Tuesday, August 4th, 2009, 11:21AM
Iwatodai Dormitory, 1st floor
Junpei came downstairs whistling. Aside from Yukari sitting in a chair, reading a magazine, the common area was deserted. "Man, where the heck is everyone?" Junpei asked as he jumped over the couch and laid down.
"All the senpai went out for some last minute shopping. Makoto and Kotone went to the shrine. I think Ken is visiting his mom." Yukari said. "The Chairman is...never here, so who knows?"
"Yeah. What about Fuuka?" Junpei asked.
Yukari looked up from her magazine, eyes narrowed in thought. "I think she said she had a date with a senior."
"For real?" Junpei said, impressed. "Nice, our little Fuuka is finally molting and crawling out of her cocoon."
She recoiled in disgust. "There has to be a better way for you to have put that."
He grinned. "Probably."
"Ugh."
Silence washed over the dorm as Yukari returned to reading, and Junpei stared at the ceiling, too lazy to get up or turn on the TV.
"So...why aren't you doing anyth-"
"Why aren't you?" She shot back.
Junpei scratched his chin. "Touché, Yukatan, touché."
She glared at him. "You sound like Mitsuru-senpai when you say that." Disgust dripping off of every word.
Junpei looked away. "Nah, I ain't got her grace and her coolness and all that stuff."
"Tch."
As soon as Yukari averted her gaze, Junpei rolled his eyes at her. "I'm just itching to get this month's mission over with. Last time was too close for comfort."
"You scared~?" Yukari asked with a grin on her face.
He blinked a couple times. "...I mean, yeah. Ain't you?"
She rolled her eyes. "A little but, mostly I'm just mad. I want them dead." Both of Junpei's eyebrows shot up and he leaned back. She looked away. "Sorry, I know that sounds bad but...I hate them more than I'm afraid of them." She hesitated. "They took a lot from us, and while I know we can't ever bring back the dead, we can at least stop the Shadows from hurting anyone else. To be honest, I'm relishing the chance to wipe them out with Satis."
"...fair nuff."
"Is that you, Yuki, Shiomi?" They turned and saw a familiar young man, barely older than them, waving at them from the other side of the street.
"Oh! Adachi-sensei!?" Kotone waved him over. "What're you doing here?"
"I always try to visit the local shrines once a month to pray for good luck." He admitted candidly. "I'm guessing it's the same for you two?"
Kotone opened her mouth to speak, but closed it and looked away.
"We're actually here to pray for someone." Makoto said quietly.
"Ah." He nodded, understanding and pity in his eyes. "Say no more."
The three walked up the stairs of the shrine together and silently offered their prayers.
"You know," Adachi said as he looked around the shrine, much of it roped off from the public due to damages, "I heard this place got messed up pretty badly last month, but I didn't imagine it was this bad."
The two students looked at each other and said nothing.
"Goes to show how little I visit this place, huh?" Adachi scratched the back of his head. "Just uh, just try to stay safe, however you can. I didn't think Iwatodai City would be this dangerous, or dangerous at all, when I applied here."
"Same." Makoto said tonelessly.
"There's always going to be problems no matter where you go." Kotone said. "I still think Iwatodai is pretty nice.
Adachi nodded. "That's a good way of looking at things Kotone. By the way," Adachi snapped his fingers, "do you two remember how The Sedative by Marie Laurencin starts? You should, it hasn't been that long since we covered it in class."
Kotone nodded. "More than annoyed, sad."
"More than sad, unhappy." Makoto continued.
"More than unhappy, suffering." Adachi finished. "Make sure you kids do your summer homework, because you're going to be suffering if you don't." He said. "Trust me, I slacked on mine when I was in your grade, and I only barely lived to regret."
"Yeah." Makoto said drolly. "We might end up living in this city like you."
The other two chuckled. "I'm being serious here though." Adachi said in good fun.
"We know sensei." Kotone said, flashing a peace sign. "We ain't near the top of our grade for nothing."
Their teacher nodded, a smile on his face. "And I hope you two keep up the good work."
Wednesday, August 5th, 2009, 3:12PM
Iwatodai Dormitory, 4th floor
Three knocks on the door, and he heard a voice telling him to come in. All three of the dorm's seniors sat, waiting for him.
"Yo." Makoto said calmly.
Kirijo nodded and motioned him to sit down.
"Since you've elected to take a stance on this," Sanada said as the younger boy took his seat, "we wanted to get your opinion on something."
He nodded and then looked directly at their red-haired leader.
"Keeping Amada here at the dorm tomorrow night would mean he would be alone should a Shadow come to attack him." She stated in a clinical tone. "Taking him would potentially put him in a dangerous situation. Keeping someone with him at the dorm would be diverting manpower away from our attack squad. None of these three situations are optimal."
"None indeed." Makoto mumbled. "What is your preferred solution?"
"Given how Shadows have heightened aggression during a full moon, the safest place is with other members of SEES." She stated. "Given how the mission played out last month, it is a likely possibility that we may have to split up into multiple groups, reducing the amount of people who would be able to protect him."
"Makes sense." He kept his gaze on her, and hers on him. "Whatever the case is, I'll take responsibility for protecting him."
"Will you now?" Mitsuru crossed one leg over the other.
"Yes, I will."
Out of the corner of one eye, he could see Shinjiro shift in his seat. Out of the other, Sanada remained perfectly still. The low buzzing of the computer monitor was the only consistent sound in the room, none of the four making any sounds. Makoto refused to look away from her, and she refused to look away from him.
Eventually Makoto blinked, and Kirijo stood up. "When you go downstairs, please remind everyone that we're meeting tonight for this month's strategy session."
"Of course."
Thursday, August 6th, 2009, Dark Hour
Iwatodai Dormitory, 1st floor
As Fuuka and Mitsuru scanned the city with their Personas, Junpei messed with his sword. All around the first floor the other occupants were sitting and conversing. Usually he'd be one of them, but not tonight. Part of him wanted to go up and get in some last minute teasing at one of his senpai's expense, but every time he considered it he just couldn't get himself to his feet.
"You doing alright?" He looked up to see Makoto, a bag of chips in hand.
"I'm good." Makoto sat down across from him, dropping the bag on the table. "You mind if I ask you something bro?" Makoto nodded. "You uh, you joined SEES for...well..." he trailed off.
"I joined for a lot of reasons." Makoto said plainly, no emotion on his face. Junpei briefly remembered how the other boy looked on his first day at Gekkoukan, very sedate and not particularly expressive. He hadn't seen the other boy look like that in some time.
Junpei scratched his neck and looked away. "No, what I meant was like..." he sighed. "I joined because having a Persona and fighting Shadows seemed pretty fun, you know? And it still is. But even before we went to senpai's place and found out all of this stuff, it got dead serious. We're all fighting for something more serious now, you, me, and everyone else, you know?"
Makoto nodded. "Yeah."
"I don't got as good of a reason as you and Yukari." He said. "I kind of bumbled my way into things and realizing how serious things were last month. But you two knew the whole time because- well I mean you're fighting for..." he looked away and trailed off again.
"Because we're fighting for revenge and you're not?" Junpei hesitated, but soon nodded. "That's part of it, I won't lie." Makoto crossed his arms. "It wasn't my only reason for joining, and it's not my only reason to keep fighting. If you're worried about not having the right motivations for fighting, it's not like that matters that much anyways."
"No?"
The blue-haired boy shook his head. "The end result is really what mattered. I don't care why anyone is fighting alongside me, just that they are, and that they take it seriously. 'The path to hell is paved with good intentions', remember that?"
"Yeah, didn't Ekoda say that in class or somethin'?"
Makoto nodded and narrowed his eyes. "Just look at Kirijo's grandfather. He had plenty of good intentions and screwed it up for all of us."
The two girls' Personas disengaged. "Everyone!" Mitsuru shouted, gathering their attention and summoning them to the two. "We have found two Shadows."
"They're to the south of the dorm, near the fish market." Fuuka said. "They seem to be in close proximity, approximately a kilometer apart."
"We will be splitting up into two groups." Mitsuru announced. "Akihiko, Shinjiro, Iori, and Aigis, you will be coming with me. The rest of you will follow Shiomi. The same circumstances as last month still apply, so should you finish fighting your Shadow you are to gather as many active combatants and rendezvous with the other group. Any questions?" No one spoke up, all looked prepared and ready for combat. "Very well."
No matter how many times they visited a familiar place in the Dark Hour, to Junpei it always felt like he reached into a cupboard and grabbed a handful of mold. As they walked through the streets of the old outdoor fish market stalls, the thick smell of mackerel and saltwater still lingering in the air, and they all carefully looked at every possible angle the Shadow, or Shadows, could be hiding.
"Where the heck is it?" Junpei muttered.
"Aigis," Mitsuru said quietly, "you have close range Shadow-detecting capabilities, do you not?"
"Affirmative." Her eyes briefly shined a brighter blue than usual. "I can confirm it is nearby, but I cannot ascertain its exact location."
Mitsuru warily took out her Evoker and summoned Penthesilea.
"Anything Fuuka?" Kotone asked as she, Makoto, and Yukari surrounded her and Ken in a triangle formation.
She shook her head, as Lucia scanned the surrounding area, covering both her and the younger boy. "It's odd...I know the Shadow is here, but every time I'm about to find its location, it moves away. It's definitely around us, somewhere."
Ken looked out, between Yukari and Makoto. A young woman peaked her head out of one of the stalls. It took him a moment to notice her blue hair and yellow eyes. She smiled and waved to him, lazily resting her head on one of her palms. Ken hesitantly held up a hand and waved up. "U-Um guys, there's not supposed to be anyone else awake during the Dark Hour, right?"
"No, why?" Yukari looked at him, and then to where he was pointing. "What th-"
With a snap of her fingers, the blue-haired girl summoned a host of Shadows, erupting through the stalls and attacking them.
"Underwater?" Shinjiro asked.
As her Persona disappeared, Mitsuru nodded. "That is where Penthesilea detected it." She walked near the waters edge. "It should be near somewhere around here."
"You want me to zap it?" Akihiko asked.
She sighed. "Do as you wish."
Junpei looked at his white-haired senior, who looked back at him. Both grinned as he whipped out his Evoker. "Show 'em who's boss, Polydeuces!" His Persona emerged and sent blasts of electricity into the still water, breaking it up and going deep into the depths.
A minute passed by as nothing happened, and then, with a sudden eruption of water, out came the Shadow. Emerging from the sea was a titanic, dark-green Dogu-like figure. It hovered above them, glaring at them with thin, slit red eyes, as water dripped off of its nearly four meter tall body. A low whine escaped from its mouth as its limbs rotated.
"Alright big guy!" Junpei yelled as he and Aigis summoned their Personas, and as they seniors readied their Evokers. "Let's go!"