senior.
affiliated with rival days!
These shadows taking over Inaba were incredibly disconcerting, and although Yosuke had already teamed up with Yukiko and some strange girl who also had a Persona to beat them off, it still wasn’t enough. There were more and more of them popping up everyday, and he wasn’t sure what to do about. One of the best minds of the Investigation Team (hey hey, it was true, it just didn’t seem like it!) was stumped, and he needed help.
And so, Captain Ressentiment hopped on his trusty bicycle and started heading down to Junes, after sending a text out to the rest of the Investigation Team. “Bringing this place back to work - we gotta talk,” He’d said, of course, he’d had difficulty typing out the message while trying to ride his bike, but hey, at least he’d managed to hit send beeeefore—
CRASH!
The bike had veered off the path before he even noticed it, and he’d ended up in a trash can again, bike laying off to the side, his phone blaring out one of Rise’s songs as it received messages, and there was Yosuke, screaming into the trash can, trying to get out.
“Really?! Again?! Come on, is anyone out there! Someone help me out already!”
“Good, you shouldn’t go away for that long!” she scolded in half-seriousness, half-playfulness. “Say, Yosuke-senpai…” Rise started, her demeanour sobering quickly, “What do you know about this sudden outbreak of shadows in town? I’ve talked to Yukiko about it, but—”
“Alright, alright, I won’t! Sheesh!” Yosuke chuckled sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his head. He had to admit, it was kind of awesome to see Rise-chan worrying so much about him, she really was too cute—! And then his good mood was killed - with reason.
“I don’t know anything actually…it’s really unsettling, y’know? I thought we’d gotten rid of them for good.”
“A-And left me all alone!”
“W-Whoa! What?! No! I didn’t leave you alone! Come on, Rise-chan!”
“I-I’m back now, that’s all that matters…!”
“What took you guys so long?”
“Hey hey! Calm down Rise-chan! I had to help my dad at Junes!”
She had merely stepped out the velvet door and into the unfamiliar streets, in hopes of searching for a certain blue-haired blue. Through Theo, she had managed to cross over into a quiet town— a town that was familiar to her. Inaba.
The brunette vaguely remembered coming here for her tennis camp. Ah, those were definitely fun times. With a slight hum, she began to wander around aimlessly, hoping that perhaps her own instinct would lead her to her companion.
The velvet room assistant had told her to bring, at least, her old evoker. Just in case. Especially since Minato had seemed a bit distressed as to what was happening here. She could only hope she didn’t look too weird, carrying around a naginata.
What she hadn’t expected though, was to turn the corner and find shadows.
But not only that. A Persona user.
Her eyes widened incredibly as she watched the stranger summon a Persona unfamiliar to her. What was going on here!? It hadn’t been like this at Port Island — and it certainly wasn’t the Dark Hour. How were shadows roaming around?
…It couldn’t be. Perhaps her return willed the wretched beings to come back. With narrowed, determined eyes, she stepped out, easily coming forward to slash at one of the shadows before taking her place behind the unfamiliar brunet. Standing back-to-back, her eyes trained on the remaining shadows.
She let out a laugh, an ambitious spark in her eyes. “I didn’t think I’d be finding these around here!”
The shadows were growing in number, and the battle was becoming tougher, but there was no way Yosuke could hope for any sort of backup in this sort of situation. He had no idea if he was the only one that could see these things, or if other Persona users could see them or if other people could too, and if they could, could they fight them? The entire thing was just a big mess, but right now he had to focus on fighting the current horde off!
“Magarudyne!”
He called out, and Jiraiya responded to his commands, hitting the next wave of shadows with a large blast of wind, which managed to damage them, but apparently not enough to stop them. Damn it, Yosuke thought, if I had my knives I could do more damage! There wasn’t even anything nearby that he could try and pretend to use, so he’d have to rely on Jiraiya for now.
And then—
“I didn’t think I’d be finding these around here!”
A voice came from behind him, and he noticed that there was now a girl standing back to back with him. A cute girl, he noticed, but now was no time for that! And jeez, how had she been walking around with a naginata unnoticed?! The last time Yosuke had weapons in public, he got arrested!
“Wait, you can see them too?! Are…are you a Persona user too? Ah whatever, can you help me out here? There’s way too many of them!”
Kanji quickened his pace toward the Paulownia Mall once he checked his watch, clearly not happy with what he saw. He hadn’t forgotten he had plans with Yosuke, honest! Sleeping in was a part of his routine on his days off, and waking him up in the mornings was, well…normally a fruitless attempt, as his mother has learned well.
With a huff, he accepted the fact that he was going to be a bit late and Yosuke would just have to deal with it. He had spent a majority of their last conversation telling him to “Calm the hell down, of course it ain’t a date!” Seriously, who does Yosuke think he is? He’s a pretty cool guy, but Kanji can’t help but wonder why he gets so defensive about this stuff.
A few minutes later, Kanji arrived at the mall and he found himself searching aimlessly for his friend. He hasn’t really been here too many times—or you know, at all. He’s not so sure that a cafe was the ideal setting for two bros, but hey, not like there’s anything better to do in his own home town.
Finally, the first-year spotted his friend and headed toward him, giving a small wave, completely oblivious to the distraught look on his face. “‘Sup, Senpai?”
He probably slept in, Yosuke thought as he leaned his chin on his hand and sighed boredly. Yosuke was pretty lazy himself, but lately he’d gotten in the habit of waking up early, as his father had asked him to work a couple of days at Junes. Hence, the early meeting time. He really didn’t think it’d be such an issue though.
Hell, why was he even so worried?! If Kanji showed up, sweet, if he didn’t he’d down his coffee and then head back home, no big deal! But alright, Yosuke did want to become better friends with this guy, and he was totally willing to do whatever it took! However, Yosuke was ready to leave when he heard a voice calling out to him from ahead, smiling.
“Finally, dude, do you know how late you are? Sheesh, I was about to leave!”
Yosuke complained at first, but then stood up with a smile and a laugh, welcoming his friend. There was no point in staying angry about it if he was finally here.
“Thought you were a no-show, but whatever. Mom’s got your working hard with the textiles or something?”
Yosuke spoke as he walked closed to the counter, already poring over the many coffee options offered to them. Man, he wanted something extra sweet and with everything they could put in it! Naturally, he had no idea what Kanji wanted.
“Come, Amaterasu!” she cried, slicing her fan through her tarot card and summoning her faithful persona. It seemed as though it had been weeks since she’d last seen these once-peaceful city streets free of the seemingly endless stream of inky black shadows. Among her chaotic, adrenaline fueled thoughts swirled the familiar question, ‘Why is this happening?’ and ‘When will it end?’ After the serial murder case had been closed, the ravenette had fallen under the terribly false notion that their troubles were over as well. No more personas, no more shadows— just peaceful, regular lives from here on out and the memories of the time she was a hero to her friends and the world. Never once had Yukiko expected to dip into the line of battle once again, and certainly not outside of the television.
Though she tended to primarily stick to healing spells, the heiress jumped right into the offensive, firing off a couple rounds of maragidyne before the shadows could get a preemptive strike on her. She turned on her heel, running at full speed in an attempt to escape her pursuers. The Central Shopping District had been familiar to her since childhood, but she never imagined such knowledge of its every nook and cranny would be of use to her now.
She chanced a glance over her shoulder, eyes widening in horror. Two, three… no, four…?! As they steadily grew in number, her heart began to sink lower in her chest until she froze in place; it was clear that they seemed to be a rather resilient bunch against fire-based attacks, and all she had left in her arsenal were healing spells. What was she to do, heal herself as the enemy attacked her time and again? Her brow furrowed in concentration as she narrowly dodged their attacks; one misstep and she could end up their unwitting victim. And if there was anything Yukiko Amagi would never allow herself to be, it was a victim— least of all to the likes of shadows.
Raising her fan to summon her persona once more, the ravenette suddenly took a blow to the stomach, packing such a force that she’d been thrown through the air as if she were nothing more than a discarded rag doll. It’d been from an unforeseen opponent, yet another shadow standing unaccounted for due to the sudden influx in numbers. Her head light as she rolled onto the pavement, Yukiko blinked wildly, attempting to clear her blurred vision. Pain throbbed in her head, a warm wetness spreading through her scalp as she lay there.
Blood. And a lot of it. In just one fell swing, she’d been severely injured in a way that’d be difficult to recover from.
A melancholic sigh escaped her lips as she watched the shadows turn to perform a follow-up attack on her, dark hues screwing shut as she mentally prepared herself for a brutal onslaught of attacks.
“—Help….” she croaked softly, feebly scrambling to cast a healing spell upon herself.
Had it been wrong of the Investigation Team to believe that everything was fine now? They’d defeated their enemies, they’d made sure of it, so there was no reason that this had to be happening now, and yet, the call he’d received from their team leader that morning had confirmed something that Yosuke had always feared – there were shadows in Inaba. It was unknown to him how they’d managed to escape the TV and come into his home, but there was no time to wonder, they only had to act.
Yosuke was already on his way to the Central Shopping District, which was apparently overrun with the things at the moment. He had a knife in each hand, and his glasses slipped on just in case as he ran towards the familiar location. There seemed to be no shadows on his way there, but once he got there, he actually had to stop and take in the situation. The shadows were everywhere, and they only seemed to be growing in number.
“What the hell…” He mumbled to himself before he shook off the initial shock. There was no point in being afraid! He knew how to fight them, and from the looks of it, the shadows that were here were the ones he remembered as being weak to wind, something that was his, or rather Jiraiya’s greatest power.
“Alright, buddy, time to shine.” Yosuke called forth his tarot card and sliced through it with a yell of, “I’m countin’ on you, Jiraiya!”
Within seconds, his persona came through, and instantly, he leapt into battle, calling out Magarudyne to take out a number of the shadows in one fell swoop. Everything was going fine until his eyes caught something in the distance – a flash of red laying on the floor. He squinted a bit, and then, Konohana Sakuya appeared at her master’s sides, confirming yet another fear of his.
“Yukiko-san!” He shouted as he ran forward, stopping in front of her when he saw the blood. He didn’t think she’d been so badly injured, but those shadows had no regard for their lives after all.
“You’re gonna be fine, Yukiko-san—” Yosuke said in a more confident tone in between her body on the ground and the shadows. “Let me take care of these guys, and then I’ll take care of you, alright?”
A smile and a reassuring wink, and then Yosuke leapt into action, slicing shadows that came too close with his knives, and calling for Jiraiya to continue using Magarudyne on the rest of them. Eventually, the shadows were gone, and Yosuke was winded, tired from the battle, but he kneeled down at Yukiko’s side.
“Those guys really got you hard, huh? You’re bleeding a lot…” He sighed as he pondered over what to do. Was it really safe to move her? She was still conscious, but he wasn’t sure if Diarama would be enough to cure that blow to her head.
“W-What do you want me to do? I can try to heal you too…or…I don’t know, I’m not too good at this healing stuff.”
thewildcardarisato started following you
stackedfromtoptobottom started following you
medeas-plaything started following you
risingidol started following you
perkyprotagonist started following you
thefortunedetective started following you
stupei-acedefective started following you
“No…no, this doesn’t make any sense!”
Yosuke had merely been walking around, minding his own business when he’d felt a familiar shiver run down his back. It was the same feeling he always got in the tv world, when shadows tried to sneak up on him and the team from behind. Except this time, it was in his world. He’d donned his glasses just in case, and turned around to face a small army of shadows coming from an alleyway behind him!
Stumbling back, the glasses tilted down, and Yosuke noticed that the monsters were still visible! That made even less sense! Somehow the shadows had escaped into his word, into his home, and he had no means to fight them.
“Unless…”
His mind put two and two together. He didn’t have his knives with him, so he couldn’t just attack, but if the shadows were in his world, then maybe his persona was too! There was no harm in trying it, after all. He closed his eyes, focusing his mind on summoning his persona until a card appeared before him, and he grinned, crushing it in his hands.
“I’m countin’ on you, Jiraiya!”
It was time to fight back!
