Persona: Rise of a New Wild Card

Chapter 3: Strange Cults

Maki had woken up from her week long coma after awakening to her persona. Kojiro was sitting next to her making sure that she was ok. As she sat up he spoke, "Maki! Did you hear the news? That third year is suddenly missing. Guess he decided to stay hidden and not risk being found out in public. And my dad's told me that some secret Cults have been popping up lately. But the big thing is that I'm glad you're doing better. That was crazy what happened. My mom told me you awakened to your persona. It was crazy." Maki was holding her head while he went on. "Sorry, still feeling a bit of an ache in my head. Are you alright though?" Maki asked Kojiro. He smiled as he pulled out an Evoker. "I've not gotten to use it yet but your dad gave me one from the Kirijo group. Guess they keep spares for when people could have joined their group. To think our parents had a power like this and kept it bottled away. They must have incredible will to not use their powers for personal gain."

Makoto and Yukari soon walked into Maki's room. Mitsuru, Shinjiro, and Kotone were talking in the living room. Maki and Kojiro couldn't make out much but it didn't seem good because all of the adults had frowns and they clearly seemed upset. "Hi sweetheart. Are you feeling better?" Yukari asked. Maki smiled and gave a nod. "Good. Your father had a very similar awakening to his power when he was your age. Though when he woke up it was in a hospital rather then your bedroom. Anyway you're going to need to get some food into your system so I made you a nice bowl of soup. It's chicken and dumplings. Enjoy sweety." Yukari was always looking out for her daughter in the more obvious ways. Makoto on the other hand was always caring for her in very discreet ways. Such as paying the bills for them to live. Maki knew her father cared for her, but she wanted to know everything about him. He was always very cryptic and mysterious when it came to his past.

"Dad? Why don't you talk about your past very much? Mom loves talking about when she was younger and spent so much time with you, but you hardly ever speak about yourself. Why?" Maki was questioning her father and he really didn't want to give her the full truth. At least not till she was an adult. "Well you see. I've not really been to keen on my own childhood. I lost my parents when I was 6 and that was 32 years ago. I'm not the biggest fan of it." Makoto tried to give a brief answer but Maki didn't buy it. She knew there was more but Yukari jumped in to save her husband by telling Maki she needed to eat before her food became cold. Kojiro left the room to join his parents who had at this point jumped to a more lighthearted topic of his uncle Junpei and aunt Chidori. According to Akihiko, Junpei and Chidori were taking a vacation to the United States to see a baseball game in the country it originated in. Shinjiro laughed at the idea. Kotone gave him a light punch in the arm telling him he was insensitive for being so mean to Junpei. It only made him laugh more though.

"Onto our next headline a new cult has come to power in Iwatodai. The cult's leader who has yet to be named has been making some serious accusations, he claims that the Kirijo Group had experimented on him and a couple people who have joined his cause. According to our source inside the cult itself the leader has made a serious claim that he himself states, 'the Kirijo Group and its allies will witness the Fall whether they want to or not' such a spooky quote. That wraps things up for today's news however. Have a good night everyone." The TV report pissed off everyone watching. Akihiko was the most furious because he thought he was the one who defeated Takaya when they first entered Tartarus on January 31st, the year was 2010. Mitsuru had given the order for Junpei, Aigis, and Akihiko to aid Makoto in reaching the top to fight the harbinger of the Fall, Nyx. Akihiko dealt a massive uppercut which he thought completely defeated Takaya but yet here he is alive and doing just fine. Mitsuru was confused because she thought that Takaya would have died either from the Fall being stopped or at the least from his Suppressors damaging his body beyond repair.

Maki stayed in her room the rest of the night. She tried watching TV but just thinking about everything that has happened in the past couple days has her head spinning. A person at her school wants to bring people pain and suffering. This Takaya guy hurt her father which sparked her summoning of a persona. Mimir headed her call and was now her first persona. Hel was summoned after interference from another being she didn't recognize. Her parents were avoiding talking to her about her father's past and why he's so cryptic. Everything frustrated her. She held in her hand the key Igor gave her. He had told her that the next time she enters the Velvet room, it would be on her own free will. She didn't know what to think of everything all at once. She eventually went to sleep but her dreams would start to resemble her father's when he was her age. She dreamed about everyone being injured worst of all she saw her father facing Takaya and he ended up getting thrown off of a large tower that everyone was for some reason fighting at the very top of. Her father fell as she knelt down to him. "Maki. I... believe... in... you..." were his final words to her. She was filled with rage and terror as she summoned her persona and threw Takaya off the top of the tower. She heard his scream as he continued to fall until his screams became silent.