Shattered Justice (A Persona Quest)

You glance up at Mitsuru-san, wondering if it's worth the effort to look innocent. You conclude that it's not, because she can read minds, and also she knows you better than that.

So you say something else instead. "Define responsible."

She's clearly fighting back a smile now as she looks at you. "You should use this information however you think is best, within reason." You think she'd have a lot more plausible deniability if she'd left those last two words out.

You're not going to mention that to her.
She's probably figured that out already. She'll never be the best with people, but she knows that much, at least.
"All right, then." Since you assume she's giving you permission to mess with Shinjiro-san, you'll have to think about the best possible way to do that... probably after you've gotten out of this Labyrinth. There's a time and place for being a nuisance, and the middle of a twisting maze full of Shadows is definitely not it.

Besides, depending on how much that question you recently had to answer matters, you might be facing the same thing at some point in the future. Probably best to wait until whatever you do could be sort of considered justified.
You're going to have to defend it either way. Shinjiro-san likes us, but not even Akihiko-san can usually get away with relentless teasing.
Still. Even if it might not be the best idea to do so right away. You make a mental note to go bug Shinjiro-san later. It'll be fun!

At least, that's what you keep telling yourself about it.

---

It only figures that you'd end up encountering an FOE eventually.

It's... sort of like a Knight Shadow, you think, if Knights were of the Lovers Arcana, made of solid gold, and forced into a form more fitting for a greeting card, or maybe educational TV. You're not sure which one would be more of an insult to the Shadow.
It's tacky, is what you mean by that. I'm not sure you have to say anything else.
"...I can't help but think that the Card Soldiers made a lot more sense," Chidori-san says. "I didn't even read the book, but at least it wasn't this."

(Huh. This one has a weakness.) You aren't sure Rise-san meant to project her thoughts this far, but you're getting used to hearing her speak up when you aren't expecting her.

"That's right, it's weak to fire and ice! As you are, you could probably defeat it fairly easily, but..."

The Shadow just stands there. Looking at it, it's more powerful than the other Shadows in this area, but less powerful than most of the various members of SEES, let alone Narukami-san and his group with the third-tier spells. Of course, relative power isn't everything, but if it came down to a fight, you think it would actually be fairly easy to take it out.

This is the one thing that reassures you. It's just standing there menacingly.

And then Narukami-san takes a hesitant step forward, and suddenly it's looking in an entirely different direction, arrow still ready to be fired.

This might just be the weirdest Shadow you've ever encountered. And you're counting Teddie-san in this.
Honestly, you should be glad. No matter how you want to deal with these, it's pretty painless.
It doesn't take much experimentation to figure out that it turns ever time someone moves across at least one tile. Avoiding its gaze only really takes big steps, a single file line, and people who can remember to take their turns.

You're vaguely concerned that Hanamura-san or Junpei-san might mess this up for you. Just a little. But apparently it's not happening this time.


[ ] You all figure that, since you can easily avoid the FOE, you'll do that.

[ ] You didn't necessarily want to pick a fight with any FOEs, but... it does look incredibly beatable...

In all honesty, it was only a matter of time before someone decided to poke the FOEs.

That it was this one is a bit more of a surprise, but not really, because unlike the ones that came before, this one has weaknesses. That already makes it a much more enticing opponent than the cards were.

Also, there's so many of you that literally nothing else stands a chance.

"If we're going to do this, we should be smart about it," Narukami-san says, as though the smart option wouldn't have been to stay as far away as possible from the FOEs. "One of us should go and attack it from behind. Preferably with fire or ice."

This is actually a thing that sounds plausible for one of you to do, so long as they're careful about it.

"Ken-kun or Koro-chan would probably be best at it." And then you hear Yukari-san speak. "They're small, and they've both got at least one Persona with an advantage."

"If we're going by that, Teddie could also work," Narukami-san remarks. "...Well. If the Shadows don't hear his feet squeaking from a mile off."

...You wonder if now's a good time to move to the back of the group. You think it'll be an interesting fight, you definitely want to take part, but... as useful as opening with Frost Link might be, you can't help but feel that there has to be someone better for the job.


[ ] Or you could just Frost Link the FOE.

[ ] Make a suggestion to Koromaru. See if he goes along with it.

[ ] ...As long as you're standing behind Teddie-san, it should be perfectly safe.

...So, these are probably going to show up intermittently for the next several months or so until I run out of characters, so... enjoy.

---

When Ann Takamaki was nine years old, she fell asleep and woke up somewhere else. For a moment, her eyes met those of a boy about her age, and then they both fell through the floor into a field of flowers.

"Wh-what's going on?" She very clearly remembered her mother tucking her into bed, and falling asleep to the sounds of raindrops against her window, and that wasn't anywhere near this green field beneath a bright blue sky. It could have been a dream, but she remembered hearing that pain made you wake up from those, and that fall hurt.

"I-I don't know," The boy who was dropped through the floor with her pushed himself up, and offered her a hand so she could stand up as well. "Or- I guess I do, it's something the Shadows here did, I think, but..." He paused, and examined their joined hands. "Um... are you stuck, too, or...?"

Ann blinked, and tried to let go of the boy's hand. It wasn't working.

"It seems you have reached your destination."

The voice was mechanical, loud, and the most grating thing that Ann had ever heard. "Wh-what is that?"

"We think it's some sort of a recording," The boy explained. "Probably. I mean, you never know in a place like this..." As if she knew what 'a place like this' even was.

"And that would be...?"

"This seems to be a path where lovers who have met their destined partners discuss their love for each other. What could be waiting up ahead?" Wait, what? Lovers? Destined partners? She'd never met this boy before in her life! "You are free to step forth hand in hand, curiosity and fear in your hearts, or you can refrain."

"Refrain... that means saying no, right?" She honestly wasn't sure about that.

The boy sighs. "It does, but I get the feeling that isn't actually an option..." He sounded really resigned to this whole thing, for some reason. "...Oh, my name's Ken, by the way."

"...Ann."

"You are free to step forth, or refrain from doing so. These are your apparent options. Now, step forth!" It was as though, the second Ken pointed out how little a choice there was, even the illusion of one was stripped away.

Ann looked around to see if there were any other options. It looked like there was some kind of stairs behind them... "...How about we just leave?"

"...I don't want to risk being stuck to your hand forever. No offense, but I just met you." The boy's tone of voice changed, for a moment, and when Ann glanced at him, an odd golden light was fading out of his eyes. "...Also, this place seems safer than the last floor. If I never see another King, it'll be too soon..." She had no idea what he was talking about.

"...All right, then." Maybe once she found whoever had dragged her there, she could kick them in the shins until they sent her home again. On the floor above, Zen shuddered.
The two of them walked down the hallway. Ken glanced at Ann. "So, do you- I guess you wouldn't know how you got here, or..."

She shook her head. "I... think this might be a dream? Except dreams aren't supposed to make you hurt." Well. Maybe nightmares. "It... might have to do with that odd bell I heard during dinner?" Her parents hadn't heard a thing, so she'd been sure she was imagining it...

"...Maybe. I think... everyone else heard one, too." For a moment, he stopped walking, forcing her to stop as well. He handed her something that looked like a gun. "I'm not sure if this'll work for you, or if it'd be a good idea, but... you'd need it more than I do."

"...Why do you have a gun?"

"It's complicated. And it's not a real gun. But... it's useful if you ever end up in danger here."

Ann nodded, and let the hand with the gun in it fall to her side.

Soon, the two of them reached a mounted picture standing where the path split in two. "Suddenly, all in attendance hear an announcement."

Oh. That voice was back. Ken's grip tightened. "Oh, no..."

"Up ahead, they see a bride and groom's joyous commemorative photograph of love. They confer between them whether to look at it, or ignore it." Ann wished she could ignore it. It wasn't even a good edit!

"Please don't let the others see this, please don't let the others see this..." She wasn't sure that he'd meant to say those words out loud. "...Ann-chan, do you... think you could light this on fire, or something? I don't have a way how..." His voice had changed again, just for a moment, and she still didn't know why.
If only...
"I don't have a way, either!" The words didn't sound right as she said them, for some reason, but she couldn't be sure why, or why there was an odd prickle in the back of her head.

Ken sighed. "...Plan B, then." And the picture was blasted away with light. "It's... well, I'd say not to think about these places too closely, but they tend to actually mean things, so..."

"Wh-what did you just do?" She'd seen it, the way the light flowed from his fingertips, how it struck down the photo with more power than she'd ever imagined simple light to have.

"It's... My power. Or one of them. It's called Kouga." Ann was still not fully convinced that this wasn't a dream. "You'll... probably see more of it eventually."

'Eventually' turned out to be 'in about a minute' after a large, demented priest showed up and tried to make them get married. Never mind that Ann was nine, and she couldn't imagine Ken could be that much older.

And then Ken's friends- who were all much older than him, except for possibly the cat- showed up, and things just got weirder from there.

---

When Ann Takamaki was nine years old, she snuck into a haunted house despite every part of her screaming that it was a bad idea. But almost everyone had gone that way, including one of two people that were actually her age, and it was worth dealing with Iori-san's constant teasing if it meant having someone she could actually talk to.
It's... better than talking to yourself.
Lavenza tried, certainly, but that mostly added up to her slipping in along with her.

"I will make sure that the FOEs don't harm you," She promised, and Ann found that she believed her.

She grew to regret her choice quickly, since this was a haunted house filled with monsters and there was exactly one other person with her who, magical explosions or not, still couldn't have been that much older than her.

"This was a bad idea..." She mumbled, as several dolls swooped down around her, Lavenza already preparing her attack.

She was going to die here, wasn't she? In this strange world that might as well have been a dream.
I am thou, thou art I.
Except she must have done something right. Because soon enough, there was fire burning away at her fingertips, and even if they seemed like pitiful sparks compared to Amagi-san's, Yuki-san's, Iori-san's, or Yoshino-san's flames... It was something.

She was magic.

Ann and Lavenza hurried out of the Evil Spirit Club, and she set to work trying to learn her new power.

She may or may not have set the entrance to the Group Date Cafe on fire.

---

When Ann Takamaki was nine years old, she approached the former god of time with a question.

"Um... If we're all going to forget this, then... Will I still have Carmen?"
I don't want to disappear.
It wasn't Zen who answered, but Aragaki-san. "Course you will. She's part of you, isn't she? Just cause you don't know she's there doesn't mean she's gone away."

"...I suppose that, of the two of us, the one who actually has a Persona would be more of an expert on the subject," Zen allowed. "However, when it comes to using your power... I suspect you will be back to square one in that regard."

That wasn't a saying Ann expected a deity, even a former deity, ever to use. But it made sense. If she didn't even remember Carmen was there, how was she supposed to be able to use her power?

"She might not even be Carmen the next time you see her," Ken added, offering her some takoyaki while glaring at the others as if he was daring them to make a comment. The relentless teasing had only gotten worse once they all learned that Ann's Arcana was the Lovers. "People's Personas can change, depending on where they are in life. Mitsuru-nee's Persona used to be called Penthesilea. By the time you find yours, you could be a whole different person."

And she wouldn't remember that she'd ever had Carmen to begin with. That her Persona had ever been something different than whatever it turned out to be.

But then, with how many people she'd be forgetting... the person that she used to be was nothing in comparison to that.

Somehow, thinking about that wasn't making her any less afraid.

---

When Ann Takamaki was nine years old, she woke up and the world was green. Her bedroom lights didn't work, or the lights in the hallway, and she was pretty sure that the faucet in the kitchen was dripping blood.

Her parents were nowhere in sight, replaced by odd boxes.

It was a week later that she found out those boxes were called coffins.

It was a week after that that she found out that, in this time, monsters would occasionally roam around.

Beneath a full moon, she stood and looked a lone lion in the eye, and desperately wished for a way to survive.
Do you know my name?
"Carmen!" She called, not knowing where the name came from, but not complaining when a figure emerged and burnt the lion to a crisp. She wasn't sure where she had come from, but some part of her knew, somehow, that this was a Persona.

This was how she could keep herself safe.

If only she knew why she even had to.

---

When Ann Takamaki was ten years old, she knew that her parents would never listen to her talking about the green time. At most, they'd praise her vibrant imagination, or scold her for thinking about dangerous things.

She never even tried telling them about Carmen. Even if they did believe her... what would they think of a daughter whose first solution for everything was to light it on fire? No, it was for the best that they didn't know about her powers.

When it came to the green time, adults were no help. But that was fine. She could handle it.

Even without calling Carmen to her side, Ann could still make her fingertips smolder. She could light candles with that, and so she did, scattered all throughout her home in order to make the time less scary.

Even when the green time faded, and she forgot it had been there, she didn't forget the flames at her fingertips.

She refused to forget her powers again.

---

When Ann Takamaki was eleven years old, she found a book about people who had powers that they called Personas.

The Personas in the books were all different from Carmen- not a one of them could use Agi- but she knew, somehow, that they were the same kind of being. It was a story about people like her.

Except not quite like her, because they had friends that were like themselves. Because they fought monsters called Shadows, which sounded absolutely terrifying to face. She'd never encountered anything like a Shadow before.

...Right?
I wouldn't be too sure.
A few more pages in, and Ann started remembering about green light and dark streets and a full moon where it had seemed like the world was about to end.

She remembered the first time she'd ever heard Carmen's voice.

The words used for such an event in the book played no part in her recollection. And that seemed wrong.

She wondered why that was.

---

When Ann Takamaki was twelve years old, the arrest of Tohru Adachi made the news. He said things about televisions that most people took as gibberish, but Ann found that she believed it, if only because, if she could have powers over fire, than a random bad guy in the middle of nowhere could definitely have the power to shove people through a TV.

Besides, she'd felt the urge to be extremely careful around televisions since before she even knew that Personas existed. Why wouldn't they be dangerous like this?

For some reason, despite Inaba being several hours away from Tokyo by train, it made her really happy to know that he'd been caught.

---

When Ann Takamaki was twelve years old, she learned that Risette had a Persona.

It was strange. Despite having a book about them, she'd never really thought about there being other Persona Users out there. Let alone someone whose music she listened to.

A week later, Featherman was on, and she could swear that Pink Argus had used wind magic to adjust one of her shots to hit the target.
I suppose that's one use for Magaru...
Somehow, neither of these things surprised her in the slightest.

---

When Ann Takamaki was thirteen years old, she finally decided to look up the author of her favorite book.

According to the internet, the boy who wrote it was only a year older than her. Which was really impressive, particularly considering that, by the time she got her hands on it, it hadn't even been a new release.

Was Ken Amada a Persona User, like her and Risette and maybe Pink Argus? Or did he just know something about the world that Ann could no longer touch, and hadn't known anything about when she could?
My money's on Persona User.
"You don't have money," Ann replied, out loud. It must have looked strange to others, her talking to herself, but it made her feel less alone. "...I don't have money. I spent it all on crepes." At least Shiho had enjoyed them...

Still, it didn't matter, in the end, whether Ken Amada had a Persona or not. After all, it wasn't like there was much chance of them ever meeting face to face.

---

When Ann Takamaki was fourteen years old, she saw Ken Amada in person, though she didn't get anywhere near actually talking to him.

She and Shiho had been shopping around for high schools, and then outside of one of them, there was a boy with brown hair, who was talking to a group of girls she'd never seen before, with a cat sitting at their feet. For some reason, he made Carmen nervous.
This boy... he's really powerful. More powerful than we are.
"You could have told us you were here before now," The girl with orange hair and glasses pouted.

"I- I didn't exactly have any of your addresses. I don't even know these two!"

"I'm Kasumi Yoshizawa," The girl with the ponytail explained. "And this is my sister, Sumire."

"I-It's nice to meet you!" The girl with dark red hair added. "M-Mai-chan's told us a lot about you. She... said you write books?"

"That's all she said? Really?" The cat asked. Ann blinked. That was... a talking cat. "Nothing about..."

The final girl crossed her arms. "...Is he trying to say something?"

A talking cat that most people didn't hear.

"Don't worry about it," The orange-haired girl advised. "...Hey, do you get the feeling we're being watched?"

Ann ducked away into the crowd before any of them could notice her, while wishing she'd been brave enough to stay.

Maybe... maybe some of those people had been just like her.

And she couldn't even bring herself to ask.

---

When Ann Takamaki was fifteen, she encountered Suguru Kamoshida.

She didn't like him. He was always just a bit too close, allowed his gaze to linger on her for just a bit too long... it made her uncomfortable.
If he tries anything, he's getting set on fire. No buts about it.
When she tried telling people about it, they didn't listen, and she watched as other girls trembled under his gaze, as volleyball players would limp their way home.

She didn't like him one bit.

Soon after her sixteenth birthday, he made his move.

He wasn't expecting Carmen.

When Ann cast Maragion, it was out of fear, with the intention of never letting this man be near her ever again.

In that, she supposed that she got what she wanted.

---

When Ann Takamaki was sixteen, Suguru Kamoshida was ruled to have died in a freak accident. No one could figure out how he had burned to death so suddenly, without anything else being damaged, and leaving no witnesses.

When Shiho wondered aloud how it could have happened, Ann just pursed her lips and said she had no idea. No one thought twice about her. None of them knew what she could do.

None of them knew what she had done.

She wasn't sure if she regretted it or not. No one would ever know it was her unless she told them, but if they somehow found out... her life would be over. She wasn't even sure if she'd meant for him to die, or if she'd chosen to cast a spell that was too strong for him to withstand without realizing.

But she'd done it, and she'd never be able to tell anyone what had really happened.
We never claimed not to be a coward.
There were a lot of investigations, as to how it could have happened. People poking around to try and figure it out.

One of them was a boy just a year older than her. He gave her a strange look as he passed her by, but didn't pull her aside for questioning. Nobody did.

When Ann got home, there was an app with an eye on it installed on her phone, and she had no idea how it had gotten there. It just stared at her. Judging her for what she'd done.

Even after completely scrubbing her phone, the app remained, staring at her. Judging her. As if it was watching every move she made.

It didn't make things any easier.

---

When Ann Takamaki was sixteen, a talking cat convinced her to join a group of Persona Users, after years of it being just her and Carmen. Most of them were at least somewhat new to the business. Some of them were not.

"I've had Nemi for half my life," Ken stated, swirling some light around his fingers. The gesture seemed familiar, in some way, but Ann didn't know why. "It's... I don't know where I'd be without him."

"So... you got your Persona when you were a kid, too?" This got her some odd looks. "I've had Carmen since I was nine. She's... been really helpful sometimes."
What's the point of power if you can't defend yourself with it?
"...Huh. Same as me. Hey, do you remember the world turning green sometimes?"

She knew she hadn't been imagining it. "A little. Mostly, it's just when I'm reading stuff that reminds me of it." It was part of why she didn't really like reading. Reading reminded her of the green time reminded her of her powers reminded her of being scared reminded her of a charred corpse on the ground. Sometimes she could get past it. Sometimes she couldn't.

It probably said something that she felt safer with the Shadows than with someone who had once been her teacher.

It definitely said something that, even when she'd found others like herself, there were still things that she'd never be able to tell them.

---

When Ann Takamaki was sixteen, she fell in love.

She wasn't sure when it had happened. What it was about Ken that she found so enticing. But she knew that she cared about him a great deal, and it turned out that he liked her back.

This had never been part of the equation. When she joined the Phantom Thieves of Hearts at the insistence of a talking cat, feelings had never been mentioned as part of it. If anything, she'd been fighting Shadows as a way to get away from her feelings.

Even when that wasn't why, she wasn't exactly doing this for the same reason as the others. They changed hearts because they had been personally wronged, and wanted to fix that wrong by any means necessary.

Ann changed people's hearts so she could see how distraught they were afterwards. So that she could try and convince herself that what she'd done to Kamoshida was a mercy.

It wasn't working.
It's not mercy if you're glad to see them hurt.
And that was why love wasn't something that she could ever allow to be part of the equation.

"I'm sorry," She said, and she meant it, more than she ever was sorry about the pain their targets were put through, or how much the targets' victims were hurting, or about the results when Maragion was focused on a single target. Ken deserved better than a murderer who spent all of their missions trying desperately to justify her own actions. "It's not that I don't like you, or anything, I'm just..."
We spend all of our time hurting people. If you get too close, we'll hurt you, too.
"...Ann?" He sounded like he was worried about her. She backed away further.

"Sorry!" She said again, and then she turned and ran, focusing on nothing but getting as far away from him as possible, almost tripping over Morgana in her desperation to escape.

Maybe, if she never spoke with him again outside of Thief work, and suggested that Akira no longer put the two of them on the same combat team, everything would be just fine.

When Ann Takamaki was sixteen, she stole many hearts, and broke two.

And that was how Carmen became Hecate.

---

When Ann Takamaki was seventeen, the world was against the Phantom Thieves, and there was always an adult Persona User in sight, trying to keep them safe. She wanted to say that she had a problem with that, but it was nice to have the security, so she couldn't say that she was opposed on principle.

The problem was that, more often than not, the adult Persona User keeping an eye on her was Shinjiro Aragaki, who had never quite forgiven her for how much her rejection had hurt Ken. It was safer for her than Kirijo-san, whose reaction to people so much as talking down to her little brother involved glaring them into hypothermia, while Aragaki-san mostly settled for just inflicting Fear on others, but this wasn't saying much.

Eventually, the tensions had to go somewhere. "Stop glaring at me," Ann mumbled, picking at her crepe. Crepes were supposed to make her feel better, but recently they just weren't doing it anymore. "It's not going to change things."

"Neither's turning your food into mush without eating it." As if he knew anything about what it was like to be this listless. "You've been this way ever since the thing with Ken."

He didn't have to say that he didn't get it. She already knew. Resolution was supposed to be a big, important thing about discovering yourself, not an eternal reminder of how she'd pushed away the first person in years who said that he loved her. It was supposed to be a happy occasion, not just another thing to beat herself up about.

"I..." what was she supposed to say? "...Senpai deserves better."

"Well, at least we're agreed on that..."

She rolled her eyes. "It doesn't matter how much he likes me. I'm not as great as he thinks I am."

Aragaki-san shrugged. "You'd be amazed what sort of things that kid can get over if he likes someone enough."

"Things like killing people?" She hadn't meant for it to come out. But it did, and now she just had to hope that he took anything from that but the truth. With so many of them around... someone had to suspect something about the girl with the experienced fire Persona who went to a school where one of the teachers had been found burned to death. It was just too big a thing to be a coincidence.

"Exactly like that." He didn't offer any elaboration, but he sounded surprisingly certain. "You've read his books, right?"

And then Ann remembered. One of Ken's characters, Shinri Tsubaki, had powers that she couldn't fully control for a long time, and hurt a lot of people because of that. Their names weren't off by all that much.

...But that couldn't be the case. Aragaki-san was better at using his Persona than almost anyone else, the main exceptions being Ken and Kirijo-san. He just didn't know what he was talking about, that was all.

---

When Ann Takamaki was seventeen, she asked Takuto Maruki to make her into the person that Ken Amada thought her to be.