Chapter Text
I awoke groggily, and groaned what hour it was. I wasn't late for school or anything, in fact, I woke up way too early.
It was 4AM, I closed my eyes and tried to get back to sleep. But nothing seemed to work.
So, I stealthily made my way down to the kitchen to make myself a cup of coffee because no way I was going to go through without some coffee.
But when I went I encountered quite suprise. "Don't you have work today? Shouldn't you rest?" I asked my very much awake aunt who was drinking something—most likely coffee.
She was also dressed she was just about to go to work for some reason.
She laughed a little. "I could ask you the same thing, Naoki-kun. Don't you have school today?"
I looked to the side. "I woke up and couldn't go back to sleep..."
She chuckled. "No need to explain, I am not your teacher."
"But you're my guardian."
"Yes," she muttered, "now come sit down, I'll make you some coffee as well."
I reluctantly did so and soon she came back with a cup of coffee. It was way too sugary for my liking, but it'll have to do.
An awkward silence soon spread after she handed my mug.
"So..." I started, trying to break the silence, "why are you awake at this hour?"
She sighed. "I suppose I couldn't go to sleep after seeing those Shadows? that you were fighting all this time and hearing from Kirjo-san, and Aragaki-san about these previous Shadow incidents."
Aragaki? She spoke with Shinjiro? I was a bit confused until I realized something. Oh wait, she's talking about Minako, so that means that she's married to Shinjiro...
That makes sense. "It would be certainly a lot to take in." I said in agreement.
She nodded in response. "True, true. But enough about that. There are a few things I wanted to ask you about."
I raised my eyebrows. "What things specifically? I may not be able to anwser everything."
"First, how are you taking our involvement in this situation?"
I pursed my lips as I anwsered, "You had the right to know, especially after Madoka was put in dangerous because of it."
"But you're not a fan of it?"
I looked to the side. "I would've preferred if you weren't involved—but there's no way to undo what already happened, and it's not like I could've realistically prevented you from learning about it."
"Always so mature," she muttered, "even when you were little you always had that mature air around you. You rarely did anything to get in trouble."
"Shouldn't that be a good thing?"
She shook her head nack and forth. "Naoki-kun, it's expected for kids to get into all sorts of trouble. Even Madoka got into them all the time, and she's older than you."
The last part came out in a bit of teasing tone. Yeah, I don't really need to be reminded that Madoka is older than me by a month.
"And you can anwser this, I am sure. The train accident which lead to your mother's death was caused by these Shadows, right?"
I was speechless for a moment. "...no. While it is connected to the Shadow. But it was not caused by Shadows, rather by a Persona user."
It felt...really good to get that off my shoulder.
She nodded slowly. "And you know who this Persona user is?"
I shifted around. "I have a prime suspect."
"And the others in your group don't know this all, is that right too?" she asked seriously.
"They don't," I confirmed. "How did you come to this conclusion, if you don't mind me asking?"
She shook her head with a small smile. "I don't. It was actually quite easy once Kirijo-san explained what apathy syndrome was. And after hearing all the symptoms from Aragaki-san, I concluded that the train was a form Apathy syndrome, was I wrong?"
I frowned, I have forgotten for a bit how sharp she was. "No, you were pretty much spot on. The only thing you were wrong about is assuming that it was caused by Shadows."
She looked at me sadly, before she sighed. "Why didn't you tell your friends about it? Neither Kirijo-san nor Aragaki-san knew what caused psychotic breakdown incidents."
"It would have distracted them from everything going on here. I'll tell them this info later once we deal with everything."
She scrutinized me deeply before she relented. "In which case, have a good day, Naoki-kun. I will have to leave for work now."
"At this hour?" I asked while rasing my eyebrows.
She smirked in response. "Well, it seems like my excellent work has caught the attention of my boss's boss, and she invited me to have a longer talk with and her associates.
"Who knows, I may end being named the next CEO."
So, she's meeting with Mitsuru and some other Shadow Operatives. Most likely talking about previous incidents or talking about what she can do to help us.
Nonetheless, I was still somewhat skeptical. "Still, at this hour?"
"She could only free up some time in her early morning schedule," she said as she went to the door, "so I will have to catch a train at 5AM in order to make it there in time."
She opened the door I felt the cold breeze hit me. "Have a good day, Naoki-kun. Also, tell Madoka that I wish her one as well. I should be back by the afternoon."
After school we crowded in Ken's apartment, where the bodies of Tomoe Mami, Sakura Kyoko, and Miki Sayaka were.
I concentrated on summoning my Persona, and I have to say that just calling it harder to summon in the real world is a major misnomer. It feels basically impossible to summon it, and when I finally did I was barely able to scan them.
"Yeah, there's nothing in them. They feel like puppets," I said as I wobbled down onto the couch after I de-summoned my Persona.
"There still must be something that we could do!" trembled Madoka as she knelt down to look at Sayaka's body.
Alice turned to look at me and Ken. "Naoki! Ken-senpai! There must be a way to undo this all with Personas and Shadows, right?'
I frowned, "If Sayaka and others were to be conscious, then yes there could have been something we could have done. But, at the moment I just can't think of a way to turn her back..."
Ken turned to her with a tired look. "As far I know, the Shadow Operatives have never encountered something like this before, therefore, so all out usual efforts would not work."
I tried to think of a way to make this work, Sayaka confronting her Shadow is no go, on account of Sayaka being well...unconscious. She also can't shoot herself in the head, so we can't have her awaken to Persona that way. Izanami isn't around to grant a Persona, so that's also not going to fly. Ripping of your mask would also not work for a similar reason to using an evoker not to mention we have no access to Metaverse Navigator.
Hell, I am not even sure that gaining a Persona would even undo this whole thing.
I, then, decided to do something which I so far I have rarely done.
Any help? I asked my Persona.
Miki Sayaka's and others' souls are currently stuck in the depths of the Collective Unconscious.
Uh, that's great and all, but there is not really a way for us to get there...
Suddenly my eyes widened as I had a realization, Philemon and Nyarlathotep.
Yeah that's not gonna work. Nyarly will definitely not help us in this case. And I have literally no idea where the actual Philemon is.
Then Homura decided to speak up, "What about Igor, wouldn't he be able to help us?"
Ken appeared to be far more trusting of Igor, but somethin about the appearance of Igor was not adding up to me.
Perhaps, because Igor cannot be around, as he is currently trapped with Yaldabaoth taking over the Velvet Room.
Huh...Can't believe that I forgot that, even with Akechi running around, guess I've been too focused on everything happening around Mitakihara.
Or perhaps you didn't intentionally forget, but was made forget.
True...But in any case, who, exactly, is pretending to be Igor? Yaldabaoth?
Before I could think about this harder, footsteps could be heard in the apartment coming from a bedroom.
"Who's there?" asked Ken forcefully as Koromaru started to bark.
The door opened and a man wearing a cloak around his body with a theater mask on his face stepped out of the bedroom.
The man then took off his mask; my eyes grew wide, and my first thoughts were, Where the hell did he hide that nose?
Before us stood Igor—or the person who was pretending to be him. Whoever the person is, they definitely pulled of the look.
I scrutinized him. Well...not gonna lie, seeing him stand is definitely cursed...Also no really, where did he hide that nose?
The others' reaction was far more hostile towards him. With Alice quickly brandishing her spear and Takashi taking a defensive stance.
In the meantime, Ken, lowered his guard somewhat and Koromaru did the same.
"Igor," called out Homura, "can anything be done to help Miki Sayaka?"
Alice and Takashi also relaxed a bit after hearing this person is the Igor person that helped Homura.
Igor held his hand up to his chin. "Miki Sayaka's soul is currently too corrupted by grief, anger and madness, there isn't many things that can be done to save her."
His voice was definitely closer to the real one. But there's still a bit of a difference...
"You sound different," blurted out Madoka.
"Madoka?" asked Homura, who was next to her.
Madoka fumbled to explain. "I-I...had a weird dream before with him, but he had a deeper voice in that dream and he had two little girls as his... servants?"
Igor turned to look at her and muttered, "Curious...I was not informed of that..."
My eyebrows raised. Yaldabaoth was interfering as well? Great, just great...
Madoka continued to explain, "Then in the dream black butterflies surrounded us, and I can't really recall the most of it from there on..."
Well that's also complicates things. So, Nyarlathotep attacked Yaldabaoth after he dragged Madoka into the Velvet Room. Well I fucking hope that Nyarly actually just dealt with him fully, but I am not that lucky.
Igor cleared his throat. "In any even, you, Kaname Madoka, are invited to fuse Personas im my realm. And now to get back on topic, there's isn't much that can be done to save your friends."
"Surely something can be done!" shouted Alice, "You, yourself, said: '...there isn't many things that can be done to save her.', so there still must be something that we can do!"
Igor stared at her with an impassive look on his face. "The cave behind the Alaya shrine leads to the Sea of all Mankind's Soul. All souls are born there, and someday return there. Their souls is about to undergo that journey.
"Should you wish to save them go to the Alaya cavern and work together. Though, do be warned, if you choose this path there is a high likelihood that you fail and become part of the Sea."
"Well then, we got nothing to lose," I replied to him, "in any event we are going to put our lives at risk, therefore, it should be for some ideals that we believe in, or for someone that we care about."
Igor stared at me for a couple of seconds before he said to us, "Only those who have been called to the Sea of Souls can enter that cavern. You have all been called there. Work together to save the lost souls!"
After he finished saying that he vanished from our view.
Wait why did that sound familiar...?
Suddenly a memory popped up in my head of Philemon "...Maki Sonomura is about to return to that sea right now. It calls for you and for her ideal self. Now go! Only those who have been called may enter that cavern, work together to save the lost soul."
I let out a small laugh as a sly smirk graced my face as I looked at "Igor" So that's how it is...Philemon...
We eventually decided that we'll go there tomorrow. In the meantime we would stock up on all things we might need there.
Homura and I were the ones doing most of the stocking up, while the others discussed strategy, although I failed to see what they could realistically discuss and plan out.
"So..." I called out to my black haired companion, "you and Madoka?"
This is gonna be awkward as fuck.
"Yes, what of it?"
"You two are dating?" I asked.
Homura frowned. "We have chosen to decide our relationship after we beat Walpurgisnacht."
I nodded. "That's good,"—she looked at me curiously—"look, I am not gonna give you the Shovel talk. I can see how much you're devoted to Madoka, and I can also see that you'll pretty much never intentionally hurt her.
"And I can see that Madoka also really likes you...and well, I guess all I wanted was that I approve of you."
Homura hummed, but didn't reply. So, we continued to buy things.
After we stocked up, and after we delivered everything to Ken's place. We decided to do some training in a nearby labyrinth, as Homura called them, and during that training we encountered another problem.
"Madoka, what is going on?" asked Kamijou, while he frantically looked around the labyrinth. "Just what is going on Sayaka? Why is she missing?"
"Why do you think Sayaka has anything to do with this?" I asked carefully. I didn't really remember to know what my reply should have been, but it seemed like that was not it.
He narrowed his eyes. "Kaname-san, do you think I am an idiot?"
"No, not at all—"
"Then don't try to lie to me; I know that she is the reason why I healed—my Shadow revealed it to me."
Well...that's worrying...
I frowned, Madoka took that opportunity to speak up, "You're right, Kyosuke, Sayaka is, indeed, involved in this. We are trying to save her."
"Save her? Save her from what?" asked Kamijou.
Ken let out a small sigh and went to explain. And after he had finished explaining what happened, with the Witches, Incubator, and Sayaka's wish and fate; Kamijou's face darkened as he listened to Ken. "So, you will be attempting to rescue Sayaka in a day, right?"
Ken nodded along. "Correct, we are currently training for both the rescue and for our eventual fight against Walpurgisnacht."
Kamijou's face was serious as he looked Ken directly in the eyes. "In that case, allow me to join your group! I don't want my childhood friend to die when I could've done something to help her!"
Ken turned to look at us. "Does anybody have any objections?"
Alice shook her head. With Takashi following along. "No objections from me."
"Neither from me." said Madoka. Homura followed after Madoka by repeating what she said.
That only left me. "I have no objections either."
Ken smiled a little. "Well, welcome to the team then, Kamijou-san."
Kamijou let out a small breath of relief when he heard that.
"So what can your Persona do, and how exactly did you encounter your Shadow in the first place?" I asked hesitantly.
He looked to the side. "It was...an experience...I saw a black butterfly after I had a talk with Sayaka's parents, and for some reason I felt that I need to follow.
"After that I found myself in a weird world lile this, and there I ran into my Shadow. At first it tried to make me reject it, but I told it that I wanted to know where Sayaka was, and well after that he told me what happened to her, and even told about group who's planning the rescue her. You're that group, right?"
"We are," replied Ken as he looked over him.
What exactly were you planning, Nyarlathotep? Also gotta hand it him, accepting his Shadow without anyone present telling him to do it, is certainly something I wouldn't have done.
"As for what my Persona can do..." Kamijou muttered, "I can make my enemies weaker and my allies stronger I think..."
"Ah," said Alice, as she walked up to him "so you're a buffer and debuffer."
He blinked in confusion, not getting what Alice was saying. "Yes..."
"In any case, we should focus on the Witch for now," I said with a sigh, "also I would advise against following those black butterflies."
Kamijou nodded along. "Would it be a bad time to mention that a black butterfly lead me here as well?"
I frowned. Just what exactly are you planning, Nyarlathotep?
Ken shook his head. "That's...fine. We'll deal with that later. Now, we'll just focus on the Witch. You should accompany us."
We quickly dealt with the Witch and showed Kamijou some basic stuff in regards to Personas.
"So...Kyosuke. Can I call you Kyosuke?" asked Alice as we prepared to explain everything to him.
"You can...but I don't know your name though..." he replied.
Alice flushed in embarrassment as she introduced herself. What followed was everyone, whom he didn't know, introducing themselves to Kyosuke.
Once that was done Kyosuke spoke up, "Is it fine to use first names here?"
I waved it off. "Yeah, it's okay. We're a team, and...well it'd be kinda awkward to refer to everyone by last name with Madoka and I especially so..."
He nodded.
I glanced at Homura then and indicated that she should be the one to explain this.
She agreed with a sigh and started to explain what happened to Sayaka and what their plans were.
"You mean she..." asked Kyosuke, as he looked down on his hands, "...used her wish to heal me? And now she's a Witch because of me?"
"Ah...no, Sayaka-chan, actually wished for the ability to be able to heal everything and that..." Madoka explained trailing off towards the end.
"She still wished for that power because of me!" he yelled at her.
I saw an irritated look appear on Homura's, so I decided to intervene before she did. "Does it matter?"
He turned to look at me with glare, and went to say something, but I cut him off. "Look, she already made her wish, and there's nothing that can change. We should focus on the future instead of dwelling on the past. And in any event, we will rescue her tomorrow."
He took a deep breath. "I—I apologize for my outburst..."
"Nah, you're fine dude, but Naoki is right we will turn Sayaka and the others back to normal, so we shouldn't look to the past," said Alice.
"Thank you, Alice-sa..." he trailed just as he was saying the honorific.
"I think we should call it quits for today," said Takashi, "we should rest up and go to the that cavern after school is done."
"Is everyone fine with that plan?" I asked and everyone nodded.
"Homura-chan, you should spend the night with me again," said Madoka as she looked at Homura with pleading eyes.
"Madoka..." muttered the black haired girl with some reluctance.
However, that reluctant soon melted away as Madoka kept looking Homura in the eyes.
"Fine...I agree, but just today...tomorrow I'll go back to my apartment..." murmured and exhausted Homura.
Madoka, meanwhile, was smirking as she latched onto Homura's arm.
Honestly, Madoka, can you give the girl some rest? Ever since you awakened you've been glued to her side all day, every day...
We arrived back home, and I headed to brush my teeth, and then I hit the hay. We had a long day ahead of us, after all.
The cavern was not that different to the P1 version. Other than the fact that there was no maze to solve this time.
We entered a room black butterflies surrounded flew around. They all eventually coalesced into a person, a quite familiar person.
Huh, going for him again?
In front of us stood Nyarlathotep with the appearance of Hitler, he even had the shades on and had the Spear of Destiny in his hands.
Note to self: Don't get stabbed by that, I doubt the rumors have much affect at the present time, but I'd still want to avoid it.
"What the..." muttered Alice, apparently being weirded out by his appearance.
The others had a few more reactions, most of which were repulsion, disgust and anger.
Meanwhile, he smirked at us as he readied his spear in one hand.
"Should you wish to proceed, you must defeat me. But know that power of Nyarlathotep is very real!" he announced with a thick German accent.
"So, you're just a minion of the Crawling Chaos?" asked Takashi as he got ready to fight.
"No," I replied, "he isn't a minion, he is the Crawling Chaos."
Nyarlathotep growled as he took Uncle Tomohisa's appearance. "You just had to ruin the fun part, hadn't you? Anyway, why are you here?
"Didn’t, Phil warn you what would likely if you entered this cave?"
"Phil?" muttered Kyosuke in confusion.
Well, that confirms it 100%.
Homura stepped forward. "We were warned by Igor, but we decided on doing this anyway in the hope that we'll be able to return Mami, Sayaka, and Kyoko from being Witches."
He started to laugh loudly. "Really? Are you really going to throw away your future and the future of the city just to save three little girls, who made choices fully of their own free will."
"They were tricked by Kyubey, or were in a life threatening situation in Mami's case," replied Madoka sharply.
"Humans always try to get out of their responsibilities, you could have asked the Incubator everything, and he would have explained everything, but no!!! Instead of admitting fault, you blame it for your own faults.
"In any event, you already made your choice quite clear. Therefore, if you wish to rescue them, you must pass my trials. If you pass them, then I will turn them back into humans, and I will even grant them Personas."
I did not like the sound of him granting Personas, but this was out only chance.
"And what exactly are these trials of yours?" asked Ken as he readied his spear.
"Simple, you must defeat me, and then the three Witches in the depths of the Collective Unconscious, that's all. If you pass, then girls will wake up back in their original bodies."
Nyarlathotep then transformed into the Great Father. And my reaction was: Burn it with fire!
It looked somehow even more hideous than it did in P2.
I quickly scanned it. "It's weak to fire and electric. Koro-chan!"
The dog barked and unleashed a full powered fire spell on it.
"Homura! Takashi!" I shouted at them.
They summoned Personas with fire and electric spells and they went on the attack.
I then focused my attention on our debuffer and buffer. "Kyosuke! Debuff Nyarlathotep!"
This all went on for 20 minutes until Homura and Takashi were starting to get exhausted, so I prepared my next part of my plan.
I scanned him to make sure that he still had the resistances and weakness and then I ordered Homura and Takashi to withdraw and for Ken and Madoka to step up.
The two of them alone with Koromaru were able to inflict even more damage on Nyarlathotep while Takashi and Homura recuperated.
"Will I go up next?" asked an excited Alice.
"I'd prefer you not. We will need some people who are not exhausted against three Witches. Which reminds me, Takashi, you will be navigating that fight."
The boy in question looked up. "Okay, I'll try my best."
Soon a final electric spell from Ken caused him to groan as he transformed back into Hitler.
"You have done well—but if you think you're able to overcome those three, then your sorely mistaken."
I glared at him. "We'll see about that ourselves."
"Of course,"—he laughed—"I can't wait for you all to meet your end!"
And then he burst into tiny black butterflies, and soon disappeared.
"Alright..." murmured Ken, "this went beyond than expected. Now we just need to find—"
Before he could finish his sentence there was large rumbling felt through the cave.
"I think that's them," I said, as I started to scan. "They're a bit deeper into this cave."
We ventured further and further and further. And then we saw an entrance to another room in the end of the long hallway.
"I think this is it..." I said as we stopped just outside. We could all feel that vibrations and rumblings were coming form there.
I motioned to Ken, who stepped up. "Okay, everyone, this is our chance to save. We can do this."
Not the best motivational speaker, but it'll have to do, I thought as we stepped into the room.
Inside the room whete three unnatural looking beings. What I persumed to be Sayaka's had a bit of a resemblance to a mermaid, Sakura's was a...lighter riding a horse...Okay
And lastly was by far the smalles, and also by far the weakst. Surprisingly, it was also by far the most normal looking one.
"So, that's Sayaka..." muttered Kyosuke, "she looks like a weird nonsensical mermaid..."
"Most of them tend to look pretty nonsensical," I replied as I got ready for this fight. "Takashi, focus on Sakura's and Sayaka's."
"Got it!" he replied with determination. "Miki's is weak to Ice and Electric."
Ken, Madoka, and I went on the offensive against Sayaka's Witch first. However, it seemed like it'd not be that easy as Kyoko's Witch started to attack us after we hurt Sayaka.
"Homura-san, Alice-san, Koro-chan keep her distracted," ordered Ken.
Those three leapt into action and started to distract it.
Thankfully, Tomoe's Witch wasn't doing anything dangerous to us, so for the time being we were just letting it be.
I, then, refocused my attention on Sayaka's Witch as I summoned forth a few Personas to set stuff up.
"Black Frost. Bufudyne!" the evil Jack Frost emerged from the card that I crushed and it went in with the Ice attack.
We then started to dog pile it.
"Kala-Nemi! Maziodyne!" the strong electric spell shocked(pun not intended) the mermaids Witch as it started to fall to the ground.
"I'm sorry, Sayaka-chan," muttered Madoka, "Bufudyne." The Witch struggled to move off the ground as the ice attack hit it.
It looked really vulnerable at that moment. So, I went in to finish it. "Megidolaon!" I shouted as I unleashed my most powerful almighty attack.
This seemed to do the trick as we all breathed out sigh of relief as the Witch form of Sayaka fell out of the sky, with Sakura's soon following after her.
I looked over to the three that had eliminated Sakura's Witch form, and noted they looked like the keel over at any moment.
We then turned our attention to the last remaining Witch.
Takashi stepped up, "I'll do this. Persona! Megido!"
The almighty attack struck and the Witch was no more.
I gasped for breath as bright light surrounded us, and soon we found ourselves back in the real world, in an all to familiar shrine.
"We did it!" yelled Alice as she tackle hugged Takashi.
Madoka had a large smile on her face as her arms intertwined around Homura.
I, then, looked over to out newest member. "How you feeling?"
Kyosuke took a deep breath. "It...was certainly a lot more stressful than I was expecting it to be, and unlike you, I didn't even do anything—"
"Nonsense, you have done plenty and did you parts well," I interrupted him.
Kyosuke didn't seem to be that convinced, but he let it go. "Right...well I am glad that Sayaka is safe now..."
"That reminds me..." I muttered while I turned towards the others who were celebrating, "we should check in on the girls."