Inexplicably, the dawn of the next day arrives in much the same way as the previous one. As you make your way to Toshima, you almost feel a sense of betrayal at the way the city has continued its routine in spite of the supernatural horrors you witnessed yesterday. This is a city in which Shadows exist, and yet your classmates are still walking to school, adults are still ambling into their cars while trying to juggle coffee, keys, and briefcases, and businessmen are rolling up the grates on their storefronts to begin another day at work. It feels as though something, anything, should have been noticeably different today, that there should be some sign that what you experienced was real and meaningful. But there isn't. It seems the only thing you've earned is the right to see is the world continuing to turn as it always has, and you can count the number of people that are aware of the threat of Shadows and the power of Persona on one hand.
Nevertheless, even if the rest of the city remains ignorant of what's going on, you've decided that you can't afford to be. Sometime today, you'll have to meet up with Mariko to go over what happened and find out what she knows. And come to think of it, there was also one other person awake in the Cloud who had completely slipped your mind – the boy in the wheelchair. You figure it may be worth your while to track him down, too, to gain his perspective.
"Tetsuo-kun! Tetsuo-kun!"
As you approach the intersection that separates the suburbs from the city proper, the sound of her voice makes you halt and whip around. Mariko jogs towards you up the sidewalk, wildly waving one hand in hello. You let her catch up, and she stumbles up alongside you, doubled over and wheezing for breath.
"Gooooood – cough – morning, Tetsuo – cough – kun!" she splutters.
"I'm not so sure sprinting was the smartest way to start your morning," you tell her. Rummaging about in your bag, you pull out a bottle of water and hand it to her. She takes it gratefully, and despite being so obviously short of breath, only takes a few small sips.
"This is nothing…I feel fine! Really!"
"Okay, if you say so," you say, although you're not entirely convinced.
Mariko must notice. She sticks her hands on her hips and huffs. "Oh come on, Tetsuo, I'm not gonna get taken down that easily. And what about you? You're not tired at all?"
"Not any more than usual," you say, patting your chest for emphasis. "I just kinda figured that you'd wanna take the day off today."
She makes a face. "I'm not sure Otomuji-sensei would appreciate that. Call it a hunch, but I get the feeling she doesn't like me much."
"Yeah, I guarantee you're not alone."
"And besides, Tetsuo-kun, I think we need to talk."
Mariko steps in front of you and folds her arms, staring up into your eyes with a cool, level gaze. Her entire demeanor has gone stony serious.
"That makes two of us. But-" you say, twisting your head around to either side, "can it wait until lunch? There are too many people here." You doubt that the casual eavesdropper would be able to make any sense of a conversation about "Personas" and "Shadows", but at the same time, it feels like knowledge that ought to be kept secret. That stern voice that accompanied the girl in the wetsuit certainly seemed to think so.
Mariko takes a deep breath. She seems a little put out. "All right, then. We can take our lunches up on the roof, there shouldn't be too many people up there. What do you say?"
"Deal. I know you've probably got a lot of questions. I do, too. But this isn't the place for it. You just gotta trust me that we'll get to the bottom of this."
Striding past the gates onto the Toshima High grounds, Mariko lightly jabs your side with an elbow.
"Hey, Tetsuo-kun, do you know those guys?" she asks, pointing to a couple of students leaning up against a waist high planter on the lawn. Your gaze follows her finger, and it becomes immediately obvious that these aren't your average high school students. Their uniforms are frayed at the seams and torn at the edges. The hair of the one closest to you is dyed bright green, and the other is bald, which wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for the characters spelling out "YOU DIE" inked across his forehead. But worse than all this, worse than the torn clothes and the hair and the obviously stolen jewelry adorning their necks and fingers are the tattoos on the sides of their necks, a fist clutching the blade of a sword.
Yatabuya.
"I think they're staring at you."
They are, and you don't want Mariko drawing attention to the fact that you know they are. There's only one thing worse than Otomuji to get tangled up with at Toshima, and the Yatabuya Gang is it. You take her wrist and start walking briskly towards the door, trying your best not to make eye contact with the thugs. If you can just make it inside the school, you should be all right.
"H-Hey! Tetsuo-kun! What's going on? What's wrong?" Mariko protests, pulling away from you.
"I'll tell you later. Now c'mon!" you hiss, placing one hand on the door handle.
"Yeah, Tetsuo-kun. What's wrong?" drawls a rough, gravelly voice from behind you.
Swallowing hard, you withdraw your hand from the door and turn around. Baldy and Green Hair tower over you, grinning smugly in a way that makes you clench up. Baldy places one rough mitt on your shoulder. His fingernails are chipped and caked in dirt. You doubt that this guy's ever washed his hands.
"Ya know, it's not real gentlemanly to be treatin' a lady all rough-like, buddy," he says.
"Seems to me like Tetsuo-kun here has a problem with respect, doesn't he?" chimes in Green Hair.
"It's funny you should say that. As it turns out, I seem to recall someone else saying the same thing!"
"Yeah! In fact, I think this someone said that he'd like to have a word with our good friend Tetsuo-kun, right?"
"Indeed you are! A man-to-man chat!"
"A heart-to-heart!"
Mariko pushes her way in between them and you. "Listen here, Tetsuo-kun wasn't trying to be 'rough'. I'm new, and he's just trying to make sure that we get to class on time."
"Mariko..." you whisper, but she's not having any of it.
"Let me handle it, Tetsuo," she whispers back.
Your breakfast turns a flip in your stomach. How does she figure she's going to "handle it"? She'd better not be thinking of her gun. And besides, she can't be making enemies of these guys. People get away with a lot of things at Toshima. Coming to class late. Smoking in the bathrooms. Cheating on exams. But no one gets away with pissing off the Yatabuyas. You have no clue what they want with you, but it's not worth it for her to even try to bail you out.
Green Hair snickers. "Says she's gonna 'handle us' – you hearin' this shit? Sounds like a decision she's gonna regret."
"Someone's going to regret this," she snarls back.
That's it. Enough's enough. Ducking under her outstretched arms, you cut back in front of her and hold up your own.
"Hey! It's okay. I'm just gonna go with them and see what they want, and I'll meet up with you in class. No big deal."
Baldy chuckles, a squealing, stunted sound that resembles a small animal choking. "Good man. Don't think your friend here understands the mess she almost stepped in."
The two goons clutch you painfully by the shoulders, angling you away from the entrance and towards the lawn. Rumor has it that the Yatabuya operate somewhere on the school grounds, away from the eyes of the faculty and the Disciplinary Committee, but no one's been able to nail down where. Possibly because everyone that finds out never leaves.
"Right this way," Green Hair, says, gesturing you forward. You take one last look over your shoulder. Mariko lingers in the doorway with a frustrated expression on her face. You wink, and slowly she retreats inside.
"C'mon, ya little shit," growls Baldy, yanking you forward and abandoning all pretenses of civility.
"What do you want with me? I haven't been stepping on anyone's toes."
Green Hair responds to that with a smack to the back of your head. "Man, shut up. You don't get to ask questions. You're gonna find out soon enough."
Still smarting, they guide you around the front of the school and away from anyone who might see you. Sun slants in through the boughs of the full trees planted in a row along the edge of the school, lending the east side of the grounds an inappropriate serenity considering what's happening. You halt at a set of stairs burrowing into a small alcove underneath the school. The paint on the door set within is chipped and discolored, dating it before the school's renovations. There's a sign that says "Maintenance Only", but that probably doesn't mean anything to the Yatabuya.
"Well c'mon! Down you go!" grumbles Baldy before planting his foot in the small of your back and pushing you down the stairs. You tumble awkwardly down the short, narrow stairwell and come to a halt with your legs flipped over your head. You can hear the two of them having a laugh at you from above.
As if cued by the racket, the door begins to swing outwards. You rapidly spring to your feet, dust off your jacket, and pat down your guitar to make sure your baby isn't broken. All good.
The boy who opens the door is unsettling. His thin, pointed face and heavy-lidded eyes give him an air of snakishness as he appraises you. All of his movements seem crafted and deliberate, from the way he gestures you inside to the smooth, slow way he blinks. His uniform is far too pristine for a gang member, with not a speck of dust or frayed thread out of place. Every inch of his appearance seems to have been groomed to stand up to even the most intense scrutiny, and his unwavering smirk almost appears to invite it. The fist and sword tattoo jumps out at you from under his collar. Baldy and Green Hair make to head down the stairs after you, but the boy holds up one hand and they nod and stay put.
He closes the door behind you, and the lighting is so dim that it takes a moment for your eyes to adjust. But once they do, you realize that you've been led into the school's boiler room, judging from the tangle of pipes and water heaters. A small space has been sparsely furnished here with a bare stool and couple of ratty, moth-eaten armchairs. A sour-looking girl with braided hair is lounging in one of the armchairs, picking idly at one of the studs on her leather gloves. It's hard for you to avoid staring at her toned, muscled arms revealed by her rolled-up sleeves. Like the boy, she too has the Yatabuya tattoo on her neck. Her eyes flit up to meet yours and you quickly avert your gaze.
"Have a seat, Katsuji." Even his words slither out of his mouth. Apprehensive, you slide onto the stool. He elects to lean up against the wall. The girl loudly cracks her knuckles and flashes you a toothy smile.
"Now," the boy says, "are we comfortable?"
The stool is hard and much too small, probably on purpose. The girl mouths "Yes" to you. A helpful suggestion, you're sure. You nod, which seems to satisfy them.
"Excellent. Before we get started, we'd like to make sure that you know who we are and what we do. I am Taishi, and this is Chikara. I am the Voice of the Boss-"
"-and I'm the Boss's Fists," says Chikara, cracking her knuckles again for emphasis.
"Together, we enforce the will of the Boss. When you speak to us, you're speaking to him. Are we still on the same page?"
"Sure, but…what'd I do?" Your mind is racing trying to determine what on Earth you possibly could have done to get the Yatabuya Boss pissed off at you. You've always been one to mind your own business, especially when it comes to the gangs at school. Does it have something to do with the incident with Otomuji yesterday? It's been rumored that the Yatabuya make deals with the staff so they can operate on campus unimpeded, but you've never heard of anything as wild as a teacher taking out a hit on a student.
Taishi glances over at his partner, bemused.
"He doesn't know?"
"He'd better remember awful quick."
"I agree. Chikara doesn't share the same affinity for conversation that I do. As much as I'd love to hash out our difficulties, she's somewhat more impatient. And when she's impatient, she can get irritable. I think both you and I would prefer to see you leave in more or less the same condition as you arrived, so why don't we drop the smokescreens and be a little more forthcoming, hmm?" Taishi says, bringing his leering grin inches away from yours. You're still clueless as to what they're talking about, but perhaps it's not such a bad idea to try and help them out. They probably don't want to be doing this either. If you just tell them what they want to hear, then they'll let you go and all of you can go about your lives.
"Is this about what happened in class yesterday? If Otomuji wants me to do detention, then hey, that's fine with me. I'll scrape as much gum as she wants."
"Gum? Is he screwing with us?" Chikara gets to her feet and begins striding towards you. "Goddammit, he'd better not be screwing with us. Nobody screws with me." Taishi darts forward to prevent her from reaching you.
"Ah-ah, Chikara. Give me a little more time than that, at least."
"Fine," she huffs and collapses back into the chair again with a creak and puff of dust.
"Now come on, Katsuji. The Yatabuya don't waste their time with petty classroom issues. Perhaps if I helped jog your memory, we'd be able to finish this faster, yes?" he says, his voice calm and reassuring.
Just like you thought, he doesn't like having to do this any more than you do. You nod your head quickly, glad that someone's finally willing to be reasonable. It's got to be some small misunderstanding that you'll all laugh about.
"Good! Try to think back to yesterday for me. You spent quite a long time near the Tagekawa District across the river yesterday, right?"
Tagekawa District? Of course. That's where Mariko's Cloud was. You almost chuckle to yourself with relief. You never even saw a Yatabuya member while you were over there. You probably weren't even in the same plane of existence! This has to be some kind of mistake. If you just explain it to Taishi, then he'll have to let you go.
"I was. Did I do something wrong?" you ask, shaking your head a little. For some reason, your voice is starting to sound loopy.
Chikara starts to open her mouth, but Taishi holds up a finger to silence her. He smiles warmly and shrugs.
"Well, yes and no. You have to understand that as the premier...organization in Toshima, we're constantly embroiled in plenty of nasty conflicts to retain territory. Such a horrible consequence of membership, wouldn't you think?"
You nod again, more drowsily than you intended to. It would have been nice to have gotten more sleep last night.
"At any rate, we're always quite leery when we notice students coming and going from contested turf. We're always watching, you see."
"Always," chimes in Chikara, who's been idly picking her nose for a while now.
"Yes, and as I mentioned earlier, one of our reliable members noticed you there, hanging around too long to be just passing through or running errands. I hate to sound paranoid, but we have to be sure that you're not running errands for one of our rivals. Now, all we're interested in is a simple answer. Be truthful, and I'm sure we can put this unpleasant business behind us. What were you doing there?"
"I was-" you begin, but the words suddenly die in your throat and you're instantly aware of what you're doing, palms sweaty, eyes wide, breath short and panicked. You were almost about to say I was rescuing my friend from Shadows and the secret would have been out already, and to a couple of gangsters, no less. But fortunately, some alert part of your brain must have frozen your vocal chords to prevent you from saying something you'd regret. What's wrong with you? Did he...make you do that?
"Was what?" Taishi says, and his tone is no longer friendly.
Now that you're more cognizant, you notice that Taishi is leaning in uncomfortably close, staring you directly in the eyes. You look away towards his stomach instead. You probably look more suspicious that way, but you've got no desire to meet his gaze anymore.
"Why aren't you lookin' at him?" says Chikara.
"I was looking for my friend," you say, sidestepping the question. "Yesterday was her first day in Toshima and she got lost on the way home. It was an accident. I don't stick my nose into stuff like this on purpose."
Taishi bends over to bring his vision level with yours.
"You're lying."
You blink, shifting your attention to Chikara.
"If I tell you I'm not, what happens?"
Chikara grins. "Like Taishi said, I'm not big on dressing things up, so I'll put it to you this way: I'll beat the piss outta you until we get an honest answer or you end up in a dumpster. Sound good?"
Sounds like you never really had a choice. "Not really."
"Too bad it's not up to you. Outta the way, now we're doin' things my way."
Taishi groans and throws up his hands in surrender as Chikara shoves him aside. You carefully edge off of the stool, stepping backwards as she advances on you. There's a bit more room behind you, but there's only one way out of the boiler room and that's the way you came. But even if you were able to slip around them, you'd never make it past the thugs outside. You're trapped.
As if she can tell what you're thinking, Chikara shakes her head. "You're not going anywhere, you little bug. Hold still and I won't - hit - too - hard!" she grunts, punctuating her speech with a series of whistling punches. She's fast - certainly faster than you and definitely stronger than you if those arms of hers are any indication. You only barely avoid getting hit by dropping to the ground and rolling away. Your return to reality has robbed you of the physical prowess you'd gained in the Cloud.
Deciding that running from the two guards outside is preferable to dealing with this she-beast, you pop up into a crouching stance and make to get on your feet and run by her, but she quickly puts herself in your way again, pulling back her fist for another swing. You brace yourself for the blow, but she drops her fists and whips around as the door swings open.
"What is this?"
The Voice and Fists of the Boss visibly sneer as the boy strides through the door. Exceptionally tall and lanky (maybe an upperclassman?), he doesn't look like much. His haircut is simple, with only a few unruly, light tufts pinned back by a pair of thin glasses. Instead of a jacket, he's opted for a patterned sweater vest, and he carries a thin tablet under one arm.
"What does it look like?" says Chikara, looking positively tortured for having been interrupted.
"It looks like you're wasting more time assaulting students instead of doing something more productive. I've been trying to track you down all morning to discuss border control. I wonder how you'd have explained it to the Boss if there was some kind of emergency and no one could find you?"
It would seem that this guy is Yatabuya, too, but the scarf wrapped around his neck makes it impossible to be sure. Whoever he is, he doesn't appear to be intimidated by these two.
Chikara spits. "Screw off, egghead. You found us. Besides, nothin' that comes outta your mouth is ever worth listening to."
Even Taishi sounds frustrated. "I think the Boss would understand, Jidou. He was the one that ordered us to take care of this interloper in the first place. I'm absolutely certain your toys can wait."
"I know that I'm talking to a brick wall here, but maybe if you took my toys a little more seriously, there wouldn't be so many breaches to deal with." He turns to you as if noticing you for the first time. "Jeez. Are you really trying to say that this guy is a threat?"
"You-You don't know what you're talking about! He was…" Taishi trails off, unwilling to say anything more in your presence.
"What? Minding his own business, probably, until you had those idiots outside grab him for your amusement."
"We're here on orders from the Boss! Are you sayin' you got a problem with him?" says Chikara. She's pulled out her trump card, but incredibly, the boy they call Jidou isn't fazed in the least.
"And if I asked the Boss, would he say the same thing?"
Taishi and Chikara blanch and fall silent. Doesn't sound like it to you.
"You've never even spoken to him. Everything he says goes through me," says Taishi.
"And you're certain about that?" Jidou fires back, and they both scowl.
"Tch."
Visibly disgusted, Chikara forcefully hoists you to your feet and pushes you towards Jidou. "Whatever. Get the hell outta here. Make sure to kiss his feet on the way out."
"Consider yourself lucky, Katsuji, that this one's so full of himself." He then turns to Jidou. "When the Boss wants to know why this trespasser was let go, understand that you'll be held responsible."
Jidou snorts. "Oh, I'm sure." Then, he grabs you by the shoulders and turns you around so that his back is to Taishi and Chikara. Go, he mouths to you, and shoves you towards the door. Wordlessly, you nod your understanding and push it open. Shimmering daylight floods into the room, causing everyone but Jidou to bring a hand up to their eyes.
"He's clear! Let him go, understand?" he shouts up to the two gangsters outside. A cloud of confusion and disappointment passes over their faces, but reluctantly, they step aside to let you past. Behind you, you can hear Taishi and Jidou continue to argue.
"I hope you know that you won't be the gang's new pet forever, Jidou. I'm looking forward to the day you outlive your usefulness."
"The way you run things, I hope you're patient. In the meantime, I've got a few things I'd like to discuss…" you hear Jidou say, but his voice dies out the instant the door shuts. Baldy coughs, and you realize that you've stopped halfway up the stairs to listen to them. Rapidly, you mount the rest of the steps and walk past the two thugs as quickly as you dare.
"Better watch your back," Green Hair hisses as at you, but you're beyond caring. You take a huge breath and exhale loudly once you're out of their sight. You made it out of the belly of the beast with barely a scratch on you. As far as you know, that makes you the first. You really owe that Jidou guy, whoever he was. You can't remember ever seeing or talking to him before, although if he's really an upperclassman then you probably wouldn't have. Either way, it doesn't make much sense to you why he would save you, especially if he really is a gang member. Just another mystery for you to put on the backburner – you'll have to think of someone who might know more about him.
As you make your way into school, your eyes flit to your watch causing your heart to plummet into your stomach. Homeroom is already halfway over! Making the executive decision to declare yourself tardy with food poisoning later, you decide to skip the rest of homeroom and wait in the stairwell for Mariko. One interrogation is plenty for today.
