Chapter 115

Akihiko awoke from one of his many nightmares in which Miki, Shinjiro and Bagman appeared so often, and like every time he looked around frantically before realizing that he was currently hospitalized in one of Tokyo's biggest hospitals and not being chased by a crazy Bagman who was armed with an armada of lighters. He looked to his side and could make out the blurred outlines of Mitsuru and Naoto who were talking as quietly as possible with each other in the corner. He blinked a few times to get the sleep out of his eyes and be able to see better and than said with hoarse voice that he hadn't used in a while due to him constantly sleeping: "Any news?"

"Akihiko.", Mitsuru only said as an answer and took the chair on which he had been sitting over to him. "How are you?"

"... Just like the last days: My whole upper body feels like it's been hit by a truck. Ugh, and I think I'm gonna go crazy if I can't get back to my daily training soon!", he replied and then questioningly looked at Naoto who had also moved her chair toward him. Looking at Naoto Shirogane who suddenly had breasts and wore clothes that were more female was still quite an unusual sight to behold.

"After analyzing the corpse's DNA that we found in that house and were able to identify as Yosufu Bagman and your father as well we continued searching Bagman's house.", Naoto answered the question he had asked when he'd woken up.

Akihiko got a slight queasy feeling at the mention of him being related to the old man.

"... And?", he asked.

"We didn't find anything unusual inside his house.", Naoto said. "The only impressive thing was that sheer gigantic shelf full of books in his living-room, full of very old and historical books and likes. And also..." She stopped shortly and wrinkled her forehead. "Well, while the whole shelf was propped full of books written by Goethe and the likes there was also a very small part that where books of another genre had been place."

"Which are?", Akihiko continued to ask and tried to sit up. In the end he had to give up due to the pain which shot through his body, and had to be helped begrudgingly by Mitsuru who rearranged his pillows.

"Books made mainly for children to read.", Naoto said. "All of them situated in the fantasy genre. All of them apparently randonly chosen. Each except one of them stopping after one volume if there was more than one." She sighed. "Looking at their state, it was probably the Shadow who had bought them, and not the real Yosufu Bagman."

"What's the series that has more than one volume?", Akihiko still continued to question her.

"Harry Potter."

"Heard a lot about that, but never read it."

"Well, like practically everybody know it is about a boy who becomes a wizard.", Naoto explained. "I had read it back then to see what all the hubbub about it was. It's quite a decent series, I'd say. I have no idea why it was exactly this series that he bought whole, but he must have quite liked it. Especially the fifth book looks quite used."

"Hmm..."

"But while his house did not yield anything special, we did find another corpse buried in his garden.", Naoto continued and Akihiko immediately went clairaudient again. "It has already been identified as a missing eighteen years old woman that has been missing for about a year. And if we take Yamagishi-sensei's statements about Mr. Bagman into consideration, it becomes obvious that this had been done by the real Bagman, not his Shadow."

Akihiko looked to the side in disgust. He had thought, no hoped, that his father wouldn't have been as pathetic as his Shadow, but now it seemed like this had just been proven differently.

"And another thing...", Mitsuru started to say slowly, and Akihiko looked at her. "The sister and the sister's daughter that Bagman's Shadow had told you about... We've found out where they're living..."

"I don't want to see them.", Akihiko said immediately and looked down at his hands that he had balled to fists now, his knuckles turned white.

"Aki-"

"If only I had been more careful in investigating them, then Nanako Dojima wouldn't have been kidnapped!", it suddenly broke out of him. "The only thing I did back then was check whether he really does have a sister and niece! If only I'd continued to investigate further-"

"But that's not those two's fault!", Mitsuru interrupted him. "Please, Akihio! You finally have relatives who-"

"I don't want to see them!", Akihiko repeated, this time much louder than before, and grabbed his stomach in pain the next moment. Mitsuru was about to help him, but she knew that Akihiko would not appreciate it in his current condition and stopped herself.

"Mitsuru-san has also looked through the old Kirijo Groups documents again, this time even going through ones that seemed unrelated or unimportant.", Naoto continued. Mitsuru shook her head as if to silence her, but she continued: "Most documents were, like expected, just too burned or heavily coded, but in one of them was some hidden information back when he still called himself `Sanada´. We could also confirm the identity of your mother, Akihiko-san: she was named `Akiko Sanada´."

Akihiko looked up at her again. "Akiko...", he repeated.

"Naoto-san, please. We shouldn't stress him too much for now.", Mitsuru interrupted.

"I know that his condition still isn't the best, but if we are to overrun him shocking news like this, I think it would be best if it was all at once.", Naoto tried to explain.

Mitsuru looked at her sternly for a moment before she sighed and nodded.

"Akiko Sanada had taken on Bagman's family named after marrying him, just like most women do.", Naoto explained and didn't look to happy about the possibility of having to do the same someday since she quite liked her family name, it being one known for its rather famous detectives. "Looking through official documents related to other people is not that difficult with all the connections we have everywhere, and in the end we found out the name she had been given at birth."

"Even though this is of interest to me, how exactly does it-", Akihiko started to ask.

"Akiko Dojima."

Akihiko's eyes widened in disbelief the next moment. "What?!"

"Her name was Akiko Dojima before she married Bagman.", Naoto repeated. "And whatever Bagman's Shadow is planning, it has now become clear that the reason he is so obsessed with capturing Nanako-chan is that she is - however closely or distantly it may be - related to Akiko Dojima."

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Nanako woke up from her sleep all of a sudden.

"... Big Bro?", she asked into the dark room in which she had been sleeping mere seconds ago together with Philemon and looked around in confusion. She grabbed Philemon who protested with a squeak, closed her eyes and concentrated. "Big Bro is... downstairs in the living-room together with some of the others. But..." She concentrated again. "Then why...?"

She shook her head, threw the blanket to the side and qietly went downstairs, careful not to wake any of the others that were already asleep.

"Big Bro?", she said after opening the door, and saw her cousing who was sitting on the couch together with Kanji, Kou, Chie and Teddie who had fallen asleep, his head resting on Yosuke's laptop and drooling all over the keyboard's `H´ button.

"Hmm? What's wrong, Nanako-chan?", Souji asked her and stood up from where she was sitting, effectively waking up Teddie who jumped up in shock and then fell to the ground rather painfully. The cat Felix which had been sitting on his lap, hissed loudly, scratched him a few times and then ran away.

"Man, are you sure you're not related to Failsuke?", Chie only sighed.

"Ouch...", Teddie whined, stood up slowly and suddenly looked at Souji in excitement. "Sensei, Sensei! I just had the most amazing dream ever! We were masked thieves and Felix was suddenly able to speak and we were wandering through a mysterious place called `The Palace´ and we were hunting demons that become our Personas when we captured them and we stole the hearts of bad people and Naoto was a police officer who was going after us and trying to catch us and then she was suddenly the Final Boss and-"

"Nanako-chan?", Souji asked again, ignoring Teddie who was now moaning loudly since Chie had taken over Yosuke's job of whacking his head.

"I...", Nanako started to say, still a bit confused. "You're here..."

"Um, yes.", Souji said.

"But... you were at the beach before.", Nanako said.

"Uh, yeah. This afternoon. Together with the others. But you know that."

Nanako shook her head. "No, a few moments ago you were there.", she corrected him. "I felt you being at the beach."

Souji looked at her, puzzled. "That can't be, Nanako-chan. I've been in the living-room the entire time ever since we came back.", he explained to her.

"Hmhmm, I can confirm it.", Chie agreed.

"Maybe you jus' had a bad dream?", Kanji suggested.

"No, Big Bro was at the beach.", Nanako insisted, slighlty sullen. "Together with Patty-chan and-" But she stopped and her eyes widened.

"Huh? But Hiro and Patty were together.", Souji remembere.

Nanako had closed her eyes for a fews seconds and then looked at the others in worry the next moment. "Patty-chan is lying on the beach and is unconscious!", she said and immediately ran toward the entrance door.

"What?! Hey, Nanako-chan!", Souji called after her and started sprinting towards the door as well, yelling at the other three: "Gather the others and then come to the beach!" She stormed toward the huge veranda and had just about enough time to see Nanako vanishing behind a bush and into the forest. "Nanako-chan, wait!" She also ran into the forest, catching up to her nieces. `Patty is unconscious...?´, she thought at the same time and her look darkened. `Did Hiro do something to her?!´

"No, Hiro-kun didn't do anything to her.", Nanako said.

Souji looked at her with wide eyes and had almost stopped dead in her tracks.

"Oh, I'm sorry.", Nanako apologized, still running through the thicket.

"You can-"

"Yes. A while after Jack Fr- Philemon had come to stay with us I had started to hear people's thoughts.", Nanako confirmed and took a sharp left turn, avoiding a tree that Souji almost crashed into. "I got used to blocking out other people's thoughts, but sometimes I forget to do so." She dodged several other trees as if she could see perfectly through the darkness.

`More of Philemon's powers, I'm sure...´, Souji thought, trying her best not to break her neck while keeping up with her cousin.

They really did find Patty lying unconsciously on the beach a few minutes later.

"Hey, Patty!", Souji shouted and nerviously looked around for possible attackers before she knelt down, shovele some sea water into her hands and threw it at Patty's face. "Patty!", she yelled again.

"Nnn...", the red head groaned moments later.

"Oh, gut...", Souji sighed in relief. A little bit further in the forest she could hear the others stumbling through the thicket. She looked at Nanako who was kneeling down a bit further away from them.

"There should be some wreckage lying around here...", she mumbled and felt around in the sand with one hand while steadily holding the slightly shaking Philemon in her other. "But there's nothing here... What is...?"

"Heeey!", someone shouted from the thicked before Chie shot out of it, followed by Yukiko who was trying to get some twigs out of her long hair, and nearly everyone else.

"Where's Yosuke?", Souji asked.

"Still sobbin' and whinin' in his room.", Kanji answered and rolled his eyes before they all turned to Patty who had slowly sat up, moaning slightly in pain.

"Patty-chan, how are?", Fuuka asked her while Rise and Yukiko both took a look at the rather huge bump on the back of her head.

"... A bit nauseous.", Patty replied, face pale.

"Who did that you?! Hiro?!", Souji asked her, furious.

Patty looked at him in shock. "No!", she immediately said, but Souji didn't really look convinced. "No, he really didn't! He-" She looked around. "Wh-where is he?!"

"Probably ran away after knocking you out.", Kou said and looked around the beach with the others for any traces of Hiro.

"I already said that he didn't do anything!", Patty snarled.

"He didn't do that to Patty-chan.", Nanako confirmed, still feeling around the sand. "Someone else attacked Patty-chan and Hiro-kun."

"Hmm? Who?", Teddie asked and knelt down next to her to see what Nanako was doing. Philemon squeaked loudly.

"Ouch!", Teddie shouted, being thrown away the next moment.

"Philemon?!", Nanako asked, puzzled, and looked at the stuffed doll that had just thrown away Teddie with an energy blast. The small god only looked at Teddie and growled in warning.

In that same moment Souji saw an older person fall to the ground before her inner eyes, just like she had seen this afternoon, but she shook her head. She had more urgent things to do than having day dreams.

"I didn't do anything! Why is everyone so mean to me today?", Teddie whined.

"Hmm...", Souji hummed and knelt down next to her cousin. Philemon looked at her in question, but growled the next moment when Souji grabbed Teddie and shoved him towards the doll. "Seems he doesn't like you.", Souji guessed and shoved the blond Shadow away again before Philemon could harm him once more. She remembered Igor's words about how Philemon had first sought out Teddie as his vessel, but then chose Nanako instead. Did it have something to do with that?

Again she shook her head and said to Nanako: "You said it wasn't Hiro who did this to Patty?"

"It was someone else.", her cousin answered. "But Hiro-kun managed to cut it into thousand pieces which should be lying here, but aren't anymore. And I could feel you here on the beah at that moment, Big Bro. But then..." But she stopped and whirled around. "Oh, no...!"

The other looked at her questioningly.

"Yosuke-kun..."

"What's wrong with Failsuke?", Chie asked her, puzzled, then jumped up in shock when there was suddenly a loud explosion that came from the mansion.

"It... It just kidnapped Yosuke-kun!", Nanako shouted in horror.

"What?!"

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No matter how many times he wandered through the TV world, no mater where he searched, he just couldn't find what he was searching for. And again and again the paths he took ende at the same point: The bloody arena that was situated at a rather remote area of this world. And yet still...

"Spin..."

"Measure..."

"Snip..."

The three icy voices that he had already heard the first time when his original had decided to invade her back then could be heard throughout the entire arena the moment he took a step over the threshold, and the next moment three female figures appeared on the highest place up on the rostrum, looking down at him commandingly.

"Yo, Ladies!", Adachi's Shadow greeted the three and then proceeded to leisurely walk toward the giant dark gate that was situated on the other side. A moment later a huge storm broke out; the same storm that had stopped Shadow Adachi's original back then, shortly before Souji and the others had appeared there as well. "Ugh!" Shadow Adachi thrust his heels as best as possible into the ground, but he could do nothing against the raging winds that slowly drove him back towards the entrance.

"You're not welcome here.", one of the three sisters said from the rostrum, her voice carried through the wind over to him like magic.

"Leave this place...", the other one said.

"Or we will spin...", the third one said.

"... Measure..."

"... Snip..."

"Leave? But I just got here!", Adachi's Shadow laughed, his hands suddenly taking on tentacle-like levels. They absorbed huge amounts of the wind and fired them back at the three sisters. They disappeared and reaparred somewhere else on the rostrum, completely unimpressed.

"Meaningless..."

"Useless..."

"Hopeless..."

"Tch!", Shadow Adachi grumbled, having been completely shoved backwards to the threshold, the wind there weak enough to keep standing. "Just let me through, you old hags!"

No answer.

"I said to let me through!", Adachi's Shadow continued to snarl. "I searched everywhere for my mother, but I couldn't find her anywhere!" His look darkened. "Being killed by brats like that should have had no consequences whatsoever for her! She should have come back to life by now! But she didn't! She must be stuck somewhere in this damn world!" He looked at the giant gate. "The only place I didn't search yet is there! Let me search for my mother!"

"Foolish Shadow..."

"Once possessed by Ameno-sagiri he become deluded and now thinks she is his mother..."

"What a pitiful creature..."

"Whatever!", Shadow Adachi shouted and again took a step over the threshold. He screamed in pain the next moment and stepped backwards.

"You have been warned..."

"Only those who had joined him on his journey or those with higher power may pass..."

"You're not one of them..."

"As if I would care about whatever it is you're blabbering about!", Shadow Adachi yelled in fury and looked at the gash on his right leg that he got the moment he dared to enter the arena once more. "If you won't let me pass through her, I will just continue what I've been doing until now!" He looked down at his tentacle-like arms. "This place is like a playground for fighters. A battlefield, created through his efforts by manipulated dozens of people, even my mother."

"... You know about him?", one of the sisters asked, doubt for the first time evident in her voice.

"Yes.", he replied. "Ameno-sagiri was once part of me, as you said, so I have many of his memories and thoughts in me. He noticed what that little runt had planned and tried to warn mother, but she had been too obsessed with granting mankind's wishes at the time to listen to anything else." He laughed. "I know exactly what the purpose of this world has become after it become warped like this. And if the purpose is to stand as the strongest in the end, then I will do what the rules demand!" He turned around to leave. "The next time I return I will be stronger! And then I'll tear you three hags into pieces!"

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Energy... So much valuable, sweet energy... No matter how much he took it never seemed to end... And it couldn't defend itself against him taking it all... It really had been such a lucky coincidence for him to awake first out of the three, even though he should have awoken as the second one...

"Then the answer is obvious.", he could suddenly hear a female voice say from far away.

"... What's that supposed to mean?" Another female voice.

"What I said at the start was right all along...", the first voice replied, serious. "The fastest way to solve this would be to eliminate all of you."

He followed the voices, as if magically drawn to them.

"So... that means the figure we keep seeing is-", a third female voice said, worried.

He had almost reached them, could already see them being huddled together and discussing things.

`Pitiful ants...´

"Wait, something's wrong...!", another voice warned, apparently having noticed his presence.

They all looked the dark storm that had started to form near them and from which he was coming, their bodies tense.

"What the...?!", the second voice said in shock.

"Just as I thought...", the first voice said. "It's coming... The monster that's taken the shape of your regrets."

He walked out of the dark storm and stopped in front of S.E.E.S. who were gathered here.

"Is that...?!", Aigis started to say.

"You gotta be kidding... That can't be-!", Junpei shouted in surprise.

"This is the reason for everything...", a person he didn't recognize said.

"From the Abyss of Time's failure to disappear, to the presence of Shadows... This... was born from al of you."

`Yes... If it weren't for you, none of us three would be here... And I wouldn't have been the first of us to wake up...´, he agreed and summoned a Persona the next moment, attacking the group.

But no matter how much he tried, no matter how much of his newly obtained power that he had sucked from it he used, he just couldn't obliterate them.

`More energy...!´ He needed more of that sweet energy that he had been sucking out of it. `I need more-´

But a last strike from Aigis' Persona finally send him to the ground, making him dissolve. The source of the energy broke apart into several pieces and went to each of a member of S.E.E.S. while he was forced to return to where he had started, but this time on the other side where there was no escape from, the source of energy out of his grasp...

And just like that the Messiah awoke from his nightmare and looked around in confusion before he sighed and kicked away one of Nyx' tentacles.

"Again with that disgusting memory...", he grumbled and stretched his body a bit. "Well, at least I still have memories. The same sadly can't be said for you, right, my darling little brother and older sibling?"