"Without any further ado, I now declare the 2011 Toshima Culture Festival officially underway!"
A salvo of crackers spew colored smoke and confetti high into the air to mingle with the teeming masses of black butterflies that blanket the sky like writhing storm clouds. The crowd gathered on the front lawn below lets out a cheer. From his position behind the podium atop the front steps, Souichiro looks back over his shoulder at your classroom window on the second floor and flashes you a shit-eating grin. You immediately turn away to avoid giving him the satisfaction of a reaction. After all, once you're through with him, he won't have much to smile about.
"Hey. You doin' alright? That's a pretty dark look on your face there – doesn't seem like you."
Hayate comes up alongside you to gaze out the window himself. All around you, the rest of your classmates are changing into costumes and organizing supplies as they prepare for the wave of guests pouring into the school.
"Just a little on edge is all. The waiting's already harder than I thought it'd be."
Upon overhearing you, Mariko peels herself away from a nearby group of girls styling their hair to join you.
"I know how you feel, Tetsuo. I haven't been able to concentrate on anything this morning."
She pauses.
"Has Nisekao…you know…?"
"Yeah. He said he was going to do it as soon as everything got started today."
Actually, you haven't checked Avalon yet to see if Nisekao's posted anything. You're afraid that whatever's written there is only going to weaken your resolve. After all, seeing what's in his dreams will be hard enough as it is.
"He said he'd message us once it started, right?" says Hayate. "How long d'you figure it takes for a Shadow to make a Cloud?"
"Well, for Koharu, it was only a couple of hours, wasn't it? But then again, my Shadow took more than a day to start calling to me after I used Avalon," Mariko replies, pensively cradling her chin between her thumb and index finger.
"He seemed pretty confident that it'd happen quickly. I don't think it'll be long."
You imagine Nisekao's soul as a magic lamp, rattling about madly as it tries to contain the feverish desires trapped inside. Now that he's given it a rub, the djinni inside won't wait to escape.
Mariko glances about the room at the commotion going on around you with a slightly guilty pout.
"I do feel kinda bad that we're just going to have to up and abandon everyone in the middle of the festival, though. I hope they don't get too mad at us."
Hayate scoffs.
"Tch. I think they'd understand. Besides," he gestures to a large box of storebought, individually-wrapped sweet buns and an instant espresso machine you borrowed from Yoko, "all they gotta do is throw the buns in the toaster oven and stick the cups in the machine. We made this as braindead as possible. They'll be fine."
"Ah, so simple even you could do it, eh?" you say.
"Wh-Wha - c'mon now, what's that for?"
"Well, Koharu doesn't clown on you anymore, so someone's gotta do it, right?"
The three of you laugh as you banter with each other, relishing what's likely to be one last moment of levity before things get serious again. Eventually, Hayate's wide grin narrows into a thin, but warm smile.
"It's kinda nostalgic with just the three of us here, isn't it? Man, April feels like it was forever ago, huh?"
"A lot's changed," says Mariko, her voice distant. She stares out the window past the commotion on the lawn and into the city beyond. Maybe even farther than that. But after a beat, she shakes it off whatever's crawling on her back and becomes her usual sunny self again.
"Especially you, Hayate. You know, I wasn't sure what to think of you at first, but you've gotten to be kinda dependable, huh?"
"Kinda? That's all?" he replies resignedly. "Actually, I was thinking the same thing myself. I owe a lot to you guys for helping me realize that I didn't need to try so hard. And – I'm really sorry if this comes off cringey, but – you're the most important people I've ever met. Whatever happens today, I'll fight like hell to keep you alive."
You find yourself smiling despite yourself. Never in a million years would you have expected someone like him to end up being your best friend, but after everything that's happened, you wouldn't have it any other way.
"Yeah, that was a little cringey. But honestly, same. I couldn't imagine a world without you guys. Let's all make it back in one piece."
"Hey, Katsuji-kun!"
Flustered, one of your classmates comes rushing up to you.
"We're starting to get a line out there. Are we ready to open?"
With a quick peek at your phone to make sure that you haven't missed Nisekao's text, you begrudgingly tell him to start letting guests in. After exchanging resigned glances, the three of you begin setting the tables, preparing the first round of food and drinks, and turning on a loop of loud accordion music to mask the dinging of the toaster oven and the hiss of the espresso machine.
Although the work keeps your hands busy, you can't help but fixate on the task ahead – Souichiro in particular. He's been on your mind a lot this week, often unconsciously, his sneering face and biting taunts hijacking your thoughts without warning. Despite your insistence to yourself that you shouldn't let him affect you like this, you always find yourself descending into bizarre fantasies where you imagine yourself perfectly outwitting him in front of a crowd of astonished onlookers, exposing the snake for who he really is. In others, you're simply beating the tar out of him to the rhythm of your quickened pulse. However, once these delusions wear themselves out, you always end up feeling disturbed and ashamed for letting yourself get caught up in them.
As you feel another one of these episodes coming on, you stop what you're doing to stare out the window again. The third years have food stalls set up in neat rows just inside the gates, and after a few seconds of searching, you manage to locate the okonomiyaki stall belonging to Rin's class. From your vantage point you can make out Rin and Yoko serving up plates piled high with greasy fried batter while Gin, wearing a large novelty apron that reads 'We B Grillin'!', handles the cooking. The sight of Rin instantly chases Souichiro out of your head as you think back on what happened last night.
Reflecting on it feels surreal, almost like something that must have happened to someone else, yet you know there's no way you could have possibly imagined it. The thought sends a rush of adrenaline surging through your veins, filling you with the determination to finish things today, so that you and Rin can face what tomorrow brings in a world without Souichiro or the Long Dream.
As you watch her pause to wipe the sweat from her brow, her hand suddenly flies her to her pocket, with Gin and Yoko swiftly following suit. A moment later, your own pocket starts buzzing.
Nisekao has sent the signal.
[It's starting]
Without even a word of acknowledgment, you, Mariko, and Hayate dart out of the room, ignoring your classmates' annoyed protests.
"Sorry! It's an emergency! We'll be back soon!" Mariko calls out over her shoulder as the three of you tear down the stairs and barrel towards the courtyard.
You find Nisekao and Koharu waiting for you in a quiet corner near a couple old vending machines that have been empty for weeks, some distance away from the all the visitors milling about the area. One look at his paler than usual face and pained expression tells you that the ordeal can't be treating him well. Each of you take turns asking him how he's doing, but all he can manage is a curt nod and a grunt of reassurance.
"Probably a good idea just to leave him alone. I think he's trying to hold it back until everyone gets here." She glances up. "Speak of the devil."
It isn't long before Shibutani shows up as well with Nightmare following closely behind. A warm smile creases Rin's lips as you lock eyes with her, but now's hardly the time to do much more than that. The others crowd around, staring at you expectantly.
"C'mon guys, don't look at me like that," you joke, and some of the tension leaves their shoulders. "We just gotta stick to the plan, and work quickly. Rin, Senpai, Mariko, and I will be the strike team that goes after Souichiro. Hayate, Koharu, Gin, and Yoko – you'll stay with Nisekao's Dreamweaver and make sure nothing happens to it. You have to keep him alive, no matter what."
"At least until you're finished," adds Gin darkly, as though he can peer right into your innermost thoughts. You resist the urge to shoot him a nasty glare.
"…Right. As long as we can handle that, we should be golden."
You turn towards the boy in the wheelchair, with his eyes slammed shut and fingernails digging shallow gashes into the cushioned armrests.
"We're ready, Nisekao. You can let go."
His eyelids slam open, revealing bright gold irises that rove madly about in their sockets. For a split second, they freeze on you, peeling aside the layers of your flesh to gaze upon your soul, and your spine runs cold. But just as quickly as it happens, the moment passes.
All around you, reality begins to warp and stretch, contorting the world around you into geometries that are difficult to perceive without feeling a dull ache behind your eyes. The silhouettes of the people around you smear into funhouse mirror shapes while the hues of everything around you alternate between dull and eye-searingly saturated.
Amid all this chaos, Nisekao's voice suddenly rings out, strained with effort.
"Thank you everyone, for giving me the chance to fight with you like this. I promise I'll hold my Shadow back for you! I'll fight with everything I've got, so please, make sure you do, too!"
The very air around you grows electric, much as it did when you discovered Mariko's Cloud all those months ago. The sounds of the festival fade into the edges of your perception where they blend into a low, toneless humming that with every passing second grows louder and louder, building and building until it becomes a sheer wall of jet engine noise, forcing you to close your eyes and press your hands against your ears and then –
Silence.
Tentatively, you let your hands fall to your side, and allow yourself to gaze out at the Cloud.
What greets you is an abyss, a vast expanse of starry space that stretches into infinity without horizons, speckled by breathtaking indigo nebulae. Far off in the distance, platforms carved from a translucent obsidian-like stone hover in place like buoys adrift at sea, capped by imposing dark obelisks that thrust into the night. Surges of soft purple light illuminate winding pathways that link the towers together across the vast sea of stars – without it, they'd be nearly invisible to the naked eye.
It is on one of these platforms that you and friends find yourselves as you start to regain your senses. At first, the appearance of the void beneath your feet startles you so badly that you nearly stumble over for fear of falling. But once you realize that the surface beneath you is quite solid, your panic subsides, and you're able to take in your surroundings properly.
Hayate rises to his feet and whirls around, taking in the bleak surroundings.
"What the…? This…this can't be it, right?"
Mariko takes a few steps forward, her mouth agape.
"This is Nisekao's Cloud?"
The sound of his name snaps you out of your daze.
"Wait, Nisekao! Where's Nisekao?!"
Fortunately, it doesn't take long to locate him.
The throne, carved from the same dark, polished stone under your feet, juts from the far end of the slab like a monolith, covered in runes you can't decipher. An ominous sigil bearing the same runes hangs in the air behind it, casting a halo of violet light across your upturned faces. Nisekao's rigid form crowns the seat, remote and statuesque, staring through unblinking golden eyes past you and into the stars beyond.
Gin lets out a grunt of warning as you approach your friend's stiff body, but you can't see any cause for concern. There doesn't seem to be any indication that Nisekao even realizes that you're there. However, that's far from the only thing that feels off. Although he has the eyes of a Shadow, the rest of his appearance hasn't changed one bit. Given your experiences with the other Shadows, you'd expected a more drastic change – or at the very least, any change at all.
Rin comes up beside you wearing the same puzzled expression.
"What're we lookin' at here? Is this him? Is this his Dreamweaver?" She gives the area another once-over. "Shouldn't there be another one?"
Indeed, there's no sign of the usual coffin-like prison that keeps the Shadow's human form captive.
"Give him a scan, Gin," suggests Yoko. "See what's going on."
He nods, and Percival appears at his side, softly humming as he peers into the mind of the entity on the throne.
"Gh!"
Suddenly, Percival turns a violent shade of crimson, the cubes that comprise his body jittering wildly before collapsing into a pillar of blue flame. Gin doubles over, dropping to one knee and clutching his chest.
"Whoa!"
"Gin!"
"What happened? Are you okay?"
Gin's face is screwed up in pain, his pupils shrunken to pinpricks as he stares at Nisekao in horror.
"What the hell…it shut me out! It knew what was I doing."
"That, uh, sounds not so good," remarks Hayate, trying and failing to keep the mood light.
"Of course not!" Gin snaps back. "They're not supposed to be able to do that."
"Well, were you able to get anything from him?" asks Koharu.
Gin takes a moment to catch his breath and recenter himself before answering.
"I dunno what you want me to tell you. I didn't get enough time to get a complete reading. All I can say is that whatever that thing is, it's not exactly Fukui, but it's not exactly a Dreamweaver, either."
He shudders.
"I don't like this. Not one bit. And it's not just him – this whole place doesn't feel right. Can't you feel it, too?"
You have to agree. Immense and lonely, the view from this onyx island adrift in endless space reminds you of the one beyond the prow of the Velvet Room as it sails towards a horizon that never draws any closer. They both have the air of spaces that exist, as Elizabeth puts it, between mind and matter, wholly untethered from reality.
"I do," you say, "but we can't turn back now. I think Nisekao's doing exactly what he said he would – he's holding his Shadow back so we can fight Souichiro with all of our power. If he can do that for us, then we need to hold up our end of the deal."
Gin, however, won't stop shooting leery gazes at Nisekao's immobile form.
"B-But…you don't understand, that's not…"
"There may be something to that idea. If Nisekao-kun is indeed restraining his Shadow, that may explain why his Cloud appears so…incomplete," suggests Shibutani. "But regardless of whether that theory holds water or not, Tetsuo has the right idea. We cannot afford to hesitate here. We must act before Souichiro-san gets his bearings and formulates a plan of his own."
Rin clamps her hands on his shoulders and gives them a gentle rub.
"C'mon, brother dearest. You know they're right. How about you try picking up Souichiro's signature instead?"
Although he's still clearly rattled, Rin's touch calms the older boy somewhat. After a couple of steadying breaths, he summons Percival anew. It doesn't take long before his eyes fly open with the spark of discovery.
"Did you find him?"
He gives you a response that's halfway between a nod and wince.
"Yeah, he's out there, all right. He's trying to mask his presence, but there's no hiding that Persona of his. Still, if he's doing that, he must have some idea of what's going on."
Gin scans the area, then steps around behind the throne and gestures you over. Beneath the sigil, there's a yawning stone portal with a twisting road spilling from its mouth like a long, shining tongue. You try following it into the distance with your eyes, but after a while, the gentle glow gets lost in the darkness and you can't see where it ends.
"Looks like you'll need to head this way. Obviously, there's no real way to tell exactly where these paths lead, but this should at least set you off in the right direction..."
His voice trails off as he squints into the distance. Percival's body bristles and flashes yellow.
"The hell is that?" he mumbles, then his eyes go wide. "GET DOWN!"
Everyone drops to the ground as two dark silhouettes, barely visible against the blackness, soar past overhead towards the center of the platform. Cautiously, you peer around the edge of the throne to scope out your attackers.
It takes a moment, but eventually you realize that the shadowy figures in front of you are Taishi and Chikara. Something's certainly off about them, though. A smoky, miasma-like substance clings to their forms like a second skin, which explains why you didn't quite recognize them right away. Their postures are crooked and unnatural, marked by inadvertent spasming. Disturbingly, it calls to mind an old sci-fi movie you once saw where the creatures wore the skins of their victims and controlled them from the inside.
"Tch. Of course it's these guys," mutters Hayate.
Yoko's brow furrows. "That's not good. Souichiro's already making his move."
Taishi slowly raises a quivering arm and points at Nisekao.
"Hey wait, what's he doing?" you wonder aloud as you hop to your feet in alarm.
Then, Taishi's entire arm shivers and ripples, twisting itself into the form of a sharpened stake.
Panic ensues as everyone scrambles to their feet to prevent Taishi from harming your friend. As Taishi's arm extends, propelling itself towards Nisekao's heart like a javelin, Gin takes decisive action, and darts into its path. The point plunges into his side, and he collapses with a muted grunt of pain.
"Gin!"
Rin's anguished cry rings out as she rushes over to his side. Mariko quickly joins her and wastes little time directing Nyneve to tend to his wound.
"What were you thinking?" she asks, kneeling down beside him. "I thought-"
Through gritted teeth, he answers, "What does it look like? We're sticking to the plan. I'm not about to let a couple of fools like them be the reason we fail."
Hearing that, Taishi retracts his arm and scoffs with disdain. Despite his strange demeanor, he still sounds completely lucid.
"Strong words for someone lying in a pool of his own blood. Clever as it may be, this is far as your little scheme goes. As the Voice and Fist of the Yatabuya, we'll be putting a stop to it here. None of you are even fit to be crushed beneath the Boss' heel."
"CRUSH," grunts Chikara, pounding the ground with a giant, misshapen fist, causing the entire platform to shake. It doesn't seem like there's much left in her head but violence.
"And you've got an awful lot of confidence for someone who gets their ass kicked as much as you. Don't you ever get tired of eating your words?" Rin fires back.
"Careful, Rin-san," says Shibutani, "Our last encounter wasn't exactly a one-sided affair. Besides, use your eyes – they've clearly done something to themselves."
A toothy smirk worms its way across Taishi's lips.
"Indeed, and it's all thanks to you. For so long, I've been agonizing over the reason why we haven't been able to finish you off. Our Personas, our strategies, and our knowledge of the Clouds were superior to yours, so why couldn't we kill you? And then it came to me – none of these things were true. Your gift was stronger than ours, simple as that. As long as we pursued you, we'd meet the same fate every time. If we wanted to stand any chance of stopping you, we'd need to leave the limitations of humanity behind us."
Taishi punctuates his words by drawing a hand across his chest. As he does, the smoky film contorts itself into Meliagaunt's decrepit, mouthless face. Everyone recoils in disgust.
"Nyeh!" shudders Koharu. "What the hell is that?"
Taishi pulls his hand back across his body, and the face retreats.
"Our last resort. This is what happens when you consume your Persona – we'll burn our very souls as fuel in order to surpass our human shortcomings."
Lifting a hand towards the heavens, he flexes each finger individually, watching as they sharpen themselves into blades and back again.
"With this power, we'll be able to use the Beast Eye to its fullest potential – albeit at the cost of our humanity. Poor Chikara-" he casts a glance at his partner's doubled-over, heaving frame "-she's worked herself into such a frenzy that she's almost gone already."
"Insane. You'd throw away your own lives to stop us?" says Shibutani, dripping with revulsion. Taishi shrugs.
"It hardly matters at this point. We were dead the moment we returned from Hoga's Cloud without your corpses. Just being given this last opportunity is more than we deserve. With these last spasms of life, we'll finish what we started!"
Taishi throws his arms out wide, and your party drops into fighting stances. The miasma surrounding them roils across their bodies, swallowing any defining features until they become dark as pitch, black holes in human form.
A red mouth splits Taishi's face, and he screams into the void, "Bear witness! Our Perfect Beast Eye!"
Red crosses of light burn themselves into their chests like angry, gaping wounds, and dozens of gleaming, crimson eyes fly open across the surface of their skin, roving and blinking madly as if they have minds of their own. Taishi takes hold of his left arm and pulls hard, stretching it out until it snaps taut like a whip. Beside him, Chikara lets out an earsplitting howl. Her limbs snap and pop as they lengthen and contort, causing her to lurch over into a feral crouch as her massive claws carve long gashes into the floor.
"Here they co-!"
The words barely make it out of your mouth before the pair are upon you. If the Beast Eye made them fast before, their speed now is positively blistering. The only thing that prevents Taishi's whip from taking your arm off is your sixth sense, which gives you just enough presence of mind to stumble backwards out of the way and put Launcelot between the two of you before his next strike cracks down on his shield. Launcelot reels back from the impact of the attack as stingers go racing up your arm. He's only barely able to recover his guard before Taishi redoubles his assault, cackling gleefully and swiping with reckless abandon. His strength is monstrous, and it's taking nearly all of your concentration just to block, let alone look for an opening to launch a counterattack. Switching Personas is out of the question, too – you feel like the instant you recall Launcelot, you'll be flayed to death.
"Tetsuo, get back!"
Yoko's voice cuts through the clanging of Taishi's attacks. After a moment's hesitation, you command Launcelot to drop his guard, and you leap backwards. Just as you do, a searing beam of light drops from the heavens, striking the spot where you'd stood and tracing a tight circle around your stunned foe, trapping him inside a tall ring of flame.
As you watch Taishi pace back and forth behind the wall of fire, Yoko steps up beside you. Bathed in a brilliant sapphire aura, with ghostly chains rattling about her ankles like charmed snakes, she locks eyes with her prisoner. This is a side of her you've never seen before, like a painting of a stoic general making her last stand, both imposing and threatening at once.
Spinning her golf club around with a flick of her wrist, she slams it to the floor, and it transforms into a morningstar with a flash of blue light. Elaine hovers in place beside her, arms thrust forward in concentration as she fights to keep the ring of fire alight.
"I'm sorry," she says, refusing to take her eyes off of Taishi for even a second. "I know honesty hasn't come easily for us, but I'm gonna need you to put your faith in us one last time."
"What are you-"
"No. No questions this time. I need you to go - even Saint Elmo's Fire won't be able to hold him for much longer. Take the others, and let us defend Nisekao."
Your head is spinning so fast that you barely even know where to start.
"What?! I'm not just leaving you here!" is what you eventually settle on.
Yoko aims a curt nod over her shoulder. Nearby, Rin and Galahad, surrounded by the same glowing chains, have a furiously snarling Chikara locked in a telekinetic stranglehold. Unlike Yoko, she seems to be enjoying herself.
"We've got this under control!" she calls out to you, leaning into her attack and eliciting a yelp from Chikara as the psychic waves clamp down harder. But despite her confidence, to you, it just sounds like tempting fate.
You shoot Gin a pleading glance. At least he has to know how crazy this sounds. However, even he shakes his head.
"You wanted to handle Souichiro, right? Then there's no sense in wasting your strength on a distraction like this. These vermin might've learned a few new tricks, but we're plenty capable of holding them off by ourselves."
He winces as Nyneve runs her hands over a sore spot.
"Ngh! Just need to get back up to speed first…"
Mariko shushes him and guides him onto his back again.
"Sorry Tetsuo, but I'll have to stay here with him, too. I know you'll be okay without me, but still, don't go getting yourself hurt, alright?"
Hayate jogs up beside you and tilts his head towards the portal.
"C'mon, man. I know what it looks like, but the longer we stick around, the longer they gotta fight. I think we gotta just take their word on this one."
However, your eyes won't leave Rin. The fears she confessed to you echo in your ears, making the situation feel unbearably cruel. You're worried that if you step through that portal without her, you might not see her again.
As if she can see into your mind, Rin speaks.
"It's okay, Tetsuo. You can go. I know there's someone waiting for me on the other side of this, so I won't die here. Promise you'll meet me there, too?"
She throws a soft smile back over her shoulder, and you know that she means it.
"I'll be waiting."
Hayate, Koharu, and Shibutani are waiting expectantly for you behind the throne, their determined expressions reflecting your own.
"All right guys, change of plans. Looks like it's showtime."
The others are oddly silent, and only respond with a brief nod. Maybe they're nervous – you can certainly understand why.
Exhaling sharply and giving yourself a little shake, you step through the portal onto the gently pulsing pathway beyond. Briefly, you can hear the sounds of whooshing flames and the shattering of chains - and then the world goes quiet. Startled, you whip back around only to find that that the island you came from has vanished, swallowed by the maw of deep space. Even if you wanted to, retreat is no longer an option.
"Guess there's nowhere to go but forward, huh?" you say, but as you turn back around, you realize that you're the only one here.
"H-Hayate? Senpai? Koharu? Wh-What's going on? If you can hear me, say something!"
But your cries die a futile death among the stars. For now, you are alone. Hot fear starts to worm its tendrils into your heart as you watch the road ahead unfurl towards infinity.
Towards him.
Ah, but it was always like this, wasn't it?
The thought leaps to mind unbidden from somewhere deep within.
"Yeah. Yeah it was. Just me," you mumble to yourself. The realization soothes you somewhat, and you set your sights on the path ahead. Squaring your shoulders, you set off in search of your enemy, feeling small and very much alone.
