Chapter 42

Earlier that evening (11:50 PM)

Akihiko really should've known it was a bad omen when he was studying that night.

Yes, there he was, holed up in Yukari's hospital room, trying to get through a chapter of his world history textbook. The chapter, on the colonial era in Britain, wasn't wholly unintelligible - he could read it, obviously. He could comprehend the words. He just couldn't… remember. He drummed his fingers across the page impatiently, re-reading a sentence for the umpteenth time and hoping that the meaning would suddenly spring to life. Sadly, it remained quite dead.

As he pored over the pages, he heard someone shift next to him, and he looked to the side. Fuuka was doing math homework, scratching out formulas on a piece of graph paper with her laptop resting next to her. To her other side was the hospital door, where the infrequent, muffled steps of passing hospital staff were only barely audible, sneaking in under the door in the quiet of the near-midnight hour.

Another bed in the room squeaked, and he glanced the other way. In the bed was Yukari, looking determinedly over her cast at some schoolwork of her own. English words stared up at her, nestled into neat little lines that did nothing to help decipher their meaning. She slowly tapped a pencil on the page, staring at one word in particular while the dictionary to her side remained firmly closed. Beneath her bed was a bag of clothes, neatly folded in a way that Akihiko could only dream of doing himself.

Still not ready to dive back into his own learning material, Akihiko checked his watch. Nine minutes 'til midnight looked up at him. He tried not to grimace as he looked up at the ceiling, feeling his leg start to twitch. If it weren't for the fact that Fuuka had recently been injured (and perhaps a bit traumatized), and if Yukari weren't paralyzed, Akihiko almost would've wished for a Shadow attack to break up the monotony.

Akihiko continued to do things that were not his homework to pass the time (though he refused to close the book on his lap). He looked out the window - an enormous window, one which stretched upwards from the bottom of the floor all the way to the top of the ceiling - peering at the outside world and the twinkling lights of the city. He counted the number of times he saw the shadows of passing hospital staff underneath the door. He stopped himself at actually twiddling his thumbs, but he basically did everything else.

Even the Dark Hour wasn't much of a reprieve from the boredom. As soon as the room turned its murky green hue, Fuuka looked up, alarmed for a moment, before quickly looking at Yukari and then Akihiko. Yukari had been in the middle of a yawn, and Akihiko scratched his chin - neither giving any acknowledgement of the eerie time-space which they now inhabited. After glancing between the two of them for a moment, Fuuka slowly turned back around to her book, falling back into the rhythm of her work after several minutes.

(You KNOW you're getting used to some crazy things when an eldritch hour in the middle of the night can't keep you from your homework.)

Time ticked onward. And though Akihiko wished for something to break up the monotony, nothing seemed willing to oblige.

At least, not until DH:40.

Forty minutes into the Dark Hour, Akihiko heard something from outside the window. Something like… a woosh. Yukari didn't bat an eye, but Fuuka sat up alert in her chair, wide-eyed. She looked over to Akihiko as Yukari flipped a page.

"...Did you hear that?" Fuuka whispered, getting to her feet.

Yukari looked up, confused for a moment, before sucking in a quick breath as she saw Akihiko nod and slowly pick up his evoker, which had been hidden away in his bag. Yukari immediately leaned to the side to grab her own (grimacing as her cast got in the way), while Fuuka reached out a slightly trembling hand to grasp her own evoker, shinier than Yukari's and Akihiko's.

Careful not to make noise, Akihiko moved forwards, feet silent against the ground as he raised his evoker to his head. Someone (probably Fuuka) shifted behind him, but he kept his eyes forward as he stepped closer and closer to the window. As ever in the Dark Hour, the sky was a hazy green, with splashes of red dappling the ground below. The moon, ominously full and high in the sky, cast its long arms of light across Iwatodai, illuminating almost the whole island.

Almost.

Outside the window, from the shadow of the very building they occupied, a black shape shot out of the darkness. With his face nearly pressed against the window, Akihiko reflexively jerked back, firing his evoker and summoning Polydeuces outside the window. Not a moment later, Polydeuces shattered back into blue glass as something rammed straight through its abdomen. Akihiko stumbled backwards, wincing from the abrupt return of Polydeuces to his mind, and at the same time-

WHUMP

Akihiko was still stumbling when a loud noise came from the window. One of the girls squeaked, and Akihiko quickly looked up once he had his footing.

The window was cracked, a spider-web fissure fraying the pane from the center to each side. The glass of the window itself appeared to be holding, which was good… because on the other side of the window was a large, black raven: and judging by the mask-looking thing on its chest - as well as the fact that it was currently the Dark Hour - it was a Shadow.

However, Akihiko had trouble labeling it a threat right now. It was squawking too much.

While it had been plenty menacing when it had flown out of nowhere at him, it now was yelping and flapping around in circles outside the window. It was hard to see through the partly shattered pane, but it seemed to be holding a glowing red lantern in one claw… one which it almost dropped, before catching it in the other claw.

As it continued fluttering about, Akihiko slowly raised his evoker again and fired with a muttered "uh, Zio."

Once again, Polydeuces appeared outside, on the side of the bird, and a sharp crackle of electricity heralded the electric spell's arrival. The Shadow didn't even have time to give a squawk of dismay before the bolt fired into it, and it catapulted off to the side of the window, out of view. Though it shrieked a "CAAAAAaawww…!" as it flew away, the noise quickly disappeared as the Shadow-bird tumbled down to earth.

Akihiko stepped forwards and pressed his nose to the glass, angling his head to get a better view of the Shadow - but no view was forthcoming. In the murky green of night, the enormous, full moon cast long angled shadows this way and that from the many buildings scattered across Port Island, making it difficult to tell where the Shadow had gone. But after a moment, Akihiko was quickly able to determine where the Shadow was:

It was coming right for them.

The Shadow tore through the skies, barreling straight for the window. Eyes widening, Akihiko guided Polydeuces to move in front of the window, blocking the Shadow from view - and yet, instinctively, Akihiko still stepped back quickly, raising his arms up in front of his face.

His instincts were on point. Polydeuces took the force of the Shadow's weight head-on, and while it blocked the sharp beak of the bird with the side of its drill, it couldn't stop the full force of the impact.

SMASSSHH!

Akihiko jumped back as both Shadow and Persona flew through the window, completely shattering it and sending pieces of broken glass (real glass) skittering across the floor. Polydeuces also shattered and disappeared back into Akihiko's mind from the force of impact, while the Shadow slammed into the wall before falling to the floor, disoriented and flailing about every which way. A stale wind blew in from the sudden opening to the outside, scattering some loose papers on the table and flipping through a few pages of Yukari's still-open notebook. After a few seconds (during which Akihiko slowly crept towards the Shadow, trying not to startle it), the raven got to its feet and glanced around, then froze. It slowly looked down at its feet, which were firmly on the ground rather than grasping its red lantern. It snapped its head up towards Fuuka.

Fuuka, meanwhile, was frozen in place, evoker in hand and pointed at her head. But she was not staring at the Shadow: instead, her gaze was transfixed on the glowing red lantern that the Shadow had lost, now laying right by her feet.

There was a collective pause, as all beings in the room took stock of the situation, and had a singular feeling. Words can't quite describe it properly, but roughly translated, the feeling was: 'ah, shit.'

Then pure pandemonium exploded across the room.

The raven screeched in rage and flew at Fuuka. Forgoing stealth, Akihiko leapt into motion, sprinting at the bird to intercept it before it reached her. Yukari, using her good hand, whipped her evoker to her head, firing with the sound of shattering glass echoing in everyone's ears and summoning Io in front of Fuuka.

Fuuka remained riveted in place.

Screaming a harsh trill, the Shadow leapt up with a flap of its wings and stretched out its claws, slashing horizontally into Io. The claws found purchase, and Io was flung harshly to the side, crashing into a nearby cabinet shelf. Io didn't burst back into Yukari's mind, but it did hit the cabinets with enough force to rattle the bottles of medicine inside. That attack gave Akihiko just enough time to ram into the Shadow shoulder first. It squawked as it soared through the air from the force of Akihiko's blow, slamming into another set of cabinets (this time, one of them did shatter), before gravity took hold and it tumbled down to the ground, crashing into the floor with its feet up and its head on the ground.

Akihiko barely slowed down. Barreling towards the downed Shadow, he clenched his fists, planted one foot down, and snapped his other leg back. The Shadow, still dazed, didn't even glance in his direction as Akihiko rammed his foot into the Shadow's cold, hard stomach.

The Shadow screeched as it was launched towards the window, somersaulting against its will on the ground before it began to flap its wings and dig its claws into the floor (giving off a terrible, wailing screech like nails on chalkboard), slowing to a stop just before it flew off the bottom of the shattered window. Gaining its footing, it hissed at the group, still staring at the lantern lying next to Fuuka.

Slowly, Akihiko stepped forwards. The raven gave a warning caw, claws rapping on the floor quickly, and it opened its wings wide. Akihiko stopped.

And then Io rose above Akihiko, hair whirling as wind from its Garu spell whipped about it. (Still seated on the bed, Yukari smirked.) The Shadow had no opportunity to even caw before Io fired its spell, and cabinet doors slammed open (and another one shattered) as the spell flew past until it collided with the Shadow. Squawking, it stumbled backwards (though not as far as Akihiko expected), finally stopping precariously close to the open ledge.

It teetered there, stretching out its wings for a brief moment, before momentum took its natural course. It toppled backwards out the window, shrieking one last caw of dismay as it plummeted down, out of sight.

The sudden quiet was nearly disorienting, and Akihiko's heavy breaths felt loud and out of place. He pivoted to quickly glance at Fuuka, who was staring down at the lantern at her feet, still fully corporeal and casting a faint red glow. Yukari blew a raspberry, leaning back and letting her evoker drop into her lap.

"Well," she said, eyes fixed on the window. "That was... something."

Akihiko grunted in agreement. He turned back around to the window, not putting his evoker away as he carefully stepped forwards. "I don't think it's done yet," he said, craning his neck to look down. "I'm guessing that it's still out the-"

"CAAAW!"

SMASH!

Sound exploded around Akihiko, from ahead and behind, and he stumbled back at the unexpected noises. The raven was suddenly back with a deafeningly loud screech, flapping hard with its wings and barreling forwards into his face. Meanwhile, the noise from behind him sounded like an evoker summoning, but he didn't have time to think further on it as he tried to deflect the Shadow's furious strikes. Yukari cursed from somewhere to his side - he was pretty sure he could hear her scrabbling for her evoker in her good hand, but he had no such luxury of time. His hands were up as he dodged backwards, blocking, ducking, and weaving as best he could, and thankfully only getting minimal tears across his arms. He kept his focus fully ahead of him - eyes on the talons, naturally - and not worrying about what was behind him.

So, when he ran into a wall, he spent a brief flash of time in confusion. Because there definitely shouldn't be a wall in the middle of the room.

Akihiko glanced behind himself, intending to just spend a fraction of a second figuring out what was going on, but instead he found himself with wide eyes and a slightly open mouth, gaping at the sight.

He was right. There shouldn't be a wall here, and there wasn't.

Behind him was a large, human-sized blue sphere, emanating an aquamarine glow, overpowering even the emerald haze of the Dark Hour in a small area around it. Long, thin strips of a golden, metal-looking material were bolted on several places around the sphere, giving the center an appearance of a large porthole on a ship. And inside of it, frozen in place, was a stricken, confused-looking Fuuk-

Suddenly, knifelike claws tore down Akihiko's face in the midst of his amazed stare, and he cried out in pain. One of his arms snapped out in a quick, reflexive punch - though honestly, it was more of a flail than a punch. He was pretty sure that the blow sent the Shadow careening across the room, but blood from his new wound trickled down his face in rivulets, cascading into his eyes and obscuring his vision. But he was still spurred to action when he heard an alarmed yelp come from across the room. Moving towards the noise, he swiped his arm across his face, hoping to clear his vision.

Glancing up and squinting, Akihiko was able to make out (mostly with one less-obscured-by-blood eye) that he had indeed sent the Shadow flying across the room. In fact, it had gone so far that it landed in Yukari's lap.

He almost rolled his eyes. Oh, come on!

Unsurprisingly, neither Yukari nor the Shadow were particularly thrilled about the situation. Yukari yelled in pain as the Shadow's claws and beak tore and stabbed, shredding her shirt. But the raven wasn't getting an enjoyable experience either, as Yukari battered its head with the butt of her evoker, over and over, more frantic with each blow as the Shadow just wouldn't get out of her lap.

Akihiko was already sprinting forwards as he saw this, a curse on his lips. He was right in front of the Shadow when a voice suddenly broke into his mind.

"D-Do either of you have i-ice spells?"

That was… That was Fuuka. In his head.

Yukari straightened and froze mid-evoker-bash, and Akihiko's brain nearly shut down. Fortunately, his reflexes kept his body in motion. Slamming one of his hands around the Shadow's neck (it let out a strangled 'c-caww?!'), gripping it around its throat, he tore it off of Yukari and hurled it behind him.

Then, from the same direction, came a sound of a hard object hitting glass, a splattering noise, and a worried exclamation from Fuuka.

"A-ah…!"

Fuuka's voice, no longer being sent telepathically, was almost quiet after the sound of something hitting glass. With his feelings split between horror and annoyance, Akihiko whipped his head around.

There was Fuuka: inside the blue sphere of her Persona (because, honestly, what else could it be?). What he had missed from his initial glance was the torso and head of a tall, thin blonde woman sprouting from the top of the sphere, her neck and head covered in white bandages, leaving only her nose and mouth uncovered. Her hair flowed freely down her shoulders, leading to arm-length, reddish-pink gloves, and the top of a dress of a matching color. Even more fabric of the same color was bolted to the side of the blue sphere, giving the impression of a gorgeous woman with a long, flowing dress that just so happened to have a glowing sphere in place of her legs.

Of course, Akihiko also noticed the Shadow plastered to Fuuka's Persona… or at least, what remained of the Shadow. The impact of smacking against the Persona had dealt the final, fatal damage, and the raven was now mostly black gunk, only the outline of wings and a head still faintly visible for a brief few seconds before it all turned to goop dripping on the floor.

Breathing hard, Akihiko stared at it for a moment before slowly walking up to it. As he did, the remains of the former Shadow began to disappear - the black liquid shrinking and seemingly evaporating into nothing as usual.

As soon as the Shadow fully dissolved, Akihiko wiped a hand down his face - smearing more blood across himself - before turning back around.

Yukari sat on her bed, looking rather displeased, with a flurry of cuts and scratches crisscrossing her good arm, cast, lap, and chest. She was clutching at her chest with her good arm, and glaring at Akihiko with increasing intensity, which made him furrow his own brows in confusion… until he realized that the Shadow had nearly torn straight through her shirt, leaving a decent portion of her skin uncovered.

"New shirt," she ordered, nodding her head at her bag of clothes. Akihiko complied, quickly grabbing one of Yukari's newer shirts (one that actually fit around her cast) and handing it over before turning away. Scratching his head awkwardly, he ignored the shuffling from Yukari's bed and looked over to Fuuka.

Once he laid eyes on her, Akihiko knew that he probably should have checked on Fuuka first. She was still standing in the middle of her Persona, only letting it fade away once Akihiko turned back to her. Her evoker remained tightly gripped in her hand - though it was no longer pointed at her head - and her eyes remained riveted downwards, though Akihiko wasn't sure if she was staring at her evoker or the spot below it, where the Shadow's lantern (now dissolved and evaporated with the rest of the Shadow) had lain.

He hesitated. Then, he steeled himself. Quietly, he walked up to Fuuka, carefully raising his hands to put them on her evoker and enveloping her hands with his. Her hands weren't trembling, but rather were frozen and stiff, and only with some effort could Akihiko gently pry the cold metal tool away from her.

"Uh," he started, once he had the evoker out of her hands. "...How're you feeling?"

Fuuka (whose focus had remained riveted on the ground throughout that process) blinked and looked up. "A-ah. I'm fine, Senpai. I'm… processing, I suppose."

"Right. Er, yeah, that's understandable." He gestured behind him. "This is a lot to… well, process."

As he spoke, he took a look around. The room was an utter disaster zone. Most cabinets were either opened or smashed, with various medical instruments and materials scattered about. Loose papers were here and there on the ground, and one of the floor tiles was cracked. Then, of course, there was the shattered window and the tiny bits of glass which lay strewn about - a minefield of shards and smithereens.

"How the hell are we gonna explain this," he said, mostly to himself.

Fuuka didn't respond, though her eyebrows furrowed, and Yukari sighed, looking up at the ceiling for divine help. "I think," she said, "That this is the most annoying part of Shadow attacks. Why can't we ever have a convenient Shadow attack, one with an easy explanation?"

"...Blame it on a bird," Fuuka said.

There was a pause after Fuuka's bold, avian proclamation. Akihiko felt his brain's wheels spin uselessly in place, while Yukari's face became a tapestry of confusion. The two of them turned to face Fuuka, who - despite looking ashen-faced - indicated the damage done to the floor, and the scratches littering Yukari with a raised finger, her hand only looking slightly stiff.

"A-All the signs point to a large bird doing this damage," she said. "That and heavy winds, which can be explained b-by the open window."

"...I mean, I see what you're getting at, Fuuka-chan," Yukari said slowly, face twisting in thought. "But…"

"It's a stretch," Akihiko finished, crossing his arms as he once again surveyed the room. "I can't think of many birds that could do damage like that. And there weren't high winds tonight."

"Well, yes. It's undoubtedly a stretch," Fuuka replied. "But what other explanation is there? Without outside intervention, we couldn't have broken the window in such a way that the glass would be inside the room - not without Personas, which they don't know about. The cuts on the floor and the scratches on Yukari-chan and you, Senpai, point to a large bird attack, and the scattered materials also point to heavy winds. Plus, it's barely a lie. More an omission of a few details."

Akihiko stared at Fuuka, watching as the color rapidly returned to her face as she churned out logic, and the gears in her mind spun faster and faster.

"Y' know what, Fuuka?" Akihiko grinned. "I'm real glad you joined up with us. You're damn impressive."

At his words (though possibly more so at the lack of an honorific), Fuuka turned red. A chuckle from the other side of the room made Akihiko turn to see Yukari watching them, a smile on her face.

He shot her a raised eyebrow. Her only reply was a simple, "As eloquent as always, Senpai," before shaking her head in amusement.

Shrugging off Yukari's comment, Akihiko turned back to Fuuka, who was now looking down at the floor again. "Alright. I say we go with Fuuka's idea. Any objections?"

Fuuka gave a small shake of her head, and Yukari said "Nope," suppressed mirth still shining in her voice.

"Good," he continued. Watching his steps carefully, he moved across the room, stopping when he was halfway to the entrance. Then he turned around and looked at the two girls. "I'm gonna go grab a broom and dustpan," he said, gesturing towards the entrance to the room. "Who wants to help me clean?"

As it turned out, wanting to clean wasn't the issue. The issue was figuring out how to do it.

The trio did their best to help clean the mess, but Akihiko and Fuuka weren't the most talented cleaners, and Yukari found it quite difficult to direct her two organizationally-challenged teammates around. Fortunately, the Dark Hour ended shortly afterwards, and they were able to flag down a nurse. After overcoming his shock and horror at the damage done to the patients and the room (and listening with an utterly stupefied look as they recounted their bird story), he was able to get a team of staff in to treat Yukari and Akihiko, look at Fuuka, and move them all to a different room. In the midst of this, Akihiko got a frantic phone call from Mitsuru - thankfully, he was able to answer it. That led to an interesting few minutes, and a promise from Mitsuru that they'd talk about everything in more detail soon.

He was pretty sure she hadn't meant to make it sound like a threat. 60% sure, at least.

After all was said and done - including a visit from Rin, Yukari's mother, understandably torn between fury and worry and unsure where to aim her ire - Fuuka, Yukari, and Akihiko all ended up in the same room at around 1:20 AM. This time, there were two extra beds: one for Fuuka, and one for Akihiko, who'd been forcibly checked in after the event. He had insisted that he would be fine, but the heavy gash on his face probably convinced the hospital staff otherwise.

Or it would have, had Rin not decided the matter for everyone by completing the paperwork to check in Akihiko.

Rin was not only the one to blame (or thank, depending on your perspective) for checking in Akihiko, but she was also the one who convinced the staff to let the trio stay together for the night. The doctors initially wanted Fuuka to go back to her own room, and to get Akihiko a separate room, but Rin took one look at the three bedraggled teens and demanded that they all be allowed to share the room. Akihiko himself didn't have much of a preference, but Yukari and Fuuka both seemed to relax once that was decided. Rin barely tried to hide her satisfied look once the nurse acquiesced.

The more Akihiko got to know Rin, the more he started to wonder how often she didn't get her way.

Back in the present, Fuuka was lying on her bed, turned away from Yukari and Akihiko, who sat upright on their own beds. The lights were out, but someone had fetched a small night light for the room, and it cast a warm, orange halo across the floor. Akihiko reached up to pick at his bandages, expertly wrapped so that he had no real excuse as to why he wanted to pick at them, and yet pick, pick, pick he did anyways.

In the midst of his picking frenzy, the sound of Yukari's bed creaking distracted him. He looked up to see Yukari getting up and slowly padding over to him, staring at the evoker nestled in her good hand. Still not looking at Akihiko, she sat down on his bed (which squeaked as she did), eyes glued to the evoker. Akihiko glanced down at it too.

Much like his evoker, it seemed structurally sound, but it had certainly seen better days. The silver sheen still shining on Fuuka's evoker was long gone from Yukari's, and in its place were small dents and gashes. Some were packed with dirt or grit in tiny, unreachable crevasses, while some of the larger ones simply remained gouged imperfections in the formerly flawless design.

"I used to hate this," Yukari said, her voice barely above a whisper.

Pausing for a moment, Akihiko frowned. "The evoker?"

Yukari briefly closed her eyes and smiled. "Well, yeah. But also, just…" She opened her eyes, the smile disappeared, and she gestured vaguely to the room. "...what we do. The Dark Hour. Shadows. Everything."

Studying her evoker again, she ran a finger along one of its gouges. "I know I chose to do it, but it still somehow felt like it was forced on us, I guess. And I still sorta think it is. But then, this thing happened," she poked a corner of her cast with the evoker, "and everything changed."

As she looked up to the window on the other side of the room, Akihiko could see Yukari's eyes ever-so-slightly squeeze together.

"I started thinking that I would never be able to do any of that stuff again. What I'd just done would be my very last chance to ever fight Shadows, or fire an evoker. And I just… I dunno." She shrugged with her good shoulder, the motion stiff and a little too fast to be natural. "I kinda hated it."

Akihiko nodded. He was sure he'd have the exact same reaction in her shoes - actually, hell, he'd probably take it much worse.

"And so, tonight was… surprising, to say the least." Not even looking at Akihiko's nod, Yukari kept talking quietly. "I don't like that you and I were hurt, and I really wish we could've given Fuuka-chan a different way to summon her Persona for the first time, but…"

Finally, for the first time since she started talking, Yukari turned to look directly at Akihiko. "Firing my evoker tonight, and seeing my Persona, and protecting Fuuka-chan… it felt… well..." The uncertainty in Yukari's voice spread into her face as she hesitated, before she found her courage and pushed forwards.

"Is it weird that it felt… really good?"

Akihiko opened his mouth to answer, and then thought about it.

Mitsuru would probably have some words about Yukari's question. Words that he'd been told many times: regardless of how good it can feel to fight Shadows, to remember to be careful, to not get lost in the fight (as he often did), to remember that they were doing this to help people, not because it was fun.

Those were all true and perfectly valid points, but Akihiko still had his own answer.

A huge, ear-splitting grin bloomed on Akihiko's face, and Yukari's own uncertain expression began clearing away like storm clouds on a windy day even before he spoke - both of the Persona users undoubtedly knowing his answer from his expression alone. When he finally did speak, Yukari couldn't help but chuckle at the soft, bright vehemence of Akihiko's wholly predictable words.

"Hell no. It's awesome."

Shout outs to:

Leighty, happyboi1768, and MechaHund for following,

Leighty, happyboi1768, and MechaHund for fav'ing,

0lcra and CereysKerrigan for reviewing,

and my incredible beta Disasternoj for beta'ing!

Thanks as always for reading, and I'll see you in the next chapter!

[Next chapter drops on August 13th, 2024!]