*sighs in relief* Oh, thank Christ, the reviews are showing again. Must've been a momentary thing.
Were you seriously worried?
Of course I was!
Clevernameeh: Minato or Makoto? How about both? Considered Sho, but... Well, I'm not making a BS reason as to why he's not a vegetable right now nor why Minazuki wouldn't try to kill Ikutsuki immediately.
Hmm... Probably be confused as hell. I definitely wouldn't take advantage of the situation, hehe...
That's concerning
Curb it, albino rapist!
Raze Olympus: Go for the eye, Minato! That's their weak point!
Hit 'em harder! C'mon, you can do it!
IAmSoCleverWithMyNameLol: When I wrote that chapter your review was invisible. I was a little scared, honestly.
On another note: It's December!... In reality, I mean. No, there's not some goddamn Christmas special of Makoto/Minato brooding during his childhood...
Yeah~, I wonder who did that...
Must've been a complete idiot...
It'd be a shame...
... Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle bells-
?
"Er... Is this it?" Kotone asked uncertainly as she looked around the middle of an old and long abandoned military bunker.
For tonight's operation, they were out to eliminate the shadows Arcana Justice and Arcana Chariot. However, when Fuuka tried to locate them, they were both in an area that made no sense.
The shadows were both seemingly underground despite there not being a building in the area with a basement.
Luckily, Aigis had access to information that'd be normally classified to the public. As such, she was able to conclude that this had to be the place that the shadows were...
... Before revealing that her information was also potentially ten years out of date.
A loud shriek turned into a roar as one of the smaller shadows attracted by its stronger brother took notice of SEES and rushed to attack like a mindless monster.
"Hmm? Oh, right..." Kotone reached out to her Evoker and pulled the trigger "Black Frost..." she called out to casually, having been used to fighting shadows now.
The darker version of Jack Frost seemingly smiled before summoning a column of ice below the shadow, thus causing an impalement that almost instantly forced it to disappear into a black smoke.
"Man, if only the big guys were that easy, right?" Junpei asked with his typical Junpei grin on his face "We'd get this done in no time!"
"If only..." Kotone shook her head as she sighed. She knew these operations were necessary to end the Dark Hour, but damn did it cause her to be drop-dead tired the following day or two.
"Greetings..."
Catching everyone off guard, SEES turned around and saw Takaya and Jin standing side by side. Takaya holds onto his five-shot revolver and Jin holds onto his large pack of grenades.
"I believe this is the first time we've met in person..." Takaya spoke as he scanned the crowd "And Makoto is not with you? Such a shame, I would've loved to have taken care of that matter."
"Who are they?!" Fuuka asked, feeling beyond shocked at the sudden confrontation "Lucia didn't sense a thing until now!"
"Wait..." Kotone thought as she analyzed what he said. Did they know Makoto? But, how? He never said anything before about them, so was he hiding something?
"I am Takaya, and this is Jin." Takaya introduced himself "We are known to some as Strega, I suppose that will suffice. We've been keeping an eye on you for some time now."
"We've heard that you've taken the righteous path to 'save the world'." Takaya continued as a smug look formed on his face "We're here to end that."
"You've gained allies, succeed at every operation, and haven't lost a single member of your flock... Yet this land still crawls with sin and Tartarus still stands." Takaya said, sounding almost as if he worshipped the tower more than anything
"If Tartarus and The Dark Hour go then so does our power, but we won't let that happen.." Jin chimed in, explaining their reasons for what they were doing.
"Both Tartarus and The Dark Hour are frontiers for only us, the chosen few may explore."
"Are you insane?!" Yukari screamed at them, incapable of seeing things from that perspective "There's no telling what the shadows will do if left on their own!"
"What difference does it make?" Takaya asked he sighed either in annoyance or disappointment, "Petty conflicts, disease, nature, accidents- There will always be disasters with or without shadows."
"Tell me, hasn't the Dark Hour given you a sense of purpose?!" He asked them, desperately trying to get them to cease their actions.
Jin walked forward with a frown on his face, likely agreeing with everything Takaya has said "Each of you are only using 'justice' as an excuse for your own reasons for fighting. You're all hypocrites, so to hell with you!"
Immediately after finishing his sentence, Jin and Takaya summoned their personas and damaged parts of the door which seemed to be responsible for holding the large steel door as it fell and sealed SEES within with no way out.
Drawn from the noise of the door being slammed shut, A shadow that looked exactly like a tank approached them, and Fuuka could sense both the Chariot and Justice Arcana from it.
Meanwhile, Strega from the other side suddenly felt as if the temperature had dropped by several degrees.
…
…
...
"Hmm..." Makoto hummed as he entered what seemed to be a large and abandoned bunker that was likely once used by the military. For one of the world wars, maybe? Who knows?
Ah, yes... Wars. Another thing all creatures like to do, but something humans do for the most absurd of reasons.
Many creatures are simple like ants. An ant only fights to defend their colony from invasion of other creatures that might harm them or seize their resources.
Wolves? Also simple; They only attack either to eat or to defend their territory.
Humans? What reason have they not used to kill each other? Religion? Pride? Envy? Lust? Love? Greed? They practically thrive off of war!
Humans pride themselves as being better than animals, yet destroy each other for the most inane of things!
The human race is capable of astounding feats such as landing on the moon, developing potentially world destroying weapons, eradicating devastating plagues... Yet they simply wish to continue fighting like feral animals.
Truly, this was a species that should've been condemned a long time ago. Simply written off as another failed project.
Speaking of projects...
"You can come out now..." Makoto said using the same lowered and husky voice he used during his confrontation with Strega. He'd felt the presence of a Plume separate from Agis' ever since he was close to this place
Out of the darkness came a familiar boy who looked both annoyed and surprised.
"First Makoto and now you, too?" He complained loudly, likely due to being frustrated that two people have been able to detect him when he was hiding now. "Grgh, what the hell?!"
"Sakuya Sakugetsu..." Makoto stated the brunette's name as his glowing blue eyes met with Sakuya's grey and blue ones "... What do you want?"
"You already know me? Great, that saves me some time introducing myself..." Sakuya said with a laugh, this entire conflict just seemed to be one big game to all of him "To put it simply: I'm gonna need to kill your ass because some clown told me to."
"And you were waiting for me..." Makoto said as he chuckled, thoroughly amused by that statement "... Like the slave you are."
Sakuya's eyes widened in surprise before immediately narrowing with a hostile manner "You better pick your next words carefully."
"Must be hard." Makoto continued, shrouded in the darkness his hood gave was a smile forming from ear to ear "I know everything about you, but know nothing about me. You have nothing to mock me with, but I have everything to mock you. Isn't that right, puppet?"
"You..." Sakuya growled as he took a single step forward, the Plume also seemed to be reacting as a faint turquoise mist began to emanate from him "You... You bastard..."
"I'd yawn, but things like you aren't worth it." Makoto said as he rolled his eyes.
It was then that Makoto took notice of the approaching footsteps approaching from behind him. Coming from deeper within the bunker were two of the three members of Strega.
"And now you're here..." Makoto said with another sigh, what was next? Was the shadow going to crash through the walls too?
"I see fate has permitted us to encounter one another yet again." Takaya said as he took notice of Sakuya who was literally trembling as he tried to keep his animosity under control "And you've brought a friend."
"If by friend you mean I'm going to tear this sonuva bitch apart..." Sakuya said as he took another step forward towards the still unfazed Makoto "... Then, yeah. We're the best of pals."
What about SEES? Minato whispered, sounding deeply concerned for the well being of young persona users
Makoto looked back at Strega who had come from where he sensed Aigis' Plume "What'd you do with them?"
"You're referring the 'righteous ones', I assume?" Takaya theorized, silently questioning the hooded boy's relation to him. At the same time, the pale man shivered slightly. Why did the air suddenly feel so much colder?
"We brought the door down and sealed them in." Jin explained, feeling no shame in their actions
Open the door! Minato screamed into Makoto's head
Pf, fuck 'em. Makoto replied to his other self, not seeing any reason to interfere
If they fail, you'll need to go in anyway! Open the door, dammit! Minato pleaded, almost to the point of begging for Makoto to act. It was obvious why. They both share the same feelings for the same person, as that was a trait that was felt by their foundation itself. And whether they liked it or not, they were all nothing more but byproducts of their foundation.
Hmm... Makoto looked back at the increasingly unstable Sakuya who looked like bottle of soda that was ready to burst. Maybe insulting him with something that personal wasn't the best idea, but there was no going back now.
Makoto sighed, this was going to be a long night...
"Open the door." Makoto demanded as his dimly lit eyes began to slightly increase in intensity. He did need to be sure that the shadows were destroyed, whether any of them liked it or not.
Takaya narrows his eyes suspiciously as his hand hovers over his gun "I see. So you are with them as well."
"Them?" Makoto chuckled at the suggestion, who'd he think he was? "My reasons for doing what i do are my own. I don't give a shit what happens to them..."
Makoto eyes suddenly got brighter and the outer edges of his irises gained a faint yellow-ish tint to them "Now, open the damn door."
"Even if I wanted to, what we have done to the door is irreversible; It cannot be opened by the simple press of a button." Takaya explained before sighing in disappointment "I prayed that you would be different, but it seems you have fallen victim to the same poison that has ravaged them as well."
"Done with your little heart-to-heart, yet?" Sakuya asked, his patience becoming thinner and thinner with every passing moment "Because I'm looking real forward to seeing that ugly mug of yours before I tear it to pieces."
Makoto softly grunted as he looked at the two parties, one blocking the way forward and the other blocking the way back. Neither of them were simply going to let him pass without a fight, and Sakuya was definitely going to try and kill him no matter what.
To make matters worse, he was also on a time limit. The trip here mixed with actually finding the damn place ate into his precious one hour, so now he had maybe half of that left.
He'd hadn't exactly gotten much of a feel for how SEES' fighting abilities were, his last example being a month ago which leaves a large room for change given their trips to Tartarus. There was no way of being sure if SEES could kill the shadows or not, so there was no way he could just stand here and do nothing.
Deciding he needed to act before Sakuya's temper finally exploded or Strega finally grew bored of listening and watching, Makoto took one final deep breath.
Summoning a sword in his right hand, Makoto immediately stabbed it into the ground which caused a sudden black and purple-ish wave to push the two opposing parties back and temporarily incapacitate them.
Using their impaired state to his advantage, Makoto jumped into the air and manipulated the air to propel him forward and past Strega.
Upon landing on his feet, Makoto took off as fast as he could. Didn't matter what the door was made of, he was going to get through even if he had to tear himself to pieces until he was reduced to a bloody paste just to get through the tiniest gap.
"Gr..." Sakuya growled as he quickly recovered from the sudden attack. Did that hooded boy really just try running away from him?
No, no, no, no... That boy signed his death warrant. There was no way in hell that was just going to get away with that.
As soon as he could, Sakuya took off in a blur of motion as he moved in nigh-inhuman speeds deeper into the bunker.
Takaya and Jin, however, took their time recovering from the sudden attack. It was purely meant for distraction and did little actual harm to either of them.
"Yet another falls victim..." Takaya said, the disenchantment in his voice apparent "... It would seem that we may have to deal with them ourselves rather than relying solely on either time or shadows to do the job for us."
...
...
"How the hell are we supposed to stop that thing?!" Junpei screamed as he barely moved out of the way in time to avoid being rode over by a literal shadow tank.
"Fuuka, anything helpful would be nice!" Kotone pleaded, exhausted from having to constantly avoid an entire myriad of bright magical arrows over and over again.
"I think... I think there's two of them!" Fuuka explained as best as she could "It's like the two shadows conjoined into one!"
"Initiating suppressing fire!" Aigis annouced before jumping high into the air and unleashing a barrage of bullets on the tank.
The shadow merely took the blows like an actual tank before the turret on top took aim and unleashed its own barrage.
"Setanta!" Kotone summoned to take some of the heat off of Aigis.
The young Irish hero tried his hardest to pierce through the shadows' think armor, but was only met with the tracks being used as bipedal limb to knock him back.
In retaliation for the interference, Chariot/Justice cast a spell which caused Kotone to be surrounded by a bright circle and from it arose dozens of bright cards.
"Principality!" Kotone switched in a heartbeat which managed to block the Hama spell. She always knew that she was keeping the persona around for a reason.
Akihiko and Mitsuru had summoned their own personas to from behind while the conjoined shadows were distracted, but the two shadows surprised them by separating with Justice as the turret and Chariot as the main body.
Chariot absorbed the full force of of Polydeuces punch, but the tank was still a tank. No matter how hard he hit, the shadow didn't seem to budge even slightly.
Charging up, Chariot charged forward and unleashed a brutal assault on the Gemini half which forced him to retreat.
Justice, meanwhile, was using its smaller form to its full advantage to avoid Penthesilea's attacks with her daggers and ice-based attacks.
With every dodge, Justice was able to fire its gun over and over until the heiress forced her persona to retreat, knowing this tactic would get them nowhere.
Yukari did her best to heal her teammates with Dia as the member of SEES regrouped while the two shadows united once again.
"Any ideas?" Mitsuru asked, never would she have expected to face a literal tank for a shadow.
"Alright, how about-"
Kotone was cut off when the room suddenly felt as if someone had turned down the thermostat a few notches and there was a very loud explosion and crashing coming from the door that had sealed them in.
Coming from a dark shroud that leaked from the door was a familiar persona wearing coffins clutching his master as if shielding him from the attack that had blown the door and sent them more than a few feet back.
"... Well that's a plan." Kotone deadpanned, remembering just how strong that persona's master was.
Growling, Thanatos let Makoto go and hovered above the boy out of preparation for a fight.
Makoto took immediate notice of SEES who all seemed to be alive and well.
However, this also raised one problem.
He had been forced to speak to Strega and kept that same voice when he talked to Sakuya a few moments ago.
But SEES were more familiar with him and it'd be risky to talk at all with them also being in the same area even with a disguised voice.
However, he couldn't completely revert to being a mute to avoid possible suspicion of the enraged boy who had just tried to blow him to pieces and was now emerging from the shroud he had summoned.
He was going to have to speak, but try to avoid doing it unnecessarily.
"Thanks for opening the door..." Makoto thanked dryly, Thanatos continued to growl like a rapid animal only kept at bay by his master's wishes.
"Tch, keep laughin'..." Sakuya said as his now completely grey eyes glared at Makoto "Always wondered what it was like to kill someone smiling."
The confrontation between the two persona users was interrupted by the sudden attack by Chariot/Justice who were both reacting to Pharos inside Makoto and the Plume inside Sakuya.
"I don't like interruptions..." Makoto muttered as he gave orders to the gift from his old friend
Thanatos roared as the chains in his back began to extend to unnatural lengths much like it had done with Arcana Magician just a few months ago. Within moments, the tank that had been given SEES so much trouble was no reduced to being restrained and crushed by the chains of death itself.
Sakuya rolled his eyes "Omega Cluster..." he ordered, there was no reason to let that shadow live any longer than it had to.
Suddenly, the shadows that had been screaming in agony suddenly began to combust as it was the center of a black and red explosion that killed both shadows instantly.
"Now..." Sakuya summoned a single sword in his right hand, while he was skilled in the art, dual wielding was best used to catch someone off guard, "Where were we?"
Kotone rubbed her eyes as she took a good look at the unfamiliar boy in front of her. He looked about the same age as them, but he also possessed a noticeable 'X' shaped scare between his eyes. Was this the same person that put Makoto in the hospital?
"I sense... A Plume of Dusk." Aigis noted, sensing the same object within her to give her a persona.
Aigis attention went to the hooded boy "And him..." Just like with Makoto, every single type of alarm possible went off within her. No, this was worse... so much worse... The Makoto she saw couldn't even hold a candle to what she was feeling right now.
Makoto chuckled, his main objective was now easily completed and now he could afford to have some fun. Both he and his persona stood up straight and mimicked each other's every movements.
Both Death and his Dark Prince held out their hands, beckoning the scarred persona user closer.
"Hey, we-" Junpei was about to help the powerful persona user that had helped him during the operation in May, but was then halted when he saw a grenade thrown right in front of him
"Holy-" Luckily for him, Junpei's knee jerk reaction of kicking the grenade as hard and as far as he could might've just saved his life as he was able to get it far enough away that he was unharmed by the blast.
"I was hoping the shadow would take care of you..." Takaya said, taking note of the blood-like liquid on the walls. He couldn't take too long lest he'd be here powerless and surrounded by them. "Nevertheless, I will take care of the matter myself."
Give me a break... Kotone mentally complained as she took a step back. A person with a gun was a dangerous sign, never mind a persona user. Here's hoping that the two of them wouldn't be too much trouble despite their unknown amount of time of experience.
Deep down, Makoto could feel Minato trying to take over to help them, but all of his efforts were in vain. In front of him was the first person who'd managed to hurt him in ten years, and such an action would not go unpunished.
Done waiting, The Dark Prince and Death charged at The Puppet and Darkness himself who returned the gesture likely as a result of his acrimony building up to the breaking point.
Meanwhile, SEES was now forced to engage with persona users they knew almost nothing about after an exhausting spat with Arcana Justice and Chariot. Their chances probably weren't high, but they were better than nothing.
"He he..."Makoto chuckled silently at the events that had surrounded him. And to think, just a year ago the most he did was bleed in a room all day. Never did he think that he'd encounter persona users like him nor did he think he'd find anyone who'd even come close to rivaling him and Pharos in power.
But now... Now it was time for a rematch. First Sakuya... then Strega... then Kirijo.
Don't like doing this to you guys, but like I've said before, large chapters cause technical difficulties. Sometimes portions disappear, become a jumbled mess of code (seriously), or I just miss more errors than usual.
We're serious, we really hate doing this to you guys.
WE?! I do all the work!
Now, now, we're all valuable.
B-But I... fuck y'all!
Well, I was saving myself for my husbando-
I WAS FUCKING KIDDING!
