Shattered Justice (A Persona Quest)

There's... not really an easy way for you to get yourself out of this. This is a Shadow too strong for just two people to fight, barring weird stuff like what happened earlier, and Aigis-san isn't exactly in a fit state for combat.

You're sure she'd try, if she could possibly justify it to herself, but that might just make things worse. Despite what it looks like, things can absolutely get worse than this.

At least there are two of you.

For a moment, you consider requesting backup, before deciding that Fuuka-san can handle it. After all, it's her job to keep an eye on the battlefield. And time spent talking is time spend not focusing on what's in front of you. Which... not doing that is sort of how you ended up in this mess.

You raise your spear in a sort of defensive position. You aren't sure how much it'll help, but it has to be better than nothing. "Aigis-san, do you have any ideas?"

"I can cast Sukukaja." Sukukaja... that would make you faster. It's probably better overall for offense than defense.

On the other hand, the thing speed is always used for is running away. If you could get even a little bit of distance... "Can you cast it now?" Get some distance, cast Media a few times, and you have the basis of a working strategy.

"Will you summon that Persona again?"

"What does it matter?" Her entire purpose is fighting Shadows, so why is she worrying about Kala-Nemi and not the enemy in front of her? You thought her priorities were only skewed when it came to Makoto-san!

She doesn't respond. But she does summon Palladion, so you think you might have won her over?

You definitely get faster, which helps you get out of the way of the next attack. You might have been able to dodge it without, but you're glad you don't have to find out. That looks like it would help. You then cast a basic Media, because you can't think of anyone who wouldn't appreciate it right now.

The Shadow's a bit less in your face now, but you think you'd like a bit more distance. As long as its attention is on you, however, that isn't happening.

An arrow does fly over its head at one point, but it doesn't seem to notice, so that's not helpful. It's standing between you and where the others are- you think you might have dodged to the wrong side. The last time you saw the others, the angel was flagging a little, but you can't remember how long ago that was.


[ ] You could try to get more distance, but that'll take you further away from the others.

[ ] You could try looping back around, but you aren't sure how much space you have for that.

Could you get back to the others the way things are now? With a hurt Aigis, and a Shadow bearing down on you, which you have no way to meaningfully harm?

Maybe you could. But when you consider those possibilities, it feels like a bad idea.

They don't need to fight two massively powerful Shadows at once. Wherever you run, it'll have to be away from them. At least you can be pretty sure the sphinx will follow you, it hasn't looked away from you once, if you assume the mask actually works as eyes. And that Shadows' senses are vision-based to begin with.

You... aren't sure if there's a way to figure that out.

You take a few more steps back. The street to your side is pretty empty- if you get a bit farther down it, you could probably just start throwing magic at it without worrying too much about collateral damage. Which is good. You're pretty sure those stairs the angel took its weapon from are beyond saving. You don't need to anything more to the street.

Just to make sure you have its undivided attention, you throw a bit of lightning at it. Not much, you still don't want to waste power, but enough that you can be sure it's not happy with you.

"Aigis-san?" You don't look at her, because time spent looking is time that could be spent running, and figuring out the best way to do so. "Try not to hurt yourself."

"You do not have to tell me-" And you can't listen to the rest of her words, because you're busy moving in a completely different direction. You don't want to get too far- maybe just past that light post over there? That should be enough space, maybe.

...Maybe if you get the Shadows far enough away from each other, the angel won't be able to use Samarecarm?

Do you want to take that risk?

Instead of thinking about it, you scramble back from another rain of arrows, fire back with lightning, and get pushed back by a strong gust of wind. This helps you with the goal of getting away, but it's still painful. Also, those arrows can't be good for the pavement.

...You almost look forward to seeing what the news has to say about this, once people have realized it happened. What kind of excuse will they come up with this time? Just how does anyone plan on covering up something in a place this public? Is this going to cause a problem with how people get to school tomorrow?

You probably shouldn't be thinking about that. You should be thinking about how its wings are spread again, with a wheel of light between them.

Do you detonate again?

...No. You don't think it would do anything. And... you want to see what happened earlier, not just the aftereffects.

There's a wheel. It has markings on it. Green bubbles, a skull, a purple chain... they spin around and around, and when they stop, the purple chain is at the top. And then the wheel coalesces into equally purple light, darkens into something you can only see because you're looking directly at it, and it flies down to you.

...It bounces off and dissipates.

...You don't think that was supposed to happen.

"Ken-kun?" Oh. Fuuka-san. You don't remember hearing from her in a while. "Are you all right?"

Can she see you if you nod? You're going to have to ask that eventually. "Whatever it did, I... don't think it worked."

There... really isn't anything else to say, is there?

"The other Shadow is just about defeated. Stay where you are, the others will come to you. Don't go any farther." Okay. You think you can do that.

You just... don't want it to have the chance to get any closer.


[ ] Keep zapping.

[ ] Maybe you can provoke it into doing the wheel thing before the others get here? And then you can just detonate it, if the other Shadow's gone. Problem solved!

[ ] ...Do you need to keep as much of a distance? This spear has to be at least a little good at stabbing things.