Silent Inaba

Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix

A/N: OMG I am sooo sorry guys! I thought I uploaded this chapter and never did! So its Super late! So as an apology I'll explain something. Souji and his Shadow/Persona are two parts of one whole and Izanagi is his own person. Izanagi is kinda defaulting into using Lightning because its what Souji is associated with and pushing further fits as a type of violation of Souji's rights as the owner of his own body. But yes, when Izanagi possesses Souji, expect Souji to look exactly like what he saw, even with the long hair. Same as anyone, attributes will stick. (Naoto will be freaking adorable.)

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The televisions lit up like small stars before exploding showering air with sparks that fell to the ground like snow. Destabilizing the tornado winds with royal blue flames that carried Souji to the ground before retreating into his raised hand. The strange image of a white kimono clad Seta faded out of sight as he sank down while a strange card remained. A strange card that was held up in triumph as Soujis' feet touched the ground. Rotating around as Seta smirked at the alarmed Shadow, the power of limitless possibilities lit in royal blue flames.

The wind whispered warnings of alarm, that danced along the rubber skin of his arms and raised the hackles on the back of his neck. The threat that his new found freedom was being challenged by this newcomer rang in the back of his mind, a threat that the Shadow took seriously. No longer in the mood to taunt or mock, he called the strongest of his elemental force. The winds kicked up enough to start peeling the paint on the walls yet the flames of that card only grew in intensity.

Panic battled outrage at how this guy already had the ability to enter televisions, rescued Saki's soul apparently, and now was doing.. what? Who did this guy think he was to show off so much power in front of the Shadow!? Taking away the spotlight that the Shadow deserved for himself, three times already?

The flames themselves had grown bigger, as mesmerizing as a flame, beguiling and ever flowing. Souji held his hand out not feeling the intense wind or the expected heat from the fire, only soothing warmth. His eyes in a hypnotic daze, he heard a small voice that wasn't his or the Voice calling out to him. The card felt like a cage, all his self restraint, his inhibitions all of it felt tied to that one hovering card. Taunting him with its light, challenging him to fight for his freedom; the giant, angry Shadow be damned.

This is me, the side of me you show the world. A voice called to him from the depths of the card.

"Per-"

You don't mind though. That voice kept talking, calm, composed from somewhere deep inside him yet also from the card before him.

"-so-"

Because you know, deep down, that its not 'me' or 'you'. Its 'us'. Because you know, that when we're together, we can't be stopped. So let's do this, let's show them all our strength!

"-na!"

Souji crushed the card in his hand, watching it shatter like a pane of sugar, the pieces fell between his fingers feeding into the blue flames.

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"So you're saying frog man is 'me'?" Yosuke asked as the blue flames rose up consuming Seta. He couldn't hide the shame he felt as he saw that raging, goofy looking abomination in the room, so he kept his eyes focused on Seta. Watching as darkness seemed to swirl to life above Seta into the form of a person. Towering with a long black coat, a long white headband that had a pair of tails that snapped in the hard wind. A snap of the fingers from this being produced a thick sturdy nagata that appeared out of thin air to drop in his raised hand.

How could Seta do this? He was new, yet he had the ability to travel through the tv, recognized Saki's situation and save her, even now he had called upon some being that was helping him fight. Who was this guy that the world itself seemed to bend itself to provide him with all the luck?

"He's your Shadow. The you that was first created to help you survive when you were a baby. The you that you eventually abandoned when you learned to communicate and how to obey systems to get what you wanted. Think of an apple, he's the core of why you want the things you want, or do the things you do. But who really eats the core? They tend to get thrown away and forgotten, and sometimes the seeds find their way here and can grow into their own tree." The black clad stranger explained with a slight shrug. "The 'Frogman' as you call him, is the core you abandoned and he became that because for him to survive, like a tree, he must be planted somewhere and he's planting himself here. Your fellow on the other hand, never threw away his core, he absorbed all of it, so his Shadow grew into what you see hovering before you." The Spirit carried on, the fact that the boy had stayed and not run was probably the only reason he stuck around. He didn't think the boy would, always running away from responsibility when things got 'boring', wasn't very productive.

Yet the child, Yosuke, 'did' stay; his wounds were not life threatening yet, and while he could have tried to force the bear to take him somewhere safe. He stayed and amid his vocalized asides, sounded sincerely worried about the other human he had traveled here with. "You're saying that being is Seta's 'Shadow'?"

Yosuke stood there passively watching, trying to understand how that would even work, as his own 'Shadow' was actively trying to kill Seta. Yet the being that Seta had called forth was not trying to kill him. In fact, unlike Yosuke, Seta actually 'called' it into being, somehow summoning that strange being from out of seemingly nowhere. The being was also calling forth lightning, small black holes appearing and lightning bursting out at a flick of the wrist.

In fact every time the FrogMan attempted to hurl the intense winds he 'had' been using, Seta's 'Shadow' reacting by calling the lightning forth. Doing so dispelled the wind causing the pair to have to settle for a more hands on approach of combat. But the metal masked figure that Seta summoned worked alongside Seta. Always shielding Seta from attacks, lashing out, unlike Yosukes' Shadow who actively tried to murder Yosuke after a bit of tormenting.

It brought Yosukes' mind back to what the man had said, that the Shadow was like an apple tree. The seeds of creation that were eventually lost to the layers of fruit that a person would consume, how Yosuke was essentially trying to throw away his core, while Seta had accepted his. Before him Seta was struggling against the pain of his injuries while fighting the abandoned Shadow from Yosuke.

Bringing his mind back to Saki, how she had been unknowingly abandoned here, the voices of what she had to go through and her disdain for him. Even if she had accepted her Shadow would she have been safe? They didn't know who pushed Yamano and Saki into this world, so how could they save anyone else from this fate? Who would be next? Yosuke didn't have this power to come to this world on his own, he needed Seta. There was no 'heroes' about this though, there were lives in danger and he was just standing there watching Seta fight. Bearing the responsibility of dealing with Yosuke being a whinny brat.

Boredom, playing hero, and in the end he was a pathetic midboss bothering someone who was actively trying to help. While Yosuke was willing to forget the reality and play in a day dream that everyone was ok, Seta had kept his wits about him. But these were women who had been killed, not only killed but quite possibly the criminal was never going to be caught.

"Tell me something," Yosuke turned to look at the ninja standing behind him, though it was admittedly hard to do given how dark his clothes were. "Why are you helping me? Explaining this I mean."

The ninja stood there covered from head to toe, his arms cross and his back as straight as an arrow, with no way visual way to read what the guy was thinking. "Because you didn't run, had you I would have left you behind. I am the one who possesses you during the Fog Times in Inaba. But until now, the only 'you' I have ever known was that Shadow inside. I wasn't even sure of what to expect of you until now. For now, I will be a little more considerate of you, my name is Jiraiya, remember that name," the ninja replied before smoke suddenly exploded out from around him. Akin to those over the top ninja movies, leaving Yosuke and Teddie coughing as the area was consumed in it.

The ninja's words left him floored, thinking back when he came to and found his room trashed, meeting someone who blatantly says 'I possess you' and then leaving. He wanted to think on it further, maybe yell into the night for the ninja to come back, since ninjas didn't go far when they pulled these stunts. Right? But he shook his head before turning back towards the false Junes, he had to take responsibility for what was going on.

"Teddie? Stay here, its safer," he instructed the bear before limping his way into the false Junes, towards his Shadow. Limping past the strange sourceless shadows that hovered around outside the range of the fight.

The large frog human hybrid was now marred with numerous soot marks from lightning strikes, what he had in size was no longer an asset. He lacked the speed to avoid the agile human shadow that Seta had manifested. There were times when he could knock back Seta's Shadow and had recognized that Seta was the bigger threat. Snatching up the human to try and crush him in those yellow rubber gloves, while the Shadow fought to recover its human half.

Kinda funny that it was armed with a piercing weapon that looked to have some slashing capabilities, yet couldn't puncture the frog. But Yosukes' Shadow noticed his slow progress while trying to fend off Seta's Shadow. "Well look who comes dragging himself back into the fray." His Shadow taunted, the first real taunt he had made since Seta's Shadow started fighting. But even with the taunting he sounded winded, pained.

"I want to talk to you," Yosuke called out, glancing at Seta from the corner of his eye. Asking without words to be given a chance to talk to the Shadow, for which Seta gave a slight nod and backed down a step. The towering Shadow also moved along with Seta, though it stayed ready to guard its body.

"Gonna beg that I take you back?" Yosuke's Shadow asked, while shifting his weight from one side to the other. Trying to hide how hard it was to stay standing in his current physical state after such a rotten turn of events.

"Look, I'm not claiming to be perfect, hell I'm looking at solid proof! But its not like I know how to deal with this either! Yeah, I get bored, yes I want out of this boring ass town, but its not your fault that I'm this way. I shouldn't just have rejected you when you appeared, I should have listened. But its not like we're taught to accept the negative sides of ourselves! Who thinks they're going to run into the darker aspects of their selves in a place like this? Yeah I want to run from what you represent, but its not your fault and I'm sorry."

The towering Shadow slowly stopped swaying as he listened to Yosuke, but finally shook his head and balled up his fists in annoyance. "So what are you trying to say? You're sorry for running away? So what? I'm free here! You don't want me? Fine! Get out! I'll be just fine here by myself!" Yosuke's voice, distorted by this world and emerging from this Shadow grew in anger, but it was a tight anger of suppressed tears.

"This place? This place that is soaked in blood, the dead, the hate and bitterness of the town we're already stuck at? You think you're going to get stronger by absorbing the hate of this town? Fat chance buddy! No. I want you to come home," Yosuke argued, pointing to his own chest. "I want you back inside me, I'm not going to brag and say I know exactly how to fix our problem. But I at least know there 'is' a problem now, and I'll try harder to listen to you. Because I damn sure know you don't want to be alone, that's why you're lashing out like this now."

The Shadow began looking between Yosuke and Seta with his Shadow and his arrogantly proud shoulders slumped down. Stay and fighting Seta was going to quite possibly get him killed, or return to Yosuke and live another day? Just standing there and seeing how Seta easily accepted his Shadow, creating that more powerful Spirit out of their teamwork hurt. "Can.. I want to be more like them." He asked swinging a more lifeless hand to gesture towards Seta and his Shadow.

"We can try, and trying is a lot better than just suffering alone in silence, right?" Yosuke answered with a half smile, the laid back smirk softened by physical pain and apologies.

The violence of the area that had just been a raging storm disappeared on the wind, leaving only the softest of rustling sounds like ashes pouring down. The massive frogman that stood before them faded away revealing that same yellow eyed Yosuke they had seen before.

Yosuke walked the rest of the way and extended his hand for his Shadow to take, giving the Shadow a chance to make his own decision. Watching as the Shadow recognized the gesture and give his own rueful smirk in answer before he took the offered hand. There was no weight to the touch, just the softest passing of a warm breeze to indicate that contact had been made before the Shadow faded away. The breeze wrapping itself around Yosuke before fading away to who knew where, but with the restoration of the Shadow, Yosuke didn't feel 'different'. Strange to think that something that was so integral to his personality didn't feel like it was missing. But he felt surprisingly, a little better now that the Shadow had returned.

But at least now he knew, and could work on trying to fix that little apple core.

The false Junes started to collapse around them like ornate screens, folding in on themselves and scattering like ashes on the wind off to who cared where. Once more leaving them on the 'set' where they had originally arrived. The televisions that Teddie had used to help them home began rising from the ground off to the side. While the Bear in question approached them, his squeaky feet making it impossible for him to be quiet.

"That was beary impressive Master, how did you learn to do that?" Teddie asked, drawing attention to the hovering Shadow over them.

Souji looked up at said being, himself asking that question as he looked into those red eyes. The figure began to float down towards them, but as it did so it became increasingly transparent, thinly outlined by thin blue flames. He reached out with an open hand as the figure turned back into that card from before only to disappear in the air.

"Say, this is going to be a stupid question, but did you feel anything when that Shadow disappeared? Or was that the Voice in your head?" Yosuke asked at the same time as the bear, leaving Souji to decide between the two.

Only he couldn't think of an easy answer for either of them. "I don't really understand it myself Teddie. As for the Voice? He doesn't know what he looks like, I saw him briefly and he's borrowing my appearance apparently. That one you just saw, was- is- me. I guess you could say its a part of me, and yeah it feels different when he's not here," Souji explained pointing to his heart in the end. Normally, Souji didn't want to discuss such odd things, but at that moment there was enough weirdness that he needed to let it out.

"It was frightening dealing with the Shadow that you produced, but it was going to kill all of us so I had to deal with it. But while logically I understand that I had to fight, it doesn't take the fear from me. So when I heard him speak to me, asking me to accept him, I didn't turn him down and well. You saw what emerged," Souji tried to explain, but even his words sounded incomplete, there was more and he just didn't have a grasp of that truth.

"Man, I'm sorry that you had to deal with that.. I learned something that I want to talk to you about as well, but I need a break," Yosuke confessed, taking a step back and looking around at their surroundings.

While Teddie kept his eyes on Souji, huge expressive eyes deeply impressed by what he had seen. "So, who is your friend kuma? He was strong enough to beat up Yosuke's Shadow so maybe if I can make a friend like that bear I won't have to be afraid anymore!" He asked, eagerly shifting from foot to foot waiting to hear. Was there a way to keep the Shadows from being so beary scary?

In essence there was no difference though to Souji, Yosuke's was angry at the rejection, and if that was what came from him. Than Souji's just wasn't a threat because he wasn't rejected, so if the only real difference was the acceptance by the person they came from... "My friend is my Shadow, Teddie. But I've never really denied him, so I guess he just has no reason to go out of control here."

Teddie gave a soft 'ooooh' as he listened, Yosuke also appeared attentive as it was explained, his eyes sliding from Souji's face to the ground as he thought.

"So they're the same thing? But Shadows are beary scary! What do I call yours?" Teddie asked, his ears pricked forward with eager curiosity. Bringing Souji's mind back to what he had called out when the card came to life.

"I guess, he's a 'Persona', as for his name... I guess we'll figure that out as time goes on," Souji offered with a shrug, only to wince as he was reminded about the heavy beating he just took.