Shattered Justice (A Persona Quest)

...Well, no reason not to dispose of the nearest Shadows while you're here. You don't want them catching you while your back is turned or anything. You don't really have any weapons to attack with, but... well, that doesn't mean you're completely helpless.

You walk up to the closest opponent and kick it in the face... mask... thing. Whatever it's supposed to be.

Immediately after your foot collides with it, the blob... you suppose the best way to describe it is that it shatters, leaving nothing behind. At the same time, though... you guess it's dead. At the very least, it won't be bothering you anymore.

The second Shadow takes multiple kicks to go down, but it doesn't attempt to fight back, either. It's like all the fight drained out of it when your spell hit.

Not that you're complaining. It makes it easier to deal with, after all.

When you turn back to Morgana, the cat is down to one opponent, but seems to be favoring one paw. Honestly, it's still better than what you expected the encounter would be like when you realized how badly outnumbered you were, so it's really not that bad. You're sure Morgana would beg to differ, but he's the one that got ganged up on by a bunch of living puddles.

...Also, you know, he's the reason you're out at this time of night to begin with. You're really glad you managed to talk him out of trying to take on the nest...

Once he sees you're not surrounded by enemies, he turns and runs over to you. You guess that's strategically sound... strength in numbers and all... but you're sort of wondering why he's not firing up one of those localized storms from earlier.

"Can't you blow it away?" You ask. He shakes his head.

"I've already used up most of my magical energy! I've barely got enough for a basic Dia right now!" You're not sure how he managed to blow through it so fast- sure, magic is exhausting, but it's really not that bad!

...Still, on the bright side, there's only one Shadow left. Also, you now have a pretty good idea of what not to do the next time you end up in this situation.


HP: 17/17
SP: 7/23


[ ] Kick the Shadow in the face.

[ ] Skills
-[ ] Cruel Attack

[ ] Spells
-[ ] Dia
--[ ] Morgana

[ ] Brace yourself for the next attack.

[ ] ...It's still probably not too late to flee...

...Well, you know what to do for this. You could probably finish off the Shadow just by kicking it, but that's... a little less fun than what you have in mind.
It's only really fun until you find someone who can interpret it... I think that may actually be a holdover from my edgy preteen years.
Besides, you haven't had a chance to test out one of the coolest bits of your arsenal in battle yet! Also the most destructive. But you don't think there's anything valuable in the area, so it's not that big a deal, right?
I don't think so, so long as you aim well, at least. And stick to the standard Physical variation, it's generally safer.
You strike forward, and you can almost see a wave of force knock into the Shadow, which- that is a gelatinous mass. Was a gelatinous mass. Whatever. Gelatinous masses generally don't easily explode.

...On the bright side, the Shadows are gone!

"Is that the last one?" You ask Morgana, ignoring the stinging pain that has just been introduced to your cheek for almost no reason whatsoever. You think that might be because of the power of the attack you just unleashed, but there's really no way to know for sure.

Also, you appear to have blasted a rut into the street itself. You wonder how that's going to be explained away in the morning. Oh, well. Not your problem. You wish it didn't have to happen, but... roads are easier to fix than doors, right?

...You need to stop blowing things up with your powers.
I don't even know how that keeps happening. It never did that for me.
"I hope so," The cat responds, giving your trail of destruction a look of awe. "How did you do that, anyway!?"

"I don't know. I only figured out I had powers back in December." Honestly, you don't think this is the sort of thing he should be impressed over... then again, cats are kind of fragile compared to humans, so maybe he just appreciates having someone who can hit things. You don't know.

You're not going to ask, either. You're fine with how things are right now.

"Oh... well, you can do it again if we run into anything else, right?" You look at him. He visibly deflates. "Right... not enough magic... but it's something for next time!" Personally, you're hoping next time doesn't come for a while, but you don't tell him that. Yet.

You're probably going to have to tell him eventually. Just not right now. You're tired. You want to sleep. You can already tell you're going to oversleep tomorrow morning, because you've both exhausted your powers and taken a moderately long walk. And if you don't heal once you get to safety, people are probably going to question where your injuries came from. And the blood.

Suffice to say, while you'll call the battle a success, you really hope nobody thinks to ask your opinion of the outing.

---

Thankfully, you get back to your dorm without running into any sort of trouble, which you were sort of worried about. You use what little magical energy you have left to close the cut on your cheek, hopefully it also cleaned all of the dry blood. You don't know, you don't have a mirror.

Nobody comments about you being hurt the next morning, so you assume it must have gone away. Or everyone else is feeling really awkward right now. It doesn't particularly matter, if it all adds up to the same thing.
And that's what tells you it did. Kids our physical age have no filter.
Still, after what happened last night, you need a way to avoid repeats. Or Morgana getting himself killed raiding a Shadow nest on his own, something tells you that would not be a good thing.

But what can you do, and how?


[ ] Introduce Morgana to SEES.
-[ ] All of them at once.
-[ ] Just start with one.
--[ ] Kirijo-san
--[ ] Sanada-san
--[ ] Shinjiro-san

[ ] Get more practice with your powers, so you can fight better.
-[ ] Zio
-[ ] Hama
-[ ] Kouha
-[ ] Dia
-[ ] Cruel Attack

[ ] Try to find yourself some sort of weapon.

[ ] Ignore the issue. You can just avoid going out into the Dark Hour until July, right?