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"This suckssssssssss!" Kotone slaps the bars on her cell. "Let me out!"
"Keep it down!" The cat-like creature(That swears it’s not a cat.) from next door whines. "You want to be killed?"
"And do you have a plan, furball?!" She snaps back.
"I'm working on it!" The sounds of metal clinging. "Dumb lock being too high! Hey!"
Two boys run through the dungeon. One's got a mask and is dressed all back. There's something… familiar about him. Kotone wishes she remembered anything other than her name.
"Get us out of here!"
—--
"MOONY would ALSO like OUT please!"
The group stands around a shaking chest.
"Are you sure?" Ryuji watches as Ren opens the chest.
"THANK you!" A white orb the size of a basketball rises out of the chest. Craters peppering its surface, a single blood-red eye in its center locks eyes on Kotone. Three wings flap as it flies over to her.
"KOTONE! Kotone! KOTONE! Kotone!" It circles her. "MOONY has FOUND you!"
—-
"There's too many of them!" Morgana darts under a shadow's lance. "At this rate, we'll be-."
Kotone doesn't want to die in this place. She doesn't want her saviors to die either. Not even Morgana.
Let me help.
She hears another voice, a boy's when she thinks that.
"COBALT!" The name roars out of her. A cloaked figure manifests above her, bony hands hold an orb, and a single gray eye peeks out from behind the hood. Magic flows through her, the elements are hers to command.
'Ice is the best one.' Cobalt whispers in her mind.
"TIME FOR THE CHILL OF DEATH!" Kotone screams as Ice covers the ground, spikes jut up and impale the shadows.
"Ahahahaha!" Kotone bathes in the rush of power. Then it leaves her. So does her ability to stand.
She didn't notice that her clothes had changed, a red dress with pink tones. She looks like a magical girl.
—-
Kotone tapped her foot as she waited for the train to arrive. She cursed herself for letting Ren talk her into going to a maid cafe. "Maybe you'll remember something" She mines fiddling with imaginary glasses and winks. It's a poor attempt at intimidding Ren. "Bullshit!"
'He was just trying to help…' Cobalt's voice drawls in her head.
'Yeah but did it have to be so far?' She shoots back at her persona. 'And now I'm hungry!'
There's a flash of blue hair. She only sees it out of the corner of her eye. She turns her head.
The crowd parts and the Boy with Blue hair and Gray eyes stares at her.
And she erupts.
WRONG! FAKE! IMPOSTER!
The boy has the same idea. They rush at each other. Kotone throws a punch to his stomach while he goes for her chest. The blows connect. But she's too enraged to feel the pain. She is still close so she uses her left hand to scratch at his face. He answers by banging his head into hers. She smells copper. He tastes it from his busted lip.
OFF! OFF! OFF!
She's not getting anywhere, but she'll be strong enough in the metaverse. She kicks the thing in the crotch and it's enough to allow for her to fall back and get her phone. She jabs the screen and she welcomes the power that the realm grants her. Since it'll let her get RID OF IT.
GET RID OF IT GET RID OF IT.
The thing hits the ground hard. She raises her staff. There's no need for her to use magic. A single strike-
The thing's body is engulfed by flames. Kotone barely has time to register as the clothes change to that of a knight, a sharp sword in its hand.
wrongwrongwrong
"CRIMSON!"
A persona emerges from the flames, Her body adorned with spikes. Claws and talons and fangs. Red eyes and a razor-sharp Naginata wreathed in flame. It screams and brings the naginata down onto her. She slides to the side feeling the heat on her skin.
"COBALT!"
Her persona appears and the temperature drops. Cobalt's wraith-like form hovers above her. They are one in REMOVING THIS THING. He holds his orb up and sharp shards of ice rain down. The red persona and the thing both scream. Then the persona drives forward. Kotone doesn't care how long this will take. She will remove this abomination.
At some point, they both stop summoning. At some point, they got back to the real world. At some point, she pulled out some of his hair. At some point, he gave her a black eye. And at some point, the police got involved.
"The witnesses say that you both instigated the fight." The officer sits across the table. Another officer had taken the thing. Since as long as she didn't see it the bloodlust settled. "And I don't want to do paperwork for a lovers squabble."
"I would never!" She stands up, slamming her hands on the table.
"Yes, well." The officer looks tired. "Unless you want this on your record then you'll tell me that it was. And that it won't happen again."
"Yes sir." Kotone deflates into her seat.
"Glad to hear it." The officer stands. "Your friend is here to pick you up, I don't want to see you again."
As she gets up to leave she prods Cobalt again. He's quiet. Sleeping if she had to guess. She makes a mental note to ask him and apologize for what happened. He's the restrained and logical one.
She meets Ren, Ann, and Ryuji out in the lobby.
"We don't have two people with a record do we?" Ann says.
"Nope!" Kotone smiles. She knows it looks fake. Damn it.
"They said you got into a pretty intense fight." Ren does a once-over on her. "We're going to take you to the clinic."
"That sounds….good." She's starting to feel the bruises. And the cuts. And her nose miiiiiight be broken.
"MOONY leaves KOTONE alone AND she GETS hurt." The muffled words come from Ann's bag. "SEE? Moony SHOULD stay NEAR her!"
"Oh my! Kotone what happened to you!?"
"She got into a fight, Yusuke," Ryuji says
"Goodness! A lot of people are getting into fights tonight."
"IS that YUSUKE? Why IS he HERE?" The bag starts to wiggle
"I'm here to take my roommate home. He got into a fight too."
"Don't tell me." Kotone puts her head in her hands. "Blue hair, gray eyes?"
"That does sound like Minato." Yukuse nods.
Kotone groans.
—--
"You can't be serious." Kotone frowns. "No way. I joined first."
"I'm not asking you to be friends with him." Ren places a cup of coffee down in front of her. The clink is the loudest thing she's heard. "He's like you."
"Tell me one way that THING is like me." She hisses.
"Neither of you have memories of your past. Your personas are both colors. They talk to you like they're different from you. Your arcanas share the same numb-"
'He's got a point.' Her persona is a traitor.
"Fine." She clutches Moony, her grip making the baseball-sized ball look like a squeaky toy. It helps, somehow "What's his acana anyway. Can't be that similar to Traveler-"
"Wanderer."
"DAMNIT."
—---
"As far as the internet is concerned you don't exist." Futaba stretches in her chair. "I looked everywhere, and there's no mention of "Kotone Yuki. Zilch, nothing, nada."
"You mean…" Kotone swallows. "I-I have no history?"
"Maybe you had a different name?" Are you sure Kotone Yuki is your name?"
'It is.' Cobalt's will is iron. 'Always has been.'
"It has to be." Kotone shakes his head. "It was the only thing I had when I woke up."
—---
She doesn't know where she is. Bars and a blue hue are all that answer her.
Movement, a squirming sack is led to the gallows.
No. Nononononono.
She can't move. She can't scream.
The trap door drops and the sack's contents flow into her.
She's never been so angry. She's never been so scared.
She wakes up, tumbling out of bed onto the floor.
'Same nightmare?' Cobalt's voice is comforting. 'Let's find a book or something then.'
—---
"Knight's been strange lately." Ann stretches. "Mage?"
"What about him isn't strange? And wrong?" Kotone huffs. "He shouldn't be here!"
'Ren should have taken us instead.' Cobalt hisses.
"Oh, you're not calling him a thing anymore!" Ann beams. "That's great. Have you ever thought of leaving Tokyo?"
"Where'd that come from?" Kotone thinks about it. "No. I can't."
"We'd pay for it!" Ann smiles. "And we'll go as a group-"
"No!" Kotone snaps. "I CAN'T leave."
"Knight said the same thing."
—---
'I'm sorry.'
Cobalt-Her brother is the last voice she hears as she melts away on judgment day.
She gasps for breath. Her mind clears. Like she's wiggled out of a grasp that was suffocating her. Then her memories flood back. SEES, Tartarus, Sealing herself away. Her brother, who she carried within her mind for ten years.
She stares at the earth. A blue dot in the sky. Glowing lines cross her vision. The pattern is familiar, but not hers. Nyx's body within the sea of souls. Plants of all sorts have grown around her.
"Do you remember?" Minato stands next to her. The anger and rage from his presence is gone. Feels like it was never there.
"Yeah." Kotone sighs. "We were used."
"The God of control wanted the power of death. So he plucked the heralds from their nest." He sits down next to her. "Guess it didn't need us anymore. You're…not from around here. I'm not sure how he grabbed you."
"I don't know either." Kotone laughs. "Moony has come to rest within me. They were made from us, to keep us here, and to keep us from killing you. Not like it would have done anything."
"Give Moony my thanks then. Doubt it would have been pleasant." He pauses. "Your world’s me. What's his name?"
"Makoto. Makoto Yuki." She pulls her wings around herself. "Guess that's two makotos. And your sister?"
"Minako. Minako Arisato." Minato smiles. "She'll wake up soon."
Minato's eyes dart to a cave. Kotone can barely make out the edge of a nest. She's almost jealous, when was she getting a nap?
"Now what?" Kotone's eyes trace the seal. "We wait?"
"I'll wait." Minato stands up. "That seal is mine."
He offers his hand to her.
"But not mine." Kotone takes it, understanding bloodming her chest. "I'll take down that god. For all of us."
She launches into the air, Red wings taking her. She feels a gust of wind at her back.
She whispers thanks to Minato, his wings giving her the wind at her back.
—--
Kotone rips Makoto out of her.
They don't have the time for proper reformation. Makoto takes the shape of a blue hawk. Frost forms on his talons, his magic intact.
Sparks dance between her fingers, the thunder of her song made manifest.
—---
"Have you seen Minato?" Ren slides the curry to her. "I haven't seen him since New Year's."
"He's hanging out with some friends." Her brother looks up from his crossword. "They went to high school together, they took Ryoji with them."
"Which high school?" Ren places another plate on the table. Moony all but pours the curry down their throat. "Were you classmates?"
"Not at the same time!" Kotone smiles. "The school couldn't handle all of us."
"You're the same age." Ren shrugs. "And you said you were cousins?"
"Yes." Her brother looks at Ren. "Why are you asking?"
"You're identical cousins. Ren says. "How old is Moony?"
"They're-" Kotone stops. How old is Moony? Wait. When did they meet Moony? They've got red eyes like Kotone, but their skin is too pale and Kotone's pretty sure they don't dye their hair white-
The world shatters. She can feel her wings again, and her brother is returned to the shape of a bird.
Moony's curry sits unfinished, and Kotone can feel them within her, nudging her to eat it.
"So." Kotone slides the plate over to her. "What's going on?"
—-
"You're from another world?" Goro leans on the wall.
"That's right." Kotone sighs. The Metaverse is keeping her here, once they end it she'll go home. She'll be better off than Goro. She's not sure if he's told the others that he's a dead man walking. Kotone can relate, the time between the end of the dark hour and March 5th is something she can't forget. "It's…the twin of this one. In this world, Minako's body was forfeit. In mine it was Makoto’s."
"A single choice created two timelines." Goro puts his hand on his chin. "That's a common theory of timelines. Do you think we can recover Minato?"
"I don't know." Kotone taps on her phone. "He's in Yakushima with Aigis and the others. I'm not even sure if he's real. I haven't been able to text him since I woke up."
"You believe he's like Okumura's father?" Goro tilts his head.
"Had to compare him to a man you killed?" Her brother hisses.
"Please." Goro waves his hand. "Aren't you part of a death goddess?"
"I only killed one person, and it was to protect Kotone and SEES I'd do it again-"
"Enough!" Kotone yells. "That death goddess is still sealed and sleeping. Minato shouldn't be here. Even if it is him we don't have the time to fetch him from Yakushima."
"A shame."
—--
Maruki falls and the metaverse melts away. The feeling is almost nostalgic, reminding her of the tower of demise fading away. She smiles at the thieves, a true one. Then waves.
She's pulled away. She drifts in the sea of souls, a current guiding her back to her world. Then she sees a familiar moon with plants in bloom. Minato and Minako wave at her. She breaks from the stream, flying down between the lines of the seal.
"We thought that you could stay here until Makoto has his proper form back." Minato smiles.
"And I want to know everything that happened!" Minako grabs her hands. "Please?"
Kotone can wait before she heads home.