Chapter 6: Battlefield
Hey, sorry for the lack of updates as of late, more information at the bottom.
Two of the same creatures showed themselves through the stairs and rapidly headed towards Ren and Naoto as they opened fire after them; however, those shadows were quick, the bullets completely missing their targets.
As the creatures came close their features became more noticeable, the body of a lion, but coming out of the torso there was the upper part of a goat, and its tail wasn't a tail at all, but it was a snake hissing hastily to put its fangs onto something.
"I have seen these before, back in…"
However there was no time to think about familiar faces, as they moved at a speed far beyond what he was used to in his previous missions with the Phantom thieves, as the duo of those creatures evaded both him and Naoto's shots they had to take evasive action, the deformed creatures jumped with their mouth wide open but in just the nick of time they were able to react and barely avoid them.
A name appeared in Ren's thoughts, that creature was one of the most powerful personas his group encountered while exploring mementos and the different palaces they entered to, that name being…
-"Two Chimeras!"- As if his mind was read, Fuuka announced the identity of the shadows before them. -"However it seems they're going berserk! their defense is low, but both their speed and attack are massively increased!"- Both chimeras landed after their missed attack and rushed forward, leaving Naoto and Ren behind.
-"They are attacking whatever they see in front of them, they do not care about anything as long as they can attack someone!"- Both creatures were now dashing towards Morgana and Fuuka.
"Let's go for a one-shot then!" Morgana adopted his usual stance for battle and called forward his persona "Diego, blow them away!" A muscular figure emerged from the feline, wearing traditional spanish clothes and wielding a foil, obeying his user command, he casted a heavy gust of wind towards the two Chimeras, which had closed the distance in between them.
The creatures once again jumped towards their targets, but while in the air the wind attack connected against them, which aside from dealing damage changed their jumping trajectory away from Morgana and Fuuka.
-"It seems Wind is not as effective!"- Although the two creatures landed rather abruptly they weren't as far as the group hoped they would be, without any breaks the Chimeras began rushing towards their next target as if nothing had hit them.
Naoto realized who they were targeting now -"They're going for Yamagishi-san!"- And although Morgana was nearby, he was covering her from the front meaning that he would need to reposition himself to cover her back, which would take precious seconds that they didn't have. She turned her head toward his ally. -"We need to cover her, Amami-"-
Ren was already rushing forward. -"Raoul's Phantom Show won't do, I can't risk missing or for them to be immune to it, maybe if I…"- Gun still in hand, he jumped forward acrobatically while firing his rounds in the creatures direction, remembering how Shinya taught him to do so in that Arcade in Akihabara, however, it was the first time that he tried to hit two targets at once with it, it was a gamble.
One of the Chimeras roared in pain as they were downed, but that wasn't enough, the other one just stopped for a brief moment due to the bullets impacting against their body but after the initial recoil it continued its charge, Ren landed on his feet but he was out of bullets, Morgana was casting Garudyne again with Diego, but he knew that he wasn't going to make it in time, the Chimera jumped towards Fuuka, its mouths wide open showing the fangs in it.
-"Shield of Justice!"- The voice from Naoto shouting from behind him was accompanied by a slim Persona with long, blonde hair that was wearing red and black clothing with a cape with silver and red pattern that flew against the wind as it overtook Ren's position and casted what looked like a wall just before the moment of impact against Fuuka's Persona.
The chimera closed its mouth to bite its prey, but instead of piercing through Juno and onto Fuuka its teeth felt something hard, an energy shield now dividing the creature and the navigator repelled the Chimera. The momentum it carried coming to a sudden stop made the creature bounce back from the shield that seemingly disappeared on Impact, Diego's Garudyne promptly following up to target both chimeras and to put distance in between the two of them.
-"T-thanks for the cover!"-
Morgana looked back -"Joker! they're both down, let's go for an All out attack!"- Ren nodded and rushed forward towards the now incapacitated shadows, Morgana waiting for him.
-"Your group does that as well?, let me give you a hand."- Naoto followed both of them to enter the brawl, thankfully thanks to their previous attacks and their low defenses the two Chimeras disintegrated into the air after the three were finished.
-"I'm not detecting any more shadows near us, we should be safe."- Fuuka's persona disappeared into her user and turned towards
-"Let's retreat then, a shadow attacking us in this area was unexpected."- She pointed to the station's main entrance which was a little far away from where they currently were. -"We should be able to go back if we cross it"- The main entrance had another particular characteristic, a dim glow of natural light, as if some rays of light entered mementos alongside them.
Going upstairs through the main entrance the group felt the air feeling less oppressive the more they climbed up, it started to feel more warm, and when they eventually reached the top they found themselves in their world, with the normal attire they were using before entering Mementos. Although their fight didn't take that long they noticed that the station was starting to get more crowded than before.
-"Sorry for getting you two into that situation"- Naoto's tone changed for the first time since they met, the calm and collected detective seemed guilty of what had transpired. -"If it wasn't for the both of you that could have gone a lot worse, you have my thanks."- The detective bowed towards them.
Ren was a little surprised by this sudden demonstration of gratitude -"O-oh, that's not necessary, we just did what we thought it was right."- Morgana poked his head outside the bag where he sneaked into after exiting Mementos -"Yeah! we were not about to let two ladies get mauled by those shadows!"-.
Fuuka grinned -"Such a gentleman you are."- She started to pet Morgana's head -"You and Koro-chan would be great friends, I feel."- Naoto stopped bowing. -"That's the dog under that backup member's care, right?-" Fuuka nodded.
-"There's a dog that can summon a Persona?!"- Judging by his reaction he didn't share Fuuka's point of view, which caused a small laugh in the group of three as they continued to walk out of the train station and into the neighborhood nearby.
-"Changing topics, we're still waiting for your answer, Amamiya Ren."- Naoto reached for a breast pocket in her shirt with her hand and out of it appeared a business card. "It has my contact information in it, please let us know as soon as possible when you have made up your decision."
Ren accepted the business card. -"Thanks, but I have already made up my mind."-
-"Y-you have?"- Morgana exclaimed, quite surprised.
-"I'll help the Shadow Operatives"- Ren pocketed the Business card out of courtesy and proceeded to take out his cellphone. -"Lets exchange contact information to keep communication between us, okay?"-
Taken aback by this sudden development Naoto asked -"May I know what made you accept to work with us so suddenly?"-
-"Those shadows that attacked us, I have seen shadows acting in a similar behavior once before."- Morgana looked at his leader with a frown on his face.
-"So you noticed too, huh?, I suppose I shouldn't be surprised."- Fuuka and Naoto looked at each other, and although they had questions and decided that it was best to not push their luck, both of them took their phones out to register Ren.
-"Any information that you would like to share its appreciated, but don't feel forced to do so it if you're not comfortable with it."- Fuuka finished registering him before Naoto. -"We are going to report back about the incident today, but hopefully we'll be contacting you back in no time, right, Naoto?"-
Naoto locked her phone's screen and put it back in her pocket. -"That's correct, also, I need all this information and what we have showed you thus far to stay private in between us, okay?"- Ren nodded, although in his head he knew he wouldn't be able to do that.
"Considering whatever Futaba has put into my phone before leaving the cat will be out of the bag the moment they text me, although…"
As the Shadow Operatives duo said their goodbyes and started going in the opposite direction, and idea formed in Ren's mind, he picked up the pace and catched up to them before they were too far away
-"Yamagishi-san."- The duo both looked at him,
-"Just Fuuka is okay, there's no need to be so formal"- The teal haired woman answered.
-"Right, sorry, Fuuka, you see I have this little sister that's really into computers…"-
This would be where the chapter would normally end, however there was a scenario that I didn't feel could be tackled in this chapter nor the next one (read: I didn't knew how to create a proper segway for it), so I decided to add it as a little extra. I think that if this ever happens again I will just start with a line separator and "EXTRA #2" but no promises. (And also i decided to include this because this chapter is shorter than my average)
EXTRA #1:
After arriving at their apartment and making sure they had something to eat, Ren started to answer texts from his friends that were wondering what he was up to, although in between those texts there was a notification from one of his new contacts, it was from "S.O. Naoto Shirogane" he opened it.
Naoto (SN): Good afternoon Amamiya Ren, thanks again for what you and Morgana did today.
SN: However, the reason that I'm texting you is more in line with my profession outside of the Shadow Operatives, it would be regarding the gun that you used while in mementos.
SN: I'm glad that you used it responsibly and it was a great help defeating those shadows, but I need to know how a high schooler got his hands on a firearm.
Ren(R): It's an airsoft weapon, a replica of the real thing.
SN: I saw you using it as a firearm, do not take me for a fool, Amamiya Ren.
R: That's true, but that's how the metaverse works. As long as it looks like the real thing to the shadows, it will act as one.
SN: So you don't use any actual rounds? It's only a lookalike?
R: Yeah… I thought your revolver didn't have any bullets on it, it would be a waste to use them in the metaverse after all.
S.O. Shirogane Naoto is typing…
SN: Right.
SN: I'll test that theory of yours next time we go to the Metaverse… goodnight.
Hey, Author here It's been a while hasn't it?, 3 weeks and 3 days to be exact. My college started to take a toll in my free time and said free time went into playing Sea of Stars (great game! although i haven't beaten it yet.) but anyways, i won't promise a consistent schedule, but hopefully I can upload more frequently.
Thanks for reading, have a great day.