"Goodbye. Accept the reality of your death."
Despite the Investigation Team's best efforts, the giant rotting corpse-like entity claiming to be the goddess Izanami was barely reacting to the group's attacks anymore. The alleged goddess turned her attention towards Yu, whether because of his status as the group's leader, her having chosen him to receive the power to enter the TV World, or because his Persona was drawn from her former lover, Izanagi. A red ring of some dark energy appeared on the floor around his feet, an impossibly black darkness inside the crimson circle, from which disturbing arms made of shadow emerged to grab at Yu and drag him into the depths.
Fortunately for Yu, so to speak, Yosuke was quick on his feet and shoved Yu out of the circle with his shoulder, but was caught around the ankles by the hands. To the horror of the rest of the team, the hands dragged Yosuke down into God-only-knew-where before the circle shrank down into nothing, leaving no trace of their second-in-command.
Kanji was the first to speak, giving a voice to what they were all thinking: "H-Holy shit..."
"Y-Yosuke?" Chie, who was stood right beside the spot where Yosuke had been dragged down, stuttered as she stumbled back and tripped over her own feet, landing flat on her rear end. "No way... What the hell?"
"Chie!" Yukiko was quickly by her best friend's side and trying to help her to her feet. Finally able to tear her eyes away from the spot where Yosuke had disappeared, Chie looked back towards the vile goddess that had taken their friend from them, only to find the creature's gaze fixed squarely on her.
A second circle appeared beneath Chie and Yukiko's feet. Without giving her friend a chance to react, Yukiko threw Chie clear of the attack before being dragged down by the hands herself.
"YUKIKOOO!" Chie screamed louder and harder than she had ever screamed before. Chie scrambled on her hands and knees over to where Yukiko had been stood, but to no avail. Yukiko, like Yosuke, was gone.
Chie felt so incredibly powerless. She had only gotten her Persona in the first place to help keep Yukiko safe. Yukiko, even if only her Shadow had ever actually said as much, considered Chie her Prince, the one who would save her from... well, that particular instance referred to her feelings of being trapped in a life path set out for her by others, but Chie had always felt that Yukiko had viewed her as someone she could always rely on to support her and keep her safe. And now, she was gone. Possibly forever. Why did such a kind, wonderful person like Yukiko have to be taken, and not a useless, two-face coward like her?
Izanami diverted her attention towards the others, who had continued to attack her fruitlessly, rather than finishing off the defenceless Chie. She again targeted Yu, but Teddie took the hit for him this time. Naoto was targeted next. Predictably, Kanji attempted to shove Naoto out of the way, but the detective fired off a shot from her handgun at the ground in front of him to stop him taking her place. He did, however, successfully sacrifice himself to save Rise when she was targeted.
Once only Yu, Chie and Rise remained, Izanami once more turned her attention towards the tomboy. Still on her knees and unable to stand after losing her best friend, Chie was helpless as Izanami cast her spell for the fifth time. Yu rushed over to save her, but Chie gave the leader a hard shove with her foot to knock him out of the circle, accepting her fate but refusing to let such an incredible friend be taken down with her as she was dragged into the darkness...
"IZANAGI-NO-OKAMI! MYRIAD TRUTHS!"
As a blinding white light dissolved from her vision, Chie was back before Izanami, whose red form had taken on a sickly purple tint, and the humanoid upper body at the top of the form was twitching erratically while seemingly slumped over in defeat. Somehow, against all odds, Yu had done it.
Chie's head whipped down towards where Yu stood, his TV World glasses discarded at some point. To his side stood Rise, arms gripped tightly around one of his. Just behind him sat Yosuke, Kanji, Teddie, Naoto-
"Yukiko!" Chie scrambled over to where her friend was currently sitting in a daze. Green-coated arms wrapped themselves around the red cardigan typical of Yukiko in the winter months.
"Ch-Chie!?" Yukiko's awareness returned all at once as Chie began crying into her chest. As she had done many times in the past, Yukiko had a hand over her friend's soft, light brown bowl-cut hair.
Izanami soon began a disbelieving tirade about how living in 'blissful ignorance' was easier and 'the true peace' for humans. It seemed the goddess really did believe that humanity as a whole would find this preferable.
Kanji, as was to be expected of the hot-headed punk, gave the bested goddess an earful. "How many times do we have to tell you!? The hell with that shit!"
Emboldened by Kanji's courage and unable to hold back the fury she felt at what Izanami had just subjected her and her friends to, Chie also pulled herself away from her friend and stood tall to put the ancient bitch in her place. "Stop assuming you know us! You're the one living in blissful ignorance, telling yourself this is all for the good of humanity, when it doesn't benefit anyone but you! You're only doing this to justify how much you suffered because of what happened with you and Izanagi! You're just a child throwing a tantrum and dressing it up in high-minded ideals that everyone else can tell are bullshit!" Whether accurate or not, it felt good to lay into Izanami verbally.
To her credit (as much as Chie was willing to give her), Izanami did not snap back, nor demand silence. Rather, she actually chuckled. She declared that they had surpassed her expectations and that she would leave humanity to its own devices, before congratulating them and disappearing from reality before their eyes.
"Alright, we did it!" Kanji exclaimed in jubilation.
"It's really over now," Yukiko chimed in with an, admittedly exhausted, sense of relief.
"Thank goodness," Rise said with a cheerfulness that, when as genuine as this, was infectious. "And to think, Senpai fought a goddess on his own and still won."
"Come on," Yu chuckled. "I couldn't've done it without all you guys. It was a team effort all the way to the end."
"Not that we really did a whole lot at the end," Yosuke said in mock depression. "Still, thanks to you, Partner, it all worked out in the end."
"It all worked out!?" Chie's emotions flared up again as the image of Yosuke being dragged into... even she didn't know where and she'd gone there not long after - replayed itself in her mind. "How can you say that it all worked out when almost all of us just... died, I think!?"
"Chie-"
"Don't you 'Chie' me! What you just did was reckless and stupid and..." The tears started flowing freely again. "I-I really thought you were gone forever."
"Chie..."
"And then everyone else started doing the same thing and none of you thought about what being the one left behind feels like. You're the second-in-command, you're supposed to set a good example for the rest of us. And I just had to watch most of my best friends die right in front of me! How could you do that to me!?"
"I didn't... I didn't realise it would upset you so much," Yosuke responded apologetically. "But I couldn't just let Yu die. He's our leader. It would all fall apart without him at the reigns. I'm certainly not cut out for leadership."
"I don't care! You shouldn't've... You... Your life is worth a lot more than that... I-I-I... I don't mean that I'd be okay with you dying, Yu-kun! I-"
"I know," the leader said with a genuinely understanding smile as he lowered himself to one knee and placed a hand on his distraught friend's shoulder. "You and Yosuke've known each other for a long time. It's only natural you'd be upset, seeing something like that."
"Y-Yeah, but... I'm the only one who's acting like this... I'm such a kid... And I didn't do anything in that last fight. I'm just a stupid, useless kid."
"That's not true at all, Chie," Yukiko assured her.
"Yeah, you're always super helpful," Rise insisted.
"You are inarguably one of our strongest fighters," Naoto assessed.
"Yeah, you're probably tougher'n me," Kanji complimented.
"And you're the one who made some of our most significant breakthroughs in the case," Yosuke added.
"And you've got that tomboyish charm that drives me-"
"Dude. Not now."
"What good is strength if I'm too scared to even use it?"
"It's not just the strength that you have," Yu replied. "The strength you bring out in others is also your strength. After Izanami took the rest of you, she managed to get ahold of me too. I thought it was all over, at first. But I heard the voices of everyone who's helped me this past year - Nanako, Dojima-san, school friends and work friends... and you guys. Even you, Chie. You were there with everyone else giving me the strength I needed to stand back up and finish this. It was the power of our bonds made manifest that stopped Izanami. And your and my bond was a part of that power."
"I'm really not-" Chie began, but Yu wouldn't take no for an answer, any more than he would accept Izanami's rhetoric.
"When your Persona evolved, did you feel like spending time with me helped you reach those important epiphanies that helped you to grow?"
"Well, yeah, but-"
"And you think our spending time together did nothing to help my growth? Izanagi-no-Okami is a symbol of my bonds with everyone. You included. You were the first person to approach me after I transferred here. You've been a core part of our group since the beginning, even before you got your Persona. Your drive to save Yukiko was inspiring. You're a more important part of this team that you've ever realised. Oh, and Nanako really looks up to you as well."
"She does?"
"Yeah. She really admires your optimistic and chipper attitude. She says it makes her feel happy when you're around. So it's not just us that rely on you and appreciate what you do for us."
"Wow," Chie sniffed, wiping a tear from her eye. "You're really good at this whole inspirational speech thing."
The others all voiced their agreement.
Yu stood and offered Chie his hand. She gratefully took it and he pulled her to her feet. As she stood, Chie stumbled and tripped, colliding with Yu's chest. Rather than pull away, she clung to his shirt, grateful for all he had done for her. He allowed her to stay that way for as long as she needed. Yukiko was quick to hug her friend from the other side, pulling Yosuke into it as well. It was then only natural for Teddie and Rise to drag Kanji and Naoto in as they joined too.
I started this one back in #JUNE5, I believe, but really struggled with how to make Chie's breakdown work. After coming back to it, I'm not sure why I struggled so much. I think it was because her getting upset about Yosuke's actions, which was the initial concept that led to the story, seemed not to work as well after Yukiko sacrificed herself for Chie, but now it doesn't feel like an issue. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯