Shattered Justice (A Persona Quest)

While there's a lot about this group you're curious about, plenty of it things that can be asked between intermittent Makouha, Mazio, and Ma.... whatever that third person's doing. You stopped paying attention after a while.

There's one, however, that comes to mind as a fairly important thing.

"So... Rise-san, right?" You direct your question up at the abyss above you, fairly certain that the person you're addressing will be able to figure out that you're talking to her.

(What is it?)

"Since when can you use telepathy?" You're pretty sure she couldn't do that the last time you saw her, and that wasn't even a month ago!

(It's been... um... four months since I got Himiko now? Yeah, something like that.)

That doesn't make any sense. There's no way she could have had a Persona for so long unless...

...Time travel. Of course there's time travel involved, why not? Sure, your own situation is something of an open secret these days, at least in the sense that you're not really trying to hide anything from your friends and more never mentioning it unless it's actually relevant, but you'd thought that would cut down on these kinds of incidences, at least that you have to experience.

"...What year are you from?" You're sort of hoping that you're wrong, but it's the only thing that makes sense.

(What... year?)

"It's 2011," The boy with silver hair says. "...Is it different for you?"

Okay. Weird people from the future. You're aware that that sentence could also be used to describe you, but this is a different kind of weirdness entirely. You could make categories of this sort of stuff, and the only things you'd have in common with these people would probably be 'have a Persona' and 'from a future.' You don't even know if you're from the same future yet, or if they come from the world you're making, or maybe even a third possible future that you aren't going to get to see happening after you've interacted with it.

...Yes, you're aware that you've maybe gotten a bit too far into Futaba's reading suggestions. The point still stands.

"We're from 2009." And you're aware of a version of 2016 that's out there somewhere, though you aren't quite sure what ended up happening to it. Given what you remember, it was probably nothing good.

The boy pauses. "...Would you like some lottery numbers?" As if you'd be old enough to take advantage of them. Sure, wherever in the year they come from, there's a decent enough chance that Mitsuru-san might be able to, but there's pretty much no chance that you'd ever see her gambling.

(Since when do you pay attention to those?)

"Since I figured that, if this was what my life was going to be, why wouldn't time travel be a thing?" He makes it sound surprisingly reasonable.

"Senpai, no diving through portals to the past. Rise-san, don't encourage him. Our situation is tenuous enough as it is." Says the person who is clearly having the most fun here.

"Come on, Naoto, it'd be fun."

"Yes, until you reach the logical ramifications of such an act: homelessness, technical lack of legal identity... If you had a valid credit card, you could probably be charged with credit fraud, as well."

(...Is it really fraud if it's money you earned either way?) Rise asks, sounding more curious than anything else.

"It doesn't matter. We're not trying it." The next attack to come from the little blue Persona is another white explosion that engulfs much of the sea of cards. Through the sea, you can see the regal Shadow facing off against your friends. She doesn't seem to be doing that well- she looks more desperate than anything else. You suppose, given what your friends are like, that this was only to be expected.

"You could also go back to your younger body," You point out. "Time travel can work that way." That's what happened with you, after all, and as much as you want to deny it, it's impossible to say for sure that such a thing hasn't happened with Elizabeth. It honestly raises less questions than it answers, though the questions it raises are honestly bigger than the ones it answers.

You're also aware that bringing it up will probably lead you to have to have extended interactions with her, and that's something you're not quite ready for yet.

(I guess...) There's a pause. (...How did we get to this topic?)

"Either you guys went back in time, or my friends and I came forward." And it's impossible to tell which one. "Or maybe we didn't end up in either of our times. Maybe we're not in time at all." It sounds silly when you say it, but... actually, thinking about it, it makes a surprising amount of sense. It feels right, at least, even if you could never explain it to someone else.

There are now multiple odd looks sent your way. From the people you ended up fighting beside, a prickling feeling in your mind that you think is Rise trying and failing to voice her confusion in a coherent answer... and from Margaret, who stands off to the side to watch the rest of the battle, having apparently decided only to interfere to the point of getting you in the room.

Naoto is the first one whose confusion is given a voice. "Why would you think that?"


[ ] Point out how nothing here seems wholly real.

[ ] Point out that apparently you're the first one here to realize time travel was involved in this at all.

[ ] Point out that it's honestly not much weirder than anything else you've had to deal with.

[ ] "...I don't know."

"Well..." You search for the right words for a moment in-between blasting your opponents. "It's... nothing here feels fully real?" Not that anything really does, with Shadows involved, but this might be just a bit worse than usual.

The silver-haired boy blinks at you. "Since when was that new?"

"...Also, my friends and I got here because this is where the Velvet Room crashed..." You're still not sure how any of this happened, really.

"...Okay, yeah, that'd explain it." He suddenly sounds completely accepting of this fact, as if he's been long accustomed to Velvet Room weirdness. You're going to assume, for now, that he's a Wild Card or otherwise involved with them. Their brand of insanity isn't something you learn to handle in a day.

His companion blinks at him. "Senpai... has this sort of thing happened to you before?"

"No, I just don't put it past the Velvet Room to be really weird. You've met Marie, right? They adopted her."

"I wouldn't say she was that strange, really..."

Off to the side, Margaret listens to your conversation, gives a nod, and then turns her attention back to the wider battlefield. You're not sure what she's thinking, but something tells you that getting Rise-san or Mitsuru-san to check would be bad for their health.

But the good news is, you're almost out of cards! You think this means you're winning!

---

When the last of the cards falls, you let Kala-Nemi vanish, and see that the queenlike Shadow has collapsed to the ground and vanished, leaving nothing but a book behind.

This is not the weirdest thing a Shadow has left behind. The floating mouths you've seen about dropped their own tongues. Compared to those, anything would be... not necessarily more sensical, but more of something that you'd be okay with picking up off the ground.
Though, I... don't know if you should be touching Shadow parts to begin with.
It's just that books are really the last thing you ever expected to drop from a kind of Shadow that doesn't have 'Book' in the name, and you're positive you've seen Shadows named like that at some point or another.

At the end of the room, there's also a large chest, sitting there innocuously. Despite your hopes, you somehow doubt that it contains a set of four keys. That'd be too easy. You hurry to your friends, who have started gathering around it.

"Is everyone all right?" Mitsuru-san asks. While healing is far from her specialty, you wouldn't be surprised if Artemisia made an appearance. After a fight this big, having healers on hand is never a bad idea, no matter how inept your opponents were at dealing with literally every element in your arsenal.

...Well. Presumably. You never tested Psi, and Aigis-san just went past the cards entirely without bothering to cast Frei on them, but everything else got the same reaction, and you can't think of any reason for it to be majorly different even if those spell lines are exclusive to the two of you.

"We're fine," Chidori-san says. "At least, I haven't noticed any major injuries." For a moment, you feel a bit strange, and then it passes again. It's probably nothing. "Anything that's there can probably heal on its own."

It's hard to disagree with that when healing of minor injuries can be sped up with food, and there's unlimited free food just outside the Labyrinth. Honestly, you could probably live here indefinitely, except that you have a large number of better things to do.

Meanwhile, Zen is rummaging around inside of the treasure chest. You aren't sure when he found the time to open it, but... that's apparently a thing.

(Yeah, nobody really got hurt all that bad.) Rise-san agrees. (For Shadows that big, they were pathetic.)

"Says someone who doesn't fight..." The boy with the kunai mumbles.

Yukari-san glances at you. "So... do you know these people?"



[ ] They helped you get into the room!

[ ] They're other Persona Users.

[ ] "Not really."

[ ] They're from 2011.

[ ] "So... do you remember Rise-san?"