Shattered Justice (A Persona Quest)

Makoto wasn't entirely sure how he'd gotten into this situation.
"Amazing!" Elizabeth stared around at the various stalls. "So many options for sustenance, all in a single place, and games to play as well. A full nexus of human emotion, gathered here today." Aigis nodded along with her. This should probably have been concerning.

"I don't... know if it's that special..." Yukari took a few steps away from her. "I mean, it's just a festival. There's really not much else to it."

"Even if it is, as you say, 'just a festival,'" Aigis began, carefully stepping through the crowd so she didn't run into anyone, "The fact remains that a festival is the location of a great amount of human interaction. That, alone, makes it worth observing."
It almost sounds like poetry, if that was something she knew how to write.
Makoto sighed. "I guess you have to learn how to act like a normal person sometime..."

"It'd be easier if she didn't just go along with whatever Liz says, though..." He supposed that Yukari had a point... maybe. "And if you could keep the two of them on a tighter leash."

"I could try," He admitted, because that, in Makoto's experience, was better than saying that he couldn't do it. It had been very useful when it came to explaining failures away to Aunt Amane, even if it didn't work as well on the rest of his relatives.

"...Yeah, that's about what I expected." She sounded even more disappointed than he'd expected her to be.

Makoto paused, no sure what to say to that. "What do you mean?"
Like always, he chose not to listen to Thanatos.

Yukari shot another glance at Aigis and Elizabeth, who had thankfully not wandered off and created a scene yet. That was something which could only end in explosions. Aigis turned at their gaze and walked back over to them.

"Makoto-san. Yukari-san. Some of the game stalls are very obviously rigged."

Yukari sighed. "Yes, that does tend to happen."

"Elizabeth-san is wondering if she has permission to cast Megidolaon on them."
Liz, why!?
"Of course she doesn't! You tell her, Makoto-kun!"

"I-I..." Forget the game stalls, this situation was rigged against him worst of all. "Why does Liz think it's a good idea to blow up the festival?"

"The game stalls are very obviously rigged," Aigis repeated, in the exact same tone as she said it before.

"Don't blow up the festival," Yukari groaned. "Why are the two of you just going along with whatever Liz says? Don't you ever think for yourselves?"
We do, we just have a very stringent moral compass.
Aigis blinked. "Think for... myself?"

She rolled her eyes. "Exactly. You know, you are allowed to say no sometimes." Why was she saying that? Didn't she understand that saying no to people was always a bad thing to do?
The only way Makoto would be at all likely to listen to that would be if it hadn't come from one of the voices in his head. As it was, it came from Thanatos. So it clearly wasn't worth considering.

...Right?

---

Mitsuru's priority for the festival was learning how to eat festival food. It was one of those things that she'd never gotten around to before, but that, in hindsight, would probably be a good experience to have.

"Yomogi daifuku?" Akihiko offered, holding a small paper plate.

She accepted it. "Thank you."
It feels like there's a joke we're not getting, here.
"...So nothing's blown up yet. That's a good sign, right?"

"...Yes, but I think our standards of what constitutes a good sign are perhaps a bit lower than they should be." They shouldn't have had to be wondering what would explode and when, but then Shelley had shown up, and with her, more chaos than any one person should have been expected to handle.

More chaos than even a group the size of SEES should have been expected to handle, but it wasn't like fate had ever given them things because it seemed like they could handle them. If anything, it was quite the opposite.

A group of girls from their school started to approach them. Akihiko stepped closer to Mitsuru. "...They just never give up, do they?" Still, the girls didn't get too close, though one of them that Mitsuru recognized as living near the dormitory fixed them both with a burning stare.
I know we could just Charm them into staying away, but that would just end in us controlling half the school again.
"They do appear to be keeping their distance for now. Perhaps they're learning."

"I guess we'll find out if school starts up again and they leave the Cooking Club alone. Maybe then Shinji will just admit that he likes Fuuka already." His frustration was almost tangible, though that might just have been the static.

Mitsuru tactfully declined to mention that, at one point, the two of them hadn't been much better, and they hadn't had to deal with things like being locked in Tartarus for the high crime of being associated with each other.

"They did come here together." Admittedly, this was as much because everyone else was already pairing off to begin with, as well as the utter snarl of apparent romantic entanglements that was Makoto Yuki, but it was still a step in the right direction.

"I think that only matters if they actually talk to each other."

"I see you're throwing a lot of stones today."

"...He started it."

---

Fuuka really wasn't sure what to do at the moment.

Going together with Shinjiro for the sake of not being alone was one of those things that sounded really good in theory, but was a lot more awkward in practice. Why did she think agreeing to go to the festival as friends with her crush was a good idea?
Because the alternative was not getting to go with him at all.
...Right. That.

Whenever someone recognizable as one of Akihiko's fangirls passed by, Shinjiro would glare at them to make them move away. "You don't... really have to do that..." She mumbled. It wasn't like they were going to lock her in Tartarus again.
And if they do, we can find our own way out. Or maybe just keep Traesto Gems in our pockets.
"Well, maybe if they'd mind their own business..." She'd scold him, if not for the fact that, so far, the fangirls that had been glared at had yet to come back.

...Wait a minute. "...Have you been inflicting Fear on them?"

Shinjiro glanced away. "What? Of course not. You know I'm shit at magic." He took another bite of some candy that he'd been complaining was too sweet.

Fuuka wasn't entirely sure how to process this, so she decided she'd just ignore it for the time being. He had to run out of fangirls to scare eventually.

After all, with all that candy, he definitely wasn't going to run out of magic.

---

"Hey, Chidorin?"

"What is it?"

"Is... is this a date?"

"Do you want it to be?"

"Um... yes."

"...All right, then."

The best way to handle powers you're still unsure of is to get an outside opinion on them. Sure, Mapsi feels like it's just another spell you can use, but you've been meaning to practice with it either way, so why not invite Mitsuru-san?

Again, you set things up, and try to move them with your mind. It's easier than it was last time- you can get things to float a bit- but you'll still need more practice if you want to have any sort of real control past that.

Mitsuru-san watches as you do this, and is more than willing to make suggestions. "Your prior attacking magics are all beholden to the laws of physics, to some extent. Perhaps that has affected your spellcasting here?"

You seriously hope that isn't the case, if only because you don't want to be held back from doing all of the interesting things that psychokinesis makes possible.
You know, so long as we don't rip any overly-dangerous holes in the fabric of space and time.
"Even if that's happening... I'll just need a bit more practice, right? I think I'm already getting better than I was before." It's still not easy, by any means, but only a little more practice should be necessary to change that.

It's not improving as fast as your other magic, but that doesn't mean there's no improvement.

"It looks to be that way," She agrees, and you try to pretend that doesn't relieve you as much as it does. "Still, you should remember to rest. It won't do if you spend so much time practicing, you're too tired to go to Tartarus at the end of the week."
So says the person who kept working when she was sick, arguing that she was fine because she had a normal human body temperature, despite how everyone already knew that she runs cold.
"Does that mean you're going to make sure to get enough rest?"

She doesn't answer you. You hope this doesn't mean she's overworking herself again. Particularly given how it's summer vacation.

Sadly, if she were, it wouldn't surprise you.

...You'll ask one of the others to look into it.

---

Mitsuru-san actually seems more well-rested now, which should probably be concerning. Still, that's not something you're going to bother with thinking about today, you have other things to do.

"I don't even know what I was supposed to say to her. She just... went against my whole idea of right and wrong." The local blue-haired Wild Card is currently sitting next to Koromaru, talking at him.

This is interesting. "Makoto-san? Is something the matter?"

He looks up at you, blinking. "O-oh, Ken. I... hadn't noticed you there." Somehow, that doesn't surprise you.

"I was asking you a question," You point out, recognizing that, if you give him the chance, he will endlessly dodge the subject of anything he doesn't want to talk about with a human.

"I'm... not sure it's something you'd want to hear," He mumbles. "...Pretty sure you can't help me, anyway."

"I wouldn't ask if I didn't want to know the answer," You point out. "I think you were... talking about somebody?"

Makoto-san sighs and defeat. "It's not really important, it's just... Ken, how do you just... go up and say no to people?" He sounds genuinely distressed by this. You aren't sure why.


[ ] Why is he asking you this?

[ ] Try and explain.
-[ ] How?

[ ] Say you're not telling him.

"It... depends on the person you're talking to." Why is he asking you about this? What, exactly, about this subject makes him think that, if he asks an eleven-year-old this stuff, he'll get a good answer? Still, he asked, so you're going to do your best to talk to him about this. "With a lot of people, I can just explain why I think something's a bad idea, and even if they don't back down, they at least listen."
And those that don't, we know well enough not to bother with by now.
"...Most people?"

"And then we have Elizabeth-san. Her family is... probably better distracted than outright refused." Not that it can always work, of course, but you're well aware the the most you'll be able to do with their attention is redirect it. Someone else might get better results, but that's as far as you can go.

Makoto-san blinks, looking down. "So, distracting people... can be the same as saying no?" He seems to be very disturbed by this implication.

You shrug. "It can have the same effect. I mean, some people take more effort to refuse than others..." You're not going to say anything directly, but you definitely mean Shinjiro-san here. "But that's still no reason not to try, or else they might hurt themself doing something stupid, and then you'll just wish you could have done something to stop it."

This is becoming strangely personal, and you don't even mean for it to. "And... no one has a problem with you doing that?" Makoto-san sounds skeptical.

"Why would they?"

"I mean, even if it's for a good reason, you're still saying no. And that's..." He trails off. "I've always been told that it's wrong to do that."
...Okay, is there just a thing where human Wild Cards aren't allowed to have a decent upbringing? Because there's definitely a pattern here...
"...Who told you this?" It comes to mind that maybe you should be bringing Mitsuru-san into the room, but you really don't want her leaving one weekend and coming back with a trail of ice sculptures in her wake. You think that just might garner a bit of suspicion.

"Well... everyone, really. In my family, I mean."

"Your family sounds terrible." It probably says something about your group that everyone's parental figures are some flavor of horrible, distant, or nonexistent. Sometimes two at once. "That's... I don't think anyone else has been told that sort of thing... except maybe Akira-san, but Akira-san's parents are awful, so they don't really count." You've only met his father the once, but that was enough to know that, if he were targeted by Shadows, you'd only really care if it left your friend without anywhere to go.

Even then, you think you could get away with just moving him in here. It worked for you, after all.

Makoto-san shifts uncomfortably. "...Thanatos says something like that, too, sometimes."

"You should listen to him. He clearly knows what he's talking about." You suppose it's a good thing that at least part of him can recognize this, even if he's apparently not in the habit of paying attention to what he says.

At the very least, it means that things could still, eventually, get better.

---

And now back to Tartarus. You've grown used to monthly visits to the tower, even with just how many more floors you have to cover each time. You've also gotten used to the group being split in half, with the exception of Yukari-san.

For today's trip, you will be bringing along the...

[ ] Nihil Spear.

[ ] Treason Couse.

And your part in this adventure will be covering the...

[ ] First part.

[ ] Second part.