The hound's shockwave struck true, the force of the impact slamming straight into Nao's chest and bowling her over as if she was nothing more than a flimsy wooden fence in a storm. Then came the fire. The screaming, searing fan of flames that scorched through their position and engulfed her entire body. A tormented cry escaped her lips. Choked coughs left her throat sore and sore and sore. Agony gripped her very body under the onslaught of the monster. She screwed her eyes shut. She was going to die. She had failed to protect them even with this ... with this power.

Except ... except she wasn't dying.

She gasped for air, breathing in as much of the sickly, cold atmosphere as she could. Her body was throbbing, wracked with spasms and aching. The heat still tortured her. Her skin felt as if it was melting. Yet she was still alive, her body entirely functional. The discomfort ... the torment of her injuries ... they were proof of her survival. Brown eyes opened to stare back into the grimacing visage of the hound. She was alive. Still alive to fight.



Words she had never known. Words that had left her as if instinct. The words that had been spoken by her own soul. She was unsure of when she had become such a poet, but she knew of no other description. They had emerged from her, unwarranted, unexpectedly. They had emerged to bring salvation, to give her a chance ... a chance to combat the beast. To protect everyone.

Move.

Her pale palm pressed down against the cold, dirty floor of the traincar. Agony tore through her arm, a lightning strike of pain and overwhelming sensation that almost caused her to scream out. She did not. Her teeth bit down on her lip. She could feel the blood being drawn. It did not matter. She pushed herself up, legs shaking even as she stumbled to her feet. Was she a shambling wreck? It did not matter. She gazed harshly at the monster through dried tears, her breath ragged and coarse. It did not matter.

She had a duty to protect everyone.

"Those vines are commanding it," shouted one of the other girls (the blind one, Mari, had she gained power like her?) that had been trapped with her. "If we can get rid of those, it should go down. But don’t use fire!"

Fire. Magic. Persona. The words swarmed her mind. They came to her on instinct, as if there was a part of her, deep within the heart, that knew of these supernatural powers. Supernatural powers. Had she been in any situation, they would have been dismissed as mere delusions. As falsehoods. Yet here in this train, against a terrifying monster, they were real. They allowed her to combat it.

She did not think further.

There was only one course of action.

To fight. To survive.

The vines were the target. The force behind the monstrous hound.

She would show it force.

"Persona, come forth!"

Dikē - glorious, transcendent justice - manifested once more from her outstretched arm. The drain did not bother her. The pain did not bother her. The fear, the beating of her heart. The pounding of her blood rushing against her ears. It did not matter. Her duty was to ensure the safety of every single person present. That was her responsibility.

She roared. Her heart leaped.

"ZAN!"

A wave of kinetic energy shuddered and screamed through the air towards the vines gripping the hound.

She would stop it.

She would keep everyone safe.

She had to.

This wasn’t how things were supposed to be. Taro was supposed to be drinking whiskeys in a bar somewhere chatting up some tanned girl with a nice smile and a fake personality, or locked up in his room playing video games until his eyes were bloodshot, or out to dinner with some strangers he called friends. He wasn’t supposed to be minutes away from death on a metal hunk of junk with a three-headed freaky monster looming overhead ready to roast him with one mouth, bite him in two with the other, and drool sludge all over his clothes with the last. He wasn’t even supposed to be on this damn train. It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t right. Taro Mori deserved something better than this, but he couldn’t even do a damn thing. He was, sadly, frozen with fear; he couldn’t even open his mouth.

Of course the first time in his life that he was actually speechless would also be his last.

Taro heard something muffled behind the grinding of metal, the guttural growls of the beast, and the curses of his peers. He recognized it as the sound of his dad’s voice, yelling through his locked door. Of course, this was just a nightmare. He was late for class. His dad was yelling at him again for being a useless slacker, a lazy waste, a dead beat, or something else equally inspiring. The only problem was that the muffled yells of his father telling Taro that if he kept doing nothing then he would never amount to anything was just a phantom echo of a memory. He hadn’t spoken to the old man in months, and had lived with him in over two years. He couldn’t even remember the last thing he said to the bastard so that he could clichely regret it. He couldn’t even yell at the stupid little ball of flame, because the damn thing had gotten itself killed by it’s so-called friend.

And now he could feel moisture on his cheeks, and he knew it wasn’t sweat. What would his obituary read? Taro Mori, Twenty. Achieved nothing in life; died crying like a useless baby. Didn’t even think about the others, at least not until now. Couldn’t even apologize to them. Wasn’t he responsible for pushing them to head towards the engine room instead of the caboose? Sure, who could predict a goddamn three-headed dog monster, fair enough, but still. Shouldn’t he have been trying to do something? Even yell out an unhelpful piece of advice like “watch out” or “run”, like they wouldn’t have already bolted if they could.

But no. He was too scared to do shit.

I hate this.

Taro could see Nao. She was right in front of the monster, standing tall despite her height. Something shimmered in her hands as she kept stepping towards the monster, jaws snapping towards her. Taro wanted to scream at her, to run forward and pull her away, to do something, but his legs were no longer his to control. What the hell, she’s going to get herself killed. Just do something, man! thought Taro, but his voice was still lost to fear.

And then he was speechless for another reason as Nao called forth a phantom lady and blasted the beast with a wave of energy. He felt his tight jaw slacken. Izuki was soon to follow, hurling curses at the creature as a mechanical man spewed its own brand of fire back at the three-headed dog. He could feel another presence behind him; to his shock, Taro could turn his body to look at it. A figure was between him and Mari, her shield forming a protective wall in front of the blind girl. He could hear the girl’s voice coming from behind the shield. Taro was still scared, still terrified, but he couldn’t just let the others do all of the work, right?

Right? he thought, unsure of why he believed he would have heard something reassuring in response.

“Got it,” he said, his voice cracking out from his dry lips. “Hit the vines and don’t play with fire. Just one thing, how the hell did you guys—”

He felt something heavy drop in his pocket. Fishing the object out of his pocket, Taro stared at the square golden compass. The needle quivered above a picture of a tower being destroyed by lightning, the silhouette of two diving figures tucked behind the letters for east and west, respectively. As he gawked at the object, he could feel it shifting in his hands, flattening out into a slate almost the size of his phone before it began to warp into a disc. It felt uncomfortable as it molded itself in his hands, never quite settling on a final form like the bulbous wax in a lava lamp. Still, he had seen the others use something like this thing. He squeezed the compass like putty, melding it into a sphere. What was the word they said?

“Persona?” Taro said, uncertainly.

There were no trumpeteering, no fanfare, and no great revelation. No masked woman or flame-spewing man materialized out of the air next to him. He didn’t feel any different or receive a charge of energy. He did feel ridiculous, squeezing on a ball of gak with his arm held forward like a cheesy nineties cartoon hero calling out an evil doer. He looked at the face of the compass again, confused. The needle spun wildly. Great, it’s broken. You get the stupid magic whateverthefuck and it doesn’t even work, he thought with a huff. Like it would’ve done any good anyway.

Again, Nao called forth her ghost-magic-lady-whatever-thing almost effortlessly. A natural. Maybe he was just doing it wrong. He held the compass to his heart. Nothing. He smacked it in between his hands like he was some bully about to give a kid a beatdown. Nada. He tried kicking it like a hacky sack. Zilch. He said the word softly, he said the word loudly, he tried stretching the word out. No, nope, negative.

“You stupid son of a bitch,” he yelled, flinging his bookbag with all of his might at the monster.

Shit!

It missed.

"To be asked to take this plunge, to forgive and forget
And be the better man, to be a better man, to be a better man."

---

---

You woke up along a shoreline, the wind whipping through your hair, cool like a summer night’s. The sun was setting, its edge just touching the line of the horizon. To all of your sides except for the ocean there were trees, swaying in the sky against the dark clouds overhead. They were bathed in dark grays and bright oranges, much like the shadows of the water and the reflections the sun cast over them. Contrast. Black and white, all or nothing.

It had been a long time since you’d gotten to see the beach. It had been so long that the smell of saltwater was entirely unfamiliar to you. But you had to wonder if it was just a dream. Then again, you wouldn’t have remembered being knocked unconscious if it were. Regardless, if you weren’t able to wake up then what was the harm in going for an incredibly realistic, but imaginary swim?



You took off your boots, rolled up your jeans and noticed that your leg hadn’t quite repaired itself. The tie around your wound remained fastened there, doing a fairly good job at cutting off bloodflow. At least its sacrifice hadn’t been completely in vain. Giving a sigh, you waded into the water, enjoying the feeling of sand between your toes and the sounds of waves rushing around you.

It made you recall your last trip to the ocean. You were so little back then. All of the waves seemed so big and when they had tugged on you, it felt like you were going to be pulled in.Yumi wasn’t scared at all though, which, was no surprise. She had always been the braver one and, it was infectious. When she took your hand and told you that she wouldn’t let you drown, absolutely no matter what, you believed her and, Mom had been there right alongside her to confirm she wouldn’t either.

But Dad, he was far away wasn’t he? He sat away from the shore, still angry that he had to be pulled out of the city away from work.

As you recalled the memory, a sloshing alerted you that someone was behind you and, as you turned, he was there. His black eyes were dark as ever while he loomed over you, fists clenched at his sides. Your heart started to hammer as he drew near, his face scrunched up in that way that it did when he was angry. He was always so, so tall. Most people were compared to you, but you only felt small when you were around him. Your legs began to shake. This was the start of another fight and you knew it. But with no walls to contain you, it would be easy to run. Because yes, you were small, but you were fast too.

You’d keep running until he gave up trying to find you.

You darted to the side, but a pain like you had never felt before shot through your leg. As you stumbled you noticed the tie had vanished and it was once again, your wound was gushing blood with a vengeance. More than seemed possible. Your chest began to tighten and, as best you tried you couldn’t get your body to move. No. No, you can’t stop. You can’t-

The feeling of your hair nearly being ripped out of your scalp knocked the wind out of you and, another hand squeezed at your throat to make sure more wouldn’t get in. As hard as you tried to shake him off you couldn’t and, the sand underneath your feet gave out. Submerged, you felt water fill your throat. Choking you tried to swim away, but his fingers clamped around your forearms like a vice. All you could think was, this was it, he was really going to kill you this time.

The sky above you started to disappear as you sunk father down, your vision fading. It was if you had gone off a pitfall into a tundra, down into the murky depths of the sea. With only one arm to swim with, you fought for a few seconds before you grew tired and, let yourself sink into the suddenly cold water. It was too real to be a dream. It hurt too much and, you always woke up from nightmares like this by this point. So that was it. You were going to die.

You’d never get to apologize to your sister for that fight you had the other day or, be able to apologize to your mother for not being a better son. You’d never get to tell her that it was okay that she left and, you didn’t hate her like you said you did the other day. You were always saying such stupid shit. But even if you were an awful, thoughtless person like him, you at least wanted to live to apologize to them and say goodbye. They deserved that much.

Just as your chest started to ache more than you could bear, something red floated into view. You squinted as hard as you could to see what it was.

… A tie?

As it floated closer, you recognized it as the one the girl on the train gave you. As it came into view, you noticed that something had been dangling off of the tie clip. It was that stupid little phone charm your sister had tied onto her cell for the longest time. The little reindeer with the red tophat. It was so worn that the paint had all but been completely wiped away from its hat. Alongside it, a necklace on a silver chain dangled. It belonged to you mother; a crystalized four leaf clover with a tiny rabbit charm for good fortune. She was always so superstitious.

You reached your good arm out to grab the object, your heart beating faster. No. You wouldn’t die. You refused to let him bury you here like this. Whether this was a dream or reality, you resolved to not die. Not when you had somewhere you had to be and, people you needed to live for. You had to get up and fight.

As if someone had been on the other side of the tie, it pulled you up so quickly it felt as if you were flying. You were lifted up out of the water and onto your feet, stumbling forward through the water and sand. Nightfall had set in and, without the lights of the city to dilute it, the sky looked as if you were gazing into the cosmos. The lights of stars filled the water with their reflection and, for the first time in a very long time, you felt as if the world was beautiful. Breathing a sigh of relief, you looked down to find your hand empty once again.

The tie was back on your leg, right where it belonged. The charm and necklace hung from it still, so you took them off the clip and fastened them around your neck, right over your heart. Even if this place was beautiful, you needed to go home.

---

You looked behind you, in hopes of finding a path through the woods that might have lead you home. But as you searched, something caught your eye. Soft blue lights cascaded onto the water through the windows of an enormous, historic ship. It’s bright blue triangular sails bowed against the wind, though it remained in place as it was anchored down by an enormous chain. Deciding it would be the best place to ask for directions, you set out for the ship.

Swimming over to the vessel, you noticed a man standing at the bottom of the boarding ramp. He was dressed in a blue suit that quite frankly, fit his form better than words could describe, so you couldn’t help but stare for a moment. What fabric was that? It had a sheen like silk, but it was more of a matte finish that didn’t look nearly as tacky. Matching stripes ran down the sides of his pants to meet his polished shoes. It wasn't until the man cleared his throat that you decided looked up at him.



“Good afternoon! We’ve been expecting you,” he said, handing you the towel he had previously draped around his arm. You take it, finally looking at the guy’s face. Nice contacts, but the hat had to go. It made him look dorky, and frankly, ruined the five thousand yen haircut he was sporting. He must have noticed the judgemental stare, because he looked off to the side rather quickly.

“Thanks,” you told him, drying your hair off and combing through it with your fingers. “But that’s a little creepy, I’m not going to lie.”

“Oh! Of course. I suppose it is your first time, so that statement would hazard an incredulous response wouldn't it? Alright. Let me rephrase…”

He paused as if to think. Was this guy for real? 


“Buy me dinner first,” you told him, heading up the ramp.



“I would gladly accompany you to further test the delicacies of your realm, but, perhaps after you meet my master. And after we have ensured your life is not in peril! Those should be your priorities at the moment.”



Master? Oh christ. Don’t laugh, he looks serious.

“It wasn’t a real offer. I just want directions on how to get home, okay?”

“Oh- but of course. I was aware of your jest! And not to worry, we will return you to your home very shortly.”



You stared at him for a moment, partly because you weren’t sure what to say, but also because you really got a kick out of how it made him uncomfortable. Something about this guy made you feel like the likelihood of this being a hostage situation was, rather low, so you continued onward. He followed reluctantly only after a few seconds, which made you feel just a little bad for picking on him. But either way, he bounced back rather fast.

“Master, I found him! Something must have intercepted on his way here!”

You looked at the master in question and, wow. God sure cooked up a doozy on that one.



“Yes, yes, Theodore. I’m well aware of the encounter in question. It seems as if our guest has already entered a contract and, from the looks of it, has received a gift as well,” the long nosed man said, jabbing a finger in the direction of your pocket. Your lips formed a hard line as you wondered what exactly he was playing at but, upon inspection you did have something in your pocket after all. You fished it out and held it up to examine it properly.



… a compass?

You sighed, looking it over. Just a plain old silver compass. Not fashionable at all. The inside had a funny man with a beaky nose carrying a sack over his shoulder, accompanied by a tiny dog at his heels. You turned it over to its back, observing a very plain zero. Boring.

“Do I sense dissapointment?” the odd old man said, taking a seat at a lone table in the middle of the deck. He gestured to the chair across from him and you figured that if you wanted to get out of there, sitting would be your best bet, so you did. “Don’t be. The gift you have been given is a splendid one indeed. The power of void should not be mistaken as mere emptiness, but also as an inspiring role with endless outcomes. To allow one’s self to become adaptable is key to venturing into paths unknown. Take the sea, for example…”

He gestured to the open waters, drawing your eye to the heavenly mirage of the cosmos being mirrored against the moving glass.

“… traveling the sea, like most circumstances, can be wild and unpredictable. You cannot control the waves that crash upon you, but you can learn to adapt and to navigate through it. To sink into despair and nothingness is tempting but it seems that you, my dear guest, have chosen to stay afloat and navigate the uncertain waters of destiny.”

“And that, is our reason for our meeting today. We are here for you, waiting in this space between dream and reality, to help you accomplish that goal.”

He reached out a hand and offered you a key which, you hesitantly accepted. You doubted that your mind could make any of this up so, you chose to play along. If anything, you were certain that this man knew about the things that had been happening lately, so you took the key and decided to keep in contact.

“And so… I will save the introductions for later. Until we meet again.”

A door appeared at the passenger’s ramp, emitting the same soft light the windows of the great blue ship had.

“Thanks, I guess?” you said, trying not to seem as completely overwhelmed as you felt. It didn’t work at all. Even if the existentialism was over, you knew you were heading for something much more turbulent than talking with two quirky strangers. Swallowing, you opened the door with the matching skeleton key.

---

---

You blearily opened your eyes, pushing yourself to sit upright. Before you could really dwell on what had happened, shouting and crashing snapped your attention up to the events that were swirling all around you.

You looked up and saw a great, three headed beast breathing fire down against several of your fellow passengers. Its snarls and growls cut through you, causing you to pause for a few seconds while events continued to progress. Several people were screaming, most of them shouting a word you couldn’t make out very properly at first. Persona? Somehow, it seemed so familiar, like it had been dancing on your tongue for years.

As you glanced around you saw everyone fighting. They had been laying down their lives while you had been so busy fighting the things in your own head. Seeing them like that cut through what hesitations you might have had. You stood on your feet, grabbing hold of your messenger bag and slinging it over your shoulder. It was time to swim.

Dashing forward you heard a choked sob which, gave cause for you to stop. Was someone injured? You skidded to a halt. Looking up, you saw the fashionable guy from before with tears streaking down his face. From what it looked like, he wasn’t actually hurt but-

You knew that sometimes… being scared was worse than being hit. Sometimes feeling powerless, was much, much worse.

As he cursed, you dug through your bag. Eyeliner, hairspray, lighter- no he said don’t play with fire. Where the hell was it? Right, outer pouch, right where you could get at it. You quickly unzipped the outside of your bag and pulled out the pocket knife you bought a year ago. Thankfully, you had never used it before now. Making sure the blade was closed, you ran towards him and shoved the contained weapon into his hand. 



“We won’t let anything happen to you- no matter what! So just keep trying- even if it seems impossible! Don’t stop until you get the hang of it!”

You left the knife with him and sped off, running as fast as your legs could carry you. Even if your wound had numbed one, you kept pushing forward, stumbling under swaths of fire into the front lines. The compass in your pocket whirred with your every heartbeat. You passed the girl who stood behind a towering, regal woman. Another heartbeat. Past the muscular girl who’s voice boomed through the chaos like fire, another. You slid forward and settled beside Miyoshi, who despite looking so weathered, remained standing. How long had she been fighting like that?

You took your plain, boring compass and held it with purpose you hadn’t felt in years. Everyone here was going to go home tonight. Even you. It wasn’t a promise or a resolution. It was a fact you believed in. A voice rang in your ears, both like a soft whisper on the wind and the tune of a favorite song.

I am thou, and thou art I.
To all those who seek to walk forward, to cross through the gates of life and death with absolute certainty
I shall guide you, and protect you on your travels.
For I, am…

“Hermes, rakukaja!”

A bright purple light flashed against the floor underneath Miyoshi, forming a circle before casting what you knew to be a defensive barrier. Even if it was only for a matter of minutes, it would give her an edge. You clutched your compass again, ready to do the same for everyone else.

---

---

So love me mother, and love me father, and love my sister as well.

Hearing the girl's reasons, Yuumei sighed to herself. She has a point, but still... She shook her head. That didn't matter now. Now, even though she didn't want to, all she could do was trust. Trust the flame thing. She'll say sorry later, now she just had to go.

But wait...

This place was for dead people? The frozen time place where everything's frozen and stuff? Then why was she there...? Why were the others there, too? Was she dead?



No. It would be a bad thing.

She didn't care. She was alive and she knew it. That was the one hope she had, and it was going to be the one hope she was going to hang onto. She just had to go somewhere safe. Anywhere safe. The monster (it was friends with the flame?) was going to be coming from the back, so engine room. Engine room. It has a use now.

Everything does.

Run, run, run. - what about the others? They don't matter. They can all die for what you care. You can just run away. Run away by yourself. Hide from whatever might come out. Shelter yourself from everything.

Just like you've always done.

No! They matter. They all matter. She was going to help them - Not save them? Wow, even you know that you can't save anyone. - help them. Maybe not save them. Hopefully she does, but...

Roaring. Roaring. No. No no no no no no no. It can't be. Not right now. Not right here. She didn't even get to say sorry to the girl or the flame or...or anyone!

Everything became black and tar-like. The setting changed from a dream to a nightmare. Yuumei turned around, maybe her last turn ever, and saw it. It was a monster. A 3-headed tar monster dog.

The blue flame was hesitating. The monster dog looked like all it wanted to do was kill.

No. This won't happen.

"Live," Yuumei whispered. "Please."

The blue flame didn't move. Why wasn't it moving? It could get out of the way before it got killed, right? It was fast enough! So why not...?

She figured out why.

There was no flame. It was a doll. There was no flame. It was a doll. A doll. Dead. Dead. No flame. Dead. Gone. Never to come back again, killed by its own friend! What kind of friend would-

She would.

Get over it.

I can't...

Yes you can. It's so easy.

The past is the past.
Just forget about it! Can't be that hard, can it?

You're wrong.

Fucking wimp. Is that really the worst thing that's happened to you? A little, I don't know why I was friends with you, and you never trust again. You're too weak for this world. It would be better if you were just dead! This monster is making your life so much easier! It killed the blue flame and now it's going to kill you. You have no worth.

Yes I do.

What you think doesn't matter now! Everyone is going to die! All of those useless people that you see now? Dead. And you won't care.

I care about them. All of them.

Do you?

This was a different voice in her head. She couldn't explain what it was, but she talked to it

Yes. Yes I do.

Then prove it.

How? I don't have anything, I can't save them, I can't help, I'm useless!

Yeah you are. You're finally admitting it. Now go on. Run away.

The voices switched back to a cold, demonic one. She didn't want this to happen. She didn't want to run.

No! How do I prove that I care about all of them?

All you have to do is stop running away.

And then, the brown-haired girl told them to run. She was sobbing. And while Yuumei didn't realize it, she was sobbing herself. She was trying to save them all. To protect them.

But she would die. Would Yuumei allow that to happen? Of course she would. She should! After all, she was useless here. They were useless here. They had no power. There was nothing they could do. That girl was stupid, stupid, stupid. She was going to fail.

Without help.

The girl became thrice her size with a word she had never heard before- Persona.- and she also became more powerful. That was her strength. But what did Yuumei have? Nothing. She should just run away now.

Not again. No more running away.

Suddenly, Yuumei felt something weighing her down. It was on her neck, so she looked down. She no longer saw the heart. What she saw was a compass.



It was green. Green, with illustrations of everything important to her. A camera, pictures of science, pictures of her and her friends, a treasure chest, a tower- what? That was there for a reason, but she couldn't figure out what...didn't matter now. The tower was pointing north. She looked north. It was the beast.

She saw Taro throwing his bag and crying. He was scared. He must not have gotten any sort of power. Was Yuumei going to let him die? The first person she met here? Or anyone else, for that matter?



She'd already answered this. It was no. Running...hah. That was no longer an option after she saw the first girl say 'persona.' She heard another yell it, and the blind girl used hers too. Most of her regrets, her doubts...they were replaced with hope. More hope than she could have ever had in her life before now. Hope and courage. Courage of a great warrior, enough to take on the strongest beasts. She was still very scared of her current situation, but she felt those two feelings.



She knew what had to be done.

She grabbed hold of her compass, outstretched her arm with the compass facing the monster, and took a deep breath. This moment was about to change her life forever. With death, or with a life of trusting.

"Persona."

Her compass turned blue and felt very cool. She saw a light shining out of it, and closed her eyes. Upon opening them, she saw what might have been the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. A woman with long, light brown hair. She was covered in a gold robe from a canopy. In one of her hands she held a chest that looked exactly like the one on Yuumei's compass.



Yuumei pointed at the beast, letting the necklace fall back to her chest. She grew a huge, smug grin on her face. "Danae. This beast has proven itself unworthy of any kind of warm welcome. Aqua!" She said, and water flowed out of the chest and to the beast's vines at an alarming speed.

A barrier. Hexagons of light, so much like the cones of a beehive, tessellated before her in the form of a shield. It brought Nao up short, its sudden appearance a source of confusion and surprise, but only for the barest of moments. Rakukaja, her soul sang out, the information finding its way into her mind with little to no issue. Was this knowledge afforded to her by the ethereal manifestation (the Persona) she had summoned? She did not know, but its presence was welcome. Brown eyes flickered towards her left for an instant, and relief filled her. Fujisawa was conscious ... safe and conscious, and if the spirit floating above his body (Hermes, the emissary of the gods, the deepest corners of her very self recognised it to be) was any indication, he too had found himself in possession of a similar power.

As had so many of the others. The foul-mouthed girl who had taken leadership (Izuki). The blinded woman who had sought out the horrifying beast's weaknesses (Mari). The youth with the dyed-red hair. Fujisawa, who had chosen to fight on even after his blow to the head.

"Thank you, Fujisawa," she said, the three words escaping her mouth through the pain that still gripped her very body. Her skin continued to feel as if it was being pricked by an endless swarm of insects. Every muscle screamed for release from the sore agony. Yet it did not matter to her. She could not allow it to affect her. She needed to fight.

Needed to so that the others could survive.

The possibility of which was increasing with the addition of more supernatural powers to their ... repertoire. In another time and place, Nao would have scoffed at such occurrences, or at least been overwhelmed by the sheer incredulity of their position. However, their lives were at risk. The monstrous hound, three-headed, disgusting, still loomed over them, threatening to kill them as easily as it did to those innocent, frozen souls. She had nearly died herself. The flames spurting from its maw had nearly taken them earlier. Her focus, then, was entirely on surviving. On fighting.

On protecting everybody.

There was no time to mourn. No time to think. There was only one objective: to neutralise the threat as quickly as possible.

The compass, cold in her hands, spun once more.

The needle hissed as it landed upon the beast once more.

She would not relent her assault.

"Dikē, Zan once more!"

Her goddess complied, crimson eyes flashing from behind its mask of stars as it fired off another impact wave towards the monster hound, the attack following on the heels of her previous shot. She could feel a drain upon something deep within her. She did not know how long she would be capable of maintaining the barrage, but they needed to defeat the monster.

They needed to.

---

As the Hellhound approached Nira and the motley gathering of concerned individuals she barely kept herself from freezing up once more. Of course, by that time she had become well aware that they were in danger, but it simply hadn't been possible to comprehend just how much so. After all, how was one supposed to fear monsters long after they had ceased to believe in such myths and fairytales? There was no feasable threat in her mind that she could have compared this to.

Staggering back a step behind the more fool... headstrong of their little group, she stumbled back slowly towards the rear of the carriage - taking as much care as one could when mortally terrified not to get in the way or bump into anyone. A weak whimper caught in her throat where it became a paniced choking sound. There was nothing they could do - nowhere they could run it hide and no way in hell that they could reason with that... that monster.

And without ceremony or due attention, the imp was gone. Swatted into oblivion by the beast.

"Oh no." She murmured softly - the sound of panic building in her voice. "No, no, no... this isn't real. This isn't happening. It's all just a nightmare. A bad dream..."

A tear ran down her cheek as Nira's eyes closed tightly, desperately trying to block out the horror ahead of her. She trembled, shaking as she waited. Nothing: of course she didn't wake up, this ordeal was as real as her own fear. A sharp pain in the palm of her right hand caused her to look downwards to see a think line of blood seeping from between the fingers of her clenched fist, where she had forgotten that she had been holding the imp's compass. From all around, the others were shouting unfamiliar words and phrases - yet more monsters appearing and doing... something.

Hopeless. Useless. Pitiful. She would be better off just cowering away. She couldn't help - would only make matters worse. She had never really helped at anything anyway, hadn't she been useless here as well? When people needed to band together she had divided them by being concerned over the wrong person, that's what they had said hadn't they? Terrible. Stupid. Weak...

The image of the Imp - extinguished by what he had called a friend that he had no chance to stand against - filled her mind.

"P... Per..."

He didn't deserve that. She didn't deserve this. None of it was fair - why him? Why her? Why was this happening?

Another tear.

A part of her wanted to fight - not to save herself but simply to lash out of the world around her. To not go quietly into the night as she should but to throw everything she had at the situation as she knew her father would want her to.

"so..."

Not even lash out, just stand up for something. To achieve something just this once - even if it was just some small act of defiance before her end. Perhaps some form of vengance for the tiny imp. Anything - she just didn't want to die cowering like a child.

Her eyes snapped open - reflecting the fire of the Hellhound before her as her mind snapped back to reality. Her senses became her own again, though she wasn't certain that she was in full control of her actions. Words seemed to be forming in her mouth that she had no control over. A power washed over her body - like a fire in her very soul. For a moment it felt like she could achieve anything and it was terrifying... though what scared her most was that she kind of liked it.

"...na."

Lifting an arm to her face, she wiped away the moisture from her eyes. In her other hand the compass lay. It could not be described as resting there: there was a distinct feeling of energy - of power - radiating from it. Nira could feel something else, something she could only describe as a bond of sorts. In her minds eye a six-winged figure swam into view. Hazy and ethereal, but unquestionably there - sone kind of angel... or deamon.

Fighting even when hope has faded is what overcomes the impossible. It seemed to whisper into her very head. In the background, her eyes barely registered the battle taking place in front of her. I am thou, and thou art I. Go forth and wield miracles.

She blinked, and the angel was gone. The sound of battle filled her head. Most of their number stood strong, save for Nao. Nao who had showed a level of compassion and level-headedness. Who hadn't jumped down her throat for showing concern. She was hurt - evidently having taken the brunt of the creatures attack. It was a wonder she was still standing at all.

"Persona!" Nira shouted - voice wavering yet clear as the angel appeared before her in a haze of golden light. "Seraphim, help them! Dia!"

She had no idea what she was saying, but the angel obeyed without question. It was a surreal feeling - more akin to an extension of her will than a seperate entity, it was almost as of the words were pointless and the creature had known her intentions even before she had stated them. With a sweeping of it's wings the light eminating from its body was directed towards Nao with an almost musical whistling.

What had seemed a hopeless situation that could only end in death was slowly shifting, something that even resembled hope. With each light that flared up from her companions, another chance of survival emerged, another fray in the noose that was set for them.

While the creature’s last attack had knocked back one of their group, (Nao, a voice both her own and Leto’s whispered to her) the others had rushed in to back her up. Izuki remained up front, taking Mari’s caution to heart and opting instead for more heavy-hitting attacks, causing the beast to snarl and thrash a paw against the blacksmith, the momentum flinging rotting flesh into the air.

An absent part of her mind was suddenly glad she had a more detached knowledge of this imagery as opposed to seeing it firsthand. But instead of dwelling on that, she focused instead on continuing to search for this thing’s weakness.

Meanwhile, the others were rising to the occasion and rushing in to help, one by one. The boy, Akito, had seemed to have awoken and thrown up a defensive spell of some sort, several pillars jutting up around each person’s location in her mind’s eye- wait… What was with Akito’s light? It was somehow different from the others. She couldn’t pinpoint a specific shape or attribute to it. At the moment, there was what appeared to be a gust of wind surrounding it, but unlike the others, it didn’t seem to compose his entire essence, rather, it seemed to form a protective shell around him, not unlike the spell (rakukaja) he just conjured.

But there was no time to dwell on that either, as the two other girls, Nira and Yuumei followed into the battle. One emitted a soothing light that enveloped Nao, as the other sent a jet of water shooting towards the creature.

If the endless barrage of light spells from Nao and punches from Izuki harmed it, Yuumei’s aqua caused it to absolutely writhe.

A strangled yelp tore from its throat as it thrashed about, smashing into the sides of the car, black, tarring rot dripping from its frame. Slowly, with each sickening splat, the white of bone shone through more and more. It’s ribcage protruded from its chest, showing more of those hideous vines, contorting and squeezing around it.

For a moment, Mari could swear that she heard a pained whimper emit from the beast. Whether it was from everyone’s attacks or the vines, she couldn’t be sure.

But that too was drowned out with a snarling roar as it reared upwards. To her horror, she noticed the vines suddenly arching backwards, as if- no, they did a will of their own. There was a terrible second of stillness before they shot forward, licks of fire winding down the tips.

They smashed against the protective shield Akito conjured, and to her dismay, it only served to slow their assault rather than stop them completely. They lashed out against everyone who dared stand against the hell hound, slicing and burning as they went. Mari stifled the urge to scream as she saw this happen, the surge of panic suddenly blurring her newfound sight.

No. No, stay calm. She forced herself to suck in a breath. It wasn’t over yet. They could do this. Thankfully, everything came back into focus, allowing her to survey the damage.

“Are you guys okay?!” She called, voice shakier than what she would have liked. Thankfully, they were all still alive. But some were hurt. Worse than others.

Okay… Okay. Think, Mari. There has to be something you can do! She tried to coach herself. Searching for its weakness was kind of a moot point now. Yuumei had uncovered that on her own. But that wasn’t going to do much good if they couldn’t recover before it could attack again.

And once more, what felt like a guiding hand drew her to the answer that she somehow knew all along.

”Healing Wave!”

It wasn’t nearly as all encompassing as Nia’s spell, but it washed over the group regardless. Just enough to pull them from the brink of whatever they were about to fall into. It would be okay. It had to be. She turned her attention to their foe again, desperately searching for any more holes that they could exploit. There was a brief twist in her gut when she noticed there was significantly less of the beast’s presence left, but more writhing vines, slowly consuming.

“I… We’re getting there,” She forced through, trying to ignore the disturbing after effects. “About halfway, I think. Water spells seem to be doing the most damage to it.”

Yuumei was expecting the beast to get hurt, but not hurt that much. That was good, she thought. It seemed her attacks did the most to it, so it gave her a reason for fighting. She noticed that the leader girl had tried punching the beast, but didn't do much as her aqua.

She saw two others, Nira and the white-haired boy, jump into the battle. The white-haired boy cast a spell that put a shield around the short brown-haired girl, and Nira helped the same short brown-haired girl with a light that enveloped her. It seemed that the two spells helped her fight once again.

Her attention went back to the monster, and her face went from a somewhat happy one to panic. The beast was smashing into the sides of the car and revealing more of its' white bones. And then, she Saw the vines go backward before shooting out fire from the tips. It went after everyone in the group like it had a mind of its' own.

When it hit her, it felt much more painful then any burn she'd gotten in her life. Even though she wasn't engulfed in flames, it hurt like she was. She attempted to stand up, but fell down in pain. I knew I was going to die here, she thought while sobbing, It was going to happen anyways.

No. No, it wasn't. She was not going to die here or like this. After all she had done to get here, there was no way she could. She had to stay calm in moments like this, or she could have an even smaller chance of living through it. She took a deep breath and got on one knee, the most she could do without severe pain. She was going to call on her persona until...

"Healing Wave!"

The light washed over the whole group. It did what Yuumei thought it would, which was heal, and more. She no longer felt like she was on fire, and she could stand with only moderate pain. Enough she could fight off, at least. She mentally thanked the girl for her healing and said, "Danae! Aqua!" and the water from the chest made a beeline for the vines again.

"Stay behind me, Tiny. Fire and shit don't hurt me as much as it hurts you."

"My name is ... Nao," she managed to bite out between two ragged breaths. "Nao ... Miyoshi ... so save yourself ... the extra syllable."

The brown-haired girl was not particularly fond of others placing themselves in danger for her sake, but the course of action undertaken by the other teenager was logical, especially given the greater resistance to the flames the hound could expel. In order to assure the survival of everybody present ... in order to protect the others to the best of their ability, they needed to find a way to most optimally neutralise the beast. Had the lives of the others not been at risk, she would not have wished to depend so much on another. But there was a time and place for everything, and stopping them from facing any danger was counterproductive.

They needed to stop the monster, and every hand was necessary.

She gritted her teeth as agony lanced through her muscles again. Her body was feeling the strain of all the damage the beast had inflicted upon her with its terrifying attacks, and even the ... supernatural resistances afforded to her by the ghostly manifestation (the goddess) could only do so much. Blood and adrenaline rushed through her veins. She could hear it. Hear her heart beat faster than an onrushing train. Her body keeping itself from being torn apart. The emptiness in her mind.

"Seraphim, help them! Dia!"

Music. That was the only manner in which she could describe the ... sense that overtook her. Was it the work of one of the others who had gained power as well? It was likely, given that outburst (she almost couldn't hear it through the din of the fight). The light was reinvigorating her. Her breaths grew less and less ragged. The biting pain was dulling. Her sprained arm was no longer as tense. It was as if something was mending her tissue, restoring her physical state. The agony was still there, but it had lessened.

Immensely.

Her eyes were still fixated upon the monster, but she waved her newly healed arm as a gesture of thanks. It was not a suitable replacement for a verbal conveyance of gratitude, but it was the best she could do. If they survived ... when they survived, she would have to give proper thanks. They just needed to defeat this obstacle first.

Water suddenly gushed from somewhere behind her, striking the beast before her eyes and eliciting an intense reaction. Nao could only gaze transfixed at the wild, uncontrolled rampage of the hellhound, horrified by the sheer pain and damage it was inflicting. It was hideous to watch, but before she could command the manifestation (her Persona) to capitalise upon the vulnerability being displayed, the vines that had contorted around the creature's body attacked.

Nao threw her arms in front of her face as the burning vines, spitting fire, slammed through the protective barrier Fujisawa had produced and struck her torso, whipping and tearing at her. She choked back a scream as she was knocked back into the side of a seat. Pain lanced through her shoulder even as the hissing heat boiled and seared at her skin and the cuts on her arms and the blood pooling and the bruising on her and the and the and the and the sheer agony was overwhelming and it hurt and it hurt and blood and it-

"Healing Wave!"

It was hell.

She gasped out a strangled cry even as her body began to mend itself under the supernatural interference of that spell. It was pain. The heat still scorched at her. Blood was staining her shirt, cuts and slashes dotted across her entire torso. She couldn't keep it up. Yet she was still alive. Still ... still alive.

Her hands scrambled against the cold, dirty ground, desperately trying to get a grip against them so she could push herself back to her feet. Her knees slipped. It hurt. It hurt too much. She spat out blood. Her teeth were rattling. Her arms and legs were trembling. Her face was stained with dried tears. She closed her eyes, reaching wildly out to grab the top of the seat. She needed to get up. She needed to.

Nao pulled, her body rising from the floor. She was such a mess. Her feet struggle to maintain balance. Short, sharp breaths left her throat. It was dry. It pained her. Every muscle wanted to scream at her to stop. She ignored them.

She let go of the seat.

She would stand on her own two feet.

She would survive.

"Do not ... stop attacking it!" she roared out, voice croaking and hoarse. "Do not let it recover!"

Just because they had taken such a blow from the vines' horrifying attack did not mean that the hound itself was not vulnerable. If what that girl stated was the truth ... they were halfway. The beast was like them. It was faltering. Its skin was melting. Like them. Nao bit back a coughing laugh. Adrenaline pumped through her.

The compass needle span and span and span.

If it was like them, then she could kill it.

And ensure their survival.

"Rip those vines apart, Dikē," she whispered, breathing heavily as her Persona materialised into existence above her. "Twister Kick!"

The goddess of justice seemed to smile eagerly from behind its mask of stars, and leapt forth, careening into a spinning drop kick towards the monstrous hound.

It was defective, clearly. If only he could buy another one, then he’d be set.

Taro was squatted down on his haunches behind Mari, trying to figure out why his was the only broken one. Okay, fuck that, he was hiding behind Mari, trying his hardest not to appear that he was cowering behind a blind girl by letting the compass mold and shift between his hands. Damn it, the thing was disgusting. He felt the weight of Akito’s knife in his pocket. What was he supposed to do with the damn thing? Throw it at the beast? After his bricked shot with his book bag, he doubted he’d do much more than possible embed a blade in one of his peer’s backs. Try to gut the monster like he was some thug? The one fight Taro had been in was when he was seven.

It had been over an action figure (a doll, really). Taro had started it. He had wanted to doll, and the other kid wouldn’t give it to him. Stupid, selfish kid shit. So he pushed the kid; the kid proceeded to beat the shit out of him. He still remembered the embarrassment he felt, worse than the pain, as he cowered in the fetal position as a girl two years younger than him kicked his ass. The girl’s parent stopped her, and recognizing him as Mori’s heir actually made the girl apologize and give him the doll. Lame, right?

“We won’t let anything happen to you- no matter what! So just keep trying- even if it seems impossible! Don’t stop until you get the hang of it!”

The boy’s words ran again through his head. Taro didn’t get it, really. It made no sense at all why Akito was so certain that the others would protect him; he hadn’t really done anything for the rest. Sure, he had tried to take command when they had all come to, but even then it had mostly been in jest. When they actually needed a leader, he had fallen short while, he guessed fittingly enough, the shortest one in the bunch had stood tall.

He watched Nao through moist eyes—Fuck me, why are you still crying—as she fought, relentless and unyielding even as the monster retaliated against her. Akito, despite being unconscious for the first half, had managed to get his compass to work so he could help the girl out. First try. Just like Izuki, Mari, Yuumei, and Nira, who continued to offer their support and strike out against the monster. The monster lashed out at everybody except him. He heard the cries of his peers and his stomach tightened. Even the monster knew that he wasn’t worth getting attacked as he hid behind Mari like a goddamn coward.

He felt a warmth shift through his body as Mari cried out, ”Healing Wave!”

The tight pain in his forehead from when he had first awoken flat on his face relaxed and fade away. He had been healed, too, even though he was nothing but deadweight. Taro gritted his teeth and wiped his face dry. He couldn’t abide by this, hiding and crying like a bitch while his new friends struggled to keep some asshole like him safe. It was time to roll-up some newspaper and discipline this bad doggy. He fished Akito’s knife out of his pocket, flipping the small blade out and holding it with a reverse grip because he had seen one too many movies.

He thought about the girl on the playground. When his father had found out about what he had done, the man sent Taro over to her house with a raw hide to apologize and return the toy. There was probably a lesson hidden there about not abusing his family’s name to get the things he wanted so he didn’t become just another asshole trust fund baby, but in Taro’s child mind he picked up on the slightly more obvious one: don’t pick on girls. They’d end up kicking your ass, and nobody would feel bad for you because you had been a little piece of shit. He knew that Nao, Izuki, and the others could handle this demon pup without him—they had been doing it so far—but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t offer his hand anyway. He had his pride after all.

“No matter what, I won’t let anything happen to you guys,” he said under his breath, echoing Akito’s words.



He stepped out from behind Mari, the compass in his hand spinning wildly. He relaxed his grip and let it take control as the golden goo shifted and warped in his palm. The material wrapped around his wrist and hardened. The needle stopped and pointed due North at the three-headed dog. A smile flashed upon Taro’s face. He had stopped crying.



“Bellerophon! Let’s put this fucker down in a Single Shot,” he said.

He heard the cry of a horse and felt his hair and jacket whip forward as something shot by overhead lightning fast. A flash of light reflecting off of metal was all he could make out as something pierced through the vines after Nao and Izuki’s attacks. He could hear the beating of wings and the clomping of hooves from behind the monster, his persona coming into view as it rose back into the air above the beast. The armored rider on the pure white, winged horse gave a disparaging look down on the monster as black goo dripped from his spear and then it faded away, returning to Taro to prepare for another attack.

“Sorry it took so long. I was a little busy, uh, crying like a baby,” said Taro with a laugh, stepping up to the front. His voice shaked. He was still scared, but he wasn’t going to give up on the others. “Okay, okay, okay. We got this, no sweat right? It's just some stupid three-headed nightmare dog that can breathe fire. No biggie."

"To be asked to take this plunge, to forgive and forget
And be the better man, to be a better man, to be a better man."

---

---

You felt a cool air surround you, the smell of saltwater surrounding you and bringing with it a new calm. The pain in your leg started to diminish, allowing you to feel as if the ground were like air under your feet. Much better. With so much happening you couldn’t afford to stay still even for a second, and you didn’t want to.

“Hermes, Rakukaja!” you shouted, throwing the same protective shield you had cast on Miyoshi around the tall muscular girl. While she seemed to be doing okay, maybe even better than everyone else, she was still on the front lines. Two down, four to go. But just as it seemed you had a clear opening to cast again, something started to shoot past you. Alarmed, you turned as quick as your body would allow, to try to try and take out the firey tendril heading straight for one of your comrades. You weren’t fast enough.

The blood rushing to the surface of her clothes caused your heart to race. Paranoid, you looked to the others to see if anyone was gone. No. Not yet. But she was close and you knew she was close and she was shaking-

“Someone heal her!” you barked, surprised at the coarseness of your own voice. You dug through your bag, pulling out one of the half consumed energy drinks you’d stashed for later tonight. Unsanitary or not, you had a feeling it would help. Ducking out of the way as she summoned her persona, you set the drink in her hand immediately after as not to break her focus.

“Hey, you need to keep your strength up. Stay back here with-”

You really needed to learn shield girl’s name. You gestured to the blind girl.

“Her.”

You looked over your shoulder, noting that the beast had crumpled underneath one of the water attacks the long haired girl had thrown into it. Like Miyoshi, no one had stopped the onslaught even for a second. Even Taro, who had been paralyzed with fear prior was on his feet and fighting alongside everyone. Maybe it was an odd thing to be proud of but, part of you did. They had defied all odds.

Movement showed you that the beast was staggering on its joints to get up, its body almost completely melted off of its skeletal frame. One of its three heads hung limp, the skull cracked in half by the muscular girl’s attack. The vines that had attacked the group were starting to hang limp, like the long dreads of a willow. It was easy to tell that it was just about finished. Maybe just one more big attack…

“Don’t let it get up- everyone, hit it with everything you’ve got, now!”

You turned, digging into your bag as you did so and smashed the other half full bottle against one of the poles on the way. Better than your fists could do. Running forward you threw the broken glass straight into the nearest vine and twisted it before stabbing it as many times as you could. If everyone attacked it now you were absolutely sure it would go.

---

---

So love me mother, and love me father, and love my sister as well.

"I am perfectly fine ... Fujisawa," replied the brown-haired teenager through coarse, rapid breaths even as the half-empty can was pressed into her free hand by the aforementioned boy. "Do not fret for me."

She took a step forwards, throwing her head back as she gulped down the entirety of the can's liquid contents without hesitation. In another situation, she would likely have been discontented by the possibility of the drink being unsanitary, but an instinct within her gut called for her to consume it all. It was an offering from Fujisawa, and given his prior assistance, she was entirely willing to trust his hands with her safety. And for some incomprehensible reason ... it did appear to help her. Was it the rush of caffeine that had entered her system? Did it react strangely with her newfound supernatural powers?

It did not matter.

As long as she could better neutralise the monster hound and protect everyone, anything was fine.

That was her responsibility.

Another step forward. The can clattered to the ground. Her gaze fell upon the staggering, wounded beast. Its body was evidently failing; had it been any other creature, she would have declared it to be dead despite her lack of medical qualifications. It was as if she was watching a desperate, screaming thing beg for reprieve from the morgue. However, it was not her place to provide it that mercy. Nao had only one duty to fulfil.

To ensure that it would never harm another human again.

"Understood."

And she ran, ignoring the pain that pounded her legs, ignoring the drying blood staining her shirt (her wounds were healing; the gashes were gone), ignoring the fact that she was essentially charging into battle against a creature that seemed to have stepped out of Greek mythology. She ran and grabbed and pulled at the closest vine, her grip tightening around it to keep it from moving away. It would fall here. She would ensure it.

Her other arm lifted the compass up. The snake that was its needle span and span and span and span once more.

"Dikē, bash it into pieces!"

The needle landed upon the vines. Dikē, the goddess of justice, materialised once more, dress flowing, mask sparkling with a sea of stars, and leapt forth, swinging its weapon to strike against the plants. Striking hard. Striking fast. Striking frequently.

Perched atop the beast's third skull head thing, Izuki held on for dear life as the thing thrashed and flailed about, trying to throw her off like some sort of crazed rodeo bull. The attacks from her newfound companions kept coming, as the boy who threw his bag suddenly found himself empowered. A horse rider with a lance speared into the hellhound, followed shortly by the brown-haired girl's Persona bashing away at the vines beneath her.

The thing was hurting, and Izuki was sure that it'd collapse if they kept it up.

It roared and kept thrashing about, trying to throw her off, but she held firm, hands clamped onto the edges of the skull.

"Dance puppy, dance!"

To her teammates, she shouted.

"Keep hitting it! It's focused on me!"

And then she raised a fist and drove it down onto bone, feeling it give slightly under her hand. Then she did it again. And again. And again. Punching straight into bone, feeling it creak and crack more and more under her bruised knuckles.

"To be asked to take this plunge, to forgive and forget
And be the better man, to be a better man, to be a better man."

---

---

And so with everyone’s hearts beating as one they moved, fists and gods flying towards the three headed demon. It thrashed as it’s third and final skull gave way to the muscular girl’s fist, each head dragging along the metal ground with a high screech. It’s four legs gave out from underneath of it, causing it to collapse in the rift between the two pieces of the disemboweled train. The vines around it’s body had woven themselves through its fully exposed ribcage to squeeze around it’s three necks. There was no flesh left to kill, nor mechanisms in which to create sound, and yet it still screeched in pain.

Clawed appendages scraped against the ground as it weakened, causing the metal to cry out along with it. Bones began to bend and splinter. Two of it’s heads fell limp as the third struggled to stay afloat. Its gaze remained fixated on the charcoal doll for the last few seconds of it’s life before its neck was snapped apart. As it’s skull fell it dissolved into more of the now familiar tarlike substance, splattering onto the ground in front of you with a squelch. It smelled awful, like the rot from a corpse mixed with mold and detritus. You covered your mouth to block some of it out, but the pervasiveness of the odor was too much to fend off.

But in the corner of your eye, you noticed that movement hadn’t quite stopped. Though the beast was destroyed the vines that had been plaguing it so writhed against the ground. Some o them were still. The ones that hadn’t been wounded shot past either of your sides, whipping to grab at each member of your disorganized but still united group. You held the neck of the bottle tightly, determined to slash as many as you could before they reached their destination, but almost as soon as you rushed forward to do so something cut into your arms like razorblades as they gripped gripped. You didn’t need to turn to know what was holding you.

One by one the vines caught onto the others. A thick tendril lashed around the muscular girl’s wrists to bind her fists together so they would never punch again. Another took Miyoshi’s arms to thrash her just as badly as she had thrashed them. The blind girl’s legs had been wrenched out from underneath her in an attempt to drag her further into their reach, dealing the healer of the group a similar punishment. They rose up to almost completely bind Taro, the thickest of the vines squeezing his midsection to the point where it looked painful. The last wrapped its way around the neck of the girl who had stung it the most with her water attacks, squeezing with intent to pop it off like the neck of a daisy.

You thrashed despite your mind was blank with terror. No- they had fought so hard!

You closed your eyes, not willing to watch what happened if you failed to escape. But blue took over the red that burned behind your eyelids and as you hesitantly opened your eyes to look you saw something extraordinary.

A thousand blue lights had strung themselves across the train. Bodies sprouted from their flame heads, each of their faces set in an expression of unwavering courage. Sparks flew across the metal, stinging the vines like shots from guns. The snakelike growths arched back as if to tighten their grip once more, but cobalt flames started to engulf them, practically filling the train car. You closed your eyes and drew your now free arm up to shield yourself, but felt no heat. As you looked around, you saw the others standing amongst the flames as well, unharmed by the blaze that had covered everything. The fire had engulfed the vines which now burned to ash on the ground below, freeing everyone from each of their prisons.

The ground shifted underneath you, pulling forward quickly. Stumbling back, you saw that the two ends of the train car had begun to lace together like strings of glue. They grew orange for a split second and then snapped together, mending the car back into a singular body. The black tar burned away like smoke, filtering out of the car and, in a flash of light the flames dispersed, leaving only sparks of blue and faint glow behind. Nearby on the ground, one flame body remained. It was lying face down, flickering weakly as if caught by the wind. Why hadn’t it gone with the others?

The ground lurched below your feet again and slowly, the train began to move. Though this time it was peaceful and smooth, maybe even more so than its usual pace. Orange light began to filter through the windows as you approached the mouth of the tunnel and, as you bottomed up the world opened before you. The city was still, stuck in time as the train continued to glide through it. Windows reflected a lazy pink light, the usual harsh shadows of the streets calmer and less than they had ever appeared.

You looked around to see that the others bathed in the same light, alive and unharmed. Their wounds had been restored and, they had won. You wiped off the wetness that had collected on your face from earlier, hopefully before anyone saw it.

“We… should get each other’s numbers, in case something like this happens again,” you cough, voice cracking a bit. “Just to be safe.”

You pulled your cellphone from your pocket and it flickered to life. For some reason, you weren't expecting to work. Finally, a pleasant surprise.

---

---

So love me mother, and love me father, and love my sister as well.

The creature’s strength already dwindling, it was no match for the combined onslaught of everyone’s attacks. After what feels like no time at all in the flurry of punches, kicks and blasts, it lets out a pained cry as it’s presence begins to melt into nothingness. There’s a tiny flicker of its aura, dim, as if it’s desperately reaching out towards something, and then it’s gone.

Mari is about to let out the breath she’s holding, but another warning tugs at the back of her mind. She draws her attention back to the mass that used to be where the monster once stood, and feels another cold pang of fear.

The vines are still there.

Before she can yell out a warning, they’re already darting forward, tendrils snapping around every person they can touch. Mari attempts to scramble to her feet, but they’re already upon her before she can even straighten herself up. A harsh jerking motion throws her off of her feet, slamming her elbow onto the cold metal ground and whatever sight she had before is cut off from her. There is just blackness and the sensation of being dragged and pure, all-consuming terror.

No no no, they were so close! She thought despairingly as the tendril snaked farther and farther up her leg, squeezing, threatening to choke every last bit of life out of her. She squeezed her eyes shut as if that would make a bit of difference, as if it would make any of this go away. She was so stupid for having any shred of hope left. It only made this so much worse. If only she had just died back there and saved herself the trouble of-

A cool rushing sensation flies up her body, right along the path the vines were constricting around her. And with that, she was free. She stumbles forward, one, two steps, before she collapses onto the ground once more. From the mismatch of relieved, even overjoyed voices, it seems the others have escaped the same fate.

And as if things couldn’t get better, a brief rumble passes throughout the car, and Mari can feel the train moving under her feet. Not floating, but moving like it’s supposed to.

She lets out something of a mix between a laugh and a sob. She never thought she’d be so happy just to hear the clatter of tracks beneath her feet. It wasn’t completely over yet. She could tell that much by the stillness of the air that still hung and the lack of voices excluding that of the group’s, but they were alive, and there was actually a chance of escape now!

Using her cane to steady herself, she slowly pushes herself to her feet, bracing for the sharp pain in her leg… But it doesn’t come. She blinks once, wiggling her leg experimentally. Nope. It feels just fine. Oh… Okay. Well, that’s good. It’s almost as if this whole experience is slowly ebbing off into a bad dream.

But then one of the guys further along pipes up and has to go and ruin everything.

“Ugh, that’s right.” She groans as she wipes at her eyes. She doesn’t want to seem a blubbering mess now, especially since they’ve all made it out okay, however barely. “This isn’t the first time this happened, huh?”

She pulls out her cell phone from her uniform jacket, inserting an earbud to follow the automated voice commands. After fiddling with the device for a minute, she slowly makes her way over to the boy, phone held upwards. “Here, it’ll be easier if we just link them to each other.”

She waits patiently as he takes the time to respond, frowning in thought.

“Hey, does this sort of thing at a consistent time of day? I didn’t really notice before, but… Maybe if we can keep track of it, we can avoid this sort of thing again?”

As great as it was to be able to see again... Sort of, during that brief time during the battle, she could sacrifice it for not have to be constantly fearing for her life.

... It was really great though, she couldn't help but think wistfully.

Taro joined the others in the melee, although he attacked with less gusto than the others out of fear of accidentally slashing human instead of the demon-dog-vine-thing. He heard himself call for Bellerophon again and felt the air around him stir as the Persona shot through the creature once again. As the beast began to go into death throes Taro backed away, wiping the black goo from Akito’s knife on his pant leg. He was breathing heavily—the man felt as if he had exerted himself more in the past minute than in the past month—and wiped the sweat, more likely from his nervousness than any actual physical activity, off of his forehead. They did it. They had won. Taro inhaled deeply, breathing in what he had expected to be the sweet smell of success only to be greeted by the foul putrid smell that nearly made him lose his lunch. He managed to turn it into a sputtering cough instead.

A new fear seized him just before the still-moving vines wrapped around his body. Taro let out a startled shout and tried to slash himself free, but the thick tendrils were already keeping his arms pinned to his side. Cursing under his breath enough to rival even Izuki, he could see the others get attacked by the vines as he was quickly turned into some kind of nightmare mummy. He could feel himself get squeezed as if he was being constricted by some giant anaconda; he could feel his ribs getting pushed to their breaking point and waited to hear twenty-four disgusting snaps as the vines snapped him like a toy. As the vines tightened and tightened, Taro found himself unable to even swear. He was trapped. All he could do was watch and wait until they were all killed.

Even after I figure this shit out I’m useless, he thought, trying and failing to call forth Bellerophon. We’re dead, we’re dead, we’re—

Taro couldn’t really mentally summarize what happened, but from behind the shroud of the vines he could see spots of blue light. And then the vines burnt away from his face in a blue flame, but Taro neither felt any pain nor smelt the unmistakable scent of singed hair or burnt flesh. He looked around and the lights, except for the small doll-like body of the little blue man, were gone, and with it so were any signs of their struggle with the dog. The evening sun dipped through the window as the train exited the tunnel, and as the light hit his eyes Taro felt himself breath a bit easier (albeit with slight pain from his still-aching chest). Somehow, they made it.

“We… should get each other’s numbers, in case something like this happens again,” said Akito, his voice wavering with what Taro assumed to be a slight uncertainty. “Just to be safe.”

Taro nodded dumbly. It was either that or try to go it alone and hope that the next demon dog controlled by snake vines that came along just ignored him. Taro didn’t know much in the way of whatever the hell that thing was, but he figured it was safe to assume that the odds of one not being just a little bit hostile were slim to none. Plus, some of them seemed rather nice, and this was a much easier way to get their number than try to think of some clever line later on. The slight smirk returned to his face as if he had no care in the world.

“This isn’t the first time this happened, huh?”

Taro knew Mari meant the time stop, not the monster attack, but he started laughing nevertheless as she started talking about the time of day. “No. That’s why I hate taking the seven o’ clock train. Too many damn demon dogs,” he said, shaking his head and smiling as he pulled out his phone and linked it with theirs. If not for the redness of his eyes it would have been impossible to believe that the kid had been crying for his life just moments ago. Pulling out the pocket knife, he offered it back to Akito.

“Here. Don’t know why, but I guess this helped somehow. It’s a little gross now, but I wiped it off. Should be good, right?” he asked, lifting an eyebrow. “Unless we’re going to really take this—things like this have a name right? A pact? An oath?” He shrugged and started again. “Whatever. Unless we’re gonna get weird and take this to the blood oath level. Then I’m gonna have to ask you to sanitize the shit outta that knife before we start slicing palms and holding hands or...uh...whatever it is that people do.”

Taro screwed up his face and frowned slightly. He laughed again, only this time it sounded more nervous than jovial. “Uh, what I’m trying to say is, erm, thanks.”

There was a beat, and the man went back to typical loud self. “Also, are none of us seriously going to address the fact that we just summoned giant ghost dudes to lay the smackdown on some punkass hellhound? How awesome was that? I mean, sure, yeah, it was kinda scary, but totally awesome, right!” He turned his head to look at Nao and Izuki. “Especially you two. You girls really have some balls. Um, meta...meta…” He snapped his fingers and his eyes brightened as he pulled the word of his head. “Metaphysically speaking,” he said with a smile, proudly unaware of his blunder.

"The correct term is metaphorically."

Nao released one last ragged breath, the adrenaline of the fight still pumping through her veins. That had been ... incredibly intense. The vines had been defeated, the train car supernaturally brought back into the form it most commonly possessed, yet - She placed a hand over her stomach, feeling for wounds that were no longer there. The pain of being thrashed into pieces by those vines were still stuck with her, a memory engraved harshly into her mind. Yet she was now ... utterly unharmed, as if she had not been so close to death. As if she had not fought some horrible, Cerberus creature. It was only the presence of the bloodstains (her blood) that proved that the last several minutes had not been an eerily violent dream.

That and the memory of the agony. The phantasmal soreness that she kept expecting to return when it was all ... gone.

She stared down at her left hand, the gaze of her amber-brown eyes full of an unreadable emotion. That compass ... the one that she had utilised to manifest that supernatural being (the Persona, Dikē) ... it sat there harmlessly. As ornate as it appeared, it seemed so utterly unremarkable, when the truth was so much different.

It had helped her live. Helped her survive.

But it was still so ... unorthodox, seeing it resting in her palm like it belonged.

"This ... timestop has always occurred at the same time each day," she said quietly, eyes refusing to peel away from her palm. "Always ... but what happened here? Why today of all days?"

She could still feel the blood rushing through her head, the harsh beating of her heart. She was ... high-strung. Too awake. Too alert.

The memories of that fight continued to replay and replay in her mind.

For a few scant seconds, she was lost in thought. Then she blinked and her face immediately flushed, the red of her exertion immediately changing to one of embarrassment. Nao had realised that everybody else was syncing up their phonebooks a bit later than she should have, and immediately moved to grab her phone from her trouser pocket. It was surprisingly intact, though given that she had bought the model for durability, it shouldn't have been too unexpected. Then again, she had engaged a demonic hound in combat.

Her day had been one of many strange and improbable occurrences.

She flipped open her device, holding it close to that of the others until she heard the "beep" that indicated the successful transferral of contact details between their entourage.

"Hopefully fighting another monster will be unnecessary," the brown-haired teenager admitted. "However, given everything we have just witnessed, I expect my hopes to be quite dash-."

She trailed off upon witnessing the blue poltergeist sitting in the tattooed girl's hands.

It was ... alive?

It had survived?