Chapter Text
Being so sick that I couldn't walk was not fun. Not to mention the revelation of him being my father.
Really just what I need that Fascists piece of shit being my father, just who could have been worse, Big Yahu maybe?
Wow, I can't believe that I am even entertaining the thought of a man committing a Genocide being just a bit worse than my actual father...
Well, I mean Nyarlathotep could be lying, but he wouldn't lie about something that could be disproven quite easily, and I am sure that this could be as well.
This also brought about some unpleasant realization. Oh god! Akechi is my half brother!
I will have to deal with that all at a later date, preferably around 2015–2016. Now I should focus on other thing.
Now on the bright side, I managed to catch up on quite a lot of books that I planned to read, not as much as I would've liked, but it's still a start.
I had kinda neglected it due to dealing with Witches prior, but now I was able to focus on it, mostly, and finished Cards on the Table by Agatha Christie.
Gotta say, even though I have no idea how to play Bridge, I should have expected the suspect to be—
My thoughts were interrupted by knocking on my door.
"Naoki-kun, can we come in?" asked Madoka from the other side. It was getting dark so it made sense for them to be back.
"Yeah, sure."
I had a vague idea I knew who she meant by the "we".
The two of them soon opened and passed through it. Madoka
Homura sat down on one of the creepy chairs in my room while Madoka was standing. "Naoki, are tou feeling well?"
I looked at her in the eyes. "Yeah."
"In that case, there's something I want to discuss with you. The Crawling Chaos had talked to me."
I raised an eyebrow. "Nothing too bad happened I hope."
"No nothing really, but he said that he was warning me about how I soon will face my self...?"
That sounds like he was telling her that she will soon encounter her Shadow Self.
"I currently persume that he was talking about the Shadow Self, would you agree?" she asked.
"Yes..." I muttered, "that would make the most sense, and I am not looking forward to it."
To say I am not looking forward to it would be an understatement, I thought to myself, I would absolutely despise it.
Nevertheless, I didn't see any way out of this whole thing, so I'll try to accept my Shadow, hopefully it'll work.
"Hello," I said to all the new members of the group as we gather in Ken's apartment, we gathered a bit late, due to Madoka spending time with Homura and Hitomi.
Tomoe, seemed to be glad about something, Sakura, on the other hand, was grinning at me with a gleaming look in her eyes.
And Sayaka, was...Sayaka; she looked very distrustful of almost everyone present.
"So...did you all join our group?" I asked them.
"We did," answered the red head, "well, to be more accurate, Mami and I did."
She then pointed at Sayaka. "This idiot refused to join, and I don't know why she's even here.'
Sayaka glared at her. "I am here because I don't want to give up on you and Mami!"
I side eyed her. "Right...well sure come along..."
"Are you an idiot too like Pinkie here? She shouldn't come along." Sakura said.
Homura glared at her at that remark.
"I'll have you know, my little grey cells are of adequate quality and quantity," I replied.
Sakura stared at me with a confused look before shrugging and moving on.
"So can anyone tell me what was discussed, Alice sent quite a lot of messages. Most of which I had no idea what to make of."
Takashi winced at the side. "Ah, yeah, that. Well, Alice wanted us to adopt a team name. She kind of messaged all of us individually..."
I raised my eyebrows. It certainly felt like we'd need something other than just group, but I struggled to think of a good name.
"Well, what were the suggestions?" I asked.
Kyosuke cleared his throat. "The former Magical Girls group from Kyoko-san."
I had flat look at that name. "Most of us weren't Magical Girls."
He continued. "The Holy Group, from Mami-san."
"Not really feeling it."
"The Fighters of Justice for Mitakihara from Alice-san."
I turned to look at the girl in question before turning back to Kyosuke. "We are not a Super Sentai team."
"The Specialized Extracurricular Witch Hunting Squad, or S.E.W.H.S..."
Gonna be honest, so far that sounds the best, and I am pretty sure I know from whom it came from.
"...from Ken-senpai. And the Witch Hunting Club from Madoka."
"That sounds the best. How many are in favor of it?"
"As of today, Takashi-kun, Homura-chan, and I are in favor," said Madoka, "are you saying that you'll support it as well Nao-chan?"
I shuddered at that nickname. Meanwhile, on the side Alice snickered, "Nao-chan? Hehehe...."
"Yeah, sure," I answered Madoka's question without saying anything about her awful nickname.
"Great, that means we got by far the most voted for name for our group, with a majority, therefore, we will be called the Witch Hunting Club, right, Ken-senpai?"
The boy in question sighed aloud. "Yea, okay, we'll be called the Witch Hunting Club then. In any event, I'll have to do somethings for the student council, Naoki-san, and for the Shadow Operatives, so we'll do our normal training a bit later. Is that fine with all of you?"
We all nodded, well except for Sayaka, and we ordered some food to celebrate the naming of our group.
I made my way over to the park after school to relax a bit after everything, but there I encountered an unexpected sight.
Alice, except something wasn't quite right with her, she was down on the ground leaning against a tree with her hands in her face.
She was also crying, and no, not in the fake crocodile tears she usually shead, but actual sobs.
I approached her slowly.
"Hey," I said.
She looked up at me with suprise. "Oh...Naoki, what...are you doing here?"
I stared at her for a second. "I came here to relax, what about you?"
She stared at the ground as I sat down next to her. "...I...just came here to...get away..."
"Get away from who?" I inquired.
"...Ken-senpai," she muttered after a moment.
At my inquisitive look she elaborated, "I confessed my crush to him...and he..."
Wait, wait, wait, she had a crush on Ken? And judging by her reaction, it did not go well, her confession I mean.
"I take it...that he didn't share the same feelings."
She started to cry again and I hugged her instinctively. She cried into my shoulder for a few minutes.
"...You must think...I am a mess..." she muttered.
"Nonsense," I said, "you're just getting over being rejected. Though, I didn't expect you to have a crush on Ken. By the way, I am going to talk to him about somethings, do you want to..." I trailed off, not fully what I wanted to say.
She shook her head. "No...I don't really want for you to talk him about me..."
I nodded and there was silence for a minute between as we sat on the ground.
"Who did you expect me to have a crush on?" she asked suddenly with some of her positive emotions back and got out of the hug.
I scratched the back of my head. "No one, to be honest, I didn't expect you to have a crush on anyone."
"Well, at least that's better than what Homura thought. I can't believe that she thought that I had a crush on..." she trailed as he seemed to realize something and she also flushed red.
"Who did she think you had a crush on?" I asked trying to lighten the mood some more.
She quickly answered, "Not important, anyway, I should go to Homura, I promised that I would no matter what happened, and I already wasted quite a bit of time. Thank you for talking with me."
So, the girl quickly rushed out of the park, as she headed towards Homura's place, or most likely my place as Homura was pretty much living there now.
Ken hummed at what I told him. I was, originally, going to keep this a secret from anyone till we defeated Walpurgisnacht, but that reveal by Nyarlathotep made me reconsider a few things.
It also felt a bit awkward to talk to Ken after everything that happened in the park with Alice, but it wasn't like I could comment anything about the fact that he didn't feel that way about Alice, so I just talked with him normally.
"How exactly did you discover this?" he asked with raised eyebrows.
Koromaru lay at his feet.
Right, I left out a bit...
"In truth, I have been investigating these mental shutdown incidents for a few weeks, and well, you will find all the data that I managed to compile hint towards a human being the culprit. You'll also find some date from the really early incidents where it's obvious that it was done for the benefit of someone, that someone is most likely Masayoshi Shido."
The data was not that great at indicating at Shido as I would have liked, but, unfortunately, I was not able to do much more without pulling data from my ass.
Thankfully, at least, I managed to get something with all the knowledge I had.
"What brought this on, if you don't mind asking?" Ken asked, something his demeanor, though, seemed a bit different.
"How good are you at keeping secrets?"
He hummed. "I would say that I am pretty good at it, why?"
I then explained what happened yesterday between Nyarlathotep and Aunt Junko and I, along with the revelation of Shido.
He winced at that. "I am sorry if that brought back bad things..."
"No, it's fine. It's just...I'd rather not see that man ever again, especially if he's behind the Mental Shutdown occurrences."
He hummed as Koromaru walked over to me; I petted the dog and Ken replied, "Right, I'll get this to Misturu to take a closer look at it, unfortunately, I don't much will come of it."
I kind of expected that, nevertheless, I was still a bit happy to help, and to hopefully make Shido's life harder. Especially if the Shadow Operatives are able to do something when the Phantom Thieves show up.
"Right," I muttered, "I'll guess I'll go back home then, have a good day Ken-senpai."
He held up his hand. "Before you do that, I have something that I want to show you as well."
He went a drawer and pulled out a paper, he then handed it to me.
At first I wasn't sure what I was looking at, well that was till I managed to get a closer look at it.
It was some kind of paternity test, with Ken and...Shido, proving that he was Shido's child.
Oh come on! At this point the universe must taking the piss on me! Now we just need the Futaba being Shido's child theory to be true, and then this'll be real fun!
"I am not calling you Niisan," I said and Ken had to stifle back laugh at that.
"Well..." I then muttered, "this could actually prove to be helpful to verify if what the Crawling Chaos said was true..."
Ken nodded. "We'll do that after Walpurgisnacht."
I, too, nodded along to that. "Question, why do you even have this?"
"Mitsuru-san wanted to know who might be my dad, to hopefully reunite us, after we learned what type of man he was...let's just say that we didn't go through the original plan."
Huh...
I sighed aloud. "Well, in any event, we should talk a bit more about...this all if we get some confirmation."
Ken nodded in response. "We should."
I then left the apartment after that, my mind completely full of the absurd thing that I have just learned.
I got home and the first thing is that I made my way over to Madoka's room. "Come in..." came from the other side as I knocked.
Homura sat on one of the many creepy chairs in the room, with Madoka brushing her hair.
"Nao-chan, what did you want to talk about?"
I still did not like that name, but, I had other problems, so I didn't dwell on it for long. "Has Aunt Junko told you about our encounter with the Crawling Chaos?"
Madoka frowned. "Mama did, but there were things she refused to comment, unless you agreed with allowing us to know." I took a deep breath at that.
I, then, replied "Good, I'll have to thank her later. I should explain what happened then."
And so, I explained everything to them about what happened yesterday.
"I guess that explains why Mana was reluctant to talk about it...Naoki, are you alright?"
"I am fine."
Madoka looked like she got more concerned from that reply, and scooted up close to me and hugged me.
I was tempted to push her away, I didn't usually like hugs, but this was Madoka, so I held back that urge.
"Is there something else we can do?" asked Madoka of me.
"I'd prefer if you don't tel anyone else at the present time, so only, you, Homura, and Ken-senpai should know this."
"You told Ken-senpai?" she asked in astonishment. "Wait why shouldn't the others know?"
"Because he's a bastard," said the black haired girl in the chair.
"Homura-chan!" Madoka shouted, with a scandalized look.
My eyes widened. "How do you..." I muttered before I realized how she knew it.
"Right, time loops. Well, that's not entirely right, it's a part of it I'll admit, but I am sure the others would be fine with that part, the bigger problem is who my biological father is."
Homura looked at me with curiosity. "Who?"
I took a deep breath. "Does the name Masayoshi Shido mean anything?"
Both Homura and Madoka looked pensive, yet in the end both shook their heads.
"Not particularly."
"No."
"So who's he?" asked Madoka.
"He's an up and coming politician, and he's the most likely suspect behind the mental shutdown and psychotic breakdown cases."
Madoka's eyes widened. "But...but isn't the reason Auntie is dead is because of a mental shutdown incident?"
"That's precisely it," I told her as I looked her in the eyes.
"So, that means..." Madoka muttered.
"He's the one responsible for the Death of my Mother, among other crimes he committed."
I didn't feel like revealing the fact that Ken is also his child to them that should be something he should reveal if he wants to, of course.
"That's horrible!" yelled Madoka as Homura put her right hand on her shoulder.
I nodded. "It is. That's why I don't want you to talk about him till we defeat Walpurgisnacht. I don't want to make them worry about that and me, while we have something else to worry about."
Madoka looked uncertain but as I stared her in the eyes, she eventually acquiesced.
Homura, on the other hand, was far easier to convince, and she didn't really argue against it.
"Alright everyone," said Ken as we gathered infront of a few nearby labyrinths I detected, "this will be out first time working together for Mami-san, and for Kyoko-san. To get some experience, they will be in the group headed by...me, Kyosuke-san you will also be in this group, is that fine with you?"
"Eh, yeah," said the boy in question.
Ken nodded. "And Takashi-san will be the navigator for this group. As for the other group, that will be headed by Homura-san, in it will be Madoka-san, Alice-san and Koro-chan. And Naoki-san will be navigating."
Out of the three of us, Alice was the worst at navigating, that is not to say she was bad at it, but she wasn't as good as Takashi and I. As a result she was more often a part of the group that fights Witches and their familiars due to having multiple Personas.
In any case, there was not a lot that that Takashi and I did during the whole Witch fights. The two of us stayed back and just told the others the weaknesses.
This would be the first time we split up like this and I wasn't quite sure how effective this would be, but we had three working navigators unlike prior and future Persona groups, so it made sense to use that to our advantage and to split up.
Unfortunately, that splitting up caused quite a bit of problems almost immediately.
When we entered the Labyrinth I was all alone. I looked and called out for the others, but no one appeared to be here.
Is this my trial? I wondered to myself.
"Sure is," said a sarcastic voice. One that I recognized.
I turned around to see my Shadow being there.
"Hastur!" I desperately called out to my Persona, but nothing came out.
"Pryo Jack!" I called out to another Persona that I had on me, but similarly nothing happened.
"We can't have that, can we?" my Shadow asked rhetorically.
I narrowed my eyes. "I guess we can't. What exactly do you want from me?"
It hummed. "Unfortunately, the rules don't allow me to talk about the first part, so I'll just talk about everything from when you got here—"
"Wow, rules working in my favor, that's a first," I said mockingly as I interrupted him
It threw me a glare. "You don't really care about getting justice for you dear old mom, do you? The only reason you pretend to do is because that makes things easier for you, you even pretend to yourself that you want justice, whereas you only do this all to participate in up coming events."
I hummed. "You're...right...while I do actually want justice for the death of someone, I also don't care enough to press hard for it. And why would I?
"Why would you indeed? It's not like that's the reason you used to get little Madoka to agree with you."
"Madoka hadn't seen her in over 8 years. Even with all her memories from the loops, her vision of her aunt is not full.
"I on the other hand, knew her quite well, too well in fact, I would say."
My Shadow as it leaned in close to me.
"It's to bad that you will most likely win against Walpurgisnacht, that egotistical outlook should not be tolerated to exist."
"Am I wrong?" I asked
It scowled. "What has that got to do with everything, the problem is not that you're wrong, the problem is how you treat your supposed friends and your family."
"I don't really care at this point, I have already said to Madoka that I plan to be more open towards the others, and I already told her and Homura quite a bit, so I don't see the need to have this talk."
"A good friend does not Naoki make, this discussion of ours is finished, you at least know what you are and are not trying to deceive yourself."
I nearly laughed aloud at that. "Wow...I don't mean to insult you, but you sounded so snobby with that with the first part of that statement."
My Shadow didn't really react to it, but I could have sworn that I saw its eyes twitch.
"I suppose you are right in that regard; however, you are also included in that."
It then began to dissipate and I fell to the ground on my knees from the exhaustion.
I am thou, thou art I
Thou hast accept the truth within thyself.
"Poirot..." I muttered at my new Persona.
Unfortunately, I didn't have enough time to process everything as I heard a thud from nearby.
I quickly remembered that Homura was also in the place, so I rushed over to where the sound came from.
My friend was on the ground with her Shadow looking down on her.
"Homura!" I shouted as I rushed over.
Her Shadow glanced at, but didn't say anything, instead it continued to focus on the girl. "The truth is that you hate everyone!"
"I...don't..." trembled Homura as she tried to get back up.
"It's the truth!" the Shadow yelled. "You hate Mami for her loneliness, she always puts having companions over the safety them! You hate Sayaka for her stubbornness, she always makes the same mistakes!
"You hate Kyoko for her selfishness, she always puts her desires over everyone elses. You hate Ken for he did nothing while he had that power in all prior loops. You hate Alice for being able to make friends with everyone in the group. You hate Kyosuke for always causing Sayaka to turn into a Witch.
"You hate Takashi for turning the others against you in the beginning. You hate Naoki for not doing nearly enough to stop Madoka from contracting.
"You even hate Madoka for her selflessness, for always putting everyone over herself. She always cares about everyone else, but not you! You hate that she never listens to you! You hate that she always makes a wish despite your warnings! You hate that she always trusts Mami, but not you!
"You hate them all! Admit it! You're a hateful girl whose only aim in life is Madoka, yet that very girl couldn't care less about you!"
The girl fell back to the ground with tears in her eyes. "That's not true...that's not true!" came out from her. At first it was a whisper, but then it turned into a shout.
I quickly kneeled down to her level and laid a hand on her shoulder. "Homura, I know this can be hard, but she's a part of yourself—"
She pushed my hand away and cut me off, "She's not! She's not me!"
Her eyes turned back to the Shadow. "You're not me!"
Ah shit! Well, every Shadow encounter up to this point was a bit too easy, so I guess we had this coming.
The Shadow laughed. "That's right, I am me now. I am not you anymore, and unlike you, I will make sure to dispose of the things I hate!"
It began to transform, and Homura collapsed to the ground. "I am a Shadow, the true self! I'll start this all by crushing you, Naoki!"
Shit!
Thankfully, Poirot got quite and upgrade compared to Hastur. So it wasn't quite as bad as it would have been.
I quickly scanned it, and then launched Nuclear Attacks against it.
I then quickly switched to another Persona. This dance went back and forth for a solid 20 minutes, thankfully I had enough stuff on me to make it very difficult for the Shadow to win.
"Megido!" I yelled out as I unleashed the Almighty Attack.
The Shadow crashed to the ground. And Homura started to wake up.
I quickly went to her side. "Homura, I know this can be painful, but the Shadow is a part of you, and one you will need to accept."
She sobbed on the ground, and no matter what I said to her she didn't seem to listen. I tried to be louder; however, my throat still hurt after yesterday.
So, I gathered up all my strength and shouted at her, snapping her out.
She finally stopped crying and looked up at me. "Why...why do you...believe in...me, I am just...a useless girl who...can't accomplish anything..."
I knelt down. "Homura, you're a dear friend to me, I know you can do this. Plus if I left you, then Madoka will be really angry with me, and I don't wanna have that."
She laughed a bit at that joke, then she stood up shakely, with me helping her and making sure she doesn't fall down.
"I...agree that I hate those aspects of the people you listed, nevertheless, they are still my friends, and I...want to help them, I don't want to do this anymore, I don't want to loop anymore..."
The Shadow stared at her for a minute, then it dissipated.
Her Soul Gem flashed, then it disappeared, and her evolved Persona appeared behind her.
"Lachesis..." she muttered as she tried to get up
"How are you feeling?" I asked as I helped her.
"Exhausted...both mentally and physically..." replied Homura, somewhat strained, "I also don't know how to talk to Madoka after this."
"Healthy communication is good for everyone involved in a relationship. Just tell her what transpired here, I am she will not have problems with all of this."
Homura trembled as I helped her walk. "I...am...not sure..."
"Look, Homura, all your Shadow talked about was disliking some aspects of a person. Just because you don't something about someone doesn't mean you can't be friends with them or even date them.
"All I am saying is that, I am sure Madoka will be receptive to what you say as long you don't phrase it like how your Shadow did."
The girl pondered as we made our way out of the weird labyrinth. "Alright. I will do that then."
Once we exited the labyrinth, we found ourselves outside, we were surrounded by everyone else.
"Homura-chan!" yelled Madoka as she rushed over to hug the girl in question. "Are you okay? Does ot hurt anywhere? I can cast a healing speel any moment should there be a need to!"
Homura blushed as Madoka fretted over her.
I coughed drawing her attention to me. "What am I chopped liver?"
Madoka flushed. "Do you need any healing spell, Nao-chan?"
"Yeah, I could do with a small healing spell. Also you should work on your obsession on Homura."
"Ha, she got you there, Pinkie," said Kyoko as Madoka pouted and got to casting a Dia.
During the time in which Madoka healed I turned my head towards the others, and to be more specific to Sayaka.
She was leaning against on the ground unconscious. "Is she okay?" I asked the other.
"Yeah, she's fine," said Kyoko, "blueberry just followed us into the labyrinth and had an encounter with one of those Shadow Selves, and they did not like each other. Luckily pretty boy, and other pretty boy managed to smooth things out once we defeated it, and she accepted it."
Well that's five Shadow Selves now. Hopefully there will not be anymore. We only have 5 remaining days after all, to prepare for Walpurgisnacht.
Sayaka suddenly started to get up. "Whoa, there," said Kyosuke as he helped her up slowly.
She looked around with a dazed look before her vision seemed to clear up.
"I-I," she stammered out as she looked at us. "I...am sorry, I know that this apology means probably nothing, but—"
Madoka smiled and quickly hugged the girl completely interrupting Sayaka before she could finish her sentence. "You can be really stubborn and unreasonable at times, but you're still my best friend, Sayaka-chan, of course I forgive you."
Kyoko smacked the blue haired girl's shoulder lightly. "Yeah, what Pinkie said, just...don't do something like that again."
Kyosuke, meanwhile, hugged her from the side. "Yeah, you're out friend, Sayaka."
Sayaka started to cry. "I...don't deserve such good friends..."
This is sweet.
"So, do you want to join us now, Sayaka?" I asked after she calmed down.
"I...would like to, if the offer is still on the table."
Ken glanced at us all. "Does anyone have anything against allowing Sayaka-san to join?"
No one spoke up against it, thus Ken quickly said, "In that case, welcome to the team, Sayaka-san."
We all gathered in Ken's place to do some last minute preparation and planning. With everything that we learnt from Homura and Madoka, we figured that this would not be an easy fight, but we still had hope about it.
"Alright, Sayaka-san, you are particularly suited to be pur healer, so you will also be on the back with Kyosuke-san, Naoki-san, and Takashi-san," explained Ken to the blue haired girl.
After that whole fiasco with Sayaka's Shadow, we discovered that Sayaka's Persona was really in good in healing.
This made it so that she would always be in the back as her combat powers were less than adequate.
She didn't seem to totally like it, but there wasn't much she could argue about, so the four of us were constantly in the back, Takashi and I to help with navigating for such a large group, Kyosuke to be buffer and debuffer, and now Sayaka to be healer.
We also pretty much decided against splitting up after that whole incident, which was probably for the best, given that Kyoko and Mami had plenty of experience, so the fact that Ken took them to get experience didn't make much sense.
"Alright everyone, we only have a day until Walpurgisnacht arrives. We should all mentally prepare ourselves," said Ken as he glanced over us all. "Naoki-san, you'll be our primary navigator for this fight, Takashi-san will be our reserve navigator. Sayaka-san will be our healer and Kyosuke-san will be our...buffer and de-buffer. That means that you four will be on the back."
The four of us nodded. "Good," said Ken as he turned to look towards the others, "that means the rest of you'll be on the front in two formation. First, in front will be Madoka-san, Homura-san, and Alice-san, since those three can use multiple Personas, next to their back will be Kyoko-san, Mami-san, Koromaru and me."
We all agreed and decided to do some last minute preparations, which included gathering healing and other items.
Thankfully, the Shadow Operatives were ready to send us most of them, which I, and the others really appreciated.