July 25th-july 29th 2009.
Summer vacation finally starts…yet me makoto and kotone are stuck spending the first few days of it training for a summer competition with another school…starting to regret joining the track team now. At least i'll get to enjoy my summer when it's over. At least i get to watch movies with yukari at the dorm. So at least there's that.
Dark hour.
"Sorry to wake you! but a shadow has been detected! Please come to the command room!" fuuka yelled.
"God dammit…" i said quietly. I needed the shut eye! We entered the command room. This was odd. It isn't a full moon and regular shadows usually don't come out and about. Mitsuru believes akihiko can handle it himself. But we're on standby just in case…ugh if it turns i was woken up for nothing. Imma be pissed. We soon got a call from akihiko.
"I'm here. Sorry, but i think you guys better come quickly." akihiko said.
"What's wrong? Are you in trouble!?" mitsuru asked worried.
"No. the shadow's been defeated…or rather it was defeated when I got here." akihiko answered. All of us were confused at this answer.
"What happened?" mitsuru asked.
"This little fella took a hit for me. I want to save him if we can." without further delay. We headed for the naganaki shrine. And found alongside a wounded small white dog…the same one yukari and fuuka was petting a while ago. Of course they're the first ones to check up on the dog. According to akihiko. He was the one killed the shadow…interesting. That would mean little koromaru here.
"He said this is a place of peace. So i protected it." aigis said. Apparently she also functions as a dog translator. We noticed the flowers that were left for the priest. Guess he really was protecting this place…we managed to stop the bleeding. And we sent him to a vet the next morning.
July 30th-august 2nd 2009.
And so the training is over and the big competition began. Makoto came in third. The star of the other school, a guy named mamoru hayase came in second. But I came in first. I've had years to work up on my cardio. Mostly from running from groups of bullies out for payback against me. And so i brought the first ever victory for gekkoukan. And that came with the energy drink being dumped on me and being held up by my team. And that evening I returned to see that kotone was back. While the track team had their competition on home turf. The volleyball team had to train and compete in yasoinaba. A quiet little town in the boondocks. Kotone got to spend a few days at a hot spring so good for her. When i came back she was cooking with shinjiro. Since he arrived, him and kotone have gotten rather close. The spunky girl and edgelord huh? eh. There's been weirder couples. After viewing a zombie movie with yukari. I headed to bed.
August 3rd-to august 5th 2009.
I spent the next two days going up a rank with shinjiro and akihiko. The two meatheads spent their time with me bad mouthing the other. Like you'd expect from a couple of brothers. With the full moon on the horizon. I figured heading up tartarus with thetoaster was a good idea. To get an idea of what i was working with.
Aigis persona. Palladion. Is about physical and buffs. Upping our attack and defence and hitting hard with strike and pierce. But she has another trick that castor and shinjiro doesn't have. Orgia mode. A mode that increases her capabilities by ten fold. Combine that with a charge and tarukaja and you've got a recipe for smashed shadows. However this does have a drawback. After a while she'll have overheat and have to cool down. Meaning she's an open target for shadows. So I have to be careful with that.
I also brought yukari along. Which i noticed something peculiar…io was gone! She had a new persona! And she had a second therugy that acted as a full party concentrate. I'm pretty sure this change came to be when dad gave her that dvd. Most likely it contained mr takeba's true message. Before that nihilsitic cultist fucked with it. I'll never forgive him for that…
August 6th 2009.
Dark hour.
The full moon is in the sky tonight. Which means another shadow is coming out to play. This time it's an abandoned military tunnel. However this was the time that those weirdos strega showed up.
"It's so nice to meet the rest of you in person, my name is takaya and this is jin. We are known to some as strega. Now then. We've been keeping an eye on your activities for some time. From what we hear, you've undertaken a "righteous" battle to save the world. Unfortunately we've come to put an end to that." takaya said. I bursted out laughing.
"Skell?" yukari asked.
"Put a stop to us? Quite the sense of humor you have hippy. You idiots couldn't even stop me when you outnumbered me. Even in the time you can use the power you love so much. You still stand a snowball's chance in hell! Compared to ours. Your personas are jokes! Hell you need to take those damn suppressants just so your personas don't kill you! While we don't have to worry about that. So if you want to fight. Go ahead. Just know it won't end well for either of you nihilistic retards!" i yelled. Jin stepped out gritting his teeth only to be stopped by takaya.
"I'm aware…but i'm curious, do the rest feel the same about your power as he does? That it's simply a means to an end? After all not anyone can wield a persona, the dark hour is a frontier that is ours to explore. Same goes for the tower of demise." takaya said.
"Of course I feel the same way! Who knows what might happened!?" yukari yelled.
"A catastrophe brought upon by the shadows. What difference does it make really? Disasters will always exist and humans will always destroy each other regardless what the shadows do." takaya said. I just do the talking hand motion to show how little i care about the bullshit he's spewing. "But it's time you faced the truth. Surely you will acknowledge the sense of fulfillment that the dark hour has given you." takaya said.
"Sense of fulfillment my ass. Do you think any of us like doing this? Fighting shadows. Almost dying. No…that's how you feel because this is all you have. Me i have a future to look forward to with a girl i love. And friends i know will have my back. You don't want the dark hour to end because it's all you have. Nothing else to look forward to in life. Nothing except putting bullets into people in a consequence free time. Face it you two are nothing but hollow and empty pathetic losers who have nothing except this. And all i have for you is pity." i said. Once again jin got mad and tried to walk forward. But takaya stops him. The two turned around and walked away. "That's what i thought."
"Have fun in there!" jin yelled. The door closed. Akihiko ran up to it.
"Dammit! They locked us in!" akihiko yelled.
"We'll find a way out later. Right now let's worry about the shadow." i said.
"I agree with skell." aigis said.
"The shadow's moving!" fuuka yelled.
"All right. Let's focus on our original goal. We can look for a way out later." mitsuru said. Down the long tunnel of hell we went. After a while of following tire treks. We found our target. Which one it's supposed to be is a mystery. Fuuka says it's the justice but then the chariot? After a while of whaling on it and dodging bullets and explosives. We soon got an idea of what we were dealing with. The bottom of the tank is the chariot while the cannon is justice. It made them easier to deal with…somewhat. But we really had to speed up on dealing the pain because of the fact that they will unite at some point, not helped by the fact they can revive each other so we have to take them out at the same time. After about 5 times the two reunited and came apart. We finally slayed the chariot and justice. And dad came around and unlocked the door. So we had our way out. Two down. Four more to go.
Red room.
"And so the chariot and justice falls…the up right chariot represents victory and conquest. But the reverse…It represents impulsiveness, inflexibility, and anxiety." angel yukari said.
"Justice in the upright represents unbiased reason, moderation of one's behavior and logic in the face of conflict, the reverse however represents corrupted reason, thinking with one's emotions, and an excess of desires which is detrimental to the self." angel fuuka said.
"We sense there's been a change in your emotions as well." angel yukari said.
"I was hit with a pretty shocking revelation recently…" i said.
"Yes…you discovered you are not a natural being not even among the armageddon knights…but this shouldn't be seen as a curse rather as a blessing. For you and for the members of SEES." angel yukari said. Soon screens appeared showing awful scenes…junpei and shinjiro getting shot by takaya. Takeharu and ikutsuki shooting each other. And finally makoto becoming the great seal and dying in aigis's arms…
"Fate will be cruel to you and your friends…but you are not bound by fate. Therefore you can weave it's threads however you please." angel fuuka said before with a wave of her hand shattering the screen of takeharu and ikutsuki killing each other.
"I don't think we need to say that takeharu's fate has been changed. After all. Arthas knew the man behind the mask. The nihilistic mad man using you to bring forth the fall. Now will you change shinjiro's fate as well?" angel fuuka asked.
"When is it gonna happen?" i asked.
"The night that he wishes to forget. The night a child was made an orphan." angel yukari said…the message was clear. The day that shinjiro lost control of castor and accidently killed ken's mother…October 4th. Two arcana cards appeared and out from them came two more fiends. This time a couple of skeletons on horses with black cloaks one on a red horse with a broadsword. And the other on a white horse with a bow. His horse is creepier consider it has eyes everywhere but where it's supposed to!
"So two riders have come. I am red rider." the skelly on the red horse said.
"And i am white rider. Two of the four horsemen of the apocalypse let us ride to hell together." the white horse skelly said. As they both disappeared.
"We have another gift for you this time as well." angel yukari said.
"That anti shadow weapon. Aigis. She has a much bigger role to play as she would be the one to take up makoto's sword and be blessed with the ability to use the wild card. But through the pain of losing him would come the desire to discard her human emotions and in doing so would lead to the creation of her "sister." metis. And at the end she would return to aigis. Kind of unfair if you ask us." angel fuuka said.
"Allow us to change that." angel yukari. From the darkness of the room something began to rise from the shadows…
August 7th 2009.
As my eyes opened. I closed them a bit to get a bit of extra sleep. It's summer after all. However my sleep was disturbed when i noticed something…black standing over me. I quickly opened my eyes and got up.
"What the hell!?" i yelled.
"Morning." the girl said. I can tell from her black metal body and butter fly visor that she's an anti shadow weapon.
"Are you…metis?" i asked.
"Who else would i be?" metis asked. Well she's alot sassier than aigis. I sighed and got up. Might as well rip off the bandage now…i brought metis down. And sure enough everyone went ape. After all aigis is supposed to be the only anti shadow weapon left. I also told them that she just appeared in my room. Leaving out the red room. Because how the hell would i explain that? Hell even now i don't know what that room is or who what angel yukari and angel fuuka are. Very powerful beings. Not only are they the ones providing me fiends. They also showed me the future and brought metis to life. A being that's supposed to be aigis discarded emotions now allowed to be a real "person" i guess. While all this bickering between the confused and baffled SEES members. I noticed metis getting close to aigis and immediately calling her sister. And she just accepted. Though i noticed the confusion on her face. From what those two angel doppelgangers said. She appeared after the battle against death. And i'm guessing aigis became a lot more human by that time. Still she split between protecting her "sister" and being by my side…so we now have an ASW that won't leave me alone...should be interesting. Hopefully she doesn't break into my room and watch me sleep…
August 8th-august 15th 2009.
I managed to rank up shinjiro once. Over a chat of ramen. Reaching rank 3. The rest of the time was spent in summer classes. Thanks mitsuru! But on the other side of things. Another section of tartaus is open and koromaru is up and ready. So time to start climbing again. And get an idea of what i'm working with the dog and the second toaster.
Koromaru's main way of splatting shadows is with fire and dark magic. Not surprising considering his persona is the guard dog of the underworld cerberus.
Metis on the other hand. Her persona psyche has a schizophrenic line up of moves. She has physical moves like her sis. But in all three flavors. Strike slash and pierce. But she also has ice wind and charm skills to her kit.
Section 2 of the yabbashah block opened up. And therefore more guardians. The lineup this time was the venomous magus. The five fingers of blight. The bloody maria. The executioner's crown and the imposing skyscraper. After a few days of killing the guardians and fighting the shadows to be ready for what comes next. We reached a dead end. After grabbing another old document. We called it quits for now. Still with all the fighting we did. We're more than ready for the next full moon shadow.
August 16th 2009.
As i finished my breakfast. Yukari came up to me.
"Hey. so the summer festival is here today…woul-" yukari said. Only for me to interrupt her.
"Yes." i said with no hesitation. A date with my girlfriend at a festival. Why the hell would i say no? Needless to say i kept my schedule cleared for today.
Evening.
I arrived at the naganaki shrine with yukari by my side. Who was wearing a pink yukata. A bunch of stands were opened up selling food masks pinwheels. The usual stuff you see at these kind of festivals. After getting some takoyaki for dinner. It tasted like octopia. That takoyaki place at the strip mall. Everytime i think about that place whenever i go there for something to eat. I can't help but remember that time makoto and kotone were there with those two weirdos in blue. Apparently they ate at every single food joint at the strip mall! And i don't think they were small bites either. I don't know who the hell those two were. But it's safe to say they have black holes for stomachs. Honestly it shows how tough the two other leaders are. I wouldn't have held it against either of them if they filled a toilet or trash can with vomit. More than seven meals. yikes. We spent the rest of the time playing games and looking at the stuff the folks here were selling. I even won at games i'm pretty sure was rigged. Goes to show my skills and my luck. We also bumped into several familiar faces while we were here. I wasn't the only one on a date tonight. Kotone was with shinjiro. Kaze was with mitsuru. And alex was with fuuka. I also noticed makoto was with aigis and metis. Aigis with her desire to be by his side and metis probably wanting to know more about the boy everyone mourned so hard for.
And so after a fun night. We returned to the dorm. But yukari snuck into my room. Well here we were in private. So i figured i'd ask her something that's been bothering me for a while.
"Yukari…are you fine with me?" i asked.
"Of course i am. Why would you ask that?" yukari asked clearly shocked that i would ask that.
"I'm…not human. I'm not even an armageddon knight or nahobino. I'm an orb that for some reason became a baby that was taken here by a man who was meant to guard me but became my dad instead Despite knowing that. You still wanna be with me?" I asked. She put her hands on my cheeks and turned my head to look at her right in the eyes.
"It doesn't matter what you are. To me. You're that boy who terrorized bullies. And always cheered me up when I was having a bad day. And the one who protected me when i couldn't summon my persona. And pushed me to be stronger. You're my best friend. My boyfriend. To me you will always just be skell shi." she said with a smile. Her words struck a chord in me. I felt…so warm.
"Yukari…thank you. I really am glad i got to see you again." i said before i kissed her. A kiss that got passionate to the point where I pushed her down on the bed…
August 17th 2009.
I opened my eyes to the ceiling. But i felt something warm wrapped around me…an arm? I looked over to my bed to see yukari was asleep next to me...at first i was confused. But then i remembered last night…me and yukari did THAT! If the beautiful girl sleeping next to me. And the fact that both of us were in our birthday suits underneath the covers wasn't enough proof. The used condom in my trash bin was all the proof anyone needed. As much as i enjoyed it…me and her are taking this to the grave. Never hearing the end of it from junpei will be the least of my problems. I can already feel the icy cold grip of mitsuru's fingers around my throat...i should probably wake up yukari soon…but i just want to keep looking at her pretty face snoozing with that cute smile…the longer she's in here. The more at risk of us facing execution…but it's worth it.