A/N: Merry Christmas everyone! I really wanted to get this out before the new year – consider it a gift for sticking with me for so long!
A little bit of housekeeping before we go in: I've slightly changed the title of the fic! It's no longer just "Reset". This is mostly because when I went looking for my own story, I realized that searching for it by title alone is pretty annoying. This should help with finding it if you forget to bookmark it or something. Feel free to give some feedback on this change, I'm open to thoughts or any better ideas anyone has.
In the time since my last chapter and this one, Persona 3 Reload has not only been announced, but releases in less than two months! As disappointing as it is that FeMC didn't make it into Reload, I'm still really excited to see P3 in HD – there's a lot of gameplay stuff from P5 I'm especially hoping they carry over for it. There's a lot of really cool FeMC-based modding projects going into the PC release of P3P anyways, so it's not like I'm not getting my FeMC fix elsewhere.
Anyways, enjoy the chapter! A lot of the progression of it was inspired by some things I noticed on recent P3 playthroughs, specifically with regards to how Junpei's character struggles at this point in the game are reflected in the gameplay, so I hope that comes through.
Hamuko watched the clock tick down on her phone. She felt like she had been sitting on the Iwatodai Station stairs for ages. It was bad enough that she'd lied to Mitsuru about where she was going, but it was now getting agonizingly close to midnight, and Minato still hadn't shown up.
She looked up, then down the street, watching a drunken salaryman stumble down the road away from the station. Maybe she should just call it a wash and head back. She could always apologize to Minato later…
It was just that she had that thought that the screen shut off and a green pallor fell over the city.
A shudder ran down Hamuko's spine. She got to her feet, hand drifting to her Evoker. There was a tension on the air that made her hair stand on end. Whenever they walked back from Tartarus at night, they tended to take Moonlight Bridge – safer than walking on the tracks, Mitsuru said. This was the first time she'd been at the station during the Dark Hour since the night she'd arrived in town.
So why was just standing here giving her the same feeling as being inside Tartarus did?
"You feel that too?"
She turned to see Minato walking down the stairs, holding a thin, cloth-wrapped package close to his body with his free hand.
Hamuko let out a sigh. "Where have you been?"
Minato tapped the container against his head. "Needed to get this. Officer Kurosawa usually isn't in at this time of night, so it took a bit." He made it to the landing and frowned. "You didn't bring your naginata?"
"I didn't realize I would need it," Hamuko admitted. "What's going on? I thought the sensors back at the dorm pick up on Shadows if they're outside the tower?"
"They do," Minato said. "But not all of them. Some slide through the cracks. You've seen the people with Apathy Syndrome around town, yeah?"
Hamuko nodded.
"This is just a theory, but I think the presence of a big one can hide the little ones, even if you can't sense the big one yet," Minato said. He motioned for Hamuko to follow. "Come on. Let's talk somewhere less suffocating."
He didn't need to tell Hamuko twice. She followed him down the stairs and out of the station. As they crossed the road toward the shopping center, winding around the coffins in the crosswalk, Minato spoke up again.
"How's exploring Tartarus been going?" he asked.
Hamuko let out a noncommittal whine. She wished she could say the answer was "great". There hadn't been any more close calls with the Reaper, and she could always count on Junpei to be ready to go in. The problem was that their cohesion as a group sucked. Junpei had a habit of running into fights half-cocked, and if things went bad, it was up to Hamuko and Yukari to save him.
The worst of it had been a couple nights ago, when they'd found a floor populated only by three big Venus Eagles. With how the Shadows had kept swooping out of the range of their attacks, only Yukari had been able to strike back for most of the fight thanks to her bow. When Junpei managed to get in for a big hit, another bird managed to nail him with a squall of wind, knocking him out.
Hamuko and Yukari had managed to finish the Eagles off in the end, but the experience had put everyone in a bad mood. They hadn't gone back in since then. Junpei had come down with a bad cold shortly afterwards, and Hamuko hadn't wanted to press it while he was sick.
Minato, clearly sensing the discomfort behind Hamuko's silence, just shrugged. "It could be worse. No one's dead."
"Don't joke about that…" Hamuko groaned.
"Sorry," Minato said.
They entered the shopping center, and Minato took a seat on a bench. He carefully braced the package against his shoulder and began to untie the strings around it. Hamuko watched him work it nervously, wondering if he needed her to help. Doing that with one arm as he was, he was liable to stab himself. But before she could ask, he slid the paper off of the sword and got up, taking it in his off hand. She watched him give it a couple of test swings with a frown.
"You still haven't explained what we're doing here," Hamuko said.
Minato slid his sword into the crook of his injured arm, holding it close to him with the sling. "Right. Sorry. Last time I tutored anyone, they were kids, and that was mostly…" He trailed off. "Look. You're new to all of this. I've been at it for a while. And just because I had to learn by trial-by-fire, doesn't mean you should have to too. Besides, I figure we can talk about some things in private that we can't with the others. Leader to leader, Wild Card to Wild Card."
Hamuko blinked a couple of times.
"What? Why are you giving me that look?" Minato asked.
"Who are you and what have you done with Minato?" Hamuko asked incredulously.
Minato let out a sigh.
"I'm being serious," he said.
"You're never this open with stuff! What happened to the guy who ran away when I tried to ask him about the Velvet Room the other day?"
Minato's face flushed. "I told you, I had a lot going on, okay?"
"Uh-huh," Hamuko said.
"It doesn't matter," Minato added hurriedly. "Are you in?"
Hamuko pursed her lips. He was the only person she knew who had any experience with being a Wild Card. He knew it too. It was kind of annoying how well he got her sometimes.
But considering the idea made her want to balk. Thinking about accepting his help felt like she was showing that she couldn't handle it. Even if he had been the one who'd put her in this situation to begin with… But she couldn't even commit to that objection all that much, because Minato was only injured because he'd been trying to help her in the first place.
Finally, she let out a sigh. "Alright, I guess so. I dunno how well we'll be able to do stuff tonight, though… I didn't exactly come prepared."
"We should be fine without you having a weapon. You can use your Persona, and I'll be using my non-dominant hand. Way I see it, we're about on equal grounds." He wiggled his fingers in his sling, as if to emphasize it. "As for what to do…"
He looked around for a moment, before turning towards the station.
"That'll be a good start," Minato said. Crawling down the sidewalk across the street was a glob of sludge, topped with a familiar pink masquerade mask – one of the Maya types Hamuko had seen in Tartarus before. He took a step forward, then looked at Hamuko and gave her a courteous bow. Hamuko rolled her eyes, put her Evoker to her temple, and pulled the trigger.
~ X ~
"...Now, in Ise Monogatari, the identity of the author remains unclear, as–" The ringing of the bell interrupted Mr. Ekoda, who looked up at the speaker with disdain. "Never enough hours in the day… Don't forget, this will be on the midterm!"
He hadn't even finished speaking before students began to sidle out of the room. Ekoda sighed, muttered something under his breath, and slid out after them as Hamuko shut her notebook.
Finally, lunchtime. She always came out of Mr. Ekoda's classes feeling like her brain was turning to mush. Classic literature had never been her thing – so much of it was about old lords and ladies writing poetry about court drama, for starters. If she wasn't so sure that Mitsuru might kill her if she didn't do well on midterms, she'd join Minato in napping through class every day.
The two of them hadn't really done much training the night before – they'd fought a few Shadows, Minato had given her a few pointers on how to better use her Persona and direct people, and then they'd gone back. She never had gotten any clarification on any of the other stuff he'd mentioned – though, now that she thought about it, there really hadn't been a chance to ask either.
Just as she was getting ready to grab her bag and head to the courtyard, something slammed down on her desk. She looked up to see Junpei leaning over it, a shit-eating grin on his face.
"Oh, hey," Hamuko said, unperturbed. "Are you feeling better?"
"Yeah, I'm doin' fine. Colds never stick for me. That's not what's important, though." Junpei leaned in, dropping the volume of his voice. "Now, if my ears didn't deceive me, I think I heard a couple of people sneakin' back into the dorm last night after the Dark Hour. And if they really didn't deceive me, I'm pretty sure that was you and Minato comin' in."
Hamuko shot up in her seat. "You heard that? You didn't, uh…"
"Relax, I ain't gonna go snitch," Junpei said. "But in return, I think, as a friend, I deserve to know what you were up to. So, come on, gimme the dirt!" He wiggled his eyebrows expectantly.
Hamuko quickly looked back over her shoulder. Minato was sound asleep on his desk, quiet as the dead. "It's not that serious. We were just… training."
Junpei's eyebrows raised even higher.
"With Persona stuff," Hamuko added nervously. "You know, because we have the same Persona, and Minato's got more experience than me…"
"Oh." Something dark passed over Junpei's face. For a second, Hamuko wondered if she'd said something wrong, but before she could even ask, he started going again. "Well, seein' as I'm back up to snuff, I was thinkin', let's go to Tartarus tonight! I've got a new super move I wanna try out the next time we run into one of those bird Shadows. They can fly away from me all they want, but they can't run from the Hermes Kick!"
"Sure, I'll think about it," Hamuko said. "Oh, wait, shoot, I can't… I've gotta catch up on homework…"
"Aw, come on! It ain't like the school's goin' anywhere," Junpei said.
"Didn't Toriumi drop a giant pile of make-up work on you the moment you came in this morning?" Yukari said as she walked up, a can of coffee in hand. She looked over at Hamuko as Junpei pulled his lunchbox from his bag. "That super stiff guy from the student council stopped me while I was walking back. He really wanted you to know that it's really important that you come by the student council room today because… I didn't really catch it, but I think it was something involving a cigarette?"
Hamuko buried her face in her hands. Mitsuru had talked her into joining the student council earlier that week, and she already regretted it. "Yeah, I'll be there," she groaned through her fingers.
"Sheesh. No rest for you, huh?" Junpei asked as he pulled out a sandwich. He swung a thumb towards Minato, who gave a snorting snore. "You know, I think there's some more important things you could be learning from that guy. Like how to chill."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Yukari asked, scoffing.
"Apparently Minato's tutorin' her in how to… I dunno, do Persona stuff better?" Junpei said.
"What? Really?" Yukari took a seat on the desk next to Hamuko's, looking over at her.
"He's not – Okay, he is, but…" Hamuko quickly summarized the situation for Yukari, carefully leaving out any of the Wild Card stuff. "Look, it's not that big of a deal. I think he just feels bad."
"What's he got to feel bad about?" Junpei said through a mouthful of sandwich.
"Ugh, chew your food…" Yukari groaned. Junpei swallowed.
"All I'm sayin' is, if you think he's beating himself up over nothing, say something. If you think you need it, fine, whatever," he continued.
Hamuko chewed that over uncomfortably. She looked over at Yukari, who just shrugged.
"Yo, Junpei!"
Before Hamuko could get the chance to stew much longer in that thought, another classmate of theirs – Hamuko was pretty sure his name was Kenji – started walking over, waving a portable game system in the air.
"Did you bring your game with you? Takahashi in 2-E's getting a group together for some Master Rank hunts," Kenji said.
"No shit?! I gotta get in on this." Junpei hopped out of his seat and ran after Kenji, though not before turning around and giving Hamuko the finger guns. "Don't forget! Tonight! I'm tellin' ya, it's gonna be great!"
He ran out the door, and as it slid closed, Hamuko just looked over at Yukari and gave her a sigh.
~ X ~
Junpei smacked into the ground with a sharp grunt. He pushed himself up on one hand, wiping at the trickle of blood dripping down his chin.
"Come on… why do they all have wind spells?!" he whined as a skittering glove-shaped Shadow got up on two fingers and did a celebratory dance. It pirouetted – and Orpheus slammed its harp into the Hand, smashing it into the wall. The Shadow dissolved into black smoke, leaving only its other two companions left to fight.
"Junpei, fall back!" Hamuko snapped.
"No way!" Junpei hopped to his feet. He fixed his cap, then hefted his sword up and leapt at one of the other Dancing Hands. It twirled out of the way of his sword, a distorted laugh escaping its body as it flipped its hand up and pointed at him. Junpei quickly scooted back as a bolt of lightning crashed in front of him, his face blanching a little.
A couple of arrows struck the ground next to the Hand as it skipped out of their way. Yukari nocked another arrow as Orpheus swung in with its harp again, slamming the Hand into the ground.
Junpei put his Evoker to his temple. "Hermes! Kick it!"
The Persona flew into the air on steel wings before suddenly descending like a spear. Orpheus quickly scooted back as Hermes' steel boots impaled the Hand through its palm. As the Hand dissolved into dust, Junpei tapped his chest.
"See! I've got this!" he said as the final Hand skittered into the space between the three Persona users and waved.
A raging gust of wind blasted through the room, throwing Junpei off his feet. His back cracked against a pillar, and he hit the ground with a sharp cry of pain.
"Junpei!" Yukari cried.
"Take care of him!" Hamuko yelled as she began to chase the skittering Hand. She put her Evoker to her temple. "You little…"
The Hand suddenly turned around and pointed at her. A blast of wind struck her in the arm, wrenching it painfully backwards as her Evoker went flying. She scrambled to grab it, and as her fingers closed around the grip, a bolt of lightning crashed down into her. She couldn't hold back the scream as she tumbled forward, every nerve screaming in pain – her balance failing her – the Evoker clattering from her fingers once more –
– only for her to be swept up by Hermes. The Persona pulled her upright, her feet skittering on the ground until she was on stable feet again and it rose into the air once more. It put its heels together and crashed down into the Hand, spearing it through. With a final squeal, it fell still and dissolved.
Hamuko gasped a couple of times as she caught her balance. As Hermes disappeared, she looked over to see Junpei getting up, Io's healing magic fading from around him. She stepped over to her fallen Evoker and picked it up, her shoulder aching irritably, before starting to walk over to Junpei and Yukari.
"Junpei, I told you to back off," Hamuko said as she approached.
"I had it, didn't I?" Junpei shot back, cradling his forehead in his hand.
"Yeah, after you took a bunch of hits you didn't need to," Hamuko grumbled.
"What, you wanted me to 'back off' so you could get fried? Great plan, leader."
Yukari looked between the two of them with concern. "Hang on, let's just calm down a–"
"I've got other Personas! And Yukari can heal us! We could have taken care of it!" Hamuko snapped back.
"Well, aren't you lucky that you're special," Junpei growled.
Yukari let out a sharp gasp. "Hey, you don't get to talk to her like that!"
"Enough." Mitsuru's voice cut across their communicators sharply. "You're all tired. Iori's hurt. I think it's time you call it a night."
"...Right," Hamuko said. She glanced over at Yukari and Junpei guiltily. Junpei tipped his hat down, shading his face from view. "Sorry."
"'S fine," he said. "Senpai's right. Let's just go."
~X~
Hamuko massaged her sore elbow as she stepped up to the vending machine on the shopping center's third floor. Mitsuru and Yukari's magic could stitch cuts and mend bruises, but some things just followed you out of the Dark Hour.
As much as part of her wanted to just chill in her room and put it under a heating pad, she really didn't want to go back to the dorm yet. Junpei and Yukari sure acted like that argument in Tartarus was just water under the bridge, but she could feel the prickling disappointment in how everyone had looked at her during breakfast that morning.
Her first thought had been to go loiter around the shrine down the street for a while, just to try and cool off away from everyone's eyes. But when she'd gotten there, she'd found a kid playing by herself on the playground. She'd asked Hamuko to go get her some snacks, and somehow Hamuko had agreed, and now she was back at the shopping center, holding a box of weird takoyaki and scanning the front of a vending machine for the drink she'd asked for.
Hamuko grimaced as she looked over the options. Seriously… what kind of elementary school kid drank Mad Bull? Not to mention that the takoyaki she'd gotten from that stand did not smell like octopus… What was she even doing, anyways? It wasn't like she knew this kid at all…
"Still eating nothing but ramen, huh?"
Hamuko froze. Wasn't that Akihiko's voice? She turned around, approaching the railing of the balcony, and craned her head out over it.
"It's better than all of that protein shit you eat," said another voice.
"Hey, it gets results." Akihiko laughed in a way Hamuko realized she'd never heard from him before. "If you care that much, why don't you come back? I bet the new guys would like your cooking."
"Tch."
It was no use… she couldn't quite see them from here. Carefully, she began to creep toward the stairwell, stepping down it carefully so she wouldn't make noise, and peeked out just enough to get a look at them. There was a man in a beanie and a red peacoat leaning out over the railing, his long brown hair trailing down his shoulders.
"Well?" he said, suddenly. "Get on with it."
Akihiko sighed, stepping up behind him. "Look. We've got a lot of new teammates. We're even going into Tartarus now. But it's been… rough. Me and another guy got taken out of the fight basically immediately. And the other three are… fresh. Fresher than we were when you left."
"What do you want me to do? Come back so you can keep them on a leash?" the other man growled.
"It'd do them some good to fight with someone who's done it before."
"Then do it yourself."
Anger flashed across Akihiko's face. He suddenly grabbed for the man's collar and yanked him forward. Hamuko covered her mouth, suppressing a gasp as Akihiko got up into the man's face.
"What was that?!" Akihiko snarled.
"I know you," the man said. "You got fucked up because you just charged in like a damn fool. Now you're watching these new guys trip over themselves and you're getting pissed off because all you can think about is how much better you'd be in their place. Get over yourself."
He grabbed Akihiko's wrist and wrenched his hand away from his collar. Akihiko hopped backwards, brow tightening, and then let out a frustrated huff as the man stepped toward the staircase.
"I'm not coming back. Fix your own damn problems," he said, and stepped down it. Hamuko scooted up the steps back onto the landing, keeping her mouth covered until she heard a second series of clanging steps. She leaned back out over the railing to see Akihiko stomping down the road, and slid back into a crouch.
Every awful emotion Hamuko could think swirled inside her. It was mostly shame and embarrassment – both for eavesdropping on Akihiko's conversation to begin with, but also for realizing that he was talking about her. It was a sickening confirmation of every doubt she'd had about herself and her place in SEES. Now she knew that Akihiko – and probably Mitsuru too – thought she couldn't handle it, and she felt awful.
Yet the longer she lingered on the feeling, the more she felt fury rising in her gut.
~ X ~
The blade of her naginata clanged to the ground as the Shadow dissolved under her. Hamuko wiped the sweat from her brow. That was the third one tonight – they'd only managed to find two in her last session with Minato, but this time there were three. Were there more? If so, why were more showing up? She squinted up at the sky, gaze drifting across the waxing moon.
Minato watched her with a frown. He holstered his Evoker. "Let's take a break. My shoulder's killing me."
He led her across the street to the relative safety of the shopping center. Hamuko laid her naginata across a bench. When she straightened up, her gaze drifted to the raised walkway Akihiko and his friend had been talking on, and she felt her blood pressure rising.
Minato set his bag on the ground and pulled out a bottle from it. He tossed it to her, and she caught it against her chest. "Here."
Hamuko looked down at the bottle suspiciously. It was chill to the touch, rivulets of light-red condensation dripping down it. "Dude, no."
"It's fine. There's enough garbage in it that it doesn't actually turn to blood. I've checked."
Hamuko squinted down at the bottle and, relenting, twisted off the top and took a sip. It had the sickly, watery sweetness of something with simultaneously too much sugar and too many electrolytes. She gulped it down anyways – she hadn't realized how thirsty she was until that moment.
"Are you doing alright?" Minato suddenly asked.
"Huh?" Hamuko pulled the bottle from her lips. "No, no, I'm fine."
He looked away from her, frowning. "You just seem pissed off."
"It's okay. I'm fine." Hamuko gave him a smile.
She stared back down at the bottle, and finally sighed and laid it down on the bench.
"Me and Junpei got in some stupid argument the other day while we were in Tartarus. He wouldn't back off and let me and Yukari handle some Shadows, and I got really pissed off about it. I apologized later, but…" Hamuko couldn't keep the scowl off of her face. "Then I ran into Akihiko talking with some guy he knows. And he's trying to convince this guy to come back to SEES because apparently I'm so much of a fuck-up that he thinks I need it?!"
"Akihiko did that?" Minato asked incredulously.
"I'm just frustrated, you know? I'm trying my best out here and it feels like everyone is just waiting for me to step aside and let someone better take over," Hamuko said. "I know I'm being unreasonable, but…"
"Has this been happening a lot with Junpei?" Minato asked.
"I mean, not a lot, but… It feels like every time we run into some strong Shadow, it's something he can't even touch. And that always gets him into a bad mood," Hamuko said.
Minato looked down at his own bottle.
"...It's easy to think of Shadows as just monsters, but they're not. They feed on the dark parts of our souls," he said. "It makes them good at picking out the weak link in a group. And Junpei…"
...Junpei's the only one of us who refuses to take things seriously, Hamuko thought grimly. She got what he was getting at.
Minato let out a sigh. "I can try talking to him if you want."
"No!" Hamuko blurted. "No, it's fine. It's really not that big of an issue."
Minato looked over at her, frowning. Hamuko felt shame wash over her, already sensing that something about how Minato perceived her had just shifted. But he didn't say anything – he just looked back at his drink again.
"...If you say so," Minato said. He slipped the bottle back into his bag. "Let's get back to business. What Personas do you have on you right now?"
"Huh? Uh…" Hamuko scanned back through her mental inventory. "Orpheus, Apsaras, Forneus, Pixie, and Lilim. Why?"
"Because you have a bad habit of trying to do everything yourself," Minato said, smiling wanly. "And that puts a target on your back too."
Hamuko scowled, holding her arms close to herself. "Isn't the whole point of this power that I have, quote-unquote, 'infinite possibility'…?"
"To an extent," Minato said, shrugging. "But being able to strike at any weaknesses isn't everything. Sometimes you'll need to make the big hits, but sometimes you'll also need to be flexible and be a support for the others. It's all about working together and knowing when you need to step up and when to step back. For example…"
He put a hand to his chin. A light squelching sound coming from the road caught his attention, and he turned toward it.
"There we go," Minato said, as a pathetic looking Maya oozed down the crosswalk. "Let's say, hypothetically, your Persona can't do anything about that thing."
"You know I've fought like fifty of those things at this point, right?" Hamuko scoffed.
"Just work with me here. You can't touch that thing, but I can, for whatever reason. What can you do to help me fight it?"
Hamuko frowned. She knew her Personas could increase people's capabilities – it'd been what she'd done with Orpheus and Apsaras back in her first Tartarus visit. Presumably, that went the other way around too – she could probably use her Personas to impact Shadows' abilities too. There was something else she could feel from Pixie, too…
She decided to tug on that string first. When Pixie came out, the Persona darted over to the Maya, zipping back and forth and leaving a kaleidoscope of glittering lights in her wake. She tapped the Maya on the forehead and there was a pop. Suddenly, the Maya reeled back, skittering in a panic. It clawed wildly at Pixie, who fluttered backwards. She stuck her tongue out at the Shadow before suddenly disappearing.
As the Maya skittered back and forth in its panic, Minato stepped up behind it, reeled back his foot, and slammed it into the Shadow's back. It bounced forward like a soccer ball before splattering to the ground in a puddle. With a twirl of his Evoker, his silver Orpheus appeared and finished it off with a swing of its harp.
"Good answer," Minato said. "Like I said. Shadows don't play fair. So you should do the same – confuse them, ambush them, turn them against each other, whatever."
"Yeah, yeah, I get it. Work smarter, not harder, and all that," Hamuko said.
"I'm not joking. If something feels too convenient, it is," Minato said, suddenly training Hamuko with a very serious expression. "Whether it's with Shadows or anything else. Don't just walk into someone else's trap because it's easier not to think about it."
Hamuko blinked, not sure how to take this sudden turn. She gave him a nod, feeling a little unsettled. "...Right."
She slipped her Evoker into its holster and looked around. Maybe it was time to start heading back. It was always a little hard to gauge how long it had been, since clocks didn't work during the Dark Hour, but she felt like it had to be ending soon. She glanced back up to the second floor of the shopping center, frowning.
Watching them from the deck above was the boy in the striped pajamas she'd seen at the hospital. His eyes tracked Minato as he went to pick up his bag. Hamuko gave the boy a wave, and he looked back at her and gave a weak wave in return.
"What are you looking at?" Minato asked as he came up behind her.
"Oh, uh…" When Hamuko looked back, the boy was gone. "…Nothing. Don't worry about it."
She watched Minato carefully, to see if he would question it. But after a moment, he just shrugged and began to walk back down the road toward the dorm. Maybe he also had the same sense that they were running low on time. Without any argument, Hamuko grabbed her naginata from the bench and began to follow after.
~ X ~
"There's one Shadow in the center of the room. Be careful."
Hamuko didn't need Mitsuru to tell her. From the moment they stepped off of the staircase, they had seen its massive form looming overhead, stark against the tower's overpowering darkness. Where most Shadows at least resembled something Hamuko could put into words, the Rampage Drive before them defied description. It stood tall on two sets of legs, which had been arranged into wheel-like spokes. The large spikes where its arms should have been sparked with little bolts of electricity – a warning of what was to come.
Hamuko hefted her naginata into an attack stance. Yukari drew her bow. Junpei lifted his greatsword for a batter's swing.
The Drive's spike-arms crackled with electricity. Quick as a trigger, Hamuko cycled to a new Persona inside her head.
A wave of lightning crashed over the room. It passed through her like white-hot iron, but lacked the debilitating bite it had in the past, when she'd kept Orpheus equipped. Hamuko looked up to see residual bolts cracking across its chassis, leaving little singe marks in their wake.
Junpei recovered from the strike first. He ran for the Shadow, taking a hard swing at it, only for his sword to bounce off uselessly.
"Fine then!" he snapped. "Hermes!"
The Persona snapped into being and flung a fireball at the Drive. The flames burst on its armor, charring it black at the point of contact, but leaving not much damage otherwise.
"N-No shit?" Junpei stuttered, beginning to back up. The Drive swiveled toward him, reared up, and slammed itself into him, knocking him to the ground. He quickly rolled out of the way before it could stomp down on him, its feet crashing down where he'd just been.
Hamuko quickly took a look around. Yukari was slowly pushing herself up – she must have taken a bolt before – but Junpei was in a bad spot. She couldn't rely on Orpheus here either – that lightning would wreck her.
The memory of the wildly panicking Maya from the other night rushed back to her. She put her Evoker against her temple and pulled. Pixie spun into the air, then zipped around the Drive's head, leaving kaleidoscopic sparkles in her wake. The Drive's arms began to spark again, just as Pixie grabbed its cheeks and leaned in, touching her forehead to the Drive's.
With a bang, the gathering electricity explode. Junpei scrambled away as the Drive reeled on its leg-wheels, almost falling backwards before managing to catch itself. It looked around in a panic, wheeling back and forth on the floor, and disregarding its three opponents for the moment.
Hamuko waved for Junpei and Yukari to follow, and the three ran for the pillars surrounding the arena, pushing their backs against them as the Drive suddenly ran for the other end of the room in its panic.
"Analysis complete," Mitsuru said into Hamuko's ear. "All forms of physical attack are useless."
"What?! Come on!" Junpei snapped.
"However, it appears to be especially vulnerable to electricity. It also seems that Arisato's Persona has temporarily rendered it unable to use magic."
Yukari winced. "So we can't turn its power against it like she just did anymore…"
"This has to be cheating…" Junpei grumbled.
Gears turned in Hamuko's head. No, this was winnable. This was absolutely winnable. She could already think of a way to do it. She put her Evoker against her temple again, concentrated on Orpheus and Apsaras, and pulled the trigger.
The force of summoning slammed through her like a bomb. She staggered, bracing herself against the pillar as Orpheus and Apsaras healed their wounds and set their muscles on end.
Concern washed across Junpei's face. "Hey, why did you–"
"I need you two to wear it down," Hamuko said, stepping toward the two of them. "I've got a plan, but if it recovers before I can do it, we're all screwed. Junpei, can I count on you to keep Yukari up?"
Junpei's mouth fell open.
"Please," Hamuko pleaded.
He sighed, tipping his baseball cap down.
"Always comes down to you, huh…" he said. Then, he tipped his head up and patted Yukari on the shoulder. "Alright… Alright! Come on, Yuka-tan! Let's get this thing!"
"Don't call me… ugh! Geez!" Yukari ran out after him, rolling her eyes.
Junpei put his Evoker to his temple. In a rush of broken glass, Hermes swooped into the air and kicked a ball of fire at the Drive. It burst against its back, making the Drive reel towards him. Junpei tapped his sword against the ground a couple of times.
"Come on, you big hunk of junk! Come'n get some!" Junpei called out. The Drive's engine roared, and it sped for him. Junpei dove out of the way as the Drive slammed into a pillar. He rolled up into a crouch and put his Evoker to his forehead again. "One more, Hermes!"
As Junpei sent another volley of fire at the Drive, Hamuko ran out from the safety of the pillar, pulling her Evoker's trigger as she ran. A devil girl in a white dress – Lilim – spun into the air and send a ray of warbling purple energy at the Drive as Hamuko ducked for cover. Hopefully that Rakunda would do the trick…
A squall of wind slammed into the Drive's chest, making it rear up on two of its spoked legs. It let out a screech like grinding metal as Yukari lowered her Evoker.
"Hey, I think that hit a little harder than the last one!" Yukari said as the Drive turned her way. Before it could charge, Hermes slammed into it legs first, bouncing off of its chassis uselessly.
"Still nothing?! Come on!" Junpei cried. "Wait, oh shi–"
The Drive slammed head on into Junpei. For a second, Hamuko's breath caught. This was a failure, she needed to get out there and help –
Then, she saw Junpei had his sword held up in front of him. His breaths were ragged, he was clearly bruised – but he was up.
"Junpei!" Yukari cried. Io threw a healing spell at him, and a grin alit on his face before he pushed back from the Drive, backing away before it could charge again.
Hamuko slid back behind her cover and put her Evoker to her forehead. When she pulled the trigger, a large, manta ray-like Persona came out this time and wrapped its fins around her. She felt strength surge through her – a similar, but distinct rush to the one Orpheus and Apsaras' Cadenza had given her.
The Drive charged once more for Junpei, and for a second time, he ran out of the way as the Drive sped past him. But this time, instead of finishing the charge, it stopped partway. It turned around on a swivel and began to roll back towards Junpei and Yukari, training a focused stare upon them. Its arms began to spark with electricity.
"Oh no," Yukari breathed.
A wave of thunder burst through the room. Hamuko braced herself against the pillar as bright flashes crashed past her.
Yukari fell to her knees, breathing heavily. The Drive turned toward her.
"HERMES!"
Junpei's Persona swept through the room, scooping Yukari into its arms. The Drive looked up at the two of them, arms sparking dangerously, as Hamuko leapt from the pillar.
In a flash of broken glass and blue sparks of flame, Lilim emerged once again. The devil-girl gave the Drive a smirk, training a finger upon it as electricity began to spark around her.
"GET SMOKED, ASSHOLE!" Hamuko yelled.
A bolt of thunder burst from Lilim's finger. It crashed through the Drive's chest, leaving a gaping hole in its wake. The Drive shuddered, sparking with unspent power, and exploded.
Shards of metal and Shadow-sludge scattered across the room like shrapnel before dissolving into dust, leaving only smoke and the lingering smell of ozone behind. For a second, no one said anything. Then, Hamuko laughed. And kept laughing.
Until the exhaustion slammed into her like a truck, and her vision went black.
~ X ~
"Hey, Yuka-tan, I think she's coming around… Yo, you good?"
Hamuko blinked up at Junpei's face. A bruise had bloomed across his forehead. He backed away as she pushed herself up, cradling her head in her hand. Her forehead was throbbing… She could hear cars going down the road… was it not the Dark Hour anymore?
"Where are we?" she asked.
"Out in front of the school. You passed out right after we beat that Shadow," Junpei said.
"Mitsuru-san's calling a car for us," Yukari said as she walked over to them. "She said it was probably better than us wandering around town this late at night."
Hamuko looked around. Mitsuru was standing on the other side of the school gate, phone at her ear.
Yukari crouched beside Hamuko and let out a great sigh. "Thank goodness you're okay. When you passed out the way you did, I thought you were going to have to spend another week in the hospital… Oh, right, um…"
She dug into her pockets and handed Hamuko a sheet of paper.
"Junpei and I took a look around after you passed out, since Mitsuru-san said it was safe. We couldn't go any higher because something was blocking the stairs, but I found this near the barrier. I thought you might find it interesting considering… you know…"
Hamuko took the paper, frowning. It looked a little too small for a sheet from a notebook… from a diary, maybe?
"The electricity's hooked up. But, why do they do they need so much? There's only a school on this island…" Hamuko murmured. How old was this? There wasn't an exact date on the page…
"What're you two whispering about?" Junpei asked.
"Nothing," Hamuko said, slipping the note into her blazer. She looked over toward the road as an unmarked black sedan pulled up outside the gate. Mitsuru stepped up to the front as the window rolled down and began to converse with the driver.
Junpei raised an eyebrow, but ultimately just stepped over and slapped Hamuko on the shoulder. "Well, come on. Ya did good up there. Not like I could've taken that thing…"
"Oh, come on, it's not like any of us could've handled that alone. You helped too!" Yukari said.
"Yeah, yeah." Junpei let out a yawn. "I dunno about you two, but I'm gonna go hit the hay."
Hamuko sighed and pushed herself to her feet. Well, it was baby steps. Still… she felt a lot better about this than she had the past couple of visits to Tartarus… even if she was still really sore afterwards. She looked up at the sky, a smile playing on her lips… and felt her blood run cold.
The moon hung nearly full in the sky. All at once, the text of the note from the hospital rushed back to her.
The Full Moon Shadows must live.
How had a month passed so quickly? What had the note even meant by that? The only thing she could think of was that multi-armed monstrosity from the roof, when she had fought for her life and been thrust into things she barely understood. Was another one coming? Was she going to have to face something like that again?
The boy from her hallucinations, the note, the things she found strange about Minato – she'd let them fall aside so easily, too caught up in her personal problems and goals to even give them the time of day. Now she was all too aware that an invisible timer was about to run out.
"Hamuko? Are you coming?" Yukari called out.
Hamuko jolted.
"Yeah, sorry," Hamuko said, and ran to the car, trying to bury the sense of mounting horror.