Shattered Justice (A Persona Quest)

It takes a few seconds for it to really sink in that the spiders are dead. Not because you can't believe it's something Elizabeth would do, but because she put out so much power you need a few seconds to blink the spots out of your vision. For all you know, a fresh Captor Spider could be lurking in one of them.

But once you're sure there's not, and that no other spiders will appear, you turn away from where what's left of the webs are still happily smoldering away, and hurry to Lavenza and Morgana, pausing only to scoop up your Evoker from where it was laying on the floor.

"Are the two of you all right?" Lavenza doesn't look injured, but that could mean everything from nothing happening to her injuries being hidden to copious amounts of Dia. "Sorry about letting you fall. I sort of panicked when I saw the webs on fire..." And you think the fire itself might be your fault, partly, for attracting the spiders' attention and necessitating a distraction.

You know no one would agree with that, though. So you don't say that part out loud.

"We should be fine," Lavenza says. "It would be more dangerous if we were still there when my sister did... whatever it is she did."

Oh. So she doesn't understand it, either.

Morgana shudders. "Yeah, I could feel it from over here! I don't know where she could have gotten a Persona like that, but it's..."

You're fine with him getting quiet after that. You aren't sure how to describe it, either. "I... think it was something she did while we were here? She went off on her own for a bit, and... then she had it when she showed up again." You've decided not to think about the whole thing too hard.

Given that they don't respond to that, so have Lavenza and Morgana.

And, if the three of you are any indication, so will everyone else.

It's probably better this way.

---

The other group wins their fight as well, and you all take the elevator back to the bottom of the Clock Tower. Rise-san and Fuuka-san seem to have been having a little picnic while supporting you in battle- there are empty food containers all around them.

You don't stick around to talk with them, though. While you could heal your injuries from the fight with magic, you know that the nurse's office has an unlimited supply of medicine tucked away in it. It acts quickly enough that, if you go to bed right after getting home, you should be perfectly fine again by the time you wake up tomorrow.

Whatever counts as tomorrow in this situation. You're somehow less sure about it than you were before.

When you get to the nurse's office, Rei is sitting there, turning over a small blue and pink hair ornament shaped like a pair of feathers. You can't tell what it's made of, except that it's slightly transparent. You've seen her wear it into the Labyrinths a few times, but mostly she just stuck to her flowers. "Ken-chan? You're back already?"

You nod. "Elizabeth-san did most of the work, really." Reaching the medicine cabinet requires you to stand all the way up on your toes, but you get there eventually.

It's a strong comfort that you know you're going to be a lot taller one day.

"And everyone's safe?"

"I think some more people might come in for healing later..." Or maybe they'll just spend the extra energy of using Dia. You don't know. You're not the boss of them. "But we're all going to be fine. Eventually."

It takes a bit more effort to keep a bottle of medicine from falling and smashing open on your head, but that would be bad, so you do everything you can to make sure that doesn't happen. Rei watches you with eyes that don't look quite the same as when you first got here. "That's good. I kept thinking about... if I could do something. But... without Zen's power, being able to use a lot of magic doesn't mean anything. It's not... what I'd be using."
Right. Her Shadow was physical, wasn't it? Given her health...
You can't really imagine Rei with a weapon. Or any kind of physical attacks. You aren't sure you know anyone who's built less for it.

...Well. Maybe Futaba.

And Futaba's... you want to say she's about eight? Definitely too young to be a fair comparison, anyway.

"Are you going to talk to Zen-san?" That feels like the sort of thing she would do. You know there have been issues lately, but you think they should be able to get past them.

"I should." She looks down at the ornament in her hands. "I thought I could use this to help with it, but... maybe I won't need it."

"What does it do?" You're assuming it has some sort of magical property. Just about everything here does.

"It's... supposed to make it easier to talk to people. And it helps with using magic. But I don't have my own magic, and... it's just Zen I need to talk to. If I can't do that..." She shakes her head. "I'm not going to need it. I know I can do this."

It's the most confident you've ever heard her be. "I guess.... we've both picked up things we don't need."

"...Huh?"

You take a bottle out of your pocket. It's not medicine like you're applying to the burn on your foot, but something entirely different. "Theodore-san says it's... kind of a love potion? Except it doesn't do much." You still don't know what you'd want to use it for, and you've had it since the Group Date Cafe.

"Oh. That." She says it in a way that tells you she knows exactly what it would look like in use. "...Wanna trade?"

"Trade?"

"Yeah. I take the love potion, you take this!" She holds out the ornament. With how it catches the light, her hands look ever-so-slightly purple. "I'd bet... you can use this a lot better than I can." She says nothing about her plans for the love potion.
She doesn't need it. It'll just tell her what she already knows. But maybe she wants that.
Whatever those plans are, something tells you you won't be there to see them. But you can't see her planning anything nefarious. "All right, then."

Even holding the ornament, you still can't tell what it's made of. It might not be a material found in nature. But the surface is smooth, apart from ridges at the edge of the feathers, and cool to the touch, and part of you feels glad that you just get to hold it, because you can feel at a touch that it holds some kind of power. "...Thank you, Rei-san."

And that is the last time that you talk to her.

---

Before you can meet up with the others again, Theodore pulls you into the crafts room. "Excuse me, but I was wondering. About your weapon..."

You shrug. "I don't know where it came from. But I got it for my birthday last year. It's... not that easy to use, though." If anything, it's been getting harder now that you know what a more consistent spear feels like.

"Do you not have any other weapons?"

"I have one, but..." At least, with this spear, you don't have to explain where you got it from. You could probably ask where the others get their rotation of weapons from, but it also sort of feels too late for that.

Theodore gives you a long look. "...If you'd like, I could turn it into something a bit more feasible? It would take time, but I'd make sure to get it back to you once I finished."
Please. You have no idea how much easier this will make things.
You believe that. You believe that he can do it, and that he is willing to do it. "Would it cost anything?"

He shakes his head quickly. "Consider it my repayment for helping my sister."

You don't feel like you've been that helpful to any of his sisters. But the thought of having a better spear appeals to you greatly. "Okay."

You hand the spear over. And when Theodore tucks it out of sight, you understand that you're never going to see it in its current form again. Despite how frustrating it was to use, you can't help but feel a little sad about it.

"Well, then." He brushes down his coat. "Shall we meet with the others, and return to our time?"

You sort of want to talk with Akira, first, but... you don't think it matters whether or not you do. Neither of you is going to remember this, so any warning you could give him is just going to vanish. All you can do is hope that, until you find out about his Persona, he can take care of himself.

And he's got knives. You can trust him to stab a blob if it gets a bit too close. "Yeah. I want to go home."

You're ready to leave this all behind.

---

You wake up. It's the twenty-first of September, and the weather is kind of bad, but no longer actively dangerous. Your school has still canceled for the week, just in case, and you think it's because everyone involved wanted time off. It's great, because it means you can sleep in for a little while.

Eventually, though, you sit up, and realize something's different. The Treason Couse is where you left it lying against the wall, but the Nihil Spear is no longer next to it. You look everywhere, even under your bed, but it's nowhere to be found.

What you do find, though, is a small blue and pink hair ornament shaped like a pair of feathers. It's not the sort of thing you'd wear in everyday life, but when you pick it up, you can feel some sort of power to it, so maybe you'll wear it to Tartarus sometime.

Just not this week. The others want to go to Tartarus sometime this week, but you've preemptively decided to back out. You don't know why, but the idea of throwing yourself into fighting Shadows feels exhausting even to consider, at the moment.

But then, a lot of things are exhausting to you at the moment, and you have no idea why. It's like you've been beaten up by a Shadow, except you haven't been fighting Shadows recently. Even giving Akihiko-san his birthday present is something you accomplish by just leaving the package outside his door, because you don't have it in you to do anything else.

The only thing you have it in you to do this week is to go out and spend time with a normal person in your own general age group.

That person is...


[ ] Kyouma Tafuchi.

[ ] Futaba Isshiki.

[ ] Yumeri Oyama.

Of all the people you expect to see on your street after a massive rainfall, Oyama-chan is not one of them. You have no idea why Oyama-chan would want to be anywhere near your street to begin with, if she's not here with someone else.

But today she's alone, walking around the puddles on the street with her arms stretched out, her entire focus on not letting her shoes touch the water.

You remember that she was looking forward to the rain. But now that it's happened, she doesn't seem sure of what to do with yourself. "You know, the puddles aren't going to bite you." Unless they're secretly Mayas or something.

And Mayas don't have mouths. They won't be biting anyone, either.

"But it could ruin my shoes," She says, like the entire point of shoes isn't to get dirty so your feet don't have to. And while you haven't had that much recent use for them, you know boots exist. You're sure her parents would buy her some if she asked, so long as she didn't wear them inside.

Besides that, if her shoes can't handle a bit of water, you have no idea how she reached your street in the first place. Even if she came by train, that's still a bit of a walk.

"Are your shoes... that important?" You successfully resist the urge to ask her what she's doing here.

Oyama-chan nods seriously. "They were expensive."

Looking at them, you can't see what could possibly make them cost so much. They're just plain white sneakers. You can't remember what your current pair of shoes cost, but you think you would if they were particularly pricy.
It might have been a scam. She's young enough not to think about her parents possibly falling for one.
Wherever she got them, expensive shoes that are ruined by a puddle doesn't seem like a very good investment. If you wanted to set a bunch of money on fire, you could just do that. And then you wouldn't have to worry about people noticing your shoes falling apart. "So... water's bad for shoes?"

She looks at you like you're an idiot. "Do you want to try cleaning mud out of these?"

This doesn't answer the question of why she doesn't just wear different shoes.

---

Oyama-chan is there again the next day, and she's still wearing the white sneakers. The streets are a bit drier than yesterday, but not by very much- the clouds are starting to clear, but there's still a few light showers in store for the next couple of days, if you believe the weather reports. You think some of it, on their part, might be wishful thinking.

She's also changed her hair again, this time to a single long braid cascading down her back. You're sure it'll be split in two again by this time next week.

"Do you not have any boots?" You ask her. She's balancing precariously on the edge of the sidewalk, and you aren't sure you want to see the consequences if she falls off.

"Boots? Why would I need those?"

You gesture at the waterlogged streets. "It... might help keep your regular shoes clean."

"I'm not buying anything that I'll only use once a year."
So... what happens when the weather starts working normally again?
You think of all the things that wouldn't exist if everyone used that logic, like the Christmas lights at the mall. Those are only up for a short time in the winter, and everyone loves them. "It's probably better than having wet socks."

She almost looks like she might be considering it, but then a car comes rushing down your side of the street, water splashing up from the wheels. As the two of you are standing at the edge of the sidewalk, you both get drenched.

"...I don't think boots would have helped with this."

You don't think anything could have helped with this. Except maybe holding an umbrella between your legs, and that's both a ridiculous mental picture and something that's awkward to try and move with.

You should know. You try it once you're in dry clothes again.

---

On the third day, Oyama-chan wears a buttoned-up yellow coat. The puddles aren't large enough, anymore, to create that kind of splash, but you suppose you can't blame her for wanting to be careful. Her hair isn't braided at all, but poking out through the sides of the hood.

"Your weird friend hasn't been around lately," She says.
...Yeah, you're gonna have to be a bit more specific about that.
"My... weird friend?" You have no idea who she's talking about. Your friends who don't live in the dorm are all normal people except Lavenza, and you don't bring her here.

"You know. The one who goes to the high school dorm all the time."

"...Akira?" Honestly, you'd half-expected a description of Futaba, except she lives in the area, and you saw her the other day carrying groceries home with someone who must have been her mother.

"Yeah. Him."

"What's weird about Akira?" He stays inside and reads books a lot, but lots of people do that. He doesn't stand out in a crowd all that much, but you're pretty sure it's that way for most people who aren't unbelievably famous, or with an odd fashion sense. Or Elizabeth, who doesn't quite count as either, but is interesting enough to be her own category.

The only way he stands out compared to the people you live with is that Akira can't use magic. And you think that's supposed to make him the normal one.
Until he actually has a Persona, at least. At that point, it'll get a lot trickier.
"He goes to the high school dorm all the time." Speaking as someone who lives there, you think this might be the time to start taking offense. "It's not natural to spend time with people that much older than you."


[ ] ...So what does that make teachers?

[ ] So what does that make parents?

[ ] So what is natural, then?

[ ] You're going to end this conversation before you do something you'll regret later.