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[amperor]

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"Sanada Akihiko"
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[amperor]

As well as I can be. I'm all healed up, at least.

[girlybruiser]

I'm so relieved!
I was really starting to worry when I heard you were still recovering.

[amperor]

[ Who told her he was still recovering? Then again, she seemed familiar with Ken and Shinji already, and now Minato. It could have been any of them. ]

You shouldn't worry, the physical injuries are healed just fine.

[ It's all mental, is what he doesn't say. ]

How have you been doing, Haru-san?

[girlybruiser]

I'm alright. I took some time to recovery at Dr. Maruki's machiya, so I'm fine now.
Do you remember what happened before that crystal was taking you over?

[amperor]

I do.

[ He doesn't want to elaborate! So he attempts to redirect her very obviously. ]

Did you hear that one of our team mates has recently arrived here? His name is Koromaru; he's a Shiba.

1/2

[girlybruiser]

[ Did he just pivot into something completely different??? ]

2/2

[girlybruiser]

Pardon me, but is this the same dog you mentioned before?
The dog is your teammate?

[ She says when Morgana is a not cat who turns into a car and sometimes a helicopter. ]

[amperor]

[ He did, and it was as subtle as a brick through a glass window.

Also fuck, in his panic he forgot he'd mentioned Koromaru to her before. At least he's offering some new information there. ]

I didn't want to mention it before but yes.

The shrine he used to live at and was guarding was attacked by Shadows. When we arrived, they were already gone - Koromaru had summoned a Persona, Cerberus, and dispatched them.

He doesn't have it here, though, so I don't think we need to worry about him running off into danger.

distraction: successful... for now

[girlybruiser]

Wait, your dog can summon a Persona?
How does your dog do that? Is he some kind of special guide sent to you all?

[ Is he like Morgana? ]

[amperor]

[ Special guide??? ]

No, as far as I'm aware, he's just a normal dog who happens to summon a Persona.

He even did it without an Evoker that first time, which is impressive.

[girlybruiser]

There is much about you and the other Persona users I don't fully understand.
You don't have masks, or outfits... but I suppose those would not appear unless someone's cognition of you was perceived as a threat. Your guns are also a way of summoning your Persona, rather than a weapon?
Amada-san said he had always had his Persona...

[ Now there's Minato, who clearly is involved in this. ]

[amperor]

There are things I don't understand about how you use your Persona either. The outfit is one thing, but most Persona users I know of have to use an Evoker to awaken it. Koromaru is one of the only users I know of who used it without one.

That's how I met my first Persona, Polydeuces. I was given an Evoker and summoned him. The fact that I can summon at any time here is also strange - it usually takes more effort to awaken my Persona during the daytime.

We have weapons to fight Shadows without our Persona out, too. I have my fists; I know several people who use swords, and Amada-kun uses a spear.

[ And Shinji uses an axe, but that's because Shinji's persona was all brawn and bloodthirst. ]

[girlybruiser]

Technically speaking, I should not be able to summon Milady in this reality either. Our Personas could only be summoned in the Metaverse, which is the other reality we can enter.
It must be related to the magic of this world somehow, or our powers have been altered in some form. I noticed when summoning Milady, it took more energy out of me to use certain skills.

[ Not her One Shot Kill kind of hurting her in return. ]

It's so strange to think you were able to simply summon your Persona.
There wasn't anything you had to face within yourself? Or any conditions that had to be met?

[amperor]

We can only summon a Persona if we're aware of the Dark Hour. if you used an evoker on someone who isn't, I - well, I don't know exactly what happens, but I assume it wouldn't work at all.

That's the only condition that ever had to be met: that you weren't sealed in a coffin during the Dark Hour. The first time Shinji and I woke up during it, we freaked out.

[girlybruiser]

May I ask what this "Dark Hour" is like?

[amperor]

Sure. I mentioned it's a period of time that exists at midnight; for anyone who doesn't experience it, they don't notice what happens.

I don't know what it's like everywhere, but on Port Island... that's where Tartarus shows up. The moon takes up a large portion of the sky, depending on what cycle it's in. The sky turns green, and the whole world is green as well.

Electronics stop working unless they've been built specifically for the dark hour. That time is when Shadows climb outside of Tartarus; usually they're small and easy to take care of. Lately, there'd been big ones that could do actual damage. And the damage lasts. If you crush a coffin during the dark hour, or destroy a -

[ House, he wants to type, but his memories rebel against putting it down so callously. ]

- building, it'll remain that way after the hour is up.

[girlybruiser]

I've never experienced anything like that before. It's strange how we have similar powers, but the experiences are quite different.
I wonder if it has anything to do with the malevolent god we had to face.
Could it be this power reemerges each time differently?

[amperor]

You fought god?

[ Then again, hadn't Ikutsuki talked about making a new world? That was kind of a delusionally god-like thing to rant about. ]

[girlybruiser]

[ And she's gonna do it again. ]

A god.
He was a formidable opponent. Nothing we had ever fought before.

[ Until Maruki's Persona, but mum's the word on that. ]

[amperor]

Why'd you end up having to fight him?

[ It's not accusatory, but curious. (As if Akihiko won't one day resolve to do something similar.) ]

[girlybruiser]

That is a story for another time.
It's a long one.
Besides, you haven't answered my question from earlier... please understand I do not mean to push, but we were all worried for you.

[amperor]

[ Damn, he'd really hoped he'd been able to derail her enough not to circle back to that. He considers not replying, fibbing that he'd lost the text the next time he sees Haru... but she's expressing concern.

With a not insignificant amount of chagrin, he realizes if he did do any of what he considered, he'd just be doing what Shinji did to him. So he sighs to himself. ]

I wasn't careful with what I wished for, and I hurt someone important because of it. Not the same way I hurt Ken.

[ From 'Amada-kun' to 'Ken' without thinking of it. ]

[girlybruiser]

This was all due to the wishes?

[ More than ever, she's glad she didn't attempt more than a couple of them. ]

Is that why that crystal took over your body?

[amperor]

Yes. After I made the wish, it started growing out of my neck. It was too fast for anyone to stop.

[ He had had a band of crystal around his neck, when Haru broke him out. ]

Well, it didn't happen right away. He had to make a wish to undo mine, and once it was over, that's when it started happening.

[girlybruiser]

What was the wish exactly?

[ If he's comfortable sharing.

Interesting, but she's glad she retained her concern about the wishes. Their wishes on New Year's resulted in them choosing Maruki and his reality, without proper knowledge or awareness they had done so. ]

I'm glad it's over, at least.