"…And now for tonight's top story. The Ministry of Health issued a statement today in regards to the fits of mania sweeping the country. The condition has been named 'Black Monarch Syndrome', or 'BMS', in reference to the butterflies that are currently believed to propagate the disease. During a press conference held earlier this afternoon, Minister Arai had this to say."
The feed cuts to a recording of a thin, tired woman standing behind a podium before scores of reporters. Beside you, Mariko, Hayate, Koharu, and Shibutani watch with rapt attention as you wait for the others.
"Right now, we are constantly focusing all of our efforts towards gaining a better understanding of this condition and its effects. At this time, we would like to share what we know in order to help the Japanese people make rational, informed decisions. To begin, we do not believe that the spread of Black Monarch Syndrome is any cause for panic. Although the changes in mood and behavior may seem severe at first, these symptoms typically cease within 24 to 72 hours. Again, we are still collecting data, but many patients who have contracted BMS reported an improvement in their mood following the end of their symptoms."
"Just like magic, huh?" Hayate remarks with no small amount of sarcasm.
"With this in mind, we are advising the populace to remain wary of the warning signs, but not to make any significant changes to your daily lifestyle. If you or someone you know starts to exhibit any of the symptoms of BMS, we encourage you to take the day off from work or school until they subside. To this point, we have no reason to believe that there is any risk of reinfection, so this disease should run its course within a few weeks."
You reach across the table for the remote and turn the television off.
"D-Don't you think we should be watching that?" protests Shibutani.
"Sorry, but I don't see the point. We already know what's really going on."
An awkward quiet descends over the living room as the others exchange concerned looks. You haven't told them anything about Mom yet, but you're sure they're drawing their own conclusions from the empty house.
"We're just going in for a checkup, nothing to worry about."
You found a voicemail from Dad after you left school today.
"If they end up wanting her to stay overnight, I probably won't be back until tomorrow, but I know you can handle yourself. There are still leftovers in the fridge, but I left you some money for takeout in case they aren't doing anything for you. Just take it easy, don't burn anything down, and we'll see you soon. Love you, buddy."
It's just stress. Mom's been worrying about this case for a long time. Besides, as long as you defeat Souichiro, you won't have to make any tough decisions. Just need to worry about what's in front of you.
"Hey," says Hayate, breaking the silence, "are you sure the others are gonna show up? We've been here a while. Maybe we oughta start coming up with a plan without 'em."
"It's okay. They'll be here," you answer, trying your best to keep your voice even. Rin promised as much. It's difficult to feel enthusiastic about being in the same room as Gin again, but if you're going to make this work, you'll need to have everyone ready to cooperate. You wish things could go back to the way they were during your trip to the lake. What changed between now and then?
"They'd better be," mutters Koharu in between gulps of soda. "'Cause I don't know about any of you, but I don't have any bright ideas right now."
At that moment, the buzzer for the front gate goes off, pulling everyone's attention towards the door.
"That must be them. I'll get it."
Sure enough, Rin and Yoko are waiting just outside, with Gin standing between them. He doesn't even so much as glance at you on his way in, but Yoko greets you with a warm smile, and Rin with a short hug, which goes a long way towards calming your nerves. However, once everyone finds a place to sit, there's a palpable tension in the air as your gazes flicker from face to face, waiting for someone to speak first. You swallow hard, realizing that they're probably expecting you to say something, and you're not sure how to begin. However, Yoko saves you the trouble by clearing her throat and elbowing Gin in the ribs.
"Hey. Don't you have something to say?"
"I'm not the one who wanted to meet," he answers, as though bothered by the very idea.
At that, Rin smacks him in the back of the head and growls, "We talked about this, shitwit! You can either get with the program or leave!"
"Ghh!" Rubbing at the sore spot on his scalp, Gin stands up, his eyes downcast. After a few moments' hesitation, he clears his throat and delivers a highly rehearsed apology.
"I want to apologize for my actions in Cloud Six. I let my frustration get the better of me and took it out on you. We won't solve any problems by fighting with each other, so…"
He takes a deep breath before continuing with a pained expression.
"…so let me have the opportunity to earn back your trust."
There's a short pause that follows as you try to decide whether or not he actually meant anything he said.
"That was a bit shitty, wasn't it?" Koharu pipes up, to which the others nod in silent agreement. Gin's eyes bulge out like a frog's.
"What more do you want out of me? Don't we have more important things to take care of than this? I apologized, so let's move on already!"
"Yeah, and you made it sound like you were being held at gunpoint," says Hayate. "You're gonna need to be a lot more convincing than that if you don't want us to toss your ass outta here."
Gin looks back at his twin for support, but she sniffs and turns away.
"Don't gimme that look, brother dearest. You made your bed, now lie in it."
Defeated, Gin throws his hands up and slumps back in his chair with a heavy sigh.
"Look…I don't know how much clearer I can make this, but I can't do this for much longer. I'm so damn tired of all this Shadow nonsense. I guess finding out that we weren't finished wasn't something I was ready to accept."
"So what?" you say at last, leaping to your feet. "You think you're the only one that feels that way? We're all tired, Gin."
"You are, are you?" He sits up straight and locks eyes with you for the first time tonight. "I don't buy that for a second. You love getting to play the hero, Tetsuo, and I bet you relish every minute of it."
"Hey, what the hell are you-" starts Rin. She raises her hand to give her brother another smack, but he catches her wrist and turns it aside.
"Stop. You wanted me to sort this out, so I'm sorting it out."
He's wrong. This isn't about that.
But everything changed when you awakened to your Persona, didn't it?
This isn't about that.
You never had this many friends before. They love you. They rely on you because you're powerful. Capable. A hero.
"How dare you," you hiss. "How do you think any of this is my fault?"
"I-"
He opens his mouth to say something, but thinks better of it.
"My problem is that you seem to have lost the plot, Tetsuo. What am I supposed to think when you start defending the enemy? Is a simple sob story all it takes for you to value a Shadow over a human life? If we ever want things to go back to normal, then we have to destroy the Shadows. Every. Single. One. If you're not going to commit to that, then as far as I'm concerned, you're getting in the way."
"Are you listening to yourself?" says Koharu. "The way you're talking about Tetsuo makes it sound like you're the one who doesn't understand who the enemy is."
"We wouldn't have gotten very far without him," adds Mariko.
Hayate nods. "Would you have preferred it if we let Shibutani's Shadow pulp you instead?"
Gin flashes them a look of utter exasperation before turning back to you.
"I'm still waiting for an answer. What do you value more – a human life, or a Shadow's?"
What does he think he's trying to do by turning this around on you? You draw yourself up a little taller and move closer.
"I'm not going to apologize for trying to spare Saito's Shadow. It's easy to think of them as our enemies, and for the most part, I'd agree with that. There are lots of people who summon their Shadows just to run away when things get hard, and I don't think that's right. People should try to find value in their lives if they can. But Saito…he knew he couldn't be fixed. For him, becoming a Shadow must have seemed like the only way he could feel happy again. I don't think it would have hurt anything to let him have that."
To your surprise, instead of growing even more upset, Gin merely shakes his head wearily.
"Whatever. It's clear that nobody sees things my way anyhow, so what's the point of arguing? If that's what helps you sleep at night, then fine. Once we get rid of Avalon and the slippery bastard that made it, this'll all be over anyways, right? As long as you promise to do that, then we're good."
"Well, that's why we're here, isn't it? To come up with a plan? Listen, you don't need to worry about me. Instead, we need to be sure that we can trust you."
With all eyes in the room fixating on him, Gin breathes deeply, and relents.
"I get it. I shouldn't have attacked you like that. I know it's not much of an excuse, but I lost myself in the moment and let you down. If you want me to get lost, then that's fine. I understand. But give me a chance to try again. I just want to make sure everyone comes out of this alive. That's all."
Although that effort was more sincere than the first, it still doesn't put you entirely at ease. You know that when he says "everyone," he doesn't actually mean "everyone." But as long as Rin's on your side, she'll make sure he sticks to his word.
"…All right, then. Sounds fair to me. Any objections?"
Despite wearing similarly troubled expressions, no one else speaks up, and Mariko breaks out into a wide smile.
"Good! I don't know about you, but it's way too weird to have everyone so on edge around each other."
"True," says Shibutani, shifting his weight into a more comfortable position on the sofa, "but I wouldn't relax too much just yet. We're not here to share good news, I'm afraid."
"Right," says Yoko, "Rin told us who's responsible, but we don't know any of the details yet. Fill us in – what're we dealing with?"
You and Nisekao relate to them everything that Souichiro told you, from the creation of Avalon to his goal of merging the world of Shadows with the real one.
"It sounds like he doesn't even care about giving people what they want," Mariko says once you've finished. "He just wants a world where he gets to be in charge."
"A world where only the strong ones get to stick around, huh? And what makes him think all those Shadows are gonna go along with him? You don't actually think he's powerful enough to back that up, right?" Hayate adds.
"I think it's safe to say he wouldn't be trying this if he wasn't confident," says Gin. "I wasn't able to get a full reading before he fled Cloud Six, but trust me when I say that he's for real. I've never felt anything quite like it. However, his strength is a moot point if we can't get close to him. Seems like that's what we ought to sort out first."
"This is why you gotta watch out for the smart ones – he's covered all his bases. The crime's too ridiculous for the cops, and as long as he doesn't set foot in a Cloud, he doesn't even have to give us the chance to fight him," Rin remarks as she roots through your fridge for a soda.
"Well, what about Hoga?" suggests Hayate. "You think she'd buy our story if we tried jogging her memory?"
Mariko's brow wrinkles with thought.
"I don't think we wanna try that. If Hoga remembers anything that happened to her, we'd be getting into more trouble than Souichiro. Besides, would anyone at HQ even listen to her? She's just a regular officer again…and probably not a very good one, from the sounds of things."
"Okay, so there's nothing we can do about him in our world. Then that means the Cloud's our only option. But if he's still human, how do we even get him to meet us there? Obviously he's not gonna respond to an invitation."
"No, he's made that clear enough," you say. "The only way we're going to get him into a Cloud is by forcing him. I just have no idea how."
You'd hoped that this would be the moment where someone else filled in the blank and offered a suggestion you hadn't considered, but the blank stares you get in return suggest otherwise. Panic begins to bubble up in the pit of your stomach when Nisekao's soft voice cuts through the quiet.
"I-If he won't come, then we have to t-trap him."
The words are slightly strained, and the way he grips the armrests of his chair makes it seem as though he's forcing them out.
"Trap? How?" asks Gin, leaning forward.
"We m-might be able to trap him in a Cloud like Koharu-san did to us," he explains, nodding towards her. Her face reddens, and she quickly turns away.
"Wait, Shadows can do that?" blurts Yoko, her eyes widening slightly. "Just…set up shop right on top of someone?"
You, Mariko, and Hayate nod in affirmation. "It happened on the school trip earlier this year," you explain. "Her Shadow brought us into her dream to get rid of us. I guess that if a Shadow really wants to, they can make sure that certain people stay 'awake' while a Cloud's active."
"In other words, we could force Souichiro into a Cloud if we found a Shadow who'd play along," says Rin. "Easier said than done, of course. Unless…" She shoots a pointed glance towards Nisekao. "…You have an idea?"
"I-I do."
He draws a deep breath, closing his eyes. Your eyes narrow at his body language, then realization dawns on you.
"H-Hey, hold on! I don't-" you begin, but Nisekao puts up a hand before interrupting.
"No, Tetsuo. L-Let me do this."
He takes another moment to center himself, exhaling sharply.
"Let me be the bait. I'll enter my name into the Book of Avalon, and use my Cloud to trap Souichiro Saito."
The room devolves into pandemonium as everyone begins to voice their opinions at once. However, Nisekao, possessed by an unusual calm, fires a steely glare about the room, and the babble dies almost instantly.
"I know you guys have your concerns, but my mind is made up. The rest of you are Persona users; it wouldn't make sense to ask any of you to sideline yourselves. This…is something only I can do."
Your head starts swimming as your imagination conjures visions of the sort of Cloud Nisekao might create, each one more appalling than the last. The only reason Souichiro wasn't able to turn Nisekao into a weapon was because he avoided using Avalon, and now he wants to do exactly that?
You attempt to voice your concerns, but your tongue trips over itself as you struggle to reconcile telling the others what you know and respecting Nisekao's privacy. But before you can formulate a thought, Shibutani cuts in, his arms folded firmly across his chest.
"I hope you understand the magnitude of what you're suggesting, Nisekao-kun. I mean no disrespect, but you would be risking your very soul on a plan that seems dubious at best. For starters, how can you be certain where and when your Cloud will manifest? We'd need to know that much if we intend to trap Souichiro-san."
Nisekao doesn't miss a beat. "We'll do it during the school festival next week. Student Council is in charge of the whole thing, so he should be there all day. That should give us a large enough window to summon my Shadow and get my Cloud set up. Once you're in, you can find him and take him down."
Gin, who up to this point has been straining to stay quiet and listen politely, lets out a groan.
"You think it'll be that simple, huh? You realize that if we do this, it won't be just Souichiro that we're contending with in there. Your Dreamweaver and Enforcer are going to be after us, too. And that's going to be a whole new headache."
"You don't think we could handle that?" asks Rin, eyebrows cocked.
After all that Nisekao's been through, you doubt that his Dreamweaver would be anything like the ones you've faced so far. But again, you swallow your concerns for his sake.
"That's not the problem," Gin fires back. "It's not about whether or not we could defeat the Dreamweaver, it's about whether or not we could keep it alive until we deal with Souichiro. Do you see what I'm talking about here? On one hand, it's going to be coming after us, so we have to figure out a way to hold it off without killing it by accident. On the other, Souichiro's no idiot. He understands how Clouds work just as well as we do. You can bet that as soon he realizes what's going on, he'll be gunning for the Dreamweaver immediately."
A round of murmuring and fidgeting sweeps the room as Gin's concerns begin to register. Nisekao winces, but presses on nonetheless.
"W-Well, maybe if I tried hard enough, I could keep my Shadow under control while you guys went after Souichiro?"
"I'm afraid that's not quite how it works, Nisekao-kun," says Shibutani with a wan smile. "When you summon your Shadow, you surrender your control completely. I don't know that it's possible to retain any of it, no matter how prepared or determined you may be."
Mariko, Hayate, and Koharu all nod along in agreement, most likely recalling their own experiences.
"Th-Then is that it? We're just going to give up?" Nisekao says, defiant. "This will work. You just have to trust me."
There's a fire in his voice that you've never heard before, insistent and unaccepting of his friends' wavering resolve. He understand the risks just as well as you do, yet he still has confidence in your ability to pull through. Maybe, you think, he deserves some in return.
"I think we can make this more manageable," you say, "if we use some strategy. How about this? We split into two teams. Team One's job is to stay with the Dreamweaver and keep it under control. Meanwhile, Team Two will hunt down Souichiro and keep him away from the other team."
"If we split ourselves up evenly, that leaves four of us on each team," says Yoko. "D'you think that'll be enough?"
"It's going to have to be. But I'm not worried," you tell her, trying to muster enough confidence to make it sound like the truth. "We haven't fought an enemy yet that we can't handle. Souichiro wouldn't be trying this hard to dodge us if he didn't think there was a chance we'd win. And as long as Nisekao's giving us that chance, I think we have to take it."
Hayate rises from his seat on the floor and crosses the room to clap Nisekao on the shoulder.
"Yeah, I think so, too. He's been putting his faith in us since the beginning, so let's have some faith in him. We'll make sure to kick this guy's ass good and hard; you just need to give us the arena."
"Oh, to have the confidence of an idiot," jeers Koharu, but her taunting grin quickly melts. "But then again, this doesn't sound totally impossible, so maybe it's rubbing off on me."
Gin's lips purse into a tight line as he runs a hand through the curls of white on his head.
"Hmph. A dangerous plan is better than no plan at all, huh? Well, who knows? You certainly have a knack for beating the odds," he says, staring in your direction. "I guess we'll see how far that takes us."
"All right. The festival is next Friday – that means we have a little over a week to make sure we're prepared to take care of business. This" - your breath momentarily catches in your throat - "may end up being a life or death situation, so let's be ready for anything."
That last bit was more for yourself than for anyone else in the room, as you remember something Souichiro had told you: he had used his own soul to make Avalon into what it is now. Strangely (and somewhat disconcertingly), the idea of taking Souichiro's life in order to save humanity isn't what gives you pause, but rather the idea of destroying Avalon with him. As you glance over at Nisekao, oddly silent as the others swarm around him professing their confidence, you wonder if the same thought has occurred to him.
• • • • •
Later, after everyone else has left for the evening, Nisekao remains behind, seated on the porch and staring out at the darkened backyard despite the swiftly cooling temperature. Pulling up a floor cushion, you take a seat beside him, wrapping your jacket tightly around you to ward off the cold.
"You're sure you wanna do this?"
He doesn't turn to meet your gaze.
"It's fine. It's the only way, after all."
A soft breeze fills the moment that follows. Somewhere out of sight, a couple leaves fall from their tree and tumble off down the street.
"Maybe…maybe we can figure out some way to defeat him without destroying Avalon. Then, we can convince Gin to let you go. Everyone else will understand, he won't be able to go against all of us-"
"Tetsuo."
"This is your chance! You don't have to throw it away like th-"
Nisekao touches your shoulder, looking down at you through a face streaked with tears.
"Tetsuo. It's all right. This is the way it has to be. As long as I'm helping you…I'm happy."
The lie hangs there, a bittersweet, wretched thing that refuses to leave your mind for some time.
