After defeating that big shadow on the train i found myself back in the red room. In front of the two angels again.
"You have defeated the priestess. Well done." angel yukari said. I raised an eyebrow. Which didn't get unnoticed by the two. "The full moon shadows as you dubbed them. They represent the arcanas like those personas do. Albeit the reverse." angel yukari said as the tarot card of the magician appears before me.
"The magician represents concentration, resourcefulness, action and creativity." angel fuuka explained. The card turned red and went upside down.
"The reverse however. Represents an unclear vision and no direction or reason to your actions. As shown by the fact that the shadow was nothing more than a mass of arms and relentlessly chased that boxer boy." angel yukari said. The card disappeared and the card of the high priestess appeared before me.
"The priestess represents knowledge and wisdom" angel fuuka said. The card once again turned red and flipped. "But the reverse means that the person is unable to use that knowledge wisely. Or make good decisions. Filled with uncertainty of their decisions." angel fuuka explained.
"But that's not the reason you are here tonight, for every one of those shadows you defeat. Your power will grow stronger as a new fiend will be called upon." angel fuuka said. The priestess card soon turned into a black portal and out came a skeleton much like the other two. Albeit this one is dressed like a bullfighter. Complete with the red capote and thin sword that was used during bullfights in ancient times.
"I am matador. Pleasure to make your acquaintance. Let's put on a show to remember shall we?" matador said as he disappeared. A red light glowed around me as I felt a new fiend took up residence within me. I soon woke up.
May 10th 2009.
We decided to pay akihiko a visit to the hospital as he was getting his wounds checked out. But in his room was some guy wearing a red coat and beanie.
"Um…is sanda san…in this room by any chance?" junpei asked clearly nervous. The beanie wearing guy was just silent. Akihiko entered the room.
"What are you all doing here?" akihiko asked.
"We came to see you adell…looks like your doing okay though." i said.
"That's because I'm here for a checkup…is that seriously your nickname for me?" akihiko asked.
"We done here aki?" the beanie guy asked.
"Yeah uh thanks." akihiko said.
"Tch. i don't have time for this shit." the beanie guy said.
"I don't think anyone considers sitting around and being an edgelord as important beanie." i said he glared at me as he walked by. "Who was that hipster?" i asked.
"A friend from school…sort off. You know the number of apathy syndrome cases has been increasing? Well he knows a few people who's suffering from it. So we had a little chat. Hey junpei did you bring what i asked?" akihiko asked. Junpei gave him his boxing gloves.
"Have you recovered? We both know Mitsuru will bust your balls if not." i said.
"I'm fine. I wasted too much time already. I need to get back to my training." akihiko announced.
"By the way, senpai. Why boxing?" yukari asked.
"You mean why I chose the sport. I just wanted to learn the fight my bare hands..i know what it feels like to be powerless…i never want to feel that way again. Besides i want see how strong i can get, it's like a game. Only i'm competing against myself." akihiko said.
"That's one way of looking at it." junpei said unsure of what to say.
"Just don't let your game give you tunnel vision. Otherwise. All that strength will have meant nothing when it counts." i said as i left the room.
May 11th 2009.
A new student came to fuuka's class. A guy named alexander pyrus. Or alex for short. He was a lot like fuuka at first glance. Rather shy and timid. Like i said at first glance. When those harlots came to pick on fuuka and decided to include alex to pick on…it didn't go well for them. He smashed their phones and gave them a roast!
"You bitches are pathetic! Nasty vile harpies who have to make others feel miserable just to feel better about their sad pathetic lives! If you try to pick on me or fuuka again! I'll do what your dads do and beat you senseless! You got that!?" alex yelled. The bullies quickly ran away. Alex saw me. "What the hell are you looking at!?" alex yelled.
"Easy alex…he's a friend as well." fuuka said.
"O-oh i'm sorry." alex said going back to his shy personality.
"And yukari has massive mood swings?" I asked. We introduced ourselves to each other. But the bell cut the conversation short. After school. I got a bite at the wild duck burger with fuuka and alex.
"S-sorry if i scared you earlier today." alex said.
"You didn't…I thought it was cool honestly. I'm glad fuuka has a classmate who's willing to defend her." i said.
"Thanks…hey skell…can we…be friends." alex said fidgeting his fingers.
"I don't see why not." i said with a smile. The voice came again.
"I am thou...thou art i...thou has gained a new bond. With the power of the pyrus by your side. The power to change fate will be closer to your grasp." angel yukari said.
Pyrus
Alex pyrus.
Rank 1.
Fuuka had a fun day with me and alex. And because of that. I felt a bit closer to her.
Priestess
Fuuka yamagishi
Rank 3
Evening.
I went to yukari's room and knocked on the door. She answered.
"Hey yukari. I found out a bit about what mitsuru isn't willing to tell us." i said. Yukari looked down both ends to the hallway before inviting me into her room…
"Just what i expected from you yukari…pink galore!" I yelled in a mocking tone.
"Oh shut up skell…what did you find out?" yukari asked. She didn't sound offended. I told her what kaze told me. Her face quickly turned to anger. "So…what we're doing if essentially cleaning up mitsuru's familys mess!?" yukari asked offended.
"Yep…at least kaze is willing to be a bit more open with us. It seems like mitsuru wasn't being open with him either. So he had to dig around…you gonna confront mitsuru about this?" i asked.
"I will later…once this business with the two new recruits is done." yukari said.
"Oh…two more students have the potential. Who are they?" i asked.
"You already know them…fuuka yamagishi and alexander pyrus." yukari said.
"...i see. Well it's their choice. We'll see how things go. I better leave if mitsuru find me here. I'm dead." i said. I stood up to leave. And before i left there was something i wanted to say. "Hey yukari…this may not have been the ideal setting…but i really am glad i met you again. Before i arrived at tatsumi port island. I had a dream…a memory of when we were kids. The time when we first met, despite all this being with you again, makes it all worth it in my opinion." i said. Yukari's cheeks turned red. Before i left. I felt a pair of lips on my right cheek. Yukari…just kissed me.
"I feel the same way…you tell anyone i did that. Especially stupei and there'll be an arrow with your name on it. Are we clear!?" yukari asked threateningly.
"Crystal." I said. We both just laughed. She waved me off as i left the room. I put my hand to my cheek…are we still just friends or something more? Am i…in love with yukari?
Lovers
Yukari takeba.
Rank 9
May 12th dark hour.
Akihiko has recovered. More of tartarus has been unlocked. And i have a new fiend to test out. Matador's kit was mainly pierce attacks and wind skills. But his two unique skills make him a powerful contender. Those being andalucia a pierce attack that hits 3 to 6 times. And red capote. A support skill that i can only use on myself but my speed goes up insanely. I'm not missing my targets. And my targets are not hitting me any time soon. As for akihiko he fights with his fists go figure. His persona polydeuces kit is strike and elec attacks. It also has a skill that makes the enemy lose their attack strength.
Climbing up the new floors of tartarus. The new block. The arqua block was a lot more purple then the previous block. And had a lot more gatekeepers. The will o wisp raven made me glad the yuki's kept around asparas as these birds had an ice weakness. The next one was the heretic magus. It was time for akihiko to shine thanks to it's weakness to electric attacks. The next two guardians. The disturbing dice and the clairvoyant relic didn't have any weaknesses. So unless someone managed to hit them hard enough to knock them down then we can only do one thing. Hit them until they die. The servant tower. This one had a weakness. It was a rare one. Darkness. Luckily for us. I had a skeletal musician that had both light and dark. So because of that we were able to run it over with an all out attack. The next one however was another story. The lascivious lady. Had no weaknesses. And was resistant to all forms of magic. And to top it off. She had two profligate gigas bodyguards. They had a weakness to wind. So whenever it was mine to yukari's turn. We would knock them down with a magaru and then hit the lady with physical attacks. Albeit yukari's persona didn't have any physical attacks in it's arsenal so all she could was shoot the lady with her bow. When it was my turn i was able to hit them pretty hard. Matador really shined in this fight. A magaru to knock down the muscle and an andalucia to hit the lady hard. The gigas always went for me. Which was a stupid mistake considering they couldn't land a single blow thanks to red capote. With one lucky andalucia that resulted in a critical and an all out attack later. This gatekeeper was destroyed. The last gatekeeper before we were hit with another dead end. Was the fleet footed cavalry. This one had no weaknesses and wind just healed it. So we were stuck with the "hit it until it dies strategy." which wasn't easy considering this shadow was bulky. Took a lot of punishment. And hit just as hard. As expected of a knight on horseback. We were exhausted after dealing with that damn knight. But we made it to the top. Grabbed the document. And called it quits. Not much else we can do. Considering we can't get any higher at the moment. So our tartarus run stopped here.
May 13th-may 28th.
The days pass by. I hung out with friends during the day and studied for midterms at the dorm during the evening. During this I managed to reach rank 9 with the yukis and junpei. And I found out some dark parts about their lives. Junpei's dad is a drunk deadbeat. And i began to understand why makoto was the way he was. Why he seemed so protective of his sister. He was the only thing that could protect her from the abusive pieces of shit that ran those foster homes. And I thought those places were supposed to have nice people. But I guess not. Considering both of them had to deal with constant beatings and starvation. It was horrible to hear. Really makes me appreciate what I have. But still the fact that they're willing to share this with me goes to show how much they trust me.
May 29th 2009.
It was after archery practice. Me and yukari were done picking up. No thanks to this useless first years.
"What a workout." yukari said.
"Yeah…damn first years. Half-assing the clean up." i said. We noticed a couple of students complaining. I recognized those two as a couple of the harpies that constantly tried to make fuuka's life a living hell.
"Can you believe that jerk? Smashing our phones like that." the brunette one said. Clearly they are complaining about alex.
"I know. Someone should tell that guy to chill. Oh well. We got our payback last week didn't we?" the brunette's bitch friend said. That got my attention.
"Ugh bullies…skell?" yukari asked as she noticed i was approaching the two girls.
"What…did you do?" i asked.
"You again? Look it's none of your business. Get lost!" the brunette girl yelled. I grabbed her arm tightly. "That hurts! That hurts! That hurts!" the brunette yelled.
"Tell me what you did or i'll break your arm!" i yelled.
"W-we locked them in the gym when it was night!" the brunette's friend yelled. Wanting to help her friend.
"Was this near midnight?" I asked. Worrying about the answer.
"Y-yes. It was!" the brunette yelled. I let her go she grabbed her waist trying to slow down the pain. I walked away.
"Son of a bitch…" i said as i walked towards yukari. Who was shocked by what i just did. I pulled out my phone and messaged everyone that to keep their schedules for this evening free. I had a matter to discuss about our new potential recruits.
"Skell what's going on?" yukari asked.
"Because of those damn harpies. Alex and fuuka are stuck in tartarus!" I yelled.
Evening.
I told everyone this at the dorm. And we started to develop a plan. The only we would find fuuka and alex was to get in through the same way they did. Luckily i planned for that and had the gym unlocked. All we had to do was wait for the dark hour.
Dark hour.
Well we're in tartarus. Problem was we got separated. Luckily there was only a few weak mayas. But I shouldn't stay around for long. I soon found the yuki siblings having a chat with that weird kid who gave us that contract. He soon disappeared.
"Hey. yuki siblings!" I yelled, getting their attention. "Chatting with their prisoner boy again huh?" i asked.
"Yeah…wonder what's up with him?" kotone asked.
"Not sure…anyway we should find the others. Find fuuka and alex then get out." i said. They both nodded and followed me to the stairs. On the way up. I heard mitsuru trying to reach us but breaking up. Also i could hear fuuka asking who we are. That if we're human. Wanting to know where she is. Why is she here? Begging for us to answer. I made my way through and we reunited with junpei and akihiko.
"There you are. We were worried about you." junpei said.
"Yeah…glad to see you guys are okay too. Did you guys hear the voice of a girl on the way here?" i asked.
"Yeah we did…kinda like.." junpei said.
"Who's there…are you human?" fuuka asked.
"Fuuka! It's me skell! Where are you!?" i yelled.
"Didn't that come from behind us?" junpei asked. We looked over and saw fuuka coming out of hiding from one of those weird purple constructs common on this block.
"Fuuka! You're okay! Where's alex?" I asked. She pointed to behind the construct…alex was there, and he was hurt.
"Damn that looks bad." junpei said.
"What happened?" akihiko asked as he and junpei gave alex a shoulder.
"One of the shadows?" makoto asked.
"Is that what those things are called…guess so. We did a pretty good job avoiding them up till now. Mostly because of fuuka…somehow she knew where those things were. It made avoiding them easy." alex said.
"She has the same power as mitsuru. Actually she might be even stronger. Mitusuru's persona was more combat focused anyway." akihiko said.
"Persona?" fuuka asked.
"We can ask about that later…right now i want to get the hell out of here before that berserker catches wind of us again." alex said.
"Berserker?" kotone asked.
"It's the creature that did this to me…fuuka made it so avoiding the creatures that dwell here pretty easy. But there's one that's been very hard to avoid. It takes the form of a knight wielding two axes. It shows up randomly. And it was a lot harder to avoid as it's hearing was much better. And the second it caught wind of us. It would chase us like nemesis from resident evil 3. Bastard was relentless." alex said.
"We can worry about that later. Both of you hang on to these." akihiko said giving them both evokers.
"W-wait! Is this…is this a gun!?" fuuka asked.
"Where did you get these!?" alex asked.
"Think of it as a lucky charm. It doesn't actually fire bullets." akihiko explained.
"Then what the hell is the point of these!? I don't think those things are gonna run away because we point a fake gun at them you dumb jock!" alex yelled.
"What was that!?" akihiko yelled back only for kaze. To put his hand on his shoulder.
"Let it go akihiko...being trapped in tartarus along with getting a cut like that is going to make someone a bit cranky." kaze said. i offered my shoulder to alex. And we got moving. We tried to get into contact with mitsuru to no avail. Fuuka's eyes went wide.
"Oh no…it's the berserker…it's attacking someone!" fuuka yelled. We quickly rushed to the teleporter and returned to the main hall. And found mitsuru and yukari on the ground. We see what was the berserker. A heavily armored shadow with red glowing eyes peering out of a helmet filled with the black goo of a shadow.
"Mitsuru! Takeba!" akihiko yelled. When he did that. It got the shadows' attention. It screamed with pure rage fire coming from where the mouth would be.
"Be careful…this shadow is relentless…didn't even have time to pull our evokers." mitsuru warned us. And true to her words. The shadow came at us with alarming speed. Barely enough time to even summon our personas. As we were fighting this creature. That brunette of the group that made fuuka's life hell.
"Fuuka….alex." the brunette said.
"Moriyama-san!?" fuuka yelled as she ran towards moriyama. The shadow took notice.
"Pathetic bully…worthless harpy…must…kill bully!" the berserker yelled. We tried our best to keep it back. But it was obvious that this shadow had some connection to alex.
"Please get out of here! It's not safe!" fuuka yelled.
"I had to tell you and alex…that I'm sorry." moriyama said. The berserker pushed us back. And ran towards fuuka and moriyama.
"Too late…die!" the berserker yelled.
"Look out!" junpei yelled. As the berserker swung his axe. Fuuka put the evoker to her head. And pulled the trigger summoning her persona…lucia. It protected both her and moriyama. The berserker was knocked back. But the berserker wasn't the only one raging. As alex quickly put the evoker to his head.
"I was scared of you…now i'm mad! You signed your death warrant when you attacked fuuka! Come forth…fionn!" alex yelled as he pulled the trigger. And his persona came through…fionn mac cumhaill.
"I can see that monsters weakness…it's weak to ice!" fuuka said.
"You heard the lady fionn! Bufula! Now!" alex yelled. As his persona hit the shadow with a more powerful ice spell. This doesn't didn't knock it down however. As instead it got pissed and threw a fire spell at alex. Luckily for alex. Fire isn't fionn's weakness. But this beast was as tough as one of the full moon shadows. But with enough perseverance and pelting with everything we got. We managed to bring it down. After the battle both fuuka and alex passed out moriyama cried and apologized over and over…even though moriyama won't remember this…it's safe she's learned her lesson…