The night of October 4th, Takuya made his way to the meeting room on the fourth floor to meet up with the rest of the group. Once in he saw everyone surrounding Fuuka who was currently within Lucia which he expected since she was their only way of tracing Shadows, especially the large ones.
"Takuya, you're here." Mitsuru said as the blue-haired teen walked over to the others "Did you see Aragaki anywhere?" she asked, he shrugged. "Nope, you try asking Miyuki?"
"She was the first person I asked, she said that he said he'd catch up but now I'm starting to think he meant later than I'd like." Mitsuru responded.
"Don't worry so much, Mitsuru-chan." Miyuki spoke up "I sure whatever Shinji is doing is super important." Mitsuru sighed upon hearing this. "I hope you're right."
"I've located the target." Fuuka said telepathically to everyone "It's in the plaza in front of Iwatodai Station."
"Guess we'll have to worry about Shinji later." Takuya said in response before turning towards Ikutsuki. "This is the tenth Shadow, right?" he asked, Ikutsuki nodded.
"Great.....only a few more to go." Takuya replied.
"Let's not get ahead of ourselves, one Shadow at a time." Miyuki said playfully.
"Assuming they come one at a time." Yukari joked with a giggle.
"Yukari-chan, how did you know?" Fuuka spoke up "There are two of them!"
"Good guess, Yuka-chan." Miyuki congratulated her friend with a pat on the back.
"Oh geez, I just had to say something..." Yukari groaned.
"No time to lament about you jixing us." Takuya replied "If there's two of them, I think it's in our best interest we all go and then split into two teams to take out each of them."
"Excellent idea, Takuya." Mitsuru complimented him, as everyone began to leave the room Yukari stopped them. "Where's Ken?" she asked. "Now that you mention it...I haven't seen him all day." Junpei replied. "It's probably nothing to worry about, he's usually locked in his room studying so maybe he overslept." Takuya commented. "Still...one of us should check on him." he added.
"I suggest Junpei since he bailed on the last operation." Yukari said.
"Excuse me?! I was kidnapped, remember?!" Junpei protested.
"Yeah, by your girlfriend." Takuya joked which only frustrated Junpei more.
"You've lost this one, Stupei." Yukari said "Now go check on Ken." Junpei groaned as he left the room to go check on Ken.
"Alright..." Takuya said as he turned to face Miyuki "Miyu, you're in charge of Team B."
"You mean it?" Miyuki asked excitedly, her eyes lighting up eagerly.
"Yeah." Takuya answered "Both of us can changing our Personas, it's best if each team has at least one of us."
"I won't let you down!" Miyuki exclaimed which made Takuya chuckle. "I know you won't." he said in response before turning to face Yukari.
"Yukari, I want you and Akihiko to wait here with Miyuki for Junpei." Takuya said "You four will make up Team B, got it?"
Both Akihiko and Yukari nodded in acceptance, once he knew they understood and turned to face Mitsuru.
"Mitsuru, You'll be with me in Team A." Takuya explained "Alongside Aigis and Koromaru." Koromaru barked excitedly in response. "He is ready, as am I." Aigis spoke.
"Good, let's get going." Takuya said before leading Team A out of the room.
Koromaru led the group to the plaza, barking wildly once they reached their destination. The other three members of Team A all followed closely behind their canine companion and looked in the direction he was barking.
"There they are!" Takuya shouted as the group looked upon the two large Shadows. One looked like a woman in a dress caressed in a swirling bundle of flowers, this was Arcana Strength. The other Shadow was Arcana Fortune, it looked like some kind of metal lion, the pairing of the two Shadows reminded Takuya of the Strength tarot card which made sense given all the Shadows are based on, he knew what those cards looked like cus his mom had an interest in that sort of thing which unfortunately meant his memory of the cards was kind of vague.
"Alright....now we wait for the others." Takuya said. "Hope they don't take too long."
"What are your orders while we stand by?" Aigis questioned.
"We make sure they don't leave our sight, if either tries to make a move..." Takuya began to explain but he stopped as Arcana Strength took notice of them.
"Scratch that! Looks like we're attacking now!" Takuya shouted as he raised up his shield, the four charged into the plaza and engaged the enemies.
Meanwhile, on the other side of Port Island, Shinjiro Aragaki was in that same back alley hangout spot he use to hang out in before rejoining S.E.E.S. The young man wasn't there just to hang out, he had been asked to meet someone there, that someone was Ken Amada who was waiting there with his large spear in his hands.
"You came..." Ken said as he glared at Shinjiro "...You actually came." but Shinjiro did not say a word back. "I'm surprised you abandoned the operation." the child continued speaking "Do you know why I asked you to come here?" but still Shinjiro refused to speak.
"Two years ago." Ken spoke "October 4th 2007, my mom died here...." his voice began to crack as he lost his composure "They said it was an accident, but I know that was a lie! I know the truth!" his voice kept rising in volume "You murdered her! Ever since that day, it's been one bad thing after another! To make things worse, no matter where I go! All I get is sympathy, what's even the point of living!" Shinjiro just stood there as this child continued to breakdown and scream in front of him.
"I thought about killing myself....but I know Mom wouldn't have wanted that..." Ken stopped shouting but he was just as emotional before "So once I found out who here killer was....I knew what I had to do, I had to get my revenge on the person who took her away from me." the boy raised his spear and pointed it towards Shinjiro, the older boy let out a sigh and looked the kid in front of him in the eyes. "Do it." was all the teen said.
Back at Iwatodai Station, Team A were currently still in the middle of fighting the two massive Shadows. Takuya and Mitsuru had both just been knocked onto the ground and were currently picking themselves up, Aigis and Koromaru meanwhile were keeping the fight going and covering for their fallen comrades.
"Takuya and Mitsuru have fallen!" Aigis exclaimed "Continue to provide them cover fire while they regain their footing!" Koromaru barked in response and two both summoned their Personas, Palladion and Cereberus respectively, and began to attack Arcana Strength with various spells that did damage but not a lot.
"Alright, now I'm mad!" Takuya shouted as he grabbed his evoker and shot it off at his head, summoning Forneus to the field and using Bufula on Arcana Strength.
"Good thinking!" Mitsuru said as she summoned Penthesilea and joining Takuya in one the ice-spell onslaught, suddenly Arcana Fortune sprung to action and a large roulette wheel fell from the sky and stopped everyone's attacks.
"What the hell is that?!" Takuya exclaimed as he and the other three looked upon the wheel, the large machine have several weird pictures on it's many sections and Arcana Fortune leapt onto the center of the wheel which caused it to start spinning, eventually the wheel landed on a red section with several pink hearts painted on it.
"Whatever it's doing, we're about to find out." Mitsuru said as the wheel disappeared in a flash of white. Whatever the attack was seemed to have no effect on either Aigis or Koromaru, but both Takuya and Mitsuru were now dazed and confused.
"Like what's going on?" Mitsuru questioned in a very airy and ditzy tone of voice.
"I dunno man but I feel like mad chilled, y'know?" Takuya answered in a super slow and relaxed tone, neither of the two seemed like themselves and were under the effects of Arcana Fortune's Charm spell. "Not good, they seem to be under the influence of a charm spell." Aigis observed out loud to Koromaru. "Palladion does not have Charmdi, does Cereberus?" she asked, Koromaru whined shamefully in response.
"Initiating emergency procedures." Aigis spoke "Koromaru, provide cover fire while I remove Takuya and Mitsuru from the battlefield." with that she ran towards the two while Koromaru fought off Arcana Strength with his Persona. The blonde robot girl picked up the two dazed teens and leapt away from the fight, setting the two down away from the action right as Team B arrived.
"Ai-chan, what's goin' on?" Junpei asked as he and his team ran up to her, Miyuki turned to see Koromaru fighting alone and then looked back at her blonde friend.
"One of the enemies have used Charm abilities on Mitsuru and Takuya." Aigis explained, the other four looked over at their two dazed teammates.
"Io knows Charmdi." Yukari spoke up "...but it might take a bit, I can only use it on one person at a time." she added as she summoned Io from within the sea of her heart and began to perform Charmdi on Takuya.
"Alright Yuka-chan, you stay here and help them while Ai-chan comes with us to back up Koromaru." Miyuki said, Aigis looked at her and the two silently agreed to start running onto the battlefield with Junpei and Akihiko following behind.
"Come to me, Valkyrie!" Miyuki called out as she summoned her Persona to her side, Valkyrie charged towards Arcana Strength and thrusted both of her blades into the boss. Koromaru turned around to see that Aigis had returned with the other four, he barked happily before turning back to the fight just in time to see Arcana Fortune bring down another roulette wheel.
"Watch yourselves!" Fuuka called out telepathically "That's the thing that got Takuya-kun and Mitsuru-senpai!" However the wheel's face had different icons on it this time, the icons instead being "Def Up","Def Down","Attack Up",and "Attack Down" over and over again on either red or blue wheels, Arcana Fortune began to spin the device once more.
"It's a roulette wheel?" Miyuki questioned and then she got an idea which Akihiko took notice of by the devious look in her eyes. "Miyuki?" he questioned "Got an idea?"
"You bet!" Miyuki said "Akihiko-kun, how good is your timing?" Aki looked at her with a confused look but then he put the pieces together. "I see what you mean...leave it to me and Polydeuces." Akihiko said with a cocky smirk as he pulled out his evoker and shot it off which summoned his Persona.
"Steady....Steady...." He repeated to himself "NOW!" he cried right before Polydeuces fired off a strike of Zionga at the wheel which forced it to stop on "Def Down" on a blue space which caused Arcana Strength to weaken and also removed the protection on Arcana Fortune than Strength had placed on it.
"What we miss?" Takuya asked as he ran up to the others alongside Yukari and Mitsuru. "Nothing much, we're just about to give them some payback!" Miyuki answered eagerly, Akihiko cracked his knuckles while Takuya chuckled. "Well I've never done it with a team this big before, but why not?" he said as he stepped forward "Miyuki? Mind doing the honors?" he asked with a sly smirk as he turned to his sister. "Gladly." she replied.
"Come on everybody! It's time for an All-Out Attack!" Miyuki screamed before running towards the two weakened foes.
"That's it!" Takuya exclaimed as he followed his sister into the charge.
"Lemme at 'em!" Yukari screamed. "Let's get these sons of bitches!" Junpei shouted.
"I've been waiting for this!" Akihiko shouted. "Engaging now!" Aigis screamed as Koromaru let out a series of vicious barks. "Prepare to be executed!" Mitsuru shouted as she followed the rest of her team into the All-Out Attack, the group all assaulted the two large shadows with a variety of attacks while they were down and eventually dealt enough damage to defeat them which led to them fading into clusters of purple before disappearing completely.
"Wow....those two were pretty weak." Miyuki commented as the group all relaxed after winning. "Yeah, I can see why they were travelling together." Takuya replied.
"And why Fortune had that roulette wheel, keeps us away from it and slows us down." Akihiko added on. "Thankfully Miyuki came up with a pretty clever way of using it's own dirty trick against it."
"Of course she did, my sister's amazing like that." Takuya replied with a chuckle "You did great, Miyu." he added with a smile which made his sister smile in response.
"Yamagishi, have you been able to locate Aragaki or Amada?" Mitsuru asked.
"Sorry, I have not been able to locate either of them." Fuuka answered which caused Mitsuru to let out a sigh in response "We should return to the dorm and go from there." as she said this, she noticed Akihiko seemed lost in thought. "....Mitsuru....what day is it today?" he asked as he looked up at her. "W-Why do you ask?" she responded.
"It's October 4th, Akihiko-kun." Miyuki answered, her answer caused both Akihiko and Mitsuru to gain expressions of panic. "I have to find them now!" Akihiko shouted before running off without another word. "Akihiko, wait!" Mitsuru called out but it was pointless as he was already gone. "What's going on, Princess?" Takuya asked.
"What's the big deal with October 4th anyway?" Junpei questioned, Mitsuru let out a sigh. "October 4th....is the date when we killed Amada's mother two years ago."
"No freakin' way..." Junpei said stunned.
"We were pursuing an unusual Shadow, we were in a residential area but all any of us could focus on was the Shadow...." Mitsuru explained "...Aragaki was still new and he lost control of his Persona for a moment...but that moment of lost control led to his Persona killed Amada's mother."
"Then....to Ken-kun, Senpai would be..." Yukari began to say but was cut off by a horrified squeak from Miyuki. "We have to find him now!" she exclaimed in a tearful panic. "Miyuki, please don't tell me you think Ken would..." Takuya began but one look into his sister's eyes already told him that she indeed did think Ken was capable of it.
"Now that I think about it....Amada volunteering to join us is starting to make sense." Mitsuru said thinking aloud "It is possible...."
"I found them!" Fuuka exclaimed which caught everyone's attention "They're together and another Persona-user is there as well."
"Akihiko-kun?" Miyuki asked hopeful Aki would stop anything bad from happening.
"No...it's not his energy..." Fuuka answered.
"Who is it then?" Takuya asked sternly.
Across Tatsumi Port Island, Shinjiro still stood in front of the tip of Ken's spear.
"....Do it." Shinjiro repeated as he walked a bit closer. "It's what you want, right?"
"I'm being serious!" Ken screamed "I-I'll do it! I'll kill you!"
"I know...and I won't stop you." Shinji said "I've wanted to forget about that day ever since...the guilt's been eating away at me ever since, my desire to forget is why I left the group and tried to suppress my power...." he took a moment of pause to reflect. "...Nothing I did could erase the memory." he looked away from Ken "...And now I find myself here, the last place I'd want to be..."
Ken didn't have a comeback, he had no idea what to say in response to this. Shinjiro turned his gaze back to Ken and looked him directly in the eyes.
"I'm not going to lie....a part of me got the feeling you wanted me dead...that you knew it was my fault..." Shinjiro explained "I imagined a million different ways this scenario could have played out and yet when faced with it, I still can't believe it's happening." he let out a sigh "It's my fault, this is just what I deserve....before you do it, let me give you one warning...."
"Warning?" Ken questioned with a stutter.
"If you do this....If you decide to go down this road....you'll never be able to go back, you'll end up just like me with blood on your hands and nowhere to run to." Shinjiro said coldly. "Just...Just remember that."
"That supposed to change my mind or something?" Ken asked nervously.
"No..." Shinji answered "You will grow to regret this if you do it."
"Shut up!" Ken screamed "That's a lot of crap and you know it!"
"He is correct." A familiar voice said from behind Ken, Shinji looked up and went pale as he saw Takaya Sakaki standing there. Ken turned around and faced the pale man as well with fear in his eyes. "There is no reason for him to feel regret, what moral reason is there to not take the life of one who has already taken a life himself?"
"....You." Shinji said with a grim tone and a glare that would kill.
"The loss of Chidori has posed a bit of a problem for us..." Sakaki said "That said, we cannot simply stand by and ignore your meddling." he pulled out his revolver which only increased Ken's terrified expression.
"Oh child, you should not fear death." Sakaki spoke as he lifted the gun up "The life is but a stepping stone." his golden eyes narrowed as his face gained a sinister grin, Shinji ran over to put himself between Sakaki's aim and Ken.
"Fool....You cannot defy fate." Sakaki said "You shall die, no matter who's hands it will be." he chuckled "Have you not been taking those pills for quite some time now?"
Shinjiro's blood ran cold, it was true he had been taking them but what did that have to do with anything. "Not much longer." Sakaki commented with a snicker.
"That's bullshit!" Shinjiro protested.
"W-What's he talking about?" Ken questioned nervously.
"Listen to your body if you don't believe me." Sakaki replied smugly.
"You're going to die, no matter what I do?!" Ken exclaimed in a panic "All this time?! I've been planning this and after all that you're just going to die no matter what I do?! That's not fair!"
"The cause of death should not matter child...." Sakaki said "After all, the breath of life is faint in you as well...." Shinjiro turned to face Ken in surprise. "Were you not planning to take your own life after taking his?" Sakaki asked already knowing the answer, Ken let out a sigh as he knew it was true.
"Allow me to do the honors." Sakaki said as he pulled back the hammer of his gun.
"Go to hell!" Shinjiro shot back angry as hell before running towards Sakaki, he thought if he was fast enough he could tackle the skinny bastard to the ground but that plan was stopped when the pale man fired a bullet into Shinji's leg which caused him to stumble to the ground.
"N-No!" Ken shouted out in shock as Shinjiro's groans of pain echoed through the empty alleyway, Sakaki then prepared another bullet and took aim at Shinji once again.
"Now then....with what little life you have left, answer me this." Sakaki spoke "Your group has a member like Chidori, one who's power can locate and defeat those we wish to protect." "Go to hell!" Shinjiro barked back which led to Sakaki smacking the teen across the face before taking aim once more. "Wrong answer, I'm afraid." Sakaki replied "Want to try again?" he asked mockingly.
"I-It's me!" Ken lied, Shinjiro's heart dropped when he heard Ken scream this.
"Ken! No!" Shinji shouted which only ended up in him getting pistol whipped once again, this time knocking him to the ground. "Quiet now! You had your chance." Sakaki exclaimed before walking over to Ken, Shinjiro tried to grab his evoker but it was tossed out of his hand and it was too far from him.
"It's the only reason they let me join!" Ken shouted as Sakaki prepared to fire another shot "It doesn't matter now anyway! Now I'll never have my revenge...." the young child seemed broken inside, like he had lost any will to live. "What reason is there for me to go on...." he added, this little addition make Sakaki smile.
"I see you've achieved resolution." he pulled back the hammer once more "...How enviable." and with those words, he fired his gun and the shot rang out.
Ken's had closed his eyes to brace for the shot but it never hit him, opening his eyes he saw Shinjiro standing in front of him and he knew that he had taken the bullet for him.
Ken was shaking where he stood as he looked down at a wounded Shinjiro, the man he just tried to kill had just taken a fatal bullet for him and this rush of emotions left him speechless.
"What is the meaning of this?!" Sakaki questioned in total disgust "Why would you risk your life for this child?" "Shinji!" Miyuki's voice screamed, looking up Sakaki saw that the rest of S.E.E.S had arrived, Fuuka had even left the dorm building once she and Lucia located Shinji and Ken. "How unfortunate." Sakaki muttered to himself before retreating into the night as everyone surrounded the injuried Shinjiro.
"Shinji!" Miyuki screamed as she got down on her knees "Shinji! Oh my god, Shinji!"
"W-Why the long face..." Shinjiro weakly coughed out as he looked up at Ken "....I-Isn't this what you wanted?" Ken looked down at Shinji shaking and speechless as the bleeding man said all this to him.
"Shinji, come on! Get up!" Akihiko shouted as he tried to help Shinji up but his friend couldn't rise to his feet, Shinji's vision started to blur. "G-Give yourself time..." Shinjiro said to Ken "L-Let your anger be your strength..." he said while coughing up blood, he started to lose himself as the world around him began to fade.
"M-Miyuki...." Shinjiro muttered out "...Please....look after him...." in response she grabbed his hand in a panic "Quit talking like that!" she screamed tearful "You're going to be okay! You're going to be okay!" You're going to be okay! You have to be okay!"
"It's....It's alright...." Shinjiro weakly coughed out "T-This is...how it's supposed to be." he said as he tried to stand up again but fell once more, this time into Miyuki's arms as he bled out onto her top.
"D-D-Don't cry...." Shinji whimpered out as he raised a hand to her face and cupped her cheek, she grabbed his hand with her right hand and gripped his wrist tightly as she continued to cry. "...I-I'm sorry I...I-I let you down...." he added before breathing his final breath and passing on in her arms.
Miyuki let out the loudest scream any of them had heard come out of her, it was a scream of total anguish and grief and it was a scream that would have woken up the entire city if not for the Dark Hour.