End of Daylight [Alisa/Pre-FMB]

[Pyxis]

The time had finally come. The night of the full moon. Pyxis stood outside, watching it rise as night fell, just to be sure. But as the full moon rose, nothing happened. Hours passed. The full moon climbed higher in the sky. But the night was as ordinary as any other. Still, Pyxis kept waiting, with the patience of a statue, standing outside her apartment and watching the moon's progress through the sky. It wasn't until midnight that anything finally changed. As she waited, she heard the sounds of the city around her. Cicadas, late-night commuters, partygoers, even the occasional rumble of someone who had turned up their music too loud. But the moment the day changed, everything went silent. Ominous purple clouds covered the sky overhead, but the moon remained crystal clear among them.

"Just as predicted," Pyxis said, turning her attention back to the world below. If something this unusual had happened to the sky, producing clouds of the same eerie purple hue as the mist that hung over the shadow-infested zone, then there would have to be shadow activity as well. She hadn't expected video game logic to actually work in this situation, but...well, here she was. She just needed a direction. A direction that was quickly given by the sound of a loud quake coming from the direction of the school. Homing in on that direction, Pyxis took off in a run toward the school's gates.

[Ayakura Alisa]

I looked out the window of my apartment and noticed the full moon had risen. Musing to myself, I realized that with my newfound power, I couldn't help but think that something just wasn't right at the schooling facility. Revealing the truth, causing cognitive dissonance, these are things I specialize in. That didn't come from me. But I could hear it. I blinked and looked at a mirror. My eyes had... changed. Accompanying the ominous feeling of dread coming from the entrance of the purple clouds were the equally ominous turn my eyes took for the worse, as my heterochromia seemed to go completely out of whack. My eyes had gone technicolor crazy for a bit, and I wasn't sure if I had taken drugs earlier unknowingly when I was napping. Sighing, I took my knife and bow and set out of my apartment, heading off to the school.

A quake. A quake had resonated and the tremors were coming there. The full moon was bright and the pedestrians were all suspended in motion, just like the night at the cemetery. I didn't run, but my pace was brisk. Yes, the school? Do you see it too? Ugly things, falsehoods, I do not tolerate such smears in the dirt. I sighed, shaking off the voice in my head. It was really like I had become possessed by an emissary of Hell, and I had become charged with the extermination of Shadows, "ugly things," so to speak. Izayoi was gripped tightly in my hand as I arrived at the school gates. It was then I saw a familiar maid run through ahead of me. Pyxis, of course.

"Oy, is that you, Pyxis!" I called out to her, going after her.

[Pyxis]

Pyxis skidded to a stop as she heard a familiar voice calling out her name. She turned on the spot to face the person who had called to her. Alisa, of course. While it was not entirely discomforting to see her there, coming straight to the same place she had noticed the disturbance coming from...this was a distraction she couldn't afford at the moment. Whether there would be other persona-users around or not, being distracted by the need to protect one who didn't have such an ability would only be a hindrance.

"Alisa. It seems we were right after all." She was back in serious mode: the tone and attitude she had used while asking questions of Alisa and explaining what she was. "However, I cannot afford to fight and ensure that you are uninjured at the same time. And as I explained before, it would go against my mission. Please remain outside."

[Ayakura Alisa]

Pyxis was not aware of the power I had discovered.

My eyes flared an uncomfortable red, trailing light highly visible, a clear indicator of the influence of Shax, an Other Self. An anomaly? Does she believe you lack the power? Actually, when we met, she was not aware, since I had not tapped into it. But here I was, standing by, and I had the power. A faint card materialized in my free hand, but I did not break it this time. No need to use the power right now. "No, Pyxis. This time, I'm staying," my expression did not waver, but I hoped it didn't look like I was glaring. "I haven't run away. I have released myself. This time, I am ready. You will see once we engage. I assure you, I will be fine. I have gotten out of worse."

[Pyxis]

Something was odd about the woman before her. Although she looked the same as when Pyxis had met her in the shadow-infested zone, her eyes seemed to be emitting an unusual light. She had never seen such a thing, nor did she know it to be possible (fellow Anti-Shadow Weapons notwithstanding), but here it was. It may have just been an effect of the strange anomaly that had fallen over the city.

Then, Pyxis watched as a card materialized floating over Alisa's hand, and she insisted that she was staying. So...she had awakened a Persona. "Very well. I won't stop you," she said. While a freshly awakened Persona was weak and not fit for taking on powerful shadows, she suspected that Alisa's previously claimed combat experience would set her above other rookies. "It is good to know I will have someone to fight alongside, at least. I have attempted to contact my colleagues on the way here, but there has been no response. Not even voicemail."

[Ayakura Alisa]

"You won't be alone in that endeavour, trust me on that," I said, hearkening back to the night when a giant team of Persona users had assembled, not even in an organized fashion, it was a gathering, of people with a common goal. "Those with the Persona will feel the disturbance, and then they will be quick to flock to the battle. Though, that said, we should still be cautious. Something about this school as it is gives me the creeps. I don't think we'll like what we'll be seeing. The tremors seem to be coming from within, the auditorium?" I suggested blankly. I had looked around the school from the current vantage point and while nothing seemed too out of the ordinary I had this strange feeling of foreboding that something was there.

"...Well, I suppose I'll leave that part to you, you're more equipped for this 'searching' stuff."

[Pyxis]

"Indeed..." Pyxis said. She had already turned up her sensors to detect any nearby shadow activity, but even before she could lock onto anything she felt a chill just from being near the school. And given that her body could not actually 'feel' cold in the same manner as a human, it had to be a mental phenomenon. "If I had to put words to this sensation, I would call it a 'bad feeling'...if you'll forgive the robospeak," she added. Alisa had also mentioned a possible source for the tremor. "The auditorium?" she repeated. If Alisa, a human whose Persona presumably did not have any sensory abilities, could make such a guess, then perhaps there was merit to the theory of these shadows deliberately drawing in Persona-users as well.

"Ah!" Her sensors were returning a massive reading from within an open space inside the school. "I've located it. I have not been around long enough to remember the school's layout, but I do seem to recall the auditorium being in that direction. Let's go." She approached the school gate, then vaulted effortlessly over it.

[Ayakura Alisa]

I watched as Pyxis simply vaulted effortlessly over the school gates. I sighed and was very tempted to make a rude comment about it, but I held against it. I approached the gates myself and found some locks. I didn't want to ruin them. Instead, I used the metal protrusions in the gate's design to scale it and flip over the top. I couldn't leap and vault as effortlessly as a freaking robot but I had acrobatics training. Yes, let's head to the auditorium then, if your sensors have confirmed my suspicions. Yeah, a 'bad feeling' is what we'd call it, alright. I paid no attention to Pyxis' lapse in robospeak, instead more content with how agreeable she'd been.

As I broke my fall with a roll, I continued on ahead. "Yeah, we shouldn't waste too much time. It might have done something unpleasant. ...Though I am glad I was given some form of military-esque training. I probably couldn't keep up with you as easily if I didn't."

[Pyxis]

Pyxis briefly wondered if Alisa's comment about keeping up was about the feat she had just performed. Then she decided it didn't matter. More importantly they were going to have to find a way to get in without drawing...suspicion.

Oh.

Oh.

There was absolutely no need to worry about drawing suspicion, as it turned out, because the shadow had already done that for them. The doors to the school had been blasted open, and even from outside Pyxis could see that the floor within had been warped, as though something had managed to push it down into itself. "Might. Okay, might," she said, running straight for the door and naturally expecting Alisa to keep up. As she reached the front doors and saw the crushed floor (and damaged lockers too, at that) more clearly, she added "Yes, I think 'unpleasant' is a good word for this."

From the entrance, the auditorium was...well, she didn't remember. But now she had both her sensors and a trail of property damage to guide her in the right direction.

[Ayakura Alisa]

Ah, geez! She just bolts off like an excited school kid! "Geez, chill a little, missy!" I sighed and charged after her, running straight through the now smashed-up front doors and crushed floor. I had noticed that a lot of lockers were damaged as well. Yep. I wonder who's going to pay for damages? How is the press even going to explain this? Goddamn. This was massive! Unpleasant was a gross understatement. Were we too late? ...Mmm, probably not. It could have done much worse, I guess, but my suspicions were confirmed once I saw the consistent amounts of property damage left in the shadow's wake, whatever it was.

"That sure is one way to describe this carnage, alright!" I panted and heaved as I tried to run and keep up with Pyxis.