"…Did he run away?"
A pale-looking woman with silky long black hair looked to her sickly striking white skin, glaring on the tainted marks that were left by the battle a moment ago. Her face twisted and seemed quite furious that she just let the person escaped.
Once again, she stared at the stone door above. The chains on the door were gone, yet the door didn't seem to open at all.
The statue that was chained to the door was nowhere to be found. She couldn't sense the power from the person, and the seal on the door was disappeared.
However, things didn't go as the way she thought.
What went wrong?
"It seems they play some tricks on the seal."
She turned around to find another pale looking woman with long white robe covered her body. Her lips crooked into a light smile.
"How annoying…and I thought everything would end by pulling the Messiah from the seal…" The black-haired woman bit her finger repeatedly.
"I'm glad that it's not over yet…but then again, that's the Messiah who are able to leave injuries on our Revenge Goddess…impressive."
Hearing that, Revenge Goddess let out a sigh.
"Izanami, it seems the Messiah has fallen to the World of Human Consciousness. Can I leave him to you?"
"Of course. Will it be a problem if I kill him?"
"He's all yours."
Smiling, Izanami looked to Revenge Goddess who spread her wings opened.
"What are you going to do now?"
"…I'm going to investigate the tricks they play on the seal. Maybe I can break the seal at the same time." Revenge Goddess raised a smirk.
"Doubt it. Things may not work as smoothly as you think."
"…The same goes for you too. Don't look down on humans…after all, they even won the battle against the unbeatable Night Goddess."
Revenge Goddess flew up to the air and headed to other direction, leaving Izanami alone.
Izanami simply shrugged, taking a glance at the stone door before turning to her back.
"Well, they do go beyond my expectation. But…I doubt they can reach to me."
He woke up in a foggy place.
His head was aching like hell. Using one hand to rub his temple, he tried to stand up. However, his strength didn't permit it and fell back down.
Sighing, he sat on the floor, trying to ease his pain.
Despite his head, his body was aching as well. His muscles and limbs were screaming and throbbing as if broken apart. What happened to him? Where was him? Why was he here?
Lots of questions came to mind, yet he couldn't answer any of them.
"…Damn."
He blew his long bangs, falling to his back.
He felt sick of this place. His head was even aching due to the terrible vision. With all the fogs, he could see nothing.
However, laying here wouldn't change the fact. He sighed, slowly getting up from the floor and sat crossed-leg.
"…Okay, let's catch up."
He needed to clear his mind first. He really needed to grab the situation before deciding what to do next.
His name was Minato Arisato. His parents died in a car crash ten years ago…wait, was it ten years? What's the year now? Uh…never mind that. His parents died in an accident, and then he was forced to move from places to places, relatives to relatives. He had no friend, or rather, he preferred to stay alone, and built a wall to block away from other people.
But everything changed since he transferred back to Iwatodai, the place he was born, and the place where had changed his fate.
Once again, fate had made a joke on him. He gained the power of persona and started became active as a member of SEES. He didn't know why, but people started to gather around him, calling him as friends.
He felt alive, after ten years of plain and lonely life.
His friend brought life to him. To protect them, he's willing to do everything. And so, he used up all his vitality to seal the Night Goddess away.
Yes, he was supposed died. He was the Great Seal.
And then…
Another desperate sigh escaped out of his mouth.
And then, he lost part of his memories from here.
Great, he completely lost now.
He looked to the surrounding. The vision was still bad, but he had to find out where he was right now. Perhaps he should explore the place first and look for an exit.
Stretching his body as he felt the pain faded, he took a step forward. Thanks to the fog, he had to move very slowly. He had suffered enough of the unknown pain. He didn't want to get into any trouble. Somehow, he felt a sense of Tartarus in this place. The atmosphere seemed so much alike. For a moment, he thought he had back to Tartarus.
He had no idea how long he walked. He kept walking until he found the scene changed. He followed the small path and finally saw a store. He knocked the door, but no response came out. Out of curiosity, he pushed the door opened and peeked inside.
"…What is this?"
It looked like a liquor store, as most of the goods were liquors and wines. They scattered all over the floor like someone purposely threw and damaged. Minato quickly covered his nose when he smelled some terrible smell. By this time, he completely lost the interest to explore further into the store. Plus, he didn't feel the need to do so when nobody was inside. At the end, he decided to leave.
The store completely disappeared in the fog as he moved on. The store didn't seem like a normal liquor store he used to see on street. It covered in a shade of darkness…perhaps, a mix of furious and sadness. He had no idea what happened to this place, and he didn't have time to figure it out. All he could do was leaving it behind.
He could barely see the road ahead, not knowing where it would lead him. Guess he needed to rely on his luck. Not long after he left the liquor store, he found a building that would only appear in the fairy tale. Staring at the pink castle, he almost jaw-dropped.
What had he seen?
He let out a big sigh, running his hand through his hair. Frustration started to build inside as he rubbed his head and walking to the castle front gate. This castle was suspicious. Unlike the liquor store, this was hundred times dangerous. Judging from its appearance, it should have seven floors or above. He carefully opened the gate, expecting anything would welcome him. However, instead of finding anyone inside, he only saw an empty floor with uncountable doors and hallways.
Great. This completely overturned his idea of the castle.
No gorgeous chandelier and exaggeration furnishing, or neither the fairy tale joyous. There were only weird shady hallways and creepy noises from nowhere. Haunted Castle was more suitable to describe it.
Minato hesitated for a while before taking a step into the castle. He wondered was it a good idea to explore this place. He was unarmed. All he left were an MP3 Player and a familiar fake gun. That was to say, the only way he could use to fight was using the persona.
This was too risky. He couldn't afford to fight enemies with his current state of fatigue. He sighed, backing off from the gate.
However, an unexpected encounter occurred the moment he turned to his back.
Few shadows surrounded him when he paid full attention to the castle. This made Minato twisted his brows on how the shadows surrounded him without making any noise like they suddenly showed up from nowhere.
Great. They totally blocked the escaped route, and running under such a thick fog was an extremely bad idea. His hand reached to the gate and pushed it opened. Without hesitation, he ran inside and slammed the gate shut, running through the hallways.
This castle was like a maze, and the worse was, there were shadows in this castle too. But they were weaker to those surrounded him outside. He could easily evade their attacks and took the opportunity to escape.
He heard a loud bang. It seemed those shadows destroyed the gate and got into the castle. He cursed, opened the door before him, and found a stair to the other floor.
And then, an idea struck him.
"…Maybe I can beat them." He smirked and closed the door behind.
"Are you sure you're not kidding us?"
Yosuke narrowed his eyes, glaring down at Teddie.
"I'm beaaaaaary sure about it!" Teddie waved his hands up and down, looking to Yu with teary eyes. "Sensei~"
Yu chuckled helplessly, looking to his other friends. Including himself, all of them looked doubtful.
Well, Teddie could never blame them about this.
They just rescued Kanji a few days ago. Since then, they didn't saw anyone appeared on the Midnight Channel, or neither they heard anyone was missing. They knew all they needed to do now was waiting for Kanji to recover.
But, things seemed a little bit out of ordinary now.
Today, they planned to come to TV World just for training. But they were shocked when Teddie told them another person was trapped in this world.
But, how? They rescued Kanji, and no one appeared on Midnight Channel. How did the person get in here?
"Alright, alright Teddie." He patted his head to calm him down. "Where is the person?"
"Hmm…I think he or she is somewhere here." Teddie pointed to the direction at the front.
"Isn't that the way leads to Yukiko's place?" Chie raised her brows, crossing her arms.
"H-Huh? My place!?" Yukiko's face burnt up, clutching on Chie's arm. "A-Are you sure about it!?"
She sent a killing aura to warn Teddie: I'll kill you if you dare to lie! and made Teddie shivered in fear.
Yu rubbed his forehead and sighed.
"Let's go there…just in case. You okay, Yukiko?"
"I-I'm fine…don't worry about me." Yukiko raised a bitter smile to assure him.
They followed the pointed direction and headed to Yukiko's castle. Part of them hoped Teddie was wrong, but part of them knew full well that Teddie wasn't the type to lie. That's why they agreed to check on it.
And then, they found something very unusual.
"W-What is that…?" Chie pointed the shattered gate and the shadow that seemed to guard there.
"Watch out!"
The shadow – Crying Table cast Magaru upon seeing the team. The wind blew ferociously to the team. Beside Yosuke who was strong against Wind Element attack, the others managed to dodge it.
"T-This is the same shadow we saw in Kanji's Steamy Bathhouse!" Teddie shouted, running for his life.
"Alright, Chie, your turn!"
"Got it!"
A Tarot card floated above Chie's head while she kicked it with one leg.
"Come on, Tomoe!"
A long black hair and yellow suit woman appeared in front of Chie and release Bufu to the Crying Table. As expected, the Crying Table immediately went down due to its weakness. Then, it's time for All-Out Attack.
"Phew…"
"A piece of cake…but what happened to the castle?" Yosuke looked to the shattered gate with a frown.
"Teddie, do you find anything?" Yu turned his gaze to Teddie, who was hiding behind him.
"I-I don't know…b-but I sense strong shadows inside the castle…" Poor Teddie, he kept trembling.
It seemed thing was very unusual now. If there's truly someone trapped inside, his or her life was in great danger.
"Hey…there weren't these kinds of shadows the last time we're here." Yosuke crossed his arms, frowning.
"Perhaps…these shadows are targeting the person inside," Yukiko said with a hint of worry. "Yu-kun, we need to hurry."
"Yeah, we must save the person, no matter what!" Chie balled her fists, already fired up.
"Teddie, you stay behind."
"Y-Yes, sensei…"
"Alright, let's go!"
Minato shuttled from floors to floors, taking down the shadows one by one. He used the narrowness of floors and floors to create the chance to fight back. Up until now, he managed to kill most of them, but the toughest enemy was no other than this – Prime Magus.
Worst of all, he began to feel physically exhausted. He was already fatigued. Summoning persona greatly consumed his strength in physical and mental.
How long would he last?
He forced himself stopped from panting heavily. He stood straight, examining the room he was currently in.
This was supposed to be the top floor. He didn't find any hallways here, and the room looked like a Throne Room.
"…Looks like today's not my day."
Prime Magus's toughest trick was the powerful magic it cast. It's extremely powerful that he doubted he could take it under such condition. But still…he smirked. There's no way he would surrender to a shadow.
He tried to dodge each of the Agidyne the shadow cast and pulled the trigger of the evoker.
"Orpheus!"
Orpheus cast Fire Agi on Prime Magus, but the attack didn't seem to work at all.
"…So, even they look almost the same, but not the same, huh?"
If he remembered correctly, Prime Magus's weakness should be fire. But this Prime Magus seemed to be strong against fire element. This was too bad. He couldn't hear any of the personas he required before heeded to his call.
He lost the Wild Card.
What else could he do to kill this shadow?
"There he is!"
"…Hmm?"
Did he hear something?
Minato turned his head to the gate, eyes widened when he saw four people and one bear ran to him.
"Wow! That shadow…it looks strong!" Yosuke pulled out his two knives. "Jiraiya!"
The wind blew but did no damage on the shadow.
"Oh no! this one is beaaaaary strong! Watch out!" Teddie hugged his head, leaning against the door and trembling.
When Yosuke and Jiraiya distracted Prime Magus, Yu quickly ran to Minato and brought him out of the battlefield.
"Are you alright?" Yu asked with concerned. He frowned due to the tiredness of the blue-haired boy.
Minato could feel the strength from the silver-haired boy so he didn't protest. He knew he really needed some help. Although he had no idea who they were, the fact that they were persona user had lifted his worries. Besides, from the grasp of the silver-haired boy, Minato felt something ran through his body, like a stream of energy.
He felt familiar. It evoked something at the back of his mind.
Could the boy be…?
"Arghhh!" Yosuke fell to their side. "Damn, it's hot!"
"I'll help you!" Taking Yosuke's place, Chie summoned Tomoe.
"We leave the shadow to Yosuke and Chie. Yukiko, please heal him." Yu ordered while checking the two.
"Okay." Yukiko summoned Konohana Sakuya to cast Dia on him. He felt a surge of energy floated into his body, lifting the pain and exhaustion from him.
"This shadow strong against wind and ice! What should we do, Yu!?" Yosuke shouted, bracing himself to endure the Agidyne from Prime Magus. Chie held Yosuke's arm to keep balance.
"…It strong against fire as well. Try electrical or physical skill." Minato murmured softly, but Yu and Yukiko clearly heard it.
"How did you…"
Yosuke and Chie's scream caught Yu's attention back. He cursed and ran to his friends. He crushed the Tarot Card in hand, summoned Izanagi to cast Zio on Prime Magus. As expected, Zio did more damage to it, yet it wasn't enough to defeat the shadow. Then, Yu ordered Yosuke and Chie to attack Prime Magus with the physical attack.
They got into a tough battle.
Minato could see it, they weren't strong enough to match the shadow.
Not long after, Chie and Yosuke both were sent back by the powerful Agidyne. They were greatly injured, especially Chie who was weak to the fire element.
"Chie!"
Yu gritted his teeth, summoned Saki Mitama to heal the team.
Prime Magus always used Mind Charge before casting Agidyne on them. it's a pain to deal with it.
Seeing her friends in danger, after done with the healing, Yukiko immediately joined the battle. She used Agilao on Prime Magus, but the result was disappointing.
"…It really strong against fire." She bit her bottom lip, looking to Yu.
"S-Sensei, let's flee! W-We should run now!" Teddie cried out at the back. It's was too hurt to see the team fought under such condition.
Yu knew that too, but he was too busy in handling the shadow. They couldn't be possibly fled without damage. He blocked the Agidyne with his two-handed sword, but the sword flicked out from his grasp due to the pain and numb on his hands.
"Dammit!"
"Yu!"
"Yu-kun!"
Once again, Prime Magus cast Agidyne to Yu. He quickly changed his persona to fire resistance type, hoping it would help to reduce the damage. He shut his eyes.
"Not here!"
Minato grabbed Yu's two-handed sword and blocked the attack for him. Yu widened his eyes but quickly lent Minato a hand.
Ever since he felt something on Yu, Minato started to have some strange feeling. A surge of energy rose, and he felt that he could do it now.
"Hey, what are you doing!?"
At the corner of his eyes, Yu saw Minato raised a gun to his temple. Yet, the blue-haired boy completely ignored him, slowly pulled the trigger.
To summon his other self – Orpheus Telos.
"Come on!"
Blue scattered fragments burst out from his head, a figure with golden hair and red body appeared behind Minato.
"Victory Cry!"
Yu could feel energy floated in his body and the injuries slowly faded. He looked to his other friends, found the same things happened to them. Gazing back to the blue-haired boy, he frowned when he saw the pale face of the boy.
"Hey, stop -"
"It's not over yet." Panting, Minato summoned Orpheus Telos once more, using Thunder Reign on Prime Magus. The shadow screamed in pain and turned to ash in the next second.
The team was completely dumbfounded. They saw the blue-haired boy slowly collapsed. Fortunately, Yu was there to hold him.
"W-Who is this guy?" Yosuke scratched his cheek.
"He beat that shadow!" Chie cheered out.
"Is he…like us, can summon persona?" Yukiko slightly hesitated.
Looking for the boy, Yu had no idea how to answer his friends' questions. One thing he knew that this blue-haired boy wasn't ordinary. There must be meaning in their meeting.
He checked on the blue-haired boy. No major injuries were found, yet his pale face showed how fatigue and tired he was.
"…Let's get him out of here. He really needs some rest."
Okay, my first attempt on P3P x P4G.
About the battle scene, I have no intention to make Minato overpower, or rather making Investigation Team weaker than Minato. However, in fact, Investigation Team now is truly weaker, while Minato is the Messiah. So, I decided to make him slightly stronger than Yu. In the future chapter, Minato could no longer summon Orpheus Telos. He will only require his initial persona Orpheus. As the story goes on, he will grow stronger enough to summon other personas, such as Thanatos, Orpheus Telos, and Messiah.
Well then, see you next time!