Chapter Text
“The death of everything… but also the beginning.”
A middle-aged, brown-haired man stood in the middle of a command room. His glasses covered the wild look in his eyes, as he looked around the area. Through the windows, you could see robotic bodies, hanging around in various, destroyed poses. The room was filled with TVs that showed a no signal screen, as a red light tinted the area.
“People have filled the world, yet turned it into a void.” The wild-eyed man spread his arms out, as he looked to the roof with a mad smile. “The only hope of salvation lies in ruin!”
“Hahaha!” A new person walked in. A boy with red, spiky hair and piercing blue eyes. He had an X-shaped scar across his face. The boy grinned in amusement. “Did you work in a zoo or something? ‘Cause that’s a huge pile of shit you just pushed around!” His laughter died down, as he walked towards the man. “So, how’d that work out for you, Dad?” The boy gave a sharp kick to the wild-looking man.
But instead of groaning in pain, the man disappeared from the hit. “Considering you’re as dead as a doornail.” The boy scowled. “You wanted the world destroyed, right? Tch, you worthless pest… Fine, I’ll do it myself.”
“This shitty world, with its shitty people and shitty lives, is all going to disappear! And I’ll be the only one left! After all, if the father’s fallen into darkness, the son’s gotta rise, right?” He paused. “Just kidding! Bwahaha!”
“What nonsense.” The boy stopped laughing when he heard that, and turned around in irritation. “These constructs can only remain active within my Red Fog. Even then, they only remain active for a limited time,” The menacing voice drawled. “If you have time to waste with worthless sentiment, hurry up and complete your preparations.”
The boy growled at that. “You got no sense of humour. Keep up with that whining and I’ll kill you too,” He threatened.
The voice only chuckled in response. “Such impudence. Take them. They are your pawns.”
As the voice faded away, dark red fog spawned, joining together in a singular location. It formed a being… a girl with pale skin, very long blue-ish gray hair tied into a ponytail, wearing a school uniform that covered most of her mechanical body. But her eyes were a menacing glowing yellow.
The boy observed the creation. “Huh, they ain’t half bad. Well, whatever. Now I’ve got the power I borrowed from you, so there’s no way I could lose. Now, time to make like a tree and turn a new leaf! Or, whatever. Hahaha!” The boy laughed… before abruptly stopping.
His smirk turned into a small frown, as he studied the girl again. But when he spoke, his voice was different. “Hm. A puppet version of a puppet,” The boy(?) said. “I’ll make sure you get the job done this time.”
He smirked, as he walked past the girl. “Now, let’s start. For the sake of his world.”
The room outside lit up. Inside were people, whose heads were bowed down… before they shot up, and their eyes glowed yellow.
It was time for it to start.
–*–
Laboratory
“I’ve finished going through Labrys’ personality modules and control links,” Fuuka Yamagishi announced, as she worked on the computer. Her voice echoed through the machine-lined room, while Aigis stood beside her.
“Heh, I knew we could count on you,” Akihiko Sanada grinned, lightly bumping his shoulder against Fuuka’s.
“I’m sorry I asked you for such a big favour like this,” Mitsuru Kirijo apologised.
“Oh no, it’s fine!” Fuuka shook her head. “I couldn’t possibly stand by after something this big happened. But…” She cringed slightly. “Is it alright for me to be here? Aren’t you all part of some kind of police organization now?”
“You don’t have to be concerned,” Mitsuru assured her. “Even now when we’ve become the Shadow Operatives, this lab solely belongs to the Kirijo Group.”
The Shadow Operatives were a secret group, created by the Kirijo Group in collaboration with the National Police Agency. They worked to deal with supernatural cases, involving the interference of the cognitive beings known as Shadows. The laboratory they were currently in was not only used for analysing Shadow material, but for planning operations, and maintenance of the Anti-Shadow Weapons, like Aigis, the 7th Generation of the Anti-Shadow Suppression Weapon.
Inside the case they were investigating was Aigis’ older sister, Labrys, the 5th Generation.
“I’ve finished investigating Labrys’ mobility systems. All I have to do now is reboot her OS, and perform some final checks,” Fuuka said.
“Thank you,” Mitsuru said. “How is she?”
“She’d sustained some heavy structural damage, but luckily none were critical.” Aigis sighed with relief.
“And her memory?” Fuuka’s face fell slightly.
“I’m sorry. I searched through it, but I found nothing that would help us find the one behind this all. If we want to pursue him, we’ll have to wait for a report from Intelligence, but it seems that will still take some time,” Fuuka explained.
“I see…” Mitsuru’s fist tightened. “Then we have no clues to go on.”
“Don’t be so hasty. We might get new leads from Intelligence, right?” Akihiko asked.
“Ever since that plane hijacking, we’ve learned Public Safety has been making some disquieting moves. If we don’t make a move soon, they’ll take advantage of the situation.”
“I understand how you feel, Mitsuru-san, but we must solve one problem at a time. That is why we have gathered here today,” Aigis gently said.
“Right… I’m sorry.” Mitsuru took a deep breath in. “Let us review everything that happened.
“The one behind this all had first stolen Labrys, the 5th-Generation Anti Shadow Suppression Weapon while she was in transport.
“They hijacked the plane to divert attention from the theft of my sister, after which she was transported to Inaba,” Aigis continued.
“The hijackers were then subdued and captured, but we have reason to believe that their minds were under some kind of control. They didn’t have any memory of taking part in the crime. They were ordinary citizens with no recognition of each other, and no prior criminal records. They all claimed they saw ‘red eyes’.”
“Then the culprit meddled with Labrys’ memories, and threw her into the TV World, right?” Akihiko said.
“Where one’s heart and memories manifest themselves, as a machine, Labrys was able to control these memories in great detail. The enemy used her as a trap for us.”
“When we entered the television world in pursuit, we defeated her Shadow and made indirect contact with the culprit.”
“The culprit revealed he wanted us to fight, so he could weaken our hearts and turn our Personas to Shadows.” Akihiko growled, realizing how familiar this sounded. “Once he’d accomplished that, he’d combine them all so he could have even more powerful Shadows.”
The silence that fell was powerful.
The goal to gather and unify Shadows… it sounded familiar. Too familiar, to someone they would never forget.
“Shuji Ikutsuki…” Mitsuru growled.
The man who attempted to bring about the Fall… the man who killed Mitsuru’s father.
“The culprit’s speech pattern is consistent with his speech patterns…,” Aigis confirmed. “Along with the inability to use a Persona.”
“But that can’t be! He-,” Fuuka protested.
“That’s right. We’ve confirmed his death.”
“Or maybe someone out there is thinking like him,” Akihiko suggested.
“If so, then the world we strive for is still far away,” Mitsuru sighed. She turned to Fuuka. “Yamagishi, when Labrys wakes up, can you give her a summary of the case from three years ago? I’d like her to know what happened when she was inactive.”
“I understand.”
“Can’t you just stick that data into her memory?” Akihiko asked.
“If we did that, it’d just become data to her. We need her to understand what happened.”
“Heh… she’s a human, through and through, huh?”
“That, and I noticed when I was checking her memories, that her memory field is slightly different from Aigis’. She seems to have a sub network of sorts…”
“A second memory network?”
“It was probably used to incorporate the feedback from her sibling units, but I don’t know that for sure. That’s why I believe it’s safer to tell her in person.”
“Very well. Tell her how you wish,” Mitsuru said. “Regarding Ikutsuki, I’m pressuring staff to hurry and review the information, including the newly discovered quarantined server at Ergo Research. We never knew about the server in question because it was cut off from the group’s network.
“It most likely has information that normally would’ve never left Ergo Research, such as data on top-secret experiments. Ikutsuki could be involved in this case.”
“By the way, what was the logic between that whole Midnight Channel thing?” Akihiko asked.
“It’s still unknown, but we’ll have to send people to Inaba again. We’re going to hold a meeting at HQ to discuss counter-measures.”
Suddenly, an alarm went off, alerting them all. Mitsuru rushed to a control panel to contact the staff in the facility. “What’s going on?”
“The surveillance system detected a rise in Shadow readings. It’s currently stabilizing around a Level 3 Alert, located in that town Inaba.”
“What?!”
“So, he’s already come out, huh? That makes this easier,” Akihiko snapped his fingers.
“Mitsuru-san, please give the order to dispatch us,” Aigis requested.
“Alright, we’ll leave at once,” Mitsuru nodded. “Yamagishi, leave Labrys to Kikuno and accompany us.”
“I understand. I leave the rest to you, Kikuno-san.”
“Understood. Lady Mitsuru, everyone… please be careful,” Kikuno said, before ending the transmission.
“Shadow Operatives, let’s mobilize!” Mitsuru ordered.
–*–
Limousine
“Mitsuru, why are we taking this car again?” Akihiko grumbled. They were in the personal limousine for the Shadow Ops.
“Don’t question it, Akihiko, we didn’t have time to get another vehicle with the same equipment,” Mitsuru shot him down. “And speaking of appearances, are you still going to be wearing that?”
Akihiko was wearing nothing but a cape and pants, exposing his bare chest, which had some scars from his previous battles on it. “Yeah, there’s a chance we’ll have to fight, and these clothes provide the most flexibility.”
“Impressive, Akihiko-san. You never change,” Aigis said.
“Not always a good thing,” Mitsuru muttered to herself.
“To think the culprit would make a move so soon,” Fuuka mused. “We’ve lost the initiative.”
“Indeed. We have to take measures right now. I only hope no harm comes to Narukami and his friends.” Mitsuru was very tense right now. Her normal regal and calm demeanour had vanished, as she was either deep in thought or giving orders to subordinates.
“Mitsuru-san, why don’t we just ask them to cooperate with us?” Aigis suggested.
“Yeah, they seemed pretty strong,” Akihiko agreed.
“No,” Mitsuru firmly said. “They’re still young. If I ask them to help, it will waste their time better spent in school, or worse, they’ll get hurt.” Her expression softened. “Nobody should go through what we did.”
“I get that, but they don’t seem like the kind who’d listen,” Akihiko reasoned. “We were like them too, remember? Plus, we’re going to need their help if we want to learn what happened on March 15th last year.”
“Wait, what?” Fuuka turned her head up. “What happened on that day?” Mitsuru and Aigis turned to each other, before turning back to Fuuka.
“We learned something odd, when we first went to Inaba. Detective Kurosawa had told us that apparently, on that day, last year, the town of Inaba suddenly underwent a crisis,” Mitsuru explained.
“Reports of fires breaking out, destruction occurring in the streets, windows shattering out of nowhere were occurring. Cars were being overturned by seemingly nothing. Nobody knew what was causing it,” Aigis continued. “The odd thing is that on that day, there were no Shadow readings.”
“What?” Fuuka gasped.
“Then apparently, in the middle of the day, the destruction ceased, and the fires abruptly stopped. There were investigations, but with no leads, they assumed it was just a really bad earthquake,” Akihiko said.
“However, when we asked Narukami and his friends about this, they mentioned something odd…
–*–
Flashback
After Mitsuru asked them about March 15th, everyone except for Teddie, Naoto Shirogane, Rise Kujikawa and Yu Narukami gasped lightly. “Hey, I remember that day…,” Chie Satonaka said.
“Indeed, it was so scary,” Yukiko Amagi agreed. “All that destruction that occurred, it was all so sudden…”
“Hey, wait, March 15th, didn’t Whisper mention that…” Kanji Tatsumi trailed off.
“Yes. That was the day the Yo-Kai World was disconnected from the human world, and Nanako-chan lost her Yo-Kai Watch,” Naoto remembered.
‘Yo-Kai?’ Mitsuru wondered what they meant by that… ‘The folktales about ghosts? What did they have to do about that day?’
–*–
Limousine, Present
“After that, they didn’t mention anything further. We decided to prioritise this case, and investigate the Yo-Kai mentions later on…”
“So, we could be dealing with these… Yo-Kai, if they’re real?” Fuuka said.
“Perhaps. Whoever this Nanako is, they seem to be related to that day’s events,” Mitsuru concluded.
“Well, we can focus on that can of worms later. Did you get anything from Ergo Research’s quarantined server?” Akihiko asked.
Mitsuru checked the laptop. “Yes. It appears new evidence has come to light regarding Ikutsuki. It seems he was performing an experiment of his own in the lab directly after the explosion. It’s unknown if this is related to the current situation, but there were mentions of a Plume Of Dusk being used.”
“A Plume Of Dusk-!” Aigis gasped. That was the very same object that was fitted into Anti-Shadow Suppression Weapons like Aigis, allowing them to summon Personas, even though they were machines.
Akihiko frowned. “What are the details of this experiment? Nothing good, I’m sure.”
“Well, Ikutsuki-” Mitsuru was interrupted by the engine roaring. It seemed they were driving up a steep hillside, Aigis guessed. She turned around, to look out to the mountainside.
Then she flinched.
Did she-? Did she just get a Shadow reading? Was that just her imagination?
“Yamagishi, tell us our current location,” Mitsuru asked.
“One moment…” Fuuka checked the map. “We’re currently in Inaba Pass. We’re almost at the target co-ordinates.” Then, the map began to glitch. “Huh? What’s going on?” The screen kept glitching… before the map was replaced with a logo, saying:
P-1 CLIMAX
All the computer screens were replaced with this logo. “Huh?! What’s that?” Before they could question it any further, the limo began to swerve! “Gah!” Everyone braced themselves.
The limo hit the wall, scraping against it, before picking up more speed! “Are we being ambushed?!” Akihiko yelled.
“Driver! What’s going on?! Answer me!” Mitsuru demanded. The driver slowly turned back… when they saw his eyes flash red!
“It’s just like the hijacking!” Aigis realised. The limousine was picking up more speed, as it was reaching a bend in the road!
“Aigis!”
“I’m on it!” Aigis swiftly equipped her weapon and attempted to destroy the window between them and the driver, only for it to be blocked! “A barrier?!”
None of them noticed when a red-haired boy appeared on the screens, smirking maliciously.
Soon, the limousine rammed through the barrier, and everyone inside screamed as it crashed into the woods below.