Shattered Justice (A Persona Quest)

The new people, at least that are paying attention to you, appear to be apprehensive when you pull out your Evoker, and all things considered, you don't blame them. You still have no idea who designed them, or why they thought that this particular design was a good idea, and at this point, you aren't even sure it'd be worth asking.

After all, getting a straight answer about anything involving Shadows or Personas from the Kirijo Group is one of those things that just doesn't happen. Admittedly, you also haven't asked a lot of questions, but you'd think they'd at least hand out some kind of pamphlet.

"Kala-Nemi!" It feels a lot better, now, that you can call that name instead of Nemesis. Even knowing that you wanted to change, you hadn't realized how much of a relief it would be to voice the results. "Makouha!"

The odd looks from your summoning methods, meanwhile, you'd realized would be a thing basically from the beginning.

"D-did you just...?" A boy with headphones asks, nervously fiddling with a pair of kunai that you could see Koromaru using, if someone felt like spending money on kunai when there's plenty of other perfectly good knives available.

You decide that now isn't the time for this conversation. "It's the... well, it makes it easier to use my powers." You wouldn't call it the easiest method, not when you can just snap your fingers and bombard your foes with very precise strikes of lightning, but it's less tiring, most of the time. "Almost all of my friends do it."

And most of the few who don't aren't even here at the moment, so much as you can count Elizabeth as a friend and not just a kind of scary housemate. You think she'd say you're her friend, if anyone were to ask her.

Either way, it turns out that the card soldiers don't do well with large amounts of light. Or fire. Or darkness.

One of the new people, the one who's wearing blue, just summons an equally blue Persona and blows up a large number of FOEs in an explosion similar to the one Margaret created to let you in here. You make a mental note that that one is not to be trifled with.

Either way, as everyone keeps blasting, there's a clear path open to the other side of the room now, where there's a large, regal-looking Shadow who fans herself while looking bored. As soon as the way is open, Zen barrels right through it more quickly than you'd first thought his legs could carry him. It's actually kind of impressive.

Yukari-san pauses, and says something you don't quite catch, and then she's running past all the cards, too.

...You miss almost having an idea of what's going on.


[ ] You should... probably go join them.

[ ] ...You're fine dealing with the cards. It's actually almost fun.

In the end, Akihiko-san, Mitsuru-san, Makoto-san, Aigis-san, and Rei follow Zen and Yukari-san through the field of cards. For a moment, you wonder if it'd be better for you to join them, but decide that they probably have enough people with them for the time being.

Besides, someone needs to make sure those cards don't catch up to them again, and you can't deny that it's sort of entertaining to disintegrate them so easily. Just a Makouha, that's all you need, and suddenly there's a lot less cards on the field. When it comes to fighting Shadows, this is probably the most fun you can ever expect to have.

You fall in close to the one who set off the explosion, who has since moved on to alternating attacks of several elements, all off of one Persona, and also the boy with silver hair. "Do you mind if I slip in here?" It's that or stand around where Junpei-san and Chidori-san are trying to create a verifiable inferno out of living playing cards.

No, you don't know how this became your life. Just a few days ago, the things you were most often worried about were blobs.

"It should be fine," The boy says. "Izanagi!" A net of lightning flies out of his Persona's sword, and a number more of what you'd thought were FOEs suddenly cease to exist. It's sort of unnerving, really... "What sort of spells do you have?"

"I can use Bless, Lightning, and Psy."

A new, oddly familiar voice sounds inside your head. (What's Psy?)

"It's like this," You say, deciding to ignore the fact that that was telepathy for now. You'll worry about people randomly reading your mind later. "Mapsi!"

The set of cards you target are ripped apart like confetti. It's beautiful.

(Okay, that's... a thing...) The voice sounds mildly terrified. The silver-haired boy sighs.

"Rise, is now really the time for this?" Rise. Rise Kujikawa. That girl you met back at the start of the month, who turned out to be an idol. Since when was she telepathic?

(Well, what else am I supposed to do!? You've all got the Shadows wrapped up pretty well, I think, and the ones fighting the Queen already have a Navigator.) Two, technically, depending on how closely Mitsuru-san is looking, but you suppose this probably isn't the time to point that out. Maybe once this is all over, if you have time to chat afterwards. (I've got nothing to do!)

"You could point Teddie towards anyone who needs healing," The third member of your combat group, the one with all of the elements, speaks up. "You know how much he likes being helpful."

(Yeah, I guess...) Rise-san just sounds disappointed, now. (Or, I could if the cards would just get an attack in...)

Your not sure, but you think that your current Navigator is actually cheering on your opponents at the moment. Again, not something you'd ever expected would happen, but you don't think you could have ever seen a night like this coming. If it even counts as night. Something tells you you shouldn't be entirely sure about that.

"Rise-san, please don't do anything to encourage the enemy..."

(Naoto-kun, if I wanted to encourage the enemy, I think you'd have noticed.) You're starting to wonder if she means to be broadcasting to you, or if her confusion over the spells that are apparently exclusive to you caused her to accidentally add you to her private line. She hasn't said a word directly to you, so it could go either way.

It's probably not the best idea to be holding conversation in the middle of battle... but compared to the... minor commotion... at the back of the room, this can barely be called a fight, now can it?

Even with all the opponents' numbers, whatever fight this is certainly can't be called fair.


[ ] Okay, so, are you going to get anyone's names yet, or is that going to have to wait until there's less cards around?

[ ] You should probably point out to Rise-san that you can still hear everything she says. You kind of feel awkward listening to this...

[ ] ...But seriously, since when is Rise-san telepathic?

[ ] Alternatively, you're going to try and see just how many Card Soldiers you can clear out at a time. Maybe make a competition out of it. You're sure someone would be willing to take you up on the challenge...