Together, we Conquer

Mysteries Uncovered

Madran, eventually, grew tired of the conversation, and went to hang out near the back of the room. Suga walked after her.

"Hey, Mad, are you fine?"

"Oh, I'm good, I just want some time to myself."

Suga nodded.

"Yeah, I can understand."

Suga sighed.

"I got another text from Philemon, er, Margaret. She said that he had been acting strange. Like, muttering to himself, being awfully hostile to Margaret and Elizabeth, and even crying."

"Oh..."

Madran looked down at the floor, tracing the lines between the tiles with her eyes. She then looked back up at Suga.

"I've been worried, too. I feel that, the more I get involved in this Metaverse stuff, the more I try to find out things, that I'm just digging my own grave. You might not know it, but I've felt kinda scared. All of this talk of Philemon, and yet I don't know who or what he is. Then, we have Junpei, Fuuka, and Mitsuru. No, I don't remember any of them, so it isn't as perplexing as Maya, but still..."

Suga nodded.

"Well, Baofu's found something about them. Remember when Katsuya mentioned artificial personas?"

"Wait, do they-"

"No, but they were involved, as high schoolers, with this group called the Strega. The Strega were a group of persona users who awakened to theirs artificially, and took weird drugs to control them. If they didn't, then the personas went berserk, and could even kill their other self."

"Yikes."

"Also, I heard from Baofu that they established a group, called the Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad, or SEES, to deal with shadow happenings around their area. However, after some time, their leader vanished, and Mitsuru took over, and renamed the group the Shadow Operatives. She, as well as the remaining members of SEES, would respond to shadow happenings around the world."

"Wait, so, they found out about the Metaverse, and about us through it?"

Madran instantly felt a pang of fear, as she realized that she, and her friends, might just be dealing with a group that might have the power to eliminate her and her group without much issue.

"This could be bad..."

Suga nodded.

"Yes. Very. They even know of us already, due to them sending a few of their members at us."

"But, how do they get into the Metaverse?"

"Um, Baofu didn't find that out yet."

"Behind you!"

Madran, quickly responding to Nightingale's warning, turned around to see someone standing in a hall that connected with the other part of the warehouse. Suga clenched her fists.

"Who are you?!"

The person stepped out, and looked rather confused. Madran saw that she was slightly taller than Suga, with short brown hair, pale skin, light brown eyes, and wore a rather simple suit and slacks with many green and yellow highlights.

"Um, uh, I'm Chie! I swear, I'm not out to get you or anything, calm down!"

Madran saw that Chie was probably as old as Yukiko, and glared at her. However, Suga tapped her shoulder.

"No, she's probably one of the friends that Yukiko mentioned."

"Oh, Yukiko? Is she here?"

"Yep, she's around the boxes. Can you leave? I'm having a girl-to-girl chat with my friend here."