Persona F

The Personal Demons

            Inside Lethe, Hirozaku, Kap and Rikiya see that this Lethe is different from their previous encounter with Lethe. While Rikiya's Lethe had reversed or some upside down elements, this Lethe is just one straight line forward. Like a cave that proceeds down a long hall. "This is Yoshinaga's Lethe?" Rikiya asks outloud. "Everyone's path of Lethe is different one way or another such as with you, Rikiya, you are a guy who tries to become different." Kap says. "It depends on how that person is, like Yoshinaga, who seems to be a straightforward person." Kap adds. As the two are communicating, Hirozaku sees a door labelled "Velvet Room" in the window like a principal's office and outside is Agatha right in front of a door. "Hello, dear student. Do follow me inside." Agatha requests. Hirozaku follows and finds himself sitting at the Velvet Room again. "Welcome to the Velvet Room." Igor says. "This place is where you can fuse, strengthen and itemize your personas. You are free to try this out. You have collected a number of personas in your first route within this location." Igor says. "And speaking of which, I congratulate you on getting your third Zodiac Link." Agatha says as she places a stamp on a piece of paper, revealing the stamp to be a pig, turns it over and it shows Ryota. "Well, I did manage to get Nekomata." Hirozaku says as he summons a Nekomata and suddenly also summons an angel, who is a woman with golden wings, with the hair of a lapis lazuli, having a leash with a chain, a halo on their head, a leather blindfold, and some robes as clothing. "Since when did I get that?! And why didn't I summon her before?!" Hirozaku asks. "That reason is simply because you were unable to use a persona of your Zodiac Links at the time." "Yeah, you wanna explain what the Zodiac Link is? You wouldn't shut up about them, so what exactly are they?" "They are your social links that match your zodiac. For example, this Angel represents your friendship with that fast food worker." Igor explains. "Wait so, I didn't make Nekomata in this place. So how did that thing came to be?" Hirozaku asks. "Well, when you fought some shadows, you failed to notice that you have acquired some personas. Now that you summoned your second persona, you now have become more aware of the other personas at your beck and call. Now, we can fuse your personas and make it into something stronger." Agatha says. Then some very small doors appear and open up to reveal spikes inside, very similar to the small room from Matilda that can only fit some five year old children. Angel and Nekomata levitate towards the room to which it suddenly shuts. This causes the two to turn to persona mist and circulate Hirozaku and transform into Ukobach. A small and green devilish creature holding a giant spoon of fire. "Hello! I am your other self! I'm sure we will be the best of friends!" Ukobach says as it turns into blue flames and enters Hirozaku's eyes and ears, causing him to blink a few times before rubbing his eyes a bit. "Well, that was... kinda gruesome." Hirozaku comments. "I'd say they went out just as fast as the last guest's personas. That one involved some guillotines." Agatha says. "GUILLOTINES! WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED IN THIS ROOM?!" Hirozaku asks baffled. "Yes, I remember that one quite well, it also involved an electric chair and a noose if I recall correctly." Agatha replies. "SERIOUSLY! WHAT IN THE ACTUAL FUCK?! DID YOU SAY ELECTRIC CHAIR AND NOOSE?! WAS THIS PLACE A PRISON?!" "And the iron maidens, don't forget the iron maidens, it's far more brutal than those small rooms obviously meant for children." Igor adds completely disregarding Hiro's last question but Hiro just stares at the two in utter shock as they casually brought up the death penalty related objects. "Oh my god, why am I still coming back here? Better yet, why did I sign that contract in the beginning? I should've read the terms and agreements all the way through." Hirozaku says in hindsight. "Until we meet again." Igor says as Hirozaku leaves the Velvet Room via his consciousness.

            "Yo, Hiro? You good? You've been staring at that wall for a good chunk of a while." Rikiya says. "Uhh... Yeah, I guess." Hirozaku says, holding his head. 'What the hell happened to the last guest?!' Hirozaku thinks. "Chiba-kun?! Tanimoto-kun?!" Yoshinaga's voice was heard. They turn to see Yoshinaga there. "I THOUGHT you said the portal locks down, Kap! It's like fucking New York City in here! First Rikiya and now her! At least Rikiya's makes more sense but her?! You better have a damn good explanation, you zebra colored bastard!" Hirozaku asks Kap very annoyed. "I am starting to think that I don't know everything about Lethe." Kap admits. "DOHOI! YOU THINK?!" Hiro asks mockingly. "Hey! I'm trying my best here! From the way I see it, it's not that the entrance is locked for everybody, nobody else has managed to make it in the place when I first entered. I am gonna try to put together how Lethe's entrances work. Let's say you, me and Rikiya enter the place, entering someone's Lethe. An unrelated third party person would be unable to enter Lethe unless they are persona users such as you and me, even if they are close friends to the person's Lethe we are entering, it wouldn't matter because they don't have a persona." Kap explains the best he can to the two guys while Yoshinaga is completely lost at what is going on, particularly because she is too occupied by the fact that there is a talking skunk that sounds exactly like the child Hiro was with earlier. "But when I first came here, it was with Rikiya and Tomomi! At the time, those two didn't have a persona, so explain that tomfuckery!" Hiro exclaims. "It may be because they were grabbing you, like a rope tied to an anvil, they were dragged into Lethe with you. How you got in from the very beginning without your persona is something I can't put my finger on though." Kap says. "Argh, Fucking Christ, that's just stupid. I swear to god, if somewhere down the road, we get some stupid bullshit with a unicorn riding in here with some complete and total prick, I am going to drown you in a vat of tomato sauce." Hirozaku threatens. "Ok, bigger question, how did she manage to get all the way over here and no shadow laid a finger on her?!" Rikiya asks. "Shadows?" Yoshinaga asks. "Well, we did just bash through all the available shadows in our way." Kap explains. "So we basically cleared a path for her." Rikiya says. "That's a way to put it." Kap responds. "Figures..." Hiro mutters. "I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have come. I just couldn't help but overhear your conversation earlier. You said something about helping me." Yoshinaga says. "Damn. Well, we can't do shit now. Fine, but remember, you gotta stand back. This whole fiasco is dangerous as all hell. You'll find yourself six feet under if you try to fight along side us. This shit isn't something you can just fuck around with." Hirozaku says. "Yes. I'll try to stay out of your way." Yoshinaga says.