness in his younger self. A recklessness he had to admit he'd catch himself indulging every now and again. Especially during that P-1 Grand Prix...incident that had occurred years back. With that Investigation Team from Yasoinaba. He wondered how they were doing, but then stopped himself and returned to the game at hand.
Mitsuru was not happy to hear of her colleague's eagerness for battle. [Mitsuru: Akihiko! Why are you always like that? You just got hurt the other day!]
Ikutsuki stepped in confidently, acting as a medium between the two. [Shuji Ikutsuki: Now, now. He does his work well.] And then he went back to addressing our protagonist, his tone of voice as bloodcurdlingly jovial as ever. [Long story short, we're the Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad - SEES for short.]
Mitsuru watched the scene unfold with a bit of anxiety. Remembering, of course, being there in that command room and outright recruiting this young, blue-haired man into her ragtag band of Persona-users. At the time not knowing just how large a role he'd play in defeating the Shadows.
At the time, not knowing just how large a role she herself would play in ultimately ending his life.
After his death, Mitsuru had admitted to herself she'd felt partially responsible. After all, if she'd never asked him to join - no, she'd practically begged him - he would not have enacted the final blow which had cost him his future. While she was indeed grateful for his sacrifice and the sheer willingness on his part to give his life for her and his friends...she hardly found it fair.
She had...had feelings for him, she knew. After her father's death, Minato had taken the time to speak to her and help her during her mourning, during the last few months before their literal darkest hour. Minato had told her, however, during their last conversation, that he had...wanted to remain friends.
Her feelings remained secret ever since then.
Because everyone could tell that Yukari, Aigis, and Fuuka all had cared (and most likely still cared) for him as well in their own ways.
She wondered when was the right time to tell them how she had allied herself with Yukari back in the Abyss had been partly out of her own need for closure concerning what had happened to Minato.
[Mitsuru: A Shadow feeds on the mind of its prey; the victim becomes a living corpse. They're responsible for most of the incidents on the news, if not all of them.]
{How do you fight them?}
{What about the police?}
"He'd asked about the police," said Mitsuru.
"Did he?" asked Aigis.
"Yeah, yeah, I remember," replied Yukari. "'What about the police?' he said."
"Well, what does the phone say?" asked Akihiko.
Junpei mirthlessly replied, after having read his new message, "'How do you fight them?'" to which Yukari and Mitsuru both frowned.
"Again?" questioned Yukari.
"This is very confusing. I thought we were meant to correlate our choices with his," said Aigis.
"Just follow what he says," grunted Fuuka, placing another potato chip into her mouth.
Aigis, a bit perturbed by the usually kind and friendly Fuuka being standoffish and dry, proceeded to hit down and X.
Ikutsuki continued, [Shuji Ikutsuki: Although rare, there are those who can function during the Dark Hour. Some may even awaken to a power that enables them to fight the Shadows. That's "Persona" - the power you used the other night. The Shadows can only be defeated by Persona-users. Which means, it's all up to you guys.]
{I see.}
{So...?}
2
"I remember he said 'I see,'" said Akihiko, a hand to his chin. "I remember that look in his eye, when he said that..."
"Phone says second one."
Akihiko jutted his eyebrows upward for a second. "Figures..."
Mitsuru's avatar opened a briefcase that had been on the coffee table in the middle of the room. Inside said briefcase was a gleaming silver gun. An Evoker.
[Mitsuru: What he's trying to say is, we want you to join us. We've prepared an Evoker for you. We'd like you to lend us your strength.]
{Alright.}
{I'm not sure I'm ready.}
"He said the first one," said Yukari.
"He said 'Alright,'" repeated Mitsuru. "He was willing to take up the job immediately upon being offered it. If the phone tells us otherwise, it's lying."
Junpei turned to Akihiko, who said, "I don't remember. Sorry."
Aigis looked over to Junpei's phone upon seeing the disgusted expression on his face.
2
She moved the cursor down and pressed X.
"What?"
"You've gotta be kidding!"
[Akihiko: Don't think too much. Just hang out with us for a while.]
[Mitsuru: Please, we need your help.]
[Yukari: Wait, you can't ask him like that! Who could say no...? I mean, it'd be nice if he joined, but...]
"That can't be what he said! I remember it as clear as day!" urged Yukari.
"I'm more than certain that he took the offer quite readily," said Mitsuru.
"There's no use trying to struggle against it, is there?" sighed Junpei, to which the two women were silent.
"C'mon," grunted Akihiko, making a tent with his fingers while having his elbows on the armrest. "Let's just power on though, like usual. We should be used to this by now."
"Doesn't make it right...," an iffed Yukari murmured to herself, as a new series of choices popped up on the screen.
{...Alright.}
{Okay, for now.}
{I don't mind.}
"What's the phone say?" grumbled Yukari.
"3," replied Junpei.
"Perhaps you should just hand me the phone, Junpei-san." said Aigis. "It would be easier to follow orders."
...Junpei really should have thought of that sooner. As such, he placed his cellphone on the table, still keeping it open.
Gratefully, Mitsuru told Minato, [Mitsuru: Thank you. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.]
[Yukari: Does that mean you accept? I was afraid you'd say no... I feel much better now.] Yukari said, her cutout smiling, not knowing how much she was really going to regret having ever allowed him into the team.
[Mitsuru: I really appreciate it. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.]
[Shuji Ikutsuki: Thank you so much. I'm really glad.] Everybody cringed at the cheery tone of his voice. [Oh, I almost forgot... About your room assignment... Why don't you just stay here, in your current room? I don't know what the holdup is, but I guess it worked out in the end.] he chuckled, ever so smugly.
[Yukari: Holdup? But, wasn't that - oh, never mind... It doesn't matter anymore...]
And then there was a SMASH!
"Wh-what the—!?"
A card, that of the Fool Arcana, twisted into being as the world around them stopped dead in its tracks.
"Thou shalt have our blessing when thou choosest to create a Persona of the Fool Arcana..."
Ken just blinked. "Well, this is, uh...interesting...?"
Everyone shared the same sentiment, but in a more negative light.
You have established a new Social Link! You feel your inner strength growing... You recall what Igor said about the power of Social Links.
"...okay, now that's just weird," Junpei murmured.
"Aigis, did you ever experience getting these 'Social Links' when you had gotten his abilities?" asked Mitsuru, as Fuuka and Yukari stared dead at the screen, trying to analyze the meaning behind the text.
"No," the android replied, cupping her chin. "When I'd been given his powers, I'd...never experienced anything like this. Perhaps this was exclusive to those who could naturally summon Personas, as opposed to those who inherited the ability."
Of course, everyone still felt weird about the prospect of these Social Links and their...rather unsavory implications. But, they couldn't jump to any conclusions. After all, they'd just started the game. They'd just gotten their first Social Link. The mechanics of Social Links weren't entirely familiar to them yet. So perhaps this wasn't basically the game telling them that Minato had manipulated them all for power. At least not yet. And besides, friendship is supposed to work both ways. If these Social Links represented...bonds, then Minato had most likely felt at least something like a kinship between himself and his friends.
But then again, who could tell, beyond that still face of his?
Before they were allowed to ponder this any further, the scene shifted.
[Mysterious Boy: Hi, how are you?]
Yukari and Fuuka's eyes widened, that eerie voice crawling into their ears. Junpei blinked and pressed himself further in his seat, Aigis' fingers twitching mildly at the controller. Ken just held Koromaru tighter. Akihiko raised an eyebrow at the scene as Mitsuru found herself uneasy. She'd never liked horror films...
It was now evening. The mysterious boy from way back when, the one wearing the striped pajamas, the one who had first met with Minato at the lobby of the dorm that fateful first night, was now at the edge of Minato's bed. His cutout gave the audience a good look at his presumptuous little grin as his glowering grey eyes pierced directly into their souls.
{And you are...?}
{How'd you get in here?}
"Wh-what'd he say?" stammered Ken.
Aigis calmly answered, "2," only having caught the screen for half a second.
Yukari's lip quivered as she held Mitsuru's hand, having a rather low opinion of horror movies herself. Fuuka just continued eating away at her bag of potato chips, uncaring of the crumbs falling on her lap and the floor and the couch.
Like he was offended, the boy said, [Mysterious Boy: I'm always with you...], managing to evoke a little bit of pity out of his audience before taking an enigmatic tone of voice and snuffing all that pity out. [Soon, the end will come. I remembered, so I thought I should tell you.]
The end. The end. The end.
They all knew what that had meant. They all knew, and the memories returned. Memories of moons, and green skies, and screaming, and gravity, and him floating up into space and saving the world, and rooftops, and time, and promises to do better in the future, and regrets. And as they broke, as their trauma was welling up within themselves once more, the cellphone rang, and Aigis read the newest message.
Little did they know what Minato's answer to this was going to be.
{The end?}
{I don't care.}
She moved the cursor downward...
{The end?}
{I don't care.}
"Wh-what...?" muttered Fuuka.
Yukari and Junpei both stared at Aigis, almost unable to believe it. Aigis looked just as downtrodden as them, her thumb clicking X.
[Mysterious Boy: Really? ...If you say so. To be honest, I can't tell you much about it yet.]
This wasn't right.
This couldn't have been right.
Minato, right from the very beginning, had been a kind and sociable young man who cherished life. Who must have cherished life. He'd made so many friends, changed so many people's lives, done so much just to make others happy. His popularity had superseded Mitsuru's, during those precious last three months of school, due to his extreme sociability and kindness. He had been humble enough to not care about the praise, humble enough to love everyone all the same, patient enough to wait for everyone to remember March 5, remember graduation day, remember to go to the rooftop.
This, simply put, did not make sense. It was like saying ice was hot.
[Mysterious Boy: Oh, looks like you've awakened to your power...and an unusual power it is. A power that takes many forms, yet is bound by none... It may prove to be your salvation, depending on where you end up.] And then he disappeared, reappearing at the foot of the bed, as if just to scare the audience. It totally worked. [Do you remember when we first met? I expect you to honor your commitment. I'll be watching you, even if you forget about me... Okay then, see you later.]
And then, he vanished from the scene. Leaving Minato in his bed.
And the audience with multiple questions.
Questions they would not be able to answer. Not as they were right now. Not this early in the game. It wasn't yet time.
4/19/09
Evening
[Yukari:...Okay, he's here now. So, what's this all about?]
Lobby of the dorm. Minato had made it downstairs from his bedroom, having been called by his teammates.
[Akihiko: There's someone I want to introduce.] And then Akihiko turned to the door. [...Hey, hurry up.]
[Voice from Outside: Hold your horses... This is freakin' heavy.]
Despite the negative overtones of the preceding scene, things were looking up again. Sort of. Junpei was grinning in embarrassment. Yukari chuckled. Fuuka raised an eyebrow, deciding to put aside her chips for the moment. Koromaru started barking as Ken, chuckling, tried to get him to calm down. Akihiko gave a mildly nostalgic smile as Mitsuru folded her arms. Aigis tilted her head, recognizing that voice from outside as—
[Yukari: J-Junpei!?] she exclaimed. [...Why is HE here!? Wait, don't tell me—]
Junpei had arrived in the dormitory, a bunch of suitcases and luggages at his side.
[Akihiko: This is Junpei Iori from Class 2-F.] her senpai said, disregarding her obvious displeasure of the situation. [He'll be staying here as of today.]
Junpei just chuckled at the situation, sheepishly saying, [Junpei: Wazzup?]
[Yukari: He's staying HERE!? You've gotta be kidding me!]
Junpei and Yukari had to admit, they were fond of these old days. When they were just rambunctious teens not knowing thing one about fighting Shadows and monsters. Back when they had been at each other's throats more often than they were now.
Yukari liked to think the experience had helped them both, despite the fact that they still argued every now and again over the littlest things. Both she and Junpei, however, agreed that they wouldn't have it any other way, trusting each other till the very end. Even back in the Grand Prix, she and he just searched for each other and supported each other during the particularly rough patch that that Malevolent Entity had had to offer them.
But both of them admitted, to themselves, that it'd have been better had Minato been there.
He actually might have saved them all sooner, even.
Like it was blasphemy, Yukari exclaimed, [Yukari: You have the potential!? For real!?]
In a bout of actual self-deprecation, Junpei groaned, [Junpei: He found me cryin' like a baby at the convenience store, surrounded by a bunch of coffins. I don't remember much, but... man, that's embarrassing! He said that's, ya know, completely normal... in the beginning. Like, bein' confused and not remembering anything. Did ya guys know that?]
{Uh huh.}
{Nope.}
{Didn't happen to me.}
3
Down, down, X.
[Junpei: Big deal. It happens to everyone else.]
Junpei's real-life counterpart just chuckled, partly out of embarrassment, partly out of amusement. Yep. If there had been one thing the game got right, it got his ego back then down pat.
[Junpei: ...But man, I was shocked to find out about you guys. I had no idea,] he said, eagerly. [I'm glad I'm not the only one. It could get kinda lonely, ya know. I bet you're stoked too, right!? Havin' me join...]
[Yukari: Huh? Uh, y-yeah...]
"That was kind of harsh, wasn't it, Yukari-chan?" amusedly said Fuuka, her first words since they had begun their second day of playing the game.
"I tried to be nice," she defended, somewhat glad that Fuuka wasn't going to be dreary throughout the whole session. "Keep in mind Junpei and I weren't exactly close friends at that point..."
"Neither were you and Minato, and just a few days after meeting him, you were all, 'I've been waiting to tell that to someone for a looong time—"
"I'm gonna slap you...," Yukari tiredly said, to which Junpei and everyone else in the room chortled. "I was there during your team's first game! That's all it takes, one hard smack to the head."
"The funny thing is, despite Matsuda hitting the ball into my left eye, we still won," smiled Junpei.
[Akihiko: With this many people, we can start exploring that place.]
[Yukari: You mean... Tartarus...?]
...And just like that, everything stopped being funny.
[Junpei: Tartarus...? What's that? ...Sounds like toothpaste.]
Aigis and Fuuka both turned to Junpei, both looking more than a little disappointed in him.
"Come on! That was years ago!" he exclaimed. "I didn't read up on any Greek legends back then! Nobody cared about that stuff!"
"Says the guy who had Hermes as his Persona," snorted Yukari.
[Akihiko: We believe we can find the reason for the Dark Hour there.]
[Yukari: I hope so...]
[Akihiko: The Chairman will give us the details tomorrow night, so be ready.]
All kidding aside, everyone knew that what was going to happen next was bound to be a nightmare of a scene. They would take their first few steps inside Tartarus again. After six years of having avoided the Dark Hour, avoided the demons, avoided the darkness, they were about to just run back in and wreck shop. Or get dominated. Considering that the Shadows were beastly strong, when they had fought them way back when...
And as their new escapade into the tower began, someone on the roof of another building looked upwards, to the sky.
"They are about to go in," a woman spoke. "Again." She smiled, before hardening my expression. "I hope this will help you, sincerely."