Shattered Justice (A Persona Quest)

You look up at Aigis-san. Her eyes haven't left you, not once, in the time since you summoned your Persona. "Aigis-san? Is something wrong?" You ask. Her unmoving gaze is leaving you more than a little uncomfortable.

"Not... wrong. More... interesting. And... confusing." Her eyes still do not leave you. You're more than a little concerned by this, particularly as you've started walking again.

"I- I don't know what you mean. If you're talking about Kala-Nemi, then the same sort of thing happened to Akihiko-san and Mitsuru-san. Though it... is hard to explain." How do you explain changes to the shape of your soul to someone whose entire mindset adheres to strict programming? "All it really means is that I've changed, as a person." You don't think she gets it.
Maybe after she becomes a bit more of a person.
"Really? But you do not seem all that different from who you were before." Yeah, you don't think you ever had a real chance here.

"I don't know how you can be so sure," Yukari-san remarks. "You haven't exactly known Ken-kun as long as the rest of us have. And when it's a change inside of you... why should anyone else be able to notice?"

"I was led to believe that the point of a change was to act on it."

Shinjiro-san sighs and shakes his head. "Look, Personas are complicated. Don't worry about it. I dunno if it even applies to you, what with the whole robot thing."

This is a good point, sort of. Looking at her, it's hard to believe she'd ever be able to speak her own mind, let alone have herself change like that. And while you're still not sure if Palladion feels right, it's certainly not as wrong as Io, or Lucia.
And here we have the power of the Wild Card making things weird for everyone for the nth time. This doesn't even come as a surprise anymore.
Maybe you should stop judging other people's hearts based off of the feelings you get from them. The most it means is that the person isn't as grown up as they could be, right? You've got enough dilemmas without adding that little issue to the pile.

...You wouldn't even be thinking about this if Aigis-san hadn't brought it up. Oddly enough, she's the first person to express major shock by the existence of Resolution, as much as someone like her can be shocked. It sort of makes you wonder what's going on in her head right now.

Still... she's not staring at you anymore. Mission accomplished, you guess.

---

Eventually, your group reaches something that looks like a pond, but smells... off. You can't identify the smell, so at least you can be sure it's not blood, but...

"Should I do a chemical analysis?" Aigis-san suggests.

Makoto-san gives her a look. "What part of this looks safe to drink?" That's actually the closest to an outright no you've ever heard from him.

"That is not why I wish to test it. This world is an anomaly, and analyzing the substances I might find here may help us in understanding it."

Makoto-san glances around, his face showing a clear cry for help.


[ ] Help Makoto-san talk down Aigis-san.

[ ] Let someone else do it.

[ ] Investigate the liquid yourself.

"I-I don't think that's a good idea, Aigis-san," You speak up, prompting Makoto-san to give a sigh of relief. "What if it's able to melt metal or something? We... can't exactly take you in for repairs." She's not a radio or something.

"He has a point," Junpei-san remarks. "If it's not safe for you, you could lose a finger, Ai-chan!"

"That would be preferable to if you were to lose one of your fingers," She replies. "I do not believe that those grow back."

The sad thing is, you don't think she was even trying to make a joke with that. She sounds too serious about it.
Look, if Junpei-san lost a finger, he'd spend years complaining about it even if he could get a replacement. It's an important reminder.
Mitsuru-san sighs. "Aigis. Don't touch anything you're not certain of. This isn't the time for experimentation." She sounds like she'd be perfectly willing to freeze the pond over, if it'd get you all home faster.

Honestly, you'd help, if you had the chance. Sadly, none of your powers are well suited to making a particular body of water inaccessible.

...Well, maybe the psychokinesis, but this probably isn't the time to be practicing with that.

"Besides, if the water's important, we'll find it out later, right?" You point out. "For now, though... it's just... something." You aren't even sure you were right to call it water. It'd probably be more accurate to say that it's paint.
That... Sort of explains a few things...
Bringing that up, however, would likely serve only to reignite Aigis-san's interest in chemical analysis, and again, this really isn't the time and place for that sort of thing. So you let the subject drop without mentioning it.

Like you said. If it's important, it'll come up eventually.

---

---

The next thing you see of interest is a pair of clocks that let you warp between them just by reaching out and touching them, which is really weird for a lot of reasons, not least of which being that you're used to teleporting through something that actually looks like it was made for teleporting. Zen has an odd look on his face whenever he looks at the clocks, but never says a word about it.

When you get up to the next door, which remains just a pair of pianos pushed together, Fuuka-san speaks up. "Um... before you go in there... I have to warn you to be careful!"

Mitsuru-san pauses. "Yamagishi? Is something wrong?"

"There's a very strong Shadow on the other side of this door. It shouldn't be impossible for you to defeat it, but..."

"Oh, are you talking about the FOEs?" Rei asks, producing a corndog from nowhere. Really, you can't see anywhere that she could have gotten it from.

Yukari-san glances at her. "...FOE?"

It's Zen who elaborates. "Fysis Oikein Eidolon. They are by far the most dangerous monsters within the Labyrinths. ...Rei complained that the full name was too wordy."

"You're still not convincing me it's not." This sounds like an argument they've had several times before.

Makoto-san shrugs. "You said you think we could beat it?"

"...Maybe. I don't think it'd be the best idea to try it, though. And you really shouldn't decide to try before you've even seen it." Makoto-san looks distinctly disappointed to hear this.

Yukari-san steps forward, and the door opens. On the far side of the room, you see what looks like a giant playing card walking around a pond counterclockwise.

You're aware that your sense of danger is different from most people's, but looking at it...


[ ] ...Honestly, you think you could take it on.

[ ] ...Fuuka-san's probably right that you should stay away from this.