Persona 5: Daywatch
Saturday, 13 August 2016
Afternoon
Togo's Temple
The Roman riding a flattened space ship slid into the fog as if whatever propelled it lost all upward momentum. "Sakura-chan!" Hifumi shouted, her scattered brain only able to retrieve her real name before she bolted into the fog in the direction of a small, wet splash.
"Hifumi!" Akira shouted, panic cracking his voice as he sprinted after her.
She reached the edge of the raised walkway and hopped off. What she expected to be a five centimeter drop ended up more than a meter and her shoes splashed into a shallow puddle as the Phantom Thieves ran after her. She heard another splash nearby, but the mist might as well have been concrete for as far as Hifumi could see. Glancing down, she couldn't even tell where her feet were. She shouted up at the others, "Stay out, visibility is zero!"
Panther-san called out from above, her voice sounding too distant and muffled to understand.
A worrying beat passed without hearing from Akira, then the fog currents shifted and she heard footsteps splash further into the marshy courtyard. Hifumi reached her hand out and this time could see past her fingertips.
Her relief ended at seeing herself in a kimono patterned with crashing waves like mother made her wear during family reunions. Her doppel held a sleeve-sheathed hand before her mouth in the cutsey shy gesture she hadn't done since she was a child. "Oh, how shameful. Cavorting with boys and getting mud on your feet."
Hifumi worked her mouth open, but found herself unable to speak. She closed her mouth and breathed in, the foggy air more crawling than flowing into her lungs. She coughed and slapped her chest, then stepped closer. "Wh-what is this? Where is Oracle-chan?"
Her doppel paced in a circle around her, disdain etched into her face. "Mother would be rightly shamed. She bleeds herself dry trying to support me and Father."
Hifumi's breath caught in her throat, not just because of the fog she would have sworn was trying to asphyxiate her. She thought of the weakened man in a hospital bed in the master bedroom, lifting a trembling arm at her, and her insides churned.
"Does your family matter so little?" Her doppel said, still circling. "How hypocritical," the look-alike spat. "You steal the hard work of Mother's mathematics studies and thanked no one when Kosei gave you a full scholarship."
Hifumi struggled to breathe in. "I… I wanted to help ease the burden on Mother and Father."
"A burden wholly created by you," her doppel snapped. "You steal the years of struggle and refinement of Father's shogi career and what have you paid back?"
Hifumi's teeth clenched. "I'm trying…"
Her doppel's eyes tensed despite tears leaking from the real one. "You think you're entitled to play games that hardly pay in either publicity or funds when Father is slowly dying and all Mother asks you is to help keep Father with us?"
Hifumi wrapped her arms around herself, as if that could shield herself from either the fog or the doppel's cutting words. She struggled through shaky breaths to squeak out, "I… I just want…" She couldn't think of anything more sensible than to mean something.
"To what?" Mother's voice cut through the fog, a faint reverberation to it. Then dark leathery wings more than two meters wide each flapped and a wide swath of the fog shrank back. Her mother floated above the marshy ground as if gravity was an indignity beneath her. Her long hair cascaded down, unbound like her NHK days. Shiny tights clung to her like a second skin even tighter than Panther's, neckline plunging all the way down to her waist. Her lips curled in a sneer. "Your entire life has centered on taking from others, on pleasing yourself, no matter how indecent. Leeching from everyone else's talents. You think you can stand on a mountain of others' sacrifices and call your hands clean as long as you squeeze your eyes shut."
Tears sparkled at the corners of her eyes at viciousness exceeding anything Mother had ever hurled at her before. "I… I've done the best I can—"
"To what?" Mother snapped, those gold eyes boring into her. "To bat your eyes at every boy you thought might jump into your panties? Your dalliances with your father's profession were even weaker than your attempts to give yourself away. You think your tournament wins are so glorious? I bought them."
Hifumi's mouth drifted open.
Her mother in a shiny, skin-hugging garb and leathery wings let out a disappointed huff. "Honestly, Hifumi. Are you totally blind to anything that isn't the next boy-toy you want to jump on? The Shogi Federation is a man's world and they wouldn't even consider you. You think it was coincidence that Sasaki withdrew, giving a pretty little thing like you her first ranked game? I had to have his son's legs broken." She floated closer and took Hifumi's chin in hand to force her green eyes on those gold ones. "You didn't have the wherewithal to leverage that lovely body you're so eager to give away, to get the money or fame that could help my household. You couldn't even earn a front position in Belshazzar's Feast."
The first tear slipped down Hifumi's face. Her chin trembling, Hifumi stammered, "I… I'm not just a body—"
The gold-eyed Mitsuyo spat a laugh. "You think anything but the beauty you inherited from me means anything? Take that shogi friend you think cares so for your mind." She yanked the shogi player to one side.
The glowing fog rolled back and she saw Akira stumbling around the mossy marsh. His dark grey slacks and formal black Sunday jacket made him stand out even more than among the blasé casual of everyday people.
A tickle in the back of her mind told her something was wrong, but her head pounded in pain. Then that damn doppel in the wave-patterned kimono stepped out of the fog in front of him. She ran forward and stumbled on her geta-style sandals, slipping out of one of them.
Akira leaped forward to catch the doppel.
"That's not—!" Hifumi tried to shout, but Mitsuyo clamped a hand over her mouth.
"Are you all right?" Akira said, helping her doppel stand. He almost melted against the doppel when she wrapped one arm around his back, and her body against his front.
Her doppel reached up and traced the fingertips of one hand along his cheek, then cupped his face in hand like she'd longed to do for weeks. The sparks of jealousy she felt when she saw Sakura-chan and him holding hands blazed into a bonfire inside as their hungry eyes stared into each other.
Her doppel reached up to push her royal kimono off one shoulder, leaning back just enough to let her kimono slide down her arms. The well-dressed boy pushed her kimono off the other shoulder before claiming the doppel's mouth with his own, a grey-gloved hand sliding up the fake's body to cup her breast.
"Stop it!" the real Hifumi tried to yell under her mother's muffling hand, jealousy and fear for him both stoking the fire within. She remembered all too well the trembling in his eyes when she clutched him in the meditation garden of Kanda Catholic Church. He was too fragile to throw into something like this. He'd never dared to put it in words, but he'd let her hold the shards of his heart for brief moments. "You'll only hurt him!"
"Your body is the only thing men want," the gold-eyed Mitsuyo said. "Tch. Hurt him? Punishment should hurt. Or else unruly children won't remember."
Those enormous wings flexed and the glowing fog rolled back. The rest of the scattered Phantom Thieves faced a legion of Shadows in the marshy courtyard. Kitagawa-san lifted his katana far too late to stop a spiny-tailed swipe from one of those human-faced lions. Sakura-chan, shooting a snake-man as she backed up. She tripped and another snake-man slithered up from her left, both snake-headed 'hands' biting deep. Reaper, ducking under the swipe of a spine-whip to land a power swing against a headless soldier, only for the red-furred canine next to it to leap for his throat, knocking him over. Panther-san, sweat pouring down her face, dove out of the path of a bolt of lightning from one of the indecent vixens. Byakko, dodging dozens of those small, straw-covered imps.
The Phantom Thieves were being hunted down piecemeal by superior forces and numbers like a red fox before a horde of English hounds and horses.
All because they were foolish enough to gamble their lives to help her.
Her heart pounded in her chest.
"You see how worthless life is," Mitsuyo hissed, forcing Hifumi to stare at Akira and her doppel making out, "when you lack the fortitude or wherewithal to leverage the parts of you that are worth something to the world? Give up your delusions about boys, they only want to fuck you. In every sense. At least my way, we decide how much your body sells for. That's the only way anybody can pay their way ahead in life."
"No!" Hifumi's hands reached for the one hand Mother used to hold her captive. "Not him, not me, not for anyone!"
A clear mezzo-soprano voice called out to her, "So shall you sell yourself to butchers who see only commodities to exploit?"
Her heart thudded within and Hifumi writhed in agony at the pressure building inside, pain splitting her head, a strange sensation of weight growing around her eyes.
Mitsuyo snapped, "Stop your indecent games and just do as you're told like a good girl. That pretty face sells for plenty to pay bribes and your father's medical bills. I can't have a rising star Togo fall."
Her heart pounded. That foreign yet somehow familiar woman's voice whispered to her again, "Will you submit body, heart, and kingdom to be carved up before foreign invaders?"
Mitsuyo's arm tightened over the shogi player. "Good girls don't act out or speak out of turn."
Heart thudding and skull burning, Hifumi bit down on her mother's hand. Her mother snatched her hand away and dropped the shogi player to the puddle below. Those wings flapped and the glowing fog raced back in as if making a last-ditch effort to suffocate the shogi player on her knees.
The mezzo-soprano voice called out again, "The retreat has been quite long enough. The line must be drawn! A queen is not queen without her kingdom, her subjects. But surrender is not the strategy to save a kingdom from pillagers."
Her monstrous mother's enormous, leathery wings stretched out. "Selfish girl, I'm not even asking for all of you. Only a few bits now and then, when you should be wholly devoted to your family. Leave these trash and obey your mother. I already offer you everything yen can buy."
Her heart thudded inside again, and Hifumi reached up a hand to the sudden sensation of weight on her upper face. "I will not close my eyes. I will not cut myself off from the people I treasure any more than I would cut off my own hand. And I… am not… for sale!" Hifumi yanked at the hard shell over her upper face. Blood flowed and her skin gave way, but this mask would not hold her back any more. "Lend me your vision, Dihya!"
At last the mask came free. Blood splattered and blue flames exploded out, blasting across the courtyard, driving Shadow Mitsuyo into the sky, disintegrating the false Akira and Hifumi, the straw-covered imps and knocking the other Shadows down.
Black boots hugged her legs to her knees, rearing horses etched into the greave plates. Where her sky-blue dress had been, instead a double-breasted navy-blue coat edged in red hugged her chest, secured by thick belts, matched by jodhpur breeches. A heavy blue cloak sat on her shoulders, fastened by a thin chain. Its voluminous hood shrouded her head, leaving the red optics of her visor glowing like malevolent eyes.
Instead of dissipating, the blue flames above her coalesced into a towering two-meter woman in a red tunic. She wore silver bracers and held a tower shield in each hand, the design of an open eye spread across them. Her inky-black hair fell down below her waist, gathered in three bunches by silver clasps. Instead of a face, pure white light glowed behind a floating ceramic mask painted in serene meditation.
Hifumi closed her eyes, and looked out through her Persona. Several dozen likenesses of the Phantom Thieves fought and bled across the marshy courtyard, often against a doppel of herself.
Only six of the Thieves splashed as they fought.
She scanned over them as fast as she could to evaluate their injuries and opposition to zero in on Sakura-chan as the most vulnerable. Dismissing Dihya, Hifumi sprinted across the wet, mossy ground, hurling out her heavy cloak. Whether exceeding the chain catch or responding to her will, it snapped apart, allowing her to swing the heavy cloak out to tangle and drag down the headless soldier's spine-whip.
Sakura-chan whipped around, staff weapon up, heaving in breath.
Another writhing snake-man came at the young girl's flank. Despite the benefit of keeping distance, Hifumi knew her staff unleashed fire energy and these serpent-men gritted through the blasts. "Hold your fire, bash them with your staff!" She took a handful of her cloak, feeling scales sewn within it as she raised her cloaked arm to block another spine-whip.
"Nice threads!" Sakura-chan took her staff in both hands and swung, pounding the end with a viper clutching a sphere over a serpent-man's human head. The Shadow's skull snapped to one side and it dissolved as dissipating smoke. They repeated the process of Hifumi blocking with her heavy cloak and Sakura-chan bashing the other serpent-man into dissolving smoke, but when they rounded on the headless soldier, it reached out with a hand wrapped in darkness and drew ribbons of light out of Sakura-chan. The slight girl heaved in breath. "I hate energy drain!"
As the older girl cast away the soldier's whip, Sakura-chan lined up her staff weapon and shot the headless soldier twice, dissipating the Shadow.
Hifumi looked over the courtyard. With Sakura-chan in tow, she gained some options but lost others. As much as she wanted to get back to Akira, the Hifumi-doppel facing Panther had recovered and the headless soldiers had hit Byakko with a fear effect. "This way!"
Hifumi ran as fast as she could without losing the hacker, keeping a grip on her armored cloak so she would be ready to defend herself at a moment's notice.
The doppel wielding a spear held out a hand, pinky and ring fingers folded down. A fire bolt formed and flung into Panther-san, the Thief in red leather stumbled to the marsh with a pained cry.
Hifumi broke into a sprint and threw herself over the veteran Thief, clenching her cloak to lessen the impact of the follow-up spear thrust. After a moment of surprise, the pair fought off the handful of Shadows besetting the vivacious blonde before Sakura-chan caught up to help them down a cognition of Hifumi in a hydrangea-patterned kimono. They surged at it with all their might, and Panther finished it off with a heeled stomp onto its skull, dissipating it into wisps of smoke.
Hifumi made a mental note never to make Panther-san angry.
The striking blonde held up the slight girl as she wheezed. "Either of you know what happened to Byakko? One of those headless bastards got him with something and he ran off in a panic."
Hifumi glanced around the crystal clear courtyard, but her search for the team leader stopped when her gaze fell on a silver orb slamming into Akira, his longcoated form cutting a furrow through bright green moss. "Ak—Joker!" She took off at a run.
With the addition of Hifumi's armored cloak and the Phantom Thieves settling back into fighting harmony, the Shadows and a doppel of Hifumi in a slinky red cocktail dress was defeated. The elation that the small victory fell when Hifumi detected a Shadow great dragon bearing down on Makoto-san.
Its gaping jaws glowed with a growing white light and locked onto the smart girl who invited her to the dojo. "Rider-san!"
Dihya winked out, transposing with Makoto on her armored bike of a Persona, then slammed her two tower shields together. They locked flush and the roaring beam of ice crashed against them, shuddering but holding against the monstrous Shadow's onslaught. After long seconds of its stream of ice, the dragon closed its jaws and swished after the artist firing a carbine at it.
Standing next to Dihya, where the Shujin president was, Ryuji's wide brown eyes stared and he said, "Fuckin'—"
Then Dihya was in front of Hifumi again, dissipating a moment later. The shogi player herself fell, Akira catching her as she gulped in deep breaths. "Hifumi, what the hell happened?"
It took Hifumi a few moments more to catch her breath. "I couldn't… let anything happen to her."
Panther-san helped the shogi player stand, her eyes still wide with surprise. "Where are they?"
With a little reluctance, Hifumi pushed up from Akira's arms. "This way. Rider-san's trying to use the courtyard wall to limit the dragon's movements."
Hifumi and the Phantom Thieves ran until they almost stumbled into the long, blue eastern dragon. Tufts of green sprouted from its ankles and along its back, and long, white horns sprouted from the green mane on its head. Red plated scales ran down its belly, and while its arms seemed short compared to the length of its body they were plenty long enough to clash with the artist parrying its large claws with his sword. Its blue-scaled hide bore numerous scratch marks from Captain Kidd's shredding winds, but she couldn't tell what the damage added up to. Either way, the girl and two boys bore far more signs of a beating than it did.
Makoto saw them and breathed only a short sigh of relief before lowering her gun. "We're chipping away with everything we've tried, but nothing seems to hurt it badly."
Sakura-chan tossed her sidearm at the blonde. "If yours is out, try this." She leveled her staff weapon at the dragon rising up and away from them and fired a blast. Panther followed up with what seemed a pinprick from the small lightning-discharging weapon.
The dragon swirled up, then dove down and slammed its front legs into the ground. The ground trembled and plumes of water shot up.
"Spread out and dodge!" Makoto-san shouted, racing away from the rising water as they reached their apex, then froze into sharp crystals and rained down.
Ryuji tripped, clutching his leg as he splashed down and then curled to take the ice as best he could. Too far from him to do any good, Hifumi yanked Akira close and braced under her heavy cloak. The pounding ice shards hurt, but let up after a brief fall.
After a momentary exchange of glances with Makoto-san, Kitagawa roared and swung at the dragon's face, keeping up a fighting retreat that brought its attention away from the fallen runner.
Makoto rushed over to Ryuji to apply a medicated bandage to the wound bleeding the most, but from the resigned look they shared, they had little left.
Akira stepped out from the shelter of her cloak with a thankful nod, pointing his gun at the dragon for a test burst. He frowned at his lack of effect, then reached for his mask. "Daji!" The buxom woman with Chinese court robes almost shrugged off coalesced, then waved a hand and unleashed swirls of pure force at the dragon. "Yeah, Byakko would hate this thing. Anything else it can shrug off?"
"Given its magic," Kitagawa-san said as he hacked and parried at the dragon's front, "I would presume ice."
Carmen hurled a javelin of ice that splattered without mark against its hide. Panther cursed, but without any other options, she shot little bolts into the dragon with Sakura-chan's small, alien sidearm and sent her Persona whipping at the flying beast.
Sakura-chan paused her volley to glance at the shogi player. "I don't suppose your Persona has some kind of scanning ability that could tell us a vulnerability we haven't hit yet?"
"Dihya!" Hifumi called out, then closed her eyes to look through her inner self's. All of them were strange, but with the number of Thieves together now, she was getting a feel for the… what was the word… tones of their energy? Looking for a matching power like the lightning coursing through Goemon was easy, but trying to feel an absence left her unable to determine which melodic tone to follow in the complicated Shadow. Wait, maybe an inverse tone.
Once her objective was clear in her mind, the tone felt as obvious as missing violins in an orchestra. A hole in the sounds that should be there just to indicate normal.
Hifumi hoped she had the right sense of it. "Like your celestial serpent, Joker!"
Sakura-chan swore. "Of course it would be mine when I don't have the energy to use it!"
Hifumi opened her eyes in time to see a thankful smile on his face that made her heart flutter. He called out the five-headed serpent, and when its rays raked over the dragon, it roared in agony and lashed out. Kitagawa fell, bleeding from grievous gashes, but the Phantom Thieves rallied at the knowledge that the powerful beast could be hurt and threw everything they had at it.
She hadn't realized how much effort running, blocking, and using her inner self was until the battle came to silence and she had an opportunity to breathe as if at the end of Kosei's hurdle racing. A sensation of blue flames washed over her and the comfortable belted coat and boots were replaced by her wet, moss-stained dress. Just as suddenly, the fog that made it hard to see more than a meter out was back. The strength in her legs gave out and the air felt like it didn't have enough oxygen.
Akira sprinted, slipping once over loose moss, to catch her. "Hifumi, are you all right?"
She sucked in air and held onto him with leaden arms. "Just… really tired." Despite the exhaustion weighing at her eyelids, she gave a proud smile to the others. "You all must have incredible strength to be able to keep it up for hours." Her eyes fell on the small girl still standing steady on her two feet, that black jumpsuit glistening with circuitry. "Especially you, Oracle-chan. Don't you ever let other people tell you that you don't have strength to move a mountain."
Sakura-chan smiled and scratched at her head with the closed discharge pod of her staff weapon. "Thanks. But would you mind not calling me 'chan'? I have been doing this for longer than you."
Applying the last of the team's medicated bandages to the artist, Panther-san stood. "This is your second day, Oracle."
The orange-haired girl brandished a defiant smile. "Still enough for seniority."
Maybe it was the tiredness, but the statement made sense to Hifumi. Every cohesive group had to have some kind of organization to operate in a synchronized manner even when they weren't all together. "Understandable, Oracle-senpai."
Sakura-chan grimaced as if she bit a lemon. "Super weird for somebody who just saved my life to call me senpai. Can we nix that?"
Hifumi nodded into Akira's collarbone and mumbled something affirmative.
Makoto-san coughed into a fist. "Where is Byakko?"
Ryuji clapped his free hand on his dyed-blond head. "Oh, shit! The cat got himself nabbed?"
Akira riposted, "Bastet isn't a cat." When Sakura-chan started cackling, he slapped his gloved palm against his forehead and groaned. "Byakko. Byakko isn't a cat."
Ann set a gentle hand on the shogi player's shoulder. "Whatever you did to find us, and find Rider… could you do that again?"
Hifumi stood and swallowed. Despite being back in her day dress, she could feel her Persona inside, that resolute refusal to close her eyes and be sold off like a commodity. "Dihya, please."
Flames washed over her and even though she feared her head would split open, she summoned her Persona to scan the once-again clear courtyard. The catboy ran from a mob of Shadows led by another doppelganger. "There. He's being pursued by Shadows." While she wasn't strong enough to hold a lead ahead of them this time, she led them through the marshy courtyard to the diminutive figure fleeing a mob of headless soldiers and human-faced lion.
Before the Thieves came close enough to see, her winged mother landed in front of Byakko. Skidding to a stop, Byakko summoned Zorro to send a wave of psychokinetic force at the yellow-eyed woman.
The shimmer of pure force reflected straight off Mother and knocked Byakko tumbling back, thermos splashing into a puddle.
Within the mob, a sad doppel in a risque tea gown nocked an arrow in her bow. The melancholic expression never budged as she drew back, "I'm sorry you made me do this."
Her lungs burned and hands trembled, but Hifumi kept up the sprint. "Panther, the mob. Oracle, my mother!"
Makoto joined the group angling for the mob. "Fox, with them. Joker, guard Hifumi and support when you have an opening. Reaper, with me."
Oracle paused to take the coffee thermos and help the small team leader down a dose of powdered medicine. "Hang on, Bastet."
"It's Byakko," he replied.
Mitsuyo's enormous leather wings stretched wide. "So the trash still haven't been taken care of?" She scoffed. "Do be out of my way quickly, I have to stop by the house to discipline my daughter."
Hifumi held her hand to her mask and closed her eyes to see through her Persona. Mother might be dangerous, but those numbers might allow the Shadows to flank the Thieves if they weren't careful. They'd have to be dealt with first. "Scanning. Avoid curse energy on the Dullahan, and the Typhon appears immune to both bless and curses."
Sighting across the top, Reaper swept his rifle across the dozen Shadows, coming to a stop on the doppel in a tea gown and fancy hair bun. "Oh, fuck. It's the crazy bitch who stabbed me."
"Why," Makoto snarked, "were you planning on grabbing her ass again?" Her gun barked into the mob, hitting two Dullahan and knocking one of the headless soldiers to its knees.
Reaper ducked under one spine-whip and swung wild at the next Dullahan. "Hey, she came onto me like some damsel in distress."
Next to him, Panther tangled an incoming whip with her own and sent frost spreading down its weapon, slowing to a creep but still growing across its hand.
A new tone resonated from the Shadows and Hifumi dismissed Dihya. "Reaper, I think they're all missing the same tune as Captain Kidd resonates with."
"Eff yeah! Joker, gimme a boost and let's take 'em all down at once!"
Joker fired a gun burst into her mother, leaving a trail of scratches. "I didn't bring High Pixie today."
Ryuji bashed aside another Dullahan. "The eff? It's one of your Personas, how do you not 'bring' it?"
"I can only control so many at once!" Akira snapped back.
"Just go!" Makoto barked at the loud blond.
He grit his teeth and looked over the dozen-plus Shadows marching closer. "Fine. I'll go all in, but if you all ain't in after me, I'mma comin' back to haunt you." He stepped back, eyelids drifting closed as he opened his mouth and took a very deep breath.
An arrow loosed at the team leader, and the doppel in a risque evening gown said, "Shall I sing you a dirge, for your last day?"
Braced behind her armored cloak, Hifumi shouted, "The only dirge shall be for Mother's inflated ego! We will steal her distorted desires and restore her to the heart of the Togo home where she belongs!"
Gown Doppel loosed an arrow, then nocked another. "Your resistance only leads to despair. Like the Buddha, only surrender can lead to freedom."
Her cape knocked aside the large arrow. "Nonsense!" Hifumi shot back. "Surrender to those who only take leads to servitude, not freedom!" She knelt to take up the staff weapon Sakura-chan had set down so she could drink from the coffee thermos.
"Mother knows—"
The staff weapon discharged a bolt of plasma into Gown Doppel with a satisfying shwa.
"Badass!" Futaba chirped, a wide smile under her goggles as she reached for her staff weapon. "No wonder Joker likes you."
Heat blazed across Hifumi's cheeks and she turned over the staff. "My apologies for taking this without asking, Oracle-chan." She released the staff and took the thermos in exchange.
A skeletal pirate riding a floating boat formed in front of Reaper, then plunged into the mob of Shadows. Reaper unleashed a long roar and a growing swirl of shredding winds circulated around the boat, picking up Dullahan and ripping them into dissipating smoke. Gown Doppel loosed an arrow, and Hifumi ripped her cloak from her shoulders to cast in the way as the rest of the thieves fended off the stragglers. When Kidd crashed into the man-faced lion, the beast tumbled to the ground. The Persona dissipated and Reaper collapsed to the one knee, gasping.
Makoto led the charge with, "Fist of justice!" and Byakko joined them in eliminating the once threatening mob.
That done, Hifumi turned to an unsettling quiet around her monstrous mother. Mitsuyo's great leather wings unfurled from their impromptu cocoon.
The Roman riding a shrunken space ship fired cyan beams into the hovering, wing-wrapped figure, the beams reflecting off at odd angles. Then he switched back to Sakura-chan, who called over her shoulder, "I think she healed a little, and Marcus' beams are reflecting now." She fumed. "Multi-phase bosses suck!"
The winged Mitsuyo began forming crackling balls of lightning in her hands.
Byakko shouted at the shogi player, "We're too spent to fight the Palace Ruler so soon. Smoke out!"
Saturday, 13 August 2016
Late Afternoon
Togo Temple, Front Bailey
Futaba gasped for air at the end of their long run. The two fights they had with Shadows on the way out were almost breathers. Either her heart was going to explode, or she'd have the best cardio of the year if she kept her promise to Mom to graduate high school. Hifumi having almost as much sweat on her face made the hacker feel a bit better.
Even Inari was clutching his side and breathing hard.
Akira paced closer to tap a fist against the artist's arm. "Where's it hurt?"
"My back," Inari said through grit teeth. "I find it difficult even to move my arms."
Akira set his P90 on the ground, then held out a hand. "Your gun." When the confused artist handed it over, the transfer student passed it on to Ann, then slipped behind the artist. "Cross your arms in front of your chest."
"Did you gain a Persona that—?" The longcoated boy wrapped his arms around Yusuke's, tightened, and lifted, arching his back, sending out a series of cracks as the artist's words transformed into a pained cry. Then he set the artist down and Yusuke whipped around, his arms rising in defense before his eyes widened in realization. He flexed his arms, then rotated one through a wide circle. "That was… amazing! I feel better than after a night's sleep in the atelier!"
"Me next!" Ann shouted with a smile on her face.
Akira blushed and his gaze shot straight to her boobs. Not that Futaba could blame him.
She handed the artist's carbine back, and returned the Zat'nikatel to the hacker before she turned away from the longcoated boy and crossed her arms, hands at her shoulders just like the artist did.
Akira swallowed, his blush deepening. After another beat he realized everybody was waiting on them and Ann wasn't changing her mind, so he wrapped his arms around hers and lifted, cracking her back and drawing a yelp from the model, then set her back down.
Ann flexed her arms a few times. "Oh, wow, he's right!" She turned back on the longcoated boy. "Where'd you learn that?"
His blush deepened and he avoided the others' gazes. "I did say I was studying to be a chiropractor, remember? After I told Father Motoori, he called up a physical therapist he knew through Officer Ichijou and I helped out a couple sessions as an understudy."
"That's very impressive," Hifumi said, giving a small smile either from shyness or tiredness.
Yusuke gave a sedate nod. "You all should try it, as well."
Ryuji waved his gloved hand and took a step away. "Yeah, right. I ain't goin' for none of those 'spinal adjustments fixing personality' quack stuff. It's been a long day an' I'm jus' gonna catch some z's. I'll bet we'll all be good t'morrow mornin'."
Akira's red gloves curled into fists. "Not all chiropractors are quacks who pretend that it can do things like changing behavioral characteristics. It's a legitimate, scientifically studied subdivision of physical therapy."
Makoto uncrossed her arms. "We have been in Togo's palace for hours. It's time for us to return to the real world and head back home. Big Sis said she's going to be home tonight, so I need to have dinner prepared." She lifted a hand to the shogi maestra back in her moss-stained dress. "I'm sure it's been a long day for Togo-san." Her lips twisted. "Would it be acceptable to call you Hifumi-san? I wouldn't want to cause confusion about which Togo we're talking about."
Hifumi clasped her hands. "Oh, not at all, Rider-san."
Morgana hopped up onto Ryuji's shoulder to look around the group at closer to eye level. "You and your Persona demonstrated a number of unusual powers that could be of great use to us. Would you be able to come with us again to help change your mother's heart?" His head tilted to one side and his eyes narrowed for a beat of thought. "Actually, would you be allowed to? I haven't been along with Joker for all of your meetings, but it seems like your mother keeps you really busy."
A gloom pressed down on the group. After a beat, Hifumi straightened. "One of the greatest hallmarks of heroes in literature and oral tradition is saving people, even when they don't understand the threat they're under. If there's anything I can do to help you all, please allow me. I'm just sorry that I've been so selfish as to cajole you all into saving Mother."
Futaba waved down as if that could keep the shogi maestra from bringing the conversation into left field. "Trust me, Toots, you're not forcing us. Joker made the case and we all voted on it. I mean, your mother's connected to Kaneshiro's money laundering, so it's not like this is totally out of field for us."
Hifumi's lips pressed into a thin line and the muscles around her eyes tensed. "I never imagined that Mother could be involved in so many hurtful things." She shook her head. "No, I shouldn't say that. She's my mother, and even as she pushed me into more and more distasteful things, I just buried my head in the sand and told myself I shouldn't raise a fuss because it wasn't 'so bad'. I went along with everything, trying to justify it to myself by saying that each time it was only a small thing. If I'd spoken up years ago, maybe I could have saved Mother from getting to this point." She bowed at the waist. "So thank you for all you've done, and I hope we can get along."
Makoto chuckled. "There's need to be so circumspect. You saved Oracle, Ann, probably all our lives today."
Ann let out a laugh. "Yeah! Fighting Shadows and saving hearts is dangerous, so we've all saved each other's lives a bunch of times by now. Just don't be reckless and it'll all be good." She shot a pointed look at Akira.
Morgana gave a pleased nod. "Well, I'm not sure how much progress we made in the Palace, but we've awakened yet another Persona user and we all made it out alive. That means a lot. But I think we're done here for the day."
Saturday, 13 August 2016
Early Evening
Akasaka Mitsuke, KFTV Studio
The Phantom Thieves slumped against the studio's concrete perimeter wall. The events of the day weighed down on all of them, and Akira felt torn between pride at seeing Hifumi awaken to a Persona and terror that now she wanted to risk her life to come in with them. His vigilance was the only thing that caught her wavering on her feet before she started to tip.
The transfer student caught her, and Hifumi gave a bleary blink. "Oh, I'm sorry. I knew I was a little worn from that temple, but I didn't realize how tired it all made me."
Ann patted the shogi maestra's shoulder. "Don't worry about it. Awakening to your Persona always takes a lot out of you the first time."
"Quite," Makoto said with an understanding nod. "We should exchange contact information and return home to rest."
"I have hers, I'll forward it to the group chat," Akira said, tightening his arms around her when it looked like she wasn't steady enough to stand on her own.
"Go ahead and take her home," Morgana said from the sidewalk at their feet. He turned to the hacker. "Would I be enough to get you back to Yongen, or do you need somebody else's help?"
"Carry me home, Inari!" She declared, before hopping at him and curling her legs up. When he left his arms down at his sides, she hit the concrete butt-first. She jabbed a finger at him. "Hey! You were supposed to catch me like a gentleman!"
Makoto rolled her eyes. "If we can all contact each other, I think that's it for today."
Ryuji gave a single lazy wave and trotted off for the train station, followed a moment later by Ann.
Morgana nodded. "Drink water, stretch, and get to sleep early, everyone." He turned to Yusuke. "It can be hard to tell when she's joking, but could you take Oracle home?"
Yusuke straightened. "I only brought enough money for the two one-way tickets necessary for my lines home." He slipped a hand in his pocket, then brought out a pittance of coins. "Oh. I am a hundred and fifty yen short."
"Did you not just buy a day pass?" When he blinked at her, Futaba slapped her hand over her forehead. "You're making me look like Sokka. Fine, take me home and I'll buy you your ticket."
That concern solved, Makoto joined the walk to the train station with the artist and hacker.
Akira rubbed his hand along Hifumi's arm to make sure she was awake and uninjured. "You going to be okay?"
She blinked and looked up at him, those green eyes as deep as ever. "Oh, thank you. I live in a neighborhood in Chiyoda. It isn't hard to get to." She held a hand in front of her mouth as a yawn crawled out.
Morgana joined the pair, then took to Akira's satchel once they reached the trains. With rush hour still ongoing, they didn't stand a hope of seats, so when she snaked an arm around his shoulder to steady herself against the boy holding an overhead strap, he reached an arm around her waist and held her close. Just to make sure she stayed steady.
When the train pulled in at Shibuya, necessity of movement among a choking crowd of assholes who put their knees and elbows everywhere separated them. They reconvened at the back of the platform and she navigated him to the line north into Chiyoda, where they lucked into a pair of seats. When she left her arm around his shoulders, he found it hard to take his arm from her waist. She fell asleep against him on the train ride into Chiyoda, the uproar of dozens of conversations fading into a meaningless white noise as he breathed in the scent of patchouli from her hair.
Her stop came up, and despite his reluctance he shook her awake and helped her disembark. As they made their way up the stairs and back to street level, he was surprised to see a familiar white poet blouse and black slacks. "Hey, Makoto-san!"
The upperclassman turned, her eyes widening in momentary surprise. "Oh, Akira. Was there a problem?"
"Nah," he said. "Her place is just up this way."
She blinked, that momentary sharpness in her eyes as she processed and filed. "Oh, what a coincidence. My flat is right up ahead on the left." She pointed to a gated high-rise with bright green trees behind an intimidating concrete wall.
Hifumi tipped and the transfer student thanked his Phantom Thief-refined reflexes as he caught her. "Oh, sorry. Maybe I shouldn't have let myself nod off on the train, I can't keep my eyes open."
Morgana poked his head out of the satchel. "You need to crash at Rider's place? She's got a nice couch that would be plenty for a human, even a tall one like you."
Hifumi covered her mouth through a yawn, then struggled out, "Oh, I wouldn't want to burden you when home is less than seven minutes away." She straightened for a bow. "Thank you, though."
Makoto smiled, but her eyes flicked up when the nearby traffic light changed. "Well, if you're sure. Big Sis and I live right over there."
Hifumi smiled and leaned against Akira, so the upperclassman jogged across the intersection. The shogi maestra's weight started to press as if she couldn't stand on her own as the crossing walk signal blinked.
He squeezed the hand around her waist. "You want me to carry you?"
She blinked, a spark of energy struggling into her eyes and pink dusting her cheeks. Despite that, her arm tightened around his shoulder. "Oh, I couldn't ask you to carry me for ten minutes."
"It's no trouble. I think my back can take it," he said, stepping away and turning to crouch to one knee.
She held a hand over her mouth, a dainty laugh floating out. "Oh, I haven't done piggyback rides since I was a little girl with Papa."
"I'll keep a steady pace so you can get a few more minutes of shut-eye," he said over his shoulder.
Morgana turned inside the leather satchel and poked his head out the back side. "You know how stubborn he is. I guarantee it'll be faster to just take him up on it than try to talk him out of it."
She thought it over, either her exhaustion or the team leader's argument winning out in the end because she draped her arms against him.
Akira shot stiff as a board. He'd heard and read plenty about girls and half expected her to be as light as a cloud and twice as hard to grasp, but the shogi maestra who settled onto his back was solid. A weight of real skin, flesh, and bone. Being this close alone would have been temptation, but her thighs tight against him… He had to struggle for a few seconds against the urge to rub his hands against that smooth skin and toned legs.
Then her legs tensed and the feeling of his pants shrinking joined the fire on his face. "Akira-kun?"
He swallowed but held onto her legs. Those lithe, powerful limbs against his waist and hands. "R-ready?"
Hifumi's tone was exhausted as she struggled to hold in a yawn, "Y-yes." She settled against him, arms around his shoulders, breasts pressing into his back. To think that was a welcome distraction as he stepped out into a steady walk.
He followed the directions she gave him at the train station to a gated road entrance to a neighborhood with sculpted yards and hybrid-style houses. He jostled her awake when he noticed a guard at what looked like a reinforced guard booth between the gated lanes in and out of the neighborhood.
Hifumi blushed as she stood on her own, waved to the guard, then walked with him the rest of the way to a two-story house with a plum tree dominating what he could see of the front yard through tended hedges. "Thank you for walking me home, Akira-kun. Would you like some tea or water? It is very hot out."
He held up a hand, his blush spreading across his face. "Oh, I wouldn't—"
"Yes, please," Morgana said, poking his head out of the satchel. "He's got a water bottle in here, but I can't get the stupid thing open with my paws in this world."
She gave a soft smile and led them through a walkway of flagstones to a broad porch with a set of hanging seating looking out over the green yard. The team leader hopped out and the three paced to the porch.
Morgana put one foot on the first step when the curtain jostled aside and a white-and-ashen-furred dog with a blue and pale brown eye jumped against the pane with a muffled thump. "Wu-wu-waooo!"
Morgana cried out in terror and jumped into Akira's arms.
Akira shouted in surprise and jumped into Hifumi's.
Hifumi said, "Wha—?" and tumbled to the ground.
Morgana righted himself, but his wide eyes didn't indicate clear mind as he yowled, "Escape!" then bolted for the road, his tail at least doubled in size.
When the transfer student couldn't decide what to do after helping her back to her feet, she lay a tender hand on his arm. "Go on and make sure Byakko is safe. I'll attend to Antalas."
AN: Sir William Walton's "Belshazzar's Feast" is a choral piece that is essentially an interweaving of two chorus groups singing one piece.
Hifumi's Phantom Thief design is loosely based on Emilia Plater, a Polish-Lithuanian cavalier who personally raised and led forces in the defense against the Russian Empire. While the historical woman herself was not been confirmed to have taken part in any critical engagements, dying of illness after being wounded in battle, she inspired her nation and remains known as the "Lithuanian Joan of Arc".
Hifumi's Persona, Dihya, is a Berber queen who led the defense against the Muslim Maghreb conquest. With far smaller numbers, she harassed and held off larger armies and was named "Seer" or "Priestess Soothsayer" in Arabic. Her dog, Antalas, is named after a Berber general who led his tribe against the Byzantine Empire.