The dogu-like Shadow floated above the water, its head and limbs slowly rotating. A low droning noise echoed throughout the still night, only broken as Mitsuru's squad launched their attack.

"Rakunda!"

"Tarunda!"

"Sukunda!"

Mitsuru, Akihiko, and Aigis summoned their Personas, each using their magic to weaken it, as Junpei and Shinjiro ran on opposite sides of the bank.

"Fatal End!" Shinjiro roared.

"Kill Rush!" Junpei shouted.

The two Personas smashed and slashed the Shadow, sending it flying backwards with small, barely visible cracks on its body, and chips flying off.

"Bufula!"

"Zionga!"

"Kill Shot!"

Its immense size made it a difficult target for any of them to miss, even Atalanta's volley of gunfire. But that same size, as well as its unusually indifferent attitude towards their attacks, simply allowing them too happen with no real change in attitude or action, unnerved them.

"Yo senpai, we even doing anything to this thing!?" Junpei yelled.

She held up her Evoker to her head, and hesitated as the Shadow's body parts stopped twisting and rotating. Its yellow pupils carefully jumped from SEES member to SEES member until it arrived at her. "UA-AH-AH-AH-AAAAHHHH!" It opened its eyes as wide as it could, as they flashed bright red and the air around it distorted.

"Be careful!" Mitsuru yelled as she summoned Penthesilea to scan it. "It has changed its properties!"

"Assault Dive!" Junpei sent out Hermes to attack it once more, only for him to smash into the Shadow without it moving. "The hell!?"

It narrowed its blood red eyes once more to a slit, turning its head to literally look down at the much smaller Hermes. "GEHGEHGEHGEHGEHGEHGEH!" Its voice echoed out with a tone that almost resembled mocking contempt. It tilted its body forward, the tip of its head aimed at Hermes, and with a blast of of air from its legs, it shot out at unexpected speed, smashing right into him.

Junpei fell backwards as his Persona was thrown back before dissolving, landing on his back as the Shadow smashed into the ground, sending concrete and wood flying into the sky. "Sonofa-"

Mitsuru bit her lip. She lifted her Evoker up to her head as the Shadow's limbs began to rotate. "Physical attacks will not work now. Switch to elemental attacks."

Differing hordes, flocks, orders, prides, and other legions of Shadows encircled them. They emerged from behind the stalls, slithering out of the ocean, bombarding them from the skies, all hissing, roaring, and screaming as they trampled one another to try and kill the five Persona users. The power of Lucia, protected not just Fuuka and Ken from the Shadows, and not just from the overwhelming cacophony of combat, but also the howling winds, burning heat, and blinding lights used by her allies to defeat the Shadows.

A beetle-like Shadow, body emitting crimson flames flew at Makoto, its sharp horn parried by his blade each time. Two winged Shadows dived down at Makoto, attempting to claw out the back of his neck, only to be incinerated by Bragi. As he deflected another attack from the beetle, he heard Yukari shout. "Duck!" He dropped to his knees, and a high pressure blast of air tore a hole clean through the center of the Shadow, and through several behind it.

"Makoto!" She ran over to him. "Remember that thing me and Junpei did once? Combining our attacks?"

He paused for a moment. "Yeah, I do." Five Shadows, resembling an order of knights, took aim with their lances. They roared and charged in unison. "Magarion!"
"Magarula!"

A maelstrom of fire, stretching high and wide, annihilated them and scores of other Shadows behind them.

"Hiya!" Kotone spun her naginata around, slicing and dicing through several phantom-like Shadows, carefully dodging their attempts to light her ablaze with their lanterns. The only thing that stopped her from finishing off the final one was the quickly approaching noise of an engine revving from behind her. She swung her head around and immediately ducked out of the way of a fast mechanical Shadow rushing towards her. It smashed through the phantom and, as the mechanical Shadow swung back in a wide U-turn, mowed through its fellow Shadows with the rotating maces on either side of its body.

"Oh screw you." She pulled out her Evoker and held it to her head, waiting until it closed the gap between them. "Hamaon!" Elea let out a strong blast of light, extinguishing the Shadow with only inches to spare.

"KOKOKOKOKOKO!" The dogu-like Shadow roared as it smashed head first into the pavement, missing all of the SEES members it targeted, and leaving another long stretch of destruction dozens of meters in length in its wake.

"Fuckin' hell." Shinjiro muttered as it lifted itself out of the ground, him spotting the glowing red "IX" engraved on the back of its neck. It quickly flipping right-side up and took an Agilao from Hermes head on without any reaction. "I thought something called the Hermit was going to fight a little smarter."

"How does that saying go? If it's stupid, and it works, it's not stupid?" Akihiko asked rhetorically. "If it kills us, it doesn't matter how sophisticated the method is." He turned to Mitsuru. "On your mark."

She nodded, waiting until it began to accelerate again. "Bufula!"

"Zionga!"

Both attacks slammed into Hermit, scraping and chipping its body as it shot towards them. Mitsuru and Akihiko dodged to the left, while Shinjiro threw himself to the right, narrowly avoiding being dinged by the Shadow. It launched itself past them and landed directly into the water.

Junpei wiped the sweat from his brow. "Senpai," he huffed, "are you absolutely sure that we uh, we're hurting this thing?"

"We are." She said, trying her best to stand tall and proud. They had been fighting with the Shadow for almost fifteen minutes, her sword was useless in this scenario, most of their weapons were, and she was already struggling to keep repeatedly pulling out Penthesilea. "It may be taking more hits than I would prefer, but I assure you The Hermit is definitely getting weaker."

"Damn thing's gotta a good poker face." Junpei muttered.

Without breaking eye-contact with where the Shadow landed, Akihiko rested against a large piece of upturned concrete. "Every time its eyes flash, it seems to changes what axis it operates under."

Junpei blinked a few times. "Axis?"

"The Hermit Shadow appears to be able to change the properties of its body." Aigis explained, her steel kanabo even more cracked and falling to pieces than the Shadow itself, all from the few hits she managed to land on it. "It has changed several times from being resistant to elemental attacks to resistant to physical attacks."

"I also suspect that the same will apply to the attacks it may use." Mitsuru said. "It has only used used its body as a blunt force instrument, but I suspect the further it is worn down, the less it will fight that way."

Hermit slowly rose from the water, the cracks and chipped parts much more apparent with the full moon behind its motionless form. Its head was turned left, staring at some kind of bright light in the sky far off in the distance, likely where the other group was. None of the five moved to attack, taking every moment possible to catch their breath before it resumed its offense. "OOOOOOOOHHHHHHHH!" Its eyes opened wide, and it turned to them as the rest of its body began to rotate again, but now counterclockwise.

"Akihiko, Iori, spread out and use your Personas to attack when possible. Shinjiro, use Castor as a shield for the rest of us when it attacks." She said as she pulled out her Evoker.

The two nodded and split up, Polydeuces and Hermes in tow.

It carefully aimed its slowly rotating limbs forward at Aigis, Shinjiro, and Mitsuru. "QUAQUAQUAQUAQUA!" It bellowed as its eyes shined red, and it began to shoot out jets of fire from its left arm and blasts of wind from its right, blanketing everything in sight.

"Shit!" Shinjiro willed Castor into existence, using him to defend the three of them. "It can shoot out two elements!?" He yelled over the harsh winds and crackling fire. Even a Mabufula from Penthesilea only doing so much against quench the searing heat.

As it concentrated its attack on the three, Junpei and Akihiko positioned themselves on either side of it. "Iori!" Akihiko yelled as Polydeuces charged an intense amount of lightning in his body. "Follow my lead, if I do a magic attack, do physical, and vice-versa!"

Junpei nodded. "You got it senpai!"

"Geez." Kotone planted her naginata in the ground, the final Shadow in the crowd finally defeated. "I think we're doing more damage to the area than the Shadows are."

Makoto looked around them. Long stretches of wood and concrete lay upturned, burned, and scattered by their attacks. The Shadows were numerous, and they had destroyed parts of it, but their Personas had done far worse in slaughtering them.

"It can't be helped." Yukari said. "The quicker we beat that Shadow, the better. It'll be less property damage at least." The sounds of a crash and explosion somewhere off in the distance, likely with the other SEES group, making most of them jump in place. "Geez, what's going on over there?" She muttered.

"We should still probably buy some seafood from here to up for it." Makoto offered. "They could probably use the money."

Kotone nodded. "We'll put it on senpai's card." She turned to Fuuka and Lucia. "Anything?"

The green-haired girl frowned. "Unfortunately, it's still- wait!" She paused, shoulders tensed before slouching again. "No, sorry, it moved again."

Kotone turned to the other person surrounded by Lucia's protective form. "You're sure you saw someone?"

Ken nodded. "I did. She had yellow eyes and blue-hair, and she summoned the Shadows before she disappeared."

"I was able to detect her after Ken-kun pointed her out." Fuuka said. "She's absolutely one of the Shadows senpai and I detected, not a human being, that much I'm certain of."

"A Shadow that looks like a human." Kotone muttered. "Oh I don't like that, I don't like that at all."

Yukari looked around, eyes hopping from every suspicious corner, to every piece of debris potentially hiding Shadows. "I don't like not knowing where she is. Or, where it is?" She shook her head. "Whatever, I don't like knowing that something is slithering around, out of Fuuka's sight. Probably waiting to strike us the moment we let our guard down."

"Let me use Ptolemaios!" Ken offered. As the other three turned to him, he stood straight and pulled out his Evoker. "I can see what he sees, and he can see really well, so maybe I can fly high and find this Shadow lady. Two pairs of eyes are better than one, right?"

Kotone's eyes flicked over to a frowning Makoto, and then back to Ken. "We brought you here because we thought you'd be safer with us than being alone." She explained. "I don't know if I feel comfortable with having you fight something as dangerous as a Full Moon Shadow. Remember, anything that injures Ptolemaios also injures you."

Ken lowered his head, and balled his fists. "This is my fight too!" He yelled. "I can help! I can do something you guys can't! It's like you said," he pointed at Yukari, "the quicker the better! I don't see how fighting with one hand tied behind your back makes things any safer for any of us!"

She sighed and closed her eyes. "That's a fair point," Kotone cracked open an eye and looked at her classmates with a purposeful gaze, "wouldn't you all agree?"

"I think it's a reasonable idea." Fuuka said.

"If it can keep avoiding Lucia's senses," Yukari said warily, "then our only other option is trying to lure it out ourselves."

Makoto said nothing.

"No objections then." Kotone said. "But the moment you find it, you're recalling your Persona, understand? You're doing reconnaissance, not combat."

Ken nodded and put his Evoker to his temple.

I get it now. Akihiko dodged out of the way of another blast of ice and sent out Polydeuces to stab at Hermit's wounds. When its eyes flash red, it shifts what it's resistant to. And depending on what direction its limbs are spinning, that the tell if its going for a physical or elemental attack. Hermes appeared from behind to blast it with a barrage of increasingly smaller balls of fire.

"UUUUUUUUUHHHHHHHHWUWUWUWHHUUUH!" Hermit roared and swung around towards Junpei, blasting him with incessant and inaccurate refrigerate sized blocks of ice. The boy scrambled to dodge the attacks, using Hermes to help push himself out of the way of several attacks.

"And whichever element it uses," he muttered-

"It is exceptionally sensitive to the opposite." Mitsuru finished from afar. "Everyone, now is our chance, throw everything you can before it regains momentum!"

"Zionga!"

"Kill Shot!"

"Fatal End!"

"Agilao!"

"Sonic Punch!"

"Kill Rush!"

"Swift Strike!"

Ptolemaios flew through the sky, the light shining from his body piercing through the moody and inhospitable atmosphere of the Dark Hour. On the ground, Ken closed his eyes and focused, seeing what his other self saw, hearing what his other self could hear, and feeling what his other self could feel. He focused on nothing his physical body could comprehend, only what Ptolemaios could.

He opened his eyes. "I found her!" Ken pointed in a direction. "She's crawling under the wreckage over there."

Yukari walked behind Ken and summoned Satis. Using him as a reference, she silently shot out a thin but focused blast of air. A loud hiss echoed into the night, as the Shadow emerged.

The top third of the Shadow was that of a woman, with striking yellow eyes and long blue hair barely covered by a hood. The bottom third that of a woman, with long bare legs and brown cloth tied around the hips. Connecting the two parts of was a roulette wheel, divided into sixteen segments of alternating red and black segments, each with unfamiliar characters carved into them. In the center of the wheel was large "X" engraved in it.

"Looks like we found the Wheel of Fortune." Yukari muttered.

The Shadow spun the wheel in its body, gracefully dodging the blasts of fire, light, and wind that they shot at it. It grinned as its wheel slowed down and cackled as it stopped.

…

…

…

Fortune looked down, eyes wide and teeth tightly clenched at the result. "Looks like you whiffed." Makoto said as he summoned Bragi. Fortune immediately turned around and began to fly away.

"Hey!" Kotone yelled as she and the other two combatants chased off after it. "Get the hell back here you coward!"

The Shadow spun its wheel again, bobbing and weaving to dodge their elemental attacks. Once the wheel stopped, it swung around and shot out a wave of dark energy at them.

"Shit!" Makoto dived out of the way as the two girls ran around it. Kotone stopped helped him back up as Yukari chased it down.

Yukari stopped dead in her tracks and carefully aimed her bow, Satis lingering over her shoulder. She could see the Shadow's movements, she could see where it was, how it moved, how it slowed down as its roulette did, and most of all, she could see where in a matter of a few seconds it would-

"Be." As Fortune turned around to attack them once more, with a single shot, guided by the force of Satis' wind, Yukari pierced Fortune through the center of its roulette. The roulette shattered, and Fortune disintegrated with a scream.

Hermit bobbled back in forth, voice irregularly jumping in pitch as chunks continued to fall off. "PEROPEROPEROPEeeeroooorrrrrrrroooooooorrrrrrrrooooooo-oooo-oo-o-o-o-" The light in its eyes dimmed, and its body stopped flailing all about. It slowly levitated downward, then, like a puppet with its strings cut, crashed into the earth.

"...we do it?" Junpei asked cautiously.

Mitsuru silently summoned Penthesilea. "Yes." She said quietly. "I sense no life from it." She let out a deep sigh and holstered her Evoker.

"I don't think I've ever summoned Polydeuces as often in one battle as I did tonight." Akihiko muttered.

"Man." Shinjiro fell flat on his ass. "Fuck. Everything aches."

"A mission well done." Aigis stated.

Junpei rested against some rubble, fanning himself with his hat. "You know, I try to pay attention to our monthly tarot meeting things, but I still don't get what makes this guy so hermit-y."

Akihiko shrugged. "Looks like we were the ones seeking knowledge, not this guy. Once we figured out its tricks, it was all downhill for this guy."

As the remains of Hermit cracked and disintegrated before her eyes, Mitsuru counted her blessings that the battle went smoothly. "I am unable to sense a trace of any Shadows with the other group."

"Time to go home?" Shinjiro asked.

Mitsuru nodded. "Here." She offered him a hand, which he gladly accepted.

"It appears that the other group has finished their battle as well." Fuuka announced. "A good job by all."

"Are you sure that our Shadow got beat?" Ken asked. "Cuz this seems like the part where the bad guy would transform and fight ten times as hard."

Kotone chuckled and patted him on the head. "Don't worry Ken, Fortune is dead for sure."

"I'm shocked how well that worked." Yukari said. "The last time I did something like that, it helped us escape against that grim reaper Shadow, but I wasn't anywhere close to killing it."

"You've grown a lot stronger." Makoto stated in a matter-of-fact tone, as Yukari accepted his praise with a smile. "And it looks like this Shadow was a coward that relied on the luck of the draw instead of actual strength."

Kotone tilted her head. "Isn't that saying for, like, cards? Not roulette?" Makoto shrugged. "Whatever, that thing sucked, and we're awesome, end of discussion."

Fuuka nodded. "Thank you again, Ken, your Persona helped us find it much quicker than I could have."

The younger boy chuckled and grinned. "I'm glad I could help." His smile faltered. "I- You guys will let me help out in the future right?"

Kotone frowned. "Definite 'help out' first." She crossed her arms. "Because I, and several others, are still not comfortable putting you in harm's way."

The light in Ken's eyes dimmed. He turned away from them and looking out at the utterly destroyed fish market. "My mom, she's been in a wheelchair for a couple of years."

Every turned to him, silently waiting for him to continue.

"People said that it was a truck that crashed into our house and left, but I've always known that wasn't true." Ken stated with firm belief. "I was half-awake when it happened, it was some kind of monster. Mom, the police, everyone I talked to said I was just imaging it, that my brain was confused and scared and making things up. But I know what I saw, even though I stopped telling people. I didn't know what it was at the time, but now I'm certain," he turned to them, a mixture of youthful bravado and fear, "it was during the Dark Hour, and the thing that crippled my mom was a Shadow."

Makoto bit his tongue.

"Mom's the only family I've ever really known. Not having a Persona back then didn't keep me or her safe." He said, voice wavering. "But I have one now, I can fight! I can help protect her, and all my friends at school, and everyone in Iwatodai!" He looked down. "I know I'm just a kid, but if there's anything I can do to help them, and to help you guys, I wanna be able to."

Makoto opened his mouth to speak, and just sighed heavily. A soft hand on his shoulder. Yukari, with a sad smile, looked at him and silently nodded.

"There's little we can say to sway you, is there Ken-kun?" Fuuka asked. He shook his head.

"I'm gonna guess even if we lock you away in your room and take away your Evoker, you'd still find a way out, huh?" Kotone wryly asked.

Ken puffed up his chest. "If Makoto and Yukari can summon their Personas without one, I'll find a way to do it."

The two looked at each other, and burst out laughing. "Well shit." He said.

"Ken has a point." She said.

"Tell ya what kiddo." Kotone said. "You keep listening to us, and we'll slowly let you take on more responsibilities as a member of SEES. Does that sound like a reasonable compromise?"

Ken vigorously nodded. "I promise I won't disobey you guys, or leave my ramen cups laying around like Sanada-senpai does, or steal your chips like Junpei did!"

"Good." She smiled, before it slowly disappeared from her face. "Wait, he did what!?"