Chapter Text
Ren’s eyelids trembled. Slowly they fluttered open to see he was on the ground. Where was he? The last thing he could remember was… the last thing he could remember was… He racked his brain for a memory, any memory. He could remember his name, he could remember who he was, and he remembered his family and friends so why did his head feel foggy.
He pulled himself up on one knee, grabbing his head. Ryuji. He remembered how he had gotten a text from Ryuji and he was going to respond when suddenly everything went black. Now he was… he looked around at his surroundings. Where ever he was it wasn’t his hometown anymore. Forget that it wasn’t even the real world. It looked like Mementos or the Jails he visited, but different.
His eyes fell on a past out Morgana. He ran up to the cat. He shook his friend back and forth to get him to awaken.
“Just five more minutes,” Morgana spoke sleepily.
“We don’t have time for that.” Ren gazed up at the dark sky that surrounded them. There was no doubt this was a place like Mementos which meant there could be Shadows about. He looked back at the cat that was now in his Phantom Thieves: form. “Ann needs you.”
Morgana leaped awake. “Lady Ann? Wait, where is Lady Ann? And where… are we in Mementos?”
“I’m not sure.” Ren got back on his feet, stuffing his hands in his pockets. “But it looks something like it.”
“Where’s Lady Ann?”
“I just said that to wake you up.”
“How dare you lie to me like that!” Morgana jumped and fumed.
Joker caught a glimpse of a fireball from the corner of his eye. He turned to see it coming right at them. Without the slightest hesitation, he ripped off his mask.
Arsene appeared before them, catching the fireball. The fireball spun against the Persona’s hands determined to hit its target. Arsene knocked it upward into the night sky.
Joker spotted Jack’O Lantern on top of the building ahead of them. “Look.”
“A shadow. So it thought it could sneak up on us, did it? Well, we’ll show it whose boss. Go ahead, Joker.”
“Ravage them.”
Arsene closed the gap between them and slashed the shadow in two with its claws. The dark type Persona then vanished, reappearing as Joker’s mask.
“We better be careful we have no idea where we currently are.”
“Aww, I thought we were having fun.”
“Stop joking around. We need to find out exactly what’s going on before-”
Screams filled the city’s air.
Explosions went off in various spots.
Lightning came crashing down and the air grew cold.
“What was all that?” Morgana’s eyes went completely white.
“Looks like we aren’t the only ones here.” Joker rushed deeper into the mysterious city.
“Hey, wait for me.” Morgana chased after him.
*
“Stay behind me, Shiho! Dance, Carmen!” Panther ripped off her mask, summoning her persona. Carmen dispatched the group of shadows on the street who surrounded the model and her best friend.
Panther turned around to see Shiho collapsed on her knees. Her eyes showed her fear. It made sense who wouldn’t be frightened in this situation. They were in a Jail or something very similar to it.
“Ann, what’s going on? What were that thing you summoned and all those things that came after us?”
Panther grabbed Shiho’s hand, pulling her up onto her feet. “I’ll explain later. Right now we need to get out of here.” Ann ran down the street, guiding Shiho along.
She would explain everything later as soon as she understood what was happening herself. The last thing she remembered was Shiho coming back to Tokyo to visit her. They were having a great time when they suddenly woke up here.
*
“Not that way, Sojiro,” Oracle shouted. “There are shadows that way. We need to go this way.” Oracle ran down an alley that her stepfather had just passed.
“I don’t understand, Sakura. Where are we?” Mishima cried.
“This has to be a nightmare, right?” Ms. Kawakami said.
“I certainly hope so,” Takemi replied.
The four followed Oracle down the alleyway.
“Almost there, almost there,” Oracle repeated.
“Almost where?” the others spoke in unison.
A large knight came into view at the end of the alleyway that made the group stop. “I thought you said this was the right way?” Takemi questioned.
“It is.”
Multi-color balls shot the knight off his horse. A glowing blue motorcycle ran over the knight, making the shadow disappear.
“Queen, Noir!”
Both young women came into view. “Oracle? Thank goodness you’re alright,” Noir said.
“I don’t know if any of this is all right,” Sae spoke up. She, Iwai, and his son came up from behind the two Phantom Thieves.
*
“Stay behind me!” Yukari threw her arm out to keep Kanamin’s Kitchen and their manager behind her. Several shadows rushed toward them. She pulled three arrows from her quiver. She set them on her bow, striking down the front row.
There were still several more.
Yukari whipped out her evoker, bringing it to her forehead.
“What are you doing?” Kanami yelled.
“Io!” She fired. Her persona appeared behind her, firing a wind spell that barely held the shadows back.
Those shadows are strong against wind, a voice echoed in Yukari’s mind.
Yukari gazed up. “Rise-San? Is that you?”
Yes. Don’t worry back-up is on the way.
A wave of flames came from behind the army of shadows. A large blade cut through several others.
Yukari caught sight of the Personas Konohana Sakuya and Tomoe who soon vanished. Their owners along with Rise and her manager ran up to Yukari.
“Yukari-San, oh thank goodness you’re safe,” Yukiko said. She was dressed in a lovely pink kimono.
“Yeah, we didn’t expect you to be here,” Chie spoke up. She seemed to be in some sort of karate uniform.
“All of sudden we were just dropped here out of nowhere,” Rise chimed in. She was in a stylish outfit as if she was more ready for a photoshoot than going into battle.
“The same goes for us too.” Yukari had just been in the studio getting ready to record a new song with Kanamin’s Kitchen when they suddenly woke up here. “Rise-San, do you know if anyone else is here?”
“Yeah, I checked earlier. I can sense both your friends and mine all over this city.”
“That’s good. Then we’ll have some backup to help us figure this out.”
“But…”
“What is it?”
“Rise also sensed several people we don’t know,” Yukiko spoke up.
That wasn’t good. If more civilians were in here like Kanamin’s Kitchen then they would be in big trouble against the shadows. It started to remind Yukari of the Dark Hour. “So we have more citizens to rescue too then.”
“Yes and no. A lot of the ones I don’t know are definitely normal, but I also sense Persona-users among them.”
“Persona-users we don’t know?” That took Yukari back. She was certain Mitsuru was keeping an eye on such things. “So the question is are they friend or foe?”
*
Mitsuru and Sumire stood back to back both of their rapiers drawn and ready to take on the shadows that surrounded them. “These guys won’t just give up.”
“Then neither will we!”
“Right!” Sumire hadn’t known the other woman for long in fact she only met her a few minutes ago as she fought her way through the shadows of this strange city. But she could tell she was a strong and reliable person not to mention a Persona-user.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” Both women looked up toward a building to see a Pixie holding a young beautiful woman with glasses in the air, threatening to drop her.
“Fushimi!” Mitsuru called out.
So Mitsuru knew that woman. Sumire could easily tell the woman in the air was frightened and it didn’t seem like she had any powers of her own. They would need to rescue her. The question was how when the shadows around them continue to close in.
*
Yu’s blade clashed with a dagger as he sliced through a shadow. He came face to face with a black-haired thief in a mask. The thief struggled against his blade. Neither one was willing to back down.
Who was he? And more importantly, was he an enemy? He couldn’t afford to let his guard down. He needed to protect Nanako and his uncle from this strange world that reminded him of the TV World.
Their blades slid against each other. Each took a step back to size up their opponent.
“Joker, who is that?” A voice spoke but Yu made sure to keep his eyes on the dagger wielder.
“Joker, huh? So what do you want with us?”
“Is that a talking cat?” Nanako asked.
Yu’s body grew less stiff. “Talking cat?”