Took me awhile to choose this bastard's persona.
You didn't decide before?
I did, just did a last minute change to make his origins a bit more fitting.
It was going to be Plouton, otherwise known as Pluto.
But Pluto's not a planet anymore.
RAX : Hmm... Yeah, I think that's an adequate amount of drama. Don't worry, this new person won't be as bad as...
... Fuck you.
Nightlyy : Ooh, does this mean he'll get 'lucky' soon?
Goddammit, you little perv... Why are you so adorable?!
Oh, it's alright when HE does it, huh? Pf, jackasses.
clevernameeh : It's been awhile since I wrote a battle between two human figures when the fight was actually... Well, fair.
Last time there was an actual fight in his last/first fic, I lost an eye
Are you a pirate now?
Pirates didn't actually lose eyes! It was actually a strategy!
Oh, so you're just an asshole?
*grunts* You son of a bitch... Wait, we share the same mother... No, never mind, she's still a bitch.
Also, I know I've said this before, but...
He's a review hound ; Lack of treats makes the dog sad.
... I thought he was human.
For fucks sake! Anyhow, we're not trying to pressure/guilt trip you... He's just a hound.
Dorm
Fuuka stood in what the rest of SEES had dubbed the command room with her persona Lucia.
This had become somewhat of a habit for her now. By all means, outside of Tartarus and during the full moon she didn't have to do any of this.
Still, Mitsuru had warned before that sometimes shadows stray from Tartarus (respectively dubbed "strays") so she figured it'd be best to keep a lookout just in case.
The only one that stayed up with her during this period was Mitsuru herself who was ready to wake the team the moment trouble seemed like it was starting to brew. It was tiresome for both girls as staying up during the Dark Hour was far more draining than staying up during a normal hour.
However, it was a price both of them were willing to pay.
For Mitsuru, this was nothing. Especially after what had happened at Yakushima, she knew that the sins of her family ran much deeper than she was initially lead to believe. Every night since, she could only ponder just how much more of her own family did she not know and just what had they done, along with how many lives have they destroyed. Whatever the case, she was determined now more than ever to right the numerous wrongs of her family and to end this twisted hour.
Fuuka, while no less determined, had a more innocent reason. She was the newest (human) member of SEES with absolutely no qualifications to join other than her ability to sense shadows and navigate Tartarus, yet they had accepted her without an issue despite her inability to fight directly. For her, SEES was already more of a family than her own parents were. If this could help them in anyway, then she'd gladly do this as much as she could.
Suddenly, Fuuka felt the sensation of two persona users, both of them with the Death Arcana. The first was was easily recognizable as Makoto, but who was the other one?
Wait, the way they seemed to be allowing their strength to build... were they about to fight?!
"Yamagishi, what is it?" Mitsuru asked upon noticing the disturbed look on the junior's face
Fuuka turned to Mitsuru as soon as she memorized the location in her mind. If she compared their powers properly, they were going to have to hurry.
Streets
"Get ready to be on your knees..." Makoto taunted before charging at the brunette with a single blade in his hand. He didn't know much about this guy other than the fact he can cause real damage to him, so he was going to have to do this if he wanted a feel for him.
Sakuya remained still, but still possessed the same grin that he had when they were simply taunting each other. Didn't matter if Makoto was an adept fighter or not, he's been fighting for as long as he could remember.
Time to see if this bluenette was as good as he'd heard.
When Makoto was a few feet away from him, Sakuya decided to act.
In a blur of movement, Sakuya moved forward and jumped slightly in the air as he swung his blade with almost inhuman speed.
Time seemed to slow for a moment as Makoto barely managed to parry the attack and he locked eyes with the brunette whose feet still hadn't even touched the ground. Hidden beneath his messy hair he could see the edges of an "X" shaped scar located almost exactly where he sense the Plume from within the boy.
After what felt like half a minute, time resumed at its normal pace as Sakuya used the sword in his left hand to go from the blunette's leg as he descended back onto solid ground.
Makoto grunted in pain as he felt the edge of the sword cut his right leg, but not nearly enough to cripple it.
Before he could retaliate, Sakuya jumped again. This time, he jumped back and was several feet into the air and seemed to hide himself with his arms and swords.
Sakuya closed his eyes and channeled his still unknown persona's energy into his blades which caused them to gain a black mist-like aura with a red hue around them.
"Wings of Purgatory!" He shouted and seemingly sliced the air as the mass of dark energy became two large waves aimed directly at Makoto
Ah, shit... Makoto cursed mentally as he took the risky approached and jumped towards the waves in a desperate attempt to get under and avoid the attack.
Makoto could almost feel the waves being just a few meager centimeters from cutting hit entire scalp off in just one attack.
"On my knees?" Sakuya repeated the boy's previous insult with a laugh as his feet hit the floor again "Please, I'm not your mother last night!"
Makoto could barely stopped himself from letting his eyes glow in response to that insult. At the same time, he decided that two people being able to summon/use persona abilities without an Evoker was enough.
Summoning Orpheus without even bothering to reach for the Evoker in his pocket, Makoto released an inferno of what must've been pure hell fire aimed at the dark brunette.
"Heh..." Sakuya chuckled as he stood still as the mass of fire made his way towards him.
When he finally felt his skin feeling as if it'd been put into a microwave, Sakuya moved in another blur of motion as he narrowly avoided being incinerated on the spot.
Despite the fact that he was likely going to have burns the next day, he still had a cocky look on his face which only served to anger Makoto more.
"My mother's dead, asshole!" Makoto refuted the previous insult
"Not in the after-life..." He shot back, playing with this boy's emotions was going to be fun "Believe me, she's one of liveliest ones there."
"You son of bitch!" Makoto shouted as he felt anger that far surpassed anything he'd felt before built faster than it took Junpei to fail a test.
In response to his irritation, Orpheus reappeared behind his master's foe and slammed his lyre down.
Once again, Sakuya moved in almost inhuman high speed movement that made it so that he almost seemed to teleport
"... Is exactly what your father said when you were born!" Sakuya continued, he just needed to piss him off a little but more. A little bit more and he'll start getting reckless.
"You..." Makoto trembled in anger as his rage continued to build rapidly. He was going to tear this boy to pieces by the end of this.
Similar to what he had done to Jin, Makoto dashed forward at a speed that almost matched his opponents with the intent of tearing him apart.
Smirking, Sakuya waited until he was a few feet away before making his move.
Dashing forward in another blur of high speed, Sakuya dodged Makoto's attack while ending up right behind him to react.
Not giving him time to turn around, Sakuya swung outward with both his blades which caused the tips to leave their own cut on the boy's back.
Makoto did a small twirl as he attempted to return the favor, but Sakuya simply ducked to avoid the attack
"And goodbye!" Sakuya said before punching Makoto as hard as he could with his sword still in his hand which combined with his inhuman strength launched both of them into the air.
Having put more into his jump than his punch, Sakuya was now above Makoto in the air. All he had to do was point his sword towards the ground and gravity could do the rest.
Dammit... Makoto cursed mentally as he quickly realized his situation.
Whoever this guy is, he's clearly had years of practice when it came to fighting. On top of that, he's not using his persona much which other means that he doesn't think he need it or its weak and he's making up for it with his physical prowess.
Either way, he was going to need something more than Orpheus to kill him. He wanted to avoid doing this, but he had one trick up his sleeve that might work.
"Orpheus Kai!" Makoto called out to another extension of himself
Sakuya was about to scoff, but then he noticed that his shadow that had formed from the moonlight was now mostly covered by a larger figure.
In the air, he was helpless as he took what felt like a bag of bricks to his torso and hit the ground.
Makoto regained his bearings as he managed to land on his feet as his new persona floated behind his master.
It was almost a complete copy of Orpheus, but with a few changes. The hair was slightly paler making it an almost pure white, the metallic body was now black with dark red joints along with the lyre which now had a more demonic appearance.
Orpheus was the persona gained from Minato and Makoto's foundation from which they share their core traits, but this twisted parody of the musician was persona of Makoto and Makoto alone.
"Grgh... bastard..." Sakuya cursed as he slowly got back up, that was definitely at least three ribs broken at least.
"You're a quick one, aren't you?" Makoto asked having regained his composure
"Quicker than your father if you're here..." Sakuya quipped refusing to show that the blow he had taken had caused any meaningful damage "... And you already have a Prime."
Sakuya sighed as he was annoyed, but not with Makoto "I'm so going to kill that clown for this..."
"That clown is?" Makoto asked raising an eyebrow, maybe he'd say something useful before he dies?
"I'll tell ya when I'm dead..." Sakuya said before stabbing both of his swords into the ground and his left eye became the same dark gray as his other one
"Scotus!" He called as his persona appeared behind him. The Roman God of Darkness donned a cloak which hid most of the body except the head which was covered in a dark cloth and the black mist-like arms that held a large scythe.
Sakuya smirked at Makoto as if the battle had already been decided long ago "Umbra!" He ordered his persona.
Suddenly, the entire area was covered in a thick shroud of pure darkness that blinded any who were inside. Any, that is, except for the person who called it.
"Blinding me, eh..?" Makoto said as he closed his eyes and listened. He still had a few ways to defend against this...
"Hientou." Makoto whispered his order to the persona who played his lyre and attacked in the dark
Sakuya who had been circling Makoto to further confuse was caught off guard and barely managed to avoid the sudden attack from the persona.
The hell..? Sakuya thought to himself. Darkness completely shrouded the area how could he have managed to pinpoint exactly where he was? Lucky shot?
"Agidyne." Makoto whispered again as another inferno was sent towards the 'hidden' brunette. Even if he was blind, he could still feel the Plume in the boy's brain.
"Dammit..." Sakuya silently cursed as he seemingly disappeared into a dark void.
With its target gone, the mass of fire simply hit the ground causing the gravel to glow from the heat.
Makoto opened his eyes and slowly began to look around. Just a few seconds ago Sakuya's Plume just seemed to disappear into nothing like it was erased from existence.
It was then that a few thoughts began to occur to the boy.
If he was as excited for this as he seemed, then he probably wouldn't have just bailed.
There's no way he could've just blocked out his Plume, could there? No, Makoto still would've felt it as long as he was in the area.
If he managed to disappear suddenly when he learned that hiding himself wasn't going to work...
Makoto turned around and struck just in time as Sakuya reappeared from the portal his shroud of darkness had opened.
Sakuya's reflexes must've been finely tuned as he still managed to react quickly enough to parry the attack which might've been a death blow if he wasn't quick enough.
Not giving him any time to gather his bearings, Makoto swept with his good leg which caused his attacker to trip.
Even as his back was about to hit the ground, Sakuya still managed to get a good cut on Makoto's belly.
"Argh... Grgh... fuck..." Makoto cursed as he slowly took a few steps back while clutching his profusely bleeding waist. He wasn't used not being able to heal mid-battle, he wasn't ready for a fight like this yet.
"He he..." Sakuya chuckled as he stood up seemingly confident that he had gained the upper hand again "Not bad, they usually don't last this long..."
"Go to hell..." Makoto whispered as his knees nearly gave in and he had to help support himself with his sword now
"Sorry, ran out of vacation days." The brunette laughed before a beeping sound. The boy looked at his wrist, did his watch work during the Dark Hour?
"Ah, shit..." He cursed under his breath, he didn't have a lot of time left.
Makoto was about to perform a risky maneuver and launch and almighty attack with the both of them within the blast radius, but then he felt the sensation of another Plume approaching.
Following the gaze of the bluenette, Sakuya then noticed the members of SEES who had been alerted thanks to Fuuka of the ongoing battle.
"God-fucking-dammit!" He cursed loudly as he glared back at Makoto "You'll see me again."
With that, Sakuya bolted as fast as he could, maybe even running faster than Aigis. All that was left there was the injured Makoto who was bleeding at a rather alarming rate.
"Heh, took you long enough..." Makoto said as he looked at SEES while coughing and wheezing.
He could've sworn one of them said something, but his senses were quickly fading and he knew what was coming.
Figuring that he'd need to get one important piece of information out, Makoto tried talking while desperately fighting the entire time
"And... my blood is O... O pos... posi..."
Makoto could barely even hear a thud as his back in the ground and his consciousness completely slipped away.
And... That's a KO. Not a lot of plot, but you get introduced to Sho's (surrogate) bro Sakuya Sakugetsu. Normally, I'd hide that fact, but I'm fairly certain having a Plume in his brain and sharing a scar and a moon based surname gives it away.
Is Sho actually going to Sho?
He he, but no. Well, maybe if Sakuya has a flashback. It's been awhile since I wrote a battle like this, so how'd I do?
*Grabs Grim's collar* What the hell just happened!?
Kotone? Uh...
What happened to my husbando?!
Uh... what the fuck?
Wild Card possession.
Huh?
I believe he's referring to the phenomenon that happens whenever a Wild Card's harem is threatened/harmed. Their characteristics change and they become completely dedicated to their waifu/husbando
... Ah shit
I'm going to make Mitsuru's executions look like child's play!
