Work Text:
The most galling part about the other world was that a gun was little better than a fan or a chair. Smacking a grown man with a fan was annoying, hitting him with a chair was bruising, and shooting him was most often fatal. Shooting a Shadow had about the same effect as a fan, and while Naoto found Yukiko to be capable in her own right, she knew for a fact that the laws of physics would not allow Yukiko to throw a fan with the same power as a bullet leaving a gun. It certainly wouldn't have let Yukiko use that paper fan on that flaming lion wheel without something catching on fire.
Even stranger, the Shadows had... hit points. Lots of them. More than she expected.
The logic of the new world didn’t make any sense, and as the Investigation Team went further into the Secret Laboratory, the more confounded Naoto got: missing her turns, firing on the wrong enemies. Soon Souji, sensing her confusion, used a Goho-M to return to the entrance.
“Why don’t we start off somewhere a little easier?” he suggested.
“I can handle myself,” Naoto protested. Never mind that she was visibly confused. She smothered her annoyance toward herself.
“Just so you can learn the ropes,” Souji promised.
“Then, let’s go to the video game,” Yosuke said. “I love going there.”
“No, that might be a little too high-leveled,” Souji said. “Why don’t we start somewhere a little easier?”
Dead silence. The entire team had blanched at the suggestion of training somewhere else. Ah. Of course. The others had their own dungeons, too, dungeons that revealed their weaknesses and innerselves. Naoto felt an acute relief. Finally. No more reminders of her own failings, or her own childish whims. Now she would have the opportunity to investigate her fellow companions.
“I don’t see why we can’t go to the video game,” Yosuke said. “The rest of us can support Naoto there, too.”
“The video game seems good,” Rise said, and the rest nodded their assent.
Souji shook his head. “No,” he said. “I want to start off somewhere where she can get the basic mechanics of this down.” Souji smiled. it was really quite scary, Naoto noted. A palpably villainous smile. The kind of smile a character from a detective novel might have. “Why don’t we go to the castle?”
---
castle.
It was... a castle. Naoto didn’t really find any reason why anyone should be embarrassed by it—-but, then again, people entering the Lab probably wouldn’t understand her embarrassment, either.
Romanesque design. Red carpet, pink walls, and a thick, foggy mist. The color scheme alone gave away its owner: there was only one person on the team who wore so much red, and the said person just Agidyned a pair of twins into a pile of ash with excessive force.
It was... surprising, to say the least. Naoto had expected a more traditional, Japanese dungeon for Yukiko, if only by virtue of her family’s occupation. Then again, dungeons corroborated with the victim’s subconscious, rather than the conscious. Perhaps Yukiko had a strange Westernization fetish, or a deep-seated ambivalance towards her Japanese heritage.
But then why use a fan to fight? If she had ambivalance towards her heritage, than it was certainly horribly ironic that Yukiko’s Persona would be Amaterasu, the mythological mother of the royal family. Contradiction upon contradiction.
It was unlikely that she would be able to get any information out of Yukiko herself, given the general testiness of her character at the moment, so Naoto instead approached Chie while Yukiko and Souji sorted through the shadow’s remains for anything salvagable. Souji had burned a hole through the group’s money while fusing Personae in his head—although in truth, Naoto had little idea as to what fusing Personae had to do with spending money.
“Chie-senpai,” she said. “I’d like to ask you something.”
“Yeah, sure, go ahead,” Chie said. “Is it about figuring out the Shadows’ weaknesses? What to do if you score a critical hit? How to perform a follow up attack?”
“Er,” said Naoto, “no. Actually, I was curious as to what Yukiko-senpai’s shadow was like. I found it somewhat unusual that senpai’s shadow would produce such a... Western dungeon, and thought that knowing what the Shadow itself was like would throw some light onto—”
“H-hahaha.” Nervous laughter from Chie. She seemed to be looking over at a point just behind Naoto’s shoulder. When Naoto turned to look behind her, she saw Yukiko tucking her fan away into her pocket. Yukiko smiled when their eyes met, but Naoto couldn’t bring herself to return it. It seemed... threatening, somehow. “Let’s just say that... um. Well, you know...”
“Very well, then,” Naoto said. She turned to Yosuke, who had been tailing the team just in case they ran into trouble. “Yosuke-senpai. You were there, weren’t you?”
“Well, it’s kind of embarrassing,” Yosuke said, with a wink. “See, Yukiko’s shadow was really into low-cut dresses and Princes—”
He never got a chance to finish. Chie gave a little shriek, and, stammering, “Wh-what are you talking about?!”, Galatic Punted him through the ceiling. The rest of their time in the castle was spent digging Yosuke out of the rubble and trying to block the sound of Yosuke and Chie yelling at one another.
It was a little strange, but both Chie-senpai and Yukiko-senpai went red at the mention of Princes.
Ah. A realization. “Prince” was a pet name for Chie. Yukiko’s dungeon involved a young princess being locked away, trapping her prince along with her.
...
Naoto scrapped that idea. It seemed a little too farfetched.
In any case, no one was speaking about it, so she decided to let it go—for the moment.
---
bathhouse.
“Do we really have to go to the bathhouse?” Kanji said. “I mean, sure, it’s great that Naoto’s getting a hang of things, but it ain't like we gotta take things so slow. First the castle... then the video game... then, uh, back to the Lab...”
“I don’t mind, Kanji-kun,” Naoto said. “This has all made me quite curious.”
“Oh, well... That’s great and all, but...” Kanji trailed off as they arrived at the bathhouse, and scowled even harder. “Damn it! I don’t want to come back!”
“Dude, this is weird for all of us, too,” Yosuke said. “C’mon, partner, can’t we just skip to the video game?”
“The video game’s traps are still in place,” said Souji. “I don’t want to get stuck on the seventh floor again.”
Hmm. Naoto, for once, was the first to step foot into the dungeon. The fog here was due to steaming coal, and every now and then, a male voice would make... suggestive comments that made Yosuke twitch.
“...” She glanced at Kanji.
“I-it ain’t what you think,” he said. “Really. I’m—I’m really into girls! Sometimes. I mean—I’m really into...” He mumbled out the rest, red all the way to the tip of his ears.
Naoto smiled to herself and said, “I see. I’ll just assume that your Shadow enjoyed his cleanliness a bit too much, then.”
“Are you sure?” Rise said. “I mean, some of the things that are being said in here remind me of the stuff that one script the producers set me.”
There was a long, awkward pause.
“They sent you that kind of stuff?” Yosuke was boggling, open mouthed at Rise. “Really?”
“It was April Fool’s,” Rise explained.
“Another long, awkward pause. Souji was smiling.
“Geeze, everyone, it was just a joke,” Rise said. “C’mon, let’s keep going.”
It was a very, very painful trip to the top.
---
strip club.
“It’s a strip club?” Naoto asked incredulously. The flashing lights, the obnoxious music, the... the ocassional fire pole... She had expected a stage, or a performance of sort, but this was not what she wanted or meant by that.
“Oh, Teddie has so many bad memories of this place,” Teddie said, gripping his costumed head and rocking back and forth. Naoto did a double-take.
Teddie? Surely he did not mean to suggest that he had created this place.
“Oh, yeah,” Rise said, with a nervous little laugh. “Your Shadow showed up here, didn’t it?”
“Uh-huh,” Teddie said. “I don’t want to think about it. Sensei, can I sit out?”
“Sorry,” Souji said. “Chie-san and Yosuke are still out hunting for the fox, and Kanji-kun’s almost out of SP. We need you to make the third party member.”
“I’m sorry,” Naoto said. “Senpai. There is something I’d like to clarify. Teddie’s shadow...”
“Yes,” said Rise. “It showed up here! The end! Let’s go!”
“Yet, by all means, this dungeon should be Rise’s,” said Naoto. “The designs on the curtains resemble a highly sexualized—”
“Geeze, Naoto-kun!”
“—version of your stage persona, Risette. Furthermore, I believe one of the rumors surrounding your disappearance from the show business was your unwillingness to continue promoting a character created by the media—”
“Senpai!” Rise clung onto Souji’s arm, and hid behind him, as though that might somehow stop Naoto’s deductions. Souji smiled faintly, and went through his pockets. Ah. A Chest Key. Naoto faltered slightly. Where, exactly, did he keep all these strange objects? She had seen him produce leaves and medicine and weapons out of thin air. There was so much about the dungeon that did not obey basic laws of physics, science, or anything that might constitute as “reality.” She was learning to stop thinking about it too much.
“Therefore, I can only conclude...” She could only conclude what? How did she explain Teddie’s presence in the strip club? The easiest way to answer the question would be to have the appearance of Teddie’s Shadow be a coincidence, unrelated to the manifestation of Rise’s shadow. Yet, they both seemed equally flustered by the strip club.
Hmm.
“I can only conclude that the dungeon itself may be Rise’s, but Rise’s Shadow did something traumatic enough to cause Teddie to manifest signs of a human ego,” she said. “Teddie, her Shadow didn’t try to press sexual advances upon you, did it?”
“No, but Yuki-chan’s did,” he said. “Rawr.”
“I told you to stop talking about that,” Yukiko said. “In any case, Rise-chan’s Shadow... Hmm. It had a satellite dish on its face.”
“What?” Naoto said.
“And it came in many different colors,” said Teddie.
“Can you guys please just keep fighting the shadows?” Rise said, and the conversation on that topic died out pretty quickly after that.
Still, Naoto couldn’t get the image of a series of mass-produced Risette dolls fighting against a group of teenagers armed with monkey wrenches, a gulf club, a chair, a fan, and fancy sneakers out of her head.
---
video game.
The third floor hadn’t been too bad, but the seventh floor was absolute hell. The team ran about in circle after circle and—well, after a while, they all collapsed on the floor trying to will their eyes to uncross.
Needless to say, Mitsuo’s dungeon was very similar to Mitsuo himself: twisted, illogical, and hellishly annoying.
---
main floor.
While Souji stood at the corner of the main floor, a strangely glazed look in his eyes, the other members of the team seemed to take it upon them to introduce Naoto to a long standing tradition.
“Now that you’re part of the team, you can’t just call your Persona,” said Chie, bouncing from one foot to another. “You have to summon it. Like this. Persona!” And, with a feat of athleticism that few of the Investigation Team could match, she flipped upside down and kicked the card. The card shattered, and out came Suzuka Gongen, standing proud before the team.
“Or something like this,” Yosuke said. Naoto didn’t know how to describe what he did, but it involved twirling. “It has to be cool, y’know? Just part of the team code.”
“This is all very ridiculous,” Naoto said. “Perhaps I could just...” She trailed off. Everyone was staring at her. It must be a form of revenge for her previous coolness towards the team during the summer: first they lead her to impossible conclusions, then they force her to accept them, then they make her part of them. She tipped her cap over her eyes, stared up at the brim, and sighed. “Very well, then. Persona!”
Spinning around in a circle, she... she lost her balance and careened into Rise, who giggled and pushed her back to a standing position.
“Try again,” Yukiko urged.
“Must I?” Naoto asked.
Silence. More staring.
“If... if you insist,” Naoto said. “Persona!”
Boom. The bullet not only went through the card, but into a wall.
This was going to take a while.