Shattered Justice (A Persona Quest)

"Well, you could start by explaining things, I guess," You suggest. "What happened, anyway?"

"You saw, didn't you?" He points out, staring at the scene in the center of the room. "I can't use my Persona anymore, because it turned into a Shadow. I didn't notice it was happening, I just... Felt like I had to come here, and then he came out as soon as there weren't any more Shadows to run past."

It's something that has to have happened recently, you think, but not too recently, because the Shadows on the lower floors didn't seem to be responding to anyone else going by them. Or maybe Morgana's just better at stealth than you give him credit for.

...It's probably the first one. As helpful as it probably is to be a black cat at midnight, you doubt it's that easy when it comes to things that are only present in the Dark Hour. They probably have much better vision, if they rely on sight at all.
I don't think they do, actually.
"And then what happened?" You think that, if you talk him through it, there'd be less chance of a repeat of... whatever that was.

He sits down, tucking his tail around his paws. "Well, he showed up, to start. I... People don't normally talk to their Shadows. Normally, it's only Persona Users who get the chance to meet Shadows in general, and if you have a Persona, you can't have a Shadow. I mean, I guess you could, but you'd have to have some really serious problems..." You think this is getting just a bit off topic.

"Morgana? Focus." You need the proper story, not whatever tangents about Shadows he can go on while the Dark Hour is still running.

"R-right. Well... he started talking, and saying things, and I- I couldn't really believe it. Or agree, and... I knew saying it was a bad idea, as soon as I did it, but by then..." By then, his Shadow had decided that murder was the best solution. "That's what happens, if you tell your Shadow they're not you. If I realized that sooner, I wouldn't have-"

"Are you really sure about that?" The Shadow asks, having finally managed to sit up again. "If you were willing to accept what I had to say... this wouldn't have happened to begin with."

The regular Morgana's fur bristles, and he starts walking in the direction of his other self. "Well, it's not like we'll know now, right? You didn't even give me the chance to accept it, just pushed it all away so I couldn't even think about it! What kind of Persona even does that!?"
...Not a very good one.
"...The kind that wants to help you?" You suggest. At least, that's what Lavenza's told you... "I mean, no one ever said he had to be good at it... or that he thought things through." If he's just another part of Morgana, then... of course he wouldn't. Even the one you're used to can be stunningly lacking in impulse control.

"But how would that help?" You shrug.

"I don't know. Shadows don't really talk about that kind of thing. I think it's because they don't like admitting when they're wrong." Morgana looks at you quizzically, but you don't continue. This is something that you haven't even really told your team members, no way you're going to be sharing with a random cat, time travel or not.

"Really? Because he sure seemed to want to throw all my mistakes back at me." He's looking at his Shadow again. "I'm not going... to just stop trusting everyone. If I could do stuff on my own, it might work, but... I'm not strong enough for that. I probably won't ever be strong enough for that, and that's fine, because there's always someone who can help."

"That doesn't mean they'll want to," His Shadow warns.

"Yeah, but... with so many Persona Users out there, there has to be at least one! Maybe... We can even help them, too."

"...You said 'we.'"

"I-I guess I did... But it makes sense, doesn't it? I mean, it's like you said earlier..."

"I am thou, and thou art I." As the two of them speak, a brilliant blue light appears between them, which would probably be binding if not for the fact that you've more or less been staring at green light this whole time. Shadow Morgana vanishes, to be replaced with the figure of a Persona, which then vanishes as Morgana collapses.

...It's a good thing you didn't have any other plans for tonight.

---

Morgana, as it turns out, is fine. His Persona apparently isn't as strong as it was before the fight with his Shadow, which he complains about once he realizes just how far he's been set back, but given the alternative, you're perfectly all right with how things are.

He hasn't said anything about helping your group, but he also hasn't left the dormitory at all yet. It's only been a couple of days, though, so this could change. Honestly, even if he wanted to leave, you don't think anyone would let him do so until you're all sure he's all right.

You went to all that effort to save him from his Shadow, but you did not do that so he'd wander off and starve to death somewhere. Which you are pretty sure he would end up doing.

You haven't talked to him about Lavenza or anything yet. You think that's the sort of thing that can wait for a while. You'd like to do something a bit less stressful. (Pick up to three.)


[ ] Spend time with friends.
-[ ] Shinjiro-san.
-[ ] Akihiko-san. (+Empathy)
-[ ] Mitsuru-san. (+Courage)
-[ ] Takeba-san. (+Expression)
-[ ] Koromaru. (+Diligence)
-[ ] Morgana. (+Empathy)
-[ ] Maiko.
-[ ] Akira.

[ ] Focus on studying. (+Knowledge)

[ ] Practice Channeling.
-[ ] Kouha.
-[ ] Hama.

[ ] You want more custom outfits.

[ ] Special (Mutually-exclusive options)
-[ ] Explore the library. (+Courage)
-[ ] See if Lavenza wants to go anywhere.
-[ ] The first part of your story is nearing completion... (+Expression, +Diligence)

Now that you have pets in the dorm- even if Morgana would loudly protest use of the term, and they're both smarter than you'd expect animals to be- there's a few things you have to get used to.

Or, well, for the others to get used to. Like remembering to brush the dog fur off of their clothes before going to school, or working out a feeding schedule.

You still don't know for certain if Morgana's staying or not. If he isn't, though, you fully expect him to just wander off one day without an explanation. It seems like something he would do.

For now, however, you are sitting on the couch, petting Koromaru, and watching whatever's on TV at the moment. It's nothing all that interesting, but it provides some nice background noise, and that's all you really need right now.

Morgana doesn't seem all that interested in anything, either, but he might still be exhausted from this weekend. You know you'd be, if half of those things happened to you.
Of course, even if people ask, we're still not going to say that it comes from personal experience.
He sighs, and waves his paw, and a small gust of wind blows a nearby book open, but that's about it. "You know, you might feel better sooner if you stopped using so much magic," You suggest. Sure, if magical exhaustion is his problem, you have things to fix that, but... is it even good for cats?

He groans, ears drooping. "Yeah, but... If I don't practice, how am I supposed to get back to where I was?"

Honestly, you think he might be trying to get too far, too quickly. "I don't think wearing yourself out is the answer, though..." At least when Mitsuru-san was diving into research, it sort of made sense. How is Morgana supposed to improve his magical abilities if he keeps running out of magic?

"Well, what else am I supposed to do?"

"...Maybe you could help Takeba-san," You suggest. "The two of you use the same kind of magic, maybe it'd be easier if you helped her practice." At the very least, him exhausting himself would serve some sort of purpose that way. Versus just messing with your notebook whenever you try to write something.

Koromaru barks encouragingly. You aren't sure whether the feline Persona User finds this convincing or not, but it ultimately doesn't matter so long as there's no more ill-advised Tartarus expeditions in the near future from anyone that you care about.

Seriously. That's all you're asking for, at this point.

That, and some peace and quiet while you write.

---

"Hey, Nami-chan, are you awake?" Nami blinked her eyes open, staring at the dark hair of one of her best friends.

"Sorry, Ren-kun. It's just..." She yawned. "A lot of stuff happened last night." How was she supposed to explain a magical talking cat to someone who had no idea about the existence of other worlds?

"You're lucky Ozaki-sensei didn't notice you were asleep." As if he didn't spend half his classes reading various storybooks. Ren Amamiya was well known throughout their school as the kid who only paid attention when he felt like it, but still got perfect grades anyway. Mostly due to reading in his spare time. Nami had no idea how he could read so many books in a day, and he always just shrugged it off when asked. "And that Mei-chan took notes for you."

"They're meant for you, too, Ren-kun," Mei Kagami spoke up. "You need to spend less time with those books."

"But then what would I do?"

"Actually study?" Nami suggested. "I mean, that's... probably what I should have been doing. I just didn't get a lot of sleep last night, that's all." She couldn't tell them the truth, of course, because there was no way they'd believe her. Not if she really was the only human to step into the night like that.

"Can you still go to the library today?" Ren asked, adjusting the overly large stack of books on his desk. "I found some old stories the other day that I think you might like."

Mei groaned. "More stories? Don't you ever have enough of those?" Ren looked as if Mei had just told him that the world was ending. Never mind that Mei would probably change her tune if they had that manga she liked. It was... something about magical girls, Nami couldn't remember the name.

But maybe she should take an interest. After all, Merlin was the classic example of a magical girl mascot, wasn't he? It could be helpful to know about.

...What was she thinking? It probably wouldn't be all that accurate. She'd go with Ren, instead. At least he'd probably show her to a complete story.

---

You nod as you fill in some of the last gaps remaining from this part of the story. You have an outline, the first half of the plot or so is more or less complete... and it comes to mind that there's a lot more written down than you'd expected. You didn't expect things to get so long... or that you'd be able to keep writing despite that.
(Ken's Diligence has increased to 4!)
But at this length... you might be able to split the story into parts, to make it easier to go through. Or, more likely, to remind whoever's reading it to take breaks, because a lot of people you know are pretty bad about that.

Of course, if you're going to split things up... you'll have to figure out where the first dividing point will be. That way, you can actually work on things one part at a time.

You think that the end of the first part will be...



[ ] After the group successfully survives their first encounter with the Reaper.

[ ] When Nami meets her Shadow.

[ ] After the whole group has new Personas.

[ ] ...On second thought, you don't have to divide it...