2026-07-02: The Shadow of the Abyss
- Log: The Shadow of the Abyss
- Cast: Minato Arisato, Fuuka Yamagishi, Takaya Sakaki, Shuji Ikutsuki
- Where: Moonlight Bridge
- OOC Date: 2026-07-02
- IC Date: Mon, Dec 03 2012
- Summary: Members of SEES are offered check-ups at a Kirijo hospital to ensure their natural and supernatural health; Minato's appointment went long, on Monday, and he didn't arrive back at Iwatodai until the Dark Hour. Luckily, Fuuka was able to detect him while she was out searching -- but she also detected a powerful Shadow, and a person beside it! Minato responded to help them, and that person ended up being /Takaya Sakaki,/ the man who attacked SEES's dorms and tried to spur the cultists of Aoba Park to kill themselves. Luckily, the Shadow was defeated, and Takaya left without Minato being hurt, though he reports that the strangely powerful Shadow left behind an Evoker which Takaya claimed...
<Pose Tracker> Minato Arisato has posed.
"Thanks for being so patient," Shuji Ikutsuki smiles, as he enters the hospital room. It's so late at night, the lights have been turned off to let patients sleep -- though the only people in this room are them. "That just about concludes your checkup. Sorry yours ended up taking so much longer than everyone else's..."
"That's all right," Minato replies, with a little shake of his head.
Ikutsuki sighs, relieved. "I'm glad to hear that," he says, his arms folding under each other to grasp his elbows. "Although, we could have done it another time and taken a full day for it." He pauses, for a moment, thoughtfully. "You and your sister have rather unusual Persona abilities compared to the others, don't you? That's why your tests take so much longer. Well, based on how you've performed so far, I don't expect there to be any problems..."
He gestures, with a hand, seeing the dull concern in Minato's eyes. "Persona abilities can be dangerous, depending on how they're used," he explains; it's the same explanation he has for Minako, though Minato doesn't quite grasp the way it's rehearsed. "With that in mind, it can't hurt to err on the side of caution."
Shuji tilts his head, as he asks, exploring: "How are you feeling about it? Do you have any concerns about your power?"
Minato thinks of Yukari's stress, every time a new member of SEES picks up an Evoker...
... and the face-stealer who took Hazuki's friend's place in the world...
... and the way Sudou cursed them with the Joker's shroud as he died...
... and the people who assaulted their dorm and made Hitomi react so viscerally...
... and the cult at Aoba Park, and the man with eyes which consumed creation who stole Hierophant...
... and the way something happened to his sister, in that fight.
"You could say that," he answers, mildly.
"That's understandable," Ikutsuki says, sympathetically, a hand to his chin as he looks aside. "But I don't think there will be any issues with your test results. And based on what I'm hearing from Kirijo-kun's reports, you've been performing just fine. I truly am grateful for everything the team has done... especially you and your sister."
Minato's head tilts, with a questioning grunt.
"Things have really changed for the better since you two arrived," Ikutsuki explains. "Our team has grown, and we've even figured out how we can eliminate the Dark Hour. In a way, you Arisatos have sort of gotten the clock ticking for us again. It's almost as if... we were just waiting for you, these past ten years." He chuckles, goodnaturedly, as he smiles to Minato.
"I'm afraid I can only support you from behind the scenes, but... I'll be counting on you to eliminate the remaining Full Moon Shadows. Now, then," his hands unlace, as he looks to the moonlit window. "It's getting pretty late. Why don't we get you back to the dor--"
Here, he has a phone call; he excuses himself, hurrying out of the room to take it. Behind the door, Minato hears some of that conversation: "Oh, thanks for your help the other day. Uh-huh... yes... it's missing from that document? It's urgent...? Wai--B-By today!?"
It sounds like an urgent call...
Rather than listening in on Ikutsuki's private conversation, Minato decides to head back to the dorm alone.
The last train back to Iwatodai is always crowded. No one wants to have to take the bus back all the way here. It arrives at the very stroke...
of...
tick, TOCK
The Dark Hour.
Luckily, the train settles in just a minute before the top of the hour, so Minato's able to exit just fine. He walks into the train station, hands buried in his pockets. He remembers telling Yanagi about first arriving here... how this perspective really didn't disturb him at all.
It still doesn't.
He walks down the elevator manually, since it no longer works. That's when he feels a familiar feeling in the back of his mind...
<Pose Tracker> Fuuka Yamagishi has posed.
Whenever anyone in SEES is out late, they can always count on someone keeping an eye out for them. Shortly after the Dark Hour blankets the land, there's a familiar 'ping' - the sensation of someone reaching out to Minato in an attempt to make a connection.
"Oh, Arisato-san. It looks like you're at Iwatodai Station now." It's Fuuka Yamagishi's voice that greets him tonight - though he might be able to tell even before she speaks. "It's so late, we were starting to get worried... Um, did you run into any trouble?"
She was concerned - but then again, she always is.
<Pose Tracker> Minato Arisato has posed.
"No trouble," Minato explains, waving a hand. "My check-up just ran late." He pauses, and thinks about why he'd be hearing Fuuka's voice...
"Sorry... were you worried?" He asks, a little more engaged, as he figures out just why she'd be looking for him.
After what happened with the Hierophant... perhaps Minato can't blame Fuuka for being worried.
Kandori...
He's a terrifying man.
That worrying, though, isn't for nothing. Fuuka will sense something big, at the Moonlight Bridge -- a large, powerful Shadow. It's not one of the Full Moon Shadows, but it's definitely stronger than the usual horrors which lurk in the streets when the sky goes green.
And what's worse is --
There's a person out there, right by the Shadow's signal.
Even if it isn't a normal person trapped in the Dark Hour -- and SEES knows very well how that happens, they've had to rescue people from Tartarus enough times -- there's no way a normal Persona User could take on a Shadow that strong alone...!
<Pose Tracker> Fuuka Yamagishi has posed.
"I see..." Fuuka murmurs thoughtfully. He asks her point-blank if she's worried, though, and there's no point in hiding it. "Yes, I was... After everything that's happened... It feels like things have gotten more dangerous lately."
There's a brief pause, as if she's taking a moment to gather her thoughts.
"I'll go ahead and navigate you to Koro-chan's and my location so we can head back to the dorm -" There's another pause - but this one is accompanied by a sharp gasp.
"Wait... Arisato-san, there's a Shadow near your location! This reading... it isn't a Full Moon Shadow, but it's incredibly powerful! It's at the Moonlight Bridge! Hold on, I'll call for backup -" If only it was so easy. Because when she looks closer... "Oh no! I'm picking up another reading near the Shadow... It's a person!"
Is this a situation that can wait for back-up?
<Pose Tracker> Takaya Sakaki has posed.
Takaya enjoys these sorts of leisure walks during the Dark Hour. There was a danger but the same could be argued of any life lived. The shirtless leader of Strega moves through the night air, openly displaying his firearm since most decent people were disposed of. Anyone else would be dealt with as needed.
Which is why it is so vexing when he crosses paths with a rather large Shadow. The kind that would give any lone figure in the Dark Hour a moment of terror. There is no terror on Takaya's face as he sighs wistfully.
"My, my...what a cute lil doggie." He smiles at his joke, expecting no one to hear it.
After looking the creature over, Takaya sighs and tilts his head. "I suggest you look for a weaker target...No doubt you're starving if you consider coming up to someone as terrifying as me." Takaya's grin grows. "Now scoot!"
<Pose Tracker> Minato Arisato has posed.
"I see... I'll suggest Minako-chan take a full day for her check-up, then," Minato reflects, thoughtfully, hearing Fuuka's worries. "The Chairman said ours will take longer because of our abilities... I thought I could get it done after school, but it took a long time."
The check-ups, of course, are normal; Kirijo takes care of the health of everyone, in the dorm, and that includes checking on their supernatural health. It's the least they can do, since they're asking the youth to fight.
Minato scarcely has time to feel good about getting to see Koro-chan when --
His attentiveness to Fuuka is in his inward breath, his intent expression.
"I'll buy some time," he promises her, as he starts running.
Track and Field has taught him much, in his day. His feet hit the ground, and bounce as they push off; his arms move with his body, like the swinging pendulum of that clock which started ticking when he and Minako joined SEES, one -- and again -- again -- again;
He is not out of breath, when he reaches the Moonlight Bridge, though part of that stamina is undoubtedly tied to the shade of the sky.
The person facing down that Shadow...
It's the young man who attacked the Iwatodai Dorm.
But the Shadow which looms over him cannot be his ally. It is large -- more massive, still, than four men, towering as it lurchess across the bridge. It is shapeless; a dozen eyes of a dozen sizes, scattered across its face hapharzardly like red and orange boils across a black backdrop. Its mouth, yawning wide, is most of the size of its bulk... its teeth, strikingly human. Claws drag it forward, shaded red and black.
Perhaps a dozen men have already tried to strike it down: ten swords are lodged in its back, in a manner which would have afficondos of the tarot musing quite thoughtfully.
Once, a beast like this might have been called 'Abaddon'.
Now...
It is the Shadow of the Abyss.
"It won't," Minato says, stepping up, as he hears Takaya commanding the Shadow to scoot.
"... I'm here to help," he explains his actions, as he takes his Evoker from his bag.
Luckily, he needed it with him for that examination...
<Pose Tracker> Takaya Sakaki has posed.
Takaya doesn't flinch at the sudden voice but he is surprised. It registers that this one was the leader of that group of meddlesome teenagers. The one who seemed to out do him in Aoba Park. It was that interesting one.
How poetic.
"Oho." Takaya says, smiling darkly as he briefly meets eyes with the blue haired boy.
"Very well. If you are to be my friend tonight, I'll allow it." Takaya looks back to the Shadow, swiftly drawing his large pistol and pulling back the handle as he points it upward. He finally yawns as he takes in the grotesque form of the Shadow. Something that looks battle hardened and terrifying. How dreaful to be standing before Takaya.
The shirtless man points the gun haphazardly toward the Shadow and fires a few rounds at the Shadow's eyes. While not an expert marksman, Takaya seemed to be fairly accomplished with a gun....In short because he wasn't aiming for things to maim or merely injure his target. Takaya was shooting to kill with each and every shot.
<Pose Tracker> Minato Arisato has posed.
It's strange. This man... he tried to coax those people into embracing their death, back then.
But now, Minato watches the way Takaya aims his gun for those killing-shots -- and adapts his supportive strategy to underline his power. "Naga," he invokes, as a new Persona rises at the firing of his Evoker at his temple -- an elegant snake-warrior, lifting his spear to enhance their power.
The Shadow, however, does not have a brain behind its eyes, like that salaryman Takaya dragged from a coffin the other night -- or the woman he visited a week prior. It does not bleed and die at his demand.
... its shape remains strong, even now.
The powerful spell which grasps Minato, punishing him for that evocation, is a level beyond their ken -- though Chidori has surely described it as theoretically possible.
DEBILITATE -- the ultimate erosion, draining power and defence and speed and sharpness all.
Takaya, though, is still strong...
<Pose Tracker> Takaya Sakaki has posed.
The Shadow's strangeness doesn't unnerve Takaya in the slightest. The man seems almost nonplused by the act he was committing.
Takaya found the salaryman to be grating. The man wouldn't stop bringing up his family or how he didn't mean to have an affair. The act was mostly done to shut the man up to be honest.
The woman was a mercy killing. Takaya remembers that even if she tried to fight back, her heart wasn't in it. Takaya understood that death meant to even those who were unaware they wanted it.
Takaya finds some purpose in each of Strega's Revenge Requests.
There was no pride in dealing with a wild manifestation of mental decay.
Then something catches Takaya off guard....The boy suddenly goes from just and adversary to something of note. Something of genuine value. Something to be coveted.
That wasn't the Persona he saw before. Did the boy's Persona evolve? Was that possible. No this one felt different....as if it was a different facet of the boy's psyche. "Curious...That isn't the Persona I saw before...It would seem you are able to...change your Persona to meet the occasion. My, my." Takaya smiles slowly as he puts away his weapon, feeling a tingle in his forehead. "I suppose I will repay you in kind with a display of my own Power."
Takaya feels the splitting agony in his head as the veins flex behind his eye, sending a sharp stabbing pain on on side of his head. He grins as he holds his hands to the sides of his head before throwing his arms back behind him. Takaya leans back as the sound of glass breaking summons his Persona. The Persona itself looks like a pale corpse being suspended by wings of veins tearing out through it's back. The Persona hands there as Takaya can feel the surging power come through him as he whispers "Persona." Takaya grins devilishly as his Persona sends a Mudo toward the Shadow.
<Pose Tracker> Minato Arisato has posed.
Death is a thing which has followed Minato for ten years.
Each time he attends it, it is as if a piece of him leaves with them...
... and a piece of them travels forward in him.
Right now, the only thing he knows he's looking at is Takaya. Minato grunts affirmation, his stance sunk a little to accommodate the weight of his total debilitation. Orpheus is a familiar power of his; but he has always had many others.
The Shadow lunges forward, to bite at Minato -- and again, targets Minato; he grunts, as he staggers back, but offers no word of complaint.
And Takaya, in turn...
Minato's never seen a thing like this. That man is grinning, but it looks like it hurts so much... there's no Evoker in his hands, but he doesn't pull out a card or any of the other things he's come to expect, either.
He stops to stare, as Takaya invokes himself -- and then speaks the word, as if more in greeting than call.
Mudo is death clad in darkness. Its invocation promises the end, even where it does not usher it: in it, the threat of annihilation. That power surges around the Shadow of the Abyss...
... and crushes it, the beast splattering against the ground in a surprisingly organic splash, leaving flecks of black more like blood-splatters which linger for a moment before the Shadow fades.
"..." Minato's lips part, as he straightens.
"So, it's over... I'll heal us," he says, explaining his actions before he lifts his gun to his temple.
"Apsaras."
This is the Persona he has honed and crafted with the lessons Fuuka has taught him -- the Persona which balances her need to protect with his own need to actively strike. The dancing woman appears, shimmering blue, and shimmers Mediarama across them both.
... though, Minato was the one injured.
As he lowers his Evoker, though, he looks back to the bridge where the Shadow fell -- and sees a glint, shimmering there.
The line of his gaze may serve to inform Takaya, just the same:
That Shadow... dropped a particular Evoker.
<Pose Tracker> Takaya Sakaki has posed.
As the Shadow is dealt with, the throbbing in Takaya's head begins to subside. Even through the pain however, Takaya is keeping an eye on Minato and his strange abilities.
Finally, the combat is at an end and Minato freely uses his ability to call something else to heal them...even if the majority of the damage was on the boy himself.
Regardless, Takaya makes note of the Personas he's seen with this boy and what he could recall of their abilities.
After a moment, Takaya turns to face the teen, really taking a moment to take everything in. This kid was someone of incredible ability. Someone who held something he currently lacked and wanted under his control.
"So you have multiple Persona...you must have an incredibly bizarre fate." Takaya says, reclining his arm against the handle of his firearm.
"Regardless, your presence was helpful and I am not one to let such acts go unrewarded....I think what you are after is answers, are you not? Answers are what I seek as well so perhaps we can come to an understanding...As such, I will let you ask your question first"
<Pose Tracker> Minato Arisato has posed.
A bizarre fate...?
Minato has to wonder, when he speaks to Pharos, when no one's around.
"I do have a question," Minato admits.
Is he wondering why Takaya tried to convince all those people to die?
Is he wondering why Takaya's strange and powerful Persona hurts him so?
Is he wondering why Takaya wasn't scared as he faced this massive Shadow?
Is he wondering why Takaya attacked their dorm suddenly?
"Why aren't you wearing a shirt?"
MINATO ARISATO, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD--!!
<Pose Tracker> Takaya Sakaki has posed.
Takaya just kind of stares at the child who just asked him why he doesn't wear a shirt.
Was he dealing with an idiot?
Regardless, the man ponders the question as if to give it some credence before officially labeling this guy a dullard.
"My shirt is invisible to idiots." He says flatly before he can't help but laugh at the absurdity of such an act. "You ask me that when you could ask my group's mission, the meaning of our feud, etc...You are quite the curiosity. I suppose I will ask something equally profound...What is your purpose?" Takaya asks this from Minato as casually as one asks for the sugar. "You needn't get philosophical but it is clear to me that you are very skilled and I'm wondering what you are doing with your organization."
<Pose Tracker> Minato Arisato has posed.
Takaya hasn't worn a shirt a single time Minato's seen him, regardless of the weather -- and right now, it's cold. Not only does not wearing a shirt mark him as outside polite society... it seems as if it marks him as unaffected by the very atmosphere around him. And that's not all: baring his chest like that means he can't be wearing any kind of armour, whether it's the idea of protection or otherwise. Totally exposed, totally disaffected...
There's no other question he could ask.
After all, isn't he cold...?
He learns something else, too -- when Takaya apparently can't see the concern in his question, and thinks him a Fool. (Well, by a certain definition...) Still, he laughs. Minato wonders how often he does... and how often he really does.
"I'm here to help them," he answers, plainly.
And there, in the distance -- Takaya can hear the approach of SEES, come to aid him.
They won't be alone for much longer...
<Pose Tracker> Takaya Sakaki has posed.
Takaya hears Minato's answer and frowns at its simplicity. How could such a Fool have such an ability. However, the next thing Takaya hears is the approach of others. That might complicate matters if he's caught by a group of these meddlesome teenagers.
Takaya walks toward the envoker and picks it up, storing it away as he begins to move toward the opposite direction of Minato's cavalry.
"Very well...we will have much to discuss next time. Until we meet again...." He begins to briskly make his exit into the shadows of the Dark Hour, letting Minato claim all the glory of slaying the Shadow if he wants.
<Pose Tracker> Minato Arisato has posed.
Minato slips his hands into his pockets, as he watches Takaya take that strange-looking Evoker and walk off. 'Until we meet again'... does that mean he'll see him again?
He does not offer verbal answer, but the intent expression in his gaze speaks volumes all on its own.
And when SEES arrives, he has to explain that the situation called for him to take the risk of responding alone -- and his team are glad he's safe, after an event like that.
Despite the unexpected battle, everything turned out all right...
But what happened to Takaya...?