blahblahblech: Huh... That's actually a good way to look at it. Not bad.
Ultimate Kuuga: Yeah, unless... Something.
Something?!
SOMETHING!
Something...
IAmSoCleverWithMyNameLol : ... You need help. And no, not you! YOU! YES, I CAN STILL SEE YOU..! Calling the e-police!
Anyway, so- What's that?! I don't care! Get the fuck outta here!
That guy... biggest dick! And o-oh, he's not leaving. No, now he's showing me his ass. OH, REAL MATURE! Fuckin' asshole.
Nightlyy: I know, I know... Maybe it's the weather? Onto the main subject: Yes, Makoto... he's not well.
Huh... Is the name "Makoto" cursed?
Considering there's a Makoto in P5, apparently not.
You will pay for everything you've done!
What's that? You want to do me from behind now? Alright, husbando, I trust you...
Grrrrr...
*snickers*
Bwahahahahaha!
Raze Olympus: C'mon, don't make me feel bad... God, I love you guys too much!
SolidShinji104: Pf, good one! But like I said, I'm getting this last chapter out no matter what (my inner sadist would be pissed otherwise) and... Maybe at a certain scene coming up in the not-to-distant future will be the point where I decide this fic's ultimate fate.
Streets
Ikutsuki patiently waited in the alley way that he'd been summoned to. Recently, Makoto had called him and said that there was something important that he needed to go over, but it could only be done in-person.
Not having any means of defying the boy, Ikutsuki could only do as he was told and now he was left waiting. Though, this time he was going to be sure that it'd be their last meeting together by any means necessary.
Sakuya was already put into position. Even if Makoto senses him, he will likely try to play it off and act as if he's in control of the situation. And then, the boy would finally meet his end either by Sakuya's hand, or the by the little surprise Ikutsuki had brought with him...
Once this was all done, he could finally take it easy again and allow his plans to come to fruition. Perhaps he should ask Sakuya to take care of Strega next? His sole reason for living this long was to tie up any loose ends remaining.
After that? Well, then he could finally rid himself of that troublesome brunette once and for all. He was a useful weapon for certain, but he was also looking for any way out of his current situation as he could.
No one could blame him; it was human nature after all to seek freedom from the will of another. The moment his guard was down, he was certain to try and earn the freedom he had longed for ever since he was old enough to grasp the concept after years of being groomed to do nothing but kill.
Either way, first thing to do before anything else would be to finally take care of Makoto once and for all. It would be such a shame that the mysterious persona user had finally managed to find and kill him while he was taking a moonlit walk.
"Do you really think I'm a fool?" Ikutsuki's eyes widened for a moment before he turned around and saw that the bluenette had sneaked up behind him.
Recovering from the shock quickly, Ikutsuki regained his composure "What do you mean, Makoto?"
"Exactly what I said..." Makoto took a step forward, his blue-grey eyes seemingly shinning in the darkness. "... And by the way, the name's Minato Arisato. Let that be something you take to the grave."
Ikutsuki let out a nervous laugh as he took a step back after hearing that sentence "I-I see you like black comedy!" he tried to laugh the situation off "N-Not my first choice, but I can see the appeal to-"
"I see you like lying even in the face of death itself." Makoto cut the old man off "I mean, I can't say I blame you. For a while you even had me in the dark about your biggest secret."
"M-My..." Ikutsuki gulped at the implications that Makoto was beginning to suggest. There was no way he could've found out about that is there?
"Do you feel that?" Makoto asked, his lips beginning to curl into a twisted smile as he imagined everything he was going to do to him. "Your heart is pounding, your skin is beginning to feel cold, and you're beginning to find it harder and harder to control your breathing."
"Makoto, what in the world are you..?" What was going on in this boy's mind? It was no secret to anyone with a brain that there was something wrong with him, but now he seemed to go from unstable to a complete lunatic.
"I told you, my name is Minato Arisato. I didn't adopt the name Makoto Yuki until many years after." Makoto explained, his dimly lit blue eyes now beginning to glow slightly brighter as the Dark Hour began to get closer and closer to manifestation.
"After what, you ask? After you and your fellow scientists took everything I had away from me." Makoto said giving a piercing glare that felt as if it was going straight through Ikutsuki's soul.
The second his sentence was over, the Dark Hour began to manifest as ichor began to seep from the walls and the moon along with the rest of the world began to gain a green-ish tint.
"S-Sakuya!" Ikutsuki called out to his puppet that had been waiting on the roof.
"Hrrah!" Could be heard from above as Sakuya came down from above with his blades pointed downwards similar to what he had done the very day him and Makoto first met.
Not that easy. Both Minato and Makoto thought simultaneously as they countered the attack with a Garu spell.
With the wind itself attacking the boy who was still in the air, Sakuya instead crashed straight into a wall.
"Really, you think he's going to-"Makoto looked back and saw that Ikutsuki had taken off running "… Son of a bitch."
Makoto quickly ran out of the alleyway just in time to see Ikutsuki running down the street, doing whatever it took to escape the bluenette's wrath. Unfortunately for him, neither Makoto nor Minato were going to let him get away that easily.
"No you fucking don't, you bastard." Makoto whispered as black flames appeared right in front of Ikutsuki to cut off his escape.
Immediately after that, Makoto summoned a sword in his hand and twirled around to intercept an attack from Sakuya.
Not having enough time to brace himself, Makoto was forced to take a few steps back as the brunette dashed forward and began to unleash an onslaught of attacks, all of which were parried but also knocked Makoto further and further off balance.
"Kougaon!" Makoto shouted before Sakuya's last blow that would've certainly knocked him down could connect.
From above, two bright and yellow arrow-like shapes began to form before seemingly being launched at their target.
The moment the arrow landed, Sakuya was the one who was launched backwards. It was fitting in a way; Darkness was repelled by a light-based attack.
With Sakuya out of the picture, Makoto rushed towards the old man before he could devise a means of escape again. No, this was where he was going to die no matter what sort of hell Makoto was going to have to go through to achieve it.
Before he could reach him however, Makoto was suddenly face-to-face with Scotus who had just been summoned by his master. To make matters worse, the fires that Makoto had cast were now beginning to die down.
"Oh, for fuck's sake!" Makoto cursed as the frustration both of his selves were feeling began to grow. If there was one thing he had to admit, it was that Ikutsuki certainly wasn't going to go down without some sort of fight… even if he wasn't the one actually fighting.
In response to the god of darkness' appearance, Thanatos appeared immediately and struck the god down. Odd, Sakuya usually put up much more of a fight than that.
With Scotus out of the picture, Thanatos extended one of his many chains to grab a hold of the fleeing Ikutsuki's leg to pull him towards the bluenette. No matter how hard he tried, he was not going to leave here unless it was in a body bag.
Makoto began to walk towards him again, letting the fear of his approaching death truly sink in. It didn't matter to him much how much time he was wasting; at worst, the Dark Hour ends and Makoto will still be able to sink Thanatos on him. Either way, he was going to get what he wanted and that was Ikutsuki's death.
As he was walking towards him, Makoto felt his foot hit something.
"Hmm..?" Makoto looked down and saw that a certain something had fallen from Ikutsuki's pocket as he was trying to get away.
"Hey, Sakuya..!" Makoto called out to the boy who had recovered from the attack and was now standing right behind him. He truly must've been a veteran persona user if he was able to take a direct blow from his persona's weakness and not at the very least pass out.
"… Catch!" Makoto tossed the object to the brunette who then inspected the device to see what it was.
It was the remote to the very thing that kept Sakuya under control; the strings that allowed the puppet master to control the puppet. Now it made sense why this fight was so easy despite Makoto being far from his full power; Just like Makoto had theorized before, Sakuya was waiting for the chance to gain his freedom.
Upon seeing what it was, Sakuya dropped the remote onto the ground before stabbing his sword into it, completely destroying the device and any control Ikutsuki may have had over him.
With his strings cut, Sakuya smiled to himself as he turned around and began to walk away "Have fun, Ikutsuki!"
"Dammit, you… You insolent little brat!" Ikutsuki condemned the young boy who had abandoned him just like he was ready to abandon him the second his use was over.
Sakuya paused for a moment, and turned around just for a moment to throw a small knife straight into Ikutsuki's left shoulder which caused him to scream in pain. "Give him a few for me, would ya?"
"Oh, I plan on it…" Makoto agreed as he turned back to Ikutsuki while the brunette began to walk away again. Now, there weren't going to be any interruptions between him and Ikutsuki.
"Lost your puppet, eh, Ikutsuki?" Makoto teased the old man as he began to make his way towards him again. "Tell me, what's it like to completely lose control of someone who was in your pocket just a few seconds ago? Is vexing? Is it soul crushing?"
Having finally made his way to the old man who was still on the ground after being pulled by Thanatos, Makoto grabbed Ikutsuki by the throat and used his unnatural strength to lift him off his feet.
Makoto chuckled at the sight of Ikutsuki struggling to break free, still trying to cling to his life after having destroyed so many others.
Makoto pushed the vermin into a wall of a nearby building and began to slowly push the knife that was still lodged into his shoulder even deeper which caused him to scream again.
"Feel that pain, Ikutsuki?" Makoto whispered, his voice sounding as cold as the air of the coldest of winters. "It's nothing compared to what I'm about to-"
SMACK!
Makoto grunted as he felt some slapped onto his face which caused him to take a few steps and try to understand what the hell just happened.
"What the..?" Wait a moment; his voice was muffled now too for some reason. Makoto reached up and felt something odd. It wasn't the normal sensation of flesh on flesh that normally came on his face; rather he felt something cold and…
Oh no…
This wasn't his face… No, this was a mask… One of those masks!
He could feel it, there was something else forcing its way into his mind trying to taking over.
Makoto took a few more steps back as he tried pulling the mask off, but then he felt the pain of the mask gripping onto his face to prevent it from falling off.
Hehe… He could hear something that wasn't anywhere close to human chuckling from inside his head as it tried to worm its way in further and further into every imaginable crevice in his brain.
Minato could be heard screaming in resistance as Makoto tried desperately to claw the thing off until…
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"GAAAAAAH!" Makoto screamed in agony and blood splattered everywhere as he summoned all of his strength to rip the mask off of him along with most of the flesh on his face.
"G-Grgh… Argh… Fucking hell… Argh…" Makoto grunted and cursed as large droplets of blood continued to drop onto the mask that had been on his face just a few moments ago.
The mask didn't having any features meaning it was a complete blank. No, this was one of the masks mentioned before… It's The Faceless mask. It was kind of fitting that was the name seeing how Makoto had to literally tear his own face off just to get it.
This was definitely a cursed mask. Now that he was holding it, Makoto could feel the essence of whatever god it belonged to inside it. Whatever god it was, it was certainly powerful that much was certain.
Dropping the mask onto the ground, Makoto crushed it into pieces beneath his boot. Despite being made by a god, it didn't take much to destroy it, at least not with the amount of power that Makoto had.
With the mask destroyed, Makoto continued to pant heavily as droplets of blood continued to fall from whatever was left of his face.
"He he, would you look at that?" Makoto asked in a raspy voice as he titled his head upwards slightly. His eyes were now glowing a dim blue with bright yellow forming at the edges of his irises and the remnants of his face were either covered by his large fringe or concealed in the darkness caused by the Dark Hour's dim lighting.
"Look what I've caught." Makoto said in an almost inhumanely gravelly voice as his head tilted downwards causing his face to be shrouded in darkness except for two now completely bright yellow glowing eyes and began walking towards the old man with outstretched arms "I've caught you, Shuji Ikutsuki..."
As the boy walked forward towards the false prince, many things entered his mind all at once, almost to the point of overlapping one another.
For her?
For them?
For Us?
For vengeance?
For her?
For them?
For Kotone?
For Minako?
For mother?
For father?
For us?
For her?
For them?
For her!
To hell…
He goes…
To rot…
And burn…
Makoto grabbed Ikutsuki by the throat with his right hand and the knife Sakuya had thrown with his left.
"That really hurt…" Makoto said as he pushed the knife in deeper into the man's shoulder causing him to scream in pain until he felt the knife hit the wall on the other side.
Makoto's grip on Ikutsuki's throat tightens more before he forced the man down causing the knife to completely rip through his shoulder.
"But don't worry…" Makoto said still holding onto Sakuya's knife as he watched Ikutsuki try to crawl away. "… I'll make sure you know true pain by the end of this."
"What… What are you?!" Ikutsuki asked as he reached into his coat and drew out a gun.
"What you wish you were." Makoto answered as he stared at the weapon "Really, you think that will help you?"
Without saying a word, Ikutsuki pulled the trigger and fired off three shots at Makoto who simply stood still.
One bullet hit his left eye, another hit his right lung, and the last one completely missed its target.
Makoto chuckled as the two bullets that hit him were forced out of him and fell to the ground "You think you're some prince, is that right?"
"What are you talking about?!" Ikutsuki asked as he tried crawling away after throwing the gun at Makoto, but like the bullets before it, it did no damage.
"You think you're the prince that will become king of the new world, right?" Makoto asked the one question that could make Ikutsuki freeze in place.
"Y-You… You know about..?" Ikutsuki couldn't finish the sentence. There was no way a child like him could know about that!
"Of course I know about The Fall, you piece of shit." Makoto let out another one of his biggest secrets as he placed his foot against Ikutsuki's throat. "Alright, so maybe I'm missing a few details on how it all goes down, but I get the idea. And you know what? You shouldn't worry, because Death's already chosen his prince…"
Thanatos reappeared behind Makoto and simply stood still as he looked down at the old man who was one of the ones responsible for his creation.
Ikutsuki's eyes widened as he looked at the god in front of him while Makoto increased the pressure against his throat "Ten years ago, that rust bucket forced him into my guts after he killed my family." He continued the list of countless secrets "Since then, I've kept him safe just as he's kept me safe… And I'm the one he chose because of it."
Makoto removed his foot from Ikutsuki's throat instead choosing to crouch down and looked the old man in the eye. "Why am I telling you? Because that day I learned something, you want to truly kill someone you don't just kill them immediately. No, to kill someone… You take away their reason for living."
Makoto took the knife that Sakuya had just a few moments ago lodged into Ikutsuki's shoulder and raised it to his still ruined face "You know, I could just heal from this, but you know what? Seeing how you wore the face of a prince…" Makoto placed his other hand on Ikutsuki's throat to keep him from moving "… Well, remember what I said I'd do if you failed me again?"
Ikutsuki's screams echoed throughout the streets as they filled the silence that was brought about by the Dark Hour. More and more blood spilt until Makoto held up his bloodied prize.
After the deed was done, Makoto donned the outfit that was normally used for disguise purposes as he continued to hold up Ikutsuki's bloodied face that had been separated from the rest of his body.
With Makoto's threat being fulfilled, Thanatos began to act as he used his chains to surround Ikutsuki who was still clinging to life before tearing the rest of his flesh and clothing off as if it were nothing but tissue paper.
As Ikutsuki screamed in agony, Thanatos' chains grabbed him by his legs before they hung him upside down on the nearest lamppost and left him to slowly die a brutal and agonizing death.
Makoto continued gazing into his bloodied prize. His brain seemed to completely go to auto pilot as he held Ikutsuki's face with one hand before a dark mist completely enveloped it.
After a few seconds, Ikutsuki's face was gone. In its place was a white mask with soulless black eyes and a smirk that seemed to go from ear to ear. Just like Ikutsuki and the others had theorized, there was indeed a Prince's Mask.
Makoto put his prize on his face and despite his hood causing a darkness that concealed all of his facial features, the mask could still be seen as clear as day.
This was supposed to be the moment that you were supposed to have an epiphany, right? Suddenly, you're supposed to realize what a monster you are and how this isn't what you want at all.
But no, that wasn't the case at all. Makoto's heart was pounding in excitement! A complete euphoria could be felt throughout his entire body, and felt as if he'd achieved a lifelong dream.
"He he… Ha ha ha!" Makoto couldn't help it. The streets that were once filled with Ikutsuki's pained screams were now filled with the Dark Prince's laughter.
"Haha! HAHA! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" And to think, this would only be a taste of what to come.
I HAD to get this chapter out. There was no way in hell I'd forgive myself otherwise.
So, he now holds the Prince's mask, huh?
You asshole, I thought he was about to be possessed for a moment there!
Ha! Only people who read this and BL will truly appreciate that troll. Anyway, I'll try to get out whatever chapters I can and when I decide this fic's ultimate fate... I will let you know. God, I love you guys too much.
Oh, and those wondering what the mask looks like: Imagine Nyx Avatar's face, but in mask form.
