Ch. 2: Being Yourself

AN: Hey guys! Second chapter's kind of early, no? But I recently just had a HUGE idea for Souji's world. XD ANYWAYS, Enjoy the story! :3

Disclaimer: I don't own Persona 4! Sadly...T_T IF I did I wouldn't be writing this now would I?

Souji awoke in a very painful state. His whole body seemed as though it was rejecting his brains commands. It took his brain a moment to register that he was laying on a cold, concret floor. Somewhere near what Souji thought was a wall was a small folding chair, which above had something like a noose tied to a pipe on the ceiling. Sitting on the chair was his shadow, who was grinning wildly. Then he burst into manical laughter.

"So I see you're awake," His shadow stopped laughing and stood up from the throne, "You're friends are in the fortress." He chuckled and then exited the room, kicking Souji in the face as he did.

Souji groaned and tried to sit up, but his head was spinning to much for him to even think straight. Deciding to just lay there, his eyes closed as he passed out.

Yosuke gasped at the sight of Souji's world. In front of them was a huge building made completely of concrete. It looked somewhat like a jail. The windows were even barred.

"Why a jail...?" Chie said from behind him. Yosuke shook his head and began to walk foward.

"Wait Yosuke. Souji-senpai is definately here, but he's not alone. His shadows here as well. It's nearer to us than Souji-senpai is, and it's moving closer. So we need to be careful." Rise's persona disappeared as she took a step forward.

"Let's go!" Kanji said and they charged in.

Souji awoke again to the sound of laughter. It was coming from somewhere far away from him, most likely a few floors below. He groaned again as his head started spinning and his vision got blurry. It was probably because he had just sat up.

He stopped trying to move as the laughter stopped.

"Dammit! What's this guys problem?" Kanji said and glared angrily at Shadow Souji who was standing in front of them with a grin on his face.

"My problem? My problem is you guys. You stupid assholes who don't know shit about me and yet you act like you're the smartest people in the world." Shadow Souji kept on grinning as the reactions of the group began to amuse him.

"What the hell?" Yosuke said and gripped his swords tighter, the music coming through his headphones blaring in his ears.

"So this is Senpai's inner self..." Naoto murmured and for some odd reason, felt very guilty.

"I guess we did kind of neglect Souji a bit..." Yukiko muttered and looked at her feet, embarassed. The shadow in front of them began his crazed laughter again.

"See? You're all a bunch of ignorant assholes. But you'll suffer soon, after my friend here's done with you, you'll all be begging for death. So, enjoy!" Shadow Souji turned and exited the room, leaving them with a huge shadow. It was a Champion Knight, something they've fought before, but there was something different about it. It was stronger.

"Careful guys, this one's tough." Rise said and stepped back to let the group do their work.

"Garudyne!" Yosuke shouted. The Champion Knight brought up its lance to protect it's face, or whatever the thing on the front of the head was.

"Ziodyne!" Kanji shouted and watched as the lightning reacted with the Knight's metal armor, making it's floating horse land on the ground along with it.

"Alright, you knocked it down! Go in for an all-out attack!" Rise shouted from somewhere behind the persona-user's.

They all charged inward at the down enemy that was futily trying to get back up. When the cloud of dust cleared, the Knight was still standing, lance in hand, and facing Yukiko.

Suddenly, it charged at her. She threw her arms up to protect her face as the lance sliced both her arms open. Once it was back into its original position, she noticed it was her turn and casted Diarahan on herself, the wounds on her arms healing up nicely.

Chie growled and shouted, "BUFUDYNE!" The Knight wasn't expecting this and couldn't dodge it. However, it didn't knock it down.

"It's getting weak! You can do it guys, hang in there!" Rise yelled from behind them.

"You're friends are going to die, you know that right?" Shadow Souji sat down on the folding chair and stared at Souji who was sitting on the floor.

"You're lying. They're stronger than you think." Souji growled and glared at his Shadow.

"I would know what you're thinking, and you think they're going to die. You think that they're nothing without you." The shadow laughed and crossed his legs.

Then there was a loud boom, which sounded the end of the battle. Shadow Souji suddenly got a very annoyed look on his face, "How could those weaklings even defeat that shadow? I personally made it stronger! Damn..." He closed his eyes and thought for a moment.

Meanwhile Souji was listening to the sound of approaching footsteps. Suddenly, the door to the room burst open, revealing Souji's friends, all looking very pissed off.

"Hey, Senpai. You okay?" Kanji said.

"Yeah. Fine." Souji nodded at them and then turned to his shadow, who was grinning wildly again.

"Hello everyone. What a nice little get together. Too bad you're all going to die." The shadow laughed and stood from the chair, "Quit looking at that idiot sitting on the floor. You think that he's going to accept me, just like that, don't you? You think that he's the invincible leader who can protect anyone. Well you're wrong."

The real Souji stood from the floor, staggering slightly, and glared at his shadow, "Shut up."

"Oh, so now the little scaredy cat wants to play hero some more? Well go ahead and try! I know that you're scared out of your mind right now. You're scared that you're going to reject me and then you're friends are going to get killed because of you're stupid mistake! Isn't that right, me?" The shadow laughed as Souji's froze, "Ooohh, did I strike a nerve?"

"Just...just shut up..." Souji muttered, clutching his head.

"Partner, go ahead and say it. It's fine. We can handle anything that shadow throws at us, right guys?" Yosuke said and walked a little closer to Souji, giving him a reassuring smile.

"Right!" The rest of the group replied, all smiling at him.

"I...no. I won't..." Souji mumured and looked up to stare at his shadow again.

"Go ahead and say it. Say I'm not you. And watch as your friends slowly get killed off, one by one. You're scared of that happening, right?" Shadow Souji laughed manically and grabbed the real Souji by the coller of his jacket, "Go ahead and say it, or are you a scardy cat?"

"I...you're...YOU'RE NOT ME!" Souji shouted and punched his shadow in the face. Anger was boiling inside him, until he realized what he'd just said. Then his expression turned into one of shock.

"That's just what I wanted to hear. No, I'm not you. I'm the real Souji Seta, and you're just some nobody. I have my own body now, a body to kill all of you with." He turned to the group and began gathering shadows to his body.

When enough gathered, they exploded and formed something that the group thought was extremely strange. It was a giant mechanical dragon-like thing. Where it's stomach should've been, there was a cage with a figure inside of it.

"I am a shadow, the true self. So you think you can beat me?" The dragon's low mechanical voice growled out, "Good luck trying, and have fun dying!"

"This ones really strong. Be careful guys." Rise said and ran back to go stand in front of Souji. She knelt down by him and saw that he was still awake, "Senpai, are you okay?"

"I'm a fool. I shouldn't have said that. And now there-" He paused, not wanting to finish, "It's all my fault." He grimaced and held his stomach; he suddenly felt queasy.

"It's alright, Senpai. They'll be fine." Rise assured him and then turned back to the battle. The boss was about halfway gone, it's gears turning faster inside of his dragon-like form.

"Ah...how could I be...losing? I will kill you all!" The dragon shadow shouted and brought his hand back, gathering energy in it's fist.

"Carefuly guys! It's gathering power!" Rise warned and the group nodded. She glanced back at Souji, who was very pale. His eyes were closed and his hand was clutching his stomach, "Are you sure you're okay, Senpai?" Rise murmured, keeping her eyes on the enemy.

"Y...yes...I just feel a bit queasy..." Souji quietly whispered back, holding a groan of pain down in his throat.

Rise turned back to the battle and saw that the enemy was ready to release the energy that he was holding in his palm, "Guard everyone! He's going to do it now!" The group responded by guarding just as the dragon brought his clawed hand down on the party.

"R...Rise...?" Souji's quiet voice reached her ears.

"Yes, Senpai?" Rise glanced back at Souji, who had passed out. She saw that he was still breathing and sighed in relief. Turning back to the battle she saw that it was nearly dead.

"No...I cannot lose...I must be...invincible." The shadow growled one last time before Naoto shot it in the head and it fell over in a heap of metal(1).

"Glad that's over with." Chie muttered before joining everyone around the passed out form of Souji Seta.

"So, I guess he had a lot of baggage," Yosuke said and lifted up one of Souji's arms, "Somebody help please, he's kind of heavy when he can't at least walk." The group giggled for a little while before Kanji grabbed Souji's other arm and helped Yosuke to carry him out.

Souji awoke to the sound of beeping machines and people talking somewhere far away. His eyes opened and he saw Yosuke sitting at his bedside, grinning at him, "So you're finally awake, eh Partner?"

"Good...erm...morning?" Souji questioned.

"Actually, it's about 10 o'clock at night. Visiting hours are almost over so I have to go. Glad to see you're awake, Souji." Yosuke flashed him a smile before standing to leave.

"Yosuke, wait," Yosuke turned to see Souji sitting up in bed and staring at him, "Come here, please."

"Alright," Yosuke walked over close to Souji, who wrapped his arms around him and leaned his head on his shoulder, "Wh-what are you doing?" Yosuke's eyes were wide like saucers.

"I'm sorry." Souji muttered, letting go of Yosuke.

"Sorry about what? Oh, the shadow thing? Didn't I tell you not to worry about that?"

"Yes but...ah, nevermind, I'm being stupid. Goodnight, Yosuke." Souji smiled slightly at him before turning in his bed, facing away from Yosuke.

"You're not being stupid," Yosuke slowly walked over to Souji and hugged him from behind, hearing a light gasp from the injured persona-user, "You're just being yourself." With that, Yosuke walked out of the hostpital room, leaving Souji to ponder what he'd just said.

1: Souji already has persona's, so I didn't feel the need to give him a new one, considering he has the ability to use multiple ones.

AN: Okay, so yeah, that's where it ends. I probably should've mentioned that it would be a twoshot, but yeah...it was a pretty crappy ending, no? But was it okay? Like, the story all together? Was it too short, too long? Was everyone in character? Was the description good? I know I've asked these questions before, but I'd really like to know. So please review and tell me what you think! Thanks for reading!