Chapter Text
I rushed through the Shadow world as fast I could, dealing with the small Shadows in my way with my Naginata, and with Koromaru not far behind me until I finally stumbled upon Madoka.
She was running away from one of the smaller Shadows. I quickly scanned them. "Hastur!" I shouted summoning my Persona and blasting those Shadows away with a nuclear spell.
Madoka was gasping for breath as she almost collapsed onto the ground.
Thankfully I managed to catch her quickly enough. "Madoka, are you okay?"
After taking a few more deep breaths, Madoka calmed down somewhat and replied, "Yeah...I...just...Naoki...Homura-chan is fighting that Witch alone..."
For a moment I was a bit shocked that she knew Homura before I realized that they are classmates and also... Witch I guess she doesn't know that these are called Shadows...but still something about calling them Witches doesn't feel right to me...
I quickly scanned the area, and to my shock there was another boss Shadow where Homura was. She appeared to be winning thus far, so that was good.
I took a deep breath. "Right. Stay behind me while I deal with all these small Shadows, hopefully Homura will be able to keep up the larger one till we get to her."
I sensed that the boss Shadow was not far away from us, so I made my over there as fast as I could while I was protecting Madoka.
Thankfully, Homura didn't appeared to be injured as she was dodging the Shadows attacks; I soon joined her in the fight and we ended up easily defeating it.
Once that was done, Homura, turned to me and threw a glare in my direction. "Why didn't you take Madoka out of here? This place is far too dangerous for her."
"You...were kinda in the middle of a fight against a strong Shadow and I couldn't just leave you there..." I said, trailing off towards the end.
Homura didn't let up on the glare as she replied, "I could've handled that. Madoka's life is more important."
Uhhh...I am not sure what her actual relationship to Madoka is—but I don't really like this statement.
"Look, Homura, you're my friend, and I couldn't just leave you alone, and it really doesn't matter now. Madoka is safe and the Shadow is dealt with; this dimension has also already disappeared..."
Before I could even finish that sentence I realized something; this dimension did, in fact, not dissappear.
"Huh...weird...anyway, Madoka, we do actually need to leave right now, there may be a Shadow still nearby, and that's why..."
Just as I was about to say something more, I was interrupted by a really familiar voice.
"Kaname Madoka, it's now time..." came from nearby a familiar, yet at the same time an alien one.
Koromaru tensed up and barked at direction of the voice.
I looked at where the voice came from, and wasn't the least surprised to see a shadow, what suprised me was the fact that it had a similar to a certain someone standing behind me.
It was Madoka's shadow self; I quickly turned to look at girl herself, who was trembling.
And then Homura took a resolute step forward, and Madoka yelled at the Shadow, "Why are you here?! Go...go away!"
So, she has encountered it before...that's not good.
The Shadow's attention turned to Homura, and her yellow eyes brightened at seeing the girl.
"Homura-chan! I thought that I wouldn't get the chance to meet you while that stupid little girl still lives, but with you being here, I can now convince you to give up on her."
She said this with a finality in her voice, as if she wasn't looking for any arguments from Homura.
However, Homura got even more serious after hearing that and she...got a gun in her hand?
Where did she get that?! Why did she have a gun in the first place?
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to ask any of those questions as Homura raised the gun at the shadow as she asked, "I'll ask this: What are you?! Are you some illusion created by a Witch?"
Witch? Is she calling the Shadows that? It's the same as Madoka's name for them. Why is she calling it that?
Madoka's shadow didn't seem to be that fearful of the gun in Homura's hands, and she started to giggle, "Silly Homura-chan, I am very much real, in fact I am the true self of that stupid little girl."
Homura's hands tightened on her handgun and then she shot at the shadow's left shoulder.
As soon as the bullet hit, Madoka, the actual one let out series of coughs as her knees sank to the ground. I quickly rushed to her to make sure that she was okay.
She was still coughing, and there were some blood in what she was coughing up. Meanwhile the shadow stood there without a change in its expression, even after Homura shot at it.
Homura quickly turned to look at Madoka with a horrified expression on her face. And at that point I decided intervene.
"That Shadow is a part of Madoka. By hurting her, you are hurting Madoka as well."
Homura regarded me with a suprised and grief filled expression before her face turned neutral and her expression hardened. "You seem to know about these specific Shadows, so tell me how do we deal with them without hurting Madoka?"
"We don't; Madoka will have deal with it herself. Keep it distracted while I talk to Madoka."
I slowly turned to look at the girl I'm question, who was starting to get up from the ground, she was still coughing, but thankfully there was no longer any blood coming from it.
"Madoka I know that this can be quite scary, but that shadow is a part of you, and only by accepting that will you be able to defeat it."
Expecting a question about accepting the shadow from either Madoka or Homura, I quickly rush to continue what I was saying, "Now, I am not asking you to let the Shadow define who you are, but you will have to accept it as a part of you."
"Your sympathy is wasted on that girl; she's too weak and indecisive to accomplish what you are asking of her." came from the shadow behind me.
"Shut up!" I shouted at the shadow, which seemed to shock it somewhat, I, too, was a bit taken by how hard I shouted at it. "I don't care if you are Madoka's shadow, and her suppressed feelings and thoughts, I am not allowing you to speak to my cousin that way!"
The Shadow stared me in the eyes for a few seconds before it ultimately relented with a glare.
So I turned my attention back to Madoka, who was looking between me and her shadow with an unreadable expression on her face.
Before I could even comment anything to her; she stepped forward and said to her shadow, "Naoki said that I'll have to face you by myself. So, what do you want from me?"
The Shadow seemed to be somewhat taken aback by Madoka before she started to laugh, "Nice mask, you almost had me, but that's all you can do, masks. Deep down you are scared little girl that fears what I represent."
Madoka took a confident step forward, not the least perturbed by what her Shadow said. "So? Yes, I am scared of this place and of you, but that doesn't mean I am going to let that fear control me, if by putting on this mask I could help Homura-chan and Naoki, then I'll gladly put it on."
The Shadow took a step back, as it gritted its teeth, as it looked at Madoka with an enraged look.
Alright this is going relatively well so far...
"...do you agree to receive all of me then?" The Shadow angrily.
Madoka stared it in the eyes as she slowly responded, "Yes, I do."
Madoka took a step towards the Shadow and embraced it in a hug. The Shadow froze for a second before it let out a laugh.
It then soon disappeared and figured appeared behind Madoka; she gained her Persona.
The girl eyes widened soon after and she clutched her head while she fell to the ground.
"Madoka!" I shouted as I rushed to her side.
"Are you okay?" asked Homura.
She then looked up and stared at me with wide eyes. "I...remember...I remember everything...all the previous loops..."
What?
My black haired companion seemed to understand what she meant, though as her eyes widened as her lips started to tremble.
Madoka got up still shaking, and made her way to Homura, whom she embraced in a hug as the black haired girl stiffened.
Homura looked like she was on the verge of bursting into tears. "M-Madoka..."
"Sh...it's okay, I now remember everything that you did for me Homura-chan..." my cousin muttered into her ear.
"I hurt you, I couldn't save you, yet you still..." tears started to gather in the dark haired girl's eyes.
Madoka noticed this pulled Homura into an even tighter hug as the girl in question started to cry in earnest.
"It's okay, Homura-chan. I now remember everything that you did for me, and it was all partially my fault, I should not have made you make thay promise."
She muttered comforting words as she let Homura cry on her shoulder.
They stayed there lile that for around 10 minutes; that was till Koromaru baked, it was quite easy to tell that he was exhausted, so we hurried out.
I sighed as I walked up to them. "Madoka..."—the girl looked up when I called out her name—"...I think we should withdraw for today, and we can talk about everything tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, we're all exhausted, and..."
"No," muttered Homura in a low voice, "We can talk about it today at my apartment...it would be better to get the whole thing over with."
I wasn't sure about this, especially with Homura's state at the moment, but I soon relented.
Madoka threw a worried glance at her before she reluctantly agreed.
So, we made our way to her apartment and during the time to walk there, Homura started to explain everything.
Well everything about Magical Girls. How they turned into a Witch, about their one wish, Kyubey, etc. etc.
And she also revealed her nature as time travels after a bit of prodding from Madoka. I winced as she told me that, time loops are not a pretty thing.
"That sounds...awful...we should tell the others about that as well..." I muttered.
"Are you sure?" asked Madoka in a worried voice. "I don't really know this team of yours, can they be trusted?"
Before I could reply, Homura replied in my place, "Yes, they can be."
I nodded along with a smile, glad of the fact that Homura was saying things like that.
Madoka appeared to be still not totally convinced, but she acquiesced.
On the way there I texted Ken and the others about the change of plans. After some time the all showed up looking as exhausted as I was.
Once Homura opened the door they stared at the inside with shock. No doubt because it seemed to roughly resemble a Shadow world.
Ken was the first one to get over his shock after her entered, no doubt because he had experienced Tartarus before, with all the the weird shit that it threw at him.
We all sat down near a table, as we began our conversation.
"So, what did you call us here for?" asked Takashi.
Ken noted that Madoka was also present. "Also should she be here? I don't think you need us all here to explain what's a Shadow Nest is, unless..."
I quickly nodded. "Madoka accepted her Shadow and gained her Persona."
Ken raised an eyebrow at that. Ahh...he's most likely suprised by the fact that a Shadows self appeared, and to be honest, I am, too, shocked by its appearance.
"Right. Is that why you called us here?" asked Ken likely thinking about her wanting join, which is something I haven't talked with Madoka about at all. We really should have a talk, especially after what happened to Sayaka and her gaining a Persona.
I, then, shared a quick look with Homura. "Among other things."
I beckoned Homura forward, the girl in question, stood up and said, "I would like to come clean about some things.
"What I am talking about are Magical Girls and the system behind them."
She then proceeded to explain what she told me with a few outburst from Alice at the turning into Witches part, and about the fact that, we, were, in fact, not fighting Shadows at all.
("Magical Girls, are young girls who make a a contract with a weird cat looking alien which calls itself Kyubey, but in reality its actual name is Incubator, it grants a wish for the contract. Once the contract is formed, the Incubator proceeds to rip out the contractor's soul somehow uses it to fulfill the wish.
"While doing that, it also transforms the soul into a gem which the contractor uses to pilot their now puppet body. Furthermore, Magical Girls now are required to venture out and fight Witches as over time they lose their magic in order to maintain the connection with the puppet body and—")
(Alice cut in suddenly, "And what happens when this magic runs dry?")
("I was getting to that. If the magic in the soul gem runs out, or if the Magical Girl starts to curse the world, then the Magical Girl's Soul Gem will break and transform into a Grief Seed and the Magical Girl in question will transform into a Witch.")
"So, is it like a Pyramid Ponzi scheme?" asked Takashi after Homura finished explaining
She stared at him for second. "I guess it can be called that."
I clenched my fists as I asked my next question, "And is there a way to stop being a Magical Girl?
"Not that I know of,"—she threw a glance at Madoka who wrapped her arms around her waist from behind—"that being said, Igor pretty much told me that I no longer had to worry about turning into a Witch since having a Persona passively regenerate the Soul Gems."
Alice downcast changed rapidly as she heard that. "That's great, now we just need to make sure that every Magical Girl can unlock their Personas, then I'll all be sorted! Say, Homura, how many Magical Girls are there?"
"How would I know that?"
Alice's enthusiastic look quickly disappeared. "You...mean that it's not just a local thing...?"
"No it's worldwide phenomenon. There can be as many as 100 thousand Magical Girls or as few as 5 thousand, but I simply don't know."
I frowned at that, Homura had not mentioned, so I, too, was under the impression that it was local, or at least localized to Japan. That is indeed troublesome. The best source to get them Personas would be to inform them about the Persona Game and hope that non awakened Persona would also regenerate their 'Soul Gems'.
This also means that best way to end this whole Magical Girl would be to have Philemon and Nyarlathotep agree to step in, and I am not liking my odds on that one.
"So, that's what happened with those three..." muttered Ken under his breath.
He, was, however, not very quiet as Madoka picked it up. "What do you mean by those three? Don't tell me..."
Everyone other than Homura glanced at, urging me to handle this. "Eh...we should discuss that topic at home..." I fumbled. "Hopefully, Minato will not be present..."
"Is that fine with you?" I asked Madoka, who nodded slowly with a sad expression.
I then turned to look at Homura who froze when I uttered the name Minato.
"Minato..." muttered Homura, and then I flinched back when she let out a scream and fell to the ground.
If there was anything that unsettled Homura more than even the Incubator; it would be Minato Kaname. In all her prior loops, he had never existed. Normally she wouldn't be that off put with strange new people.
After all, Naoki was also at one point an anomaly, but he ended up being one of her most consistent ally in preventing Madoka from contracting the last timeline he was in. However, something about Minato unnerved her to no end.
So, she froze time, in order to investigate this all; she made her way to the Kaname house at night, and there she began to look around in Minato's room.
It was completely empty; it was as if no one ever lived in this room, there was nothing beyond a bed and the same creepy chairs that were also in Madoka's room, for some reason, and just as she was about to leave she heard clapping. She wirled around to see the very boy she was investigating.
He was smirking at her, and her eyes immediately widened as she looked down on the shield to make sure that time was still frozen, and sure enough it was.
"How…How are you still moving?" she asked in terror as she took a step back.
Minato started to laugh at her question. "The flow of time is just one of the many rules that was agreed upon by us for the game. It holds no effect on me."
As he said this a golden butterfly flutter down and settled on the windowsill; it looked like it was glowing in the dark.
"Us?" Homura gritted her teeth. "And what do you mean by "the game"?"
What is he? And what does he mean by the game? Are the the butterfly and he somehow connected to the Incubators?
Minato's face twisted into a sneer. "Don't compare us to that parasite. It should be quite grateful that we have allowed it to live and harvest energy for this long.
"I'd hoped that by allowing it to grant wishes, one of you guinea pigs would wish for the destruction of humanity. But well that never happened, and we can't allow Kaname Madoka to make wish. If she were to make one, then she would be able to rewrite the rules of the world, and we can't have that."
Did I say that out loud…? No, I didn't…so, can he read minds?
Homura stared at him for a minute straight before she decide to ask something, "What are you two? You implied that time was merely a suggestion to you, are you some kind of gods?"
Minato, or whoever, or whatever he was, smirked before turning to look at the butterfly. Its antenna twitched, but other than that nothing seemed to have happened.
After around half a minute, Minato turned his attention back to Homura and said, "We are the sources of people's soul, the literal manifestations of the collective unconscious. Phil here," he motioned down to the golden butterfly, "leads those with strong hearts, while I lead the weak into the abyss. All of this is to ascertain whether the guinea pigs, which are also known as humans, are capable of evolving into something whole that can understand its purpose."
This further unsettled Homura, so she clenched her fists and she asked, "And what is your connection to the Incubators? You implied that you let it thrive on Earth."
"They are rotten parasites; we have tolerated their existence on this planet for too long. Thus, Phil and I have decided that after this small game, they'll no longer be welcome," growled Minato, "now what should we do with you is the question."
He appeared before her, and before she could even blink he grabbed her Soul Gem. She screamed as she felt like 1000 stakes have pierced through her with her Soul Gem turning murky.
"We should just have you transform into a Witch that would the most fitting end for you, would it not?" he asked with a smirk as he knelt down to look at her face.
The Golden Butterfly flipped its wings as he flew down to the Soul Gem and landed on it. There was golden flash and the murkiness started to disappear along with the pain that Homura felt.
The Butterfly flew over to Minato and its antenna twitched again. Minato let out a small humn as he looked at Homura who was getting back on her feet.
"Fine, fine. We'll just have her memories erased, so that she doesn't meddle in my plans and so that you don't lose a piece," Minato grumbled out.
He reached for Homura who leapt backwards instinctively, however, she was too slow for him and everything went white around her.
Homura gasped as the memories returned to her.
Koromaru let out a bark as fell to the ground.
"Homura-chan!" cried out Madoka who rushed to her side, and knelt down to grab her hands.
I was not too far behind her and the others also rushed to Homura.
We surrounded Homura as we helped her back to her feet.
We all eventually shuffled away as Homura regained her balance, though Madoka stuck close to her.
"Are you alright, Homura?" I asked
"Kaname Minato is not normal. He never existed in any prior time loop, he claimed to be one of the sources of People's souls, and he erased my memories."
I stared at her as suddenly something flashed in my mind. And I stumbled nearly falling over.
It was the suspicion I had towards Minato, the Crawling Chaos. He had erased it from my mind.
"Naoki, you alright?" asked a worried Alice.
I took a deep breath, "Yeah, it's just that I remember my own missing memories as well."
She frowned at that while Madoka shot me a concerned look.
"It's nothing major, and it's not anything that we didn't already know."
Homura then explained what her memories were. While explaining it, Madoka moved closer to her and hugging her from the side.
"Wait, what do you mean time control?" asked a shocked Takashi.
Ah, yeah, we haven't told them yet...
Homura frowned as she started to reveal her time traveler nature.
Ken was the first to speak up after Homura revealed everything, "You mean you have been stuck in the loop for years?"
He was obviously concerned about Homura, his concern seemed to double when Homura confirmed his question.
Alice also was quite concerned about Homura. "I would've never suspect something like that..." then she hugged the girl from her right side.
Homura stiffened when she was hugged, and tried to wiggle out, but Madoka prevented that by also hugging Homura from her left side as well.
Even Takashi, despite his prior suspicion of her, had his eyes filled with worry.
It seemed was not expecting this type of reaction as she was staring at the wall with a dumbfounded look on her face.
"Well, on the bright side, you have never encountered Persona users before, so with us, I am sure thay we'll be able to defeat Walpurgisnacht, and whatever the Crawling Chaos will throw at us," I said trying to stay posting and to brighten the mood.
This seemed to somewhat work as Alice let out a loud "Yeah!" but the others were still concerned about Homura in Ken's case, or were still processing everything in Takashi's case.
"I'll...be willing to keep this a secret from the Shadow Operatives, if that's what you want, Homura-san," said Ken.
"Really?" asked Homura in suprise snapping out of her stupor.
Ken nodded with determination. "Yeah...you're my friend Homura-san, and this secret should be yours to reveal."
She stared ag him for a couple before she replied, "Thank you, Ken, but I...do want to talk with Aragaki Minako about it, if you all now know this."
"Wait a minute, the team that betrayed you were those three, weren't they?" asked Alice suddenly.
"Yes, they were, I revealed the truth to them many loops ago, and they did not take it well. I am sorry for lying to you about that..."
Madoka wrapped her arm around the black haired girl's torso as she explained that.
"Nah, it's fine...I am just...still getting over the fact that you're a time traveler. Anyways, we should try to do something against all this. I am sure that Philemon will be able to help us, I think he was that butterfly that helped you."
Yeah the butterfly is Phil, but no; him helping us is not gonna happen. I guess our final option would be Reiji, he's still in Mitakihara, and he is an experienced Persona user. Eh...we'll see if we need his help, but I doubt that this is even remotely similar to P2, Nyarlathotep's was acting quite different.
We then soon all left as it was getting quite dark and went home. Madoka decided to invite Homura with us, and not gonna lie, Madoka can be really sly when she wants to be as she pressed close against Homura and whispered into her ear the invitation.
The blush on Homura's face was enough to gain some understanding of where they stood.
Well, I guess that explains their relationship...
It was pretty late when we arrived home; Uncle Tomohisa was clearly worried about us when he saw our state.
He went to us ask and/or demand where we were; however, before he could even ask anything Madoka told him that we'd explain everything tomorrow.
She also asked if Homura could stay over this time.
He glanced between them before he ultimately decided to allow it.
I heard a loud crash and when I went down I saw Aunt Junko slummed down t the bottom of the stairs, with Uncle Tomohisa helping her to her bedroom. I went down to help him.
Uncle Tomohisa shot a questioning look at me. "Naoki-kun, would you like to tell me what you two have been involved in, we are not blind."
I sighed as I drank my hot chocolate. "I promise that we'll tell you and Aunt Junko everything tomorrow."
He had a worried look on her face, but seemed to accept that for the time being.
I also went with them into Madoka's room. "Well...not sure how to say this, but Nyarlathotep—that being the main bad guy we'll have to defeat—kinda turned Sayaka, Tomoe?, and the red haired girl into Witches..."
Explaining sensitive stuff was definitely not my forte.
Madoka looked like she was barely able to hold back tears. Homura laid her hands on her shoulder.
I quickly asked a question, one which I failed to consider when we were discussing things in Homura's apartment, "Is there really no way to transform someone back from Witch? The way Homura explained it, it sounded like the soul was still the same..."
"The souls are the same. However, I have never ever encountered a way to bring them back," answered Homura.
"Well, there's still the Persona side of things, maybe something there could bring them back?" I questioned.
If it has something to do with souls, then Philemon and Nyarlathotep should be able to do something about it. And Nyarly confirmed that very fact by turning them into Witches in the first place, so now we just have to get Phil to do something, easier said then done.
Homura conceded on that front.
"I think we should talk about all this with the others at a later date, and with the Shadow Operatives. They may know something which could help us."
"Shadow Operatives, I think Amada-senpai also mentioned it, but what are they?" murmured Madoka.
Ahh...we forgot to explain quite a lot of things...no doubt due to all of us being exhausted and shocked by the existence of the Magical Girl system.
I quickly explained them and then I looked at clock and my eyes widened. I didn't quite realize how late it was, thankfully tomorrow was a Sunday, so there was no school, but still.
"Madoka, there still something I want to ask you," I said.
She, in turn, nodded.
"Well, just a simple question. Homura, you can anwser if you want to, there's no need if you don't want to, of course. Just how many loops are we talking about?"
Madoka shared a look with the black haired girl.
"Over a hundred," replied Homura.
I winced. That can't have been good for either of them...I am not a fan of therapy—I have gone through it a bit in my previous life—but even I would recommend it here. Now the problem that remains would be to get a therapist, who knows about Personas, and I am not seeing any...
Wait a minute, oh right, Maki! She's be the best in this case, far better than Maruki would be, not that I was even entertaining the possibility of contacting him.
That reminds...when we deal with all this, how the fuck will I influence the events of Persona 5? Eh...I will think about that later.
"Alright, I think we're all pretty exhausted for today. Have a good night you two. And Madoka, you can always talk to me about...well whatever."
As I went to leave, Madoka hugged me from behind. "Thanks for everything today...and have good night too."
I could feel myself flushing a bit as I quickly exited the room and after changing clothes, I flopped onto my bed and instantly fell asleep.
I gasped as I awoke in a quite familiar location.
"How are you friend?" asked Philemon except something about his tone was not sounding quite right.
It sounded like he was agitated by something. Not to mention that this whole is very unusual. Phil never did something like—taking you away in your dreams; he usually let that part to Igor.
Well, in any case, I wasn't seeing a way out, so I spoke up, "Eh...could be going better. You wouldn't happen to know about this Magical Girl system?"
The butterfly man nodded. "I do, why do you ask?"
"You wouldn't happen to know a way to reverse the Witch transformation do you?"
He stopped dead in his tracks and looked me in the eyes. "There's nothing that can be done to reverse it. Those three girls fulfilled their destiny."
Yeah, no, not buying that. Do I look like a nine-year old to you? You're literally source of souls, and Nyarly was able to corrupt, so you should be able to heal them. Also you already did that with Homura.
"Are you sure? Shouldn't it be easy for you to somehow reverse? You helped Homura when she she was almost turned into one by the Crawling Chaos."
He chose to ignore that all, and continued to speak. "That being said, there's something I wish to discuss. Would you like to make an agreement with me?"
What?! Alright this makes me 3% certain that you're not actually Philemon, and those percentages are L percentages, so basically you're 100% not Philemon.
"What would this agreement entail?" I asked, fishing for information.
"I will grant you heavenly strength if you agree to be my piece in the next game."
Oh yeah, hell no! Also 'heavenly strength', why does that sound familiar...Oh right! Nyarlathotep to Jun in P2.
(Nyarlathotep: The sacrifice on offer is yourself. Since you were praised as an angel, I'll grant you heavenly strength.)
Thank god, that P2 Innocent Sin was my favorite Persona game. And also thanks for confirming who you really are, 'Phil'.
"I will, unfortunately, have to decline this generous offer of yours, and I'd like to go back to sleep."
He almost growled, but soon calmed down enough to wish me a goodbye.
"Of course, have good day 𝐝⃥⃒̸𝐣⃥⃒̸𝐢⃥⃒̸𝐚⃥⃒̸𝐧⃥⃒̸𝐬⃥⃒̸."
So the next day came; Madoka, Homura and I sat down at the dinner table opposite of Uncle Tomohisa and Aunt Junko.
Aunt Junko cleared her thoat as she started to talk, "Let's begin then, you three have some things you need explain to us.
"First, how about the fact that you have been sneaking out in the middle of the night," that happened one time! And how did you even find out about it? "or about the fact that you were truant last week," that was also just one day! (A Shadow trapped us in its world for 5 hour till we managed to get out. I am not sure why we even hunted it early in the morning, but Homura wanted us to, and told us it'll be a short in and out 20 minutes hunt.) "or how about the fact that a random young boy appeared in our home and we all believed him to be family, depiste the fact that we had no memories of him prior!" huh, I could've bet that Nyarly would have just removed those memories from her, he did that with everyone else in school...
"So, an explanation would be appreciated."
I shifted around awkwardly. "Right...an explanation.
"Well, for me it all started with a game called Persona..."
We ended up telling her most of what was happening in Mitakihara. At first they didn't believe us, till Homura froze time while she was holding then.
Excellent display of power, I gotta say.
And well, after that they'd agreed to come with us to showcase what we normally dealt with.
So, we ventured into a Witch's labyrinth with Uncle Tomohisa and Aunt Junko. They dropped off Tatsuya at a friend of theirs.
Aunt Junko stared at the changing surrounding with wide eyes. "I…wasn't quite expecting this…"
"Shadow Nests are usually less trippy than these are…" said Ken as he got out his evoker.
Uncle Tomohisa stared at the fake gun with an uncomfortable expression before he turned to me and asked, "So, how do you summon your…powers?"
"Like this…" I held out my hand, and the card manifested, then I crushed it summoning forth Hastur.
He took a step back, but quickly regained his composure and turned to look at the others. "Do all of you summon it like that?"
"Uh, yeah, I mean other than Ken, and, Koro-chan I guess, we all summon it like that," answered Alice as she scratched the back of her head.
We went further into the labyrinth searching for the Witch.
"Stay close to us, this one's not as strong as some other one, but it's still dangerous," I advised the adults in our group.
Then we arrived at the center of the labyrinth. Where the Witch hatched from the Grief Seed.
The others put on a defensive stand while I scanned it.
"It's weak to fire. Koro-chan!" I urged the canine, and he barked back in response and sprang forth into action with a heavy fire spell against the Witch.
It struck the Witch, and its Familiars soon started to surround it and protect it. "Ken they are weak to Light."
He pointed the Evoker to his head and the sound of glass shattering could be heard; on the side Uncle Tomohisa stared at Ken and the Evoker with wide eyes, and Aunt Junko had a worried look on her face.
The Light spell which Ken unleashed wiped out all the familiars. With the familiars taken care of, Koromaru resumed firing Fire spells at the Witch.
After a while we managed to defeats the Witch and the labyrinth around us disappeared.
Aunt Junko had a frown on her face as she glanced at Ken. "Amada-kun, why do you summon that way?"
"Hmm…Ah yeah, it looks a bit disturbing the first time. It's just how I am used to summoning my Persona, Kaname-san.
"This was the first method I knew since 2009. And this has also been proven to be the best method to summon Personas in the real world."
"You mean you were fighting these monster when you were even younger? Since 2009, that means you have been fighting these monsters since you were 11‐years old?" asked Aunt Junko in an agitated voice with furrowed eye brows.
"Yes, I had been fighting Shadow since I was 11," was Ken's short reply.
This caused Aunt Junko to clench her fists and Uncle Tomohisa's expression turned serious. "Then—"
Uncle Tomohisa went to ask, but I interrupted him, "We should go to Ken's apartment, there Ken will explain it all of it further."
I shot a look at Ken to see whether he was fine with that and he nodded.
Meanwhile, on the side, Aunt Junko looked like she wanted to argue more about this, but after a second she acquiesced.
On the way there, Ken sent a message to Mitsuru, most likely telling her that Madoka's and my guardians wanted to talk to the leader of the Shadow Operatives.
We soon arrived at Ken's apartment, there he got to work to connect to Mitsuru and to talk to her.
"Mitsuru-san, you're connected." said Ken as the screen turned and showed the red haired woman.
Aunt Junko eyes widened and she let out a squeak. "Kirijo Mitsuru!?"
Mitsuru glance at her and Uncle Tomohisa, and Madoka asked, "You know her, mom?"
"Know her?" she nearly yelled, "my company is subsidiary of the Kirijo group."
Mitsuru let out a small laugh. "I am glad that I am easily recognisable, however, I am not here to talk as the CEO of the Kirijo group, but as the leader of the Shadow Operatives."
"Shadow Operatives?" asked Uncle Tomohisa.
Ken shot a look at Mitsuru. "The Shadow Operatives are the people who normally deal with Shadow incidents."
Aunt Junko looked between Ken and Mitsuru. "Then why don't deal with these incidents? Is there something stopping them from doing things?"
"As a matter of fact, there is," replied Mitsuru, "there is some sort of barrier which prevents the entry of Persona users, our normal agents are able to enter perfectly fine, but those with Personas are not."
Aunt Junko regarded her with a cold look. "And you are just okay with that?! Are you fine with leaving kids to fight?"
Mitsuru frowned at that. "I am not fine with it, but I don't have many options to help them, one of those options was to send them resources in order to help them, which I am doing.
"Besides, even with no other Operative there, I trust Amada and Koromaru to handle everything that need be handled in relations to Personas."
"Mom,"—Madoka grabbed her arm—"please let her explain..."
She glanced at Madoka before she let out a sigh. She, obviously still was a bit frustrated, but let it go reluctantly.
"Fine, fine," she motioned for the woman to explain.
"As I was saying, due to the barrier none of our agents with Personas could enter the city. Normally we would have left it at that, but Mitakihara is rather important to us, as that is the place where a rather high ranking Shadow Operative lives, and I am not referring to Amada here."
Aunt Junko glanced at the boy. "Then who are you referring to? Where is this Operative?"
Ken spoke up at that moment. "She referring to my guardian, who's one of the strongest if not the strongest Shadow Operative. Unfortunately, she was outside of Mitakihara when the barrier appeared."
Aunt Junko frowned, but didn't say anything.
"Should this incident with barrier have happened with only Amada, then he would have been asked to go outside of Mitakihara, and an investigation by us would have been launched into the barrier.
"Fortunately, he ran into a group of three students fighting what he persumed to be Shadows before it was even discovered."
Uncle Tomohisa looked at me questioningly. "Those three were Takashi, Alice and I," I quickly told him.
"...it was then decided that it would be better for Amada to stay and help them to defeat these Shadows—or as we now learned Witches."
Aunt Junko looked between the three of us. "Naoki-kun."
I did not like that tone.
"After this incident is dealt with, you'll be grounded for a month. And Madoka, you will also be grounded for that duration."
Huh...I was never grounded before. I wasn't mad or anything, logically, I knew that something like this could happen with the way we had been doing things, so I responded, "That's fair."
Madoka shrugged, seemingly also not minding it that much.
She seemed to somewhat taken aback by me not arguing, but her attention quickly turned to Mitsuru.
Before she could say anything, Ken spoke up, "There's still something we should discuss. I informed Mitsuru on some details, but Homura-san should explain it to her in a more detailed way..."
Homura shifted around as she started to explain everything.
While she did so, I kept a close eye on Mitsuru, and my relatives. Their reactions were certainly different.
Mitsuru kept an ice cold mask on her face. However, it wasn't hard to tell that she was angry at Kyubey, and astonished at sheer scale of everything.
While my relatives were shocked by the cruelty of this entire system.
"Akemi-san, do you know where this, Kyubey is at the moment?" asked Mitsuru.
Homura shifted from one feet to another. "Unfortunately, I have lost all traces of it. It almost seems like it is dead, but that can't be—"
"Uhmm, actually," said Madoka as she interrupted Homura, "he's most likely dead. I am sorry for not bringing this up yesterday, but Minato kind of killed him and called him a parasite which should have never been allowed on earth."
Mitsuru hummed. "Minato is the name that this Cognitive entity used while it pretended to be a human, correct? Ken mentioned him, but I want to make sure."
I quickly responded. "Yeah, and I also have something else to share."
I then told them about my recent encounter with Philemon—while leaving out the parts about how I discovered that he's Nyarlathotep, thus I was forced to just say that it was suspicion of mine and not a fact.
Thankfully, the others were convinced by my opinion. Alice and Takashi had no problem with believing that Philemon was evil by the way he treated them. Ken looked like he was happy that we were no longer listening to Philemon.
Whereas, Homura and Madoka were fairly neutral—having never interacted with Philemon ever.
Aunt Junko, however, had a question that she wanted to ask us. "So, you say that the being who granted you these powers is also the one who set up everything in Mitakihara? Why would he do that, and would it be safe to continue to use these powers?"
Ughh...good question. Well it could be that the actual Philemon is somewhere else also helping. I mean he did lead Ken to us, and helped Homura...Now the only question is where is he?
While I was thinking Ken decided to anwser her question, "This is not a unique situation. There was another entity which granted the power of Persona to a person as a part of a game, which this 'Philemon' did say that he's playing a game at the moment, so he's likely doing the same as that entity did.
"And also, nothing happened to the person who was granted a Persona by that being, so there's probably no reason to really worry about that."
Aunt Junko looked at him in the eyes before she sighed. "Fine, but,"—she looked at Mitsuru—"once this is over, I want you to run some tests on their powers, to make sure there are no complications."
The red haired woman nodded. "Of course, it would quite negligent of us to not to do something like that."
That reminds me...Hey! Are you really my other self?!
I called out to my Persona, and to be honest I was not sure what yo expect.
Didn't say 'I am thou, and thou art I' to you?
You're no really confirming or denying it...this'd be relatively easy to say...
I mean you no harm.
Uhhh huh...
Uncle Tomohisa spoke up after that. "Could you invite Amada-kun's guardian into this call? I have some questions for her."
Mitsuru looked down on a tablet. "She should be available in around an hour."
Uncle Tomohisa nodded. "That's fine, while we wait could my wife and I have discussion with you about the Shadow Operatives?"
"I am free for half an hour, so yes," muttered Mitsuru after checking her schedule.
We were forced to leave the apartment again, so that the adults could have their discussion.
We went to the same park where we went when Homura and Minako had their talk.
"So...how do you think this went?" asked Alice after she sat down on a bench next to me
"Pretty well all things considered," was my reply.
She hummed. "Still...I find it kinda unfair that you'll be grounded for a month after we deal with all this."
I shrugged. "That type of responses was expected. After all, they just learned that I was putting my life in risk for over two weeks now. Having it only be a month is the only surprising part. I mean just imagine what would your parents say, if they learnt what you were doing?"
The girl shuddered. "I'd be in so much trouble. Don't even bring up something like that.
"Eh...by the way—"
"Guys! We brought you some drink," shouted Takashi as he and Ken carried 7 cans. "Who wants what? There two tea, two colas, two orange sodas, and some water for Koromaru."
"Can I have the tea?" asked Madoka. Takashi handed her one of the tea cans.
"Eh...can I also get a tea?" I asked, and soon enough I was handed the tea a can.
Alice took an orange soda. "As I was saying, I think their discussion is going to drag for hours, and I want to go to a more...enjoyable place."
"I am not going to the Arcade with you," said Takashi.
"Awww..." whined Alice. "What about you, Naoki, will you come with me, please?"
I was tempted. Last time was enjoyable enough, we just need to make sure that we don't run into any Witches.
"Sure."
Alice raised her fists. "Great!" she then turned to Homura. "Say, Homura, would you be interested in a rematch?"
Homura looked at her with a flat look. "Are you sure? You didn't take loss well when we played last time."
"I'll have you know that I have been training in it for around a week. I will 100% defeat you this time!" Alice puffed up while she said that.
Madoka had a curious look on her face as she whispered to me, "Defeat?"
"Homura beat Alice's best score in an Arcade game, and Alice swore that she'll get revenge and take back her place," I replied.
Madoka brightened up at that. "In that case, why don't we 4 go. Unless..."—she turned to Ken and Takashi—"you two also want to come along?"
Takashi shook his head. And Ken shrugged. "Eh, I need to give Koromaru a bath today, so I'll go home once their talk with Mitsuru ended and bathe Koromaru then."
Koromaru whined at that reminder.
"Well, then, have goodnight you two," said Madoka as she waved them goodbye.
The Arcade was not as busy as it was last time. And Homura and Alice immediately made their way to Gun game machine.
"Naoki," murmured Madoka in a quite voice, "do...do you really think that there's something we can do to reverse the Witch transformation?"
I looked away from the two of the playing the game and focused my attention on Madoka. "Of course, there must be a way."
She chuckled. "I, certainly, would like to share your enthusiasm...it's just that in no prior time loop has that happened."
"But there were no Persona abilities in the prior loops," I countered.
"True..." she said slowly, "...it's just that I fear that even with all that, we wouldn't be able to reverse it..."
I moved my hand onto her shoulders. "I get that—but you should try to look it at more positively. I can almost certainly guarantee that there exists a way to reverse it."
She giggled a bit as tears formed in her eyes. "Thank you, Naoki...I really needed to hear that."
As I was about to comment something, a loud shout interrupted our heartfelt moment. "Nooooo!!!"
We turned to look and saw that Homura once again totally dominated Alice in the game.
Homura looked really proud as Madoka rushed up to her side to congratulate her. While I confronted a crying Alice on the floor.
Alice soon stopped her crocodile tears when she saw how late it was. "What!? Uncle Reiji is gonna be...not happy if I break my curfew! See you guys tomorrow!" she yelled as she ran out.
I waved her goodbye before I turned back to Madoka and Homura.
Before I could say anything a ring interrupted me, Madoka looked at her phone, then she spoke up, "Mama says that they just finished their talk, and went to pickup Tatsuya. She also says that we should go home if we haven't yet."
"Well, then..." I muttered, "...have goodnight Homura."
I went to leave, but noticed that Madoka was coming with me.
Instead she grabbed Homura's and was said to black haired girl. "Homura-chan, you can come with today as well."
Homura tried to pull away. "I wouldn't want to impose..."
But Madoka held firm. "Nonsense, you're never imposing on us, Homura-chan, right Naoki?"
Her voice was sweet, but it was that fake sweet which promised pain if I said anything contradictory, so I replied with a, "Yeah..."
She signed and relented. "Very well..."
We arrived home just before they did. And I almost faceplanted into my bed. Today was exhausting, I thought as I went to brush and take a shower.
Hopefully we can focus on the turning Witches back into normal humans tomorrow, I thought as I drifted off to sleep.